Black Chokeberry (Aronia)

Posted on August 30, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

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What a amazing year for Black Chokeberry its been on the farm, I started pruning them in 2019 after being told for year that they did not need pruning and they are on fire! the production yield is double that unpruned bushes that I in the wild..

BUT not only are they more productive, they are huge! The biggest I have ever harvested, on average the clusters had 6 to 10 each which made picking easy for sure..

“aronia berries, among all other healthy benefits, provide good protection for our eyes. The super berries contain a large amount of carotene, which protects cells from damage and the eyes from cataract formation. They are also rich in flavonoid anti-oxidants such as luteins and zeaxanthins. Zeaxanthin has photo-filtering effects on UV rays and thus protects eyes from age related macular disease in the elderly (ARMD) and eye inflammation (uveitis). Researchers in Japan have been measuring the effects of aronia crude extract (ACE) on eye inflammation. The study was published in Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science several years ago.”

 

I normally steam juice these and then make the most amazing jelly and syrup but as we are on a huge no sugar, this year I steam juiced them, pressed the flesh out as much as possable and used the pressure canner to make it shelf stable.. Yes I made sure to make it the shortest time possable but still effective..  I also dried a good number of them.. to add them to a number of tea blends. 

I am hoping they will be helpful in regards to both of our health overall but in detail in regards to the above to help hubby in regards to his eye health/diabetic

I thought that I only had the local wild Black Chokeberry but hubby pointed out that I am wrong..  turns out two of the ones in the food forest where bought at the native plant center and are in fact “Viking”

If you have a huge patch you pick from and numbers are not a issue.. then keep on, keeping on.. but if you a certain amount of room in your garden or you want larger amounts of them, I highly recommend giving them a clean up/tidy prune every 2nd year..  

I can’t say that I find Viking to be any different in flavour then my wild ones or really that different in size this year however it does have larger clusters between 8 to 12 on a mature bush and I do find that its got some really amazing red fall color to add to your yard. 

On a pollinator note, both the wild and Viking are both spring bee magnets, covered!  I do think that its possable that Viking has a tiny bit more scent to it.. but it could be the placement as well, as the wild are more open and Viking is more sheltered, so perhaps I just notice it more so.. 

Farmgal Tip..  As the harvest time overlaps, do consider making a 50/50 blend of Black Chokeberry/Elderberry blend..  WOW does it work! Amazing!  

Want to have a rocking fruity tea, add a bit of this in a tea cup with your fruity berry tea and take it to a new level.. 

Having a girls night, forget the wine.. 1/3rd this blend mixed with a shot of good Vodka and ice and sip.. ohhhh, don’t do straight.. add a little gingerale and its next level cocktail!

Still eating Carbs, makes the most amazing pancake syrup! right up there with Chokecherry pancake syrup.. crazy good.. 

 

Posted in Life moves on daily | 8 Comments

RIP Marie

Posted on August 26, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

It is with a sad heart that I need to share that our wonderful Marie crossed over a few weeks ago. I needed to grieve quietly before posting.. I knew I would do a post in her honor.. She has popped up in photos so many times over the years..

Fitting that her last photo taken (without knowing it would be her last) had her hanging out in the shade of the garden wagon as we were working in the yard.. We had plenty of warning that she was aging rapidly, last fall of 2020 having been the last time she went on a longer away from the farm pack hike..

When it was time, her heart which was always huge and filled with love, was just tired.. She was given a special spot in the garden, where a little sitting area and garden will be created in her honor..

Its flowers are as lovely as she was.. she is missed..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 15 Comments

Harvesting Homestead Garlic

Posted on July 18, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

This is hard neck garlic which means this process started last fall in 2020, when we planted out the biggest garlic bulbs into Kitchen Garden Plot 3, and then bedded them down with a thick layer of straw over top.

Being a Zone 5 gardener(here in ontario canada) we are going to get some heavy duty winter weather including frost heaves and if you want your garlic to stay put and not get shifted around and thawed an then frozen again in the spring.. you need a good cover..

Now I know that you can do leaves if you really need to do but the gold standard is clean long cut straw (make sure it came from a crop that was not sprayed end of season to kill the crop for even drying) as there are way to many reports of this causing issues in garden use.. lucky the farmer I buy from is to cheap to spay any more then he has to, if he can get away with it, he will only spray 2x max for a field.. (I have to admit to being happy about this)

Then its a wait game..

Wait the winter

Wait the spring

Wait for the scapes to form and be cut back and off.. So many ways to use Garlic Scapes, here is a list of the top 5 ways I love to use them

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Then you are waiting for brown leaf edges on the bottom 3rd of the plant itself.. you want to ideally pick when you are seeing die backo nthe bottom three leaves, time to pull and dry them for future use..

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The small ones are better off being processed quickly, I made them into dried garlic bits that can be used in soups/stews and or ground into spice blends or powder as needed.

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This springs weather has a hot spell and that meant that our garlic came out fast and that we ended up harvesting it a few weeks earlier then normal, so the best bulbs will need to hold for use as seed garlic to be planted in late sept to start the cycle over again.

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Training, Life Skills and Born that way- Farm Dogs

Posted on May 18, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

I have talked about my farm dogs before and shared photos over the years and of the new boys that joined the farm.. They are awesome and amazing and while its crazy hard work to raise two pups, its been a joy as well

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Uther the labX is a fetching, hauling fool, he is a rock solid build, and it will surprise no one that he loves life HUGE and it would be a toss up between his favorite person (hubby) and the pond..

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Remmi the purebred Catahoula is everything his breed standard says he should be, a loving family member, a stand offish dog to other peaple, crazy strong work ethic, natural guard dog, amazingly good herding genes, rat killer and as hard headed nose driven as I expected.

Both of the boys have turned one of the past while and they have gone from bigger goofy pups to raptor teenagers, that like quick silver move between showing me the dogs they are, the dogs they will be and the.. “make me” or.. “teenage” are you sure I should know what that means.. or ya.. I heard you but??

Now when it comes to farm dogs, some of the leeway that town dogs get, they do not.. when I give orders on the farm, 90 plus percent of the time, it needs to be followed and right Bleeping now..

One of the things we rarely talk about about is farm dogs are killers, ok.. I know we like to say hunters because it does not give us that same gut check.. we say.. they are protective.. but can we have a moment of gettin real..

When I say my dogs hunt the farm rats, what I mean is that Remmi includes hunting and rat killiing in his daily rounds on the farm, and there are times he shows up at the door with big old norway rat to offer up to me.. hey ma…

My Freyja was a mouse, mole, and rat killer, she also was my tree it or run it off coon girl.. Remmi will follow in her farm footsteps, I have full faith in it..

Then we say they guard.. but what do they guard for.. fox’s that are coming for a free chicken dinner, fisher that is after the rabbits, coywolves that are after lambs, Raccoons that are after eggs, and all small stock.. Rabbits that are wanting to eat in our gardens or food forests..

Now ideally, Marking, Barking and a chase off will solve the issues but not always.. sometimes it pushes to the next level, which is a fight and often that fight can end up with kill depending on what it is..

But at the same time as all the above is true, we expect our farm dogs to learn and undestand “ours/Mine” .. man we ask a lot..

Chase off the wild turkeys from the food forest/leave our turkeys alone, they live here

Chase off the wild birds/hawks, owls, eagles, turkey vultures but do not even think about looking cross eyed at the farm chickens.

Clear off the wild ducks on the pond, but leave the farm ducks in the yard and on the pond alone..

and so on and so on.. and above all.. never ever kill the baby farm animals..

This week however we found out we have a baby killer.. it was as fast as it was shocking.. I didn’t see it coming, I have reviewed it over and over in my head, its my job to set the dogs up to win on their training and I keeping reviewing it in my head.. could I have made different choices yes.. will I make difference choices in the future yes..

We had a clutch of ducklings hatched out by a sneaky momma duck and we were gathering them and moving them to a safe spot, I was on back guard with hubby in lead and I had told the dogs “off” (which means move back) stay off (stay back, we have this)..

One of the ducklings did a runner, which was my job to catch but a blur of brown came past me and had that baby faster then a blink and was gone with it.. the shock hit me, the gut clenching horror of what just happened..

The worst thing was other then snarling in mean mom voice I had to hold my spot and one of my boys was still in the “hold”, in fact he clearly was like.. what the hell just happened.. head down insance intent look but also a man, my brother is in DEEP SHIT.. and he was so freakin right..

After the rest of the babies were safely gathered from the open place they had been hatched at, we went to deal with the teen raptor who had his prize, a prize he did not want give up.. he was just making it worse by doing the keep away one foot ahead dance and not listening to the drop it..

Finally it broke though that we meant it, stand/stay and DROP IT.. he paused and gave.. but there was NO signs of .. I did wrong.. it was straight up.. ok.. you are higher ranked and you want my prize, ok.. you can have it..

Now, I bet you have in your head picked which one of the boys was the dash/grab/run and which was the hold??? hmmm

Well the duckling baby killer was uther.. where you expecting it to be uther?

I was not expecting it to be him, I am still shocked he did it.. Remmi is always thinking, always willing to use his head and he is crazy strong willed.. if I had been asked last week, which one of my teen boys was going to have a opps, grips/bite or a grabbed that chicken as it flew by and bite down.. it would be my hunting boy, my herding boy.. but nope.. he back up on command, held his place and then appeared as shocked and suprised as me and he wanted nothing to do with playing or chasing his brother.. he stayed on his stay and just watched.. like.. I didn’t do it and I am not taking any of the fall out dude..

Uther on the other hand, does not feel bad at all.. during or after.. nope.. not even the smallest bit.. so this means a few things will have to change, the biggest one is that more short leads will be deployed around the farm, so when needed, he can be clipped and held in place.. and then its all about a combo of setting him up and then training training training and also never trusting him again.

Now that I know he can and will, it means I know.. i mean its always possable but possable is not the same as knowing he is willing.. that’s different.. and he will not outgrow it, it can be directed, it can be trained for and around and in some ways he will age into more control but overall, its on us..

Let me be clearly, Uther has been outstanding to date on his livstock training and daily works around and in and though the bird flocks, the sheep flock, the horses and the so on.. he is aware of the stock, he sniffs butts and licks ears and so on.. he has shown over and over and over again that he understands that they are “ours” and leave it..

He was introduced to the lambs in our normal way and got it figured out quickly and he adores our bop bottle lamb, hense the what the ??? happened..

The key is train, train train.. but also when a dog or a person shows you who they are..

believe it..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

Spring Asparagus

Posted on May 10, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

It’s that time of year, when you can head out to the garden with a knife in hand just before supper and cut a enough fresh spears to make side dishes of fresh asparagus. The flavour that comes from just picked 5 minutes before use is amazing!

The meal above was blackened chicken with butter herbed veggie and fresh lemon asparagus.. A little butter, a little lemon juice a tiny hit of lemon pepper, a mear minute or two or med-high heat and its ready!

We started Asparagus from seed many years ago on the farm and we still have a few mature plants that made it though the loss of our main garden, and will will move the plants before they tear that whole area up to put in the new sepetic tanks and weeping fields.

Last year as part of my large bulk plant buy, I brought in a case of 500 plants, 150 plants stayed here on the farm, the rest were placed out to different folks for their gardens within my community.

The truth was that we planted them to close together, I know this and it means that I will need to manage that patch and feed it out heavily but it came up despite the drought of 2020, we watered it a number of times and was happy to see so many ferns up.. It got a major clean up this spring, I left it all as cover over the fall and winter..

and if you just thought? why did it get planted to close.. the answer was simple, we had prepared a very nice garden area and when the plants came in, they came in bare root and that was the space that was ready for them.. Its very possable that over the next few years we will take out some plants from the edges but more likely, I will just expand the sides and keep growing the bed /garden up in size.. Asparagus are one of those strange plants that needs to be covered but will grow its crowns up and out of the soil, so you can in fact increase the grow space height wise.

I have three beds with three rows per bed with reach over from the outside and two walking paths that are bedded down with straw cover.. Bed 1 is the one that we are picking from on almost every plant, they have at least one thick spear that is meeting my yes, pick that.. about 50 percent of bed 2 is being picked and I do not understand it but we are taking nothing this year from bed 3 as the spears while coming up are late and very thin indeed.

I knew that I would take no more then 1 spear per plant this year being as its year one on the farm, and year 3 for the plants themselves.. once they get their next picking or two, we will weed it out once again and then we are going to bed them down with a good portion of clean straw and let them fern up.

I have started a new tray of seeds that are being grown to be planted out in under layers in some of the food forest under plantings. They are not going to be active plants for the garden food but more as back up just in case plantings.. The ferns are very pretty as a plant on their own..

Do you go hunting for wild patches of Asparagus? Do you have a small or a big Asparagus patch in your garden? Do you start yours from seed or do you buy 2 year old crowns? Did you know that there are a number of places in canada that you can buy a box of 500 crowns at a time for a crazy heavy discount pricing and that if you can work with friends and fellow garden folks, it might be the best way for you to get a larger plot of them started.

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May Declutter Goal -Clothes

Posted on May 5, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

May is a very busy time of year when it comes to the yard and gardens, and I want to work a lot on the tear down in terms of hours put into sorting, scrap(for money) recycle storage for future use on the farm (tin, wood etc) and trash, load it up and get it hauled out..

So the goal in may is a little easier to do so that I do not feel the same pressure on working though things in the house but will still feel that I am getting something done..

I am going to go though my clothes and put them on and wear them, and if I can’t stand them and take them off within a matter of minutes to hours, then I will get rid of it, ideally freshly washed and donated if in good shape, or possable cut up into rags if not.. hopefully I will not “trash” very much in this regards but still move a good amount of items.

Now maybe its just me but I expect its not.. I love really great sales and cloths are no different and most of the time I never regret getting things from certain places. In fact I can honestly say that it has saved me and my household thousands of dollars over the years.

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So I know that I will keep that part of the program, the first one that we really need to work on is hubby’s, he normally sits around 210 to 220 but in the past year he has lost a great deal of weight and got as low as 155, we have gotten him up toward 160 and they (the doctors) would like him right around 165..

As you can imagine this has changed his clothing sizing and so we did get a new going out outfits, 5 pairs of new jeans (3 colors/patterns) new jean belt(as his other was way to big) 4 pairs of work or house wear pants, as his old ones were fall off him to big and 5 new T shirts/polo type shirts.. and one new nice go to town jacket..

What we need to do is go though his (not needed now for 14 months and onward) work cloths for the office, and sort out all the ones that no longer fit him and donate them onward to find new homes.

As for myself, I need to clear out the ones that do not fit me right, to tight in the arms, to short in the arms, etc etc.. you are not allowed to try on the 1 dollar clothing items at the big second hand shop so you do your best to eyeball everything but sometimes it just does not work out right.

While I will try and do it on rain days, the bottom line is want to sort though the closets and drawers in may.. wish me luck..

Ps, thanks Silver for the nudge on the cloths sorting.. your comment inspired me..


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Declutter 365 Update

Posted on May 4, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I have been Rocking the Declutter program of 2021.. I mean its been crazy good, around 30 to 50 percent of things are being rehomed, about 20 to 40 pecent is being recycled in some way and 10 percent is being trashed.

I have reached the goal of 365 and blown past it.. and I have full plans to keep going! We had our big spring garbage clean up. We hauled things out and set them in three ways.. Scrap went in one area, all kinds of household items that I felt could and should be recycled and then there was need to go ot the dump, including very old bed/mattress that we had taken out of the house late last fall/early winter when we got new beds in the house.

I am thrilled to report that the scrap was snagged first and formost, in fact the first batch went so fast, that we looked, pulled an set out a second grouping and it was also snapped up.. while it took a little longer, EVERY single thing that I was hoping and felt that could and should be rehomed also had folks stop and take them home with them. Things were put on Saturday and Sunday..

Weds, the county trucks arrived and loaded the bigger stuff let that was and should have gone to the dump, it was great to get them off the farm. When we moved to the farm, there as was a spring/fall county wide clean up.. but three years ago, they went to once a year only, they also limited and narrowed the focus on what could be picked up.

Having said that, they increased our blue box recycle program at the same time, so its a bit of a trade off there and they increased and created a number of recycle programs drop off places at the local dump, instead of just throw it in.. they have a number of spots where you can sort things depending on what you are taking so that ideally it can be sorted properly.

Many/most of the things I am sorting is NOT garbage, and so it has gone to the second hand shops, been gifted to friends and so on.. Its the strangest thing, I would have thought that the stress of the pandemic would have me gathering in more resources and in many ways it has.. depending on the items, I have increased some things by 6 months or upwards of 2 years..

However, on the flip side, its really pushed me hard to narrow my focus in many ways.. I was honestly not expecting that narrowing but I am good with it.. I am not getting rid of anything that we use even if its only used only once a year or certain times of the year in regards to homesteading.. I still am firmly in the camp of 2 is 1 and 1 is none.. and I perfer to have at least 3 or 5 of the really heavy duty, we use those all the time things..

The narrowing is far more focused on the “someday” or the “wow, what a deal”

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The someday items are things are back ups of back up that I ha never used in years because my perferred choices are solid.. let me give a example of that, I love my cast iron pots and pans, I use them all the time, then i use my stainless steel pots.. but I have had back up pots nad pans that just sit there.. in case.. but I finally went.. really.. I mean I have three back up cast iron pans, if for some unknown reason I break my current cast iron pans, I am going to reach for the “backup” cast iron pan, not the hey what a great deal, I got a whole box of pots and pans at a farm sale.. time to let those “somedays go!”

The wow what a deal is tied into this directly, I love finding high qaulity items at the second hand stores but I also tend to have ended up over the years with more then I need.. a example there is my heavy duty soup toureens.. I love my small one that would hold for 4 to 6 peaple.. and its a keep for sure. but I do not need 2 of the 10 to 12 peaple large ones.. so I am letting one of them go.. because the truth is, while it is nice to have one, if I need to do so, I have three big roasters that could be used for the same purpose in a pinch.. sure it would not be as pretty to put a roaster on the table.. but again.. I might use the big one a few times a year max.. and really want I normally use is my shuttle chef.. it keeps everything so much hotter to serve for folks..

Sorting though things and organizing is where I am at.. I want to use my space to its max ability, I want to be able to know where things are, what I have and keep the older being used first and the newer being properly stored for future use. In this regards I am making huge strides and I could not be more pleased.. I am not lowering or leaning things we use, need or that we could save money on in regards to sales an so forth.. but I am working to have a more orderly life and to knowing what and where everything is.. onwards and upwards..

Has the past year made you gather more, made you put up more into “storage” or has it made you a meaner, leaner, much more focused as well?

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Sour Cherry Uses

Posted on May 3, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

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In 2020 our Montmorency Cherry tree did very well indeed This tree does very well in our Zone 5 and it the type of cherry we all think of as the “cherry pie” tart filling that you would buy in the Bakery or in the canned pre-made cherry pie filling.

While we enjoyed the cherries fresh, we also put away 4 cups of them into one of my amazing freeze its (honestly, they cost a pretty penny but I adore that they have saved me from going to the freezer bags, worrying about glass in the freezer or the plastic wrap that you use in a food saver) I am coming into my 2nd season with these, I have used some of them at least half a dozen times so far everything washes up perfectly, no damage to anything and I find them like I do jars.. as I work my way though them, I wash and store them and then as the season’s and the gardens come in, I fill and go again..

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The key on them is to make sure you use the smallest tub possable, look how amazing those cherry that have been frozen for close to 9 months look.. beautiful..

I made two little batches, Hubby Got a No sugar, cooked low and slow Sour Cherry Jam that was served with heavy cream.. I on the other hand, made mine vanilla and wood smoked dark maple syrup with a touch of salt.. I took out my last phillo dough that I had in the freezer and made home baked cherry turnovers..

Wow.. what a amazing treat.. the flavour on this filling was the perfect blend of sweet/tart full bodied cherry.. It could be used as a jam, used as a filling for turnovers, tarts, pies or the middle of a black forest cake or a version of it or for keto black cupcakes.

Do not forget that you can use it as a topping or filling for Cherry Cream Cheese Fluff

It can also be used in making a lovely sauce that can be used for meat as well.. Details given in my Duck Breasts with Cherry Sauce.

Here in ontario at the lcoal farm boys for a mear two to three week window each summer they sell a 3 kilo bucket of fresh grown sour cherry’s pitted in juice.. they are as close to growing your own as you can get that I know of.. I have at times seen that bucket frozen but its harder to come by that way..

In most places in Canada, we can not grow sweet eating cherry’s but we can grow sour pie cherries and there is many ways to enjoy them in the kitchen..

What is your favorite recipe that uses Sour Cherries? If you have a link put it in the comments please.. Look forward to hearing how you enjoy these sweet/sour treats.

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Grainy Mustard Horseradish Cream Sauce

Posted on May 2, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

Mustard is something I have always liked, I grow alot of mustard plants, both for the greens and for the seeds on the farm, I use mustard to help “clean” the soil as it will push out wire worms the year before planting potatos or can be used as edge trap crop in many ways.

I have always liked a good hot mustard (keen’s) is the favorite for certain dishes and a good frenches mustard on hamburger or hotdog goes a long way to a childhood taste profile

However in the past year all kinds of mustards have come in front and center in many ways due to the facf that they can be used in dishes for hubby being low carb, low or in some cases, no sugar added.

This blend is becoming a household favorite, it can be served hot as a “mustard drizzled version of gravy” or it can be thinned down a bit more and used as a salad dressing.

Grainy Horseradish Mustard Cream Sauce.

Half a cup of Yellow, Black, or Brown Mustard Seeds or a blend of them Ground into a course paste (or use a premade grainy mustard).. it takes me around a cup of seeds to get my half cup or right aroudn there of ground paste, add a touch of vinager to the blend if you want to do so.

2 tbsp of heavy cream (or half and half would work, or if you do not do milk products, you can use coconut cream, its different but it does work)

1 TBSP of freshly finely grated horseradish root or 3/4th to a full tsp of prepared horseradish in a jar..

A pinch of salt 🙂 to your taste.. not much is needed..

Ok, so if making a salad dressing, you can add the prepared mustard paste to your bowl, your cream and your horseradish.. if you want you could mix a little mayo in but please try with just the cream first.. thin it down with a tiny bit of good vinager if needed..

The dressing goes very well with different salads but for those that forage, its a extra delight for those more “bitter” edged wild greens.. Delightful!

Now on to hot, again premix everything in your bowl and then after you have taken your steaks, burgers or in the case of above, my duck breasts out of the pan, in the time the meat needs to rest before slicing or serving, into the pan goes that sauce.. you are just warming it up and adding a bit of those pan drippings into the flavour profile..

I do hope you will give it a try, so worth the effort if made from scratch but also just as good if you put the musard, horseradish and cream together from prepared jars..

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Sour Cherries “Juilet”

Posted on April 27, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

Our little homestead now has 7 different Types of Sour Cherry Tree’s or Dward Sour Cherry Bushes. While they are all tough “sour” type they are not all “cherry pie cherries” some are sweet enough to eat fresh, some are better for canning and yes, I have two that are to be said to be the best for wine. I am looking forward to learning how to make a SWEET homemade Cherry wine for both a bit of sipping and for cooking with..

Juilet cherry flowers April 24th 2021

This is NOT my photo, my little Bushes are not this big yet, but it is a lovely example of this type of Cherry cross and I am personally thrilled that they are thicket cherries,  they are pruned for sale on a single stem but if you bury them a little deep, they will start to push up sister/babies faster and while it does mean you need to do some pruning, it also means you if something happens to the main stem, you will not lose your plantings.

So what is the reason we are having a little post on cherries and with a focus on Juilet, who is hardy to ZONE 2, which lets face it is overkill on my Zone 5 farm.. but this spring has been very different, first we have boken records for having some of our warmest days currently on record for 60 to 80 plus years and we didn’t just get a warm day and then cold.. no we had a series of warmer then average days and then of course being april we have had frosts, cold, snow and pea sized hail..  

I have watched post after post on my local big city garden group and its clear that the heat sink of the city has pushed the growth of their leaves and flower buds harder then here on the farm,  we had a very nice snow pack and it took its time melting out, we had snow on the farm a good 8 to 10 days longer then the city appeared to.. so I think that helped as well. 

Juilet Cherry Bush type was the first to hit bloom stage on the April 24th, I will be taking any and all cherries off the bushes this year to get them focus on roots and growth but I will report back if I have cherries to take off on this very early first to flower.. 

What is happening in your neck of the woods? Do you have Cherry Trees, Cherry Bushes, do you have the Sask Dwarf Hardy Cherries series of 4 or some of the 4? Are you seeing early warming, early flowering? or are you within a normal spring for your own area?

 

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