This winter

While Léo sleeps, I take a few moments to let you know about a few of the things we have been up to, in this beautiful snowy winter. 

1. First and foremost: enjoying Léo's presence, his personality, good nature, and his growing appetite!

Léo is 8 months! and he has 4 teeths :)

Visiting the Canadian cousins always makes us have a cold, but we are still in good spirits:)

hmmmm... sacred wild blueberries, yum!

Multi-flora rose taking over a tree

2. Removing the invasive plants on the homestead.  Every chance I get more than an hour outside, I spend it bush whacking through the heavy and often impenetrable thickets of multiflora rose, which over the years has taken over, completely cover and toppled over some areas of the native vegetation. To think that the government used to give this non-native plant for free to land owners to protect wildlife and soil erosion! This removal process has proven very meditative, slow, silent and oh-so-satisfying :)

Invasive multiflora rose thicket taking over

Take that you mean thorny plant!

It can take 3 to 6 mechanical removals per year for 2 to 4 years to eradicate the plant. ouf!

 I have been creating piles with the cuttings, placing them in the middle of the fields and soon we will be returning the 'waste' as valuable organic matter to enrich the soil :) through some awesome permaculture garden techniques that I have been slowly discovering while reading many a garden books in front of the fire (where I spend most ALL of my time), like the Edible Forest Landscape and Permaculture Garden.  Our favorite techniques at the moment include the Chicken Moat, German Mound, Tree garden and Grass into vegetables, and we hope to test them out this season and give you our feedback about which ones worked best here.

Our new farming and gardening library, beautiful wood piece found in the barn just last week!

 3. Building the greenhouse: It will have taken a year, but we are really almost done building our second-hand solarium/greenhouse. All of the glass panes are now in place, only a few triangular holes along the top of the wall remain to be sealed.

Adding the very last pane of glass

Just this morning, after the snow storm

Since there is no better time than today, we have set up a smaller temporary greenhouse in the house to accommodate our already germinating onions and such, until the official greenhouse is ready to receive them.

 4. Cleaning our tools.  A little bit of elbow grease, some steel wool and some linseed oil.  For this season, we plan to use the 'sand box' method which we just learned about in the book 'self-sufficient gardener'= a mix of sand and used oil that you dip your tools in every time you return them to the shed, cleans and sharpens them every time!

Cleaned and oiled

Still dirty

On a side note, Alex has also been doing quite a number on the entire barn, emptying it completely, vacuuming, cleaning, repairing, setting up his workshop, and we hope to be able this year to bring back the original barn door.  Just this paragraph wont give it justice, so we'll have to dedicate a post to it.

 

5. We played in the snow ;) With these constant snow storms we are loving the winter weather and enjoying more cross country outings than during last year's non-winter! 

Creating our own cross-country trails on the homestead

The snow just keeps coming :)

Snow shoeing at KLT's Holman Conservation Area

The snow was so deep at times, we were sinking to our waists

Léo taking a nap after a long walk (and me cutting more roses while he sleeps!)

We hope you are taking the time to enjoy the snow, the pure & fresh air, and letting yourself slow down a little bit in this most peaceful season. We cherish this time to reflect, dream and plan the season to come. Because spring is coming... soon enough.

We always love to share ideas and knowledge with like-minded people.  Please feel free to share comments, links or ideas with us about homesteading, gardening and sustainable lifestyles.

Until next time, be well.

First frost!

 

Our first frost happened in the night of Oct 12 this year, and the thought of up-coming snow filled my heart when I woke up the next morning (it's really silly, but the seasonal changes never cease to amaze me).  Seeing the miniscule icicles all over the vegetation was a reminder that soon we will be celebrating our first year on the homestead.

I was doubly thrilled because a few weeks back, during fall cleanup, I had moved my cold frames right on top of my garden beds, to lengthen the growing season for the few vegetables we have left, but also to protect them from the up-coming frost. We have been watching the weather on a daily basis, and I was eager to see if the cold frames would do everything that people claim they do.  Result: on October 13, on my daily morning walk around the grounds, I noted that the peppers, eggplants, ground cherries and squashes had succumbed to the cold, but that my carrots, parsley, lettuce and turnips were strong and still growing quite well under there little glass roofs.   The kale, my favorite green, doesn't need a cold frame yet.  There have been two frosts so far, and it is still tall and green :)

our garden taken over by frost, but inside the cold frames...

the warm lettuce and other greens are 7 degrees warmer and loving the fall temperatures :)

Léo, my garden helper

We are both loving his new entertainment center :)

Yesterday was a beautiful, unusually warm day, so I took advantage of the sun.

I don't know if you can tell the difference, but the parsley inside the cold frame is twice as big as the one outside.

My garden helper disguised as grass

Because of other pressing issues (painting before it gets too cold, redoing the mud room, fixing the gutters, etc), Alex has had his hands full and couldn't really work on the greenhouse.  Here are the latest developments: he has dug and put up the foundation posts (with some help from Andrew, a couch surfing visitor) and is nearly finished the network of drainage ditches which will receive the excess rain water from the roof when the rain barrels are full.  Soon, the walls will go up, Exciting!!!

Alex, reaching for many rocks in his 5 foot hand dug holes

The structural posts are up and drainage ditches in

With everything that we have done over the last 10 months, some of you have the impression that it is work work work on the homestead, but it is not so, there are plenty of opportunities to rest as well :)

Hunting mice is exhausting!

The boys during their evening nap

 Since we've been here, we have had many visitors on a constant basis.  In October it was our turn to do the visiting, with Léo's first vacation to Montreal.  Our first stop was of course the coolest co-op in the world www.coopdugrandorme.ca (ok ok... I'm a little biased), and Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue where we received a good dose of love from our friends over there (we miss you guys!).  Then, no Montreal trip would be complete without stopping at the TamTams, and Léo took part in the dancing :)

Beautiful Sunday at the TamTams

Tia Antonella :) and cousin Saja

We knew we were going to love our wood stove, but we are now realizing how much.  There is nothing better then cooking your food on (or in!) a nice hot wood fire.  And so, I am enjoying a nice spaghetti squash and tomato ratatouille, cooked on and in the wood stove, as I write this very late October blog.  Hopefully next time won't be too far away

Til next time, be well

Encounter of the third kind :)

ummmmm... solid foooooood

Summer Feast

 My little snow man is a constant reminder that winter is near... Already September here in Maine and the Homestead is still in full production.  Since the beginning of August we have been canning tomatoes almost every day, to preserve as much of the fruits as possible, preparing pesto with the abundance of basil, and finding thousand and one ways to eat Patty Pan, the only squash that really did well this year.

Basil to season the tomato cans.

The harvest!!!

We grew many kinds of tomatoes this year, just to see which ones we'd prefer, and I have to say that the Black Sea Man tomato from Russia was hands down our very favorite.  Meaty, juicy, yet not watery and great for slicing and cooking with.  We'll definitely grow way more of those ones next year.

Putting Ira to work!

Boiling bath and Ice bath to remove the skins

Now the fruit trees are bearing heavily, and it's time to pick. We have been waiting for this moment since we moved in, having had no idea what variety of apples the orchard was going to delight us with.  What a surprise it was to also find that we had three different varieties of pears to combine with our many apples.  We had high hopes of making cider with our apples this year, and made a sample test batch which was so delicious, but we have yet to find an apple press to go through a real production, so for this year we'll concentrate on making apple and pear sauce for when bébé Léo hits the 6 month mark :)

Can you tell which egg is a double yolker?

Our earlier apple variety

And an exciting project that has been taking place of late is the set-up of our very first greenhouse (actually, a solarium that will be attached to the south-west facing wall of the house).  After a lot of searching, we found it second hand on Craigslist, Alex is now putting it together, creating the three missing sides with upcycled free windows we found in the trash around our neighbourhood.  The inside will boast in-ground year-round vermicomposting bins, rain catchment watering systems and cob walls below the glass metal frame. Stay tuned to see the development of the outdoor shower, brick patio and parilla :)

The future greenhouse...

 and our loveable cloth diapers :)

The pleasures of sleeping outside

 With the beautiful weather (rain or shine) that Maine has been getting, everyone is sleeping outside, our new Chantecler chicks (more on them in another post), the cats, us and even the baby.  Especially during the daytime, when I am working in the gardens, he is often enjoying a snooze in the shade of the orchard, lucky kid! At night we have been enjoying the sounds and sights of nature from our tent.  Fireflies flickering their magical lights, shooting stars, rain falling on our forehead through the open netting, and the occasional big and noisy truck. 

 

The gardens are truly bringing to life our vision of self reliance.  Some vegetables, like the tomatoes, the corn and the basil are growing faster and in greater abundance than others, but I am enjoying the learning curve.  I definitely will always buy good potting soil from now on to start my seedlings. Just like human babies, they need their TLC :) 

The three sisters are taking over!

Plenty of zucchini leaves but no zucchinis...

Basil and parsley galore!

fresh seedlings for fall and winter crops

This week I start planting the fall and winter crops that are not yet in the ground. The root cellar will be a first experiment for us, and I already look forward to eating the fresh carrots, kohlrabies, potatoes and squashes in front of the fire.

Alex has been working hard around the property to get us ready for the cold months.  Now that we have the wood stove: we need wood!  Luckily our desire to harvest wood corresponds well with our need for more sunlit areas for the growing garden space. And although it can be sad to see a living being go (chicken or tree), the trees we are cutting are Norway maples; invasives and not very interesting for sugaring.  So whenever Alex has a little bit of time, he'll either be cutting away, splitting away, chipping away or piling away.  I think we'll have enough wood, what do you think? :)

Sleeping outside is quite a treat, but we have also been doing it for health reasons; taking advantage of the warmer weather to continue the Lead abatement on the house.   During our pregnancy we tested the soil and the house for Lead.  We were happy to know that most of the grounds are not (or barely) contaminated, but the same was not true of the house.  The Lead inspector tested all the surfaces and quite a few of them (mostly trims, floors, windows and doors) were painted with Lead paint, as is true for most old houses, and we now need to remedy this before Leo starts crawling and putting everything in his mouth.  Babies are actually drawn to lead painted surfaces because the lead paint tastes sweet, so frightening when you think of the impact it can have on their development.

So we are slowly (as fast as a new baby will let you!) painting over leaded surfaces, replacing windows, changing the old carpets, and finishing the beautiful barn wood floor that Alex put together to connect the kitchen with the family room.  I love the rough character of the grain and the history it adds to the space. 

Léo is teaching us that old houses are beautiful, but they can also be a hazard.  These touch-ups are certainly a necessity and a pleasure, because we are doing most of the work ourselves, gaining much knowledge and learning many skills along the way. Above is a picture of the new staircase runner (100% natural fibers, almost impossible to find these days...) that Alex laid down after encapsulating the lead painted staircase.