Return to Earth

08/18/2026

The turkeys made their first pasture move today! After chasing Ripley away of course!

Now I can finally clean up all the baloney left after setting them up.

08/15/2026

Fresh chicken is hitting the farm stand, Vicki Emlaw and I’ll have it at Picton Town Hall Farmers’ Market tomorrow Sunday August 16!

Frozen will be arriving in our farm stand freezer and on County Farm Collective this week :)

Bye!

08/01/2026

07/31/2026

One would never say that many of Ben's creations are aesthetically minded, they are purpose-built and (usually) fulfill their intended job spectacularly.

This cacophony of wood is the Turkey Trolly 2.0. It's a similar design to what we used last year, easier turkey access to the roosts and a wider shade canopy.

As the turkeys are about to enter phase 3 of their pastured journey (i.e. they are big enough to be released from the tractors onto open field), it was time to actualize the upgrade.

Yes. This is the REVISED and UPGRADED version.

Form over function, my friends.
Form over function...

07/28/2026

Kate suggested that I post my todo list from Friday.

Being a small farm, I live in this weird world of multiple priorities all pulling me in different directions. While making hay is still a consuming task, I’m never making 1000 bales at a time. Sometimes you just gotta wait while it dries.

With baling hay coming on Saturday and market on Sunday, here’s what my Friday looked like:

- I made a batch of Kate’s newish Coriander soup for the stand
- I broke down pork spares for dog treats for market
- I needed to rearrange the broiler chicken setup a bit in the back field as my original spacing was a bit..optimistic 🙈
-I needed to grab a bit of additional turkey and broiler feed to get me thru the weekend, as well hitch pins (which always vanish over time)
- I also needed to wash and prep the currants which I brought with me to the market

All of this is in addition to the usual chores, making sure everything and everyone (kids included) stay alive, and helping to keep the household sorted

I also have a wildly optimistic time estimate next to each step. Spoiler alert - I did not complete everything lol

I meet all kinds of people in my travels and occasionally a large farm will (usually implicitly) wonder what I do all day on 40 acres

Friends and customers ask how I do it all

The answers are 1) everything and nothing all at once and 2) I don’t! Then push it to tomorrow and hope for the best

07/25/2026

Tomorrow, for one day only only, I will have some of my surplus Black Currants with me at the market Picton Town Hall Farmers’ Market

These are the currants we grow here and use in our jam :)

See you there!

07/24/2026

The truth of what it's like to live with a farmer...

Poor boot.

07/20/2026

To all those who have been asking about fresh chicken - it's coming! We're working on it! And thank you for all your interest! ❤️)

The mid-summer broilers have been on field for around a week now and, for the first time ever, they're being run through the BACK pasture area.

This is a bit of a big deal.

Although Ben has been picking away at the area to get the preliminary silvopasture structure set up, the back pasture are still extremely raw (read "semi-wild"). There is no perimeter fence back there (yet) and, it's a LONG way back from the house. Together, this all means that the broilers are more exposed than they have been since our first chicken-tractor hit the fields following our move to PEC. To say that Ben is stressing is an understatement! 😫

But the first step to rehabilitating the soil back there is getting nutrients into it and, for that, there is little that is as effective as the broilers.

They say big risks yield big rewards... Let's hope so!

07/17/2026

Waking to a clear sky this morning was quite the treat after the past couple days of smoke and smog! (maybe moreso even knowing that it'll return!)

Farming is an inherently outdoor job that cannot be paused out of convenience. The animals still need to be tended, fed, moved; water lines need to be checked; eggs collected; fences verified, and the list goes on. Luckily, the animals are faring well.

Even so it's important to remember that this is a temporary state for us. Unpleasant (and for some, like my fellow asthmatics, potentially dangerous), but temporary.

I've seen some rather crass and insensitive remarks being made in the online sphere about the smoke... Let's remember that what we're seeing is literally a downwind result of the source destruction. There are many people who are losing everything right now. Some compassion is warranted.

07/13/2026

They grow up so fast!

The turkeys have finally grown big enough to be moved onto pasture - and not a day too late as they were becoming quite the little trouble makers while in the brooding trailer!

For the next few weeks, while they are still on the small side of things, they'll do their field rotations in a turkey-tractor - the same way our broiler chickens do.. However, as the turkeys continue to grow they'll eventually become big enough that predatory hawks and owls become less of a concern and will then be transferred into a fully open paddock all their own as they continue to make their rounds.