Carpe Diem Acreage: property

I walked our around the acreage where I could (as we still have a lot of snow) to have a look at how things fared over the winter.

The heavy snowfall has caused some damage expecially to the large greenhouse. We expected that the plastic would not hold up. It has been on the greenhouse for two years and the poly does breakdown eventually with sunlight. The main ridge pole on the roof broke in several places so Husband will have to repair it once the snow is gone and we can actually reach the greenhouse.

I decided to check on the apple trees that are still half buried, just to see if they were perhaps budding. And yes, there are some buds appearing on the ends of the branches.

Unfortunately I also spied two of the lower branches still in the snow had broken at the base. This is only on the tree closest to the shovelled walkway, so I don't know yet how the other apple or the cherry tree have made out.

I'm hoping that I will be able to repair the branches later. Something new to learn... I found some instructions here.

So far I'm not sure if there is any other damage, but as the snow goes down there may be things appearing.

Wow, last day of 2008 already! Where does the time go?

We had a very quiet and enjoyable Christmas; just the four of us. We watched some Christmas movies and played lots of Scrabble over the holidays. It was very cold - down to the -30's (-22f) so we didn't get out much.

Christmas morning (I decided not to include the unflattering photos of me in pajamas)

On Boxing Day it snowed. And snowed and snowed and snowed some more. We did not go out to shovel - we played Scrabble instead and watched it float to earth. The next day Husband took out the tractor and blowed the snow off the driveway and I shovelled the walkways. That is when we realized we had gotten another 30cm (12 inches). I am very thankful that husband convinced me we needed to purchased the snowblower attachment for the tractor. He can get the driveway and way to the compost cleared in about half an hour! It certainly saves a lot of back breaking shovelling.

Once it warmed up a little we got the dog outside to run and play. Being a boxer he is not an outside/cold weather dog.

Kaiser and Husband walking in the woods where the snow is not deep.

Kaiser running(?) in the deep snow. It was over my knees in depth.

Nice photo of husband in his usual winter ensemble - toque, vest, and boots.

In yesterday's newspaper there was a story of a cougar attacking a dog very close to where we live. The cougar was destroyed the next day, luckily the dog survivied. Over the past few years the incident of cougar sighting has grown quite a bit around our city. I can't ever remember cougars being in this area before - they must be slowly moving in after the deer. With the kids and dog, we need to be more vigilant.

We accomplished a lot in 2008...

Finished the new house (still some siding, soffits and eavestroughing to put up)
Moved in
Began fencing
Renovated old house
Rented old house
Landscaping/levelling of yard around the house
Brought in sandy loam for the yard
Laid some sod in front of house
Cleared garden area for spring 2009
Set up green house
Did some container gardening
Did some canning
Son made honour roll first year of high school
Daughter has made a large amount of babysitting contacts/job
Made cheese for the first time
Tried to cook most things from scratch
Recycled most of our waste - I only take one small bag of garbage to the land fill a week
Poured the garage floor and have begun setting up shelving/storage areas in December (yeah! I have some closet space again)

Have a Happy New Year and all the best for 2009!

The weekend was spent with Husband, Son and a family friend cutting up logs that were temporarily moved out of the way so we could build the house.

The original plan was to sell the wood to the mill, but then the prices dropped so much there was no use. Our friends heat their home with an outdoor wood burning furnace so they can use the wood and I feel better that it won't go to waste. There is enough wood to keep them warm all winter.

We need to get the logs out as they were placed in the spot were we want to make our garden next year. Since we have so much clay in our area, we would like to start some preparation before the snow flys (and stays!) which will be soon.

Here I am picking up all the left over sticks and putting them on the burn pile. Not fun work, but I kept thinking "every stick picked up leads to a better garden". Daughter was not too impressed with the work and I kept telling her that we will have a great garden next year and we will be able to feed our family from it. Her response was "Yah, I know and we're already in a global food crisis." It was kind of scary hearing that from a 12 year old... What have I been teaching her? Hopefully not to be frightened, but to be prepared.

I did cook a wonderful turkey dinner for Sunday evening. During kitchen duty, I realized that I had run out of laundry detergent so I whipped up some homemade detergent while the turkey was in the oven.

I have been making my own for a couple of months now, and I am really happy with the results. Clean clothes, no perfumey smell, and it works great in my front loading washer.

Grate 3 bars of Ivory soap in the food processor.

Remove soap and put on the chopping blade, put soap back in and chop until it becomes coarse granules.

Add 3 cups of Washing Soda and 3 cups of Borax and continue to chop.

When it looks like regular dry detergent it is ready.

Use 1/4 cup per load for a front loading washing machine.

It has been so long since I've blogged and we have been busy working around the property. Husband build a proper compost bin for me... though the fox is still visits occasionally for a meal.

He also built a bridge over the ditch/swail complete with solar lights. This allows us access to the compost, lagoon and eventual garden.

We have also added to our family a few weeks ago.... His name is Kaiser!

It is so wonderful having a boxer in the house again. Though I forgot how busy puppies are! Can't wait until the housebreaking kicks in.

Road restrictions will be in effect on Monday, so Husband and Son went to the old house to pick up all the fence posts, the equipment for the Bobcat, and the Bobcat too. If you are not familiar with road restrictions, it means that with spring on it's way the frozen ground beneath the pavement becomes soft, and no large equipment or anything with weight is allowed to be hauled until it all firms up again.

It began snowing quite heavily in the afternoon and the fence posts are are shown here in a big pile.

Husband and Son are chaining up one of the buckets to be moved off the trailer.

Husband is using the quad to pull the Bobcat buckets and grapple out of the trailer.

We have dreamt for years of purchasing an acreage and building our own house. On December 20, 2006 we finally bought our peace of paradise - four acres just outside of the city limits, and only 10 km from where we currently live.

Now comes the daunting task of clearing and building. The dream of house, gardens and chicken coop will drive us during the hard work ahead.