Monthly Archives: July 2014

Love, love, love Raspberries!

Posted by Danielle in on the Farm

It’s raspberry time! I love berries, but I think raspberries are my favourite. Mostly because of the taste, but also maybe because it “brings me back” to picking wild ones when I was younger.

Spencer says we should get over 5000 pints this year, and they’re so good…he even says he wants to expand their production. So in true Spencer fashion, he is researching raspberries to order and plant for next year. If anybody has any recommendations for varieties, feel free to let me know so I can close some of the 10 tabs he has open on the browser.

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Operation: Scare the birds

Posted by Danielle in on the Farm and tagged with

There is an osprey in my kitchen, holographic tape dangling in the breeze on branches, and giant beach ball type scare-eye balloons on stand-by ready to be hung in the orchard. The mission is to scare the birds and keep them from snacking on the crop of cherries and early apples. image The cherries have cropped very well this year, and so far the birds haven’t hung around long enough to pose a major problem, not compared to the last two years anyway. The lack of rain fueled their hunger for sweet, juicy cherries and apples. So this year we decided to implement bird scare tactics as necessary. We will see if they work. So far the osprey kite has done a good job at freaking out my cat, and he is pretty smart. image

It’s getting hot in here…

Posted by Danielle in Uncategorized

I definitely “jinxed” us on Monday when I was asking my sister how we coped without air conditioning when we lived together through college, because my husband woke me at 4am Tuesday telling me it wasn’t working. Well I got a reminder of what it was like that’s for sure.

Of course it was the hottest day this summer so far, and Canada Day so no luck in getting it fixed that day, so we had to make do. Spencer tried to rig something up (duct tape and all) with a motor and fan unit I think from the apple packing line. Theoretically it should have done the trick, but it couldn’t keep up. It got up to 86degrees at one point. (Can’t tell you without some math what that is in Celsius. The thermostat is set in Farenheit and besides most of the people down here talk in Farenheit in the summer and Celsius in the winter anyway). Either way, it did not make for a happy baby. The poor thing. I took her for a dip in her baby pool in the afternoon, and gave her a lukewarm bath before bed, but she still wasn’t comfortable. We ended up sleeping in the basement in the spare room. Surprisingly hubby took it pretty well. Coming from a man who can’t take the heat, and who has a family full of people with those same genes and internal thermostats to prove it.

Today it wasn’t as hot or humid outside. It was a little more bearable, or maybe we were just acclimating. It was about 7pm tonight when it was finally up and running, and now it is a refreshing 75degrees. It will probably be morning before it is back to normal. The baby is sleeping soundly in her crib. Spencer is sleeping soundly with his CPAP, and I am sitting here appreciating the luxuries of modern day HVAC systems, and making a mental note to knock hard on some wood next time.