Our Lifestyle Blog as We Create a Homestead in Northern Ontario
So it’s September, time to muck out the humanure hacienda! This year it wasn’t quite as overflowing as usual, so it hasn’t been too bad (I haven’t quite finished yet). Of course, I’m only taking out one side of the enclosure – so it has had a year to decompose. I can assure you that … Read more
We returned from a Christmas break to find the cabin a rather chilly -9. It took two days before we got it back up above 20 (although we did return to the city to spend the night with Mummu and Grandpa). Thankfully J! from next door kept our driveway clear while we were gone, and … Read more
Well I’ll be jiggered! But let me explain – I only used the sawmill a handful of times last summer, culminating in the time Kenny dropped a 6×6 birch beam on his finger and I felt so bad that if someone had offered to just take my sawmill away I likely would have just let … Read more
It’s really, really surprising the difference in volume of the compost pile during the winter as compared to the summer. Last March already I was hefting the buckets well over my head to be able to get them piled on top of the existing material. I didn’t switch to the other side, and just continued … Read more
So far, to our knowledge, pine boring grubs notwithstanding, we haven’t really had too many critters invade our cabin. We do what we feel is a pretty good job of keeping food scraps in their proper places, and the space is small enough that there aren’t really any nooks or crannies that don’t get exposed … Read more
One of the projects that we really wanted to do when we first took up the notion of homesteading was to produce a portion of our own food. So far we’ve not really pursued this aspect of things, especially with so much to do to simply construct the homestead itself! I have no illusions that … Read more
As the weather gets colder, I have been increasingly aware of the humanure pile freezing up for another season. This past summer I had been emptying our buckets into a smaller trailer I had purchased LAST year for just this purpose. I was unimpressed with having to muck out the entire half of the hacienda … Read more
Donna was up first this morning. I usually feel guilty about this, and today was really no exception. As my medication is tapering down, my fatigue seems to be returning. So far it hasn’t manifested itself as dramatically as a year or two ago, when I regularly found myself exhausted in the afternoon and required … Read more
My parents came to visit us this month! It was just amazingly wonderful to have them here. There wasn’t a moment that went by that I wasn’t totally appreciating their love and help around the homestead. Disappointingly, for a few days leading up to their arrival my stomach was acting a bit dodgy. This culminated … Read more