I took a look at the date on my last post and am more than a bit sad that I haven’t sat down to fill in the gap with an update of some sort. Where did February and half of March go anyway?
Mary finally finished up the slog that was January and February, taking a trip to the East Kootenay finals with her basketball team in the third week of February, which by all accounts could not have happened sooner. Mary loves basketball, but does not love the every night practice between basketball and volleyball and more than a few late nights as we travelled to neighbouring communities to find gym space since the community center closed. I was also grateful for the reprieve and her high intensity volleyball team schedule seems like light duty after the preceding weeks.
With basketball behind us, we are focusing on the dueling volleyballers in the house, both on different practice and travel schedules to and from Calgary about every 2nd weekend. The Armada is protesting and is starting to show its age. I keep talking nice to it and hoping it holds out until next year when we can trade it in for another SUV-like vehicle that maybe isn’t quite as big and maybe better on gas. It has been good to us, but with Margaret going to Lethbridge in the fall for University, I’m not sure we need the family bus quite as much as we do now. Last weekend, Margaret joined us for Mary’s volleyball tournament in Calgary so we could do a final grad dress fitting and do a bit of accessory shopping. The weekend went well and we scratched a couple of things off her list, but the drive home was less awesome with some serious wind having me steering cockeyed just to stay straight. And just this past weekend Lizzie and I travelled back from Calgary in a white out, crawling down highway 22 only to find the Crowsnest closed when we got to the junction. The white out and the closure were both a surprise – the Alberta road reports did not share that tidbit earlier in the day. We found a township road that we could use to get around the closure and keep us on our way home – earning the Armada a pat on the dash and a quiet thank you for its capabilities…and that’s the last time I leave Calgary for the dead zone between there and Frank’s Slide with only a half tank of gas. Full tanks only from now on!
Speaking of Margaret, the clock is ticking and were are staring down the calendar watching the days roll by. It won’t be long before she is off to school and we will be feeling like there’s a bit more space here than there should be. What I’ll do when they’re all gone, I don’t know. Margaret and Mary were both out of the house today and Lizzie sank into misery for the lack of sisters to hang out with. This could also have been because she had to clean her room. Its a toss up. It is spring break after all, and it seems like everyone but us has left town for warmer and more entertaining spaces.
With our lives dominated by club sports we have had precious little time to get moving on the farm. Lucky for us, Mother Nature doesn’t see any rush either and has left us with a load of snow to get out of the way so before we can find the garden. I did do some planning, stealing index cards from one of the girls and mapping out a 2×4 ft grid of garden plots with a dizzying array of vegetables to get started. I think we have about an acre of garden to plant…time to get busy indoors if the snow won’t get on its way!
I am getting quite excited about the garden, despite the lack of cooperation from the earth around us. The plot will be split this year, the garlic having been planted in the front garden in the fall and currently tucked in under some landscaping cloth and cardboard until we thaw a bit. The Rhubarb, horseradish, strawberries, and the lone surviving raspberry are still there as well, so we’ve got some transplanting to do if we are going to move all of it behind the house.
This year will be focused on short-season winners…root vegetables! Surprise! We have some others on the list, but really its all about what will grown underground and what is truly frost-hardy. We had great luck with carrots, radishes, beets, and onions last year. The brussels sprouts did well (until the moths got them). The garlic was really good too and if I can scale all of that up, we’ll be selling at a roadside farmstand in no time. Lots of things to try out this year too. We’re going to try corn, and take another stab at cucumbers and zucchini. Last year we put them out too early and a late frost took them out. I’d love to get runner beans going again, and have found a black version to try. We have lettuces and chard to plant to which will hopefully alleviate the problem of finding lettuce that is grown somewhere other than the US.
Jeff has acquired a used post-pounder and Mary’s 3D printer is starting to pay off. He and Mary spent an evening last week designing a part to connect some part of the post pounder to some part of the tractor (I wasn’t really listening). I was impressed at the result, having saved us a trip to who knows where for who knows how much money to find this missing part. Now the fun begins. We have A LOT of fencing to fix before we can put any livestock on this land and earn our way to farm status.
So our spring chores will get us into shape for sure, with loads of clean up to do, gardens to dig, and fencing to put in and repair. We might even squeeze in building a small shed-like workshop so Jeff has somewhere to put tools and a covered workspace. The workshop will have a nice spot attached for the wood shed which we also need closer to the house. We have loved the new fireplace in the house and after figuring out the right way to load it and what size wood works best, we have stopped having to fight to light it.
Jeff is spending more time at the office each week as EVR moves to a work from the office model properly in July. No more working from home for him sadly. And work is picking up for me too. I have added another client to my roster and am enjoying the variety that three very different projects brings to my day. Great people all round which helps make the work easier for sure.
Till the next time…hopefully not so long in between!