Muddy Boots, Old Houses and The Farm

Muddy Boots – garden beds

Well, that was an awesome but tiring weekend. We got a lot accomplished, and we couldn’t be happier with the results.

I started a off a few weeks ago with ordering 4 cord of 8 foot juniper logs. They got delivered on Thursday

Then I ordered a load of compost soil that came in Friday.

I also reserved a big tiller from the local building store for the weekend and the rest was sweat and muscles.

Gathered and burned the stalks from last years garden, gathered up all the used straw that will get used again this year. Then started the task of digging up the asparagus roots, berry bushes and rhubarb plants to put them in their final resting place.

We started over 20 asparagus seeds 9 years ago and put them out in the garden. Never in my wildest imagination did I ever think they would have the enormous root balls they had. The original plan was to dig up all the roots and move them to 2 newly made beds, well that didn’t happen after a few hours of digging with a shovel and pitch fork I finally was able to dig up 12 roots.. WOW, that was exhausting. That was only 1/8 of the way through the asparagus beds.. just check out the maze of roots

You can see in the middle our garlic has popped up

So 12 roots are now in their final resting place, and there are far more than 20 other roots left in the beds. We have left them where they are for now as that is quite the task of digging, untangling, and removing from the current beds… we will have to find a new permanent area for the rest… what a start to Saturday.

We broke for lunch and then got right back at it. The next task was to get the rest of the beds made in the small garden next to the greenhouse. Man those logs were heavy, but we did it got them all in place, secured the logs and filled them with composted soil all ready for day 2…. I think we are gonna sleep well tonight.

Day 2, first task of the day move the rhubarb, gooseberries, currents and blueberry bushes.

The rhubarb roots were another struggle but not as difficult as the asparagus. It is two years in a row now that we dug up and moved the rhubarb. Hopefully, they will be okay with the disruption. We couldn’t believe in just one year how they rooted. Unbelievable, really, as with all the digging last year and the 3 shovels we broke just to get them out of the front yard, we thought we killed them last year. Hopefully, now that they are in some awesome composted soil and they are in their final place, they will thrive once again and give us amazing rhubarb for desserts

So after the rhubarb, we did the berry bushes. That was so much easier. We replanted 8 blueberry bushes, with 2 honey berry or haskhap berries, the 3 gooseberries, and 2 red currents plus 1 new black current bush. They all look so happy.

So after the berries were planted, Rusty was back at a few rounds of tilling in the big garden and the tilling of the old berry beds. Oh yes, I can’t forget the horse radish got a bucket of them out of the garden and need to plant that somewhere…. I dug up 6 of my strawberry plants left over from the ravenous critters… they are in pots to keep safe until I find a new spot for them…. I then went over to the sunchoke bed as they needed to be dug up and replanted elsewhere….

Wow, were they ever prolific in this bed…. I dug up a half gallon pail last year, not expecting much to come.. boy, that was an understatement… this is not even half of the bed harvested.. WOW.

So after this, I decided that since the soil in this bed was very loose, I wouldn’t harvest much more, but that we would work on the beds for this big garden.

So after laying the foundation for 3 of the north-south beds, we laid out the string for the east-west beds and got the end logs in place. We cut a few logs and brought them over for stacking and decided that was it, no more energy to do more.

We got so much done, and I am very proud of where we are at. All we have to do now is get the rest of the logs down for the 27 beds. Then start planting, and things should be good for this year. Once the back gardens are tilled, then we can work out back there, but for now, this is an amazing start to the 2023 gardening season with permanent raised beds♡

Hope that you enjoyed our journey this past weekend. Please like, comment and share a link to this post♡.

Stay tuned for the next post of the completion and planting♡

Letters from the old manse- April 26, 2023

Hello family and friends,

I hope that you are all doing well. It is definitely feeling like spring these days. The daytime temperatures are increasing, the days are getting longer and we are having more sunny days.

It won’t be long now and we will be out in just t-shirts and then tank shirts and shorts♡. I actually think that it has been a warmer spring this year…. I am really hoping for a hot and steamy summer.

Well good news on the garden front. We finally got a chance to work on the greenhouse and it is completely re-plasticed. It doesn’t look like an eye sore anymore and I got seedlings in it already. I have a ways to go with it but the main part is fixed.

I have to tidy it up and reorganize everything and get the my supplies back in there. I have some cool thoughts on what I would like to see but time will tell.

I uncovered the garlic beds today and the garlic plants are I’d say 90-95% peeking up out of the soil. My rhubarb is certainly done so well being moved some of the patches are double the size that great. My berry bushes look good, even the ones that I got last year and are still in their pots are doing really well.

It’s gonna be a busy spring and summer as we revamp the garden beds on the greenhouse side. We are establishing raised beds and moving a bunch of stuff around. I have an order of juniper logs coming on Thursday that will be the wood for the raised beds. The beds will be 3 feet wide and 12 feet long and there will be 27 beds in the big area and several in the smaller area that is parallel to the greenhouse.

I will be digging up all my asparagus roots and replanting them. All the gooseberries, red currents, black currents, honey berries and I think the hardy kiwi will be going in what we are gonna call the perennial beds. Plants that come up every year. The rhubarb and crosnes will also be added to that area. Some plants can’t even moved until the garlic plants come out if their beds so it might be fall time or even late summer replanting.

So lots of garden work on the horizon and its all very exciting. I think with all the changes we are gonna get so much more food production out of the gardens this year. Eventually, depending on how many logs we get we will also revamp the beds out back as well.

I can’t wait til Rusty gets the snow blower off the tractor so I can get out back to the compost piles and turn them to see how well they did breaking down over the winter.

I am hoping to “pimp out” my gardens and areas around them like my friend Ben from the UK did last year. Dressing it up with a nice sitting area, trellises for veggies and flowers and a couple nice private areas to relax.

I will have to take some pictures and update you on all the projects during the summer…. picture spam coming your way.

The horses are out on the side yard and that is always a nice feeling of spring. My my heart smiles when I look out into the yard and see them and when I go out and they come over looking for carrots or apples.

I picked up 4 new laying hens today from the coop. They are not day old chicks but hens that are ready to lay. It’s gonna be so nice having those new girls added to the flock. I usually hatch out my own eggs but since I got wiped out last year my focus will be with the new bresse flock…. I bought a couple of ready to lay girls which should surely speed up the process of getting fresh eggs sooner♡

Won’t be long before they all find their place in the hen peck line… love the coloring and spunkieness.

Did my Wednesday thing, deliveries for my micro CSA and harvest for the food hub. I did a special sourdough bread offering today. Most customers met me at the door with big huge smiles and warm greetings, that made me feel very happy and warm…. lol

On my way to the chicken coop yesterday, I was looking at the grass seed I spread out in bare spots and all I could see is a tonne of dandelions…. WOW.

I haven’t seen any hummingbirds yet but I did dig out the feeder…. I think as soon as I put it out I will see them. Awww the joys and happiness of the new season.

Well, gonna go for now, stay safe everyone.

Thanks 😊 for following me and God’s blessings to you♡

Muddy Boots – The Greenhouse

For anyone following our story you will now that back in September hurricane Fiona barreled through the maritmes and did substantial damage to our tiny island.

In the aftermath, we had quite a few things that we had to take care of like broken windows, missing siding, damaged trees that came down our firewood logs for winter heat, the downed barn. So my greenhouse that was in tatters…. well it took a back seat. We buttoned down what we could and hoped for the best.

We had quite a few windy storms into the last if fall and winter and that seemed to shred thw leftover plastic and my prayer was that I would not loose anything else from in there and that what was left would last until the spring when we could get a decent day to replace the greenhouse plastic.

Well today was the day and we got all the ripped, torn dangley bits taken off and even though it was windier then we liked we got the new plastic on the greenhouse. All secured and buttoned up. Wow…. it took all day.

So now I have to get out there and start organizing, cleaning up and seeing what is salvageable inside. I have raked the stones back into place and will need to get it ready for my seedlings. Now, for those who did not know my greenhouse, not only had the plastic shredded in the hurricane it also moved it 2-3 feet off the base it was sitting on. So it moved everything inside with it…

There is a lot of yard work now to do, and I will be outside more than inside the next bunch of weeks, just trying to get everything ready for outside planting.

It’s such a wonderful feeling inside my heart having an amazing hubby that can do all that he does and helped get our food production vehicle back into working order. I am smiling from cheek to cheek inside and I am really looking forward to what this season holds for us.

So enjoy a few pictures of our hard work today and look forward to lots of garden picture spam and videos this coming spring, summer and fall.

I hope that you are all doing well and please leave us a like and a comment and let us know what think of what we are doing here on our island homestead♡ and let us know how you are as well.

And yes that is our fallen barn in the background, that is another project that has to get done this summer… salvage if we can items from inside and get the rest carted away:)

Letters from the old manse- April 13th

Hi family + friends, it’s been a while since I last shared with you, life in our old hohouseand life around the farm.

Firstly, I have to say the weather has been absolutely beautiful for a change the week or so. Maritime qeather can be so fickle but weate certainly enjoying the sun and the warm wind.

It’s funny I looked out this morning and I could swear by it that the grass was greener at lunch and even more so at dinner time. It’s sort of hard to comprehend but that is what happens in the spring on these warmer days.

Farm life was good this past winter. All our feathered friends did well and we are finally seeing g some regular eggs once again. We will have to cull a few roosters about 3 as we have 6 all together. We only need big black with the farm mix hens and I will keep 2 of the bresse roosters to go with my 2 hens. They are our new flock that we will raise for meat and eggs. It will be interesting to see how they grow and taste when them for eating.

One of the next big projects is to get my poor greenhouse recovered in new plastic. The hurricane in the fall, Fiona was really hard on us and the last of the plastic took a beating this winter and it is tattered badly. I have quite a few seedlings that need to get out into the greenhouse so hopefully this weekend or next week that project will get done.

I’m not sure if I updated this or not but I am now growing and selling microgreens for a CSA and a food hub that supplies to restaurants and retail outlets. It feels really good to be doing that again, and I have been happily busy with it.

Not to fail to mention that the green room is extremely busy with microgreens and seedlings for the gardens the past couple weeks. I go down a take a peek to see what seedlings pooped up and what needs to be pricked out and replanted. Some times I take an hour down a few cell packs and get exciting g about eating the fruits of my labor♡.

I absolutely love growing and it makes me feel happy and full of hope.

We commemorated the 1 year anniversary back in mid March on the 19th the one year anniversary of our sweet Murdochs passing. It still stings and feels bad inside and I miss his company. He was such a big part of our lives and there is such a big hollow place without him.

Of course all three cats are doing well. I “ungrounded” daisy this week twice…. she has been grounded since last November when 2 days in a row she crossed the highway and almost got hit by cars….. we have let all three out to get somenfresh air and they are loving it, angel and Charlie are a little scared with all the noise but never the less enjoying the fresh air.

So we are up to a couple of projects, 3 to be specific and they are so exciting. Can’t wait to share them with you in time so for now they are staying under wraps.

We are both doing really we’ll and i have to say that our walks with the Lord have been better and stronger. With all the world events going on it is so hard not to for a minute not believe that the Lord Jesus is coming back soon. With all the unrest in the middle east and the falling of the west its is exactly what the Bible predicts and says will happen in these last days.

I personally have never been as hungry for the word of God, looking for whatever teaching I can get my ears on. We have found a couple of excellent and amazing book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse teaching churches on line. Pastors that are not afraid of speaking and teaching the truth. I, we have learned so much and it has also given me such an urgency and desire to share the word if God as well, salvation with people.

If you haven’t picked up your Bible recently or haven’t spoken with God recently I urge you to. Ask him what He wants you to do today. Speak with Him, tell him your needs, hurts joys He loves you so much. In the midst of all the chaos in the world His love is faithful, His peace sustains, His word speaks truth and He never fails us, He lives us.

If you don’t know Jesus, seek Him, read about Him, know Him. Stop running from Him rum to Him. Recieve Him today, recognize you are a sinner, and you can’t do it on your own. Confess your sins, invite Him in and let His love guide your life you will never regret it. He will never fail you!

Blessings to you all today and have a great weekend. Love and hugs R & V

The Farm – microfarming

It has been 2 years since I farmed my microgreens. I was very sick for a while back in 2021 and it wasn’t possible to do any farming.

I cleaned up the rooms downstairs and started to play around with growing microgreens, kinda like getting on a bicycle after not riding for a long time….

It didn’t take long to enjoy the growing part of it….. I can’t really explain the feelings one gets when they plant a seed, water it and see it grow. In my case it’s lots and lots and lots of seeds sprinkled on the soil, watering and growing.

I loved it when I grew it before and I love it even more now. I go down to the room and nibble on radishes, sunnies, peas well little tastes of mostly all of them♡

It truly is remarkable with how quickly the seeds germinate in the right conditions. It brings quite an interesting contentment.

I started growing peashoots and mixed radish shoots, I started to hand out a few free sample to some restaurants, and it didn’t take long before onenofnthose contacts landed me a partnership with a wholesaler.

My greens are getting into places I could take them on my own. Even though the biggest reward is going down there smelling the plants and soil and feeling the humidity and warmth and being so contented in my heart watch them all grow♡

It won’t be long and the green room will have seedling starts that will eventually go out into the greenhouse, thay will then go out into the gardens.

Planting seeds takes faith, faith to believe that it will grow. There is a hope in that faith that seeds will germinate and grow and that flowers will bloom, and spring and summer are coming.

I hope that you all can find the simplest of faith and belief in God from nature all around us and that it all proves we have serve a might and awesome God

Wacky Wednesday

Wacky Wednesday is not a story or letter blog, just something….. odd short things♡.

I have been really successful with my sourdough dough the last while, and it’s been fun.

I started my starter again…. haven’t named it yet and suggestions are welcomed.

Was pursuing pinterest and looking ideas and found a couple. Sourdough sandwich bread, artisan styled rounds, English muffins, discard sourdough muffins and pancakes. It has been fun and successful.

A kink for each of these recipes can be found on my farmhouse pei movement facebook page right now, but I will type up or link the recipes in another post shortly. If you are interested in recipes, let me know directly.♡

Muddy Boots – looking out the window of life

Hi y’all, I did not send out and special msg the past little while and really haven’t been post much. We were swamped with the Fiona clean up that was messing with our fall chores and wow I can say that really took alot out of us. Before we knew it Christmas season was here.

I literally feel like I got the tree up, cards send, parcels sent, baking done and then it was done. I’m not really sure where all the time went, cause it went by fast. Yes we got some Christmas puzzling done too♡.

Now don’t laugh at me but I haven’t take the tree down yet…. it will go down in the next day or so and it will officially be all packed up for another year. I guess I just didn’t want it to end yet. Thanks to everyone that sent us a Christmas card, earlier in November I did send out a msg saying I lost my addresses and asking for you all to send me your address again. So I’d you didn’t get a card it’s because I didn’t get your address…. sorry:(

So we are now at the end of January, hokey dina and we have been working a bit on the house, eating from the pantry, and enjoying the warmer winter. We are forecasted to get 2 days of very cold temps this coming Friday and Saturday -20 – -23 with a windchill of -43 brrrr….

That is gonna be the coldest weather yet and it’s only gonna be a few days so it should hopefully not be so bad.

So, let see some home changes and renos and updates. Basically what we have been up too.

The old kitchen, it needed a little spruce up to get me through to the new kitchen install… so the cabinets got painted and the new “old” collectible glassware is up top making it look nice and old farmhouse quaint.

So with the quick kitchen fresh up we go to the new addition changes.

We took off the old shingles from what was the back of the house and we leveled out the walls. Drywall went up and the corner of the house by the door we decided to leave it the way is was a little reminder of what was there.

After that mess was cleaned up…. we found some awesome flooring for the addition. It’s gonna be different from the rest of the main floor just because it is the new addition that has a canning pantry, laundry, powder room and entry and sink clean up area. We got an amazing deal in the flooring and down it went…. and then got the paint on the walls. It all looks awesome

So now the next project is the pantry wall. Rusty has sat down many nights coffee in kne hand and pencil in the other designing what the pantry wall will look like. The purpose of it is store all my canned jars in the top portion and the bottom portion will house my big food grade buckets of flour, sugar, grains etc. We are still trying to figure out the colour of the stain for the wood that will make up the pantry wall unit.

Oh yes and we can’t forget the last of the plumbing that had to go in…. the poop shoot is in place♡

So I guess that is a good update on what we have been up too the last couple months since the last post and there will be lots more to come. I hope that you enjoyed the update and the photos. I will try not to take as long to get the next post up…

Love you all and stick close to the King of Kings…. or seek Him out as it won’t be long before we go up♡

Muddy Boots – Trip back to Ontario

So, I know it been a while but some much life happened and it was hard keeping up. As promised this will be the first in some updates to what we did this past summer.

Let’s start with finally being able to leave the island and visit family in Ontario.

We took a whirlwind 4 day trip to Ontario. The first week of July, one of the fur babies got sick so what could have been a 5 or 6 day trip turned to 4 days…

We originally we going to leave PEI on Saturday arrive on Sunday and then leave on Thursday/Friday. It was a very last minute trip and we were not sure until the week before if it was going to happen. We needed a garden farm sitter and a furry animal sitter… we found both and then the plans quickly went into place.

We decided to make the trip as convenient for us as possible. We packed bedding, camp stove and a cooler with homemade sandwiches and baked goods. We did everything we could to minimize going to coffee shops etc. We slept in the car at rest station in Quebec going and in NB on the way home. It was awesome, it was also very bitter sweet as it was our first trip in 13 years without our beloved baby, Murdoch:(

We made a plan to stop every 4 hours to get out and walk and stretch and have a hot drink and a snackie. Because Rusty recently had a blood clot in his leg we needed to make sure we got lots of walking around done in between the long driving.

I have to say the drive to Ontario was pretty good. We had a wicked thunderstorm in Edmonston and saw a pretty awesome rainbow we also had a a hiccup or two on the way but we got there safely.

Because of the shortness of the trip and the last minuteness of the trip we did our best to see whomever was available. Unfortunately, it was only Rusty’s mom that was available so we spent the 4 days with her. It was really nice after all the lockdowns and restrictions to finally see her.

Got a new Bible cover and a study bible♡

Mid trip happened to be Rusty’s bday so his wish was to drive up to Algonquin and see a couple places we used to spend so much at. We did a couple of meals out, did the christian bookstore and some antiquing. We had great weather and the time spent catching up was really nice.

Antiquing for old dishes and canning jars

Of course we met up with our beautiful friends Marco & Zuly. That was such a beautiful time talking, sharing, praying…. I missed them and it was a really nice time of fellowship all of our hearts needed and flourished in. We got to see their new summer spot in Cobourg and it was nice.

We left early Friday as we had to meet up in Nova Scotia on Saturday with another farmer to pick up some special fertile eggs for a new flock on our farm… of course we didn’t know it right away but as we went to get a few things for our trip home we discovered some sort of internet outage. That outage turned out to be a pretty big thing as debt and banks were not able to be used. We were just fine for the trip back and it seemed the our provider was not in the multi-day outage.

We said our good byes and started back home. Trips home sometimes always feel so much longer then they are and this was no exception. Again I was very thankful for the bedding, camp stove and a cooler of home made food… so many businesses were taking only cash and then at one point only credit card….

First breakfast on the road going home….. we has to charge our phones too♡

The side trip to Nova Scotia was a lot longer then we anticipated but really I had never really been there except for a short trip into Amherst. We drove along the bay of fundy side and that was pretty awesome. We picked up our special package and headed back home.

I am not sure who was more greatful to get home that night but we were bushed♡

It was gonna be nice to sleep in our bed and drink our spring water and not be on the road driving. Just the comforts of home.

On Sunday those precious eggs went into the incubator and I’m pretty sure I did a story or post on that♡ those chicks are doing really well…. even the hurricane didn’t hurt them…. thank you Lord.

Thanks for visiting my blog, I send blessings to you

The Farm – new chicks, new flock

So on our trip to Ontario this past summer, we did a little side trip to Nova Scotia, summerville to get some fertilized bresse eggs. These eggs, when hatched and raised, are gonna be our new dual-purpose flock, basically eggs and meat.

So with the new eggs in the incubator it was time getvthe run and hen coop ready. I planted a little garden around the run and it has been most amazing.

The eggs started to hatch 2 days early…. so exciting. Not as many hatched asni had hoped for but we will take what we get♡.

Charlie of course couldn’t help himself and had to come up and see what all the chirping was about.

We gor a surprise chicken….. only the past week could I tell what it was not the 2 opts…. black orrpington…..

The new flocknis in the coop and are as of today integrated with the other three chickens I have that are about 11-12 weeks old, very big and should be maturing in about 4 or 5 weeks….. how exciting.

Yes thw hurricane hit and the chickens are all good the coop moved a few feet by being pushed by the fallen barn. The run got mangled but we were able to prop it up temporarily until we can move the coop to a new location but all is well♡

The coop needs a new paint job as well…. maybe barn red…hmmmm

The Farm, Muddy Boots and the old farmhouse – hurricane Fiona

I haven’t posted in a while and I am so sorry that I have not got you all up-to-date on our lives here on the island.

However, this is a good place to start and then I will back track a bit with some future posts and let you know what’s been up this past busy summer.

Hurricane Fiona, my she was quite the storm to hit our beautiful small island and she hit us all hard. As I start to write this post which is 10 days post storm there are still many with out power and a tonne of clean up going on. We got frost the other night and it went down to -4 that’s chilly when you don’t have power and or a means to keep warm.

So Sept 23/24, 2022 will go in the history books as the worst storm to hit the maritimes. It has really changed how you look at the island. Many massive old trees and trees in between came down either snapped off or pulled out of the ground. We lost 8 spruce trees. They were big…. and a big thanks to the Lord for keeping them off our house.

We had been preparing for many days as we heard the storm was headed our way. Tidying up the gardens as best we could, harvesting the last bunches of veggies that would not withstand winds. Storing away items from my greenhouse incase it fell or blew away. We were exhausted from all the preparing but we also knew it had to be done…. we even had to build a partial porch at our side entrance so that we could use out generator when the power went out. We did not want a repeat of Dorian, that one gave us 10 inches or so of water in our basement…

I went to town on thursday to pick up another large gerry can for gas and any supplies, you could tell people were taking this serious…. the shelves at the stores were empty. Even the gas station was busier then usual. I filled my gerry can and topped my van up. With Dorian we didn’t have power for 4-5 days on the main highway and it was 2 weeks and then some for some more remote areas.

Russ went to work Friday morning and came home early…. them we did our last walk around the property. We prayed for protection and I finished up some inside stuff to get us through a couple days of no power.

I canned a batch of what I call storm sauce, made banana bread, coconut biscuits, and roasted a big chicken for quick eating.

It didn’t take long and the wind started to whip up around 10pm. Power flickered and turned off and on eventually it went off around 2-2:30am. We stayed up all night taking little cat naps, praying, and watching the sump pump… and keeping the generator going….

I never heard our house make such noises, quite eerie. It was just a constant noise of wind it just never stopped. The winds got even stronger around 3am and maybe even worse around 6am…

I am not sure during this storm what was worse…. sitting in the dark listening and feeling the storm or looking out the window during daytime hours and not only hearing, feeling, but seeing it all..

Around 6:30am when you could start seeing what happened throughout the night…..

We saw our barn on the ground, my chicken coop was moved, the run fencing was knocked down and debris from the barn was leaning on the coop and the run… I wasnt too surprised the barn is down and I was relieved the coop was in one piece and not knocked over… as I was upstairs in the bathroom looking out the window I hear Rusty, he says babe you have to come here and see this…… I got a huge knot in my belly…… I went to the front hall window and looked out…. it took my breath away and I started to cry… I never felt so helpless and sad and scared….

All I could see was our farmer neighbors barn….. gone! The only thing left was the remains of the first floor….. there was twisted metal, torn roof rafters, wood bearish everywhere…. on the road, in the yard on his side, in the ditch on out side in our yard, in the field next to us… I couldn’t stop crying and shaking… the wind had changed from north east to north west and now our house was in the path of the debris…..

Nothing in my lifetime could have prepared me for what I saw and whatever experienced. It is quite horrific. We could see on the east side of our house the bug trees were leaning…. up rooted.. we could see the trees down out back laying on my carrot and beet beds. Leaves on the trees ans bushes were shredded…. so much destruction.

It wasn’t safe enough to go out til later in the day around say 5pm or 6pm… we did a short walk around. My greenhouse plastic was ripped to shreds in places and it was moved over about a foot and a half.. all plants were laying down and looked ragged… it was really hard to take it all in… we where so incredibly humbly grateful not one roof shingle or siding shingle came off our 140 year old house. The barn came down and is sitting on our canoe.. 😦 but we are safe and the house is intact.

On Sunday morning Bob and Evelyn showed up…. and Bob got to work with Rusty and we got the compromised trees down, cut up… the big spruce tree on my veggie beds an go that all chopped up… we were so grateful to see them and have that help.

It is now Friday of the Thanksgiving weekend, we have all the tree debris tiddy up except for the big one out back, Rusty is very carefully between working and our place getting our firewood split, working on dismantling the old barn…. but of course customers are calling cause they have damage to thier homes etc.

I look across the road, the big tractor was dropped off yesterday at our neighbors home…. it has the big grabber thingy that dismantles pieces of big barns that come down…. I look out around us I see all rhe structural damage to barns and homes. The hum of generators here is done… the power was restore to some of our neighbors the middle of this week….and we are starting the clean up and repairs hopefully before the cold sets in… we have had lots of sun the last couple days. It’s been dry, farm equipment is out harvesting potatoes and people are trying there very best to be strong and rebuild…. this one is gonna take a while…

If you are if faith and praying please keep my fellow islanders in your prayers. If it was bad enough being locked down for 2 years+ with all that virus crap and being stressed and drained from that, we all now have this new mental drain on us all. Some that do have insurance because of everything can’t even come up with the funds for the deductible to get the insurance part going, then there are small farmers like myself who have animals in our old barns that are not insured and don’t have a way to rebuild and need to find new ways to house animals and equipment on small farms, then there is those who lost houses in the storm surge, everything is gone and insurance does not cover that…. those are mental health issues that weigh hugely on maritimers…and the ones I refer to are just the ones in pei…all maritime province’s were hit…

Please pray for the strength to get through the “afterstorm”. It’s just as bad or worse then the storm itself. We still have many with no power… pray for them too♡

We have lots to be thankful for this weekend and we also have lots to be worried about…. and tonnes on our minds…. through it all God dies calm the storms if life and will be with us…. my prayer is that it draws us closer to God♡