Our snowbank pastures are almost no more. The puddle play is going full force. The frozen ground is letting up and making it possible to use temporary fencing again.
Given the shoddy spring/winter infrastructure, the hens have been pretty free range as of late as has been their laying, which got old pretty fast. Now I’m just waiting for the ground to dry up and firm up some to wheel the coop out on pasture.
The big news around here is that two vegetable growers have joined us on the farm as part of our Incubator Farm Project, and that a third farmer is arriving soon to work with us. Not only does this mean that I got to end and delete the airbnb at our second farm house–which was celebrated, to be sure (Take that endless laundry! Take that random broken things I kept stumbling upon!), but it also means more people, more elbow grease, more projects, more ideas, more diverse and integrated land use. It’s very exciting for us. I’m hoping the land and seasons will be good to them, and that the landscape–paired with our stunning summer sun downs–will sustain them through the harder days. If you’re in the Ottawa area and looking for a vegetable CSA, check out Rooted Oak Farm.
After years of inner turmoil, we’ve managed to put an end to the endless cycle of cat reproduction, abandoned kittens, and frail/unwell cat population. With the support of the SPCA, we managed to trap them all, to bring them in to the SPCA in the city, and to adopt four of them once they were spayed/neutered and were given basic immunisations. I managed to keep a descendant of our beloved Olga (whom I named Helga), our eldest named two others Spaghetti and Migrak, and one (pictured above) is awaiting a poetic name. They’re still fairly wild and unapproachable, but I hope we’ll get to a friendly place with them. They’ve been back a week now, and we cross paths every other day at least, so I hope this means they’re still interested in being our resident barn cats. This place sure felt eery without them.
The melting snow means we finally found our wood pile (insulation for the win–those face cords sure last longer than they used to). We also sadly found that a bunch of the fruit trees we planted were damaged beyond repair by rodents over the winter. As we were originally going to be planting the fruit trees here and there in a windbreak with many other tree species, we didn’t take the time to read up about how to help fruit trees make it through the winter–a devastating oversight given that 90% of the trees were planted together in one field. They were clearly a quick and easy snack.
Despite the mud and manure, and the febrile work of trying to get all of the web and newsletter and computer tasks done before outdoor spring work starts anew, I am savouring this hopeful time of year.
les histoires d'une néorurale 