
Dec 13 2023 I let the horses eat some of the rye I planted. Normally they do not like rye but when things get scarce in the fall they will eat the rye. The experiment here is to see if the rye will regrow back so I can crimp it in the spring and plant my sunflowers.
Dec 12 2023. Still working on getting the camelina field ready by adding some mushroom compost. Jim and Duke are the horses. Just got a new batch of camelina seeds as last seasons got mouldy and would not germinate which was a real disappointment for me.
Dec 5 2023. Every year I try do something special for Dorothee. This year I decided to finish the flooring by making up the moulding for the edges. Of course Dorothee had to help with the project.
Dec 5 2023. Its time to retrieve the water pump from the valley with Duke and Dorothee before it freezes.
Dec 4 2023. Just doing some discing to prepare the soil for the January camelina seeding.
Dec 3 2023. Duke enjoying his breakfast in the sunflower field. They are doing a good job of busting up the sunflower stalks.
Nov 22 2023 We just cleaned some sunflowers so the trash goes to the compost pile.
Nov 20 2023. So what do you do in the evening? Suck peas of course!!! Our cat has not learned how to shuck peas yet.
November 18 2023. Bringing the last of the large logs from the north woods to be split. This is Ginger and Jim who unfortunately do not like working together. Ginger likes to be with Chief but he is now lame.
Nov 16 2023. Dorothee and I had got a load for wood with the horses and with such a nice day we decided to split the logs. This is quite a change for Dorothee as she has for years split the wood with an axe.
Nov 15 2023. Early morning breakfast for the horses. Chief although partly lame is still the boss and will not share his breakfast with anyone.... not even his girlfriend Ginger!
Nov 14 2023. I discovered a very wonderful crab apple tree full of small apples. Dorothee boiled a number of them and created a great apple jelly!
Sept 22 2023. Dorothee is very busy harvesting everything from the garden. Even the cow gets corn stalks and we get the corn cobs.
August 13 2023. Mat and Dorothee posing by the sunflowers. The best crop of sunflowers I have ever had. Noe the crimped rye keeping down the weeds on our field.
Aug 5 2023 The sunflowers are doing very well and here is first one that has flowered.
July 14 2023 I like to walk my cats at night.. there is Gandolf, Skitter, tiger, patches and sometimes we are joined by a stranger I call blackie.
June 24 2023. Nickie learns how to put on a bridle with instructions from Jennifer.
June 24 2023 Nick decided to visit our farm again and got to work early in the morning moving the horses.
June 7 2023. Jennifer, Nicky and Christopher made up the fencing crew.
June 7 2023. Here is Jennifer leading Ginger and Nicky leading Duke to a new pasture of red clover.
May 31 2023. The pepper plants are going strong. There is drip irrigation in use and we have been able to pump water from the sand point in the valley to he large tank.
May 31 2023. Dorothee's garden is moving along well. Here are some peas and note the extensive use of oat straw on the beds to preserve the water. It is extremely dry lately with no rain for a couple of weeks.
May 31 2023. Susie remembered how she made stilts as a kid so I decided to make a pair for the kids.
May 28 2023. Matthew Marsden decided to help me set up the water pump and we decided to use Duke to move the pump.
May 28 2023. Dorothee has a new batch of recently hatched chicks. She is just moving them to the brooder and introducing them to drinking water.
May 16 2023. We just finished pressing sunflower oil and Susie is tanking the sun flower oil press apart for cleaning.
May 14 2023 Cleaning corn.
May 10 2023 Susie broadcasting the clover on the newly plowed and disc'd field.
May 7 2023. Dorothee trying out the new cultimulcher.
May 6 2023. Someone had a birthday so what better way than to have all your friends come and ride a horse. Duke as most patient and loved every minute.
May 5 2023. Susie had a number of kids visit so we put them to work washing bottles.
April 29 2023. It rained a lot so I decided to rebuild the steering gearbox in the south barn. It was a real pain to work on. Hopefully tomorrow it will be done.
April 29 2023. We have a variation of the regular trillium which is green!
April 29 2023 . On our walk in the north woods there are many trilliums, I expecially like the red ones.
April 29 2023 Dorothee and I walked up to the north woods to see the wild flours. This is dutch mans britches.
April 29 2023 Dorothee has a New batch of chicks.
April 27 2023 This is a wonderful moment with Susie taking over the discing the field using Chief, Ginger and Jim.
I was very happy to see Jennifer learning to drive the horses.. i was impressed!
Jennifer and Nicky giving Ginger a bath after a hot day discing.
April 26 2023. Even the horses were busy cutting the grass while everyone else was putting down the mushroom compost on the garden beds.
April 21 2023. It was a morning for working on the gardens. Susie and Matthew want to plant a garden too so we all helped.
April 20 2023. Susie had a number kids from her family visit and I think that Jennifer will be the next horse trainer. She was very anxious to learn more about horses so Susie spent time with her and here she is driving 3 horses over to the hitching post.
April 20 2023 Susie discing with Jim Chief and Duke.
April 15 2023. So after a lot of sweaty plowing you get to have a cold shower and a good brushing.
April 15 2023 i took Jim and Chief up to plow a field and what a wonderful day it was. Always tough to get started and not too straight but we got it started well. If you notice Jim's hind end there was a lot of sweat.
April 16 2023. Dorothee and I took time to attend the Otter Valley naturalists and decided to put up some bird houses. I have noticed some Eastern Blue birds so we got a birdhouse for them but also got an owl box which I put up at the edge of our wood lot.
Susie and Duke pulling a log up a hill.
Susie in the north woods with duke pulling a log.
April 12 2023 Susie on the sled going to the north woods to pull some logs with duke.
April 2 2023. Dorothee buried a number of boxes of potatoes in the ground down about 2 ft last fall. So this spring she dug them up and we have fresh potatoes to eat!
March 15 2023. Its been a rather hectic time with Duke having a bout with colic. Of course it was on a Sunday so we had to call the emergency vet and that took a lot of time to get his digestive system going. I had to stay up all Saturday night keeping him war with the fire and walking him every 15 minutes. So here is back at work pulling a few logs a few days later after a good recovery.
Mar 2 2023. The rollup door to my truck finally gave up so here I am repairing it.
Mar 2, 2023. Not quite enough snow for the sled so we used the manure wagon with Chief and Jim.
Mar 1 2023 Duke pulling a log
Still gathering maple sap. Dorothee with her broken arm cast.
Feb 25 2023. Got a nice day for bush hoggin the corn stalks
Feb 21 2023. We had a very warm afternoon and with some help we split a lot of firewood for the coming year.
Feb 20 2023, The snow has disappeared so we took the manure wagon up to the north woods and the horses enjoyed a day pulling the manure wagon.
Feb 14 2023 and Dorothee and I decided to tap some maple trees and the sap was flowing!
Feb 12 2023 and no snow so Duke and I went up to the north woods to cut firewood.. and Duke pulled a couple of logs.
Jan 31 2023. The week is getting quite cold but Jim and Chief needed some exercise so Dorothee came along with us to get fire wood with the sled. The sled had to be broken free since the runners had stuck solidly to the ground and it sure did not slide very well for the first kilometre going up to the woods.
Jan 30 2023. Yes I decided to split the tractor as the clutch was acting odd. Nothing seemed unusual but a new clutch would be a good idea.
Jan 30 2023. Duke and I are headed to the north woods to cut firewood. We also pulled some logs
Jan 25 2023 January has been a warm month so far just about freezing with little snow. We expect a lot more snow in the next week.
Jan 10 2022 Just heading home from the woodlot driving Duke and Jim. They were very well behaved so I gave them an extra helping of oats and sunflower meal.
Jan 10 2023 in the afternoon. We still had some light so I decided to cut some firewood and used the manure spreader to get the wood as there was no snow for the sled. Note the horses on a hitching post in the background. Dorothee lifted the wood and I used the electric chainsaw to cut up the logs.
Jan 10 2023 It was an overcast day with no rain so I decided to fill the oats bin. The tractor you can't see is powering the auger.
January 8 2023. It was a dull day but I decided to clean sunflowers. This is quite an operation but it was very successful. I have been working on the Clipper cleaner for about 6 years and each year it improves but this year was excellent and it worked very well. Its a bit nerve wracking with the box of sunflowers to be cleaned so high in the air...