Lonesome Charlie Johnstone’s Strange Boon by Jason Sharp is in..

The Masked Mosiac-Canadian Super Stories, currently Number 1 Best Seller on Amazon.ca in Fantasy Anthologies.

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/bestsellers/books/959140/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_b_3_4_last

I am thrilled to say that DH (J) has his first published story in this wonderful collection listed above, but not his last published story for 2013, will update on as more info comes available.

He will be doing a short reading and book signing on March 16th in ottawa at “The comic Shop” from 2 to 4 pm if you want to come over and say hi and get a sighed copy..

The book is available on most larger retailers sites..

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Posted in Book Reviews, Life moves on daily | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Happy Birthday to my Beloved Dear Hubby!

I am honored to once again been blessed to have spent another year with you as your wife, you are truly one of the most kind, thoughtful and loving husbands any girl could ask for and I give thanks every single day that you are in my world.. I love you so much husband of mine!

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Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

The other, other white meat- mealworms..

Group two is no more.. and I found out that chickens are not the only thing that likes to eat mealworms.. so do hounds!

One of my mealworm box’s was safely(I thought) tucked into a second shelf, where it would provide extra warmth, a bit of darkness and still have them around for me to check on them etc..

Well, clearly the hounds had other idea’s, while the farmers are away, the hounds will play, this involved taking said pet box out, broke into two and not a worm or oatmeal flake to be found, nothing left but very quiet, laying quiet, Who US? looks on faces..

So that was a wash! and I need to make sure Group one is moved to a safer area as well, who knew!

PS, this was after they had been feed their supper at six and they took it out around eight/ninish..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

Feeding a friend..

http://backyardfarmsto.blogspot.ca/2013/02/boxes-of-goodness.html

I have said it before and I will say it again, I love having some of the most postive, kind and awesome commentors,  you truly help make the blog what it is!

So when a regular reader emailed and said, ahhh, I want some of that lamb but I am X away from you, I just had to see if we could figure something out..  and with a little leg work, it turned out that she had a friend who has family in my neck of the woods etc etc..

Given that this was not going to be easy to make happen often, and we put together a box of lamb, beef and pork for her and of course I had to put in a few little extra’s as well..

Read all about it on her post, that I have linkd in here.. I have to admit that there is something cool about her finally getting to try the lamb she has seen born though the photos on the blog, raised on the blog, knew the butcher send out etc.. and now she is having it grace her plate.. it feels good to know that we are helping feed a friend..

 

 

Posted in Life moves on daily | 1 Comment

My Latest Batch of Sheep Milk Soap..

It turned out ok, just a touch softer then I would have liked, it will harden up and be lovely when it cures out, and I love the natural scent on it.. but I am going to make the recipe again but take out 2oz of the sweet almond oil and replace it with either 2 oz of coconut oil or beeswax, as I would like it to be harder bar..

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Posted in Carfts an Hobbies | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Bright Eyes is looking good..

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Posted in Critters | Tagged | 5 Comments

Winter snow riding..test

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FQ88OcOxo0

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

Garden Overview

Ok, I am going to do this in bullet form first..

  • Nursery Garden -My oldest gardening spot, its super sheltered, I have grown up a ring of tree’s around it, with a building on one side of it.. it my early start garden for transplants, and my shade garden in the heat of the summer.. Amzing soil in this garden area.

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The main garden area is as wild as most of my gardens, it has a hedge of elderberries, that are just growing up and going but someday will look very much like my mature area of elderberry bushes.. it has one edge that has 14 rhubarb plants, then row of blueberry and then rows of currents, and a big chokeberry tree, three rows of rasberries (different kinds) and a big blackberry row, along with a big old patch of nettles and six rows of strawberry plants etc etc..

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This area is where somewhere you will find a good amount of my potato’s planted and mulched out..

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Then there is the assorted hot box’s made of all kinds of things.. here is one of my biggest..

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Then of course the smaller area filled with different hedges and plants including the elderberry area..

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Three massive with a fourth being built Hugelculture beds, including one also built at a friends place,all working well..

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Then there is the grapes vine area, it seems like each year since we have been here, we have added another vine here or there, we are upwards of over a dozen vines in at least fivee kinds and the bounty is now starting to flow in..

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Then there are the assorted raised box’s gardens that are covered to protect from roaming birds and other critters, mainly salad box’s or root growing box’s depending..

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then you get to the food forest, filled with different fruit tree’s, fruiting bushes, nut tree’s, and many, many different kinds of small scrubs, fruiting plants, herbs, flowering plants, including our own homemade small peat bog for cranberry’s.

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Last but not least, my many compost piles around the farm that tend to have wild crops of tomato’s, squash and other goodies that just grow like wildfire with no help from me in any way.. until the plants get so big they are falling down and need help being lifted up so that fruit can ripen, like this massive self-seeded tomato plant from last year..

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Well, I can see that I need to take some time this coming year and take more overview photos of my area’s but hopefully this will give you a good idea of what I currently have in production..  Lets not forget the area’s that are cut and raked and hauled as hay a couple times per season..

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In total my working garden/cropping area is sitting right around an acre plus and I am adding in another 1/4th acre this year for the fodder/mangel beets and other fodder root crops for livestock feeding..

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Posted in gardens, Life moves on daily | Tagged | 10 Comments

Worth the time and investment-Soil blockers..

http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page.aspx?p=69004&cat=2%2C47236

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A little video on using these,  has anyone used these?? If so, did you like them, was it work the money? I really like the idea of them, but I don’t like the idea of needing to buy the soil making itself, as I typically use everything from the farm itself but having said that, there are some things that I do start in potting soil and I would raither make it myself and control how it was done.. I have alot of pots so that is not a issue but its more about limited space in my greenhouses, and that this could work to really max out that space..

how many years would you need to use them to get your return on them?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=k2m8-hfhtDU&feature=endscreen

Posted in gardening | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Question for all you gardeners..

I am starting to make lists for thing to add to my food forest this year, I am looking for idea’s in regards to root crops, small cover crops upwards of the small bush’s and extra climbing vines to add to the trees..

So lay it on me folks.. this is the perfect time to get someone else to try growing that whatcha call it and report back on how it did..

I am very open to medical plants, as well as food of course, as well as anything that will encourage the bee’s or pollinators..

A few things I know that I am going to be adding in.. Ground cherries, sunflowers, more gooseberry bushes and at least one more mulberry, peach and crabapple tree’s..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 16 Comments