Sunday, March 8, 2015

A moment of peace in a crowded week

Roo is down for a mid-morning nap, so I can write on the blog and catch up with events. A precious few moments of peace for mummy and daddy. What to write?

We can start with the basics.

Work: The toad. The college calendar is advancing. Spring Break arrives the week after next, then it will be a short five weeks to graduation. We're looking forward to the break, and then the summer soon enough after that.

Weather: The weather is still cool, but warmer than it was and you can now be outdoors some of the time without layers of protective clothing and insulated boots. Aimee wants me to set up the shelves for the spring seeds, but I don't know where they are.

Chores: Around the farm there is still an enormous amount of snow to be dealt with, and some shoveling and plowing will need to happen to move snow from vital service points before the thaw sets in and makes a muddy mess. I made a start on the deck, which had four feet in places, but then the roof avalanched, leaving me the kind of rock-hard avalanche debris we used to see at the foot of gullies on Ben Nevis. I moved most of the debris and we now have access to about a third of our deck again, but the rest will take work, and there's still more to come off the roof! The auto lift area will need to be plowed or partially plowed and shoveled to let the propane delivery man in. That's a job for the first week of break. The gas man comes on the 18th.

Warmth: We used almost all of our firewood because of the very cold weather we had this year.  I need to save enough for a power cut, just in case, so we're reducing our use of the woodstove by around 70% to conserve what is left. We're "springing out" on a few bags of kindling from construction jobs -- I have about eight left, and of course are running the oil heat as a consequence. This is a waste of money and adds climate emissions, but finding dry firewood to buy this time of year is a crapshoot. I always get the feeling that the kind of guys who make a living delivering dry firewood by the pick-up load are also "casing the joint." I'd rather not deal with them. In the spring we'll get delivery of our usual two cords from our usual very reliable firewood guy, and be happy with that.

Roo: Is waking and has just started singing to herself, so I may have to go get her. I'll post this now, but maybe finish it later. But she is now officially on solid food and has developed a liking for bread as well as beans. Just like Mummy, whose two favorite food groups these are. She can't walk or even crawl yet but squirms herself around pretty well sometimes. She's a very happy baby and delight to us and all who know her. Grandma and grandad are going to get a visit soon.

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Welcome to our Farm Blog.
The purpose of this blog is for Aimee and I to communicate with friends and family, with those of our students, and other folks in general who are interested in homesteading and farming activities.

The earliest posts, at the very end of the blog, tell the story of the Great Farm, our purchase of a fragment of that farm, the renovation of the homestead and its populating with people and animals. Go all the way to the last post in the archive and read backwards from there to get it in chronological order.

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