fields and roads

Could be one of our coldest Julys, but I don't mind. Less swimming and shorts-wearing, but comfortable days and nights, happy kale. The summer is flying by! Our weekends are often busy - one of us in the city or we're visiting with friends and family. Next week, after a night in Toronto, I'll be driving north to my folks and then driving with mom to Massachusetts for a family reunion. Then Toronto again after that to record in the studio with the band. A total of almost 2 weeks away... great things, but wew!

These frequent stints away make me wonder about the possibility of having more animals on the farm. Chickens and goats being the current fascination/topics of research. Let myself splurge a little on books: "Chickens in Your Backyard: A Beginner's Guide", Rick Luttmann; "You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start and Succeed in a Farm Enterprise", Joel Salatin; "Storey's Guide to Raising Dairy Goats: Breeds, Care, Dairying." I'll just be hanging on the beaches of Gloucester reading about milking goats. Sounds about right.

The earwigs have been bad this year. They are everywhere and totally freaky looking. Getting tired of squishing them! NAST.

What else? Ah yes, we've got horseshoe pits going finally. Think we'll have a round with the neighbours on Friday. Garlic soon ready to pull. It's smallish, but surely tasty. We'll prob be saving a large part of it for replanting this fall, keeping a lot for ourselves, and selling the rest cheaply to friends. It's been so easy to grow - perhaps we'll try planting even more this year. D talks about how it'll keep the vampires away - he's on a 'True Blood' (HBO show) kick lately.

slow starts

Nice we wake early. This morning by 9am laundry was washed and on the line, beans were planted, pets were fed, dishes put away, etc. I also began resurrecting the tomato patch as I lost close to 30 plants from the combo of frost and dry days in the first week of June. Boo. But actually, a blessing in disguise: extra motivated now to keep the garden healthy and, well, less tomato plants to tend amidst a busy summer schedule. After the resurrection tho, I'll still have 36 in the ground, which still makes me happy. Everything is off to a pretty late start with spring taking so long to warm up. Still need to get a lot in. Actually, still need to till! Tiller still at the shop but am hoping it'll be back soon, in time for eggplants, peppers, cukes, zukes, and squash types to go in. Is it too late for corn?

Ah, it's okay. Gave myself a pass at the very start of the season. Not expecting too much this year, as it's the first year of many. Soil is newly worked, beds newly made. It will take some time to de-rock and build up the soil with compost and manure, to figure out proper rotations for each crop family, to get timing down. It's an experimental year. Am enjoying taking time to play, see what works, what doesn't, what I like, what we need more or less of, etc. Perennial beds will also take a couple of years to come together. Right now the beds by the house and near the driveway are great messes of veggies, annuals, baby perennials, and bulbs. Oh, and bindweed, grass, and assorted weeds. Good fun. I found a really cool old cultivator claw tool in the shed, left behind by previous owners.

Oh yeah, and we got another two bush cord of wood! You can see in the picture we're being slow to pile it. Reminds me about our chimney situation... but that's another story.

brain-storming

a campfire, a swim, a paddle-boat ride, a sunburn, a magazine or two, a visit with family, a big meal = a restoring, relaxing weekend in killaloe, staying at the cottage. benny's sale yielded a cheap, great pair of sorels (winter-prep in back of mind). returned with farm eggs, garden cucumbers, and a new bunch of ideas on how to pursue the upcoming year of our new farm-life. dreams so far. we shall see what happens.

despite heaping debt, can't help but ogle all of the beautiful bulb choices this fall, especially with the idea of a naturalized drift of mixed daffodils... or forced paperwhite narcissus. wonder how one finds deals on bulbs. might have to wait as we'll be spending a little extra dough on garlic seed!

tons of house flies getting in these past few days. ick.

a new mindset

a very slow gear is starting to move inside: to think like a farmer!

d and i hit the lindsay farmer's market last saturday where i had the pleasure of meeting two of my internet blog buddies in sort of a strange cosmic fashion. tiny farm mike (who i've been reading for a couple of years!) and cameron ryan were discussing farm tours in the area, perhaps including a visit here, just as i was loading up on tiny farm produce before saying hi. animated garlic and tractor talk on top of lynn handing over big bags of green beans, lettuce, and basil sort of sparked a more 'real' realisation that i can, should, and will be a farmer too one day... one day... soon! from dreaming about such stuff while police sirens zipped by my bathurst street window to gazing over a field of singing crickets... it makes me feel like one of the luckiest girls alive.

it's late summer and house-fixin' has been our priority (gotta get ready for winter - is it really almost september?!), but the garlic possibilities are calling, best seeded in the fall. all of sudden, things on my list include: walk/photograph the fields, check the pile of boards for raised-bed construction use, read up on garlic planting tips, order seed (how much? what kind? what for?), get a pile of chicken manure from the neighbours (the rooster crows are a dead giveaway - must introduce myself!), till, draw up plans, figure out irrigation, and so on. farmer stuff! how strange and great.

beginning

a self-portrait wherein i've seemingly mastered the farm-lady stance, aging me beyond my years. pretending, perhaps, that am already a seasoned field woman, looking across her gardens with a well-earned sigh of happiness, shoulders rounded by thousands of hours bent over plants and frying pans, a worn wardrobe accented by tattered hat and work-socks full of burrs, weathered fingers and sweat on the brow. alas, am just a girl stepping away from her computer briefly to survey the upcoming yard-work that will slowly, someday, make me the gentlewoman i aspire to be...

of special note: thistles and bindweed. the internet tells me the best way to rid your yard of bindweed is... to move. ha! this should be fun - it's eagerly taken over all of the overgrown gardens and apparently the seed is viable for 20 years! tilling is a reported death-sentence and if you want to stay organic (yes), the best way to beat it is militant, constant weeding so... *rubs garden-gloves together* IT'S ON.

also, behold, a fire-pit!

a few more days

have made a list of things for the first couple of weeks. as with the empty upstairs apartment we stayed in for a bit last month in toronto, we'll be packing the folding tray tables and my mom's folding chair (still bearing her maiden name in marker). also: the vacuum, mop, buckets, boots, inflatable mattress, paint clothes, kitchen stuff, towels, and so on. it will be a good way to start - a real, explicit beginning. we'll move the rest of our stuff in a couple weeks, after the fixin's.

received an email from the seller this morning (a sincerely lovely chap) saying he's going to leave a bunch of gardening tools (shovel, wheelbarrow, etc) for us. the number of times i've said "score!" throughout this process is really... awesome. not sure i've mentioned yet the last home-visit's discovery: a closet fashioned with florescent lights on each shelf for seedling-growing. score!

it is POURING as i write this - the sky is dark and the air is humid. it's a solid, summer rain. d is painting a house today (more like a mansion). after the carpentry job in toronto told him the cottage contracts up north would be delayed another month, he decided to come back to meaford and find side work until we move to kawarthas, then find something more permanent there. fingers crossed. he just called me to say he's waiting out the storm in his car.

here's a pic of perry chillin on the porch off my office. you can see my 'garden' - many anxiously awaiting a roomier space in the ground. soon babes!

july

a weekend of leisure. splurged on a 'harrowsmith country life' mag at the meaford pharmacy this morning. "200 things we love about the country" is a feature that can sell me. browsing the list now sells me further.

noticing that "show-stopping annuals" in bold at the top of the cover makes my heart flutter. a sure sign of my aging, and happiness to age, as i approach next year's 30th birthday. gee, i think that's the first time i've written "30th birthday." seeing that big number staring back hurts the head a little. so it goes.

have eaten two cukes so far. alas, while in toronto for two weeks, one of the plants dried out and lost its fruits. this one should feed us well tho.

heading over to fenelon on thursday to meet with the lawyer and sign things and hand over the moola for the farm. a steal! keys on friday then a week off to clean, rip up carpet, paint, garden, etc. all fantastically great things in the context of owning a new home. probably move belongings on the 26th. and onward.

live to eat

returning from an indulgent feed of the magic that is cora pizza. last night was a queen st. snack of spring rolls and a corona for $15. and all week it's coffee and birthday pecan pie. enjoying rich fast snacks at the office, culinary delights of toronto's many ethnic eateries after work, and feeling so smugly full after each and every meal... but at the same time, recognising that this can only go on for so long! sugary, salty, oily, processed foods make me feel kinda lumpy and gross after awhile and am therefore looking forward to returning home (finally!) to a kitchen that fosters a much slower, cheaper, healthier roster of eats. my palette is craving a bowlful of simple, clean, nutty brown rice with some marinated tofu and steamed veggies. or fresh apple juice and a handful of raw almonds. salads. and cups and cups of herbal tea.

and further still, the farm. where we will drink water straight from the field's deep underground reserves, and feast on garden yields. blend basil pestos and roasted red pepper dips. savor crisp snow peas and juicy red tomatoes grown from seed. bake strawberry breads, and apple cobblers from fruits picked by our own hands. sip on fresh ice teas from the mint-patch alongside the house. just thinking about it makes me feel healthier already!

not to mention bike rides, swimming, and hiking!

gifts

there will be a time where, perhaps perched in the above, i will be writing with the breeze coming off the fields, scented of wildflowers, duck feathers, and cedar, writing about how beautiful things are.

till then, not writing so much because it is instead days of city life, work, and punk rock. also good things, but busy. enjoying my montreal bagels.

for this year's birthday, my love presented me with lovely gifts of hammocking, like above. a chair AND the traditional sized one for having country naps... ! we're all set.

switch

bought a snowblower and a mini-tiller. and night-time reading is an ontario government booklet called "pasture production".

field of dreams

this will soon be my view, looking south from the house, across pasture. anxious to tend the grasses and flowers, plant things, walk it. dreaming of a field of lavender, garlic planting in the fall, poppies...