So as many of you know, we share this property with another farmer and the owner as well as several of his friends living in various buses and trailers all on one side. It's kind of odd but it's his property and as long as they stay on their side, we stay on ours. Not what we signed up for when we moved here as it used to be very quiet, but what can you do?
It's suddenly quieter now that one of our 'neighbours' has been arrested for a forearms charge and the owner has had his tractor impounded for DUI. I believe there was a brief article in the Parksville Qualicum Beach News. See, you shouldn't drive any vehicle when you are or have been drinking. Not your mower, your bicycle, or your tractor. This was a case of being still drunk from the night before and driving the tractor. Don't do it!! It's dangerous, stupid, and will cost you a bundle in fines and impound fees. So now there is less traffic around here and less people too.
Ahhhhh, the peace and quiet! I miss it from when we were the only ones here.
I could actually hear the water trickling into the furrows when watering the potatoes this morning. It's getting hot and has been very dry so I gave each row a good flood with the hose. The greenhouse reached 50 degrees today so emergency measures were taken to cool it and the plants are all headed for the garden this evening and tomorrow morning. It's definitely much more comfortable to be working outside in the early hours or in the evening. It's a better time to water too as the plants have time to take up the water before the heat of the day and we lose less water to evaporation. Around here, indeed anywhere on a well, we are very conscious of how much water we use suring the dry months of the year which are typically August and September. Even once it starts raining again it takes a while for the water to soak down enough to make a difference to the wells. Ours is a surface well of 15 feet deep so when the water table drops...there goes our water!
In the garden things are starting to get much better. The peas have set some lovely pods and are still flowering like crazy so that's good. The corn and beans are doing well, carrots are slowly growing...but slowly. I'm going to water once it cools down and then add some more organic fertilizer by hand. I think it will be time to move the hoses around again and give the front pumpkin patch a good watering all evening too.
The animals are doing good though we've lost a goat...anyone seen a little white goat kid? Our escape artist pigs are sleeping, the sheep and alpacas are snoozing in the shade and looking forward to getting their pen moved again so they can have some fresh grass. The cows are munching their way through a nice tall field of grass as we speak and drinking a bathtub of water per day. A typical dairy cow drinks between 25 and 50 gallons per day. A sheep of our breed can drink 2 gallons or more, chickens can drink up to a half liter each, turkeys twice that much. A large hog eating 12 gallons of food will drink 24 gallons of water plus need some for wallowing and keeping cool. So as you can see, we don't just need water for toilet flushing and veggie watering.
Ok, enough about water. It's starting to cool a bit so I'm going to take the kids to the waterpark for a splash and a cool down.
Gotta run and get back to work.
Elizabeth
We had a dream, like so many others before us, to live a simple and sustainable life on our own organic farm... so we drove from Vancouver Island, British Columbia to the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, and we've been here nearly 6 years. We love life, learning, and sharing with others. Follow our adventures as we build a vibrant small family farm and work towards self-sufficiency using a combination of traditional methods, permaculture and original ideas.
