We're Planting Heirloom, Non-GM Corn!

photo credit

Now that we're on the farm, with plenty of growing space, we are going to try growing NON-genetically modified corn this year. Actually, we will try to grow a "three sisters" garden, which consists of growing corn, beans, and squash together. The pole beans will grow up the corn stalk and the large squash leaves at the base will act to suppress weeds and keep moisture in the soil.

Most commercially grown corn has been genetically modified. That corn is used in so many processed foods, including the so-called "food" at the fast-food chains. It would take too much time to go into the dangers and ethical problems of GMOs, but here are some links if you would like to learn more:

Study reveals GMO corn to be highly toxic
Understanding Genetically Modified Foods
Nine Things You Should Know About Genetically Modified Organisms 
Monsanto's Genetically Modified Corn Is Coming To A WALMART Near You
GM Sweet Corn: Consumer Alert (some is being sold at farmers markets and farm-gate sales! Ask and be informed!)

I have found a Canadian source for non-GMO, open pollinated, non-hybrid corn, located in Manitoba (they only ship within Canada). The Heritage Harvest Seed Company also offers heirloom varieties of other vegetables, as well as herbs and flowers.

You can see their catalog page for corn seed HERE.

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Cock-a-doodle-do!

Last night we picked up 8 laying hens and my first ever rooster! A local farmer was desperate to reduce his flock size and these chickens are between 8 and 10 months old. We collected the first egg this morning. Once they acclimatize to their new environment, I'm expecting that they will begin laying regularly.

We clipped their wings this morning so they won't fly over the 6 ft. high chain link fence. You will see the feathers all over the run. Once the chickens are settled in and know that this is home, we plan to free range them.

We have satellite high-speed internet now, so I hope to be posting regularly once again, hooray!


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Update From The Farm

I'm alive and well, but won't have internet access until Tuesday, when the satellite dish will be installed. Things are very different in the country...but in a good way! I'm loving every day here.

I have pictures of the garden to show you. A second garden is being planned for next week. We'll be planting fingerling potatoes on the first dry day that we have. Herbs are ready to go in, but the last frost date up here is the end of May. It's hard to wait! The garden is amazing and the fencing and gate were put together solely from found materials around the property and locally. Didn't cost us a cent!

We're also looking forward to the opening of the local farmers markets in May. We want to make more connections with local producers, but we are now the customers of a young couple here who sell eggs, pastured pork, and lamb from their farmgate.

There is more to share, but I'll wait until next week when I can post photos and have more time on my own computer.

Farmer D's cat bite (see last post) is healing up very well, thank you Lord! No more signs of the cats, which is very sad. We keep checking the root cellar, where Toby was last seen hiding out, but we've had no success. Still no sign of Casey, except for some coyote droppings with brownish-gray fur in them. That's pretty gruesome, but I don't know for sure if the fur is from a cat.

I'll be in touch soon, Lord willing.

P.S. Anita, the eggs are awesome! Thanks so much!

Cat Sighting!

My son phoned tonight from the homestead, 8 days after Toby went missing, and said he found him in the root cellar. The root cellar is built into a hill near the cabin. But, as soon as Toby was carried out into the sunlight, the poor cat went crazy and bit D's arm, drawing blood. He dropped to the ground and took off. We're hoping that he will return to the root cellar. D left him some food and water.

Toby was hiding in the root cellar. You can see the cabin in the distance.

We're very hopeful that Casey is alive also. Casey is a great hunter and comes from barn cat stock. If Toby has made it this far, then I think that Casey must be around, too!

I'm planning to get up there tomorrow, Lord willing. I'm hoping that they will come around when they hear my familiar voice. Hubby and I were just saying this afternoon that the hardest thing is not knowing what has happened to them. Not knowing whether they were dead or alive. Now, we are thanking the Lord for this breakthrough! Poor D is nursing his wound with applications of alcohol, tea tree oil, and calendula salve (thanks, Cindy!).

That's my Toby! (You can just ignore the bad photo of me, okay? Yikes!)

Other news: We're hoping to have internet next Tuesday, so you might not hear from me until then. I hope to be back with pictures of the newly dug garden! Bye for now...

Finally Ordered the Big Berkey!

With our current water issues on the property, I thought it was time to finally purchase a Berkey water filter. We don't have our well drilled yet, and we paid a small fortune to have a truck haul in water for our IBC water totes. The only other sources of water on the homestead are our "scummy pond" and the beaver pond. It turns out that the Big Berkey can filter those, too!

Our "scummy pond". The Berkey can filter stagnant pond water.

In time, Lord willing, we will have well water and a water catchment system in place, but for now it gives me some security to know that the Berkefeld (Berkey) water filter can provide us with clean drinking water from just about any source.

Here are some facts concerning this amazing water filter, which is used by international aid groups and the military (I receive no commission for promoting the Berkey, nor am I selling them at this point, but from what I've read, it is an excellent product):

What Exactly is Removed?

VIRUSES >99.999%
Exceeds purification standards:
MS2 – Fr Coliphage

PATHOGENIC BACTERIA, CYSTS AND PARASITES >99.9999%
Exceeds purification standards:
E. Coli – Klebsiella – Pseudomonas Aeruginosa – Giardia (Beaver Fever) – Cryptosporidium – Raoultella Terrigena

TRIHALOMETHANES
Removed to below detectable limits:
(Health effects: muscle & nervous system disorders, cancer)
Bromodichloromethane – Bromoform – Chloroform – Dibromochloromethane

RADIOLOGICALS
Removed to below detectable limits:
Radon 222

INORGANIC MINERALS
Removed to below detectable limits:
Chlorine Residual  (Health effects: cancer, birth defects)

VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS (VOCs)
Removed to below detectable limits:

Alachlor                                             Ethylene Dibromide (EDB)
Atrazine                                             Heptachlor
Benzene                                             Heptachlor Epoxide
Carbofuran                                       Hexachlorobutadiene
Carbon Tetrachloride                     Hexachlorocyclopentadiene
Chlorine                                             Lindane
Chlorobenzene                                 Methoxychlor
Chloroform                                       MTBE
2,4-D                                                  Pentachlorophenol
DBCP                                                  Simazine
p-Dichlorobenzene                          Styrene
o-Dichlorobenzene                          1,1,2,2-Tetrachloroethane
1,1-Dichloroethane                          Tetrachloroethylene
1,2-Dichloroethane                          Toluene
1,1-Dichloroethylene                        2,4,5-TP (Silvex)
cis-1,2-Dichloroethylene                1,2,4-trichlorobenzene
Trans-1,2-Dichloroethylene           1,1,1-trichloroethane
1,2-Dichloropropane                       1,1,2-trichloroethane
cis-l,3-Dichloropropylene              Trichloroethylene
Dinoseb                                              o-Xylene
Endrin                                                m-Xylene
Ethylbenzene                                    p-Xylene

HEAVY METALS – Reduced by up to 95%:
Contaminant             Health Effects

Lead                             kidney, nervous system damage
Mercury                      kidney, nervous system disorders
Aluminum                  respiratory, nervous system disorders
Cadmium                    kidney damage
Chromium                  liver, kidney, circulatory system disorders
Copper                        gastro-enteric diseases

ALSO REMOVES OR REDUCES:
rust, silt, sediment, foul taste and odors.

OUR BIG BERKEY WATER FILTER COMES WITH 2 CERAMIC FILTERS:

2 Black Berkey Purification elements are included and will purify 22,700 liters.  The elements are cleanable and self-sterilizing.  If you are filtering on average 10 liters / day, this works out to a filter life of 7 years!  

0.5 cents per liter for excellent healthy water!

Inside The Cabin

Although hubby and I live in the travel trailer, my son, aka Farmer D, lives in our little cabin. He is enjoying adding his own touches to make it his own. The cabin is definitely reflecting his interests in tanning hides and all things rustic and woodsman-like! I love to visit him in his cozy cabin in the woods...

For those of you who are new here and haven't seen the cabin, here is the exterior, taken last fall.

Wood stove and stacked firewood.

Off-grid laundry soaking in pot of warm water heated on wood stove.

Sheep hides, tanned by Farmer D. They will eventually decorate the walls.

An assortment of agrarian books above the cupboards. If you look carefully, you can see his bear skull to the left of the wooden beam and to the right of the balsamic vinegar.

Farmer D made his own ukelele. It makes beautiful music!

His goatskin sheath for the machete and a bison's tail. He butchered a friends' goat and was given the hide to tan, as well as a bison hide.

It's a rustic cabin, to be sure, but I like it. I think it fits the definition of a "man cave"!

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First Losses On The Homestead

The unthinkable has happened. My two sweet cats have disappeared on the homestead. I'll explain what happened.

I knew that the move to the new property would be stressful for the cats and we would be in and out of the cabin and trailer, setting things up for the first few days. I arranged to board them at a woman's home about forty minutes from our new place.  They had the run of her home and were well taken care of. The cats stayed with her for 3 days.

I have moved with pets many times over the years. It is recommended that, after a move, cats stay indoors for at least two weeks. This will allow them to settle in and get used to their new environment. Then, when they are let out, their brains should be imprinted that this is now "home".

Casey, as a kitten, July 2006. What a beauty!

After we picked up my cats, Casey and Toby, they were confined in my son, D's, cabin (not with us, because of hubby's allergies). My husband has endured the cat dander for the past few years, while we looked forward to the day when they could move to the property with us and spend most of their time outdoors. While the cats were in the cabin, they didn't show much interest in escaping. Casey would come when D called him and little Toby, who is very timid, would come out from under the bed during the night to sleep with D, even purring! They seemed to be adjusting pretty well.

They had been in there for one week when I left to come back to our house in southern Ontario. The next day, I received a call from my son. In the middle of the night, as he opened the door to go to the outhouse, he felt one of the cats brush against his leg. It was Toby, and he ran to hide in the space under the cabin.

The last photo taken of Casey in the cabin.

Toby was an abandoned cat that I took in about 3 years ago.

I told my son to put some water out, but not to feed Toby right away. I figured that he would come out once he was good and hungry. Well, he didn't come out. At night, my son could hear him moving around under the cabin. The day after Toby escaped, my husband told D to let Casey out, because he was finally getting restless in the cabin. Casey is a very smart cat, a great mouser, and is used to being outside, so hubby felt that he was ready to go out even though it had only been one week.

After awhile, my son called Casey to come in, but the last he saw of him, he was wandering off into the woods. After about three days, he no longer heard Toby under the cabin. Toby has either disappeared or maybe even died under the cabin. My son walked the perimeter of the property (35 acres), calling for the cats, but there has been no response. I'm surprised by this because Casey usually comes when he is called.

My son has been leaving the front door open during the day, in case one of them returns. He has also put the kitty litter outside, so they can smell the scent if they're nearby. He still calls for them everyday.

As you can imagine, I'm itching to get up there to see if I can find them. I'm tied up here with business matters, but I hope to leave on Tuesday at the latest. I've shed some tears, but at the same time, I will accept whatever the Lord has ordained for us.

I was reluctant to post about this, but I want to be transparent. Homestead life is not simply a romantic vision. I involves hardship, loss, and even death. I just didn't expect it so soon.

 Job 1: 21

"the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."