Can I think about spring now?

Ok, so my seeds arrived in the mail last week and I'm already thinking about what and where I'm going to start planting. New on the agenda this year are Tomatillos, Artichokes, cauliflower and drying beans. Tomato's are going to get started first. I've picked a spot in the kitchen to start our seedlings and I'm hoping I can get a good healthy crop in. Hubby has been hard at work getting the area we tried planting potatoes in ready for some real planting. He has put in a frame so we can build up the soil before planting season.

We've gotten a good start on pruning the fruit trees but still have more to prune. So many changes this year so far, it's kept us quite busy.

This year we hope to grow enough produce that we will actually have enough that we can sell it at the Cedar Farmers market. Last year was my first year selling there and although all I had was Quail eggs, it was a start. The market was a great learning experience, giving me the opportunity to see what sort of crops I can hope to start growing myself. A great group of people as well.

A year has passed...

So it's been just over a year since we moved out to Vancouver Island. A lot of things have changed over the year, some things were expected and some not, but that's the way life goes I guess. Athena has started school and Ronan started playschool, both of them love going (so far at least). Work and life is keeping us busy.

We have slowly begun working on getting the farm to where we want it to be. The trees provided us with apples, plums and cherries this year, blackberries were picked by the buckets and frozen with some being sent off to be made into wine (by a friend). Our garden produced green beans, carrots, striped beets, pickling beets (which were pickled), turnips (not as popular) potatoes, strawberries, peas, onions, and a large variety of salad greens and spinach. Next year we hope to get asparagus, garlic and larger yellow onions and over the winter we will hopefully harvest broccoli.

The playhouse and greenhouse were built, both still needing doors, but they are coming. New chickens were  added to the flock so now we have 13 hens, 2 roosters, 3 Muscovy ducks and 3 misc ducks and 3 chicks.

So here's a pictoral history of the Wise farm, I've tried to take pictures from the same spots to get a good comparison.

Pump house 2010

Pump house 2011

 We did a lot of pruning on the apple tree, then there is the greenhouse in the background. Our landlord helped prop the tree up, it had a real lean.

I always hated the giant debris pile in the backyard, it took forever before it was carted away.

Backyard 2010

 Once the pile was gone, we gave the whole area a good raking, leveling and then spread grass seed. We got a little sod from the landlord. Pat dug up some old cedar offcuts in the back forest to make steps to the playhouse. It turned out wonderfully.

Backyard 2011

Playhouse steps

Playhouse yard

We didn't do much to the space around the cooler, just cleaned up the debris, cleared off the cement and tidied the surrounding trees. It looks neater though.

Cooler 2010

Cooler 2011

The house wasn't in too bad of shape in the beginning

.Front of house 2010

We didn't do much to the front, hung up a hummingbird feeder, made a couple of flower beds and put out some grass seed, it looks a little more homey though.

Front of house 2011

The yard was pretty mucky when we first moved in, not much we could do with it, paving is out of the question.

Driveway 2010

 Pat closed in the shed and pruned up the cherry tree, it's amazing how many more leaves we have now and it's almost an exact year later. Later spring means later fall I guess.

Driveway 2011

Everywhere we looked we had debris piles, it was either there when we started or we made them as we gathered stuff around the yard. The maple tree at the end of the driveway was much smaller too.

Front Yard 2010

The tree has since gotten bigger and the pear tree has been pruned, it needs more pruning as it experienced blight this year. Hopefully we can bring it back.

Front yard 2011

Pat did a lot of work with the coop, we needed to make it pest proof as it hadn't been used in a long time. 

Coop 2010

Coop 2010

We also added a canopy for the ducks and chickens so they could be outside and under cover. The wire fence keeps them from wandering over into my roses although a Rhode Island Red hen still manages to sneak out.

Coop 2011

Coop 2011

Pat used bricks from the old chimney to create a path to the back door. No more mud tracked in from the playhouse.

Back Door 2011

Garden 2011

The greenhouse took some time to paint, but it's coming along, sod in the back gives the kids somewhere to run through the sprinkler. The mews might eventually be made into another coop, but for now, it will remain a mews.

Greenhouse, Mews and pump houe 2011

Orchard 2011

All in all, we're happy with how things are going, it's starting to turn into a home, hopefully we'll be here for a long time to come.

View from Gate 2011

 So stop by and pick up some eggs, and say hello!

Summer gardening

So since moving out here last fall (actually almost winter) the yard has been in a constant state of progress. Over the winter we cleaned, prepped and planned to get an idea of what we wanted the yard to look like. Once spring came the debris was taken away, the garden went in and then the playhouse went up.

Backyard before sod

In front of playhouse

New sod from landlord

New fire pit location

We got some old storm windows from our landlord so we started building a greenhouse. It's still a work in progress though.

First the base

Pat did most of the construction with me prepping

Now all that's needed is roof and door

The garden was the most intensive part of the labour, the entire planting space had to be dug, sifted and replaced because of the number of rocks in the soil. It was worth it though.

We planted a lot of beans, greens, onions and carrots

Eventually we'll put a better fence up

I'd like to have climbing beans cover the archway

We're working on prettying up the yard reusing materials laying around the yard to avoid buying too much new stuff. I'll post those pictures soon!

If you build it...they will play...

So we promised that when we moved we would build the kids a playhouse. First we started out with the idea of a one story playhouse and a swing set but plans were always changing. Final plans ended up with a two story with a shed roof. I sketched up the plans, printed them off headed back to Calgary with the kids and then Pat was off to Rona for the first of many trips.

While we were away Pat started construction. The hope was to have most of it built while the kids were away but one thing led to another and construction too a little longer then we thought, but there was enough for the kids to get excited.

As things progressed we got a second floor built and Pat changed the design of the roof to a gable style (which was fine with me).

Then we needed to get a coat of paint on it before the rain wrecked our progress.

We decided to go with a clear roof to let in the light, it made the second floor so bright and sunny.

Then the finishing details to complete. It still needs windows and doors but it's enough to make the kids happy. I hope we never have to move though, there is no way we could move it.

It belongs to the kids, so I put their names on the walls.

Progress!!!

So our landlord came in for a couple of days with the big machinery to do some needed cleanup. Scraping and clearing and now all of a sudden we have a huge yard! Here are some before pictures.

Backyard in the fall

View to fruit trees

another view of backyard

View to front of yard

Once the truck had taken away the debris, this was what we had.

View to front (garden to right)

View of backyard

Garden with Fruit trees behind

Straight behind the house

View up to house from back yard

So much space!!!

Now we just need grass seed.