Yes, I know, it's been over a year. We have tried various incarnations of internet and will, I very much hope, soon have consistent internet that works even in a concrete ands steel house in a valley in the country.

In the meantime, what, you may ask, have we been up to?

Well, last year was very dry so quite a few plants, even weeds, were slow; tomatoes on the other hand LOVED the weather and I had so many I ended up giving away a box to my kids' school! I also got my very first eggplants.
A big thing for me was that I sold some of my herbs through Barrie Hill Farms - maybe you even saw some of them while you were there! We were also at Autumnfest in Midhurst, which was fun as well as useful -- did you know that you can make cotton candy from maple sugar? Lalonde's from Elmvale had it and wow was it tasty!

The barn was much warmer after we did some rearranging and winterizing, and it was a great year for rotating the horses and having them on pasture until November - yay us!

On the other hand, a coyote killed all the laying hens in May & June, so no more egg production - the dangers of free-ranging poultry. Out of the new batches of chicks we got, a surprising number managed to find new and exciting ways to remove themselves from the egg-laying population as well - so this year we will be putting up new, and repairing some old, fencing. Then we will get new chicks, and do some predator discouragement (a.k.a., lots of walks with the new dog!) along with the fencing. 

I just ordered my seeds yesterday (scroll down for some previous posts on that process!), and started some of my "leftovers" from previous years to see what I can get from them. It's always so exciting to be starting that - looking out at the snow and frozen ground and imagining what the garden will look like in a month or two or three... 

So for now, happy spring and I hope we see you on a Saturday morning!