Updating the blogs and sites

I'm spending a few minutes today re-doing the blogs (this one and Nova Appliance) a bit and catching up on what's going on in the world.

Hi World.

Laundry is washing too so I've got a goal to get 3 more boxes, tubs or bags or stuff laundered, sorted into either sell, burn or keep piles and re-packing the keep stuff or putting it into circulation. That should keep me busy for a bit. Also on the agenda....sort out one drawer in my dresser. Yes you heard me right, only 1 drawer. I'll see if Steve will do one of his and then we'll be on our way to having it sorted out by the end of the weekend. I'd also like to get 2 boxes from the storage area of our bedroom (piled against one wall) unpacked and sorted out into either keep and re-pack or sell. It's that simple. Garbage obviously goes out and there is no 'Maybe' pile, not today.

The pig barn is shoveled and manure relocated to a neighbours farm for use on his grape vines. Since we're moving and cannot use it I'm happy to see someone else get the benefit of it. His truck did get mired down so it was a fun family moment of getting the truck and trailer up out of the mud and back onto solid ground.

Since it's Date Night (Friday) I am planning something fun. Not exactly sure what yet since the kids are having a sleepover, but maybe dinner in bed with a movie and pizza for the kids. Anything other than pork!

We still have lots for sale so let us know if you'd like some.

So to review. The work for this afternoon is:

A. unpack, wash, sort and re-pack 3 bags/tubs of clothing/linens from the pile.
B. sort out 1 drawer in the dresser
C. unpack and sort 2 bedroom boxes

I'm writing this all down so that I'm accountable to someone. Thanks for helping me to de-clutter. I'll let you know how it goes.

Met a new friend online who lives in Nova Scotia so now we're giving some serious thought to the Annapolis Valley region. She's been very helpful answering all those weird little questions that come up and it's so hard to find the answers for online.

BIG NEWS!!

After a 4 month hiatus... we're back with news!

First off our daughter Nicole's new book is officially out today. It's selling so well already that it looks like she's going to get 2 more book deals out of it so YAY for them! And great for us readers!

The book is great. Go have a look at Amazon

Here's our big news.

It is with heavy hearts that our branch of the Faires Family announces the following... we're moving. We're excited too but there are so many unknowns and so much work to do that it's a bit nerve wracking. I hate moving. And we are still looking for a new place to call home.

Where are we going you might ask? Well, it looks like the choices are narrowed to the maritimes of Canada or somewhere here on Vancouver Island. We would like to stay around here because of the ease, costs of moving, established business, kids in school etc. but that will largely depend on finding a suitable home that's affordable. This property we're on sold for the greatly discounted price of $470k. Buying it in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia it would have cost about $80-$130k I would imagine. Maybe less. Since we want to settle down and NEVER MOVE AGAIN we are looking to start over with our own place. Even if it means you get another year of following my blog through the start up phase from building a travel trailer to breaking ground on a home or root cellar, we hope you'll stick around and let us know what you think about the whole thing.

You might also be wondering why on earth we would move after doing so much work here for a year and a half. And the simple answer is that the owner of this property has sold it. Yes, after saying that we could stay for 10 years he up and listed it, sold it, and now we're moving. What I didn't mention were the problems with him killing livestock and other destructive behaviours.

Living here has been 'the best of times and the worst of times'. But we are sorry to see so much hard work and planning go down the tubes. Still, we did learn an awful lot and practical experience is a valuable thing in this day and age when we think that reading something in a book or online means that now we know how to do it. These amazing tools we have should be there to guide and inspire us, not just give us an inflated sense of our own skills and resourcefulness.

Ok enough of the rant. I should nip it in the bud and get out my roll of packing tape and garbage bags. Our over stuffed house, garage and workshop have to be essentially paired down to the point that everything will fit into a 12x8x6'6 trailer just in case we find the perfect place and do move east. This is going to be the mother of all garage sales, the likes of which Hilliers has never seen!

We'll let you know how our winter projects shape up, namely building a trailer, finding a new home, and de-cluttering the house.

Are your eggs better than mine?

Here's a thought provoking article. I always shake my head when in the grocery store looking at eggs that have fancy pics of organic eggs that I know come from a local farm that has an enormous barn with a tiny concrete patio about 100 sq ft for their thousands of chickens. And every time I go home and meet my chickens scratching and sunning themselves and exploring the fields and pastures with their friends the sheep. So, where do your eggs come from? Are free range pasture raised eggs healthier for you?

And now for something completely different...

Yeah, I wish. It's just the same old around here. We dug some very nice potatoes up to have a look see and while there were a couple with holes, overall they were fine. Chris accidentally dug some russian blues and thought there was something wrong with them so tossed a few before he realized they were all that weird purple colour and maybe that was normal. The squash are perking up a bit now that they've been watered quite a lot and had some nice seaweed fertilizer. It's also supposed to be cooler for the next few weeks and perhaps rain a little which will help. Gosh it's been such a hot, dry, windy summer. I feel bad for everyone affected by the forest fires. I hope they get some wet weather too.

Fish cakes and the Mt. Arrowsmith Great iPod Rescue

Hi Y'all. Greeting from the funny farm.

It's nuts around here so here's brief review of the past 2 weeks for all those friends and family we've neglected calling.

Friday just work and work and chores

Saturday spent 3 hours running around the field in 30+ heat chasing the STUPID sheep trying to pen 3 rams who obviously knew their end was near and weren't going down without a fight. Meghan's birthday party and a friend sleeping over.

Sunday, the rams were caught the previous night, wined and dined on water and fresh barley, then went to meet their maker with very little problem. Figures eh? All 3 done and in the butchers nice refrigerated van before 9am. The Steve and Chris went up Mt. Arrowsmith with Lynne, John and a friend just before lunch. On the way down they stopped to feed the Whiskey Jacks (birds) and Chris somehow lost his new iPod, along with it's new skin and headphones. Needless to say a very grouchy teenager returned then told me what happened and retreated to his cave (bedroom). Lots of watering, it's still dry and dusty due to no rain.

Monday, a few jobs then picking up a new wwoofer. Watering....and a trip up the mountain again to see if by some miracle they can find an iPod in a black camo skin. Yeah right, like that's likely. Still, lots of prayers later they returned victorious. Yay! We all met up at Cameron Lake for a swim and picnic and had a nice relaxing time with Aki, our Japanese wwoofer and Vincent who is from Korea.

Tuesday, watering...and took Aki to the bus depot for her trip to Duncan to learn more about bees.More watering and feeding, the usual stuff you'd expect at a farm with animals. Oh, and a cow escaped but was returned home by our 12 year old Jordan.

Wednesday, gotta get caught up with paperwork and figure out taxes owing the gov't and how much they owe me back because they've frozen the bank account again. Nice eh? They owe you and they do nothing, you owe them...well watch out!! So I'm like a little accounting troll doing paperwork. And watering for breaks. Oh joy! And there's an activity for the boys tonight so us girls are staying home working and having girls night. Fish cakes fro dinner with rice and carrots. And Vicki has apparently a great zucchini recipe for pizza crust so we'll have to try it. We have a new wwoofer tomorrow also so getting clean bedding ready. We also have to get some more chickens sold to have a little cash. The lamb will be ready early next week and is getting close to being sold out so if you're interested please let me know ASAP.

The fish cakes turned out great, all gone and arguing over who gets the most. They were dead easy to make too and i think they'd be great for a meal while camping. Here's the recipe:

1 lb. Fish (any kind)
5 Large Potatoes
3 Tbsp. chopped onion
2 Eggs, beaten
1/2 c. Bread crumbs (optional)
1 Tbsp. water
Salt and Pepper to taste

Peel and chop potatoes. Place in pot along with fish and enough water to cover. Boil until potatoes are soft. Drain and mash together. Add eggs and other ingredients and mix well. Shape into patties and coat in bread crumbs if you wish. Fry in a well greased pan until browned, turn and fry the other side. Serve hot.

This recipe is flexible as to what spices you add and the type of fish you catch and use. I've heard of everything from salmon, to tilapia, to shark. I like to add garlic and lots of pepper to ours and I find the addition of some fine dry bread crumbs holds everything together quite nicely.

As you're frying the fish cakes you can use the pot to cook rice or veggies and be super efficient with your pots.

So does that give you incentive to go fishing? I think we're going to renew our fishing permits this year and head out for some nice relaxing fishing, especially if we ever get the boat finished. It basically needs a coat of marine paint and two seats put in it and then it's good to go. I see kids permits are now not needed so that's easier than getting them one, even if it was free. And now it can all be done online so that's easy too.

I've gotta go and get back to doing my books.

Elizabeth

The Goat gets a Name

We have decided that to honour our friend Byung Soo who has been with us for the past 5 weeks, we are going to name an animal after him. Unfortunately, we only have girls so we've decided that our newest little black haired beauty, a Nigerian Dwarf goat, will be named "Sue". Her mother is named "Blackberry". Speaking of which, if it rains this weekend, I'm going to go looking for early blackberries next week to make jam!

Things at the farm have heated up. It's so dry that as of today I believe we've not had rain for 8 weeks now. Not even a light shower. It's supposedly going to rain this weekend but honestly, I'm not holding my breath. I might make some gutter diversions though anyways to channel some water into the pond of a storage bin like the old pool. If it does rain, I don't want to waste it! This has been the driest summer I've ever experienced, not good for gardens and lawns.

The other greenhouse beds have been built by Simon and Byung Soo, 2 of our wwoofers so they're ready to be put in place and the greenhouse hoops erected around them. Today looks to be another scorcher so we'll do outside work once it cools down again later this afternoon. The squash will need more water tonight too.

In anticipation of rain, we may plant some hard red winter wheat, but I'll check the forecast first. It wouldn't do to have it germinate and then turn dry again. We did plant buckwheat though. I sprinkled it on while the guys were tilling last weekend. It's a small patch so I can water by hand if needed. I mainly planted it for the bees to enjoy. Speaking of bees, I should check them today. It's been a few weeks since we introduced the new queen. We know she was laying but I want to see if they need feeding as it's so dry there are fewer wild flowers. This was a problem last year too. The buckwheat is a fast growing summer cover crop that bees love so that will be helpful as fall begins. It should help them store some honey for winter. And buckwheat honey is also one of our favourites. Dark and delicious!

I have to run. I'll let you know how the day progresses. I want to hang out laundry but it's so smoky we'll have to see.

Best Wishes.

WWOOF!

No. This is not a post about our dog. I wanted to let you know how our wwoofers are working out this year.

What is WWOOF? It's an organization that allows people to trade work for room and board on organic farms. Basically, they come and volunteer on the farm for upto 5 hours a day, and we give them a place to sleep and meals. It's really terrific. The canadian wwoof website is

We have Byung Soo from Korea who is a total gem. He's a hard worker and has taught the kids lots about life in Korea so that they appreciate a bit better how good their life is in Canada. He's been here for a little over a month so far and has really become part of the family. We tell him he needs to come back and open his optometry practice here.

Simon arrived a week ago. He's from Germany and we're his last stop before heading back to Germany in a week. He's energetic and hard working too, and has a great sarcastic sense of humour so of course he gets along really well with both Chris and myself.

Yu Jin has also been here a week and is a great kitchen helper as well as learning how to look after animals and she works outside along with the boys too. She's funny and keeps the boys on their toes. She's also a great cook and we're looking forward to home made Korean food for dinner one night this week.

With all the extra help it frees us up to work on other things. We've also got one greenhouse finished, one planned for this week, and lots of roto-tilling done in preparation for fall planting. The only bad thing about that was that the tiller seems to be missing some tines on one side and it's very slow and hard work. The guys don't complain but I feed them well to make up for it. I rented the tiller so I hope I don't get dinged too much when I return it. It's going to need 3 new tines. I wish I'd inspected it before bringing it home but hindsight is always 20/20.

Gotta run and get some work done.