One day I went to a burn pit and there were some discarded hay nets that wrap the large bales tossed there. I suppose they were to be burned but they were not close enough to the pit. There was a bird trapped in the netting, frantic to get out and terrified. I carefully untangled the poor little creature and set it free. That was my first introduction to hay nets. 

Then that fall, I purchased hay that was wrapped with the netting. It was green in colour, lightweight and seemed a great solution to wrap the bales. But winter came and the net froze to the hay. Removal of the net was difficult at best and hay that was frozen to it was caught in it and discarded on the pile to be picked up in spring. The net tore and strings of it were in the hay, which was also discarded. 

 The problem is that the animals do not discern the net from the hay and ingest it. Ingesting a large quantity of the netting will mean certain death, for it blocks the digestive tract, obviously does not digest itself or breakdown and also can cause starvation because it occupies space in the gut and food cannot be utilized properly. 

Small animals also ingest the netting string. On my farm the other day, some netting was caught in the mud and the green strings were half frozen and half in the puddle. A duck came along and ate a good portion of the net, but the rest was hanging out of her mouth. Try as she might, she could not dislodge it from the frozen ground, nor could she cough or bring up the net that was already down. I cut the net and attempted to pull out what she ate, with little success. I am hoping it was not enough to cause her to starve or to create problems with her digestion and blockages in the future. 

Aside from actually getting caught in the discarded netting, like the poor little bird at the burn pit, eating that netting is the next biggest problem. So much plastic is already wreaking havoc with wildlife who eat it deliberately, attracted to bright colours and shapes that are reminiscent of food, or inadvertently eat it along with hay or other tasty bits of mud , like the duck. 

A farmer was telling me he lost his best bull, who dropped dead in the field and he didn't know why, so he did his own autopsy. The gut had pounds of hay netting in it. I am sure it does not help that some of the netting is green, too, much like fresh young grass. I do attempt to pick up the netting, but when it is frozen to the ground it shreds and the pieces remain there until later, sometimes, as with the duck , too late. 

Please urge farmers to discontinue the use of net wrap on their bales. Plastic twine is only slightly better, but it is easier to clean up and small animals are less likely to eat it, at least. We must be stewards for our critters. They depend on us to keep them safe. Please try to do so. 

I am pretty sure it is not because most people are uncaring and not concerned about animals in general, but because they just do not think beyond what they want to do right then and there. 

Latex balloons are fun. Who does not like to blow up a balloon and watch it be tossed from person to person, especially if those persons are little ones? There is such a joy about the lightness of the balloon as it jostles from one pair of hands to the other and the smiles on little children as they play in their delight will win the cold hearts of anyone paying attention. But what happens to the balloons when they pop? 

Most people will pick up the remains and put them in the garbage. Balloons are sometimes used in outdoor celebrations too, and helium filled ones are released in quantities to float and eventually fall. Fall where? People have them filled for the new way of celebrating weddings, with straw bales and barnwood in the middle of a hayfield. And then what happens to them? 

I found a collection of spent balloons and nylon ribbons in my hay bale. Sheep and goats have been known to eat many strange things and bits of latex balloons would be no surprise. Ducks, geese and even chickens are attracted to the bright coloured ribbons and will try to eat them too. The ingestion of latex in that quantity would severely hamper the digestive tract and sometimes cause death. Recently I read of a ewe who died from eating a latex glove left in the barn. They knew because they did their own autopsy to help understand the cause of a perfectly healthy ewe's death. 

I love balloons as much as anyone. And I love watching children play with them too, but I do not want to see animals and birds harmed by them. So please, when you are through with your balloons, dispose of them carefully where wildlife and birds will not be attracted to the bright coloured bits and ribbons. And please, if you are celebrating in a hay field, clean up the balloons along with the rest of the litter. Don't leave them on the ground to be picked up by the baler and fed to animals. 
Thank you for that consideration!Thank ewe. 

Have you ever thought about how we jump from one holiday to another? It has gotten so bad in the past few years that Christmas is promoted before Halloween is even over. And Halloween - well, it never used to be such a big thing, but now, people decorate for the holiday with almost as much gusto as Christmas. I don't get that, given that most of those folks are believing Christians too. 

I was shopping at Wal Mart yesterday, hoping to find some seat covers and a divider to keep Robbie in the back of the vehicle, but had no luck. Easter decorations and candy was on sale for 50% off, but right next to all that was Mother's Day! The big stores, and the small, push us to buy, buy  and buy more. Have you noticed how decorating colours for Christmas are red and green one year and blue and purple the next? Toss out the red and green old fashioned, out of date decorations and get some new ones. Toss out the made in China cheap plastics and new ones are readily available and affordable. 

But none of it means anything anymore. 

I am old enough to remember making decorations for the Christmas tree. When my children were small, so was our income. The tree was festooned with little salt dough, hand painted characters, strung popcorn and candies on threads. There were lots of paper chains and kid made decorations everywhere and few if any made in China. Every item on the tree had a memory associated with it and was kept for the next year, until one year the moisture disintegrated the salt dough ornaments and they melted into the paper ones and all had to be tossed. We were saddened because there was some meaning to the decorations. 

Each holiday gives us a chance to celebrate something important to our families. For those who believe in religious holidays, there should be some significance in the festivities. For the rest, it is a chance for families to get together and share valued time. But the meaning of a holiday is not in the giving of gifts, eating of chocolates and candies made from GMO sugar beets, and laced with fructose and other horrible things, or the cheap, insignificant decorations. There should be more to it. 

Let me urge you to stop being caught in the trap of holidays. I know women who feel they have to make huge meals, bake for days and spend hours upon hours cleaning and decorating for each holiday. They are exhausted and when the day is done, wonder why they continue to do it. Society is pressuring women in particular. Men tend to relax and let the women shop for gifts, cook and bake and clean and stress themselves out. How about a quiet celebration for Mother's Day? One that involves a gift from the heart, maybe a hand written letter of love, or a photo that declares that love? Or maybe a home cooked dinner that she does not have to prepare and shop for? 

Honestly, I do not care if my family sends me flowers for Mother's Day. Although we are apart, all I want is their love and esteem. I no longer decorate in a frenzy, bake for days ahead or try to be superwoman for each holiday and I no longer fall into the trap of consumerism forcing us to buy the latest decor. Contentment came at a price, and it truly is wonderful to no longer need to keep up. I wish for you, that this will come as well. It is freeing and much less expensive and all in all, when a gift is received, one knows it was from the heart and not purchased as a dutiful offering. 

We are done with Easter and Mother's Day is being pushed already. Don't let it push you. Do nothing and celebrate that. Something to celebrate is nothing!

Sometimes I am impatient and grumpy, but not usually ill tempered or angry. Stupidity gets me down more than it should, but it is those who are not kind or compassionate that really bother me the most. 

Kindness begins in the heart. One should not be so selective in kindness. If a cat is your animal of choice and beloved pet, and you hate dogs, at least be compassionate and treat the animals with respect. I am not fond of cats in general, though there have been one or two that have stolen a piece of my heart, not quite enough to find a place in my home, but enough that might pick a cat up on purpose to pet it. But I feel that way about all animals. 

I used to have a bird phobia. Truth be told, I do still and always will, but have trained myself to walk with confidence among the chickens, ducks, geese and even the turkeys on the Fat Ewe Farm, to gather their eggs and to tend their ills. It took three years to condition myself to be able to be comfortable around birds, but small flighty birds will always send me hysterically hiding where they cannot get me. I do not wish them dead though. 

After Ofcharka got loose from the snare trap, a local man told me I should keep my dogs tied up and that would not happen. I know neither one of my neighbours north or south has dogs and the they definitely do not set snares. But someone set a snare or more on the property with or without the owner's knowledge. To me that is ignorance at its best. The unwillingness to learn how the livestock guardian dogs benefit the neighbour's cows during calving time, and also benefit the predators, baffles me. I do not wish the predators any harm. They were here long before I was. If anything I am the intruder. I want them to survive and thrive and live naturally, just not dine on my farm. So, the dogs keep the farm safe by keeping the predators at bay. They do not kill unless they have to. In the 6 years we have been here, I have not seen a dead fox, coyote or much at all, other than a muskrat and weasel that came too close. 

The animal I find it hardest to be kind and compassionate to is exactly the one that might benefit the most...that sort of person who has wanton disregard for nature and its creatures and treats animals with anything but love and understanding. Sorry, no I am not really, but yes I am because I am sorry the people like that, human animals, the game hunters, the trophy hunters, the trappers and sport shooters, are so stupid. If they grabbed a brain and treated all life with respect, love and kindness, the world would be a much better place. 

We all need to try to be kind to one another. Goodness knows I try to tolerate everyone, but mostly I stay hidden on my farm where I can commune with my animals, love nature and be peaceful. I am trying to think about being kind to the unkind. I am. Trying. Sort of. A bit. Well. a little. 

I already retired once. Although I have had many really fine careers, from private investigating to interior design, the one that was the fall back was teaching. I started teaching in 1977 and ended in 2010, however; I did not end up with a full pension because every career meant a leave of absence or working very part time, like a day a week or not at all. But when the opportunity arose at age 55, I was ready to embark on yet another trek. That was the farming. 

Originally, I bought a farm in the County of Thorhild, west and a bit north of here. My plan was to build a monolithic dome home and live completely off grid. But Waste Management, that huge garbage company, bought 18 quarters around my farm to put in a class 1 landfill. How could I have an organic permaculture farm next to a dump. So, I flew home to White Rock and hung out thinking about the next move, when the house suddenly sold giving me only 28 days to move. Where? 

I went online and found where I live currently, flew out in February 2011 to see it and moved here in March, a month later. Unfortunately, the people who owned the place were much less than truthful and the arduous task of rebuilding, repairing and replacing everything, and I mean everything, was begun. A year later the bed and breakfast opened and it was such great fun. The work on the houses continued and there was maintenance on top of redoing basics, like wiring and plumbing. Then the pipe burst in the bed and breakfast house in January 2015 and a year later, it was finally renovated and back up and ready to go, reopening January 1, 2017. 

Things went anything but smoothly. There seemed to be one catastrophe or disaster after another. I had no luck raising the sheep for their fleece, either and felt as though my whole venture had failed, except I did accomplish most of my goals. That was 1. to divorce myself from the dictates of society 2. to stop consumerism 3, to learn how to be self sufficient and 4. to want what I have. I allowed myself ten years in which to achieve success. Finally, this year, 2017, I feel I can say I have arrived. 

The fleece from the sheep will never be perfect, but I did find a crowd that accepts that, which makes me very happy. I am downsizing the farm critters.Last year I sold most of the Babydolls and this year it will be the majority of the sheep and goats, just keeping my Cotswold sheep plus a few favourites,  and moving to mini Nubian goats. I have way too many birds, too. Every day, I am now getting 3 or more dozen eggs. I had a sign made saying Eggs $5 per dozen for chicken and $10 dollars a dozen for duck. I guess it is time to put it out. My last order for hatching eggs is for 100 eggs and now I can sell the eggs for eating. But people here do not want to pay $5 per dozen eggs, so I am not sure they will sell at all. They never have thus far. At the end of summer, I plan to only overwinter no more than a dozen ducks, 5 geese and a dozen chickens. 

I also need to find someone to live with. I do not do well living with others. I am too messy and too preoccupied with my hobbies to interact with them. So, I made a plan to install two sinks and a hot plate in my basement and move into the bedroom in the middle of the house with the trap door to the basement. I will try to contain my mess to the lower floor then and not have to interact with the person living in my house. I am hoping to find someone who loves the farm and would do my chores in the winter for a few weeks at a time to allow me to visit my daughter or to take a holiday once a year. Hoping and wishing..

​But, retirement? I really cannot see actual retirement in my cards just yet. Not for the next few years anyhow, because I love what I have created here and enjoy my life way too much. I do love what I have and want what I have already. How many of us out there can say that? Retirement will come soon enough. Just in two years I will be 65. Maybe that is a good place to begin. You think?

Winter is a great time to do things one enjoys. The nights are long and there is always time for crafts and hobbies. I have been crocheting and knitting, along with making soap and creams. The thing is I never use patterns and hardly use recipes, except for soap, which must have a recipe to ensure the lye is properly calculated. The days of lye soap that will leave holes in your clothes are long gone. 

Knitting is hard on my arthritic hands for some reason, so I only do a little at a time. Crochet is not so bad, and I find I can easily crochet for an hour and sometimes longer. Using a thick handled crochet hook is supposed to be helpful. Before I invest in some of those, I am going to wrap one with some batting and see if it makes a difference for pain and tolerance. 

My granddaughter is turning one in April. I pondered over purchasing a gift, but I far prefer handmade items. I did make some baby soap for her, and a cream in case shes needs it, but a toy is much more fun. First I made a basket from the wool from the sheep here at the Fat Ewe Farm. The wool is East Friesian and it was processed professionally, coming back as batting and roving, which is loose ropes of wool. My friend, Kara, of Spin Heart Spin, is a master spinner, and we traded some soap for the roving being spun into a chunky yarn. That is the wool the basket was made from. At the suggestion of a mom who has a toddler, I am going to add a handle to the basket. I had thought of it, but did not. Now I will.

The bunny is from my noggin - no pattern. I wanted something she could cart around, since she is already walking and that was durable, soft and safe. The bunny was made in pieces: tail, head, body, arms, legs, ears, ruffles and bow and then the face was embroidered on. It is a simple bunny and the look I hoped to achieve was imperfection. One ear not quite like the other, a little tilted down and one arm up while the other is resting. She has a tuft of hair tied in the bow atop her head. The bunny is stuffed with the roving wool that the yarn for the basket was made from, but the bunny yarn is cotton made in Canada.

In a week or so, a friend and I will be driving down to Calgary, well she to Carstairs and then my son will pick me to go on to Calgary. Then I will present the bunny in a basket to my little girl. Oh yeah, I  am going to make a little blanket for the bunny too! Then she can put her to bed in the basket. I hope she likes the gift. I certainly enjoyed making it for her and I am sure it will only be one of many she receives from my heart in her lifetime. What do you think? 

I live and farm alone. Sometimes there are things I need to do that really require one or two more people, but there is only one - ME! So, I ponder the situation for awhile and usually come up with some sort of plan. The thing is, even if it does not work, I can say I tried, then devise a better plan and start again. Learning is the mother of innovativeness. 

I moved half the ewes the other day, along with two rams, the little Babydoll and the big Tunis. It was my intention to use the beautiful BFL ram as the clean up ram, but I cannot handle him on my own at all, and do not even want to try. The Tunis ram is a pussycat in comparison and he was already in with the Tunis girls, then he went in with the Cotswold ewes when I put the group together and finally, the Babydolls. The Babydoll ram tried to push the Tunis around and although Thomas Tunis did not fight with the little fellow, he is only about a third of the size of Thomas. So, he basically ignored him. Still, I needed to get him out of there. Well, it just so happened that he got himself in a section where I could close the gate, move the ewes and then deal with him later. 

I locked him up, put up the livestock panels to direct the sheep, and tied Robbie up this time, since he was way more trouble for me than help last time, sending the sheep back to their pen instead of where I wanted them to go. The sheep were very cooperative, most of them remembering their pen from previous years and walked directly over to it. I simply opened the gate and they waltzed in with Thomas. 

I had to move the Babydoll ram lambs that spent the winter with the goats because they are too small to go in with the mature rams, and move Bob, who was in with the goats for a bit too. Bob is doing so much better, I do have hope he will make it through this winter! I caught Ross, who is Rosy's little fellow and has the sweet gentle disposition of Rosy and Randy followed Ross, I shoved Ross into the barn and then out the door and the two of them can stay with the ewes for a while until breeding or they are sold. Then I looked for Bob, who had toddled off. 

I could not find him. Where on earth could a large sheep go? Well, it turned out the rams were quite interested in a corner they do not normally pay attention to. I looked there and did not see Bob. I hunted around the rest of the farmyard. The gates were closed so he had to be within. I went to the corner where the rams were congregated and sure enough, Bob had gotten into the farmhouse yard through the only gate he possibly could have and then went by the farmhouse into the summer rabbit pen and was happily munching the alfalfa sticking up through the snow. On went his halter and I simply led him to the ewe pen, where he was very happily checking the girls to see if they were bred. 

To make sure Bob was not cold I brought in 4 large bales of straw and put them in the open shelter and the shed shelter. Bob could choose either one in which to curl up in for the night. I have to work tomorrow as a substitute teacher, so won't see the sheep until an hour before dark. They got mineral, salt and extra hay today to ensure they were happy until I could tend to them tomorrow. 

Getting work done is always satisfying, especially when it is over! But, oh, I still had to move the large bales of hay. I started the skid steer and moved 6 large hay bales and was ready to call it a day, but Gen and Jewel were asking for more water. I hauled 3 buckets, but the piggies wanted another drink too, so they got some and the ewes got the rest. It is cold tonight, with temperatures near minus 20, but if feels colder. I think every critter is comfortable and happy and I am glad that I was able to do everything myself. I got it done. 

Living in a tiny house is not the easiest to do, especially when I have so many hobbies. For each hobby, accompanying it is a plethora of things, things like knitting needles, crochet hooks, yarn and more yarn, soap making supplies, molds for soap making and soap, lots of it. Then there are books. My goodness, the dungeon down the trap door has boxes of books taken from the the bed and breakfast house when the pipe burst under the slab and then flooded the lower floor. Fortunately the books were on shelves and did not get wet, but everything had to be removed and aired out to prevent mold. So they came back in boxes and the shelves were dismantled and are not going to go back in. There were enough books to start a small library and I tried to donate them to a start up locally, but they did not have enough labour to catalogue them, so they are in boxes. That, however, does not prevent me from buying more. I have about 6 books on the go right now. Most of my current reading is on herbal medicines from different areas of the planet. Indigenous plants have been known for centuries and that knowledge was all but lost over the last while, though, thankfully, some have taken the time to research, connect with healers and write things down. One of the more fascinating books is Druid herbalism, which is really Druidism in its finest. 

The Druids loved the trees. So do I. The forest is where I feel most at home. Trees live for thousands of years and communicate with each other through mycelium under the ground. They are amazing. I think at times, I can 'feel' them. But the Druids knew trees. They even had a secret alphabet based on tree species. During the last times of the practicing Druids, witch hunters and witchcraft were considered of the devil. So tree medicine had to be carefully disguised, hence the secret alphabet, but even so, much has been lost. If I had a religion, it would be of the forest Druids. It is remarkably similar to many of the North American first nations beliefs and some of the cures and herbs they used are the same, though Druids were in the British Isles and the natives of North America were far apart. 

So, back to tidying the farmhouse. I completely emptied the drawers from the one dresser in my room. There are too many clothes for a dresser and the closet is full of pretty stuff I never wear, but used to and who knows. So I keep it. The rest of the clothes are folded and piled on the nightstand mostly. That is cluttered for sure, but the actual closet is very small. My room is done, laundry folded and away as away as it goes. I do not read in bed or in my room, so the books remain in the living room, the new ones that is. Next I will tackle the living room again. When one has a tiny house, it is just a case of moving things from one place to another, because there really isn't any place to put them. Lots are carted down to the dungeon, because it is out of the way, but eventually that has to all be dealt with too. 

The floor is swept, though by tomorrow, it will look as though it never has been. I could not get the fire to cooperate and smoke filled the house with the downdraft that came up suddenly. Ashes went everywhere! Tomorrow that has to be tidied. But my little farmhouse is warm and cozy when the little wood stove is crackling away and I love it. I wish you were here to share that nice fire with me. The light fixtures have been sitting in boxes in the living room since I moved back here, but I am waiting patiently for some one to put them up for me. Maybe on Tuesday, my friend will have some time he said. Til then, tidying the farmhouse is a vicious circle, never ending, moving things from one place to the other and back again, but I would not trade it for a palace. Home sweet home, it is to me!

I ate all my fermented stuff. It was sooooo good. Then I drank the brine. Well, that was alright too, as long as I did not eat a jar of fermented pickled Daikon and drink the brine in one sitting. Then explosive things happen! 

Anyhow, it is time to do another batch of ferments. I am writing a little bit for a group I belong to on basic fermentation, starting with pickled Daikon, because it is so easy and readily available year round. Most North Americans do not use Daikon, which is a radish, albeit a mild one. It makes a great pickle, just like cucumbers, remains firm and crunchy and only takes a few weeks sitting on the counter. My parents used to go whole hog and pickled 50 or more jars of cucumber, can tomatoes, make sauerkraut by the 5 gallon crock and so on. That is absolutely great. One must have storage space that is quite cool to keep all that fermented food though. And since I live on my own, I do not need all that preserved food, though I plan to do more than I did this fall. It is just that fall on the farm is a really busy time in itself, with harvest and winter preparations and there is not a great deal of time left for preserving. I do not know how they did it in the old days, but I suspect with many more hands than two, it was a whole lot simpler. 

So, There are ten pounds of cabbages waiting for me, 5 gallons of carrots, and of course the two Daikon radishes. I want to try ginger and honey ferment too. That one I have not made before, but my honey garlic ferment is ready and is fantastic. It is just raw honey covered garlic. Daily the garlic is coated with the honey by stirring or shaking or turning upside down. Then the magic happens and eventually the honey becomes liquid and the garlic falls to the bottom of the jar, indicating it is saturated and ready. The honey is a great throat ease or cough syrup too. The carrots will be cut like bread and butter pickles in rounds and fermented with different additives: dill and garlic, ginger and cinnamon, oranges. Gosh, it is going to be so delicious. 

There are new fangled devices to make fermenting easy, but just a Mason jar will do for a small bit. Salt is the way fermenting in North America is mostly done, but other cultures rely on bacterias and molds as well as salt. We are a little shy to try those time honoured recipes here. Do you ferment? I would love to hear from you.

I am pretty special. I was gifted a beef tongue (and dog bones) yesterday by my friend. She and her daughter came for a visit and she produced this frozen beef tongue, either for the dogs or for myself, whichever, she said. I chose me, since there were lots of bones that day and the next day I went to the butcher's and got their usual weekly ration of raw meat and bones. And there, I was given about 10 large turkey carcasses for the dogs. Those lucky dogs! 

I left the tongue out to thaw and then the next day, simmered it slowly all day, about 8 hours in total, with bay leaves, mustard seeds, a chunk of organic turmeric, garlic, onion and a handful of black peppercorns and some Himalayan salt. I peeked at it several times, checking the broth level to be sure it was submerged. And I stuck two turkey carcasses in the oven and slow roasted them. There was not much meat left on them, as their original purpose was for turkey sausage and jerky, but there was a bit and it was delicious. Normally, I would not eat store bought turkey in any quantity, but there was truly only a few ounces. I realized that the turkey carcasses should be raw for the dogs, though, so I am not sure what to do with the bones at this point. 

The broth from the tongue was turned on high to evaporate the water and get a reduction. Tongue broth will gel when it is reduced enough and my aim was jellied tongue. I ate some of it hot after peeling the skin off and removing the membrane and muscle where it attaches. Gross? People used to eat tongue, and organs and other parts all the time and cook the bones in broth too, but we have lost our way through the desire for quick easy and convenient meals. The long simmered tongue was tender and had a hint of cinnamon and cloves with the fragrance of bay, just the right amount of salt and a smack of black pepper hotness. Delightful. 

And today, I was gifted one more time with a father and his two daughter's visit to the farm. He was a delightful young man, genuine as they come, which is rare in this day and age. I immediately felt that their presence somehow had enriched my life today and that the visit was my gift. Then my long time friend from White Rock stopped in for coffee and we had a good time chatting. 

See, life is filled with abundance and is bountiful, from tongues to friends and the laughter of children to carcasses. These are not the sorts of things we generally think of when we think 'gift' however, everything given freely with good intentions can be a gift. Do you feel blessed by the small things in your life too?