I've got sunshine....

It was a beautiful day today.

Birds are chirping away

I was able to go outside in just a light

spring jacket.  

And....

It's time to plant the seeds in my basement

grow-op.

Ya ya...don't worry the only thing I 

grow in there are tomatoes, peppers, 

pumpkins, flowers and squash.

This year I decided to try my hand at Echinacea.

A few years ago I saved seeds from my

flowers outside.  I knew they needed

stratification so I stuck them in the fridge

and promptly forgot about them till

last week.

Baby echinacea!

I planted the seeds and read in my seed book 

The complete guide to saving seeds which I 

recommend highly, if I did the correct thing.

Well I guess I didn't.  For echinacea I guess

you have to stratify the seeds, like I did,

but also plant them at a certain temperature for

two weeks, then another temperature

for another few weeks, howl at a waxing moon

while Haley's comet is in it's third orbit in the middle of

a snow  storm.  

Needless to say it's a snowball's chance in hell these are

going to germinate!

Well low  and behold!!  4  are popping out! I'm beyond

ecstatic and over that waxing moon I was supposed

to wait for.  

There's nothing better than whipping out a brand new pair 

of garden gloves. I recommend these ones

highly.  They are tough as nails.

The weather is so nice that the fan is going in the greenhouse.

So I figured that I'd give the greenhouse

a cleaning also.  We tried to get the water going

but it sprung a leak. There was probably a spot that

didn't drain and froze last winter. Dang.

One thing I did discover in the greenhouse

is if you plant marigolds, please take the seed heads

off the plants before the winter.

I don't think I'll  have to plant marigolds

this year...whoops.

Going to need some dirt in them thar beds.

Today was the  last sapping day.  We had a good run

but it's time to stop so we pulled all the splines out of the trees.

It was so nice today that I did a walkabout in our

backyard. My Hellebores is gorgeous, I'm so proud of them.

The goldfish all survived the winter except for one.

And I think Mr. and Mrs Duckworth are back!

Every year we have a mated pair of mallard

ducks that stay in our back yard  for a few  months

I chose to believe that it's the same 

pair  year after year, but since

they never show us their passports I can't be certain.

I tried taking a picture, but they were a bit camera shy.

If you look closely you can see Mr. Duckworth.

The bees are just a buzzing around and a bit cranky. 

So we're not bugging them too much these

days.  We need to give them some

pollen patties for a few weeks. 

The silver you see on the hive is insulation.

That will be coming off in a few weeks.

 Garlic is growing well. I hope we don't have the same problem as last year.

We had some type of bug chew little holes in most of it.

Didn't hurt it any,but it was unsightly

and we sell it. So we don't sell

products unless they're perfect

so we had a lot of left over garlic.

Well it's been a pretty productive day.

Tomorrow is chicken coop cleaning day

if the weather holds.

Have a Blessed evening

Lisa

And life goes on...

Yes I know the world is falling apart at the moment...

Yes I do believe that it will get better...

Yes I realize that it's terrible and horrible...

No I'm not going to talk about it on my blog...

I hope to make this a happy place...

I actually didn't turn on the news tonight.

A first for me. 

This year we decided to try our hand at tapping the trees again. 

We've had great success and every time we

decide that we're taking the taps out we get

there and there's full buckets of sap!

It's amazing how it just looks like water

I'm not sure how much syrup  we've done so far but

obviously after our trip to the woods today

it's not done. 

So far I think we've made around 30 litres.

That's a lot of sap!

In case you're  wondering the ratio is

40:1 

one drop at a time.

Dave also made himself a sap boiler out of an old furnace.

A lot more financially feasible than

the propane we were using last year.

We also had a sap pan made out of

stainless steel which wasn't cheap.

But we've almost paid for it with the syrup we have sold so far.

Gotta get it hot!

 That's it for now. 

Have a Blessed Day

Lisa

Long lost soul!

Things have been crazy busy around here the last year.

I didn't think it possible.

I'm not sure where to begin so I'll probably jump back and forth 

and here and there. Hopefully I won't confuse any of you.

First of all I no longer work at Home Hardware.  I had been working there 

for 13 years!! Wow!

It was very hard to leave because I loved the people that 

I worked with.  Yes, we got on each other's nerves

but that's what families do. And after 13  years of spending 

most of your waking hours with someone that's how 

you start to think of them.

But it was time to go. My health was getting worse. My heel spurs 

from standing for long periods of time and my tennis elbow

from doing repetitive movement (plus other physical issues I had that I won't mention) were getting worse and worse. The doctor didn't want me to lift

more than 15 pounds and that was my job!

I started looking for work.  I prayed on it a lot! and I wanted 

the perfect job if there was something possible.

In early November my manager at the radio station was moving.

I thought to myself..."hmmm...can I do that?"

So I thought, what the heck! I love the station, I love my community

I love being Acadian and all that it stands for and I had

more ideas in my brain than I knew what to do with!

So I applied...

and I got the job!

I am now general manager of Radio CIFA  104,1FM (check it out online)

Who would have thunk it?!

I love it! I meet new people constantly, always on the go shmoozing,

thinking up of new plans, radio shows etc...

BUT...all jobs have their down sides and this one has them 

also. Like the stress of keeping up a non profit community

radio station going and other things.

But no job is perfect. As long as the goods outweigh the bads

then it's all good!

The funny thing is that when I was told I had the job all I could think of

was Mr. Carlson the general manager of WKRP. Remember that

show?  The turkey drop?

As God is my witness I thought turkeys could fly!

Well I promise never to drop turkeys out of a helicopter. 

What a weird thing to think of.

I'm done my third semester of the master gardener. Only one more to go.

Phew! I'm still writing gardening articles for the provincial french

newspaper. Dave and I are busy in the garden club.

Dave and I have also been asked to help a family of refugees

from Burma plant a garden this summer. 

Needless to say, I don't have part-time jobs like I did the last few years.

One is enough!

But I did start volunteering with Eastlink Community TV. 

I interviewed the cast and crew in a play.And they're thinking of having a 

french talk show and I'd be the host. 

How cool is that! It's volunteer, but it's so much fun!

On the farm things are going well. I have a few bantie hens and a rooster.

Just a few. I missed my hens but I didn't really want

an entire big flock, so these are really just pets, but they lay well.

I have always wanted to tap trees for maple syrup but we didn't have trees

on our property. Well we bought a piece of land on a tax

sale last year and it's full of maple trees. So for the last 2 weeks

we've been collecting sap and boiling sap. We only

tapped 19 trees, but we ended up with almost 13 liters. 

I'd say that's pretty good. I was hoping for a liter or two.

Our stash!

I'm now getting my beehive ready.  I gave it a coat of primer tonight and

I'll paint it tomorrow. The bees are ordered and expected in May.

Soon they'll be here and it's not

something you can just put on the shelf

till you're ready.

Can you believe that this young whipper snapper is graduating this year!

Well I think that's enough for now.

Have a blessed evening!

Lisa