Uh, Oh....We've Got Kittens

When we discovered a colony of feral cats on the property, the whole point of feeding them/caring for them was to get them spayed and neutered.  We know there are too many unwanted cats and dogs, it's a huge issue everywhere and the notion of so many animals being euthanized just breaks my heart.  My thinking was that I could befriend them, and once I could handle them a bit, I could get them to the vet.  If they were quite friendly, I hoped to find them homes.  A little naive, perhaps.  Some of the cats have never become comfortable with me, and now we have kittens.  I feel so bad about this - I could have tried harder and trapped the unfriendly cats.  In making some inquiries, I found that the local rescues, like Funds For Furry Friends, are over-whelmed with cats.  People look for the 'free' kitten ads in the paper, and balk at paying the small fee the rescues require.  The fee includes spaying or neutering and shots, and is really a great value compared to what the people would pay on their own at the vets.  People who get the 'free' kittens quite often don't get them spayed, and more kittens arrive.  It's an unfortunate cycle, and now I've contributed to it.  I feel really bad.  In the meantime, I've never been around kittens, and they are soooo darn cute; even these little guys whose eyes aren't open yet.

Where'd The Soil Go?

A Spring storm, forecasting up to 10 cm of snow (about 4 inches).  It is heavy, sticky stuff and should melt quite quickly.  But the enthusiasm of finding bare soil yesterday has been, well, quenched.  And have we got some messy Bears!

I See Soil!

It's true - Spring is coming.  In the last few days, we've gotten just a wee bit above the freezing mark!  We're starting to see results.  Top photo is last this afternoon, bottom photo is yesterday morning.  Look how much that patch of soil has grown - very encouraging!  The photos are of the walkway up to the barn and, beyond that, the chicken coop.  It's a gravel walkway, which makes it impossible to use a snow blower and hard to even shovel.  We tend to just trek out after a snowfall, and the pathway slowly becomes packed down.  A slow melt would be best for us here in Manitoba, considering our flood forecast.  But it's been such a long, long winter.  Everyone around here just wants the snow gone, we want our bare feet in sandals and we want to sit outside and feel the sun on some part of our bodies other than our faces!  However, the forecast tonight:  a mix of freezing rain and snow!

Flood Warning!

It could be an interesting Spring here in Manitoba.  Flood warnings have been issued by the provincial and city governments for some time now.  Flood preparation is in full swing.  Seven years we've been in Manitoba, and we've never seen anything like this;  this could be serious.  Now, here at Aagaard Farms, we're quite safe.  We're up on the North Hill, east of town, and look down onto the river valley.  Our dugout may over flow, and it's possible the east end of our raspberries and asparagus may drown, but that's a worst case scenario for us.  Our neighbors, at the bottom of the hill, like Grand Valley Strawberries, could be in for a much rougher ride.  The City is preparing by moving in large soil 'bags'; these things are almost five feet tall and three feet wide!  They've also been building up berms in different areas around the river.  This has been brought on by heavy rains in 2010 and a big snow pack this year.  Two years ago the experts were talking drought - may how things can change!  

Goat Mania Is Setting In

We've been thinking about adding goats to the farm. Making soap and cheese would add year-round income, which would be very good. We've been doing our research, reading some books, searching online. We had a great chance yesterday to get a little more up-close-and-personal. The Manitoba Royal Winter Fair is happening in Brandon, and we saw that the Manitoba Goat Association was doing a presentation. MGA president Bill Paulishyn was manning the booth and giving the presentation. We had an awesome opportunity to ask our questions and get some Manitoba-specific information! You see, very few of the books we've read talk about caring for goats in the extreme cold temperatures of our winters. Great to have some questions answered! Then, we wandered over to the petting zoo - and watched the baby goats! They're so adorable!

Spring Growth - Indoor Herbs!

As the days get longer, plants begin to come awake. We've still got a good layer of snow and freezing temperatures so outside plants remain dormant! But inside, we've over-wintered a few pots of different herbs and they are feeling the Spring vibe! Over-wintering herbs is always a challenge; these plants are all outside for the summer, so sometimes we deal with pests trying to come inside with them. This year, we've struggled a bit with white fly, which we think we've beaten with sticky traps and neem oil soil drenches. Then, we have to deal with the hot, dry air created by our indoor heating. Most of the herbs we keep in the sun room, which is east facing and very cool. We allow them to go dormant, water lightly just once a week and try not to harvest too much during the winter. This works well for woody, long-lived herbs like lavender, sage and rosemary. This year, the thyme and tarragon were both looking brown and dry. I cut them back hard in January, and they are bouncing back beautifully. The tarragon, pictured here, is growing vigorously. Just behind it, on the right, the thyme is just starting to bud. It will be so good to have fresh herbs for cooking again! And shortly, we'll start to seed more so we'll be herb-happy soon!

Getting a Little Sun

Even though it's not that warm, the Garage Kitties are looking for a little sun! I guess on the roof, on the dark shingles, it can get a little cozy. On the right, Big Orange, in the middle Bob and peeking over from the left of the photo is Fluffy. It's just -10 C (about 12 F) so it's not exactly mild outside. But the sun holds the promise of Spring and they do have their fur coats on!

Homemade Pasta - Round Two!

Our first foray into making pasta didn't go that well. It tasted good, but was a sticky mess and jammed up our new pasta machine. We were at our friends Joe and Calla's for dinner last weekend and they had made great pasta. So, we knew it was time to get back at it! This time, we had some good advice from Joe and Calla, and we'd watched some videos on YouTube. The old adage 'A picture is worth a thousand words' seems to be very true for us when it comes to making pasta. We had a few 'aha' moments and the second try at making pasta went much, much better. Check out Jamie Oliver making pasta here and some other guy here. It's really quite easy when you know what you're doing! And quite fast! The basic recipe: 100 grams of flour and one egg per person. We actually had a lot of pasta for the two of us. The secret seems to be dusting with lots of flour as you run it through the machine. We tried Jamie's way of cutting the pasta by hand instead of changing over the machine to the pasta cutter. We cut it at about fettuccine width (we thought) by it cooked up super fat at about an inch wide! Maybe we overcooked it. Nonetheless, is was not a big lump and it was very tasty! We'll do that again, soon! The pasta was using local flour and our eggs (the sauce was totally not local - we won't even go there). Give the videos a watch, and then try it yourself!

Ah, Spring On The Prairies!

Well, we didn't get the big dump of snow that was forecast, at least not here in Brandon. We got 4-5 cm ( a couple of inches, maybe) of slushy, wet stuff. What we did get today was high winds, causing extreme drifts along the country road to our house. A knock on the door sent Farmer Man out to help some people stuck not far from the house. Good neighbour Mr. Robson, Babes' owner, stopped to help on his way home. The ironic part of this whole adventure is that the people were on their way out to see us about renting a garden plot this summer.

It's Dangerous Out There!

This time of year is very hard for Manitoba gardeners who like to surf the Web. Bloggers almost everywhere but here are enjoying the first signs of Spring; they're posting awesome pictures of snowdrops and tulips coming up, buds swelling, birds returning. Here in Manitoba, on March 21st, we have a weather warning: the forecast calls for a storm that could dump more than 15 cm (about a foot!) of snow over the next 48 hours. Oh, good! It's already weird here, we've had a little nice weather, then more snow. It's melted, gotten icy, then gotten more snow on top of the ice. The picture is our barn, the door and window on the left are in Farmer Man's shop, the door on the right leads to our little greenhouse. Looming overhead: the snow and ice slowly creeping down the roof. One good slam of the door and one of us, or a little Bear, could be buried. It's not cold, at least. Well, still below freezing, but not by much, which is nice by Manitoba standards. The only things greening up around here are the seedlings in our sun room!

Dark Days Challenge: Kaput, but.....

Poor Laura, at The Urbanhennery, the host of The Dark Days Challenge. She's had one heck of a winter! Outrageous weather, old farm house damaged, power problems, road problems, the loss of some hens and even the loss of a beloved horse. It's more than anyone should have to bear. So, everyone participating in the Dark Days got an email a while back that she had ended up just toooooo far behind to ever catch up. And we all understand. But have we stopped eating local? No way!

Eating local is, to some extent, a way of life for us now. Not that we're trying to be off-grid, self-sufficient hermits or anything! It's just that we're in the position to supply ourselves, to know how our food was raised, have great tasting and healthy food, save some money and stuff like that. Plus, since we're in the business of selling our stuff, we like to buy from people around here and support them, lower our carbon foot print - you know! So, just as we were running out of our own garden carrots, just after Christmas, we saw an ad on eBrandon advertising carrots! They're lovely - almost as good as ours. If you're in the Westman area, they came from Peters Market Garden in Virden, email petersmarketgarden@rfnow.com; Marlin comes into Brandon fairly regularly so it's not hard to connect with him for pick-up! I was also rushing through the Town Centre last Friday to pick up honey from Mann Apiaries and I think I saw some carrots on a vendors' table. Of course, if you're looking for potatoes, we can help with that!

We've also received an awesome gift to help us eat local! Our good neighbours Mike and Naomi have been reading about the Dark Days Challenge here on this blog and our foray into pasta making. They've given us some of their homemade canned tomatoes and sauce! They've also been making sausage this week, probably from deer that Mike has harvested right around here! They've offered to share some of that with us, too! Love that - thank you, Mike and Naomi. Now I know who to call, too, when I give canning tomato sauce a try for the first time this summer!

Jam Swap!

I love blogging for the connections and on-line friends you can acquire! And all the stuff you can learn! I became aware of Lindsay, of 100 Mile Locavores thru the Dark Days Challenge, which she participated in for the first time this year. We've got a lot in common: both trying to eat local, both growing and preserving food, both selling at Farmers Market. She also has an awesome canning site called Uncanny Preserves - Thinking outside the jar. Some great info on that site, not only preserving, but using preserves in some great recipes! She emailed me inquiring about nanking cherries, something she's not familiar with. She proposed a swap: some of her homemade wild blueberry jam for a jar of our homegrown, homemade nanking cherry jam. So, she sent a little package from New Brunswick with the wild blueberry jam but also some carrot apple butter, I sent a package with nanking jelly and grape jelly to New Brunswick! The wild blueberry jam is awesome: some of the best blueberry flavor I've ever had out of jar! We've haven't tried the butter, but I'm currently fascinated by butters. I've been reading about them on some of my other fav canning site like Tigress in a Jam and Food in Jars. I'm going to give butters a try this summer! Also loved seeing someone doing something a little different with their presentation: Lindsay has great little inserts on the top of the jars, with her logo, and ties on a nice little card with the same logo with info on the product. Looks and tastes great! Are you canning?