Throwing it waaaay back today. A glimpse of my sweet mama as a child {circa 1950ish}, in her Grandpa’s greenhouse.
Sometimes I don’t really think about how far back my “green thumb” roots go, but it hit me one day standing in the fields this summer on our farm. And I remembered some old photos of my mom in the family greenhouse.
I can’t even. Seriously. My last post was back in July. How sad is that? And here we are welcoming the month of October, saying goodbye to gorgeous fall weather, and turning our thoughts to impending snow, Canadian Thanksgiving, and holiday markets.
It’s a very different “home sweet home” these days.
A 27′ trailer, our five-year old, my husband and myself, plus two cats. All born and raised in the city. Add in a small generator, some patio furniture, a catio, and a fire pit. Now a good heaping of sweat, dirt covered hands and feet, and laughter. A dash of faith, stewardship, and creation care.
It’s our recipe for the summer.
Good enough is perfect, everyday.
It’s almost been a full week since our Happiness By the Acre Tree Planting Day out on the farm. Still feels like we’re recovering here or maybe it’s just that we’re still “on the go” so much that last weekend feels like a blur. I’m hoping that things get a little less hectic in the coming weeks, not just for my sake, but for Sammy’s. He sure has been a trooper, but some of the craziness is taking its toll.
We had an AMAZING turnout for the Tree Planting Day!! Loved that so many of our friends brought their little kiddos along too! It was a great way to share the day and build some of our first memories of the farm. We really appreciated each and every effort made by our volunteer team, big and small. There is NO WAY we could have gotten this project done without the help of family and friends. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!! We will not forget the smiles or the sweat that went into planting our one acre of food forest.
Have I mentioned our crazy plan of planting an acre of food forest out on our “big farm”? And when I say “crazy”, I mean it’s driving us a fairly crazy. Wowza! Hubby started feeling in over his head about two weeks ago and we’re seriously in the thick of it now! This is all a part our of Happiness By the Acre adventures.
We had 400 hazelnut trees arrive last week. We’ll be picking up 400 raspberry bushes, and a few dozen apple & pear trees at the end of this week. Yep, that’s over 800 plants to be planted. Oh boy…
So we’re organizing a Tree Planting Day! On Saturday, May 24th, we’ll be trying to get ALL those plants into the ground out on our farm near Carstairs. If you’re interested in lending a hand & spending some time out in the country this weekend, let me know or check out our event page on Facebook. We’ll be providing tasty treats and cold drinks. Come for an hour or come for the day! Kids are more than welcome.
This is your chance to be a small part of our family farm history in our very first project. And as a thank you to all the folks who come out to lend a hand, we will be letting each volunteer adopt a tree of their choice. Attach your name to a bit of history. Get your picture taken with your little tree and we’ll send you growth updates as the years progress. Plus you can pop by and check on your tree the next time you visit the farm.
I hope that some of you can join us on Saturday! If not, we could sure use some extra prayers to see this project through.
I’ll be sure to post photos from Tree Planting Day and let you know how it all goes. Until then, we’ll be continuing to run around a little crazed, checking things off the to-do lists, and praying for plenty of sunshine, and more importantly, that we can find a bobcat operator with an auger to dig 800 holes by Saturday. Oi!
A fairly regular, if not weekly, post to share photos of random moments in our lives. No particular rhyme or reason to them, just things we’ve done, or small bits of our lives I’ve finally taken notice of. Thanks for popping by and taking a peek into our week, so far:
We started overhauling the types of food we buy a few years ago, when hubby went low-carb. Since then, we have continued to make small changes, searching out local suppliers, opting for organic varieties here & there, less sugar on occasion, more fat all the time, meat, meat & more meat, and trying to align our kitchen with the seasons.
I’ve felt compelled to make more changes lately. We recently switched over to buying 80% of our weekly groceries at Community Natural Foods. That’s a pretty big change for a gal who has shopped at Safeway since her birth. We still pick up a some things at Safeway that we haven’t figured out alternatives for. Maybe at some point we will or learn to go without. Slow steady changes.
It really does come down to quality over quantity. Our personal farming motto is “good food, happy people”. It just feels like the right time to live out that philosophy more fully. It’s not a change that can happen overnight. We’ve known that from the beginning. And I certainly don’t recommend that you try to change all your eating & buying habits overnight. You need to believe in the changes that you make. Each and every one of them. It can take time & careful consideration. You need to weigh your own personal priorities & passions.
When it comes to food, the two big considerations for us is the distance it has traveled and just how healthy it truly is. In other words, our first priority is locally sourced food. Our second priority is organic. Local organic is the ultimate goal, besides growing & raising it ourselves. Of course, we’re not perfect. We make plenty of compromises along the way, but bit by bit, we’re trying to change.
The quote above from Seth Godin is so appropriate for this lifestyle overhaul. We will try to quit the “wrong” stuff, and stick with the “right” stuff. I thought I would make this a new post series on the blog, documenting how we choose to do one or the other on our quest for happy food. We’re all hungry for it in our own ways.
Last month we had the pleasure of taking part in the Alberta Open Farm Days by visiting Trail’s End ranch (just south of Nanton). The ranch we’ve been buying our “happy cow” beef from for the past few years, A7 Ranche, recently partnered with Trail’s End. We thought it was the perfect opportunity to check things out. Of course, Sam loved watching all the animals, especially the chickens. He spent the morning running from one critter to the next (and then he spent the entire drive home “clucking” in the back seat). It was nice to meet Rachel & Tyler, and see their home. They’re hip to the social media, so we’ve also been enjoying following things at the ranch on Facebook. We’ve even been invited back down to take a better look at the pastures and beef operation on the main ranch, which we are tickled about. We’re getting ourselves, Sam include, exposed bit by bit to this business of farming. Do check out our main farm blog for Happiness by the Acre, where hubby Marcus has been taking on the role of blogger. Until we have our own critters to take pics of, you just have to settle for a little photo tour of Trail’s End ranch 😉
