Long time with no postings as life on the farm has been, well, farmish. Up till now, we've been playing at farming, pretty much free of the real "keep you awake at night" stresses that plague real farmers. Such as suddenly having to find a new farm.
Long story, but crux of the matter is that as tenant farmers, we have no real control over what the landowners plans are...and if those plans change, as they did in this case, we are in the hayfield without a wagon or whatever is the agricultural euphemism for "up shit creek without a paddle".
We have been looking for another suitable property to rent and just now have found a place that meets most, but not all, of our essential criterion. Location is excellent but price is twice as much as we pay here. Barn is gorgeous but we will have to build all our pens and corrals and infra structure from scratch. Mega amounts of work...work we just finished doing (including all the work Henning put into this place) and now have to do again. Not a great set up for our cheese making and aging room. House is large and stately but shabby around the edges and will be hellish to heat. Kitchen is old and unrenovated and devoid of the charm of my dearly loved kitchen here. Yard, large and shady and private. Driveway, flat and picturesquely lined with tall trees and about a third the length of this funnel for wind and drifting snow. Sisters live just down the road. Will be able to have a farm stand at the gate. Many pluses except that it just ISN'T MY REAL HOME.
So it is with truly mixed feelings that we begin to pack up this farm and begin the long series of "what if" discussions. What if we sell our Navajo-churro sheep so we need less space. What if we raise meat birds only in summer. What if the pigs could go on that side of the barn. What if we turned the summer kitchen into the cheese room. What if we closed off the cold front bedrooms and only use the back part of the house. What if we sell all the livestock and take a cheap one way flight to Spain!!!
We did the same thing for years at the cafe as we figured out how to run that business effectively and efficiently given our initial insanity in opening a restaurant-gallery in a village of 200 souls plus a three month influx of tourists. The difference then was that we were 13 years younger when we plunged in and our boundless energy for renovating and creating and orchestrating has worn thinner now.
But the biggest difference is that now er have our livestock. We were really just getting to the point here where everything was efficiently in place and so we could spend time concentrating on the small details that make all the difference in animal health and well being. We had time to go around picking up all the loose wire and half buried binder twine in the pasture. Time to cut down burdocks and thistles. Time to commune with lambs!!
So now we go back to wrestling with fence posts and feeders and pig pens!
Okay, so that is my allotment of whining about the situation and from here on in, I will be the optimistic cheerful person I normally am. Hard work will keep us healthy and youthful and in the grand scheme of things we are still among the most fortunate people on earth.
Showing posts with label business of farming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business of farming. Show all posts
Monday, July 11, 2011
Friday, October 22, 2010
October, closing Red Canoe Cafe
Chilly October days and every morning, bright and early we head for Wilno for the final transformation of our beloved Red Canoe Cafe and Wilno Station Inn into a prosaic rental dwelling. I am cleaning grease from the top of the kitchen cupboards and cursing several of our unmotivated cooks and kitchen preps...I am folding bedspreads and thinking of our many inn guests who became friends. I am removing the paintings and the books and the giftware and thinking of all our openings and soirees and events...the patio with white twinkle lights on a sultry August night, those magical musical evenings with Ian Tamblyn and Cara Luft and Sneezy Waters...the Film Festival...Philosopher's Cafe...poetry afternoon.
November 1, we'll lock the door for the winter and our new tenants will take over the residential part of the building. I will be writing 50,000 words as part of NaNoWriMo (National Novel WRiting Month) and I will be bringing home 30 East Friesien dairy ewes as part one of my new life as a cheesemaker.
In the meantime, come on out to our farm on Sunday afternoons from 1-4 pm for a visit, a farm tour if you wish, and a snack of some kind of homemade tasty treat. Our farm shop and freezers are open for business for orders large and small. We have organically raised lamb, pork, beef, chicken and eggs...local eating at its best!!
November 1, we'll lock the door for the winter and our new tenants will take over the residential part of the building. I will be writing 50,000 words as part of NaNoWriMo (National Novel WRiting Month) and I will be bringing home 30 East Friesien dairy ewes as part one of my new life as a cheesemaker.
In the meantime, come on out to our farm on Sunday afternoons from 1-4 pm for a visit, a farm tour if you wish, and a snack of some kind of homemade tasty treat. Our farm shop and freezers are open for business for orders large and small. We have organically raised lamb, pork, beef, chicken and eggs...local eating at its best!!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
What I did on my day off....
This is how life unfolds these summer days.
Yesterday was Monday morning and supposedly our day off so we awoke in our own bed at the farm. We have started taking Sunday afternoons off after 13 years in retail and hospitality and usually make it back to Donegal by about four pm on Sunday afternoon.
It was a gorgeous sunny morning, with the late summer mist hanging over the big open back field at 6 a.m. I carry my coffee cup around with me while feeding chickens and checking on the sheep and by 7 am we were on the back roads heading for Wilno.
Our inn guests were literally waiting at the cafe door for their breakfast of French toast, organic sausage & local maple syrup. After their departure, I went down to gather the laundry and make up the two suites as a house inspector was slated to arrive at 11 am. At ten ayem, our server called to announce that she was "weak, tired and had a rash on her belly" and would not be in for her shift. All uncompleted tasks thus immediately became mine for the doing. Decided not to open for lunch as we had a meeting with a real estate agent scheduled for noonish and of course we had to get back to the farm to take Junior Piglet to the abbatoir before five pm.
One thing after another and finally raced out of the cafe at 2:30 bound for Donegal. Tom loaded the pig box and then both of us dragged a reluctant Piglet from his siblings, secured him in the crate and headed for Reiches. I had previously promised mother I would clean the apartment at Fairfields where she and Dad live so Tom dropped me off there and continued on his way.
I did laundry and dusted and swept and did it all very slowly and deliberately to illustrate to mother that I was doing it RIGHT. (The fact that I have been running an inn for 13 years doesn't hold much water with my mother...she still doesn't believe I know how to do the laundry correctly).
That aside it was a pleasant enough afternoon with lots of conversation and I stayed to have supper with them in the Fairfields dining room.
Tom in the meantime was back at the farm mowing the lawn and waiting for Henning to return from a long days work at the job site on the Siberia Road (a 1.5 hour drive from the farm). It takes two strong men to load the four horned ram lambs who were to be delivered to the abbatoir this evening. That task was accomplished by about 8 pm and Tom picked me up and we headed for Reiche's for the second time in less than six hours. The lambs went willingly into their pen which was next to Piglet and I was happy they were reunited in their final hours.
Pitch dark by the time we arrived back at the farm. Henning still doing chores but took a short break while we all had a glass of white wine and caught up on the days news. To bed at ten pm and managed to read about three pages of an Englishwoman's memoirs of life in a primitive village in the Algarve before falling asleep.
Only to be awakened at 3:30 am by a wild chorus of wolf howls which sounded close enough to be in the barnyard. Tom got up and turned on the porch light and that shut them up. Then at 4:30 the henhouse erupts with crowing and cackling as the hen's lights come on. At five thirty Scooter starts whining piteously at the door to be let out. At six thirty, the truck and trailer started up under the window as Tom and Henning prepared to load two pigs for the third trip to Reiche's. I had planned to go along but opted instead to spend some time studying my sheep in the stable....several of them are lame and can't figure out why...and no light was thrown on the subject after twenty minutes of observation....but I did see that Freckles is looking less than perfectly healthy...she's thin and swaybacked...but has nursed three big lambs all spring so that could account for her frazzled condition.
Next stop: the henhouse where I filled the nests with fresh hay and discovered a large clutch of eggs hidden UNDER the nest boxes and a very irate red hen sitting on them. There's part of the reason our egg production has dropped off!!! The would-be mommy is intent on brooding eggs. I ruthlessly removed them and chased her out of her hidey hole and pitched the whole lot of eggs into the compost pile. Who knows how long she's been hoarding them and its not the sort of thing you want your egg customers to discover!!
Henning found a dead hen yesterday so dispatched her to the manure pile, weeded some of the tomato plants fighting for air and light amongst the giant mutant pumpkin plant taking over the garden and swept up two full dustpans of dust, grass, hay, dog hair and the likes from the downstairs floors.
Tom back now from Reiche's and we had a rare treat...bacon and eggs for breakfast! Watered the orchard lambs, gathered more eggs,tied up the gates protecting the round bales in the back barn (sheep keep knocking them down and nibbling at the underside of the bales which results in eventual collapse and possible death of sheep who happen to be underneath as the bales weigh hundreds of pounds.)
Ten ayem on the road again...headed for Wilno and the cafe...another "Day Off" successfully spent.
Yesterday was Monday morning and supposedly our day off so we awoke in our own bed at the farm. We have started taking Sunday afternoons off after 13 years in retail and hospitality and usually make it back to Donegal by about four pm on Sunday afternoon.
It was a gorgeous sunny morning, with the late summer mist hanging over the big open back field at 6 a.m. I carry my coffee cup around with me while feeding chickens and checking on the sheep and by 7 am we were on the back roads heading for Wilno.
Our inn guests were literally waiting at the cafe door for their breakfast of French toast, organic sausage & local maple syrup. After their departure, I went down to gather the laundry and make up the two suites as a house inspector was slated to arrive at 11 am. At ten ayem, our server called to announce that she was "weak, tired and had a rash on her belly" and would not be in for her shift. All uncompleted tasks thus immediately became mine for the doing. Decided not to open for lunch as we had a meeting with a real estate agent scheduled for noonish and of course we had to get back to the farm to take Junior Piglet to the abbatoir before five pm.
One thing after another and finally raced out of the cafe at 2:30 bound for Donegal. Tom loaded the pig box and then both of us dragged a reluctant Piglet from his siblings, secured him in the crate and headed for Reiches. I had previously promised mother I would clean the apartment at Fairfields where she and Dad live so Tom dropped me off there and continued on his way.
I did laundry and dusted and swept and did it all very slowly and deliberately to illustrate to mother that I was doing it RIGHT. (The fact that I have been running an inn for 13 years doesn't hold much water with my mother...she still doesn't believe I know how to do the laundry correctly).
That aside it was a pleasant enough afternoon with lots of conversation and I stayed to have supper with them in the Fairfields dining room.
Tom in the meantime was back at the farm mowing the lawn and waiting for Henning to return from a long days work at the job site on the Siberia Road (a 1.5 hour drive from the farm). It takes two strong men to load the four horned ram lambs who were to be delivered to the abbatoir this evening. That task was accomplished by about 8 pm and Tom picked me up and we headed for Reiche's for the second time in less than six hours. The lambs went willingly into their pen which was next to Piglet and I was happy they were reunited in their final hours.
Pitch dark by the time we arrived back at the farm. Henning still doing chores but took a short break while we all had a glass of white wine and caught up on the days news. To bed at ten pm and managed to read about three pages of an Englishwoman's memoirs of life in a primitive village in the Algarve before falling asleep.
Only to be awakened at 3:30 am by a wild chorus of wolf howls which sounded close enough to be in the barnyard. Tom got up and turned on the porch light and that shut them up. Then at 4:30 the henhouse erupts with crowing and cackling as the hen's lights come on. At five thirty Scooter starts whining piteously at the door to be let out. At six thirty, the truck and trailer started up under the window as Tom and Henning prepared to load two pigs for the third trip to Reiche's. I had planned to go along but opted instead to spend some time studying my sheep in the stable....several of them are lame and can't figure out why...and no light was thrown on the subject after twenty minutes of observation....but I did see that Freckles is looking less than perfectly healthy...she's thin and swaybacked...but has nursed three big lambs all spring so that could account for her frazzled condition.
Next stop: the henhouse where I filled the nests with fresh hay and discovered a large clutch of eggs hidden UNDER the nest boxes and a very irate red hen sitting on them. There's part of the reason our egg production has dropped off!!! The would-be mommy is intent on brooding eggs. I ruthlessly removed them and chased her out of her hidey hole and pitched the whole lot of eggs into the compost pile. Who knows how long she's been hoarding them and its not the sort of thing you want your egg customers to discover!!
Henning found a dead hen yesterday so dispatched her to the manure pile, weeded some of the tomato plants fighting for air and light amongst the giant mutant pumpkin plant taking over the garden and swept up two full dustpans of dust, grass, hay, dog hair and the likes from the downstairs floors.
Tom back now from Reiche's and we had a rare treat...bacon and eggs for breakfast! Watered the orchard lambs, gathered more eggs,tied up the gates protecting the round bales in the back barn (sheep keep knocking them down and nibbling at the underside of the bales which results in eventual collapse and possible death of sheep who happen to be underneath as the bales weigh hundreds of pounds.)
Ten ayem on the road again...headed for Wilno and the cafe...another "Day Off" successfully spent.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Going to "farmer school"
I've been going to a two session seminar on "Growing Your Farm Profits" offered by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association. Doing their workbook exercises has been a great opportunity to clarify our farm vision and to plan for future projects. It is also a wonderful opportunity to meet other area farmers who are much more experienced than we are....although I am heartened by our relative success in our first year of production. We have ambitious plans including a flock of milk sheep, heritage dual purpose chickens and of course, our pork production. Also very interested in getting into organic beef cattle and researching various options.
Another three weeks at the cafe and we'll be closed for the season and will be able to turn my attention more thoroughly to the farm projects. Fortunately, Henning is between off the farm work commitments and has been putting in fourteen hour days getting the pig barn ready, organizing all our feeding regimens as well as doing the routine twice a day chores.
A fresh snowfall brought home the realities of the upcoming winter. Chickens to go to the abbatoir, waterbowl freeze-proofing, shelter for ducks and geese and the sheep wandering about in forlorn search for fresh grass. They like the cold, frisk about kicking up their heels and butting heads playfully. After all, they do have very warm woolly waterproof coats!!
Another three weeks at the cafe and we'll be closed for the season and will be able to turn my attention more thoroughly to the farm projects. Fortunately, Henning is between off the farm work commitments and has been putting in fourteen hour days getting the pig barn ready, organizing all our feeding regimens as well as doing the routine twice a day chores.
A fresh snowfall brought home the realities of the upcoming winter. Chickens to go to the abbatoir, waterbowl freeze-proofing, shelter for ducks and geese and the sheep wandering about in forlorn search for fresh grass. They like the cold, frisk about kicking up their heels and butting heads playfully. After all, they do have very warm woolly waterproof coats!!
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