Fields of Plenty.....fingers crossed!

We decided to cultivate 3/4 of an acre this year. At first we thought might take on an acre and a half but in the end made the decision to stay small and not go too crazy. First of all we 40 planted hybrid poplars along our north border to protect us from the cold winter winds and drift of any herbicides or pesticides from the field next door. We will probably cut them down in next spring so they bush out to get a decent hedge row. Then we started tilling the soil and have planted onions, leeks, spinach, carrots, beets, parsnips, bush beans, peas, kale, broccoli and assorted lettuces in the northern field (aprox 1/4 acre).

We have Chickens!

A few weeks ago Kris picked up 33 day old chicks of various heritage breeds chosen for laying and meat ability as we don't know their sex yet. We have Barred Rock, Buff Orpingtons, Silver Laced Wyandottes and one unknown, possibly a Rhode Island Red. There was loads to learn: what to feed them, how to house them etc. For the first few weeks we had them in the house as the temperature was consistent and we could keep a close eye on them. Unfortunately, one of the chicks took a nose dive in the water feeder and never made it out so we were down to 32 chicks. A few days later I was cleaning one of their bums, which sometimes get blocked off, and returned to the room only to find Lucy in their brooding box, chasing after the innocent chicks. Two of them got a serious shock but seemed fine until the next day when we found one laying dead. On closer inspection it looked like Lucy could have broken one of its bones. So now we have 31 and they are doing great - they are out of the stinky brooder box and into their new quarters in the stable. Our German helpers Kevin and Dominic have made a Fort Knox so hopefully they will be protected from any critters that might want a meal. Hopefully we'll have some eggs in a few months!

The Slow Life Revolution

Most of us have heard of the slow food movement of wanting to cook with local produce rather than pre-prepared meals from the supermarkets etc., which is great, but I want to take the concept to all areas of life. I feel like the best things in life come from making an effort. In London cycling was the best way to get around. Not only were you connected with your outdoor surroundings, getting fit, riding for free and potentially getting to your destination quicker but you didn't have the stress of traffic, cramped spaces and body odor which you paid for. To me it was a no brainer and to me living in the countryside is much the same. It feels great to do things yourself, which means not having to drive anywhere or buy anything - stuff which I generally don't enjoy. The best travel experiences I've had have been by foot hiking in the mountains or on my bike in the middle of nowhere! Bring back the middle ages, I say! Well, not quite. I do believe modern life has plenty to offer but there is a ton of stuff we could really do without and shouldn't have to work all day to buy. Our friends Devan and Charlotte built a tiny home and are avoiding all the issues of debt etc
http://www.livinglarge180.com/

We have plenty of tools at our disposal to live really comfortably. One of my old work colleagues from the Pedal to Petal bicycle collective in Victoria, BC called Matt used to talk about some Americans whose goal was to retire as early as possible. Matt hardly ever used to pay for travel and took freight trains all over and luckily I got to join him on one such journey. Hopefully we can follow this philosophy all our lives slowly and enjoying it all the way. We'll just have to build up our skills slowly before we buy any woodlots or pack horses!

All Grain Brewing

Now that we finally have settled we thought we should really pursue the self sufficient life. For Kris that means making bread, soap and generally cooking up a storm but for me apart from the fruit and vegetable growing it means getting serious about making beer. Finally it's time to have ultimate control over all the ingredients by brewing from scratch. At its essence beer is about four ingredients: water, malted barley, hops and yeast. Thanks to homebrewing legend Charlie Papazian I have a fairly good idea of the process in theory but as ever the practice isn't always the same.....My first brew involved some back breaking hauling of 9 gallons of water from the upstairs bathtub and some wort chilling in the snow. Thankfully Kris gave me the bright idea of filling the brewpot with a pitcher and our kitchen sink now has an adapter to the copper tubing that cools the beer before adding the yeast. Genius. Anyway I feel like I'm on the road to a lifetime of brewing. Yeehaw! Below is the brew in the bag technique on the go.

1899

This photo was on the kitchen wall when we moved in and remains there today. It's a bit like a horror movie with their expressionless faces, but they had to stand there motionless for a long time, whilst they waited for the exposure to finish, so smiles were out of the question! When we really know what we're doing we may have to get a couple of horses and trade in the tractor. Also gutted that the old upstairs windows are no longer but we're tempted to paint the outside trim like it is below. What colour do you think?

Smashing the sod

On Sunday we had the double fortune of having two experienced farmers come to the farm. I think I could write a blog just on local legends! Brian came from round the corner to plow up an acre of our land with incredible straight lines. Brian has an organic apple orchard and makes vinegar too. His father Keith made an apple juice machine from a photo he saw in a magazine and is still concocting various plans well into his eighties, like an apple concentrate machine - oh and he has a steam engine powered car which I was lucky enough to ride in last Autumn. Dave, another organic farmer, built his own house and lives off grid - need I say more? That was certainly my dream a few years ago, but now I know that building is not my forte!

Rhubarb and a Walnut tree

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of checking out a friendly retired Woodville resident David's property and returned with a couple of treats. David is a bit of legend. Not only does he grow lots of his own food but he refurbishes old tractors and has 1 of 6 1934 Massey Ferguson orchard tractors from before they invented tires. On top of being a grower and a mechanic, he also has done loads of the construction of his own house - the chimney, reupholstered furniture and he has all of the National Geographics ever printed! Anyway, he loaded up my truck with plenty of rhubarb and a walnut tree - go perennials!

Greenhouse Construction

One of the first challenges of spring was to get our 2nd hand greenhouse up, which sounds like an easy task: 32 feet long, metal arches sunk in the ground and one piece of plastic. Oh, and I've done this a few times before. But like most things to do with me and DIY, I generally don't make life easy for myself and this proved to be another addition to the catalogue of 'how not to do it'. It turns out that every greenhouse is pretty different. Londoner let loose with a few tools....watch out! Anyway, we got the anchoring posts in pretty quickly (not quite straight! and I morphed a few of the posts before realizing that putting wood on top whilst using the sledgehammer helps keep the metal poles in the right shape). I managed to find some replacement posts and learned that you really can go through steel with a drill. Yes, I'm learning! The frame was fairly quick to go up, but the Annapolis valley is windy so we  had to wait a long time to roll on the plastic. Thankfully our neighbours Greg and Mark (plus my beautiful tractor) came to the rescue and we got the plastic on during some gusty winds. Mark got in the bucket of the tractor and hauled it down to the end then it was time to hang on for dear life and fasten it quick before we ended up in Maine. Note to self: cover up all sharp edges with duct tape to avoid holes and allow for plastic tightening. With the help of my Mum (the blind leading the blind), we constructed the ends in a couple of days once the winds had died down, but the plastic was flapping around for ages - all the locals now have their premonitions confirmed - these guys are rookies! Kris and I just polished off the doors and somehow it worked out that we got them almost exactly the size of a piece of plywood 8ft by 4ft. Pure luck as our "blueprints" (sketched on a post-it note) didn't include any measurements. How long is it going to last? Place your bets. Put it this way, if we have some strong winds or a hurricane look out for random news stories of flying greenhouses! Those of you in England might even get a freebie.

Woodville

Woodville is a small collection of houses consisting of a few hundred people, mostly from a handful of families. A lot of people have roots here that go back as many as five generations! There's a great book one local woman wrote several years ago, tracing the history of Woodville's residents through each of the houses in town, and we were lucky to get a copy from our home's previous owner (along with an incredible framed photo of our house taken in the late 19th century!). We love being in a place that has such a rich history, and it's one of the things we felt was missing when we lived on the west coast.

The old school in town has been converted to a community hall, which is used for events and has a very popular gym downstairs. There are a few fun events throughout the year, such as the Christmas potluck and market, but the largest get together is the spring Apple Blossom Chicken BBQ, held at the Boates' organic orchard, which raises lots of money for the community - we can't wait!

Every Saturday morning during the winter months, a Woodville household hosts a coffee party, which between 30 and 50 people come out to. Coffee, tea, and tasty treats are on offer, and it's been a great way to get to know our neighbours quickly, which we didn't expect, arriving in the winter. We're hosting the upcoming party, so the pressure has been on to get a few renovations done before then!

There is also a volunteer fire dept, which I'm now a member of - part of my continuing education on how to be a real Canadian man (I might never get there!). There is so much to learn and they need drivers for the tankers......watch out! Kris has joined the knitting, stitching and hooking group, otherwise referred to as the 'stitch and bitch'. Every week the ladies get together to do crafts and basically just gossip away! Other notable winter escapades include brewing beer, redecorating the house, and baking. As you can see, the double oatmeal stout and the west coast IPA needed the helping hand of Lucy. 46 litres of beer should help us make it through the blizzards.

Despite the weather, spring is definitely coming soon and we're so excited to get working outside. We took part in a meeting with other organic growers in NS last week, working to expand the small organic farming sector here, which was a good way to meet people who have been running successful farms in the area. Our seeds have also arrived, and there's lots of planning to be done over the next month or so!

Meet Lucy!

We've been wanting a dog for years, so words can't describe how happy we are to finally have a puppy! She's an 8 week old Blue Heeler or Australian Cattle Dog which originally was a cross between a Dingo and a Dalmatian.

Tandem Organic Farm: 8 acres of land, a 175 year old farmhouse and 2 barns!

Our Journey

Kris and I met in a karaoke booth in the Summer of 2006 in Fukuoka, which is on the southern island of Kyushu in Japan. Since then, we've been searching for a fulfilling life that would give us a chance to work outdoors whilst continually learning new skills. After a couple of couple of years working in Victoria, BC (me organic farming and Kris for the provincial government), we felt that it was time to settle down and find some land. We drew up all sorts of lists about where this place would be (Ontario? BC? England? USA?), and in May 2013 we decided to check out the East coast of Canada. I drove a Smart car from Vancouver to Toronto, and by Michigan I had acquired a fan club on the US Highways with plenty of fist pumping as my miniature vehicle cruised across the vast prairies of North America! We arrived at Halifax airport and were greeted with an epic pink sunset...was it meant to be? Well, the following week was filled with constant drizzle and grey clouds, which amazingly didn't deter us from feeling an almost instant connection with the Annapolis Valley. Countless strangers helped us on our farm hunt (a guy named Peter even drove us around for an hour), and we returned to BC with a wallet full of phone numbers. Such kind people made us want to return and settle down to life in the countryside and we understood why so many Nova Scotians out West want to return to their homeland eventually.

So, in September we packed up Vic, our trusty 1992 Volvo station wagon, and headed East from Victoria to Kingston. A flat tire was the only blemish on a rainy 5 day trip over the Rockies and Prairies to the beautiful lakes in Ontario. We considered ourselves seriously lucky that we got our flat just as we rolled into Kenora, ON, as there is literally nothing for miles in either direction from the city and definitely no cell reception!

I then drove from Kingston to Nova Scotia on my own to see a house we had put an offer on. I camped outside a boozer in Edmunston, NB and feeling pretty hungover, was in desperate need of a cup of Earl Grey tea and decided to hunt down an independent cafe in a random town off the Highway. I found just what I was looking for in Perth Andover and was persuaded to have breakfast too. I went to pay and was told it was settled up by the couple next to me who had already left. Wow! I hadn't exchanged one word with these people and they had bought me breakfast. Amazing. As I spoke to the owner another couple asked where in Nova Scotia I was headed, so I explained that I was going to look at a house in Lakeville. They couldn't believe it as they were from the next village in the Valley. Unbelievable. Greg and Elsie told me I could camp in their village, Woodville, and help their neighbour with his apple harvest. In the end, the house in Lakeville had terrible clay soil and I ended up camping at the Boates' Apple orchard for a few weeks before Kris made it out. After more house hunting, we found a beautiful property in Woodville where we had already started making friends, so we decided to put in an offer, and before we knew it our offer was accepted.

Now our dream of living off the land could become a reality. Years of inspiration from countless sources could be put into practice. We can't wait to learn as many skills as we can muster and hope many inevitable failures can be turned into successes and food for our community.

The homestead