Garden Preparations...

Originally when we bought the house, we planned on planting a vegetable garden on the eastern side of the property, near the garage. However, once all the snow melted we discovered a huge garden already "prepared" on the west side near the stables. During my 2 weeks off between spring and summer semesters, we decided to tackle the garden and make it ready for planting.

We rented a roto-tiller to work the very hard ground. The garden had been completely neglected, and was overgrown with grass and weeds. Once it was tilled, we raked with both the thatch rake and lawn rake to try to get rid of all the plants. Then it was tilled a second time, and raked a second time. Finally, after a week of toiling, we began planting. We took the hint from our neighbour to the west of us... a local dairy farmer.

Of course, we didn't plan on a garden that was 22' x 30'...

Adventures in grass maintenance...

When we moved in, David was very excited about mowing our expansive lawn. We bought a "push-push" mower, and David plan was to do a little bit each day as exercise.

The idea was great in theory, until we realized that the previous owner only mowed the front lawn very infrequently, and the back lawn not at all! We had tall grass with a thick layer of hay underneath. Mowing the lawn, it seems, was a multi-step process. First, you must rake with a thatch rake to remove the old hay, then pass with a lawn rake to lift the grass blades up. Then, came an initial pass with the mower, another raking to lift the grass again, and once more with the mower. This seemed to go on endlessly! We got a small section done in the back, and one swath done in front before I sought out the phone book.

W is coming this week to mow our lawn with a riding mower. Sure, it may cost more in the long run... but at least we'll have a nice lawn at the end of the day!

Beautiful Sunsets

One thing I love about living out here are the beautiful sunsets!

Horses!!!

David called me at work today to tell me the neighbour brought her horse & pony home for the summer! They spend the cold months boarded at a farm down the road from us, but lets them graze on her land during the warmer months. We have offered her the use of our back acre for them to graze on... which works out great for both of us. The previous owner did not maintain the grass in the back yard, and right now the grass comes up higher than my knees... a horse's dream come true!

Zara (female, 7 years old)

Silver (male, 2 years old)

According to our neighbour, he actually was

silver coloured when he was younger.

Spring!

One of the things about buying a house in March, is the surprises you get in spring when the flowers start blooming...

Daffodils.... and Scillas (Thanks Claire!)

Moving Day!

After 2 weeks of cleaning and slowly moving small stuff into the house, we finally officially moved in and we were greeted with a rather unpleasant surprise...

Our sump pump failed and we had 3 inches of water in the basement!

Fortunately, because we hadn't yet moved everything into the house, we didn't have very much in the basement and what was there did not get damaged. The insurance is covering everything minus the deductible of course, which means we get a basement reno for a fraction of the price.No more dark, dingy carpet! You have to stay positive, right?

New Home!

On March 31st, 2010, we received the keys to our new home! We had been casually looking at homes for a couple of weeks, with no intention of buying for a couple of years, when we found this home. As soon as we walked in through the door we both knew it would be our new home.

We started our search with the intention of buying in the city, close to work. What we ended up with was a home on almost 3 acres of land in the country, and a 50 minute drive from work. Our inspiration to search in such a rural area were the cute and cuddly alpacas that we were introduced to last fall. It was love at first sight, and we started learning all that we could about these unique animals. Our goal is to one day have a small herd of alpacas grazing in our pasture.