And the rhubarb experiences it’s first ranching…

It rained a lot the week after we got here.  A lot.  It was great for our potatoes and our beets and carrots and squash, but it wasn’t quite so great for our spirits.  Mine especially I think.  I’ve learned to accept and live with the winter rains of the coast, but the summer is the pay off.  The summer isn’t supposed to involve endless cups of tea and wishing you could light the woodstove.  But it did last week.  And that’s okay, because it didn’t rain yesterday until the late afternoon after I had gotten enough sun for my red-headed skin, and after a little trip to the beach and a big game of tetherball between Abe and Jeremy.  On that note, if you ever want to amuse a 3 year old, a tether ball is a good option.

Jer’s gone off to town today to restock some of our provisions and to start asking some of the important questions about insuring wood stoves.  He’s also going to buy a ladder and maybe even a weed whacker.  Ooo… big purchases!  Last week we got a wheelbarrow and a lot of poop for the garden.  Nadine also just left after a lovely visit, so I’m having my first lazy morning on the porch in the sunshine since we’ve moved.  I’ve got lots of things I’d like to get done before Jer gets home, but that can wait, because setting up this blog was on the list as well (we should all take this time to thank Marc for not only encouraging us to set up a blog, but also for naming our farm – for a while we thought it would only be a temporary name, but I think we may paint a sign over the next couple of weeks – it’s going to stick!).

There’s lots of news to catch up on since we’ve moved, many of which include lovely visitors.  We really are some of the luckiest people around, not only to have the opportunity to have this house and this land, but also to have fantastic friends come and visit and stay and help.  Lex, Nora, Marc, Jennifer and Juniper started us off, and have since been followed by Rachael and Nadine, and Christy and Abe and Margaret.  That’s a lot considering we really only moved 2 weeks ago.  Wow.  Other big news is that we’ve fenced both the front and back (or house and farm) gardens, cleaned the house good, pulled out a piece of drywall in the laundry, weeded, dug, and planted a LOT of vegetables, ate some funny cookies by accident, and have started working at another farm on Hornby.  Dan, the farmer there, seems to have taken a liking to us and is willing to help us out with anything he can, be it knowledge or contacts or local info.  Great.  We’ve tried to get chickens, but it’s a little late in the season, so it’s a little trickier than we were anticipating.  We DID, however, harvest a batch of rhubarb for jam and cake, AND enough huckleberries for a wild huckleberry pie.

More to come, and photos too.  Very soon.

Kerri