Its been a while since I last wrote, I wish that I could have written
sooner but we have been so busy with the reno demos that all I want to
do is go to sleep after we eat.
Well as some of you are aware from our official blog, we have the back
addition off, the porch off, the chimney gone and we are patiently
awaiting the foundation contractor.

Well it shouldn’t be long and the house will be up the new foundation in
place and I am sure lots of conversations with neighborhood folks and
friends as we all marvel the house up on stilts:)
Its funny how many honks, looks and slow-down-rubber-necking cars as we
are outside throwing the old mess into the dumpster. So now that we
almost have a chance to breathe we wait for mother nature to let the
good warm sunny weather come…..we are about 2-3 weeks behind with the
cold start to spring and today is no different….it feels cold enough
to snow….oh sorry – rain! the ‘s’ word is prohibited!
I knew that country life would be exciting and challenging and interesting with all three being very true.
I love the fresh air, especially when the cow poop flinger is throwing
out decomposing and fresh decomposing cow poop. It usually only smells
interesting the first day. Its really not bad, I can’t complain because
all I smell on a regular basis is fresh air and that is part of the
fresh air and farmland:)
Challenging in that…..we have different wild animals to deal with and
have Murdoch obsess over when he gets wind of their scent (i.e the
weasel and the raccoon and her babies).
Now weasels are a great animal to have around to help take care of small
nuisance animals such as mice, voles, moles and shrews………but I
draw the line at the weasel going after the song birds…..such was the
case last night – one of the beautiful American Gold Finches was
attacked and we (Murdoch) found the injured bird under the bush by the
bird feeder. It wing has been badly hurt and I an not sure how it will
heal. I have the wild life conservation guys approval to care for the
bird since the regular place they take hurt wild life to is no longer
operating…..and only because the bird is eating. So it is protected
nice and warm with water and a soft place to sleep and has food. Far
from the reaches from the two cats:)
The only problem now is the weasel and her babies which are at the back
of the house and the raccoon and her babies. We thought the mother
raccoon had moved on, but not so……they are in the barn and when I
went in and spotted one of the babies in the corner I heard momma above
me and straw came down and I promptly left the barn.
So poopie time with Murdoch is a challenge getting him to leave the barn alone and the corner of the house alone……cheesewiz!
So all that makes it interesting and I would not change it one bit as it
is as close to nature as we can get and we love it. Oh yes I forgot to
mention the song sparrow nest she had 3 eggs in her nest but now she is
down to 2! Can’t wait to see the babies:)
So I am getting excited about the outside stuff that we are gonna get down next week…..The Veggie beds.

We will be working on putting the 8 veggie beds in place so that our
seedlings that we have been growing and our direct sow seeds can go in.
WE NEED WARM WEATHER!
Its amazing how nice the lot looks now that we cut the grass, awesome
i’d say and when the flower beds go in and they start growing that will
look awesome too:) I have some wild flower garden seed mixes to go in
and It will be so nice to have pretty flowers growing too.
The exciting part about spring here at the house is the mystery plants
growing. We have some elderberry bushes growing and some flowering
bushes as well….exactly what they are we will see when the flowers
come out. we also have some perennials coming up too….some I
recognize some I don’t but it is fun to watch and see what they are
turning into:) The lilac bushes are coming along really well….don’t
know the colour yet…..soon.
So I went to the co-op to order my chickens today they don’t arrive
until Aug 12th so Carrie and Ry you won’t be able to see them in person –
only in picture. I may try my hand at meat chickens next spring after I
get the hang of my first flock:) So next year if you want some free
range chickens I may sell some of the chickens I raise:)
So we are looking forward to doing the reno improvements and getting the
house up and back down on its new base. We are going to stay in the
house during the process and actually had Thompson Well come by and move
our pressure tank to the main floor of the house and extend the hose
and power so now it’s ready…yahooooooooo!


So Helena, you would be proud of me……your little city girl was
shoveling fresh cow poop into our new composter in the back yard and I
have a picture to prove it! I never thought I would see the day I would
be wear rubber boots, gloves and have a pitch fork full of cow
poopie…..but times have changed and I am a farmer girl now and
enjoying every moment:) We are looking forward to seeing you and Aarno
and showing you our diamond in the rough which will be in the air when
you come by:)
For the rest of you, it means looking at pictures or that visit later this summer:)
Well everyone….all that fresh farm air and hard work has made me
sleepy and I think I may need to crawl under the blankies……but wait
Russ says I can’t hit the sack until it is dark:(
See ya for now…….write again soon.
Love you all
Hugs
Vanessa (and Russ, Murdoch, Cletus, Daisy and the little finchie, too)
P.S. the horses are back in the pasture behind us:)
James and Jill and they love carrots:)

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