Written Goals are such a good starting point to at least try and direct the coming time.
Miss R and I have the same tracking and thought journals and we are enjoying finding a time (perhaps not daily) to work on them. We are also sharing the cooking and i must say that its delightful to hand over the kitchen and or meal planning to such a creative mind.
I took the goal list for 2022 done on our 50th year and used it as the starting point for this post.
They say that you should pick a word for the year. I very much want a Hygge house, garden, farm and year.
What does that mean you say.. it means good food, use the pretty dishes, buy the good coffee and tea, drink it out of the good tea cup or the big pottery mug with soft lap blanket with purrpot or puppy snuggled in while listening to music, or reading a book or gathering around the table for games night or card games or watching a movie together, outdoor gathered by the fire, walks down the garden paths and picnic’s..
Spend as much time in as many ways to enjoy and strengthen with continued active communication with Dear Hubby and in our overall household. The above really goes for everyone in my life that matters to me in different degrees..
Continue to work on different health issues within our household, some of which are stable an or improving and some which are currently not stable and are actively requiring care, surgery and treatment plans at this time. Ideally i would like to end the year in a full stable health place for the whole household.
Live, Love and Work with the land/farm.. Expand the plantings, working the current gardens, work the food forests, Meat, Milk, Eggs, Fruit, Veggies, Herbs and Medical Plantings..
Work on creating spots within the food forest, the kitchen garden and park garden that are both use for photography and for company.
Blog, Ok really i am paying for the blog and will continue to do so as long as i can afford it as there is a huge wealth of knowledge and i can see that every single day so many find and read posts but i really need to make a effort to write new posts, share photos and recipes and so on
Feed the birds in winter, continue to create haven on our farm for the wild birds
Continue support my gardens that have active breeding programs for my natives bees So MANY BEES
Replace, Repair, Rebuild in regards to continued farm/land/pasture needs. Drylot the horses again this coming spring and do a full reseeding and close off of some small sections of the pastures, clear the pastures carefully enough that i can use the big lawn mower to cut down and mulch for the soil health anything that the horses do not eat that the sheep would.
Photography, while i will continue to offer it for clients, i would like to also try and continue to do at least one passion project per month for the joy of it
Finish the kitchen to get my certification even more then i have now
Teach small classes again on all kinds of homesteading things
Host small classes, in the past year i have tree pruning and propagation including tree grafting courses offered here with me acting as the host.
Cut down trees to cut/stack for firewood, plant more tree babies for future fence posts and firewood
Would really like to do more fishing this year
Travel?? hmm maybe some short trips for my girlfriends and ideally at least one girl trip, otherwise no real travel plans for this year, its a stay at home year really.
Its hard to believe that the year has come and gone and that a new one is starting today. My 51st year was filled with ups, downs and lots of steady as she goes. You know when they say to think back on the past year and figure out what the “overall year” was like.
My highlights words of the year would be “creative” ‘flexible” “travel” “family” “friends”
Having said that i would also need to add a few more words for the rest of the year “health” “boundaries” “worn”
In many ways, it was a excellent year, including a month long trip across Canada with time spent with family in Alberta, visiting the mountains and more
Yet it was a year filled with health issues for me, for dear husband and even for our pets. The loss of Paris is felt even with Fancy taking up so much space in our home and hearts. Even when they pass away from old age after living a amazing life, they are still very missed.
Dear Husband continues to be his amazing self, i could not ask for a better partner to walk though this life with. He has allowed his creative side out at a few of my hosted themed photography events as a model so proud of him for stepping out of his comfort zone on these!
So far he has modeled as “trapper” in my western event, and mad doctor “Halloween Event” as well as personally modeling different ideas for me. I think its fair to say that we are both surprised and thrilled to find that he really enjoys stepping into a “character” as a model into a set. I am looking forward to seeing what “who” he will become for our next themed photoshoot project that we work on together.
I have worked very hard in the past year with regards to my photography and i have to give a HUGE shout out to the amazing folks i have meet in the ottawa an Eastern Ontario in terms of models, fellow photographers and clients.
The household end the year by growing by one person and a few more pets, as Miss R joined us here on the farm, she had been visiting and staying on the farm for farm sitting and just cuz for the past five years (man time fly’s by) I am also honored that she seemed to enjoy being one of my muses in front of the camera.
My own health has been up and down this year, rocky is the best way to say it, i have good days, holding on days and way to many rest/down days for my liking.
The farm itself had a major change in the past year, this spring, i made the very hard choice to send my remaining flock of ewes to a dear friend of mine farm, for the first time since we moved to the farm, we do not have a sheep flock, bringing our livestock down to chickens, ducks and our two horses.
I am happy to say that with the adding in of Miss R that the horses are getting back into work mode, Caleb is her hop on good old boy and take it nice and slow but she is actively getting Bojangles back into shape for a much more active work/ride life.
I am not at all sure what the coming year will look like but i am willing to say that the odds are in my favor that it will include the farm, the gardens, pets, farm critters, time spent with friends and or family, photography, some travel, creative outlets and more.
There is a lot of outside factors at play globally, in country in effect, Inflation is very much a factor, the increased cost in living is clearly seen everywhere and on so many levels. I am going to do my best to focus on things within my control and deal with things as they come.
How did your garden grow? How was your final harvests? Have you had your first hard frost? Still growing, still harvesting?
My overview of the gardens for the farm for 2024
Hard Fruit, including Apples, Pears, Cherries, Plums, Peaches
Apples- Wonderful crop 8.8/10
Pears- First year three trees came on line, lovely fruit for the regular Pears and OUTSTANDING for the Asian pears 9/10
Peaches, first year for harvest from our seed started peaches, all three trees produced 20 plus pounds each, over a hundred pits of the best have been selected and saved to grow more peach trees from.
Plums -Total loss plum pocket
Cherries (5 types) best year ever, we picked bowl after bowl after bowl while the birds feasted until they got to ripe and we finally stopped picking and processing. (this was something that happened all around as as well, best cherry year!
Bush Fruits
Blueberries- very good, large, sweet and lovely
Haskaps -Fully loaded, all 8 types produced large amounts of fruit
Gooseberries -Good Year, not the best and not the worst
Jostsa Berries, Best year yet!
Highbush cranberry -Outstanding
Black Chokeberry – Good
Black Chokecherry- poor
Pincherry- average
Hawthorn – Outstanding
Nannyberry-average
Small fruits
Raspberries- average
Strawberries -outstanding
Blackberries- average
Logonberries-excellent
Now we get to the garden itself, o the rains, the rains did a number on us this year.. SO MUCH RAIN
So many days where spent watching it pour rain down, the farm was so lush and green this year, those that could handle the rains did very well indeed. It effected the crops around us, including hay, so wet!
Rain that washed out seeds, rain that made it impossible to work the ground, rain that killed or drowned out tomato’s and even killed a cherry tree that was as it turns out planted in a drain line that would not drain.
In the end raised beds and a version of strawbale gardening is what gave us what we got..
Garden Harvests on the farm in summer/fall of 2024
Potato’s excellent Grown in bedding, hilled three times with more cover
Carrots- In ground raised bed
Beets- In ground Raised bed
Beans – In ground Raised bed
Cucumber – In ground Raised bed
Zucchini – Raised mini mounds made just for them
Green onions in ground Raised beds
Salad Greens, in ground Raised beds
That’s it, everything else drowned, stunted, and or died, including tomato plants, pepper plants and a host of other things planted in other gardens. Potato’s grew in the main garden area well but only because we moved to the straw/bedding method which we did as it was so wet we could not work in there and it was the best choice we could think of to get the potato’s in to start the growing season.
The squash worked only because we made two 16 to 18 inch hills to plant them into on the top to control the amount of water/rain and even then we had to replant them twice due to rot of the seeds.
The kitchen garden with its built beds, its built in swales and its built in dry creek/rain garden leading to the pond was the winner winner of the year. it was what and where the found was produced and is still being grown.
First hard killing frost arrived Oct 17th and all tenders are done, but the beets/carrots and such are still looking good yet.
What a strange garden season its been, and we will need to try and figure out what the plan is for next year, seeds are already ordered for 2025.
Sometimes i adore when both ultra frugal and yet foolish things cross over my facebook feed LOL
This fits the bill perfectly!
On the frugal side of things, in the usa this appear to cost around $2.50 cents and i would need to go to walmart locally to see if i can find it and price point it out but lets just say its 3.50. Pretty sure it higher then that but i am rounding.
So the first thing to note is that the company itself recommends that you CAN in fact sprout out their beans from this soup mix, and that it can be done as a class project and so on in a cheap and frugal way!
NO, i am not getting any kind of kickback or gift for this post lol and i will point out that i often buy bulk bags of mung beans for sprouting from the store because they cost me a fraction of what “sprouting mung beans” would and that they are excellent.
Photo credit goes to Monique Salinas for the sorted beans out of her bag she got.
Now on one hand these are the most common planted beans and if you planted them all and grew them out, the yield back would pay for itself and then some.
IF you are in need of a massive amount of freshly picked young green beans, then the odds are in your favor on this project, plant away and harvest, harvest, harvest.. For someone that really wants to harvest first picks only of very young beans for a road stand or youth group etc.. then honestly you are not going to get cheaper then this without using a seed library or a free seed program on a seedy Saturday table,
And with seed prices rising and the amount you get in the seed packages in many cases going down, its a viable choice for those in need!! Maybe you have a very long mild growing season, then in that case you can most likely bring some of these back to full mature and dry bean stage again.
Now for the foolish part of this
Beans are one of the easiest plants to grow, give them soil, light and space and something to climb and they are good.. and they are also one of the most staple for gardeners to save. So the odds are good that if you ask on facebook to your local friends if they have custom grown local saved seed, the answer will be yes and you can get some gifted to you easily enough.
Not all beans are a good choice for fresh eating and many of the beans shown in the soup bean mix will have not been bred to be stringless. While you can sit and snap and pull the string if you need to, when it come to eating and selling fresh eating beans, everyone today will assume stringless. My generations still remembers sitting, top and tailing and pulling the string of the back end for many hours.
Without knowing the seeds themselves there is no way to know how many days to harvest and how many days to dried. In short seasons and for those that like to do two plantings per garden season, this is critical
To be fair, it would only take one season of growing to get some of the answers, most dried beans can be eaten at a very young stage, you can pull the string on the beans if you need to do so and you could grow them out and track their timings.. So with a bit of work you could get your answers for most things listed above.
So for those that are looking for a cheap way to get seeds started for a homeschool project or a community garden, this looks like it could be a good choice
For those that are so lean this year and REALLY need to stretch their funds and grow some of their own food or who want to pay very little to grow trap crop, this is a great way to make it happen and i expect the yield return would be very high indeed compared to buying each of those types of seeds.
However for those that want to know what they are growing, want to know how much of a climber it is, want to know if its stringless, want to know how many days to dried stage.. Its a good idea to start with bought seed if you can and grow your own
So what do you think? Ultra frugal way to get into the garden game with some of the easiest plants to grow? Would you do it? If so what would get you to try this? Have you tried this? IF so how did it work? What was your results?
In fact, snow does contain nitrogen and other particulates like sulfur, which it collects as it falls through the atmosphere, however so do rain, sleet and hail, and believe it or not, lightning. Rain and lightning contain more nitrogen than snow. Statistics from agricultural studies estimate that as a result of snow and rainfall averages, between 2 to 12 pounds of nitrogen are deposited per acre in the U.S. per year.
According to Jeff Lowenfels: “There is something else that happens when it snows: nitrogen is deposited by the snow and absorbed either into the soil food web residing and active at low temperatures or by plants as a result of nitrogen fixation, a microbial activity which, astonishingly enough, can take place even at low temperatures.” https://www.adn.com/our-alaska/article/blanket-snow-poor-mans-fertilizer/2008/10/09/
I can not for the life of me find any data on this in Canada? I have to assume that the yield tracked in Alaska snow would be on par with snow in Canada. If by some magic you have data on this from a Canadian source, please let me know i would love to read it.
While you are clearly going to have issues with this working if the ground is frozen solid and then you get rain like you can in warmer parts of garden which include some of the best growing areas, the truth is that MOST of canada’s more marginal lands will and do get on average a good coverage of snow.
My farm for sure always gets a good amount of snow cover, often much more then other folks around the ottawa valley. We have all had a bumper drop of snow and most likely more on the way, one of the best ways to use this is to put your cleared clean snow onto your garden beds or around plants for extra coverage.
Now I am not going to put to much extra snow on my South facing early beds, because we will just be shoveling it back off as that is one of the things i do in early spring a trick i learned up in the north, remove the snow pack and cover it for solar heat collection and you can get that one or two early EARLY beds planted in greens much faster indeed.
However, there are some fruit trees/bushes and or other areas of the garden that would like to break dormancy later, some of have been planted in mid-shade or with wind breaks to help push them to a later spring timing in the hopes of them missing the first frosts and me losing crops, other areas in the gardens are just later planters in the years plan and they are prime areas for putting extra snow on as it will take longer to melt out.
So its worth taking a note on this, as fertilizer costs rise and as peaple get more and more frugal that for those that garden in a northern climate you are getting 2 to 12 pounds of nitrogen per year and the more snow you have the better the delivery system and the better the odds of keeping it in the place you want, a nice steady slow melt out in the bed is ideal.
For those that have covered beds, this is something you are losing out on, for those that are inground gardening, this is a bonus indeed.. For those that need to move that snow and garden.. its a good thing indeed to keep in mind.
Its a Friday ramble around the kitchen table type post.. If you are looking for homestead and or recipes or pretty photos, skip this one!
Cause my eye is on the future and what some of the things on the horizon could mean and or their possible effects
Its been a low spend jan so far, i tried hard on my trip to always use the included breakfast if we were at a hotel, and a bit of the breakfast might have made its way to travel with me, a apple or banana or perhaps a oatmeal cookie and so on. I had a cooler with me and stocked the truck for travel with the main out meal being supper but even there sometimes i would have enough to miss a few at times.
While i had a outstanding budget for trip, food was the one thing i figured i could lower some costs, i took some items planned and gotten on sale include my own farm eggs with me to help on the Christmas meals costs. i spent $300 in Alberta and i hauled extra and leftover staples back home with me. What didn’t get used there will get used here.
Still with everything that is going on and wanting to work out of the current budgets (aka not using savings etc) means that things are a little leanish. Compared to many, i know that we are very well set but like everyone we are feeling the pinch in every single thing we do.. it all costs more. It can seem small at the time but boy o boy by the end of the month when you look at your monthly statements can see it all add up.
Dear Hubby has his eyes set hard on retirement at 30 years with the federal service and while i will admit to feeling some Hmmmmm on this due the way things are, we are starting the process of figuring out things in the now and over the next few years in regards to figuring out the timelines and more for his retirement. Perhaps he will choose to work part time in some way, perhaps he will not.
I am certainly planning on working part time, I want to see if i can find a way to earn enough take home to cover the difference between our current budget and what our budge will be when he retires. That is my personal goal for the rest of our 50’s and if my health holds and allows it till i reach 65 give or take.. My main focus on this is my photography, combined with my kitchen reno to make it into a certified commercial kitchen for low risk foods which include canning, baking and more.
While the truth is no one can really tell what is coming in 2024, i think here in canada, we are in for a world of hurt on a few big levels! The ripples from the big ones will be felt by everyone other then 1 percent folks, they will just keep on trucking.. the rest of us.. o we will feel it.
Let me just hit some of the highlights.
While this will not effect those that own their home but the higher interest rates effect those that own the home but have large home reserve loans on them, which many took at the lowest point just before covid for reno, often taking out 50 to 100, 000 thousand on their lines of credit.
The fact that so many across the board have their renewals due this year and next means that those higher rates are going to hit and hit hard, this will effect those that will need to sell their second rentals properties, those that just made their payments when the rates where low, those that have had illnesses and more. We are going to see a lot of folks selling underwater and owning and or declaring bankrupts afterwards.
if you think the rental market are tight and pricy now, just wait till more single homes are bought up and then rented back out when folks are forced to sell.
It’s important to note that the mortgage renewal process can be challenging, especially given the current borrowing environment. Both fixed and variable mortgage rates have increased significantly since early 2022 due to rate hikes and a volatile bond market. The Bank of Canada forecasts median monthly mortgage payments will increase as much as 54% for some borrowers by 2027 2. However, there are options for borrowers who wish to reduce the financial impact of renewing their mortgage at a higher rate
The second big one this year is that all the CERB small business loans are coming due
More than 885,000 small businesses and not-for-profits took out CEBA loans, totalling more than $48 billion.
The federal government has indicated the deadline to pay back up to $60,000 in loans issued as part of the Canada Emergency Business Account, or CEBA, program isn’t going to be postponed again after being extended to Jan. 18.
If the loans are paid back by that date, businesses could have up to $20,000 forgiven of the loan. Loans that are not paid back before the deadline will start to accrue interest.
Companies that are unable to pay their entire loan off by the deadline can continue onward, without receiving the free money as part of the loan forgiveness, and have a five per cent interest rate per annum starting Jan. 19, 2024.
the most recent data from Export Development Canada (EDC), the Crown corporation responsible for administering CEBA, indicate only a fraction of the money has been paid back. As of the end of November, only $5.7 billion had been repaid and just 13 per cent of businesses had repaid the loan in full.
Do i really need to say more? so many small business are holding on or having been holding on by the skin of their teeth.. just watch for the closures that will be coming across the country and as each of those close, those they employ will be laid off. And then there is the issue of all that rental space being open, combined with all the office space that is currently under valued and underused..
It will effect tens of thousands plus jobs in a very short period of time, it will effect so many of the households that have been just making the payments by having a full time job and part time job on the side..
You know i was going to do a third in detail in terms of energy costs combined with how they will effect rising food costs but do i really need to.. sigh.. no no i don’t..
Please if you can plant a garden this year, do so.. talk to your friends about borrowing more costly items and if you have not done so building your community network, if you have one, support it, use it and respect it. IF you can raise a bit of your own protein be that eggs, be that chickens or be that beans, do it.
If you have any access to wild food, take what you need with respect, learn to fish and learn how to use all the parts, this spring take the walks and track and mark all the wild flowering bushes and trees, give them a bit of compost and a light prune or open the area around them for better sun if possible, if you find wild cane fruit, clean some out and prune some for better yields.
Look to your libraries for their free seed banks, talk to your fiends, can you trade seeds, they only want or need half the package of x and you are the same with y, trade them out. Start asking folks what their talent is and make note of it.. got someone who loves to sew, had the zipper go out of your jacket and not sure how to fix it.. while google is great, its not so helpful if you do not have the tools never mind the skills.. talk to your friend, see if there is something they could use, even if its as easy as a playdate with your children while she gets a couple hours to do something etc.
We are not all suddenly going to get more money, even those with some things tied to inflation will find it eaten up quickly, we are going to need to get creative..
VERY VERY creative!
How do you see the next coming years here in Canada or in the countries you live in, i fully understand that this is a post that is about my country and where i see the big challenges coming that will have big ripple effects in our area, i think the trades are pretty darn safe but the rest.. o boy.. its got my Spidey senses tingling..
I hear it break on the talk radio first, it was the topic of the day and it was slamming the phone lines, to say that folks were unhappy was a understatement but soon enough came the truth, well i will take the 30% price off as its better then nothing.
Canadian’s are a pessimistic lot really and we are used to paying higher food prices then many other places and the smaller your town or the more remote you live the higher those prices are going to be and they used to have food programs when i lived in the north, they were bias as (%&$ but they worked well if you could use them..
Today’s programs are a load of BullS(^t and do not help to the same degree at all, most of us live in brutal short growing season’s with built in challenges, the east coast has areas that can grow well for certain crops, we all love our PEI potatoes and the green belt in southern Ontario along with parts of BC are our big fruit growing belts and of course we are famous for our ability to grow grains and pulses.
“”””””The revelation that Loblaw will end its 50 per cent discount on perishable foods like meat, fruit and vegetables as they near their best-before dates should attract the attention of Canada’s Competition Bureau, says one industry expert.
Prof. Sylvain Charlebois, the director of Dalhousie University’s Agri-food Analytics Lab, believes the action taken by the grocery chain to align its policy with other food retailers might be considered anti-competitive behavior.
In an email to Charlebois Monday, Loblaw spokesperson Catherine Thomas said the company is moving away from offering a range of discounts between 30 and 50 per cent on “serve-tonight” products and toward “a more predictable and consistent offering, including more consistency with our competitors.””””
In a nut shell, they know they have a us between an rock and hard place, the big stores bought up and grew bigger, they drove out the mom and pops stores, they swallowed the main streets small businesses and now they are THE place to shop in many places..
What stands against them.. Dollars stores and community run food programs.. and on a even smaller scale, small scale farmers and farmgate sales and CSA’s and farmers markets. Green food boxes and bulk buying stores..
Already our food banks are overwhelmed and we have no provincial or federal food program like other counties can have. I can only imagine how many people this effects, we already have so many vulnerable Canadian’s that are making a hard choice between rent and food and many of those that are sitting borderline just took a massive blow this week with a 20% cost increase per item at one of the biggest store owners in our country.
These are not the people that drive cars and shop once or twice a month, these are not the Costco folks, these are those that buy small amounts as they can, they are the ones that go to the shop at the end of the day or first thing in the morning to see what was moved to the day of use 50% of pricing.
I am both deeply saddened and pissed that a company that made the highest profits ever in their company history last year, who have been hauled in twice in 2023 to answer to the federal goverment would just raise their middle finger and effectively charge 20% more on its must use day of items.
I am not going to even remotely pretend to know the answers but if you have built your food shed, use it, barter and trade skills if you need to but use it, if you have gaps, look for ways to use your local food sheds, ask on community groups if anyone does bulk buys and splits things, if anyone know of green food boxes or local farmers that sell farmgate or local butchers that sell local raised.
Personally i can no longer recommend farmer markets locally, their prices are so high that i just walk though, shake my head and walk away.. they have become very much for place for those with excess to attend, not like when i was younger and i could go to the farmers markets because it was cheaper then going to the stores.. at least locally its flipped and in a big way.
Want the good buy on the roma’s for sauce making, the store will sell local for a fraction of the price of what they charge you at the market and do not bother asking for seconds or end of day sales, these things locally are a thing of the past.. if you still have these, good! i am happy for you..
What do you think of this change? Do you agree, they did it because they could, because they do not care what the pr is! Do you see anything changing in the future for the good or just think it will get a lot worse yet.
Its the time of year where i am poking my head into the cellar, the freezer and the pantry, I have my yearly full beef order coming in this week as well as planning out the coming meat chick order and planning out the protein plans for 2024 and that means rotations, moving the older stuff up different freezers and putting the new in.
In keeping with that, i had one package of beef shanks left from last years order, it slow roasted them to get some nice browning on the bones and burnt edges, i tagged teamed it with a baked oatmeal/fruit. I used up 4 cups of frozen farm grown raspberries and used up some softening /wrinkled storage apples.
Farmgal Tip, If you are going to run the oven, use if for more then one thing at the same time, make that energy use count.
Once they were browned up a bit, i put them and the deglazed liquid in to the big cast iron pot to which i added two full onions (skins off as it adds a bitterness i do not like) 4 bay leaves and in the tea ball i have a mix of mustard seeds (yellow/brown/black) black peppercorns and a few clove buds and salt to taste. Added enough water to cover the bones.
This was brought up to a boil and then placed on the cooking wood stove an allowed to simmer away for hours. Six or so hours later, i took it off the simmer, took out the bay leaves, and the spice ball, removed the fall apart tender meat, i diced the meat back up after pulling it off the bones, hit the onion and broth with the stick blender to make it smooth
I added in diced celery, six cups of cooked diced beets that had been oven roasted for sweetness then cooled diced and frozen into my freezer tubs and one cup of pearl barley plus the diced beef. To this i added salt, pepper and beef bouillon to taste. Simmer for another 45 minutes till all cooked, i like my barley well cooked. It was tender enough for eating at the 25 to 30 minute mark but i like it just a bit longer..
This is slow food, it took all day to make but it was quick and easy in bits and bobs and as i was running the wood stove all day for heating it was making use of energy that was available. This is using a cut or part that is different and turning it into a lovely supper dish that is rich and filling.
What is something you have taken out of your freezer that is just a touch different then normal and using your winter pantry made, are you using your wood stove to help keep your kettle warm, or for cooking your soups/stews on?
I am excited to have partnered up with Laura Moses to host some coming events here on the farm. I have worked with her in the past on different gatherings and lectures over the years.
It is the first time i have offered up to host here on the farm itself the first weekend of April , and i am pleased to say that the choies she will have for her class will be vast and many. The yard rebuild included a huge number of fruit trees of different types all coming into their fifth year here on the farm and are ready to get their corrective pruning started combined with a great selection of older fruit trees as well.
I will have a outdoor fire going and will provide hot tea/coffee and after the class if folks want to stay and visit, i will have hot soup and buns on offer at no extra cost, just as a warm up and thank you. IF the weather is good, we will be mostly outside but if its very cold, i will make sure to have the house and the wood stove ready to help warm you up. (please note that if you have dog or cat allergies, you will have issues within my home, so either take meds ahead or perhaps choose one of her other dates)
Do not live close to me, but still interested, please check out the flyer an her website as she is fully booked in the month of march and is offering this course in a number of areas.
The event is capped out at a max of 15 as i want to make sure everyone has a time to ask questions and get a good spot to see the process. Many folks worked with me on a huge plant order that included a great number of fruit trees and its certainly time for them to be getting their shaping and pruning done.
This class will help you if you have gotten a property with older fruit trees badly in need of pruning to get them back to producing fruit, or if you have younger trees just starting out. Whatever stage you are at, there is helpful and useful training to be had.
I am sorry to have this rant, I might not even post this.. I most likely will and I am sure I will lose a reader or two.. but I have to write this.. If you live in an apartment or a tiny condo in the city, you can be many things.. You can be […]
Ok, its just going on record that we are going to be “in just in time mode” on most things this year. Let me give a example.. we have pulled at least a hundred or two wild parsnips but then we needed to focus on this or that.. and suddenly this week, we are like.. […]
Just another Day on the Farm 