Hot Hot Heat

Hi everyone!  Wow, it's hot!  34 degrees C on the deck today at 7 pm!  As we're off-grid, water is one of the basic needs for which we had to implement a backup plan last year.  Remember the well we had drilled?  We might need it soon!  I took Molly up the hill the other day to check out the creek that supplies our water, and this is what we found:



As you can see, the creek bed is bone dry.  We walked further up to the source of our household water, and luckily the pool that Paul moved it to last year is quite deep, but still, the intake is only just covered.  The forecast says 10-15 mms of rain tomorrow, so here's hoping they're right.

The garden seems to be surviving, despite the lack of rainfall.  I've had the sprinkler on sporadically, but as our own water supply is dwindling, I don't want to lavish too much on the veggie patch!  Here's an interim crop report, in pictures of course!



Pole beans, with zucchini in the background.



Proof that we can grow our own food!  A baby zucchini making an appearance. :)



My little field of corn, basking in the sun.



I planted 3 different kinds of onions: white, yellow and red ... I know I have some white and red coming up, but what happened to the yellow?!



Tomatoes, and in the back, carrots and peas.  You can see how dry the soil is in this picture ... and this was after a watering!



Of course, we have potatoes.  These are Chieftains, and we have Russetts in the other bed.



This is a spinach plant that has been allowed to go to seed.  Cut down the whole plant, dry it, then store the dry seeds in a cool, dry place.  Because this plant was grown from non-GMO seed, it produces viable seeds that can be planted next year.  We got these seeds from Mountain Valley Seeds in Utah, but Halifax Seed sells non-GMO and organic seeds, right here in Nova Scotia!

I bet you're bored with all these vegetable pics!  How about some flowers?



Roses are doing very well this year.



As usual, we have thousands of bees!  This one is having a good time on the borage flower.



And this guy is loving the mallow flower.

I'm glad to see, even in this crazy heat, there is no shortage of bees, birds and butterflies.

We're ridiculously busy here at Willow Retreat, preparing for our upcoming medieval faire, Avalon Gathering.  Signs are being painted, campsites are being cleared and costumes are being made.  I'm pretty sure I won't have time to blog until after it's done, but I'll be sure to take lots of pictures for a later post!

Until then, here's another pic of Molly (which I know is what most of you tune in for) enjoying the summer!

A Time to Sow

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted in a while, but we've been really busy lately. June started off cold and wet, but has now turned over sunny and warm. We had a couple of late frosts (one the morning after I'd planted out the cucumber seedlings!) which messed up my gardening plan somewhat, but I think that danger is past now. So I'm busy planting seed potatoes, with Molly's "help": I plant the potato, she digs it up and eats it. (:

We picked up a load of lumber for building projects, and Paul laid the gravel down for the base of the shower cabin.  We may find another use for this, but for now, that's the plan.  Watch this space!



We also had a load of firewood delivered, which is now stacked outside the back door where it will season in time for winter.

It's been a busy June so far!  I held my first Reiki class, which went very well, and we're getting enquiries for both sides of our business: the retreat/Reiki/meditation side and the survival school side.  Right now though, I'm trying to get the vegetable garden planted, and hoping for rain ... !

If May was yellow (with an occasional splash of red tulip), then June is shades of blue, purple and mauve. We've passed from the gentle haze of blue forget-me-knots and precocious indigo of johnny jumpups, to the exuberant lilac in full bloom, the deep purple lupins that line the roadside, and my favourite, the wild meadow columbine. Don't forget the blue starflower or borage, which is rampant all over the garden, and the secretive blushing ladyslipper hiding in the woods.

Before I wax too poetic, back to work! We've planted garlic, onions (red, white and yellow), spinach, swiss chard, sage, thyme and leeks in one bed. I'm trying companion planting, which basically means planting stuff which is friends with other stuff. So for example, garlic planted around the base of a peach tree will keep borers at bay.

Which reminds me! We went and picked up our fruit trees from the local nursery: 1 peach, 2 plum and a pear. We planted them, and they're doing great so far! And just today I noticed we have tiny little pear buds on our old pear tree, the one that lost a limb in a storm. So pear jelly come Fall ... :)

I'm nursing some seedlings in the potting room, much to the disgust of our cat, who lives in there. Tomatoes, peppers, sweet basil and thyme are all coming up well, plus I've planted another batch of cucumber seeds to replace those that were killed by the late frost. In the garden, I have pole beans coming up like crazy, and I just planted peas and carrots. Fingers crossed!

But enough talk from me! I know what you really want are pictures, so here are a few I took this week:




Columbine grows quite happily next to the tea rose.



Chives in bloom!



A crowd of buttercups, cheering on the sun.



Speckled trout, basking in the pond.



Misty blue forget-me-nots.



I walked out onto the deck and there was a garter snake!  Yikes!



And a tiny green frog was investigating the vegetable bed.  My fingers show the scale.



Irises are in bloom.  Love these.



In the woods, the Ladyslippers are a hidden treasure.



And of course, a post wouldn't be complete without Molly.  Here she is, taking a break under a shady tree.

Yellow Time

It's Yellow Time at Willow Retreat.  Yellow is the first colour that shows up to let you know Spring is really here to stay. 



The garden is currently lush with daffodils and narcissus, and the forsythia is in bloom.  As well, we have masses of pear blossoms!  Funny thing about pears: they need another pear tree close by in order to fertilize, and they bear fruit in alternate years.  The other pear tree was split in two by a storm, and we had to cut half of it down, but it's still alive and has leaf buds.  I'm hoping that its pair (pardon the pun) will give us lots of lovely fruit this year!



The pear tree, holding its own rather well against that precocious forsythia.



A carpet of daffodils.



A golden sundown at Willow Retreat.

I was lucky enough to get some free horse manure for the vegetable beds.  If you can, get your hands on some, it's absolutely the best for the garden.  Make sure you get well-rotted manure though - if you put fresh horse manure on your garden, you'll burn the veggies!  And for those of you holding your nose and going "Ewwww ...", well-rotted manure doesn't smell at all.  It's like lovely crumbly compost.  Just spread it as evenly as you can over the soil with a garden fork, and then dig it in.  All you need then is a bit of rain, and you've got a wonderful bed for your veggie seedlings.  This is what they mean when they say "enriched with organic matter."  Yum!



You can never get enough daffodils, really.



And of course, you can`t have a Yellow theme without a Golden Retriever.  :D

Next time I go to the stables for manure, I`ll remember to bring my camera, and take some pictures of the horses.  Until then, you`ll just have to make do with Molly.



That faaaaace.

My next set of pictures should show leaves on the trees ... there`s certainly been enough rain lately!

Enjoy your May, wherever you are.

Moose Moose

Q. When do you know it's finally Spring at Willow Retreat?
A. When Mr. and Mrs. Moose and Junior Moose come for a family visit!

A couple of days ago, as I cradled my first cup of coffee of the morning, I happened to glance out of the kitchen window.  Across the lawn, and staring straight at me, was a moose.  I soon realized that it was not just one moose, but three: Mom, Dad, and Baby.  Well, the calf was hardly a baby anymore, but most definitely still a youngster.  Of course, I scrambled for my camera, stuck the telephoto lens on, and got snapping. Here are some of the better pics:



Mom and Junior having a conference while Dad is busy with the important stuff: eating!



I felt like he (or she) was staring right at me!



Now they're all looking at me!



Nice profile shot there.  Kind of looks like a cross between a camel and a donkey ... ?



Check out their white legs.



Not arguing with this fella!

It was really cool to see these guys at the bottom of our garden.  It serves as a reminder that the wilderness is all around us, and we must respect the habitat of these majestic creatures.

Spring ... ??

As I sit here watching the snow falling from a grey April sky, I wonder if spring is really on the way, or if nature is just teasing us once again.  A couple of weeks ago, the daytime temperature hit 24 degrees.  It was truly bizarre to be sitting outside in summer clothes, sweating, and having to drink ice-cold beer to cool off (oh, the hardship!). 



24 degrees C ... on March 22!

We even managed to get the ice out of our water line:



And there's Molly supervising the proceedings.

The crazy temperatures started the spring melt in earnest.  Here is the pond waterfall in full flood:



And the sluice gate had to be opened to the max to drain the excess water:



Molly worked hard of course:



Alas, the temperature returned to normal, and everything froze up once again.  Now, on April 5, it's 4 degrees and snowing ... but the robins have returned to the garden, squirrels are busy in the woodpile, the bulbs are sprouting, and tiny buds have appeared on the trees.  Spring is there ... you can feel it ... hovering at the edge of winter.  Check out this rather confused bee who awoke to balmy temperatures and a clutch of snowdrops:



We have of course been busy as bees here at Willow Retreat.  This is the perfect time of year to clear out tangles of bush, deadfall, and brambles before they start to grow.  And before the bugs come out!!  The woodland edges needed a serious haircut, and we have already burned a massive stack of cuttings.  We are also starting to drain the boggy areas.

One of the things we were shocked to discover as we cleaned up is that a lot of garbage, including barbed wire, has been dumped all across the property.  Paul is absolutely furious about the tangles of barbed wire, which are very dangerous, of course for humans, but especially for animals, as they cannot see it, and it has just been strewn around willy-nilly.



Barbed wire.



You really want this pretty face spoiled by a run-in with barbed wire?

Along with barbed wire, we have also found a lot of garbage.  Here are just a few examples:



Old broken bicycle.



Old snowmobile cowling.



Another old bicycle.

We have been really appalled at the quantity of garbage such as this that has been scattered about the property.  It seems to be a case of "out of sight and out of mind".  Well, now that we are clearing up, it is certainly not out of sight, and guess what?  We do mind!  In fact, we are fuming!!

Here is one of our debris piles from a cleared patch near the pond:



We now have a nice clear walk through from the lawn to the pond:



And here is another section that had to be cleared of deadfall, eye snaggers, ankle breakers, and brambles:



There is just so much to be cleaned up.  The surrounding woodland has been left to get seriously overgrown and is a tangle of dead stumps, brambles, fallen trees that have been left to rot, and all kinds of debris.  It's going to take us a long time to get it all cleaned up, but all we can do is one section at a time.  Here is an example of what we're facing:



Of course, Molly is always willing to help:



This is what we call "The Bog".  It is really not bog at all, but is a good example of what happens to ground when it has been logged.  There used to be massive, old trees there, but they were felled and used as lumber.  The unused wood was just dumped in place to rot on the ground.  Then, the area was simply left.  What happens then is, as the trees are no longer there to use the water, the earth becomes wetter and wetter until it is saturated, and then nothing can grow except sedge grass and moss.  It becomes a haven for mosquitoes and blackflies, and is essentially unusable.  Because it is not true wetland, but simply a logged and abandoned section of woodland, we have embarked on a reclamation program to turn this area back into viable ground.



Paul started the reclamation process by digging drainage ditches, and laying large diameter O pipe.  By working with the natural lay of the land and with the action of gravity, this will encourage the water to drain from the ground and re-enter the creek system further downhill.  Once the ground is drained of excess water, it will return to nutrient-rich soil and be able to once again support plants, grass and trees.

This is the beginning of a work in progress.  It is a fairly large portion of our property, and as part of our commitment to forest stewardship and ecologically sound practices, we are determined to reclaim this area and restore it to healthy woodland.  In a very short time, we are already seeing an improvement.

Well, the sun is now out, and I'm going to go help Paul clear out some more brush.  Another big bonfire tonight!  I want to wish everyone a Happy Easter, and hope the sun shines on you all.