Saturday, August 27, 2016

Beautiful bounty of bees

I am in awe of how beautifully adundant the wildlife is here. There is so much to see and take in, from little to large. It is one healthy and thriving ecosystem right in our own backyard!
Recently I went to see how my newly planted bushes were getting on and noticed the volume not only in bodies of bees but the volume of the loud buzzing they made whilst visiting the bush at the front of our house.
It makes me super excited about the prospect of our own bee's next Spring!





Nature is so beautiful :) We should cherish every moment.

Tightening the purse strings

Since our move we have come to realize just how much we benefited from growing our own garden and raising our own meat. I cannot fathom how one free range chicken can cost $25. Prices like this have shocked us, it has meant that our purse strings and budget have been working hard! Luckily, I am no stranger in feeding my family healthy and economically.
This was our latest meal, two days worth of leftovers which included a bit of pork chop, some homemade macaroni cheese with beans and roasted vegetables. I added some additional mushrooms, onion and garlic to the dish. Then, some mild curry paste and a couple of tablespoons of yogurt were added. Served on a nice thick piece of homemade brown bread.


Filling and Frugal

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Apples, apples and apples

Hear on the farm we are having a run on fallen apples. Most unfortunately have been eaten by ants, apple worms or wasps and not fit for use. These I am sure will appeal to the local bunch of apple eating deer. They are not fussy about what their apples look or taste like.
With somewhere around eight or nine apple trees around we are collecting the best of the best to make appley delights.
Today, we made these simple, rustic and beautiful apple pies. The two smaller pies were made by the two youngest children, one of which wanted a handful of wild picked blueberries in there too!






The apples were cut into chunks and the larger pie was sprinkled with dark sugar before baking, yummy :)

Sunday, August 14, 2016

The latest feathery additions

Our poultry numbers are on the increase with the addition of 20 meat chicks and 10 guinea fowl keets. A couple of meat chick hens will no doubt be added to out heritage layer flock for future production but the rest, well, lets say they will have a happy life for a short while.
The guinea fowl will willingly gobble up the ticks, pesky mosquitoes and anything else that crosses their path. They bring much joy to our new homestead :)


Peeking Guinea!


Beautiful Goldenrod



Since our move here to Nova Scotia we have been amazed at the abundance and variety of wild flowers around, not only on our property but all over. We were used to seeing pesky weeds and crop sprayers that killed most wild flowers, shame.
These beautiful flowers are a huge food source for bees, wasps and butterflies. The Goldenrod is not only a wild food for the local insect population but also a wonderful food for us and boasts many medicinal properties. It is thriving on our property among a Smorgasbord of other amazing wild food sources. I intend to check out the edible parts in the next few days.




Sunday, August 7, 2016

Cherry Trees

Despite our drought and limited planting we did have three cherry tress that needed to be put in the ground. It has been very hot and humid and not kind planting weather for human or plant kind.
Today we finally mustered up the courage, and heavily laden with drinks we planted the cherry tree's. One Bing Cherry, one Stella Cherry and one Montmorency Cherry.


Start of the Orchard

Hopefully, in a couple of years time if they survive they will start to produce some wonderfully tasting cherries. I cannot wait!

Rain Dance and Water Recycling

We are currently in a drought, we have seen little to no rain for some weeks and this is causing problems with our new planting scheme that has unfortunately slowed down due to lack of water to water the newly planted enough for their survival.
We are now in emergency water recycling mode to at least try to save the garden and our latest additions from a dry death.
We are saving the water from washing up, scooping it out of the sink and using that on the garden. We are putting the plug in when we shower and using the bath water after bathing. This is the only way that we can conserve the water supply in our well and water the thirsty plants outside. We use natural washing up liquid so we don't need to worry about poisoning anything either!
We hope that we do not need to resort to jigging a very loud rain dance in the backyard, not only would that send the local deer population running for cover but it may also upset the family feline apple cart.
Lets hope for rain soon!





 As you can see from the photographs are garden area is so dry, even deep into the ground.

Monday, August 1, 2016

A Few Fishy Tails!

We are very lucky to have a few lakes that are within a short drive of our home, one of which is is less than five minutes away. After much talking about it we finally got the canoe and double kayak out on the water. We have been fishing from the shore with mixed luck, some days we would catch one or two smallish fish and on some days non.
The lake is teeming with fish, this is both good and bad! The bad side is the fish in question happen to be Bass and they are not fussy about what they eat, including the poor native species of fish that were once plentiful. So it would not be wrong to say a problem fish.
On the good side they are quite easy to catch, their greedy nature helps with that! We simply trolled a rooster tail lure behind the kayak and the canoe and the eager fish did the rest.


Cleaned and ready to cook


The fish were cleaned and sliced to allow the lemony thyme garlic butter I made soak into the them.


BBQ Fish ready to eat