shopping & garden planning

I called my Mother in Law this morning for advice on where to plant the stuff we bought at the farmers market yesterday...her advice was full to mostly sunny for all of it. But also recommended I get it in the ground right away. So I started some serious garden planning today (although quite late according to all the seed packages I probably should have started them6 to 10 weeks ago indoors)

The previous owners left a box full of potatoes downstairs- and as yo can see they're already sprouting, I knew I should probably cut them into chunks, but my Mother in law reccomended smaller chunks than I was thinking with only one or 2 "eyes" per piece. She also said to put them into the ground right away, and when they are about 8 inches or so, to create hills around them... (again more stuff I never knew)

I went into town and got a bunch (39 to be exact) of seed packages, they we're 3 for a dollar at the dollar store,so I'm not totally sure what kind of quality we'll be getting, but since I knew the garden was going in late I didn't want to spend a million bucks on seeds that might not work anyways.

From there we zipped over to Peavey Mart- Which is quickly replacing Wal-mart as my fav. store (gasp) but seriously, Their prices are way better than any of the other stores that carry the same kind of stuff...the chicken wire on the right of the pic for example? reg. 15.99 vs.17.99 at home hardware- plus it was on sale for only 12.99 so a 5 dollar a roll differnce.

Anyways I picked up some carrot and pea seeds at Peavey Mart as well as two types of onions. And then we got the driveway reflectors so Chris can actually find our house in the dark. lol. As well as a ton or at least gallons and gallons of white barn paint for the fence I want to do out front (and hopefully the window frames, and some touch ups on the out builings as well).

Speaking of paint~ that's another example of Peavey Mart pricing- We'd priced the big 5 gallon bucket at Home hardware as well as ace hardware on saturday>HH started at $99 and went up. Ace started at 135 and up. Peavey mart? on sale for $5 dollars off making it 64.99 but their regular price is still only $70. seeing why I'm totally falling in love with peavey mart yet?

Mending fences

It was a big FENCE day around here,
We we're excited because the previous owner was true to his word and showed up with new gate (Yay- no more plywood gate to the outbuildings) and put them up today to replace the gate~ which were actually pieces of their horse trailer that they took with them.

Daddy and Nathan nailed the few boards that were falling off in the one front paddock

and this....has been an issue since the snow melted and I realized what it is...

Our front field has water in it, which I assumed was just standing water from the winter that would evaporate soon enough...umm. NO.

this is apparently actually a small dugout...small by livestock standards I guess, but it happens to be about 10 feet deep in the middle and is only a few hundred yards from the front of the house.

I've been having nightmares about a two year old running straight into it.

So tonight after the little guy was in bed Chris and I started installing garden wire fencing to the inside of the rail fence. I figure it will probably only keep Nathan back for so long, but at least he can no longer just dive under or through the fence, He'll have to carefully climb it, which will hopefully give me time to catch him, if he makes a break for it!!!

gettting excited about the garden

We went and explored the farms market today~ I suppose it's early in the season...there were only three tables set up.

Eggs
Homemade quilts

and plants

I was actually kind of excited about the plants, I think getting cutting off local plants hopefully means they'll do better than if I randomly plant seeds.

So I bought a rhubarb plant

2 raspberry plant

4 strawberries

and some chives.

I have plans to go into town and get seeds and fence paint this week, so hopefully the garden will be in soon.

farmers market listings

find alberta approved farmers markets in your area

http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/app21/rtw/markets/markets_map.jsp

Government RED Tape

Well,
The issue of whether we're going to the auction is solved!!!

I thought I'd look up some more info on sheep, and the different breeds etc. before making any bad decisions about animals spur of the moment.
Came across Alberta lamb producers website.
http://www.ablamb.ca/
which actually seems like a good resource, but it set me off on a massive hunt that had nothing to do with sheep tonight.

In the news section of the website I came across an article about "Is your livestock operation legal?" which mentioned how a Premise ID number must be provided for every transaction or transportation of all "recordable" animals. On January 1, 2009, regulations requiring premise identification became law as part of the ANIMAL HEALTH ACT.

meaning we cannot buy any of the animals ie. sheep, alpacas, llamas, or cattle (plus a ton of others) until we obtain a Premise ID number. since all bills of sale must now include the premise ID of both the buyer and seller.

There is a Premise ID application form on the government of Alberta website. But I'll have to call on Monday for some help filling out all the information. Since it requires information like maximum herd capacities for the land...and to be honest I have no idea how many head of cattle or sheep or pretty much animal could be supported on 30 acres.
- so the application form is going to be like 5 pages of mind numbing information...and then you get to snail mail it to them, and wait!
I LOVE GOVERNMENT RED TAPE.

torn

We're a little up in the air about tomorrow.
There is an auction of Exotic Birds and livestock close by, and I really want to go.
But with no trailer or truck buying something will be nearly impossible unless we can get it delivered.
We are also expecting the "old owners" to show up some time tomorrow (probably around the time the auction starts) to pick up the rest of their junk...I mean stuff. And we kind of want to be here for that- since they wandered off with 2 of the pasture gates last time they were here. The promised they are bringing other gates and will hang them this weekend so we can't be to upset (I guess they were actually using panels off their horse trailer as gates) but I think we want to be here to ensure that everything happens as it suppose to be.
But I'm still torn between wanting to be here to supervise and the "fun" of going to an auction. We've only been to one ever, and they are pretty exciting to me...plus I have a soft spot for them since that's were we collected Miss Maggie from.

A new animal obsession

We've been discussing SHEEP -for quite sometime. Other than I think the pastures need some work and we don't actually have a trailer or a trailer hitch for that matter, to start transporting animals yet.
But then I was on Kijiji this morning looking for another dog, and came across these guys...

Aren't they the cutest?

2 young male alpacas-best part? FREE
so I did some quick research
apparently ALPACAS are raised for their hair- which contains no lanolin- so is hypoallergenic.
They also only cost about the equivalent of a dog to feed.
They do well when mixed with sheep or goats, and you can comfortable have between 5 to 10 per acre- making them a perfect acreage pet/animal.
but the awesome news for us, is that they are supposedly really easy to transport....

"They are stress resistant, load and travel calmly and can be transported in the family mini van, station wagon, utility vehicle, or horse trailer. Some breeders have been known to transport their alpacas in small planes. Once enroute, the alpaca lies down and enjoys the ride."

COOL- another use for a Minivan!

anyways, I guess the owner already has someone coming out to look on Sunday, so we we're asked to call back Sunday and see if they'd been "adopted" or not. So we probably won't end up with these cuties, but the research was worth the time and kind of interesting anyways

chicken coop

I'd set aside about a thousand dollars to build a chicken coop here,

So I was absolutely thrilled, when I finally got into the back of one of the outbuildings and found this...

It's a little ragged and for sure needs some repairs and some cleaning, but has everything from laying boxes, and perches

It's even equipped with a heat lamp already. So minor repairs, Kicks butt on having to start from scratch (was that a pun? chicken scratch???)

The outside run area of the coop


Nathan and I exploring the outside parts

...and Nathan demonstrating how the chicken can move from inside to outside!

note

any post may be few and far between for a bit since we do not have internet out there yet...

keep your fingers crossed that'll we'll have access again within a week instead of over a month like our last move!!!

and so it begins

WOW- I don't even know where to start.
We took possession of the acreage yesterday at noon. And it's been an event filled time ever since.

Nathan and Maggie are in absolute heaven running around checking out everything. They'd be thrilled to spend all day every Day out there playing and exploring and climbing and carrying on. which is great except that we need an extra pair of eyes. Because the moving van still needs to be unloaded, and it's hard to carry boxes and watch what those two are in to.- but we're getting there. We're back to take the last of the stuff from the condo today...and then everything should be in...not unpacked mind you, but at least in.

Our night was chaotic last night.

Nathan loves running around outside, but wasn't to thrilled about the house...or sleeping in the house. In fact he was down right temper tantrum. It took us 5 hours to get him to go to bed, only to have him wake up 2 hours later screaming again.
I think we didn't bring enough of his toys in our first trip, so he wanted to go "home" to his toys, and his stuff. He kept asking me all night..."boots" "coat" "car ride". Not to mention its pitch black at night...so we ended up leaving his light on all night just to calm him down.

and then on top of Nathan, freaking out, Chris goes outside at about 1 am. and there is coyotes howling in the next field...and there's our city dog fast asleep.
She came in and slept in the mudroom after that.
but were having some serious problems figuring out what to do with her.
If she's not chained up, or being watched she wanders off to go "exploring" but if she is chained especially outside at night...she's pretty much coyote bait...especially since she can obviously hear them but doesn't seem to think it might be a problem in the least.
I'm thinking we may have to find a dog that has already lived on an acreage or farm and adopt it to give Maggie some boot camp training fast!!!

Although the highlights of last night for me,
was hearing 2 owls in the trees across the road,
being able to see stars again
and finding out the back of one of the out buildings is already set up for chickens...complete with nesting boxes, heat lamps and perrches...I was absolutley in heaven with this little discovery (it was too snowy, and unaccesiblle every other time we've been there to see this little hen house) This means I won't have to put ou a big outlay of cash to build anything...it looks like with a good clean out and a few minor repairs to the chicken wire we could be up and running with come chicks right away...so happy!!!