From the Mouth of the Water Buffalo Girl

Visiting the Kinsol Trestle by bike

2012-02-09T15:01:00.000-08:00

Have you visited our website lately? I decided it was finally time to invest in a good website.

Because I now have a blog there, and I am already having a difficult time keeping up with posting on this blog, ~~most~~ some of the time I'm simply going to copy and paste between the two. Of course there will be times that a posting here may not be appropriate there, but most of the time, I'm taking the lazy way.

Here she is:

Yesterday, after months of excuses, it turned out that a spring-like February day was all that we needed to put our plan of cycling to the Kinsol Trestle in motion. A spring-like day with rainy days in the forecast. A part of me is just waiting for February to remember that it’s February; we have been so lucky with beautiful mild days.

Hubby and I dusted off our neglected bicycles, put air into the tires, handed baby to Grandma, and promised to return in a few hours.

To access the Cowichan Valley Trail (a section of the Trans Canada Trail) from our property, we cross the creek (thank goodness for bridges!), and haul ourselves up the steep hill on the other side to reach the clear cut, and then ride via logging roads to where the Cowichan Valley Trail intersects. This took us about 20 minutes just to reach the trail. Keep in mind that I haven’t ridden long distance on my bike in quite a while. Once we were on the CVT, it was pretty easy riding, with just a slight uphill/downhill grade. We reached the Kinsol Trestle in about 1 hour and 15 minutes, and this was at a fairly steady pace. It can definitely be ridden in less time by those who are more experienced cyclists!

This was my second time visiting the trestle (first time by car) since major rehabilitation was completed, and the grand opening of the Kinsol Trestle, on July 28th, 2011. This Trestle is a must see by visitors to the Cowichan region; a spectacular sight as one of the tallest free-standing wooden rail trestle structures in the world (145 feet high, and 614 feet long).

Although we were turning around to head back to the farm, I rode across the Trestle just to say that I did. I found it to be a monumental moment for me; quite exhilarating, and not just because of the height.

On the return home, we hooked onto Mountain Rd, and cycled back that way, joining onto a trail (sadly, an area that seems to be a garbage dump site) that runs along side the farm. This route took less than an hour, and this was even with me walking my bike up the slightest incline. My legs were done.

I encourage any cycling enthusiasts to experience the Kinsol Trestle this way. Stay with us at Fairburn, and you have your very own private gateway to the Cowichan Valley Trail, and to all that lays beyond (head south, to the Trestle, or go north towards Glenora, and even further, Lake Cowichan).

This winter's renovations

2012-01-30T13:01:00.000-08:00

One of the many projects on the go:

We have known for some time that we were going to have to do some fairly extensive renovations to the south side of the house this winter. Due to years of leaking from the verandah into the basement, and old rotten windows that didn't open, it was about time to do something about it. The one unexpected surprise (because obviously there always has to be one) was the state of the post at the top of the cement stairs. Rotten. So, that will have to be replaced.

Hubby has also been working at tearing apart the bathroom in the basement. We plan to make the basement our family space, and the bathroom is our priority as the one on the main floor does not have a shower/tub.

It's not Christmas unless ....

2012-01-17T13:51:00.000-08:00

the buffalo are out.

In true form, while gathered as a family around the Christmas tree, we were alerted to our young milkers on the front lawn. I have never seen a room vacate so fast.

2011-12-20T19:27:00.000-08:00

Hubs and I are supposed to be out socializing this evening, and while "socializing" is something that hubby partakes in from time to time, it's quite a rare event for me. However, baby has decided that he gets to make the plans tonight. Rather than our plan of putting him to bed by 7pm, and have him asleep by 7:15pm, and then leaving J to listen for him while we sneak out for a few hours, he has decided to scream as he did in our early days of sleeping training (6 weeks a go). I think the little blighter could be getting closer to cutting that first tooth since he has been showing signs of teething for a couple of months. Hubby thinks he wants attention. Either way, baby isn't sleeping and it has become a waiting game of whether we go out or stay in.

On a brighter note: We introduced Mason to Santa on the weekend, at a mall in Nanaimo (and by the way, I hadn't been to a mall in probably well over a year, except once for maternity clothes, and of all days, I chose the busiest Christmas shopping day to go!), and it went pretty well. Mason is a people person and extremely observant, so, face to face with a big white beard was quite interesting to him.

We chose this photo over the one of him looking at the camera. We can get pictures of him looking at the camera anytime, but this one was just so classic.

Sometimes I just need that reminder ...

2011-12-07T21:53:00.000-08:00

When I lived in Victoria several years ago, I would occasionally fall into these deep slumps which in turn would make me into an emotional disaster. It was finally revealed through self-discovery, that, although I didn't hate my life in Victoria, I needed to get out from the city lights and return to the family farm.
As you know, I did just that.
Ever since our move from our condo in Victoria, to our three bedroom home in Duncan, to our large manor (manor has a better ring to it than farmhouse, don't you think?) in the country, the appearance of these "emotional episodes" decreased so that they would only show up when aggravated by negative energies (certain people), or triggered by pregnancy hormones when told that my choice of paint colour was unsatisfactory (keep in mind, I was very very tired and we were doing huge renovations).
Recently, as recent as three days ago, one of these moods snuck up on me and I let it try to beat my dreams and optimism out of me. Winters aren't the best time of year for me- I wouldn't say I suffer from depression or SAD, or anything like that, but sometimes this season is just simply my enemy. Although the weather is fantastic right now, the days are so short. The house is so cold that we keep our blinds shut to cut back on the drafts, and the cave-like interior does not help. I have been so exhausted, still am ... so why am I still up, writing this post?
It's like this. I had two days of angst and depression, and I let it not only affect me, but those around me. I said I wanted to leave the farm.
When I am in these "moods", I say things that I do not mean. Of course I don't want to leave the farm! This is me!
Tonight as I did the last check of the animals, I took the time to reflect ... to feel.
Although I had the head lamp around my head, there was no need for the light. The dark evening was lit by the moon- the stars were bright- the air crisp but not at all unpleasant. I had my dog at my side. I had peace.
In the big barn, I snuggled into the clean sawdust bed next to Paula, and she rested her (very) heavy head in my lap and closed her eyes. Had I not been propped uncomfortably on top of one of the free stall bars, I was considering staying there for the night. At the next barn, I leaned against the wall as I waited for the water tough to fill, and in no time at all, Allie had licked the entire front of my coat.
This is the life. I am happy.
Do not listen if I try to tell you otherwise.

Giving things up

2011-12-04T19:41:00.000-08:00

Every so often I enter a phase where I try to improve the quality of life by removing something that I don't need but I use because of the times we live in. Is this ever successful? Um, not really, but I can try.
I am not the most technically advanced, nor ever been gadget inclined. I have never owned an Ipod, Ipad, Iphone, in fact, I don't think I've ever owned an "I" anything! When I purchased my cell phone, I was excited that it came with an MP3 player, AND a QWERTY keyboard. Well, I don't download music (or really even listen to it unless I am in the car), so other than downloading an audio book, which I never made it through, I've never used the MP3 player. As for the keyboard, it is useful for the 5 texts I send a year.
My 3 year contract on my cell phone just ended, and instead of upgrading to something "smart" I chose to keep the phone, and decided to go with Pay As You Go. Now I'm not paying for minutes I never even use. It made sense.
Since our move to the farm, we've given up television. Initially, this was to be temporary just over the summer. The fall arrived and suddenly it was another bill to be paid, and by this point we were adjusting quite well (the internet provides me with enough access to the couple shows I watch). Of course this means I'm not following the Canucks as closely as past years- our internet connection doesn't work well for streaming the CBC games, and unless I'm listening online, the AM radio channel has terrible reception here.
So, no smart phone or television, what else would I give up (or avoid)?
During a recent conversation with my brother's girlfriend, I discovered that she is a perfectly functioning human without a microwave. Sure, I'd heard of people not owning a microwave but it had never occurred to me that I, too, could be a perfectly functioning human without a microwave. This conversation took place about 7 days a go, and I have not used a microwave since. It turns out that heating up left over food on stove top tastes way better! For my lasagna, that was a bit more challenging. Rather than turning on the big oven for a little lasagna, I pulled out my little toaster oven and used that. Okay, so it took much longer than anticipated so I ended up eating it cold but at least the attempt was there. I've also had a close call softening butter in the oven by forgetting about it when I turned the oven on for baking. Twice.
Hubby has yet to join me in the world as a perfectly functioning human without a microwave, and he also has his food heated by the time I have the flame lit beneath the frying pan. At least mine tastes better.

Oh, and hot showers. Apparently I've given up hot showers.

At least she is ...

2011-11-07T20:57:00.000-08:00

~~pretty~~ a good milker.

In the new barn, on the side with the fresh cows, we have free stalls. This means that the buffs get their very own individual sawdust bed to sleep in. In theory.
Some of them still choose to lie out on the cement, but I'm sure in time they will make their way into a stall. Another one is halfway there, lying partially in the sawdust while her back half is out in the alley.

And then there's Paula; let me tell you about Paula.
Paula is what you'd probably call a "cute ugly"- she's short and squat, has a lumpy udder, one horn is just a stub (one is curled), and she's dreadfully slow at times. Sometimes it takes three people and a lot of patience to get her out of her milking stall. With those she knows, she is super sweet, and after she was separated from her calf this year, she took to following some of us around. When the veterinarian, or "strangers" come near, she's the one jumping around at the fence, tossing her head, snorting through her nose, and coming across as slightly intimidating; the calm trusting side, the following you around the barn to rest her head on your shoulder side, no longer detectable.
One of Paula's "quirks" was her continuous habit of getting the barn's gate chain wrapped around her curled horn. We would find her in the morning, standing at the gate tangled in the chain, a pile of poo behind her (indicating that she would be like this for hours during the night), waiting patiently for someone to unwind the chain to free her.
Now that she is in the new barn, and we do not have chains on the gates, one would think the barn was fairly "Paula-proofed" ...
Yes, one would think.
As it turns out, Paula does like the free stalls, but she seems to lack the skill to get out of one. She simply cannot fathom how to get her back legs to step into the gutter. Twice daily, we have to lift one leg over the edge, and it is only then that she will back out. That's a heavy leg to lift! But we do it ... because we have no choice.

Obviously she is not the brightest buffalo in the herd.

And she's not the prettiest.

But, she's one of our best milkers. And she makes us laugh.

Moving day

2011-11-07T13:32:00.000-08:00

Moving day, for the buffalo, took place last week. Because the barn is so modern and vast, we can pretty near fit all 45+ buffs into the one barn and still keep the three separate groupings. One one side, with their very own free stalls running down the middle, we have the milking herd- all 18 of them (three others are in the old barn), and Emanuel. On the other side of the barn, divided by three wires, are the dry pregnant cows, and then the pregnant heifers, and four yearlings. It's fancy ... it's modern.

Fresh side

Dry side

Curtains!

The crew is currently putting the red siding up on the dairy, and so soon, we will have two fancy schmancy red barns.

Our little bear

2011-10-25T12:24:00.000-07:00

Hubby has been helping with the harvest at a local vineyard the past two mornings, which means I have been bundling Mason up to take to the dairy with me. This isn't one of Mason's happy faces; we had just returned to the house after milking and he was a hungry little bear.

For a baby update: Mason weighed 17 lb 4.6 oz at 3.5 months (last week), and has a huge head. Heads on babies his age simply do not come bigger. Okay, well 0.1% do. Fortunately for him, he's growing well all round so he looks fairly proportionate. I feel badly though- that's a lot of work to hold up that head! This means that he does not excel in the Jolly Jumper at this point.

He is a happy guy, most of the time. Smiles and laughs all around, and from time to time, he shows us that he does know how to scream.

Autumn love

2011-10-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

October has been a pretty decent month weather wise, because as you know, in these parts one expects plenty of rain once summer is behind us. Sure, we've had our share of rain, and our last tour lunch group (turns out we had a last one in October) had to trek through a bit of mud, but overall, this month has been super autumn beauty. The clear cut hills to the west of our farm are dotted with vibrant oranges, yellows, and reds, scattered among the greens of the trees that escaped the wrath of machines. The lawns are blanketed by these same colours- am I cruel to send Jana out to rake the leaves while the old maple above still holds most of its leaves? Keeping the grounds leaf free is a losing battle at this time of year. It takes just a tiny gust of wind to send a shower of fall colours floating through the air to the ground.

The mornings are ever so dark as I walk to the dairy at 6:30 each morning, and on the clear nights and mornings, the stars and the moon help to light my path. In the serenity of the still mild air (with the exception of a few frosty mornings), I can hear the sounds in the distance, reminding me that we're not as isolated as it appears. A dog barking down in the valley; cows from a neighbouring farm; my dog beneath the pear tree as a raccoon family consumes the pears that we can not reach; and some sound which I think could be a peacock. As I get closer to the barns, I am greeted by the sounds of the milking herd, eighteen buffalo lined up along the fence, asking to be let across to the barn.

During milking, when the patches of sun light up the wall in the parlour, I know then that we are in for another beautiful day as the crisp morning chill disappears beneath the sun's warmth.
This is the best time of year when, yes, you may need your toque and gloves but only for the first part of the day. The hoses and taps have not yet begun to freeze, and our breath is still invisible.
Oh, how I love thee Autumn.

2011-10-07T15:08:00.000-07:00

One of the possibly many things that we thought we would have time for this year, was collecting firewood for this winter. October arrived, and not only did we not have wood for next winter (apparently one should be a year a head), we didn't have anything for this winter either. The house isn't terribly coldyet but the nights are certainly getting a little cooler and it's really just a matter of time before we're seeing our breath in front of our faces, and scraping ice off the windows.
And that's inside the house.
(A slight exaggeration, but it does get cold in the house).

Although there is plenty of wood on the farm, it's the time that we seem to lack, so Hubby made the call and ordered 16 cords of wood.

This is what 16 cords looks like.

Whether this goes into the woodshed (split of course) for next year, and we find time to gather wood from our land for this year, we shall see, but for now, at least, we have some wood, green or not!

Spooky windows

2011-10-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, while up in the attic checking the water level in the bucket above the room that J, a German girl living with us for six months, sleeps in, Hubby noticed weights on a pulley hanging near him. He realized this mechanism was what operated the window in J's room ... and J was currently in her room.
With her headphones in and music playing loudly.
She had no idea we were outside her room, and especially no idea Hubby was above her ceiling.

As I observed from the top of the ladder, Hubby reached over to the weights and pulled them down slightly.
He released his pull and allowed the weights to go up.
He pulled down.
He let them go up.
Hubby did this three or four times, both of us snickering, and I was just waiting for J to come barrelling out of her room (I mean, if your window began to go up and down on it's own, wouldn't you?).
As it was, she did not come out of her room ,and I actually forgot all about it until several hours later when, during milking, I inquired about the activities of her bedroom window.
It turns out that J had been quite frightened, but at the same time thought it was just one of those things that happens in an old house.

Personally, I would probably have peed my pants.

Thank you to our guests

2011-09-24T20:41:00.000-07:00

Our guest season wound down last week, just in time for the nights to get a little cooler, (although, quite honestly the last few nights have been quite mild) and the days remain warm; the perfect combination to encourage the flies to crawl out from the walls. It's cluster fly season! We closed a few weeks early this year so that we can start our basement renos, although which, because of a few other events, we haven't yet begun.

Below I have included the thank you note that I have posted on my website; this letter is to thank all of the awesome people who visited us this year.

Ourlast guests checked out September 18^th, signalling the endof the 2011 season. Although the farmhouse has been welcoming guestsfor over 20 years, this was the first year of operation for myhusband Brett, and myself.

I was raised here at Fairburn, and whenthe time was finally right, we moved onto the farm March of thisyear, and opened our doors on Good Friday in April.

WheneverI find a spare second, I reflect back on the past 5 months, and Icannot think of a way that our first year could have gone any better.All of our guests were absolutely wonderful and more than once, Ifelt as though we were saying goodbye to family and friends when theychecked out at the end of their stay. In our first season, we had twosets of guests return to the farm within a week or month of theirinitial stay- that's a pretty goodindication that they really enjoyed it here! We also welcomed backguests who had stayed here many years ago, and those who have beenreturning back each year.

Besidesthose staying at the bed and breakfast, we had around eight tourgroups for lunch and a farm tour, and also had sporadic farm toursto small groups wanting to meet the water buffalo. Once again, allawesome people!

Wewelcomed our first child at the beginning of July- closing for twoweeks to adjust, and then jumping right back into where things hadleft off. Also, as a new location for weddings, we had one weddingthis summer in the middle of August, and after the battle to growgrass in time for the tent area, everything was beautiful for the dayof, and we look forward to hosting more in the future.

Nowthat we are closed for business, Brett and I are going to enjoy theextra time with our son, renovate the basement to make it a livingspace for our family, replace the basement windows on the south wallof the house, and focus more on farming.

Ahuge thank you to everyone who visited us at Fairburn this year; welook forward to seeing familiar and new faces next year.

Weare back in operation April 6^th, 2012.

Long days ...

2011-08-31T19:26:00.000-07:00

It is a good thing that I don't get paid to write, but then, if I did get paid perhaps I'd make the time to write. As for quality of writing, I am afraid that has been left behind -assuming that quality did exist in the first place. I stumble out of bed at 5:30am now that I'm milking in the mornings (quiet B&B week, and now that we have guests for the next week, I will be milking due to the absence of two family members), have my breakfast; change, feed, and bundle Mason into the car seat and stroller and head for the barn. When my head hits the pillow at 11pm, if I'm lucky Mason will let me sleep until 2am, and if I'm even luckier, he won't get up a second time. It would appear that it's not my son that needs sleep training but me. 11pm? What keeps me up until 11:00? Maybe it's the need for a couple of hours of 'quiet' time after putting Mason down at 8pm (where he'll then lie awake for two hours before finally going to sleep at 10). What does quiet time entail? Baking. Cookies for us and the dairy; granola for breakfast; muffins for breakfast. Or ironing. Answering emails. Eating ice cream. It turns out that my pregnancy love for ice cream has stayed with me.
We have a 19 year old German girl living with us right now and having those extra hands has perhaps saved me from losing my mind, or at least slowed the process. She said the other day that our days (lives) are exhausting. I think the realization that we don't get weekends off - or Christmas for that matter- has just hit her.

Our garden is heading into our freezer now. We've been processing beans, broccoli, and beets- now Hubs is down the bank picking blackberries (12lbs today). Meanwhile I am desperately trying to complete this blog post with a heavy 8 week old hiccuping into my arm.

Two weeks ago, experiencing our first slow B&B week of the summer, Hubs and I took advantage of a quiet Saturday to head to Courtenay- I love Courtenay, I don't even know why. I've always thought that if I didn't live in the Cowichan Valley, that the Comox Valley would be my second choice. Our really good friends, formerly of Kamloops, have just moved there and we tied the visit with them in with a stop at the island's second water buffalo farm. This farm purchased their animals from us at the beginning of the year, and are currently putting together their milking parlour. They will also sell to Natural Pastures.

Lets talk about the bulls ...

2011-08-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

Now that we are in the midst of our 2011/12 calving season, the calves have been hitting the ground since June. We had about 7 calves within a short period of time and then things slowed down but with a new arrival today, we're expecting 3-4 more this month. So far the bull calves are dominating the calf scene- after two years of a rate of 75% females, it's a little disappointing especially as our source for dog food (the really young bulls went to a raw dog food company) won't take the bull calves this year. What we really want is to sell the bull calves live for others to raise for themselves, and perhaps eventually we will raise bulls ourselves. We did sell a young'un to a local family, and now we have had requests from others to purchase multiple bull calves which is a huge relief.
We do know that there will be some heifer calves somewhere down the line as last year when we had a number of the cows preg checked, a majority of them appeared to have females in them.

The first wedding ...

2011-08-15T22:45:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was the weekend that we had been prepping for since last September when M&M, a truly fantastic couple, from Vancouver stopped by Fairburn to check us out as a possible venue for their wedding on August 13th, 2011.
The months leading up to the weekend were a bit of a roller coaster ride - but a really lame roller coaster because although they existed, the ups and down were pretty anticlimactic- any rough goings were the result of our crummy spring (lots of rain) and summer (cooler than usual).
When the M's first stopped by, my parents' tenant was still at the farm and our wedding dreams were exactly that, dreams. Somehow this couple understood us. They saw flat green grass for a tent where the garden dirt was uneven and, well, dirt. They went away but it wasn't too long after their initial visit that we heard they wanted us as their venue. They picked us.
In November (I think), the bride-to-be brought her mom with her to check out the venue, and it was then that we realized who exactly it was that we had to win over. I mean, this was November! Nothing is pretty in November. I still remember her mother's face and words.
April came and went ... April had been the month that I had given as the month that we would begin our landscaping. It was far too wet.
May came. And went. It was still too wet.
It was here that I had to ask the wedding couple to trust me, to believe in us, to know that by the middle of August we would be able to give them a beautiful venue.
June, we began to prep the land. Dirt was trucked in, the ground was levelled, grass was planted, and the watering began.
We did it.
The grass wasn't quite as thick as I would have liked but it worked, everyone was happy. The wedding was absolutely beautiful. The bride's mom hugged me three times on three different occasions ... I count this past weekend a huge success.

2011-08-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

I started this post days a go ...

Running the B&B and farming with a new baby is ... interesting. Luckily, everyone around me has been very supportive and my guests have all begged to meet and hold him. I have absolutely no problem handing my son off to strangers.
Adjusting to this different pace has been quite the learning experience. I can't run around and complete my "to do" list in a day; I can't use both hands to complete tasks; I have to drop what I'm doing about every two hours to change and feed Mason ...
I should be thankful that he is so good and he sleeps during the day and at night on his own (between feedings). I AM thankful. This child has changed so much in the past few weeks, and at a month of age, he is very alert and watchful, and now weighs almost 11lbs. I really enjoy him; it is lovely to find the time to take a break from the craziness that is my life and interact with the little guy. Sure, the multiple night time feedings already create some great bonding time but it's the quality time that I manage to fit in between 6am and 11pm that I really enjoy the most.

I have been successful on the rare day fitting afternoon milkings in ... as long as hubby is available to check in guests and supervise Mason, or sometimes Mason sleeps next to the dairy in his car seat and stroller.
Business has continued to roll along keeping me hopping. Had I known how steady the season was going to be, I would definitely have hired some staff, or at least one person to ease the housekeeping work load (and perhaps spend a few hours in the garden). Some days I have no problem coping but then the occasional day crops up where I have to choose three laundry baskets of ironing over tending to my son and that just breaks my heart when I do that (he gets handed over to Grandma during those moments). I get a lot of offers to look after Mason but that's not actually where I need the help; I would so much rather be with Mason.

A bunch of the family rolled into town during the last week of July. My sisters and their families (suddenly there are a lot of cousins!), and even one of my other brothers and his wife joined us for a night and we finally enjoyed an evening around the brick oven with little pizzas from the oven, and burgers done on the BBQ. We have plans to build a permanent gazebo around the brick oven but that project may have to wait for a year. In the meantime, Hubby and I just found a smart looking temporary gazebo for an amazing deal at London Drugs ($100.00!!! This is a great time of year to buy summer things), so this will work just fine until we can put something proper up.

2011-07-29T22:02:00.000-07:00

I can't stay long because, you know, I'm exhausted and all that, but I wanted to acknowledge the picture above. We had Mollie Orcutt of Mollie Orcutt Photography come by earlier this week for our newborn photo shoot. She was great to work with, the pictures are awesome, and I thought this one of Hubby, Mason, and I in front of the buffalo was perfect for my blog.

I hope to try to return to the blogging world with a ton of updates one day soon but no promises. Even on the slow days I can't seem to catch up and there's certainly no chance of ever getting ahead, and next week is going to be another busy week for the B&B.
I will leave you with these words though- I'm milking tomorrow! I did a day a couple days ago and it was great to be back in the parlour. 3.5 weeks after having my son, definitely time to get back at it.
(P.s. He's 4 weeks old tomorrow. Growing like a weed- babies are expected to gain 4-8 ounces a week and Mason gained two pounds in two weeks)

The fruit of June

2011-07-09T10:24:00.000-07:00

Last week I managed to grab a flat of fresh, organic, succulent strawberries from Makaria Farm, here in the Cowichan Valley. June is a fantastic month for local strawberries, and I was finally organized enough to purchase enough from Makaria, and another farm, to freeze and use in baking and sauces through to next year's strawberry season.

Another addition

2011-07-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

I am so detached from the farm right now ... detached from the outside world. I will try to give you some updates but honestly, I have no idea what's going on around me.
We have started our afternoon milkings now- with one. One of our heifers calved about a month a go- one of our few successful artificially inseminated cows. This year we plan to introduce afternoon milking and Cindy is our first, and only, for now as we wait for calves to start dropping (soon!).
The parlour has many hands in the mornings. Our Austrian is still here for another week, and we have now had a young man from England join us, and he will be here for six weeks. A local girl comes a few mornings during the week and will likely do so until the end of summer when she leaves to begin her goal of becoming a veterinarian. My brother's girlfriend, already an experienced milker (but with Holsteins), joins in occasionally, and then there are the regulars.
Hubby now gets up to help with the morning irrigation moves, and has jumped right into the jobs that need to be done outside around the house (priority- watering!).
Our vegetable garden has begun to grow and we've had a team out there pulling weeds.

Mason hasn't been the only addition to the farm this week (he is one week old now, can you believe it?). We welcomed "Emanuel" to the farm, a handsome Italian sired water buffalo bull, born and raised at Ontario Water Buffalo Co. in Stirling. I haven't had too much time with him but I was there when we introduced him to the heifers, and I was impressed! Not only did he look right at home once he got off the truck (so I've been told), but the following day he faced our young spirited herd and as they formed a wall to corner him (acceptance doesn't come naturally), he put his head down and challenged them, as if saying, "like it or not, I'm here to stay". A better experience than the bull introductions that we've had in the past!

Ahead of schedule ... and right on time (baby announcement)

2011-07-06T13:29:00.000-07:00

I started this post a few days a go ... I am determined to finish it.

At my last midwife appointment on Wednesday June 29th, she informed me that she was pretty sure she would see me at my next appointment the following week, which would mean no baby in the next few days. I was a little disappointed because as you know, I was really hoping for the baby to come early July so that I would have more time off before my next guests on the 15th.
On Thursday I baked brownies and cookies. Just for my own enjoyment, but maybe I was missing the daily baking I had been doing for my guests.
On Friday morning I mowed the lawn at the cottage and mum questioned whether this was something I should be doing but I figured the worst that could happen was that I'd go into labour. Oh no!
That evening Hubby and I went out for dinner in Cowichan Bay, not knowing when we'd next be able to go out together alone.
For Saturday, I had the day planned out. Perhaps the farmer's market, stop by the local community's "summer celebration" fair and buy some books, and then to end the day, Hubby and I were to join my in-laws for dinner and fireworks at Honeymoon Bay. Playing it by ear of course.
4am, Saturday, July 2nd, I woke up with some bad cramping and I wondered if I had gotten into some bad prawns at that good dinner I had enjoyed the previous evening. Without going into all the details, I was 7cm dilated by noon when my midwife arrived at the farm -apparently someone else was having a baby at the same time, which by the way, I totally won the baby having, beating her by about 10 minutes.

One small detail I haven't mentioned before, where we were having the baby. We decided in May to plan for a home birth and things were looking good for it to happen. I was feeling pretty confident about things going well even though I was still prepared, and wouldn't be disappointed, if I ended up in the hospital. Okay, so I wasn't that prepared, I actually never packed a hospital bag!
The backup midwife (not my regular one- she had gone to attend the other birth at the hospital) arrived around 3pm and I had my baby son at 4:11pm.
Mason Thomas Alexander weighed in at 7lbs 14 ozs, 20.5 inches long, with a full head of hair.
I couldn't believe that just 12 hours after waking that morning that I was holding my son in my arms! The best part of the whole experience was being able to do it in my home- and to be out of bed an hour after having Mason and feeling pretty wonderful.

Closed

2011-06-29T13:50:00.000-07:00

I have closed the B&B for two weeks with the idea that baby arrives within this time frame. June turned out to be extremely steady for business right up until my last day on June 27th, finishing with a bang with a full house (five rooms) on the last weekend. Two days getting the house back in order and tackling the mountain of ironing, and then six hours yesterday cleaning the cottage after it was occupied for two months, was a bit of an effort but I did it. After a night of discomfort last night, I sent a telepathic message to baby to hang tight for a bit longer so that I could get out and do some weeding and watering this morning. Which I did work on and will continue to do until baby comes.

It has been wonderful having Hubby off work the last week and a bit, as he has taken 3 weeks vacation and this will then turn into 36 weeks parental leave. He was a great help the last few days before I closed, teaming up with me in the kitchen so that I did the cooking and he did the serving, and then as I completed the ironing, he would make up the beds. I have this mental list of jobs I wanted done whilst I was closed and one was to put a new toilet in the middle bathroom upstairs. This particular bathroom wasn't used much for the guest business in the past years, and used more for personal use so whether it was lack of regular cleaning or just age, the bowl was stained and between that and the water marks in the shower, I was a little embarrassed about renting it out as part of the B&B. We had to replace the sink in the earlier months and it just seemed right to replace the toilet as well, especially since not much can be done for the shower at this point.

Task completed. For a computer nerd, that Hubby is sure handy.

Now the wait is on for this potato to join us and I just can't wait!

Barn in progress

2011-06-28T21:04:00.000-07:00

April 11 2011


May 20 2011

May 20 2011

June 11 2011

June 28 2011

Oh Vancouver

2011-06-16T10:02:00.000-07:00

"Vancouver is rioting" said my husband.
I stared at him and stated, as if I knew, "no they're not".

We had just watched our NHL hockey team be defeated in game 7 of the finals, missing out on the chance to hoist the Stanley Cup high above their heads- and was I wringing tears out of my shirt? Throwing things at the TV? Cursing the Canucks? Tearing the flags from my car and then flipping the car and setting fire to it? No.
I accepted the truth, I got up and I went out to water my plants, and encourage my dog (who hadn't eaten in two days) to eat something. I was even thankful ... thankful that I didn't have a two month beard to dull my razor blades. Thankful that my evenings were once again free.

As you know, thanks to FB and the media, there was rioting. I knew there would be but I had hoped there wouldn't be. I thought that by not having television (we've been watching the hockey game streamed from CBC, lap top hooked to our tv) that meant there would be no rioting. I forgot about Facebook, and I think so did the rioters.
Good one! Your faces are now plastered all over the Internet. I wonder how proud you feel today. I wonder how your parents feel.
I am disgusted.
Today, in the aftermath of burned vehicles, broken windows, stolen items, and violence, a group of Vancouverites, not the ones that stayed downtown last night to partake in the destruction, have headed downtown to clean up their city. Now, that's something to be proud of.
A part of me wishes I had been on the first ferry to the mainland, with gloves and garbage bags in hand. Those are the true Canucks fans. Celebrating how far their team made it; showing the world that we're not all sore losers.
**edit- sore losers is probably the wrong word here considering those who rioted weren't rioting because of a 'loss' but actually rioting for the sake of rioting.

To those folks who call themselves Canucks fans and thought wearing a jersey meant it was true yet proceeded to trash their city ... don't you know the saying? The sentence I had been using since '94, the last time the Canucks lost in the finals and rioters stormed the streets ....

THERE'S ALWAYS NEXT YEAR!

2011-06-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

The season for growing ...

2011-06-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

It's growing season, finally!
Most farmers around here seem to get their first cut off in May but with our wet fields we have to wait until June. Not that this means we've been sitting around twiddling our thumbs waiting for the ground to dry- and as usual, these days when I'm talking about farming and say "we" I actually mean "they".
Two fields of corn were planted this year rather than just the one that we had last year, and today the first haylage bales are coming off two other fields.
My vegetable garden has been prepared and now waits for planting, at least I have got my tomato plants in now, and I must say they are very pleased to be out of their pots and stretching their roots.
The tent area (for weddings and special events) has also been seeded and is being watered and should be a lush cover come the wedding that I have booked mid-August.

Learning as I go

2011-06-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

This year is definitely turning into a learning experience for me. Not that I am at all surprised since this is my first year trying to farm, grow a baby, and run a B&B all at the same time.
I have to laugh at myself now when I seriously thought I would be able to do the morning milking and do breakfast.
Oh right, I never thought I could do that, I think I was planning to bring in help.
A few months ago I was throwing around the idea of a continental breakfast, and I did try it out for a few people but when I look back now, it was pointless because I was there the entire time. The continental was supposed to be a way of providing breakfast while I milked ... but I found it too hard to leave my guests. If I'm going to offer the continental, I still need to have someone on deck to check up on things.
My saving grace is the pregnancy. Once I got near seven months, I found it quite painful to be on my feet for both the milking and the clean up so I cut it down to just milking. Now, as I'm frightfully close to my eighth month, even the milking hurts and I'm milking just 1 to 2 times a week. This right here has made me much more available to do breakfast in the mornings.
I'm adjusting pretty well to the way things are going right now- but in five weeks? Juggling a baby under one arm? Now, I think that's when the fun will really begin!

A great start to the season

2011-05-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

I just celebrated my second 28th birthday this weekend and the weather was lovely which is kind of surprising for the May long weekend. With the nice weather this past week has offered, all of the buffalo are finally to pasture. The calves made it a few weeks a go and then we had about 40mm of rain one day and ended up bringing them back to the barn.
The menfolk have been busy preparing the corn field for a June planting- a lot of tractor trips and the sweet aroma of manure travelling past my windows.

We enjoyed a full house here a week ago- my guests were the speakers and participants of the Wine Island Growers Association conference held in Cowichan this year. So far I have had the world's greatest folks stay at the farm and I'm loving it!
We also had three lunch tours last week- tour companies from the mainland coming over for a good country lunch and farm tour. Again, the nicest people. There are three more booked for June, this time two of the groups will be coming from Victoria.

Screens are now up on the bedroom windows for those hoping for some bug free fresh air during their stay with us. The apple blossoms have made their appearance, and the buffalo are looking especially pregnant as some of them get closer to freshening. We expect our first calf from one of our heifers in June with many more calves to follow in July.
We (ahem, my father) have begun preparation on the tent site in the lower garden. The wet spring has been a disaster for prepping the land but finally the dirt has been brought in and it's just a matter of levelling, and planting grass seed. The vegetable garden, however, remains a sad sight but no matter the late starts the garden gets, it always seems to catch up to everyone else.

A pregnancy post - 34 weeks

2011-05-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

If you're getting used to my huge gaps in between posts, well you're in luck, because once the baby comes I am fairly positive that the posts will become even less frequent.
I am 34 weeks pregnant already; how on earth did that happen? I have countdowns now. If Baby H (AKA Potato, Tater, It, etc) decides to make an early appearance, than I have just two weeks to go before everything is deemed ready and I would be accepted by our local hospital for the birth. Anything earlier and I would have to go to Victoria. As much as I hope this little rib kicker comes early, I'm requesting that it's after June 27th as that is my last booking (actual due date July 7th). Originally I was going to close for five days, July 5th to 10th, but I've been called crazy so many times that I have now decided that since I still have no bookings between June 27th and July 15th that I should take that as a sign, or just convenience, and have no accommodation available. Apparently having a newborn is hard and I should probably listen to those who know.
You know what else is hard? Cutting back on what I like to do. I was sure I would continue milking six days a week until pretty close to the due date but I hadn't counted on the pain in my legs, pelvis, and back from standing in the concrete milking pit. At first I could milk and mum would take over for the clean up but now it's looking like I'll be doing just 2 or so milkings a week. With this extra time in the mornings, I'm all gung-ho to do some simple gardening but even that isn't as easy as it would seem. Sigh. Anything that involves leaning over, including vacuuming, HELLO heartburn. Sitting doesn't offer much relief these days- I don't know if Baby has been cradling into my right ribs for the last three months but I cannot sit longer than 10 minutes without being in extreme discomfort.
Other than those small complaints, everything is going extremely well. I've been fortunate to keep off the extra weight; I'm getting a few hours of sleep at night once I shake the restlessness and doze off; I have found a love for chocolate cake at the exact time everyone has been having their May birthdays (mine included); and my pregnant belly has been a hit with the ladies in my lunch tours. I hope a baby strapped to my back/front will have the same effect with the ladies. Even the convulsing movement in my belly doesn't creep me out like I thought it would- I actually really like it!

So, I think I promised at one point not to write too much about pregnancies and babies and I still plan to keep to that promise as long as I can balance it out with some good farming and B&B posts.
I just thought there might be some of you who wanted to know how it was going. Maybe?

@ 32 weeks

My kitchen

2011-05-13T13:13:00.000-07:00

I managed to get two new posts up yesterday only to have Blogger experience some sort of maintenance problem that resulted in them pulling off any recent posts. I sort of thought they'd have them accessible in my drafts, but no, I must start over. (They showed up after a posted this one)
The good news is that they were just pictures.

First of all, I showed off my beautiful kitchen. This kitchen has actually changed me. I wouldn't say it has completely changed me into my mother, but it has definitely given me some much improved traits. Like, being able to bake at 9pm and then again at 5am. Actually cooking meals. Practising the double personality- family face and guest face.
This morning I made delicious rhubarb muffins, blueberry buckle cake, and cheese scones (some for the guests and some for the gathering of women renting the sitting room for a meeting). I learned a lesson that when I decide the scones needs another 3 minutes to still set the timer. I remembered the scones about 6 minutes later. The bottoms were as black as could be but the rest was good, so I cut off the bottoms and served the top halves and they were so good (best part of this job is getting to eat what's left over!).

My other post was simply showing you the winners of getting out to pasture first.

Breakfast for four

2011-05-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

In the dining room sits four people drinking coffee I brewed, eating food I made. My very first guests!
Not only are they my first guests, but they're the four nicest people I have ever met. What a great way to start off the season!
Since I'm playing with the idea of offering somewhat of a continental breakfast, especially on the mornings I'm milking, I wasn't entirely sure how to approach this morning (I didn't have to milk today). I did the layout of various cereals, yogurt, fruit, toast, and baked a rhubarb strawberry coffee cake. Then I put out a hot ham quiche, right from the oven, cutting into pieces and also putting this on the buffet for self serve. Everything went over really well- I've even been told to keep the quiche on the menu. I may not be a chef but I know how to follow a recipe, thank goodness for that! Also thank goodness for gaining this type of experience growing up so that I'm not jumping in entirely clueless.
It's important to think of the little details that can make all the difference. Like warm plates and a smile.

My open house is this afternoon. I'm not sure what to expect. I sent emails to three people who "know" people and asked them to spread the word, and the announcement has shown up in the past few weeks of the local Chamber newsletter. I want to welcome people into my home, into my place of business, to show them what we have to offer, to welcome them to what I think is such a unique and precious place.

Once today is over, I think I will look back and possibly pat myself on the back. A lunch tour; my first guests; and an open house.
And than I will sit down, because my goodness do my legs ever hurt.

April activities

2011-04-29T22:08:00.000-07:00

There was one time that I thought baby brain was just an excuse for pregnant women and new mothers to use to explain normal forgetfulness, but I see now that I was naive, because currently experiencing short term memory loss I know now that it really does happen.
Everything I do, or need to do, has to be written down. I have endless amounts of scraps of papers with every sort of list there can be. Of course it doesn't help that I have tripled the amount of things I need to remember- last items to get for the B&B; for the lunch tours; for the open house; to do around in and outside ... and than I'll remember that I need to make baby lists too.
I am about 9 weeks away from Baby H joining us (the name Potato has gone by the wayside). 9 weeks. That doesn't sound very long. Two months sounds better.

We've been busy around here! I can't thank my parents enough for the support and help that they have been giving me over the past few months. My dad in particular has been the go to about everything guy, and I'm not sure I could have gotten to where we are now without him.
Remember my need for a plumber a few weeks ago? Well, I was doing a load of laundry the other day and every time the rinse emptied, I would hear a splash of water on the floor. Turned out another pipe was blocked up and the washing machine could no longer empty through that pipe- years of crud accumulation and everything decides to go as soon as I move in. Looking on the bright side, now we can replace it and all will be well!

We had our first lunch tour on Wednesday and for it being the first one, I would say it went pretty well. The thing with this one group is that their itinerary is so packed that the lunch and tour has to be quite rushed so I'm hoping for feedback so I know where we can cut corners to make it run even more smoothly. Overall the guide was great, and the people were wonderful. Lunch was prepared by Chef Cosman, and she did not disappoint!
Next time I will request that the rain stays away but other than the muddy brochures that I continually dropped, everyone left with smiles on their faces. Even the lady who barely understood a word of English!
Speaking of not understanding English, have I mentioned M from Austria? M contacted me in the fall of last year, inquiring about coming to Canada to gain work experience on the farm. Saying yes was probably one of the best things I've ever done. Hubby and I picked him up from the airport last week and he has been an incredible asset ever since he arrived, and this has been a huge relief for me since I've cut back on my farming hours (due to being unable to work as hard, and getting the business going). M will be here until July but I think we should adopt him.

The site of our new barn has seen tons of progress lately. Amazing how fast things go up when you're not doing it yourself! I'll have to get around to an updated picture since the footings have since been poured and much more even since then.

Caught in a shower of petals

2011-04-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

Downtown Duncan, particularly Canada Avenue, is looking its finest right now. If you get a chance, hurry down there to dance, or don't dance, in the shower of petals falling from the blossoming trees lining the street.
Whilst tackling a very lengthy To-Do list this morning, running errands around town, Hubby and I stopped in at the Duncan Farmer's Market to refuel.. Today was quite likely the most beautiful day of the year so far, with temperatures reaching above 15 C; a good day to put one in happy spirits. It's possible I was just running on adrenaline following two extremely busy days (one of shopping for the business followed by a day in Vancouver meeting family for lunch) but somehow I made it through the list without succumbing to throbbing feet.
The Saturday Duncan Farmer's Market can't be missed if you're staying or living in the Cowichan Valley. Our special discovery today was the sugar waffles, which was exactly what we needed to refuel. This mother-daughter duo makes fantastic waffles and they'll be there every weekend! If you check them out, say I sent you. Actually don't, because they don't know who I am. Still check them out though.

2011-04-18T17:46:00.000-07:00

This was my second batch of cinnamon buns- these ones looked better than the first ones and tasted just as good.

I apologize for the lack of posting lately. I've been working busily on the house getting the last few things done, which means finding more jobs. Nothing like discovering a shower sprayer doesn't shoot out hot water ... would have been nice to have known this before 6 days to my official opening but no matter, because I found a leaking tap after that so along with the plugged drain in the laundry room, we decided it was worth while to call in the plumber.
Hubby has come in handy with his electrical skills- fixing plugs and hanging lights. I had to sit and supervise the light hanging, way beyond my bedtime, certain that he would be electrocuted. Turns out that spending your teenage years working for your electrician father really pays off.
Currently, we are tackling the cottage. It has sat empty for the entire winter and now it is time for paint touch ups around sills and door frames, and an overall spring cleaning.
Spring cleaning? We'd love a full day of sunshine; this means no hail! Today I strung a new clothesline in preparation of the warmer season. It will get here ... eventually.

Open House

2011-04-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

We will be hosting an open house on Sunday, May 1st 2-5pm. For those interested, there will be a water buffalo tour at 3pm.

Hope to see you there!

Fresh baking to entice the inspector

2011-04-05T12:42:00.000-07:00

I am awaiting a visit from a fellow B&B owner to do an inspection of my place to see if I'm acceptable to join the Cowichan B&B Association.
This reminds me of years ago when AAA (I have no idea who they were but they weren't alcoholics anonymous) would stop by unannounced to inspect the place, and they would even use one of those dental mirrors to look under the rim of the toilet. Of course we'd pass with flying colours ... wait, lets say no colours because you don't want to be finding colours in the toilet bowl. The fringes on the carpets had to be combed down, everything spotless ... my husband should probably realize that this is the cause of my particularity about which way the buttons should go on the duvet cover.
This inspection isn't quite as anal, which is a good thing considering we only just moved into the house recently, and although I've vacuumed the flies and ladybugs (insect season almost over!) and all the beds are made, I haven't dusted, or scrubbed the toilets, or mopped the floors. There are a few light fixtures that need to be replaced, and pictures hung but from afar the place, I would have to say, looks pretty darn good. They just want to make sure we're not kicking the kids out of their bedroom to rent it out for a night, you know, that sort of thing. Or in the our case I suppose it would be kicking the dog off his bed but we don't plan to put our guests in the laundry room anyway so the dog is safe.

While I wait, I decided to bake a blueberry coffee cake. I need to start practising before I start baking for breakfasts, and it has been years since I've baked anything in the farmhouse kitchen.
The kitchen. I love it. I thought it would be too big and that I'd have to invest in some roller blades to get from one end to the next but I actually love the space. The colours we painted it helps a lot too. I can't wait until it's fully finished (by the end of this week, fingers crossed).
So many memories in that kitchen, like those mornings where mum had already been up preparing for that day's breakfast and the muffins had just come out of the oven and smelled so good. If we were lucky, she may have made extra and we could help ourselves to the fresh warm goodness. Mmm fresh baking.

This afternoon I have another appointment, this one to discuss POS (point of sale) terminals. This little POS journey has taken me over a week to get to this point. I started with two huge companies by phone, companies that required me to push buttons for my selection before finally reaching a real person with a thick accent that I could barely understand. By the end of those calls, I would be exhausted. Exhausted from trying so hard to understand what they were saying, made worse by the fact I didn't know the subject well.
I finally chanced upon two more companies, smaller ones. The first one I tried was in Vancouver and a real breathing human rep actually answered the phone and she was lovely. Then someone recommended this other company, a bank actually, and when I phoned him he immediately said he would drop in the following day on his way through town. Well, you can't get more personable than that!

*** NOTE:
I was totally stood up for the inspection. I even changed out of my farm clothes and baked! Thank goodness I didn't brush my hair (does anyone else ever forget to brush their hair? My hairbrush is very neglected).
I did have time to show some lookie lous around. If you want to come to the farm, don't forget to call ahead! This is the best way to avoid Apollo planting his big dirty feet on your clothes (normally he's quite good but he found his basketball today and this has caused him to be overly excited).

One of our renovation projects

2011-04-01T15:57:00.000-07:00

A look at the stairs in the front hall of the farmhouse.


One: Remove wall board ( the wall looks blue but it's actually green here)

Two: Wallboard removed

Three: Put up drywall

Four: Paint drywall

Five: Remove old stinky carpet (it was disintegrating underneath)

Six: Install new carpet and project is complete!

What do you think? I absolutely love how this turned out.

Home

2011-03-31T21:32:00.000-07:00

Falling asleep to a chorus of frogs.
Two words. I'm home.

This week has been absolutely insane. It started on the weekend with a 13 ft trailer, 14 ft trailer, a cube van, and a pick up truck hauling our bigger items from our house in town out to the farm. Monday involved more packing, Tuesday was cleaning, and Wednesday was more cleaning ... I was sure it would never end. 7pm Wednesday night, Hubby and I bid farewell to the empty house and locked the doors for the last time.
Living back at the farm has been ... interesting. We added a mountain of our own belongings to a house already cluttered with tools and various items which means that right now I would not advise walking through a room without turning on a light because you will trip, or at least really hurt your toe.
Our kitchen is in a half completed state- we're missing a counter top and are waiting to have our new dishwasher installed. The fridge is in a temporary location as I await a plug, we still need two more counters but at least the stove is finally working, and we have one sink for washing dishes. I like to pretend I'm camping. It's the only way I can stay sane. My life needs to be organized and right now it is not organized, but I am surviving.
Our first two nights were spent in one of the guest bedrooms because we kept forgetting our linens in the dryer at the house in town, and then I really missed my bed and pillow so we moved downstairs to our 'temporary' bedroom in Hubby's office (until we renovate the basement in the fall) but are still using the shower upstairs. The bathroom we plan to use is in the basement and although it has received fresh paint, a new plug and shower light, it stills needs a door and the new vanity needs to be plumbed in.
The cats have taken up residence in one of the basement bedrooms with 24/7 access to the outdoors through the window. They're not too impressed with the new living arrangements after living a few years of luxury where they had rights to our bed, and unlimited cuddle time. I'm really looking forward to less cat hair, and more room in the bed.
Apollo also no longer gets a spot beside the bed. Now he has his own private sleeping quarters at night and I haven't heard him complain.

Now, an update about my health. After nearly three weeks of poor health, I decided I had a sinus infection and took myself off to the doctor, and on the same day I developed a sharp pain in my chest and I'm convinced I've bruised my ribs from my coughing fits.
Now I am on antibiotics. Some folks can't believe I'm on antibiotics when I'm pregnant so let me tell you this.
If I wasn't pregnant, I would probably not have gone to the doctor. I had the worst flu/cold of my life two years ago right in the prime H1N1 season but I got over it on my own. I wanted to treat this one naturally but it was becoming clear that I was getting worse; I didn't want to take antibiotics while pregnant but at the same time I felt if I went untreated that I could actually end up causing harm to the baby if one infection led to another. I'm on day two and I feel like my sinuses are improving but I haven't gotten the coughing under control and until I do, I will continue to clutch the right side of my chest every time I cough because the pain is so bad.

BUT, I'm home. I can get up in the mornings 20 minutes later, leave my house at the same time as before and arrive in the dairy 20 minutes earlier.

March sickness

2011-03-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

As months go, I really couldn't stand February. It was cold, it was miserable; the month seemed to serve no purpose. I can see why people feel the importance of inserting a statutory holiday into February, and this is coming from a girl who doesn't get stat holidays. The break between New Years and Easter is horrendously long ... for those who don't get Spring Break. Throw in Daylight Savings and suddenly you're (I'm) getting up in the dark again.

When March came, I was thrilled. While most people are counting down until summer, I just can't wait for spring.
Well, March, you have disappointed me.
In like a lion, out like a lamb. I can only hope this is true. This month is absolutely miserable- there is water everywhere. Water, huge potholes (car eating potholes, and I am not talking about the ones on the road to the farm ... that's just an obstacle course), angry weather, and sickness. That's right, the sickness, also known as the flu slash cold, because who the heck knows what they have. Take me for instance. I'm positive it was the flu and it has developed into a bad cold. Is it wrong for me to say that I actually preferred the flu part? I could take Tylenol to help with the headaches, aches, chills, and fever but for a cold, I can't do anything!
My brother had the flu/cold about a month ago and the rest of us were healthy until last week and once my dad and I were hit with it, it wasn't just restricted to us. The two youngest calves became severely dehydrated, even one of my cats is sneezing.
Dad was in and out of bed for about five days and still has not recovered from a vicious cough; I followed suit a couple days after. I'm one of those terrible people who go to work when they are sick, but then, I'm not sick very often. This, however, it really got me good. I went in for milking feeling okay, just a slight sore throat, but by the time I fed the calves and threw a bale of hay out of the barn, I was taking frequent breaks to sit down. When I almost fell down the stairs of the barn, I knew I was done. I went home and missed three days, and then most of a fourth day. By the fifth day, the flu symptoms were gone but the cold had settled in and I've been coughing as if I smoke several packs a day. Turns out I can't take anything when I'm pregnant. Just curing myself the natural way ... time.
As for the sick calves, well, things aren't looking good there. The little heifer calf went downhill incredibly quickly and never recovered. We were treating and tube feeding both her and the bull calf and she just lost the will to live and we lost her. As for the little guy, he's hanging on but won't feed on his own so we alternate tube feeding him milk and electrolytes (electrolytes to replenish him from the loss of nutrients as a result of his diarrhea). His breathing is laboured but he has the strength to stand on his own so at this point it's hard to say which way it will go.
It has been quite a few years since we have lost a calf like this; we're lucky that water buffalo are so disease resistant. However, as the saying goes, where there are livestock, there are dead stock.

Stay healthy!

I suggest quarantining yourself from the world to ward off sickness.

Lots of heifers

2011-03-08T18:49:00.000-08:00

Don't worry, this bull is very much alive! I know how it looks but this is after a good rubbing under last summer's sun. Passed out and smiling! Life's rough.

Good news on the farm. Amidst the farmhouse renovations and family politics (it appears that one member of the family is unable to come to terms about the importance of the farmhouse and tourism and the fact that we're spending so much of our time working on the house) we have put together some of our records and confirmed that our bull is a superstar. Okay, so he's a little strange and although usually quite docile, one must really never turn their back on him, and he drives us crazy by repeatedly visiting us in the milking parlour, but still, the one job that he must excel in, he really does excel. Last year we had 75% heifers! That's a great statistic. The previous year wasn't too shabby either. This is great news for growing our dairy herd and selling breeding stock.

We had the vet out yesterday to preg check a few of the cows we hadn't seen coming into heat, or had been open at the last visit. Of the five that we checked, four of them were pregnant and likely all heifers. We all breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Hayley earned herself a lovely nose ring to stop her suckling from Corinna (two full grown buffalo cows); it looks really smashing. We have been separating Hayley and Corinna from one another for days and it was just like weaning the cow from her calf. The moping and calling was quite pathetic and they had no sympathy from us. However, no sooner had we thought to have solved that problem, I encountered Corinna allowing her daughter of years ago (also a full grown cow), Connie, increasing her calcium intake.
Sigh.
We'll continue to monitor the frequency of this before deciding whether Connie should also acquire a lovely nose ring.

A battle in the barn

2011-02-27T11:51:00.000-08:00

Meet Jen. Jenny Wren has always been a bit of bully in the barn; pushing, charging, and bossing the other buffalo around. The cows at the bottom of the pecking order know to stay out of the way and if they happen to forget, Jen has no problem reminding them. Not being a great milker, one of the only reasons we still have her is because she calves later in the year and the timing is off to do anything with her.

This is Julie. We used to joke about how sweet she was and if only she knew of the size of her horns. Julie and Jen are full sisters from the bull and cow we brought in from Oregon in '98. Julie never really had a role in the barn- her position in the pecking order was somewhere in the top half of the herd, mainly due to the American blood in her and the fact her mother (Ashland) is the queen bee.

Things changed last week. We're not sure how it started, perhaps Julie had finally had enough of Jen's behaviour and decided it was up to her to put Jen in her place. The other morning we found them with their horns locked and they fought for at least half an hour. It was an epic battle. We tried to separate them by running one through the parlour and with no luck they ended up outside together to carry out the battle. Watching them fight isn't very enjoyable, especially when there's blood, but the fact that they were evenly matched we knew if we to interfere that one of us would get hurt and so we let them fight it out.

When it was all over, it was as though nothing had ever happened except for one thing: Jen is no longer the bully.

I'm not sure how long it will last but she has definitely been dropped from her high position in the pecking order to having to eat in the separate pen which is frequented by the two at the bottom of the pecking order.

A romance between dog and buffalo

2011-02-23T20:18:00.000-08:00

After some digging through the archives, I found my post with the short blurb about Apollo and Oprah's relationship. If you can't remember, check here for the refresher.

Two lactations ago, our '09 calves had the run of the barnyard until they were pastured but we chose to fence in the '10 batch and this means that Apollo has less bonding time with the last summer's calves. He used to sneak under the fence but I suppose I told him off so many times about eating all the poop that he eventually stopped going into the calf area. A few days a go I wanted to see if Oprah remembered her young crush on Apollo and I invited him in for a visit, and while he zeroed in on the smallest calf, Oprah made it obvious that she was still quite smitten with the dog. I arranged another visit yesterday, and today Apollo invited himself in. It's quite sweet that as soon as Oprah sees Apollo her tails shoots up and she follows him everywhere talking away to him, and if she's lucky, he finally gives
in to her advances and they make out.

One step forward and two steps back

2011-02-19T11:03:00.000-08:00

We're finished!!! The house is done!!!

... I just wanted to see what those words looked like.
The house is not done. In fact, since my last report I have accomplished projects and then ripped them up. I was so close SO CLOSE to having room 1 finished. I completed the wallpapering and even though I keep having dreams that it has all peeled off, it actually hasn't. My mum and I cut a carpet from another room down to size and layed it down, hammered in the quarter round pieces and it looked fantastic except for a few dirty marks which I then spent an afternoon scrubbing by hand, and wet it looked great but when it dried not so much. Huge brown stains showed up all over the carpet so I re scrubbed those spots three times with no success. Yesterday I ripped that carpet out and we'll have to buy a new one.
The faucet set that I had planned to replace by myself failed; I couldn't even get the shut off valves turned. It turns out that neither could my dad, although he did eventually with the help of a lot of tools.
Then there was the fiasco with the two new mattresses that we had purchased. They look comfortable and I'm pretty confident that they are comfortable except we had a heck of time fitting linens to the 16 inch mass of mattress. In the end we made the queen sheets work but had to go out and buy king sized duvets and covers so that the sides would hang down the side of the bed enough.
Seriously, I think I cry everyday. By the time I move in I promise to everyone that there will be no more tears. Even the baby won't cry. It will be a tear free zone. I just can't believe how everything continues to go wrong. Is it just the pregnancy hormones that make things seem worse than they are? I try to believe that but when I see other people's frustrations I know it's not just me feeling the pain.

I left the house yesterday with more white hairs than I had started the day with. At least these ones washed out with shampoo. It turns out that it's impossible for me not to stick my head up in the wet paint on the ceiling.
Ah yes, the ceiling! Originally I had planned to paint the kitchen ceiling and then I decided it was a huge task and I wasn't going to. One of my friends came by last weekend and said he'd love to paint the ceiling, and since I had the paint already I thought, what the hey, if he's going to do it then what's the problem? Except, he doesn't have time at the present and I wanted to start painting the walls and it would make more sense to do the ceiling first. So, here I am painting a ceiling I wasn't going to paint.
The good thing is that it's a job I can do when all the other jobs require two people which is happening a lot right now.

***It's evening now, and rather than write a new post I will add on here.
It is amazing the difference a day makes. By the time I got to the farm, Val had almost completed the first coat of paint on the kitchen ceiling and by the time I left to do evening chores, she was half way through the second. On top of that, my mum and I moved two beds and dressers into the Heritage room and that lifted my spirits A LOT!. I was actually walking through the house with light in my heart.

Potato

2011-02-10T19:33:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture from my ultrasound today- a pretty little potato it is! The technician actually moved the 18w6d date to 19w4d which has us looking at a Canada Day (July 1st) baby. Perhaps we should hope for a different day so that my SIL gets to keep her birthday all to herself?

(Ps. I have no idea why the hospital insists my last name is still Archer when I've had it changed on my Care Card and on record)

One of you is different from the rest ...

2011-02-09T14:47:00.000-08:00

Rather than rushing off to the farmhouse after lunch to slap up some wallpaper -which pray tell, why aren't I doing that? I'm so close to finishing that I can almost taste it! All pre-pasted glueiness of it- I have decided to search through the pages of Used Victoria to find stainless steel sinks and a commercial dishwasher for my kitchen.
We had some pretty insightful advice from a local Valley chef this morning, and although it went beyond my simple kitchen vision, I have now bumped the basement reno's even further down the list to make room for this new kitchen plan. Hence the need for new sinks.
This is a room that I would hate to make shortcuts in.
Oh wait, I'm not here to talk about that stuff! This post was meant to be a quick (and funny?) story from this morning.

Real Post Starts Here:
This morning after milking, my brother went into the main barn to prepare to take the heifers back to their barn of residence when he observed two of the buffs eating away at the hay feeder with what at first glance seemed to be a smaller buffalo between them.
Upon further glance, he saw that the middle one was in fact not a water buffalo at all.
Part Border Collie. Part Golden Retriever. Part Water Buffalo.
It was Apollo.

... I just spotted on my counter thingy that I open the B&B in 74 days. I hope to move into the house in just over four weeks ... perhaps I had better go slap on some wallpaper after all.

The buffs are making me lose my mind ...

2011-02-06T10:03:00.000-08:00

This morning at the beginning of milking, I used a rope to bring one of the dry buffs through the parlour (to put outside) and following this, I immediately hung the rope back on the nail in the holding pen.

Or at least I thought I did.

When I went out after the first group had been milked to bring the next batch in, I saw that four or five of them were out playing in the mud so I went to the holding pen to retrieve the rope. The nail was empty.

I was absolutely sure that I had put the rope on the nail but I did question it when my dad said he hadn't touched it. After a bout of food poisoning, or some other quick illness, last night I thought perhaps I was just a little out of it. I checked in the parlour even though I knew I hadn't put it in there.

So I went back out, and took a manure fork instead, to usher the girls and Max back into the barn.

Guess what I found sitting in the mud beside them?

The rope.

Apparently one of them had come into the holding pen, hooked the rope onto her horns, and taken it outside to the mud.

It turns out that I'm not completely losing my mind, the buffalo are just trying to trick me into thinking that I am.

An Apollo story

2011-02-02T06:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning Apollo had himself a little bit of fun.
Normally when we enter the garage to leave to go the farm in the mornings, I make sure that Apollo is sitting and when I open the garage door, he has to remain sitting until I reach the car and open the back for him and tell him it's "okay" to come. This works awesome for the days someone is walking their dog past because if I spot this first, then I can usually control Apollo's attempt at socializing. For the past few days I haven't been quite as consistent with making him sit and wait, partly due to his fascination to smelling the plants in my neighbours garden. I suppose this is a popular place for other dogs to leave their scent and this makes Apollo very interested, and so when the garage door opens, he ducks out quickly and runs next door to sniff.
Well, yesterday, he did just this. He ran to the left to this sniffing post but then I saw him cut to the right and head down the street. By now the door had raised enough for me to exit the garage (I was not ducking and rolling beneath it at 6:30am, I'm just not as nimble at that time of day), and I threw my bags beside the car and headed down the street to where I could see Apollo about to ambush two ladies and three pugs. When I say ambush, I literally mean ambush. He made not a peep (apparently they didn't hear the jingling of the tags on his collar) until he was right upon them and said enthusiastically, "Waaoooffff!". Those two ladies had heart attacks. Seriously. They both screamed ... no, they shrieked ... as loud as they could and I'm frankly quite surprised that lights did not start coming on in all the houses on the street. By now the pugs were straining at their leases snorking, snorting, huffing, gasping, and growling which made Apollo growl. The poor fellow just wanted to play but pugs' behaviour is just to strange to him that he doesn't know what to make of them. Why must they be so hostile? (There's one black pug on a street over that stalks us on our walks).
I was holding Apollo back, not forcefully because he wasn't being aggressive, apologizing for the scare. By now the ladies were laughing, I suppose their hearts had settled back into their chests. I told Apollo to go stand by the car, which he very obediently did, while I finished apologizing and then we went our separate ways. I was mortified. But it was funny; it took all I could not to laugh in front of Apollo, I didn't want him to encourage him to do this again.

Keeping busy ...

2011-01-30T19:52:00.000-08:00

Farm Life:
Our Italian semen appears to have some serious flaws as in that it swims backwards or in circles- if it even swims at all! After having our only two artificially inseminated heifers catch on the first attempt last year, we had some pretty high optimism for the breeding season this year especially with a new batch of semen from some pretty good looking bulls (perhaps a little air brushing in the catalogue?). Until we have our young ones preg checked we can't be entirely sure that most of our attempts have failed but upon our observation, they have been coming back into heat repeatedly. Keeping our buffs on schedule is pretty important to our lively hood because if they don't have calves then there's no profit for us (and no cheese for you!).
As for our bull, who is in charge of taking care of business with the older buffs, well, sometimes we wonder if he's even doing his job!

Other News:
As is the norm, there's always a project that creeps up that is not on the list. We have been struggling with water pressure from the well that serves my parents house, the dairy, and the barnyard for quite some time now to the point that only one hose, or tap, could run at one time or else we lost all water pressure entirely. I said to everyone, "this is not going to make my guests in the cottage very happy if I tell them that they can't run water between 7 and 11am". My brother's response was that "people like it like that" (sorry, that's an inside joke with my family and we pretty much quote that for everything these days) "and would pay more for this experience". Brother was joking. After a few quotes for a new pump, crane to pull the old pump, pipes, labour, etc which came to $4000-5000, dad and brother called up their contacts, had a source find a new pump, rigged the winch to the tractor, and they pulled that pump themselves. I missed all this because I had to made a run to Victoria for carpets. Oh right, and I forgot to mention the trench that dad and brother had previously dug from the farmhouse up to the big hay barn where old pipes at the farmhouse were swapped for new ones, and the farmhouse well was hooked to the barnyard so that no one would be without water. I have a picture but I'll put that up at a different time.
Fun times!

Renovations:
The carpets that I made that run to Victoria for aren't ideal for the bedroom that we had planned for so we may have to go to plan B, which I am not entirely sure what that is.
I have been wallpapering one of the bedrooms, a project I decided to tackle myself after working as part of a team with my dad for the other wallpapering projects. All is going quite well, apart from the near loss of an eye today when I moved the ladder and the putty knife fell off and hit my face right above the cheekbone (pretty much directly below my eye). Apart from a tiny red dot, there was no pain- I probably wouldn't have even noticed had the putty knife not clattered loudly on the wood floor.
I haven't tackled the kitchen yet because there have been so many jobs going on in there that I've occupied myself elsewhere (there were three bathrooms upstairs that I wasn't going to touch and I've ended up painting all three, changing out towel racks, and still need to change a faucet as one tap has a broken washer). My mum spent about two weeks scrubbing her hands raw trying to get the commercial stove back to a respectable state. Is it finished yet? I'm not sure of the latest update. **I have been since informed that she has actually spent 4 weeks on the stove. January flew by! **
Dad and JN spent this afternoon tiling the wall behind the oven- a job that wasn't on the list but had to be done for fire safety.

Baby Stuff:
I joined Prenatal Yoga just like I said I would! It has been a really long time since I've done something for me and I'm pretty proud that I followed through with this. It helps that my midwife informally prescribed me to enroll. During the first class, I was at first a little sceptical of it all (I had to actually bite the inside of my cheeks to prevent inappropriate giggles) and then I let myself go with the flow and I thought, wow, if this breathing technique is something that I can take with me to "THE BIG DAY" (that's how the instructor referred to the day of birth) rather than screaming like a banshee, than I'm in! I ended up thoroughly enjoying myself and I am looking forward to the next five classes.

The last of the hens

2011-01-16T19:10:00.000-08:00

While I was growing up there were a few rules to live by on the farm.
If the gate is open leave it open, if it's closed leave it closed. Among that one and others, it was made clear that the only animals that had a place on the farm were those that served a purpose. If I befriended a hen but that hen was no longer laying than friends or not, that hen had to go. The cows had to give milk; the pigs and sheep their meat; the chickens their eggs.
I think that it is because of this that I have been eyeing up the four ancient hens at the farm for quite some time; these hens have been around for a really long time and as long as they were laying they had a place on the farm. Over the past few years they began laying sporadically, taking some time off here and there until the end of last summer when a young rooster strutted his stuff around them and they quit laying completely. Yet, even so these chickens remained. We continued to let them out of the coop daily, fed them, watered them, locked them up in the evening, and we all said, "when their food runs out then they'll go". More food would be bought and the hens would stay.
Their chicken house is falling apart and is no longer an idyllic home as it is so there was more than one sign pointing to their fate.
Hubby came to help out in the farmhouse today and he ~~was like a little boy in a candy shop, jumping up and down clapping his hands, squealing, "I want to kill a chicken, I want to kill a chicken!"~~ made it clear that he would like to try his hand at killing a chicken. It was while we were chasing them around in the chicken house that I enquired whether he had actually ever held a chicken before and I found out that no he had not. You would think that this would result in disaster but you know what, he was successful! He put those hens on the chopping block and no one screamed (okay, so I did a little bit the first time) or fainted and the job was done quick and efficiently. I was mighty proud of him. It will be strange being chicken-less at the farm but I plan to get some in the spring, either start with chicks or purchase layers, and they will reside in the coop we bought from MJ, and eventually our young guests can help collect the eggs, an activity much enjoyed in the past.

Emotions

2011-01-16T18:12:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been struggling with inner demons. I'm not sure if these are manifesting from pregnancy hormones pushing me into an emotional state, or if it's just stress, or if it is both.
I wasn't sure if I should write about it here on my blog. I asked myself, is this a professional blog or should I be completely honest and share all aspects of my life (okay, not quite all aspects) and that's when I started thinking: I've never advertised this as a professional blog; I don't teach anything here; nor do I intend to use this as a form of advertising for my B&B. No, this is a place to share my thoughts and experiences as I change my entire life to become a farmer, to operate a bed and breakfast, as I start a family. If this involves sharing my fears and accomplishments, so be it.

Earlier this week I became this overly emotional person to the point that I don't even want to do anything socially because I'm afraid of crying in front of people. I'm a big mess. Sometimes it starts when I watch the destruction of the flooding in Australia, and I'm worse when I see the army of civilians flocking to Brisbane armed with cleaning supplies and equipment to lend a helping hand to strangers. It graduates to me crying because everyone hates the colour of paint that I chose in a room ... actually, that one room has made me cry multiple times, I think the thing is that the blue paint I chose was so that this room would be my happy place and so far it has brought me nothing but tears. I cry because I feel that there are some people in my life that could be doing more to support me and then I cry when they try to help because I don't know how to delegate, and I cry when I get the car stuck in a snow pile (I was tired, I just wanted to go home).
I have to appreciate that we have accomplished a lot since the beginning of November, just my dad, mum, and I, and that we still have a few more months to get more done. It's just that I have been living and breathing this project for the last three months, six days a week, which I have now upped to seven days a week. Taking a break is out of the question; would that not cause more stress?
Then there's the question of when I finally have everything ready, that when I'm open for business how am I going to handle cooking breakfast? I thought I had this worked out a year ago when I approached a really good friend about working with me. My dilemma is that farming is still my priority and I have to milk at the breakfast hour so that was why I started looking into someone to do the cooking. However, as we all know it, things change in people's lives and she can no longer do it. The difficult part is that at this point I have no idea how busy I will be in my first year so hiring someone is clearly not an option. There are so many options and I have to remember that in the end this is my business and that there's no way I will ever make everyone happy (is it so wrong to try and make most people happy?).
I do have faith that this will all work out.
Now I am getting worried that I am going to have the most wound up baby as a result of my own stress so I have decided I need to find a way of making myself relax. If this means trying mediation, prenatal yoga, or any other means of relaxation then I am absolutely open to it. I see the midwife on Thursday so hopefully she will have ideas (I did laugh at the suggestion of prenatal yoga at the last appointment but I suppose I'm coming around to the idea).

The big snowfall of the season

2011-01-15T11:00:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday evening Hubby, Apollo, and I went for an evening walk in the falling snow where kids were tobogganing in the dark, perhaps getting in that sledding just in case it wasn`t a snow day the following day. Before retiring for the evening, I scraped all of the snow off the car and we put on the snow chains just so that I was prepared for my drive at 6:30am Wednesday morning.

Wednesday morning I woke up to 27 cm (just over 10 inches) of snow at my house in town. I'm not sure if this was accurate, it could have been a foot. The car was completely covered as if I hadn't even touched it the night before. I shovelled a pathway from the driveway to the road so that I would be able to reverse without blocking up the exhaust pipe, and then I began to sweep the snow from the car.
That's when my brother phoned.
"Do you want a ride, I'm on the road already because I had no power".
I accepted. Thank goodness I accepted.
Had I even made it off my road I would not have made it to the farm.

A few of the roads were plowed but not all of them. The closer to the farm, the deeper the snow. In fact, the farm received 36 cm (14.2 inches) of snow!

The kids got their snow day.

(As I write this on Saturday, I can see more green than white ... except where the snow was piled high from shovels, plows, etc. We received warm temperatures, rain, and wind following Wednesday, in fact, yesterday it was as warm as 11 Celsius on my drive home.)

An encounter in the darkness of early morn

2011-01-09T18:21:00.000-08:00

There's something serene about being up early in the morning following a snow fall. A fresh white blanket carrying secrets. The tracks of a cat circling my driveway and heading across the road to the neighbours. Later on, the footprints of deer crisscrossing back and forth across a country road.
And then there are the things that one doesn't expect to see.

This morning as I drove carefully along the recently plowed back roads after a light snowfall during the night, I came across three souls who were clearly on an early morning jaunt of their own.
In the darkness in front of me I could make out the faint shapes of what looked to me to be horses.
I said to myself (either in my head or out loud), "What the bleep? Who's going for a horse ride at 6:45am in the dark IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD?" While I was thinking this I worked at slowing my vehicle, thankful that I was already travelling at a slow pace as it was clear that these horses were spread right across the road. I stopped right behind them and saw that there were three of them, in their horse blankets, simply trotting along as if on a mission. I managed to drive alongside and I rolled down my window to inquire where the heck they were headed to.
Apollo sensing that I was in grave danger from these animals taller than my car, began barking his head off from the back of the car and this caused the nearest horse to startle and hurry along a little quicker until I put up the window.
While I flashed the few oncoming cars (with my lights, it was a little too cold to lift my shirt), I pulled over to phone 911 (because seriously, who else do you call when the only number that has been programmed into ones brain is 911). It turns out that I'm not the only one that calls 911 about stray livestock because the dispatcher informed me that they had already been alerted to this.
So this story is really quite anti climatic because after what felt like I was herding these horses with my car- and having another driver tell me that this was a strange way to move horses and I told him that was just the way I rolled- I managed to bypass the horses and continue on my way.
Where are these horses now?
I wonder if they are back home in their paddock (assuming horses are kept in paddocks) munching on some expensive hay, discussing the morning that they were free.

Some Christmas, some farming, and some redecorating woes

2011-01-01T20:51:00.000-08:00

Here's to a healthy 2011 for everyone!
Have we all survived the holiday season?

Winter officially arrived on the 21st although it was hard to tell because I'm pretty sure we were experiencing spring on the 23rd. It was glorious!
Our Christmas celebrations were kept fairly low key this year as we were missing visits from our family in California, and we'd all decided that with high expenses throughout the year that we would scale back on the present giving. (Although we missed the faces from down south, we did enjoy a visit from my twin, her husband, and their 6 month son. I can't believe that we may not see the nephew until next July- he'll be a completely different child!) . My brother and parents were fighting colds leading up to Christmas and I came down with a mild version on Christmas day. I'm pretty sure that we, along with some other help, sent those colds home with twin and her family.
The promised white Christmas never arrived which was made apparent in the mild week leading up to it- but when it's sunny out on a December day, who's really going to complain? Two years a go there was so much snow that my parents and brother arrived late to our dinner because they had been up on the barn roofs shovelling snow all afternoon.

Hubby and I had our Christmas Eve dinner at his parents' (German style) and on Christmas Day, we hosted our 3rd annual Christmas dinner at our house. This was our last Christmas in our town house and next year we get to make new memories at the farm! (I loved those Christmases).
Now a week after Christmas, we're experiencing some of those temperatures that we were getting at the end of November. Lovely -7 and -8's warming up to 0 during the day. But the sun has shone the last few days and it is super! I'm thinking that this hard winter that was forecasted, that if it comes in the form of cold temperatures and sunny days and no snow, that I'm okay with that! We can adjust to frozen hoses!

We had a calf born yesterday morning and because she required a "C" name, we (I) named her Chilli. It's quite an odd name but after having so many C's it just seemed appropriate to go with something a little different (other "different" names: Tumbleweed, Noodle, and Jingle Balls). She seemed a little weak and not very well fed so we have been keeping her in the electrical room attached to the dairy, working on fattening her up before we put her out in the cold (a pen in the calf barn). Now that she has taken to a bottle and the pampered lifestyle, she's looking really good and healthy!

The yearlings that we sold were loaded up and transported up island the other day. My brother and I had diligently separated ours from the sold ones and we counted the nine sold yearlings in the barn before we went in for a bite to eat. The buyers showed up and we loaded the buffalo in to their truck and you think that out of seven people standing there that any of us counted how many went into the trailer? No one counted. Well imagine my surprise when, after the truck and trailer had pulled away and we had let our yearlings back into the barn, a young buffalo came and leaned against me and I looked at her eartag and it was Joanne. The very Joanne that was at that moment supposed to be locked in a trailer heading up island. Turns out that we had loaded eight and not nine.
It also turns out that she's a jumper like her Grandmother.

On to news about our redecorating- I ended up painting the front hall the same colour as the walls going up the stairs. It's so much darker than the previous colour but I'm starting to really dig it; it just seems so warm! Yesterday and today I undertook the task of ripping out the runner carpet going up the stairs and it was a pretty nasty job. From the top, the carpet looked in pretty decent shape but I had seen the telltale signs of the deterioration underneath (in the form of yellow power all over the stairs) and I knew that unless I was planning to vacuum it daily, that it had to be replaced. It was a mess and definitely the right decision. Now to replace it.
My dad has spent the past few days below the kitchen jacking the floor up. After the last renovations, the commercial stove had been moved to an area with less support beneath the floor and we could see the floor beginning to slope. I'm a little ticked off that what was once a perfectly good working kitchen (with a pantry!) is now a disaster area, and although I do understand that the way my parents had it wasn't useful as a teaching kitchen, this is the room that completely does my head in. I don't know where to start. I bought ceiling paint ages a go and that's the least of my problems. It's this big space that seems completely nonfunctional. I think it's just really bothering me right now because I'm getting closer to reaching the kitchen makeover on my list- and it's completely out of my element.
Speaking of elements, the commercial stove is as greasy as working on the tractor (according to the farmer) and seems to be missing a few necessary pieces.
I could use a fairy godmother right about now.

(But seriously, we're actually making really good progress)

The best sound in the world

2010-12-21T16:08:00.000-08:00

What's your favourite sound?
I have always been rather fond of the sounds of spring: the buzzing bees, the chirping birds, the awakening of the bulbs beneath the soil ...
This afternoon I heard the most beautiful sound that I have ever heard; the sound of ch ch ch ch filling a small room as the midwife probed my lower abdomen.
I was talking when the sound of the tiny heartbeat started but I quickly shut my mouth when I realized. I was in awe. It was surreal.
That's right folks, in case you didn't pick it up from the fatigue I spoke of in one of my previous posts, I'm pregnant! 12 weeks :)
Obviously I knew I was pregnant already but hearing the heartbeat for the first time just brings it all home and it's just amazing.

Just wanted to share the news!

A conclusion to the Telus fiasco

2010-12-20T18:34:00.000-08:00

I completely forgot to update you on my frustrating ordeal with Telus.

If you need to catch up, check out part 1 and part 2 of why I was unable to take a call.
The last thing that I reported was that I was giving Telus one last chance to get it right, and that meant seeing them have my business phone working on the 11th of December after their failed attempts.
I had Saturday (the 11th) off but I did call the phone number from my house only to hear the same recording that, "this number is not in service".
On Monday I called them. I called the Business Transfer department to whom I had been dealing with the most recently, only to be informed that "yes, it indicates here that the request would be completed on the 11th".
I blew up.
I told this woman that today was the 13th. THE 13th!!! Two days after the 11th and my phone was still not working. That this was my business phone and that if it was not working, that my customers were not able to reach me and I was losing business (no need to mention that I'm closed right now and don't really expect too many calls until the Spring). I said, " What does the request was completed mean? I understand that to mean that my phone is working but it's not so obviously I don't understand".
The woman finally put me on hold to transfer me to repair (also giving me their number in case I was disconnected). After about 10 minutes on hold, she came back on to report that they were experiencing a backlog of calls and would I like to stay on hold or phone them on my own time. Also, did I have the phone number to call them? I repeated the number that she had given me and she said, "oh no, that's not the right one. You need to speak to Sales" and gave me a different number.
I decided to call them on my own time ... I was sick of the Christmas music anyway (when on hold). Or maybe it was Beyonce. I don't know what it is but they really have a thing for Beyonce and putting a ring on the finger of the single ladies.

I waited a few minutes and then I called Sales. I explained the situation (I was much calmer now). I explained that the phone was not in service. He transferred me to Repair. (Seriously)
At least by now they're putting calm speaking men on the phone and for some reason they get under my skin much less then the women. Maybe because they're actually helpful?
So I explained to Repair what was going on. That this number had been with my family since 1981 so could they please sort this out. He asked me about the jacks and if I had tried different phones and that's when I realized that no one had been listening to me. That they thought the problem was on my end, that the problem was that I had no dial tone. I told this man that it was not a problem on my end, that when I phoned from a different location that I was getting the recording that the phone was not in service.
Oh. Well that changed everything. He did a test on his end and agreed with me, that yes, that's exactly what was going on. He told me to stand by for a call before the end of the day.
Not even 30 minutes later I received a call on my cell from another Telus man asking me if my phone was working.
I still have no idea what the point of this call was.
On this next call he informed me that the phone would be hooked up within 24 to 48 hours.
I had a dial tone the following day.

End of story? It gets better.

On the morning of Friday the 17th, it was as busy as could be- we had just finished milking and had to AI one of the heifers, as well as load six of the calves into the trailer for their move up Island, and I received news that a Telus van had just pulled up down at the farmhouse. Well I started raging, probably unnecessary but I think justified, because here I was thinking that I had finally finished dealing with them now that everything was working and here they are, driving up and taking my time.
I walked down to the house and greeted the fellow pleasantly as he got out of the van with his tool belt. I asked him what he was here for.
"To hook up your phone" he said.
This poor man had to hear all about how unhappy I was with Telus and everything that I had been through and that if they weren't my only option that I would have switched to someone else (Hello Shaw) by now. It was quite obvious that the clients aren't the only one to receive the run around if they're also sending their employees on unnecessary missions. He at least apologized ... not that I blame him as I suspect that he's an innocent pawn in this game.

Now is the story over?
I hope so.

More painting

2010-12-20T11:40:00.000-08:00

Here are the pictures of the first signs of the water damage in the ceiling and wall of the farmhouse kitchen.

The holes have been patched up for a temporary fix up until we reach this on the list.

After my pink paint fiasco, I had the paint store add another colour to the gallon to make it more purple. I've never been one for purple either but I'll take it any day over pink. At this point I do not have a place for the purple paint but I'm sure it can be used when we do the full renovation of the basement. Purple kids room perhaps?
As for the sitting room, I ended up purchasing the same "Cheerful Cherry" colour that I had used in the bathroom of the Koksilah room.

This one is a little lighter than the colour that my parents had used previous to the green but I'm still happy with it. Through ones eye (as opposed to through the camera) there's almost a purple hue that matches the purple in the wallpaper (by the way, this wallpaper was installed by my parents years ago and has really aged well!) which I find slightly more pleasing than the green.

We had the wonderful help of an old family friend EE, who came and drywall sealed the walls of the staircase and the new partial wall in the Heritage Room. This helped get the ball rolling and we were able to paint the staircase, the wall of the Heritage room, and the closet of the Koksilah room all in one day. You will have to wait for the pictures because I'm not entirely satisfied with the staircase right now. I think I can adapt to the dark colour that we went with but I'm not happy with the way it looks with the yellow above it. This may mean that I will have to do what I really didn't want to do, and that's repaint all the yellow in the main front hall and upstairs hall ... I may cheat and paint over the already painted over wallpaper. I can't even imagine stripping those walls.

Growing the Water Buffalo industry on V. Island

2010-12-12T19:18:00.000-08:00

After my previous post, I grabbed myself a big bowl of ice cream and that cheered me up immensely and so now I am prepared to write what I actually wanted to write about today.
Water buffalo on Vancouver Island.
We've had a few buffalo for sale for a few months- some of our yearlings and most of this years calves. Obviously we want to continue to grow our milking herd but at this point we felt selling these young ones was the right thing to do at this time. Our biggest hope was that someone on Vancouver Island would realize that farming water buffalo is the next best thing and would be interested in starting their own dairy herd. After most of the interest came from back East, we were ecstatic when we were contacted by a farming family from up Island. As of yesterday the deal has almost gone through, and fifteen of our young girls should be making their journey up Island to their new home sometime between now and the end of January.
I wish this family, particularly the one young farmer gal, so much success and I hope that she finds this industry as rewarding as we do.

You can call me Tom Hanks (or Walter Fielding, Jr)

2010-12-12T18:52:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those days that I probably should have stayed in bed.
During milking I was oozing grouchiness from my pores; my body felt like it had recently run a marathon and was demanding a rest; and my brain, it also demanded a rest. My fatigue was kicking my butt! Somehow I made it to lunchtime, and then I made it down to the farmhouse to start painting the sitting room.
I picked up this particular paint yesterday and I loved the colour on the paper but when the girl put the dab on top of the paint can I thought it looked a bit too pink. I hate pink. Okay, so maybe pink does have it's place but I will not paint with it. Absolutely not.
I noticed that the paint dab had darkened once it dried so a small part of me hoped that once on the wall, that I would be seeing a lot of more of the red once it dried. This afternoon I took the lid off the paint can and was almost blown away by the pink that was gleaming up at me. Starting with a small sample area (in case I needed a primer) I put on one coat. Horrible. I added another coat. Still horrible. The lid was put back on the can to never be removed by me again. I'm hoping that I can change it, or at least have another colour added so that even if I don't use it in the sitting room, that I can at least use it elsewhere. Like in the basement. I will not use that pink elsewhere.
So after this paint episode, I was feeling pretty depressed because I just wanted to get the job done and here I was hitting another obstacle.

This paint episode wasn't even the worst of it. The worst part of the day was the part when I entered the house and my dad showed me where the kitchen ceiling was falling down.
Alright, so the ceiling wasn't actually falling down but in one area the paint and drywall tape was hanging off and to me that may as well be the ceiling falling down because I'm sure that's not far behind. This actually started the other day when I noticed drywall tape on the wall beginning to become very visible, and when I touched it, the paint disintegrated under my fingers and I was touching wet drywall mud. Upon investigation, we realized that this was probably due to the leak coming from the "sky light". This sky light was actually the vent for the stove when we lived there, and after my parents moved out and the 'improvements' were made, the hole in the roof wasn't properly closed up and the proposed sky light was never installed. Hence, the need for a bucket on rainy days. Turns out that not only was water dripping into a bucket but that water was also running along the ceiling and down the wall.
I can not believe what we're dealing with. I thought I was moving into a house that was ready to ... be lived in ... but it's just one thing after another and the "To Do" list that I shortened continues to grow. Today I felt like Tom Hanks in The Money Pit. Except that we're doing the work ourselves and not hiring contractors because you know what? From our experiences, you have to do it yourself if you want it done right. And less expensively.

That's my say for the day. On a brighter note, Hubby and I cut down a tree and it's currently propped (very crookedly) up in our living room. Our last Christmas in this house! Oh, and anyone with some extra Christmas spirit (the joy, not the drinking kind), please send it my way. Thanks :)

Still not taking your call...

2010-12-09T20:13:00.000-08:00

I have decided that I am being much MUCH too patient with our telephone service provider. They have been screwing up since October yet I keep putting a smile (and slight sarcasm) into my voice when I'm on the phone with them, and continue to give them another chance over and over again.

In my last post I explained that they would have my business line back in service in 10 working days- well, that was supposed to be two days ago. I gave them an extra day and then called them today to see what was up.

The nice woman (they all speak much too quietly and in accents I can't understand) said that she could see that the phone line was supposed to be hooked up on the 7th, but it wasn't. She said she'd get back to me by the end of the day.

When she called back, she promised (without using the word promise) that it would be back in service on the 11th. I'm giving them one last chance to get it right and then I'm going to the top.

I have declared that this is their last chance, that if there is no dial tone on Saturday that someone is going to be hearing from me. Really.

I was reminded that I had said that last time.

This time I mean it.

The worst part about it is that I can't switch to the provider I'd rather use because of the location of the farm. The other provider (on our request) actually came out to the area to consider running their cables up the road and have concluded that it will cost them $15 000 so that pretty much means that we're doomed. That we're stuck with Telus.

We are unable to take your call right now ...

2010-12-06T19:37:00.000-08:00

The transition from previous business to new business has had its share of headaches and I'm sure they will continue into the months after I open.

The biggest headache has been transferring the two land line phone numbers (one business and one residential) into my name.

We thought that it was all sorted out at the beginning of October- that come the middle of the month the accounts would be transferred into my name as the phone calls to our telephone service provider had been made and everything seemed pretty straight forward. At the time.

MJ left on the 15th and for a little while both phone numbers worked. The residential line also serves as the fax line and although there's no answering machine set up on it (not necessary since I'm not living there yet), I did have the fax machine hooked up to it. On the business line, I changed the voice mail message indicating that there was a transition in the works and that although I'd love to take any inquiries and yada yada yada, that we would not be open for business until April. I still had to deal with many callers looking for the previous tenant: requests for call backs regarding deliveries, sellable items, buying a car ...

Sometimes I even had phone calls requesting accommodation for that week. (Stating that we were closed for the winter clearly wasn't enough for those who really wanted to stay).

One day in mid November, we realized that our fax number had been disconnected: our wonderful service provider realized that the owner of the account had moved and cancelled the number. I lost hours of my life to Service Provider before it was finally sorted out and I was "authorized" for that number. After all the mess, the woman had the nerve to ask if I'd like to keep the phone number. I understand that this is a question that they're required to ask but really, after I'd spent all that time trying to get the number back, she really had to ask that question? The good news was that I had the number hooked up immediately.

About a week later I stopped by the farmhouse to check my messages on the business line. No dial tone. Yes, that's right, it was happening again!

This time was a bit more serious because this was my business line.

More hours spent on the phone with Service Provider. They told me that the previous account owner had moved and requested the number be cancelled. I told them that they must have misunderstood because there was no way that the previous account owner would have intentionally put me in that position of losing my business line.

Finally it came out that they had not received the Transferring the Business form that we had faxed at the beginning of the month.

They had not received the fax OR had they not filed it? I think I know the answer to this one.

I had to find the fax, which was at my other house, and resend it, THEN I made the follow up call to make sure that they had received it.
Yes, they had.
The phone would be working in 10 business days.
Would I like to keep this number?

Outstanding Farmers take over the farm for a day

2010-11-30T20:23:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we were a week passed our dumping of 8+ inches of snow but the rain had failed to come and wash it away and while the sun had done it's best to melt the snow, the cold temperatures of the night had turned the farm's barnyard into a rough skating rink. Regardless of the treacherous walking conditions, we were in full preparedness for three bus loads of Canada's Outstanding Young farmers to stop by for their rendezvous- we were one of four stops on their day's touring schedule. As it turned out, so many extra people had signed on for the tour that a fourth bus had to be assigned- this one was to visit a few different places than the other buses but a mutiny of sorts took place and everyone had to come to the farm to see the water buffalo so we welcomed the fourth bus in the dark of the late afternoon.
By the end of the day, after talking to around 170 people about why water buffalo are awesome and then feeding them cheese, we were very exhausted folks. But exhausting as it was, it was also very exhilarating to be surrounded by so many fascinating farmers- local farmers to farmers from the other end of the country. Beef, chickens, wheat, soy, dairy, bison, broccoli ... all different levels of farming yet all on the same level of thinking.

We were honoured to be one of the tour stops, and even more so knowing that we were the reason of a mutiny. Because seriously, who would give up the chance of meeting Canada's first water buffalo dairy herd? Oh, and the fabulous water buffalo farmers of course.

First snow of the season

2010-11-23T20:03:00.000-08:00

It snowed. The temperatures dropped. Winter has arrived.

Hold on ... I just heard today that this isn't even the "hard" winter that we were warned of because that "hard" winter is actually coming in January. This is just a little taste to get us ready in case anyone thought we would have another mild winter like last year.

It snowed about 8 inches at the farm on Friday night and instead of being followed by rain, it was followed by a dip in the mercury and so here we are several days later and we're still seeing that snow on the ground. I woke up to -10 Celsius this morning and I'm well aware that my sister is facing -22 and that's before the wind chill, and that in Calgary they were experiencing a wind chill of -46 today (unless that was -36... still cold though!) but that's there; we're HERE!

The water hoses have been gathered up and thawed out, to be lugged to the area of use when needed. The buffalo have frost on their whiskers and if they had two rows of teeth, they'd be chattering away. A few of them are snorting when they breathe and it's clear that they've got frozen boogers. These animals don't love this cold, that's for sure, but we all know it's just a day or two more before the rain comes and we're reaching for our t-shirts and shorts. Okay, so not quite shorts and t-shirts but we'll be putting aside our toques and thermal underwear for a little while at least.
That's one of the great things about where we live.

Eyes in the dark

2010-11-17T20:15:00.000-08:00

I stayed later at the farm tonight, waiting for Hubby to pick me up on his way through from work. The dogs began to bark in the garage and I looked out of the window to see if Hubby had arrived. I could see that the motion sensor light was on outside the dairy but there was no sign of the car.
When the barking became more persistent, I let them both outside while muttering all the while about how annoying they were. My dad made a comment about the dairy light being on and I told him that it had been on since he had come inside.
When Apollo's barking came right outside the door it became obvious that he was actually barking at something. I threw open the door in time to glimpse (and hear) in the darkness the sound of 20+ animals stampeding through the wet ground.
"The buffalo are out" I yelled. I didn't know if it was the milking herd or the heifers.
Someone shone a light and I could see that it was the heifers, with Apollo doing a fine job of turning them in the right direction back to the barn.
It was all over in 15 minutes. We put the dummy fences up, closed up the door that they had broken out of in the barn, and opened the gate for them to enter their enclosed area. They returned to their area and we returned to our dinner and that was the end of one of those spontaneous adventures that one can only find on the farm.
And I also apologized to the dogs.

Wallpaper

2010-11-13T13:22:00.000-08:00

On my journey towards redecorating the farmhouse, I have discovered that not many people like wallpaper. For some reason I find picking out wallpaper designs far easier than choosing paint colours, and that's just the beginning of it. The farmhouse has old walls. Old walls with imperfections that paint would not be able to hide- this is why I like wallpaper. Plus, all we have to do is strip off the old stuff which leaves behind a paper on the wall, we scrape off any loose bits and sand down the rough areas and then we're good to start applying new paper! The wallpaper I'm using is already prepasted so it's just a matter of getting it wet to activate the paste.

We finally finished redoing the Koksilah Room which was originally wallpapered and then more recently painted a pink fleshy colour (see why I can't pick paint colours? I think "pink fleshy" is an actual colour).
The room is really coming together and I'm quite proud of it because this one is 90% me. Some of the other rooms will stay relatively the same but this one I'm putting my hands on everything! The furniture is in now but I need to find some deep fitted linens for the new massive mattress. Princess and the Pea anyone?
Just picked up the paint today to give the bathroom a new look and then it'll be nearly complete!

I haven't forgotten about you

2010-11-09T18:46:00.000-08:00

It seems that with each strip of wallpaper that goes on the wall I gain a bit of writer's block. I'm so tired by the time that I get home that I just can't muster the energy to update my blog. I feel badly about this, I do.
I won't update you about about our redecorating because I don't have pictures yet but those will come soon.

November is upon us which means my favourite day of the year has come to me. Daylight Saving Time came to an end. There was a brief time in my life where the night that the clock goes back an hour meant that I had another hour to stay out late. Now it means I can go to bed at my regular time and get really excited when I realize that it's an hour earlier! (I change the clocks when I go to bed rather than in the morning). But as much as I love the extra hour of sleep for that one night, I'm not a fan of the dark being upon us at 5pm; I'd much rather have the dark mornings.
The buffalo don't seem to care one way or the other as long as they're back in the barn by dark. They came up to the barn for the winter mid October but because we had such great weather, we were putting them out in the enclosed area across from their barn. They seem quite content out in their open space but once dusk gets near, they line up along the gate trying to drop the hint that it's time to get back to the barn.
We're in a lull for calves and while we wait for a few to freshen over the next three months, the ones already born are beginning to reach three months old and are being weaned from their bottles.

Make this bathroom your happy place

2010-11-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

This was my little project of last week. The bedroom attached to this bathroom is green, although a much lighter shade than this colour (this is the Kinsol Room). I'm not sure if this is an improvement but I do think it's cheery-and who doesn't like a cheerful bathroom? I'm hoping to have this one room completed soon so that we have at least one bedroom to showcase. I'm working on putting the new furniture together but want to wait for the drywall dust from the hallway (ooh suspense) to die down first.

And this shall be called nothing is ever quite as easy as it seems part 2.

2010-10-28T12:01:00.000-07:00

Here is another redecorating story for you.

Yesterday afternoon while Dad worked on removing the thin hard board on the walls of the staircase (apparently he didn't do it right the first time and he feels that this is the time to do it properly), I decided to tackle the wallpaper stripping in the lower dining room. All was going fairly well until I made my way to the left hand north facing corner (opposite the kitchen and the space that a leaky dishwasher resided for six years); while I was removing the paper, I began to notice that the drywall beneath was quite damp and that there was a slight odour. The more paper that I removed, the stronger the odour became. It didn't take much time before I could see that not only was the drywall damp, but that there was also mould growing up the wall. Dad arrived on the scene and promptly put his foot through the rotten drywall. It was a mess ... mouldy drywall, insulation, and wood.
This was not good. It was quite obviously another case of what I had thought would be a quick and easy project (just wallpapering, how hard could that be?) and has instead become a bigger feat. Looks like another wall to drywall! At this point I'm not sure what will happen to the kitchen side of the wall but I do know that Dad then spent another hour tearing into a wall in the room above the kitchen in the area that the dishwasher backed into.
What have we gotten ourselves into? I'm wondering what other surprises lay in store.

Published

2010-10-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

If you can get your hands on these, grab yourself a copy!

You will find Fairburn Farm on page 44 of the Fall 2010 edition of British Columbia Magazine.

The latest book to arrive in my hands is Vancouver Island Book of Musts: The 101 Places Every Islander Must See.

(you can't click to look inside on this image)

Fairburn Farm can be found on page 49.

Personally, I'm looking forward to flipping through this book and discovering new things (probably 100 things) that I must do.

A side note, our friends at Amusé Bistro are listed at #3 for Five Best Restaurants on V.Isle outside of Victoria. Amusé will be one of my most recommended restaurants to my guests looking for a wonderful culinary experience, you can count on it!

Nothing is ever as easy as it seems

2010-10-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

At lunchtime today, my dad announced that this was Operation Wall Take-down day. Hooray!

This morning in the upstairs of the farmhouse there were six bedrooms and this evening there are five.

At the end of the hall there were two bedrooms (the Victorian and Blossom rooms) with wood panelling and both of these rooms needed a fair bit of work to the middle wall and my dad suggested we take it down. This is a pretty major change and one that I hadn't considered before but the more I thought about it, the more I liked this idea. It would increase the space and would be just perfect for a small family. What I hadn't known before was that originally these two rooms was just one room and that my grandparents had put the middle wall in for children's summer camp. In theory, this meant that we could have that wall out in an hour where if we were to prep and wallpaper it, it would take much longer.
Well, the joke was on us.
This one hour job became four hours.

A series of events occurred. When I put the hammer through the wall of the Victorian room, it was apparent that there was insulation on the other side of the studs. My dad thought this was strange and began to doubt his facts, wondering if this was actually a double wall. When we looked at the wall from the Blossom room, he noted that the moulding along the top of the wall and ceiling didn't fit together. This too was strange to him. Later, while he pried the board from the Victorian side, I went to the Blossom room to pull back the carpet. There was a problem; the wall was on top of the carpet. How was this possible? The carpet had been put in quite a few years after the wall.
"Dad, I think you built a wall when you put in the carpet." I said.
"No, I don't think so. I can't remember doing that." He said.
I gave up because there was no way I could move that carpet so Dad went to give it a go. Guess what? There was a wall on top of the carpet. At some point in the past six years a double wall had been put up unbeknownst to any of us. This new wall was drywall and created more of a mess than we were expecting. But, we did it! Four hours later.
When all that was remaining was the frame, I decided that we should keep half of it and make it into a partial wall so that the room isn't one big box, plus it offers some privacy and there's more wall to back furniture against.

The question is, what do we call this new room?

The Heritage Room?

A weekend with farm women

2010-10-24T20:46:00.000-07:00

I have just returned from a whirlwind three days at Harrison Hot Springs, BC, attending the BC Farm Women's Network seminar with my mum and twin sister (and 4 month old nephew).
Admittedly, I was not keen on going after just getting back from a two week vacation a month a go; I felt I'd taken my share of time away from the farm and that it was time for me to put my back into the work. Although, actually putting my back into the work is actually one reason I did go away. I had started to develop severe lower back pain which was so bad in the mornings that I would be unable to lift my left leg, could not bend down, and couldn't lift anything without difficulty. For the first week of this, the pain would be gone by the afternoon and I would participate in throwing firewood into the wagon, and working on the barn roof. Earlier this week, however, the pain was not going away by the afternoon and I took myself in to see my Doctor and we (he) decided I should go for a CT scan at the beginning of November.
I hoped that a few days away from my regular routine would improve matters, so to Harrison I went.

We arrived Thursday evening in Harrison, and the action began Friday morning as about 35 BC farm women ranging in ages from 28 to 80 (ish) loaded onto the bus at 8:20am for a day filled with farm tours. We visited a grain farm, hazelnut farm, Farmhouse Natural Cheeses, UBC dairy research, flour mill, beef farm, metal animation, a heronry, pottery shop, and a goat farm. I don't have the list in front of me so I'm basing this off of my sieve memory. Our bus got back to the resort at 6pm in time for a reception and to call it a night. Saturday was our seminar action packed full of speakers: Endangered frogs, Bees, Chickens, Herefords, Ditches and Fishes, and plants (once again from memory so not accurate). Sunday morning was the AGM and then time to hit the road as most members had long drives ahead of them (Van Island all the way to Fort St. Johns).

As for my back, when I got out of bed on Friday morning I was completely paralysed into a praying position at the side of the bed and could only move with assistance. I thought for sure that I would have to pack it in but after a hot shower I was good to go. Sleeping with a pillow to straighten my spine during the following two days brought huge improvements to the point that I bounded out of bed this morning 100% better. Turns out that this weekend was good for me. Not only was it enlightening to be able to network with fellow farm women around the province, I also fixed my back. All without the help of the Hot Springs by the way because, I admit, I did not go in the water.

(click images to enlarge)

Let the redecorating begin!

2010-10-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

The farmhouse now awaits for the redecorating to begin!
I have walked through the house a few times a day since Saturday- viewing the empty rooms though the eyes of an outsider, trying to decide colours and furnishing. Basically all of the things that I would like to do, realistically, can't be done in 6 months so I'm now in the process of prioritizing. However, even with the prioritizing, the list is huge and not all simple tasks. The painting and wallpapering I can handle but ...
Designing two kitchens. Where do I begin?
Completing the basement. Wha?
Then there are the gardens: the vegetable garden and the flower beds which are so overgrown I'm convinced that they have more grass than our fields. Put the animals out to graze?

The smart thing to do would be to plan a work party but I'm terrible at asking people for favours. So, whatcha think? Want to come garden? Paint? Wallpaper?

On the marketing side of things, Hubby has been working diligently on getting our website together (around his regular work, volunteering with soccer and SAR, and contract work). I'll be the one slowing this down with my procrastination of supplying him with text.
I also need to figure out how to get into the B&B email account because the hardware that I thought would be left for me to use isn't there, so I must find a way of accessing it from a different computer.
I pick up my business cards tomorrow- I've always wanted business cards so this is a huge deal to me. Thank you to Pink Creative Concepts for the time put into designing a logo and business cards.

2010-10-17T19:39:00.000-07:00

Apollo is so gracious to give up his bed to the cat.

Milking Paula

2010-10-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

This here is our Paula. She isn't the prettiest of our buffalo, in fact she's rather squat and she poops down the back of her legs, and one of her tightly curled horns broke off so all that remains is a stub. In the winter, if someone forgets to tie the "dummy" line (fake electric fence wire) across in front of the gate in the barn, we often find her in the morning standing at the gate, her one tightly curled horn caught in the gate chain. No signs of panic, just calmly standing there unable to move. We've come to the conclusion that she does this for attention; this way she will be the very first buffalo greeted in the morning.

When we're going around the barn with the pitchfork and the wheelbarrow picking up poo piles, she's usually the one following close behind getting in the way (although sometimes it's Max, the bull, looking to stick the end of the wheelbarrow handle in his ear like a giant Q-Tip).

As much as we love and are annoyed by Paula, she's got one special claim to fame, and that's the milk! She is by far our best producer. The average is around 7 litres for the other buffalo and Paula, at her peak, averages around 12 litres. We milk just once a day and these numbers would increase if we were to milk twice a day.

Check out the pictures below. This is our record at just over 13 litres (our jars are graduated in pounds and on this day it measured at 30.5 lbs).

A knock at the fairy door

2010-10-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

This is not the tree or door in the story

As a kid growing up on the farm I had a pretty wild imagination and I really believed in the existence of mythical creatures. On St. Patrick's day I would search through the garden hoping to sight the leprechaun. I'm not sure why I thought the leprechaun would be in our garden with it being a fair distance from Ireland but, as a little girl, such details weren't important to me.
I also remember dancing around the fairy rings on our lawn- rings of fungi to some, and a ring of magic to others. I could just imagine that as soon as the darkness of the night fell, the lawn would come alive with the twinkling lights of little fairies.

A few years ago, MJ put a little fairy door and window on one of the old maples in the driveway. This little door never failed to be great entertainment to visiting children, curious about what lay on the other side of the little door that they could not open. I normally satisfied their curiosity by spinning a tale of the little fairies in the tree and how only they, and those with the secret password, could open that little door.

Until yesterday.

I was out and about near the driveway and I could see that Apollo had lost me so I called to him to get his attention. As he galloped towards me, his large nose detected something of interest. He made a beeline straight for the maple tree and directly to the fairy door where he proceeded to knock. I'm not kidding; his paw actually made contact with the door.
I raced to the tree sure that I was about to see my first fairy, and you know what I saw? I saw the unmistakable face off a little mouse peeking out from between the door and the bark of the tree. Since when do mice put doors on the front of their homes?
That door now had to come off because once Apollo and AJ smell a mouse there's just no turning back, so my dad (who was now present on the scene) found a screwdriver and unscrewed the door from the tree in order to save it from the damage of nails, teeth, and a large amount of slobber. The door was saved but the mouse was not.

It also turns out that you don't need the secret password to open the door when you have a screwdriver.

Change is in the air

2010-10-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

I am loving the changing colours of the leaves, and the warmth of the late morning once the hint of frost has disappeared. The grass is green again from the rain, the mud has hardened from the sun.

If you're curious about what's going on at the farm ... well, not much has changed. It rained pretty much the entire time that I was away so the roof of the barn remains tarped. Although the weather has improved and we have been experiencing beautiful fall days, we're spending the time making more shakes (we ran out before the rain came). I am tired of shake splitting -it has become the most terrible task of all time. So many people ask us why we didn't just go with steel roofs, well, some of us are beginning to wonder the same thing. The novelty of cedar shakes has worn off. Is the heritage look really so important? I suppose in time this project will be finished and I'll forget all the terrible things.

Other projects are still lingering in the not so far off future. Firewood for the winter- a job we usually start in the summer months but we have put off as we wait for the space in the woodsheds to be cleared. It's tough needing space that's not quite ours yet, but soon, very soon. It's a strange feeling for me, standing on the outside, as MJ and group wind down the business, shuttle boxes back and forth, and prepare to take the past six years away with them. Another chapter coming to an end.
So many emotions.

Another chapter about to begin.

The best thing about going away is coming home.

2010-09-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

We have made it home safe and sound, and it is good to be home! This is going to be a particularly lame post and I do apologize for that. I've hit the ground running and there isn't much time to upload photos ... the good news is that I took very few in Montreal so you're not actually missing out on anything.

Our stay in Montreal involved visiting our friends and hanging out with a pretty awesome two year old. We walked some of the streets but other than that kept it pretty low key. The truth is, our energy was spent. Plus, to get anywhere without driving meant taking the Metro and I really can't handle Metros/Subways/Underground types of transportation. I'd broken my car sickness shield back in Stirling so I was popping gravol every time we hit the road. This made me very dozy. In the US you get some stuff that's non-drowsy- now that's the stuff!

We went with the plan of spending our last night in Kingston and we were really happy that we had decided to do that, and a little regretful that we hadn't done more research ahead of time and planned more time in Kingston. What a cool old town! The weather was the pits so we didn't cram too much into our few hours there, however, we did manage to squeeze in a tour of the Bellevue House where Sir John. A. MacDonald (Canada's first prime minister) resided for less than a year. The home has been restored to the 1840's period which is exactly what I like to see.

It was awesome to land back on Vancouver Island last night- flying into Victoria rather than Vancouver definitely has it's advantages.

There's a little wrap up to our wonderful two weeks away! Today I was back at the farm so soon I will be able to bring you more Fairburn news. Bear with me over the next week though. I promised to do the wedding slide show for my sister-in-law's wedding which is on October 10th (and which I have the honour of being a part of as a bridesmaid) and the package of photos arrived the night before I left for my trip. I will have busy evenings ahead. As for tonight ... Mt. Laundry awaits, and then sleep. I hope.

P.s. The fall edition of British Columbia Magazine is out- the changes coming to Fairburn are in print! The second happiest day of my life is coming soon, really soon.

Bonjour!

2010-09-26T06:18:00.000-07:00

We were doing a pretty good job of staying ahead of the rainy weather but I suppose we couldn't escape it forever. Our full day in Quebec city was cold and wet! We arrived Thursday afternoon, leaving the approaching rain behind in Ottawa, but knowing that it would catch us. After finding our way through a mess of construction and busy roads to our accommodation, we mutually agreed to take in the sights the following day, rain or no rain, and opted for a quieter evening. Friday morning we awoke to the unmistakable sound of precipitation, but no big deal, aren't we from the West Coast? Our "hotel" was a 15 minute walk from Old City Quebec which on most days, and even on slightly rainy days, wouldn't be too bad, but add in some wind and it's a whole different story. One of our first stops in Old City was at a souvenir shop for an umbrella. This umbrella may have added an extra two hours to our excursion before we called it quits and scurried back to our warm room.

I'd had a recommendation from an old acquaintance for some of the best hot chocolate in town and thank goodness for that! (Also, great poutine!)

After trying to dry out in our room, we peeked out of our tiny window (I swear we were in a dungeon. A nice dungeon at least) and decided that the rain had stopped. Our 2nd attempt was much more successful and we managed to explore many streets and boutiques.

We did make the decision to give a few things a miss because of the weather but this gives us more of a reason to come back another time, right?

We're now in Montreal staying a few nights with one of Hubby's oldest friends and her family. On the way here we stopped in St-Hyacinthe at our last water buffalo farm of the trip- I haven't uploaded pictures yet. Another completely different farm, and huge, and I was pleasantly surprised by the organization and cleanliness. In my experience, most of the buffaloes originally from Vermont are a pleasure to work with as they were obviously very well handled, and continue to be.

Originally we were going to stay in Montreal for three nights and make the six hour drive to Toronto on Tuesday but we're now considering splitting the drive in half and spending the last night in Kingston.

French toast anyone?

2010-09-26T05:51:00.000-07:00

The funniest little thing that happened was on Saturday morning, before we checked out and we decided to have breakfast a short walk away rather than at the "hotel". At the café, first I couldn't decide between the crepes or the french toast. I ended up choosing the french toast. I was sure my server understood what I had ordered. When my "French toast" came, it looked like four slices of brown toast, with homemade jam on the side, as well as peanut butter. I thought it was pretty strange French toast (no batter?) and just assumed the server had given me the French toast with the jam rather than maple syrup. I was pretty hungry and had just drank espresso on an empty stomach so for those who know I have to eat first thing, you understand my inability to put two and two together under the circumstances.

My jam barely covered two slices of my "French toast" and I don't eat PB, so I requested a side of maple syrup. The server brought my maple syrup. It was after I poured over the syrup and was digging in with my knife and fork that it suddenly dawned on me. This wasn't French toast. I had been served a side of just toast. I had eaten my toast with a fork and knife. I had poured maple syrup on my toast.

... wow ....

The bill confirmed it.

Hubby pointed out that the toast had probably been made by a French person so that this was indeed still "French toast".

What do you think, should I serve this at the B&B? Perhaps I'll call it British toast.

Hanging out with Harper

2010-09-22T18:11:00.000-07:00

We spent two fabulous nights with Lori and Martin of Ontario Water Buffalo Co, in a beautiful part of the province. It turns out that Ontario has many wonderful qualities!
As you can see from the picture, I was able to milk a water buffalo in Ontario! It's hard to tell what I'm doing here, but I'm hooking the milker to the cow's udder. This position is great for the plumber's crack.

During our full day in Stirling, our wonderful hosts took us out and around to Prince Edward County, to some great views of Lake Ontario. The colours in the sky were amazing; it was a spectacular place.

This morning we hit the road for Canada's Capital, Ottawa, arriving by 12:30 at our restored Victorian B&B. While photographing the outside of the Parliament building, we decided to peek inside and here we found out that we had the opportunity to sit in on the question period. Following Elizabeth May (leader of the Green Party) in through security (we had no idea until the security fellows told us who she was), we made our way to the gallery section. We lucked out that this was the day that the Government was hoping to get rid of the long gun registry. Here was a moment where I was actually agreeing with the Conservatives. Since I was so caught up in this, we watched the vote on TV at 5:30pm but it ended the majority voting to keep the registry. I shake my fist at those who refuse to agree with Harper (just this once!)

We're here for just one night so we did the short version of the Ottawa Tourist. It's a busy city; we're near the University and the streets are bustling with students. Our two restaurant experiences were poor- the food was good but the service was terrible at both places.

We head out for Quebec in the morning.

Niagara area

2010-09-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

Clip clop clip clop. The slightly eerie sound of horses hooves on pavement echoed throughout the silence of the early morning of Saturday. I looked at the clock, it was 5am. Then I remembered where I was: Mennonite country! I flew to the window and threw open the sash .... nothing. It was too dark and I couldn't see a thing so I went to bed with a thought at the back of my mind of ghost horses. An hour later: clip clop clip clop. I flew to the window and threw open the sash ... nothing. It wasn't until nearer 8am that I finally saw the buggies making their way up the main street, likely on their way to the market, and by then they were sharing the road with increasing traffic.

After we had our breakfast, we drove the 3 km to the farmers market. Holy to goodness, there were a lot of people. Big crowds are really not my scene but we were there and I'd been pretty excited about experiencing the market. We muscled our way throughout the market where there were stalls of produce, honey, maple syrup, fresh baking, preservatives, and quilts- most of these run by Mennonites; and tons of stalls of sunglasses, purses, clothing, hats, etc (knock offs?). Had this market been closer to home, there were a lot of things I would have bought but I had to settle on a pair of sunglasses and delicious cinnamon buns.

We made it to the Niagara area early afternoon and after dropping our bags off at the circa 1782 home B&B we hit up some of the wineries: Jackson Triggs, Inniskillin, Pillar, and the Joseph. After a quick drive through Niagara on the Lake we headed back to our B&B and had dinner just a short walk away at a former Firehouse.

Hubby commented that we're tourists on speed, or maybe he said we're speedy tourists. I'm not sure; but he does make a good point because we do seem to speed through things quickly and cover a lot in one day. In fact, I'm convinced that time almost stands still here. At home on the farm the days rush right by in no time while here the days stretch long. Perhaps this is a holiday thing. Actually I'm pretty sure that it IS a holiday thing.

On our second day in Niagara we planned to hit up a few more wineries but it never happened. Instead we spent the morning at the Niagara Falls; it was beautiful, the weather was great and now I can cross it off my life list. After the Falls, we went to the Brock Memorial and climbed the 235 stairs to the top where it ended up being an extremely small space so after a minute of catching our breath, we squeezed past two people who had just joined us and made our way to the bottom where I discovered jelly legs.

The afternoon was spent in the Old Town of Niagara on the Lake taking a self guided historic walk where we finished up the day with pints of beer in the Angel Inn, the oldest operating Inn (and British style pub) in Ontario.

After switching our rental car in Mississauga on Monday morning, we made it to Stirling, Ontario mid afternoon, and get this, I milked a water buffalo! In Ontario.

Updates to come.

A day in Mennonite Country

2010-09-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

We're now in Mennonite Country, in the village of St. Jacobs near Waterloo, and I have a crush. The village itself is pretty touristy and most of the stores seem to sell similar items but the buildings themselves have history. The place that we're staying is a 1852 refurbished country inn with nine rooms.

After a few hours of exploring the main street and all the shops, we took the car out to see the surrounding countryside. By the way, the car is still working but we're pretty sure that we'll have to make a stop in Toronto on Monday and exchange it as we're not entirely comfortable with the fact it shakes and shudders, the breaks squeal, we're low on washer fluid, and it is 14, 000 km over it's last service check (judging by the sticker on the corner of the windshield). I realize that the rental was pretty cheap (not counting the extra insurance) but there's cheap and then there's unreliable. As much as horror stories can make great vacation stories, I'd like to avoid being stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Unless it's in the Mennonite Country.

I have this weird fascination with Mennonites to the point I almost want to be one. Except for the religion part, and the women come after the men part. But the traditional garments and the bonnet, and the simplicity sounds really appealing. I would never have to decide what to wear or even brush my hair. Hubby pointed out that there's a lack of education but I have a hard time seeing anything wrong with an education ending at 8th grade.

We passed a few horse and buggies along the shoulder of the roads; some Old Order drive cars ... except they have to be black and don't have radios. The Old Order home's also have electricity and phones but no technology. I guess I wouldn't be able to blog.

Farms with green roofs are Old Order Mennonite farms.

A buggy bridge. Built by the Old Orders for their buggies to cross the Conostogo River.

The West Montrose Covered Bridge- Ontario's only remaining covered bridge.

Tomorrow morning we will head over to the St. Jacobs Farmers Market (600 vendors I hear which includes the Amish arriving by horse and buggy) and then make our way to Niagara.
Our weather today has been fairly warm but overcast and really pleasant. Apparently it was an inch of rain that fell yesterday.

No longer in BC ...

2010-09-16T19:52:00.000-07:00

You would think that if a person was going on holiday that they might choose to go somewhere very unlike their usual life. You would think. I, however, am not one of those. My hubby and I are here in Ontario, so not only did we stay in our own country but we are also making sure to visit water buffalo farms and old bed and breakfasts. Okay, so our first two nights in London are in a hotel but from now on we'll be in B&B's and at friends'.

Our first full day here was very full indeed. We left the town (city?) of London, which I must say doesn't seem that terrible of a place, although I was viewing it mostly from the inside of a car, and headed out to the rural areas of vast farmland, acres and acres of beans and corn -perfect paradise in my opinion. The weather wasn't all to be desired, not that it wasn't unlike anything we were getting back in BC last week. In fact there's a good chance that we brought the rain in our suitcases. It poured and poured mostly all morning although it cleared up a bit by the afternoon.

Our first stop was out near Stratford at a huge dairy farm where they're milking almost 400 Holsteins and working towards 50 water buffalo (this year). I was impressed by their operation and picked up a lot of useful information although our farm will never be anything like that. Lack of space for one thing! Our hosts provided us with great company and an amazing lunch. Home cooked meals sure beat restaurants!

After that we travelled towards Thorndale and made a stop at another farm, this one much smaller in scale. They purchased some adult buffaloes, two year olds, and a whack (I can't remember numbers) of yearlings from us in early '09. Seeing the yearlings was like greeting old friends. They were sort of my "first" babies. The calves born in the summer of '08, my first summer back on the farm when new calves were still a novelty. These gals looked so wonderful- I could have stayed with them for the rest of the afternoon. Unfortunately great sadness hung overhead here as a loved one had been lost recently so hubby and I didn't like to overstay our welcome. Beautiful old buildings here ... everywhere in fact. Although this part of the province has less history than the east side, I was still enchanted by all of the old brick buildings.

After our farm tours, we found our way to the home of my good friend who moved from Victoria back to her home province over three years ago. I'll be honest, we did make a few wrong turns, and I was using my laptop as a map book. I had tabbed all the maps from google maps so I just needed to click on the one I needed. Dork? Maybe, but it worked.

Anyway, so we had dinner at my friends' house, and she has the cutest puppy that I thought I should take home with me. Hubby did bring an extra large suitcase with plenty of room to take things back home. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Not only does she have the cutest dog but she also has the two most awesome daughters in the world. I knew these girls when they were 1.5 and 2.5 years old and now they're 5 and 6. No sign of the shyness they used to have- they greeted us at the door as if they knew exactly who I was and immediately accepted us into their home. After dinner, I joined them in a pretend bonfire where we roasted pretend marshmallows from the ends of ~~rubber snakes~~ sticks, then I tried to play a game of "let's clean up the bedroom". Sometimes I feel like I'm hoarding a little bit of Monica Geller in me. One of the girls cried when we left. She cried! It broke my heart, especially when I said I'd see her again. When?!

I will try and write throughout the trip - I love free wi-fi. It'll be much easier than doing it all when I get back home.

Young love

2010-09-08T22:17:00.000-07:00

I thought that by now I would have a picture of the completed horse barn roof but it turns out that when one roofs it's either too hot or it rains.
From atop the barn we have the advantage of being just that much closer to the sky that we can estimate how much time we have to start tarping the roof before those huge black clouds are overhead. Last Saturday was pretty interesting- I discovered that the cedar shakes become quite slippery when wet, and while my brother and I hurried to pull on the tarp (we didn't start tarping until the rain began to fall), I also discovered that when the plastic tarp gets wet, it's pretty much like a giant slip n' slide. I could have just shot right off that roof ... who needs ladders!

I think we got rained out a second time but I can't remember the circumstances. Today was looking to be a dry and warm day and I thought for sure we'd get that one half completed as we were just three rows away. When I arrived on the scene after lunch and reached the top of the roof and looked northwest I said,"Whoa, it kinda looks like it's raining in Lake Cowichan".

My brother looked and replied, "Kind of? It IS raining. That's a thunderstorm". It wasn't long before that thunderstorm rolled toward us. Back on ground we watched the rain move down the mountains towards us and at one point we could see the heavy curtain of rain falling on the farmhouse down the hill yet we remained dry for another three minutes before it reached us. After that we sought shelter in the barn as streams of water rushed through the barnyard.

Because I don't have barn pictures (I'm holding out until that one half is finished), I will include pictures of cute calves.

This is our new Italian bloodline, Oprah. She's the neatest little calf; very sturdy with a darker and thicker coat than the other calves. Doesn't look anything like her partly swamp Mama. Hopefully the personality is nothing like her too!

Apollo and Oprah are buddies. He humps her head (I have a picture of it but I can't bring myself to make it public), she puts up her tail and lies down, and he lies beside her and licks her face. It's sweet. Young love.

I need a career change...

2010-09-03T20:49:00.000-07:00

I have decided that roofing isn't the best career choice for me. Perhaps it was the 28C today that has put me off- swooning from heat exhaustion atop a scaffold doesn't make for the most pleasurable experience. Back on the ground at the end of the afternoon to feed the calves and move the irrigation into a new field, the sight above was just down right depressing; it looked like barely any progress had been made. The pressure is on to shake the area of the roof where we have taken off the asphalt shingles, because there is rain in the forecast for Monday. To shake the roof? I'm not sure if that's the most accurate way to say that but anyhow, that's what we have to do. Cooler temperatures tomorrow should help quicken the pace.

The task of re-roofing the hay barn has already been moved to next year's list -we're not storing hay in there so it's not as much of a priority as the horse barn. To understand the names of the barns you should check on this previous post.

Mr. Pessimistic can't see anything being completed before the deadline while Ms. Optimistic takes one day at a time. That's the brother and sister farmer team!

the view at the top

2010-09-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

It took me three days before I was finally able to advance from the top of the ladder onto the scaffolding but then once I did that I thought "HOLLA, I've made it", and so, unable to stop there I bounded up the roof on the 1x6 strapping and perching precariously at the peak with my arms outstretched I yelled across the valley, "I'm King of the Worlddd".

... okay so that's not quite how it went.

It's true that it took me about three days to get up there but that wasn't because of a fear of heights, it was rather the feeling that there was no room up on that scaffolding; my brother and father seemed to have a pretty good handle on things. I assisted by passing things up and down the ladder. That's what I do. I pass things.

Today though, today was a different day. I got up on that roof and helped move strapping, used the socket wench, straddled the peak of the barn, burned my leg on the old asphalt shingles, hammered, and helped nail on the row of cedar shingles which we then put our cedar shakes on top of. I'm a roofer!

Removing the asphalt shingles


Putting on our cedar shakes - Dad holding the shake proudly.

never a dull moment

2010-08-31T20:59:00.000-07:00

Has it really been a week since my last post? I haven't been away ... not physically at least although my brain checked out a while ago.
Things are busy; we have a year's worth of jobs to do in a month and my brother has taken it upon himself to remind us of this which results in a good share of stress. When I made the decision to return to the farm the fact that I would be working with family seemed like a bonus, but now I'm beginning to understand why continuing on the family business from the older generation, or working with siblings, doesn't always work out. But ... the truth is that no matter how many times I threaten my brother with the words "if you keep up that attitude then you're farming on your own", deep down I know I'm not going anywhere because there just isn't anywhere else that I could be. Besides, once the B&B is up and running next year I won't even have time to worry about such things. Right?

At my house in town, Hubby and I ended up painting the newly vacated bedroom ~~brown~~ Victorian Gold, and the upstairs bathroom ~~eggshell blue~~ Quiet Refuge. Originally we weren't going to paint those rooms but we just found that the walls were too marked up to leave alone and since we had two weeks before our new roommate moved in we decided to go for it. Two less things to do next Spring if you ask me!
I've also been planning out our two week vacation that we're taking mid September (I know, perfect time to split when there's so much to do!) to Ontario and Quebec. I'm pretty excited about the itinerary that I have put together so far: Water buffalo farms, farmer's markets, wineries, and 19th century bed and breakfasts. Not too different from my life here in the Cowichan Valley!

The newest kid on the block

2010-08-25T21:14:00.000-07:00

This post is for M. from LA who waited for this calf to be born and ended up missing it by three days.

A new bloodline landed on the ground today in the form of a healthy little heifer water buffalo calf. Our first two artificially inseminated buffalo were bred on their first try and have since calved. We had a disappointing start with Nettie J, as she gave birth to a dead heifer two months ago. We're not sure if she was born dead or died shortly upon arrival- she was a good size although born shy of ten months. Water buffalo gestation is about 10.5 months although this seems to vary a bit.

We had been watching Emma over the past few weeks a little apprehensive about the outcome. This Italian semen has been known to throw large sized calves, causing problems for the cow, and as Emma's width widened we couldn't help but wonder if this too would end in heartbreak. Finally, just when I thought we would have to fit one of the younger heifer's with a "wide load" sign to walk behind Emma, she popped out a healthy female who has since been named Oprah. Apart from Nettie's dead calf, we're having a fairly successful calving year. Not only did Emma's calf show up with female genitalia, but we also had a female calf from Paula. Paula is our best milker and until now we had not had any females from her to carry on her line. Overall we have had more female than male calves and there are thirteen cows left to calve between now and next February.

For the photos Emma had just moved into the shade where the sun was filtered by the leaves so the lighting is pretty terrible.

and down they go ...

2010-08-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

One of the best things in the world, for those who are lucky enough to have water buffalo, is to be trusted and respected by these large beasts. This afternoon I took some time to visit with the main milking herd as they mud wallowed and sun bathed in the field. While Terry (one of our WBs) stalked the dogs back and forth across the field, I collapsed three buffalo cows. Have you seen the Crocodile Dundee movie where Paul Hogan hypnotizes the water buffalo blocking his path? We can do that too! Well, sort of. In our case it's not really hypnotizing so much. Our version involves some petting and stroking, and then their tails go up in the air and their legs begin to shake and the next second you have your buffalo collapsing to the ground. Perhaps even rolling over for a belly scratch! I'm not kidding.

In the first picture, Jessica has just collapsed to the ground and is now expecting a belly rub. The middle picture is an example of what I mean when I say "their tail goes up in the air". In the third picture you're looking at our bull, Max. He is very much alive - he has just stretched out for a good rubbing.

oats...

2010-08-19T19:42:00.000-07:00

This week we added the field of oats to our pile of winter feed.

We'll irrigate what's left in the field and if anything grows then we'll pasture the buffalo in there. This crop wasn't as fruitful as we would have liked so it's unlikely that we will do oats again next year ... although things do change pretty quickly around here.
Sometimes it's hard to keep up!

cooling down the Apollo way

2010-08-16T18:48:00.000-07:00

On those scorching summer days it's very important that one takes measures to stay cool. Apollo, being such a fan of water, has no problems in the cooling off department.

showing doom and gloom the exit

2010-08-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

This is what the sun looked like when we had all the smoke in the air. On the 1st, my brother's birthday, I gifted this sun to him. I told him it was sort of like a big balloon. I mean, who doesn't want a big sun balloon for their birthday?

I am currently sitting in my dining room/living room near a fan and remembering that I detest 30C+ temperatures. I actually hate anything over 20C unless there are clouds involved. Today is my no-farm day, also known as the day that I must not neglect my house. I tackled the weeds this morning and did some dead heading and cut the small front lawn, and then I was pretty much fried for the day. The vacuuming is on hold. As is the back lawn and the cleaning of the car interior. And the dog walking. Instead, I am taking the rest of the day to enjoy the fact that my ~~annoying~~ fantastic roommate is at work, and the other one (more likable) is away. Fantastic roommate (there's sarcasm there) moves really soon and it brings me so much joy. It means that I may avoid going bald from ripping out my hair. That I can unclench my jaw. That I don't have to hide out in my bedroom to avoid her. I know, I have to hide in my own house. Pathetic.
Our replacement renter came to pay his damage deposit last night; first of all, he has the name that I love and I'm trying to warm Hubby up to for a possible future child's name (so fingers crossed that the replacement works out and doesn't ruin the name), and secondly, he claims to be a clean freak. In fact, according to Replacement, his current roommates complain that he's too clean. I don't think I'll complain. When I told Hubby that, he groaned and muttered something about dealing with two of me. How is that a bad thing?

So soon ~~doom and gloom~~ fantastic roommate will vacate our residence and in her place we will welcome the replacement and because of the cleaning thing, I think I will handle living with three boys. And besides, how can three boys (that cook, pick up after themselves, and smile) be any worse then a ~~lazy whiny disrespecting~~ fantastic 20 year old girl?

rain in August

2010-08-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

We saw some rain a few days ago- more rain then we had all of July- and that was quite pleasant indeed. This morning was wonderfully overcast and someone commented on the feeling of September. Ahh September. I don't think she was complaining but she did say that she would like her green tomatoes to go red and that made me realize that I have no tomatoes on my big plant, not even green ones. Last year we managed to grow a melon and bell peppers and this year I can't even get a red tomato.

We're still plodding away making cedar shakes in the afternoons, spending around 3 hours a day. Mornings have smoothed out now that our first year milkers are used to the routine of coming into the parlour; and we were able to AI one of our heifers this morning. This particular buffalo was once the scrawniest thing you'd ever see and on numerous occasions we were sure that she wouldn't make it through the summer ... then the winter ... until she suddenly began to fatten up and now looks like quite a nice animal.

I've begun to travel the road of marketing and having rack cards and business cards made up for the farmstay- it turns out that there are a lot of things that I really need to start thinking about. If any one has any free hours in the day, I'd LOVE to have them. Or at least a house where ones roommates aren't yammering away in ones ear.

2010-08-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

The water at the bottom of the tub tastes the best.

smoke and shakes

2010-08-05T20:55:00.000-07:00

There are over 400 wildfires burning in BC, and although there are no fires burning here on the Island, there is a lot of smoke in the air; enough smoke to keep the old, the young, and those with health problems indoors. I haven't actually smelled the smoke but I can see it ... it's that low fog that covers the sun, hides the mountains, hangs in the air, and makes me realize that although I can't smell it that there is a certain 'freshness' missing and I haven't filled my lungs with fresh air in a few days. The next two pictures give you an idea of the limited visibility we're experiencing (there's a mountain range above the trees). The first picture was taken yesterday, and the second one from today where we saw even poorer air quality.

We have begun the shake making project: splitting cedar shakes to roof two of our barns. The cedar tree was felled on our property and the blocks transported up the hill to our barnyard where Dad and Richard worked hard over the past few days to split the shakes by hand before deciding to make their own shake splitter. I was able to participate in the splitting today. There's something rewarding about putting all this time and sweat into these farm projects and to look upon them sometime down the road. I'm sure someday I will have very impressed children.

By using cedar, the idea is that these roofs will not need to be redone again in my lifetime.

photos

2010-07-31T20:50:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from last week. Aren't my niece and nephews absolutely adorable? Apollo was amazing with the baby; I think he wants one.

and through this hole please insert entire arm

2010-07-31T16:56:00.000-07:00

When the family was up visiting last week, we took advantage of my brother-in-law's profession, as a dairy cow veterinarian, by handing him a box of disposable shoulder length plastic gloves; we had a few buffalo cows that were questionable whether they were pregnant or open (not pregnant) so we let BIL go at it. Out of the three that we had him preg check, two of them were open, and the one that I thought surely wasn't pregnant, was in fact around three months pregnant.
The two that were found to be open are with the bull all the time, and we haven't seen signs of either of them coming into heat for a few months. Sometimes the occasional cow will take a year off so this could be the case with these two.

We have introduced two of our heifers to the milking parlour in the past week. Allie calved back in April but we ended up leaving the calf on her for four months until we were better set up for bringing her into the parlour. Jude popped out a wee calf last week, and she too has been brought into the parlour for the 1st time. We are now working with two herds. The main herd of 28 milkers is with the bull (Max), and the 2nd herd is made up of Max's daughters, and we will breed them through artificial insemination. This 2nd group consists of Emma and NettieJ, those two I have discussed before; Allie and Jude; and all of the calves born in 2009/early 2010.

growing family ...

2010-07-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

This last week has been C-R-A-Z-Y! Crazy is that one word that I like to overuse; everything is crazy. People are, moments are, life is. It came to the point that I was referring to so many people as being crazy that Hubby finally pointed out that if so many people are crazy that maybe I'm the one that's crazy. I didn't argue that; it's probably true.

Over the past week, amidst days filled with emotional highs and lows, I made the discovery that my immediate family has grown in size. The Immediate Family photograph from my wedding last year was lost, and our photographer promised to retake it the next time everyone was together at the farm. Well, do you realize how difficult it is bringing five units of the family together, especially when they're coming from afar? It happened once, at my wedding, and to see a repeat of that was looking like the impossible. Then suddenly, it all started to come together when my twin decided to visit the Island at the same time my older sister and her family were up from California. I made the call to my other brothers. Could they be at the farm on the 25th? I was getting confirmations from everyone, with the exception of my brother in San Fransisco, so I looked at the option of photo shopping him in. Mid week, before the 25th, I received a call from my dear brother in San Fran; he was flying up for 24 hours! I was ecstatic: I couldn't believe that this reunion of sorts was going to work. On the night of the 24th, I found out that my eldest brother was under the weather and wouldn't make it. I was crushed. I remembered why I never get excited for anything until it's happening -I hate the disappointment. It's okay now, I'm over it.
Sunday morning (the 25th) came around and it was off to a rough start. Milking was chaotic as tempers flared, new milkers were tempted into their stalls, and little people ran under foot. I almost walked away and I never, or at least try not to, abandon ship. By the time the photo session rolled around, everyone (meaning me) had calmed down and I think we got some good shots.

For many of us, it was our first time meeting the newest member of the family, my twin's son Myles. After the first awkward attempt at holding him, I quickly got the hang of it and must admit that it felt good to hold a baby in my arms. Even better was the fact that I could just hand him back when he was hungry for the boob.
I hosted a baby shower in honour of twin and baby that Sunday afternoon and it seemed to go well. However, I have decided that I should no longer plan things. Family reunions, weddings (mainly my wedding so thank goodness that only happens once!), showers, etc. It would be one thing if I could plan it and then hand the reins over to someone else the day of the event, but I just can't host things. It freaks me out.
And makes me tired.