A Seemingly Surprise Visit

Well the day finally arrived where we moved into our new abode...the panabode! And on that day came a great gift to me. Friends Naryn and Lesley from good ol' Clear Lake Manitoba came to visit for a couple days on their way through to Fredericton. Now for those of you who say wait a minute, St. Andrew's is on a peninsula, there is no "passing thru", this is true. So they came, they saw and they made delicious food for us and a spiffy new sifter. (Thank you very much Madame et Monsieur. I hope you had a great rest of your trip.)

Our biggest lesson on the farm to date...constant vigilance with the cold frames. They are like freakin' babies! We have burnt our plants twice and possibly froze them once due to lack of attention. So our non-farmer minds are slowly turning into multitasking farmer minds.

For all of you who don't know we are in the company of Kevin and Carol(the farm managers. They are our saving grace when it comes to being newbs. Carol hooked us up with a sod cutter and even if it was just out of pity for our sorry sod digging selves, it was still very kind! Kevin has been the know-it-all(in a good way) go to guy. He has helped us out with so many things, even pulling the porcupine quills out of Bailey's mouth at midnight! Bless their souls my oh my.

Well folks, there is a lot more to say and Mike still has a blog to write so I'll leave it to him. Just be aware that if we sound delirious or strange it is because we have started our night watches and are slowly becoming werewolves...owwwwwww.

A Farmer's Meme

I AM: An Organic Farmer in the East Coast
I WANT: things to grow. Everything! (including our crops hopefully)
I WISH: for the deer to not eat our crops
I HATE: the word hate
I MISS: the ease of big city transportation
I FEAR: that we will be mocked (they call that farming! hahahah)
I HEAR: the noises of a natural symphony
I WONDER: if someone will ever cross the stars I stare at
I REGRET: our societies pillaging and plundering of this planet
I AM NOT: perfect
I DANCE: rarely, but I did last night to keep warm
I SING: even less frequently than I dance
I CRY: when emotionally overwhelmed
I AM NOT ALWAYS: focused
I MAKE: or at least try to make yummy food for us
I WRITE: not as often as I would like
I CONFUSE: deer, by standing out in the field for a quarter of the night
I NEED: to sleep better
I SHOULD: make some breakfast now
I START:ed trellising yesterday
I FINISH: this blog by thanking everyone else for their memes, they were delightful
I TAG: Everyone that didn't tag me!

p.s.
A picture of our new digs, and a picture of us standing in front of it.

Hello Everybody,

We just moved into our more permament home this last weekend. The Panabode! It's a lovely little rustic cabin right next to our field. So now we're actually at 80 Bantry Bay Farm Rd, instead of 62, for all of those lovely packages you're wanting to send. We will be posting some pictures of the panabode and things on our website and perhaps with a later blog post. We're are all really excited to be in our new home, and just trying to get everything unpacked and sorted out, while trying to dig the field, and plant vegetables. It's a very busy time.

We went to Earth Day in St. Andrews on Saturday, and we had a little display about Food Choices and the Earth. We met some more people there that were very encouraging about what we were doing, and got a chance to talk more with people we already know. We also saw a presentation on Fair Trade, one on marine litter, and another one on climate change. All very good. It's amazing to see how many people here in this town care about these issues, and are interested in making a change. I think we all felt a renewed enthusiasm for farming/gardening, and providing people with sustainable(and hopefully delicious) food choices.

A Delightful Ditty...

Kath's Sister Nicole sent us a poem. And Kath figured it should go on the blog so here it is:

Ode to Bantry Bay Organic Farm

Yo Yo, How's the gang at Bantry Bay
I hear you're cooking, digging and laying hay
Having bonded with Shandy, Belinda and Bailey
I'm sure you're saying "this ain't bad, I guess I'll stay"

Spring has arrived on the shores of St. Andrew's-By-The-Sea
And your onions are shouting, "Plant MEEE, plant MEEEE!"
The peppers and tomatoes are eager as well
When all the seeds are planted, a 'garden party' it will be.

The team is armed with passion, zeal and zest!
Ready to work hard and play hard with little time to rest.
With all the love and energy the Organic Four* invest
The Bantry Bay Farm is sure to be the Best!

Xo Nic

*The Organic Four may you use your super powers to spread grassroots health, wisdom, strength and pure silliness.

We thank you Nic for such a delightful poem! And we challenge some others to write some of your own!

An Update!

Well it seems that we haven't done a post in awhile so I am here for an update. Since Kath got back we have been enjoying the nice weather by being outside preparing the fields. We have chosen a main location that we would like to farm, but we are listening to the advice of our network of experienced farmers and we aren't putting all our eggs in one basket and trying some mini-gardens on some other chunks of land.

For now are removing all the sod, from last years hay crop, on the main field. We are attempting to do as much of the work as we can by hand, but after doing a fair amount of sod removing we have decided to take some more advice and get a sod cutter. So we have rented it for next weekend and it will be a sod cutting party.

These past few days have been mostly planning stages, we are making sure we have a game plan for everything we do and there is lots on the go.

As for things that are actually growing we have a fair amount of onions, brasicas, and a wee bit of celery growing in soil blocks. There is also a few containers growing some tomatoes, some flowers and some rose bush clippings.

I think that is pretty much it as it goes for farms stuff. Bailey is doing well, always wanting the ball thrown while we are working in the fields. Pretty soon things will get very busy very fast and we are excited!