Friday Rambles Around the Table – Overwhelm

Posted on March 22, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

What a treat to be able to stand on my deck with a cup of hot coffee and see soil.. even it is only the top of the big hill of soil that was dug out of the pond to be.. Even if I know its fleeting as a snow storm is moving in.. they say we will get a few inches or maybe another six inches if it really hits us.

It just makes the spring like moments seem even more special.. like playing in puddles LOL Lets put those new muck boots to good use right!

As I look around my own farm and see all the thing that need to be done, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed, spring is truly coming now and its in the middle stage of needing to get the winter clean up done, the garden’s prepared and planted out. Breeding programs, spring flood of eggs and chicks a more.

One foot in front of the other will get you there.. break it down, plan it out and work the steps! It will all come together.

Now I am going to turn this to a little bit of a darker side.. The world this week has been far more overwhelming in many ways.

It does not seem to matter where we looked this past week, every day seemed to bring something new, be it Mass Shooting attacks, Plane Crashes, Weather Based events that have taken SO many lives both human and animal. So much loss of homes and livelihoods.

I fully believe that there will be farmers that will lose their farms this year due to some of the things that have happened, I know there are thousands that have lost their homes and there are hundreds this week that are mourning the loss of their loved ones.

I wish I could make it all better..

I can’t

I can’t take away that pain

I can’t fix anything that has happened

I just have to face it, look it in eye and chew it over. I need to listen to the voices crying in the wind and close off the rest of the world and truly hear them. I need to slow my mind and do my best to put “my way of seeing the world” to the side and try to grasp even in the smallest way a different view-point, a different culture.

For me (and I respect if it’s not your way) I need to pray

Then I need to slowly get up, shake myself and start to move again. Start to do.. slower, sadder in some ways, reminded to find joy in little things, reminded to tell those I care about I love you more often, to slow down and play with my hounds, say yes to the purrpot that asks to come up for lap time, take more time to listen to the wind, to smell the awakening earth, to feel the sun on my skin.. to be reminded of the awe of watching a seed sprout and grow into this fragile shoot of green, reaching for the light.

Spring time with our Horses

Posted on March 21, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

The spring shedding has started, so much horse hair coming out of my big boys. The muckiness has started, they have dirty hips and knees. Daily grooming has started and extra cleaning of feet is required.

My boys have had the winter off. We have all enjoyed that down time, they like their cuddles and pats and rubs, I have enjoyed that leaning time, that just spending time with them, often huddled on the other side of the wind.

However I have plans for my draft boys this spring here on the farm, not just riding which will be lovely but I need to put them to work in harness. Caleb is a old hand at hauling things around but this will be the first spring in training for Bojangles.

Brandy’s gear fits him with a big of adjustments and Bo is smaller and easier to work in certain spaces then Caleb is with his bigger body. So that will be a fun learning curve to share with you as it goes.

Last night was one of the first really nice days we have had and so when hubby said, want to go for a walk, I said yes and lets grab the horse’s and take them for a walk too.

I had to laugh, when they saw us coming with halters, they lined up and helped put them on, they were as excited about getting out for a bit of time with us as we were to spend it with them.

Ears flickered, and heads looked this way and that.. a bit of rust showed on them as different vehicles drove by, some faster, some slower, some stopping and asking if everything was ok, to which they got yes.. yes.. just taking them out for a walk, all is good

They would have been very much game for a bit of stretch the legs on the road, the only safe place to really walk at the moment, I was glad to be on the ground as they got a bit fresh. Its exciting to get out and be able to freely move after all their winter of careful steps on the snow/ice.

Today we groomed and using horse cookies, we did some stretching.. time to start working with them daily for even just ten min or so weather allowing. I want to just run though the basic’s, do some stretching out, do some walking and then I will need to clean up the saddles and harness and start checking fits.

The horse’s change shape from winter out of shape just hanging out, to working summer shape and it would be totally unfair of me to just grab them and ask them to work hard. They have lot of work coming in terms of giving me a helping on re-working the pastures, hauling wood, skidding out a few things and helping me use the ditch digger to create swall’s and a new rain garden this spring.

Ferrier comes next week for their next foot trim.

Posted in draft horse | Tagged draft power, Getting your horse back into shape, Grooming your spring horse, spring refersher horse's, spring work with your horse | 2 Comments

Farmgal’s Photography March 21st

Posted on March 21, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Trying to teach the wild turkeys to move on. they have found the ground under the bird feeders and are coming in daily right now..

This pretty was hanging out for a few minutes on the snowbank by the road edge.

I looked up and just loved this big old tree I cam across..

Posted in photography | Tagged Farm Life, Farmgal's Photography, photography | Leave a comment

How to Build a Mason Bee Hotel Series

Posted on March 20, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

How to Build a Mason Bee Hotel Series

Guest Posts by Powell River Books Blog

As most folks know I will be adding in a number of different mason bee and Native Pollinator hotels and nesting box’s here on the farm. I am also placing Nest Box’s at some community gardens as well as private garden/yards. I was very excited to see a post on Powell River Books Blog talking about their Mason Bee Hotels as they are a number of years worth of working with them. I wrote and asked if they would be open to doing a guest post series here on the blog. Thank you so much for saying YES!

Part Three of Three – Keeping your Mason Bee House Working.

Part One Drilling out your logs

Part Two – Making your Mason Bee House using a Bird House

I love this upcycle idea of using a older or new bird house to create the base for your mason bee house. I have noticed that “birds houses” are a faction of the cost compared to buy a Mason bee wooden house. Frugal is always a good thing.

In our area Mason Bees hatch, begin feeding and look for likely nesting sites in March.

Last year’s filled nesting blocks resting under the front porch.

Larvae mature during the summer and remain dormant from fall through winter. A freezing snap followed by increased sunshine and warming weather breaks their dormancy.

To get ready for the hatching phase, and to provide new nesting sites, Wayne and I made new blocks. We gently moved the old ones to a location nearby so the hatchlings can easily find their new nesting blocks.

Males emerge first but have to wait for females before the mating season begins. Mason Bees remain active for 4 to six weeks. While they feed and collect pollen for their nests and larvae, they are busy with the important process of plant pollination.

Old nesting blocks face southeast to catch the morning sun and encourage hatching.

Building bee hotels is a simple process. I made mine from old birdhouses. Drill nesting blocks out of untreated wood you have on hand. I use driftwood sticks.

Drill 6-inch deep 5/16-inch holes with an opening only in the front. Mount your hotel above ground, where it won’t sway, facing south or southeast for plenty of sun. Drilling blocks 6″ deep encourages female production.

Thank you again for sharing your posts here. I love their floating gardens.. You truly live in a very special place! Want to learn more about their life?

Join us in Coastal BC and head up Powell Lake to experience off-the-grid life in a floating cabin. Up the Lake is the first book in the Coastal BC Stories series. It tells the story about how we discovered Powell River, takes you on an ocean cruise to popular Desolation Sound, for a quad ride into the backcountry and an overhead flight for a unique view of this incredible place. Read Up the Lake by Wayne Lutz and join us for the vacation of a lifetime. Up the Lake is free for Kindle readers at Amazon and most online e-book sellers.

Thanks again for this opportunity to share. Unfortunately, Amazon.ca doesn’t honor the free option that is available at Amazon.com. If your readers have an Amazon.com account that would be the preferred seller for Kindle. If your readers go to the Smashwords site they can purchase the e-book version of Up the Lake for free in a variety of versions including Mobi that can be read on Kindle. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/12852 — Margy

These post’s was written between 2015 – 2018 They have a had great success with getting their mason bee’s to like their new home!

Margy Lutz and her husband Wayne discovered Powell River, BC, during an airplane camping trip in 2000. They purchased an off-the-grid float cabin on nearby Powell Lake that has become their home since retiring from careers in education in Southern California and becoming Canadian permanent residents and citizens. Margy is the author of the Powell River Books Blog and Wayne is the author of the Coastal BC Stories series of books.

http://powellriverbooks.blogspot.com

www.powellriverbooks.com

Posted in Mason Bees, Native Bee's | Tagged Building a Mason bee hotel, Drilling out a log for mason bees, Mason Bees, Powel River Blog | 3 Comments

The Gal in the Garden Series 2019

Posted on March 20, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

This is the weekly overview of the gardens. I will still do detailed posts lots of different garden related subjects. I will bring them back and show cases them here on the weekly round-up.

Happy first day of spring! 2019

The past week is the very first week that we have had more spring like weather, it’s still below normal in temps but we have 2 days above 0 with some melting. We have a deep snow pack all over the yard but the solar heat is strong and you can see things slowly being exposed.

The top of the dug out hill for the ponding area has melted out first. It’s the first soil to show on the farm, and I am tempted to cover it with a tarp and heat it up, put a few boards around it and plant it out with radish with a small cover, I think I can get a 30 day crop off it before I would need to move it.

We are already 3 weeks behind the average on the yard in terms of spring and as I do not want major flooding, I am hoping that it stays a slower melting and warming up on spring.

However I am more than ready to get some things planted, so on the weekend, I took matters into my own hands. We hauled out storage metal horse trough up out of the big barn and to an area in the front yard.

Nothing like spending quality time collecting frozen horse pucks with your man out on the snow LOL

We hauled in a full load of horse that filled the trough 1/3rd of the way after that, we did another full load of rabbit/bedding mix and filled it to the 2/3rds mark. I need room to dig and turn the poo to work it into compost and then fill that top part with soil to plant in at a later point in the process.

We covered it with thick plastic and put an old gate on top of that to hold it down with bricks on the corners. If you want to see the daily update on this project, some day’s just write-up, other days temp gage info, sometimes a little video. Like my Just another day facebook page to get the full scoop.

The only other thing of note is that one of the jug pens was cleaned out and the bedding, a mix of hay/straw and only sheep poo has been moved to its own spot in the yard, I will be working that compost pile as a single animal compost. It was kept in the front yard as I want to use it in the new build. I will get a photo of it for next week.

I have finally decided that the front main yard is going to be called the “the big shake up” it will be so different when its done.. but its going to be lovely!

The week will run Tuesday to Tuesday and I look forward to what the next week will bring, they say? that we will have a few days above 0, we will see if they are right. I leave you with some of the pretty flower color in the house at the moment.

Posted in Garden, gardening, Goals | Tagged first day of spring, Garden, gomestead garden, Spring Gardening | 1 Comment

How to Build a Mason Bee Hotel Series

Posted on March 19, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

How to Build a Mason Bee Hotel Series

Guest Posts by Powell River Books Blog

Part Two of Three – Putting your Hotel Together

I started with an old birdhouse and went from there.

Don’t you love to save something and then find a new use for it? Remove the front wall and clean out the house

Give the old birdhouse a facelift with new paint. A darker color helps them warm up faster in the morning sun Some kind of container for the drilled nesting blocks protects them from rain.

Preserve the new paint and exposed surfaces with Acrylic spray. Some folks choice to only paint or burn the wood on the front to get the darker color to help warm up the house in the early morning sun.

Place your drilled logs into the house. Place your house facing the morning sun, approx. 3 feet above the ground on a solid surface ideally within 300 feet of the area’s that they will be feeding in. Remember they do need a source of clay/mud to help make their coons.

These post’s was written between 2015 – 2018 They have a had great success with getting their mason bee’s to like their new home!

http://powellriverbooks.blogspot.com

www.powellriverbooks.com

Posted in Mason Bees, Native Bee's | Tagged Building a Mason bee hotel, Drilling out a log for mason bees, Mason Bees, Powel River Blog | 1 Comment

Creme Carmamel – Made with Sheep Milk

Posted on March 19, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

The first of the Sheep Milk is coming into the house, Carmel only had one lamb who is nicknamed Shady Lady and she is old enough to be put into a nice little lamb creep with water/hay/lamb crumbles for the night so I can milk her mom in the morning for fresh house milk.

Crème Caramel Recipe

Brown Sugar Topping

1/2 Cup of Sugar
2 Tbsp of Water
1/2 tsp of Fancy Molasses

Making a good Caramel Sugar is tricky. So tricky.. I am going to put a video in here to give a helping hand to seeing how its done.

Farmgal Tip: Add your 1/2 tsp of Fancy Molasses and even if you just slightly under boil it, you will still now have a nice golden hue to it.

Crème Custard Recipe

2 cups of whole sheep milk
2 tsp of Vanilla Extract
1/4th cup of sugar
3 eggs (lightly beaten)

Heat up your milk, sugar and Vanilla together till its steaming hot but not boiling.. very slowly, carefully using a whisk add the egg into the very warm milk. If you do it slow and steady with lots of movement by the whisk, it will come out so smooth and silky when cooked.

In your baking pan, pour the sugar into the bottom and let it cool. Then start making your Custard and at the same time put your tea kettle on to start your boiling water and pre-heat your oven to 350.

When your crème custard is done, gently pour it the cooled brown sugar topping and place your pan or small custard cups into a larger cake pan which you will fill to the half way point with water.

Cook for 20 to 22 minutes, allow to sit to cool, then place in fridge and serve very chilled. Run your knife around the rim and then place your plate over the top and Flip it over and Serve as is or with a touch of whipped cream, if you like.

Posted in Food Production and Recipes, Sheep Milk | Tagged Baking with Sheep Milk, Creme Caramel made with Sheep milk, Creme Caramel Recipe, Desserts made with sheep milk, Ways to use Sheep milk | 7 Comments

How to Build a Mason Bee Hotel Series

Posted on March 18, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

How to Build a Mason Bee Hotel Series

Guest Posts by Powell River Books Blog

Part one of Three – Drilling out your logs/wood

Last spring I noticed small flying insects going in and out of a little hole on the pedestal of our weather station’s solar panel. After taking several pictures, I identified the small insect as a bee. Most likely an Orchard Mason Bee, a type of solitary bee that nest in holes or tubes.

This year I decided to make the bees a more permanent home, a Bee Hotel. I started out by using an old bird house that was no longer needed because John built us nice new ones. I took the front wall off and glued all of the joints. A new coat of green paint on the roof really spruced it up.

I cut four sections of driftwood and Wayne drilled the 5/16-inch holes for me. The holes only go part way through, creating tubes that the bees like to nest in. The larger stick got six holes, the rest four each.

I’ve already seen Mason Bees flying around the cabin. Hopefully they’ll pick the nice new home this year. We placed it on the south-facing porch post right under the solar panel they used last year. Maybe they’ll get the hint.

This post was written in 2015 and we are going to move forward with the rest of the series from then till 2018. They have a had great success with getting their mason bee’s to like their new home!

http://powellriverbooks.blogspot.com

www.powellriverbooks.com

Posted in Mason Bees, Native Bee's | Tagged Building a Mason bee hotel, Drilling out a log for mason bees, Mason Bees, Powel River Blog | 5 Comments

Dogwood 52 Week 12-Trash

Posted on March 18, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Such a odd subject matter this week.. trying to find and take a picture of trash..

These cushions are going to get a second life by being rescued and turned into soft spots for the kitties to sit in the sun and nap here on the farm.

Posted in photography | Tagged Dogwood 52 photography | 1 Comment

Muck Boot Season is Here!

Posted on March 17, 2019 by Just another day on the farm

Hello Folks, So I have decided to step into the modern world and create at least one proper pin for each post and I am slowly learning how to use the graphic system I choose to work with..

However having said that, I still want and plan to use my own photos in them.. yes it means it’s a bit more work for me because it would be faster to use their “pre-made” ones with just a fast word adjustment.

However that would mean breaking one of my “blogging rules” which is that I use my own farm, my own photos and that what you see is what you get.. LOL

Look at my new Muck Boots. On sale at 40 percent off and I sure needed a new pair as my old wear worn to the point of no return, not even my foot repair glue was going to get them though this season.

They were not found in the rubber boot area, which are your standard black and with orange bottoms. I find those have a rubber that really bothers my feet after a good hard workout.

There were found in the hunting section, amazing treads for hiking, meant to put the miles on in them, rubber up to a certain point and then into the softer tops. That is my other pet peeve with standard rubber boots, I want the height of them but they are straight legged the whole way up and that works just fine for my hubbies skinny leg but for me with my “fuller calves” I really dislike that they rub on my leg in the same spot again and again.

The new boots with their waterproof but soft half top hugs the leg well, its snug to help keep out spring ticks, its soft and mobile for when I am going up and down on pens to check momma’s, babies and or milking etc.

In many cases, its worth passing the “farming” section and heading right to the hunters, this goes for coats, gloves, boots and more..

Last reason to head that way.. its rare in my neck of the woods to find things on sale at the local feed stores in the farmers area. I mean they had a rubber boot sale and their on sale boots were 2.5x more on sale then what I paid.

However in the Hunting/Fishing/outdoor lifestyle area.. you can find the gear, you can find them in all sizes, from super small to those XXX’s sizes and they go on an amazing sales and they tend to be really good quality and built tough and to last.

While I woke up to -7

I know that spring is coming! And with it comes lots of mud, Muck and so much wet melting mucky poo that needs to be cleaned up.. Fun, Fun

So what is your favorite brand of muck boots? Have you ever wrapped your socked foot in a plastic bag and stuffed it into a leaking boot to get the job done ? I know I have!