week one
We closed on our property last week and I moved up there to take over the day-to-day operation of our new farm/sustainable living education/retreat centre. We don't have internet access there yet, but I'm back at our apartment in Toronto this weekend for an intensive packing session (we're trying to spread the task of moving out over the month of March). I want to let you all know some of the highlights of my first week of life in the Kawartha Lakes region of Ontario.
I've heard different meanings for "kawartha" such as "land of shining waters" and "shining waters, happy place". My Canadian Oxford dictionary says it is a corruption of the Huron word kawatha meaning "land of reflections". I like that one best, and it seems appropriate given the context of this blog.
I should also mention who our partners in this enterprise are. Alan and Diane Engelstad and their children, Jeremy and Faith; Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat and their children, Madeleine and Lydia; and Marianne Karsh.
Alan and Diane used to work for Citizens for Public Justice in Toronto, and they were the ones who kick-started this project when they discovered the property for sale and began looking for other people as crazy as they are. Brian is a chaplain at the University of Toronto, and Sylvia recently left her position as a professor of Biblical Studies at The Institute for Christian Studies. They have each authored several books including their latest collaboration Colossians Remixed. Marianne is a professional forester who runs a non-profit organization called Arborvitae whose mandate is focused on "nourishing spirituality through nature." We all know each other through Church of the Redeemer (Anglican) in Toronto.
On to last week's highlights:
Last Friday Brian and I went to the Ignatius Loyola House (a Jesuit retreat centre) farm in Guelph to look at some certified-organic yearling heifers that we were considering buying as the basis for our beef herd. We took our neighbour, Roger, who was also interested and has more experience in these matters than we do. We decided against buying them at this point however.
Saturday was cleaning/painting-prep day at the house. Diane, Sylvia, Brian, and Sarah came up to work, organize, pick paint colours, and go for a walk on our new property. My good friends Tymen and Pauline also came up for the whole weekend to help paint ceilings. My parents came to visit and brought a giant pot of soup which we heated over the wood stove. Between the soup and Sylvia's canning we feasted our crew in high style on a motley collection of chairs around my desk which served as an improvised kitchen table. It was a glorious meal.
On Sunday Tymen, Pauline, Sarah and I took a painting break to go snowshoeing in our woods. It was a beautifully clear, cold, February day. I lost the snowshoe race when one of my snowshoes came loose and I fell in a drift. It's actually surprisingly easy to run in snowshoes, as long as you lift your feet high enough.
On Monday I was filling up our new (used) truck at the diesel pump in Fenelon Falls and got chatting with a man named Anders who owns an elk farm. I was curious, so he invited me to see the farm and have coffee with him and his friend Jim, a retired school teacher who now owns some elk and helps Anders do chores on the farm. I officially feel completely at home in our new community after all of three days.
A couple of weeks ago I went to see an organic vegetable farmer who has some Kerry cows, the same breed we have (his are related to ours). He made me flapjacks and coffee on his wood stove as he advised me to go easy during our first year on the farm. He left a job in marketing three years ago and bought his farm. He said he spent his first year running around doing all kinds of projects that proved to be pretty pointless in the long run. He said we should make sure we take time just to walk around the farm and tell ourselves, "we did it." So on Tuesday that's what I tried to do. I took time to enjoy the round of chores - feeding and cleaning up after the cows, chickens and ducks, splitting kindling, tending the woodstoves, checking the electrical system. I believe taking some time just to enjoy the farm every day will help me keep from getting overwhelmed at how much there is to do. Oh yeah, I also found a drowned rat suspended in ice in the cow's water tub that morning.
We had some snow early in the week so on Wednesday I put some gasline antifreeze in our 1958 Massey-Ferguson tractor, charged the battery for an hour and, much to my joy, got it started. We have a big, old Lucknow snowblower mounted on the tractor for clearing our lane. Our lane is half a mile long, and it's not actually on our property. It's a deeded right-of-way that belongs to our neighbour who uses it for access to the fields around our property. He doesn't use it in the winter though and we do, so we get to clear it. I have to back the tractor down one side of the lane, turn around, and come back up the other side. I found out that it's not a good idea to aim the spout on the snowblower into the wind. That afternoon I went into Fenelon Falls to set up an account for propane delivery and to buy a work parka to wear when I clear the driveway.
On Thursday morning I got a phone call from an annoyed woman at the propane company. They sent a truck to fill our tank, but the driver couldn't get up the lane because the wind had drifted deep snow across it during the night. I started the tractor and cleared the lane again. When I got to the end of the driveway I met my neighbour across the road who was annoyed with me because the wind blew some of the snow I was clearing from our lane onto the road in front of his driveway. I apologized and tried to blow the snow off the road, but the wind blew that snow into his driveway. I found out that whatever direction you aim the spout on the snowblower, the snow goes where the wind blows. I went back to the house, got a shovel, and cleaned the road by hand. Later that afternoon, the propane truck came again and I found out that propane is expensive. Alan arrived in his 1973 VW camper van, thus confirming all the neighbours' suspicions that we are a bunch of weird hippies. He's going to store the van at the farm until summer. We had a celebratory beer, then went into town for dinner at our new favourite restaurant "The Sow and Cow."
This morning Alan and I got up at five, fed the animals, and drove into Toronto so Brian and Sylvia could take a load of books and bookcases (most important things first) to the farm and stay to watch it for the weekend while Sarah and I pack. We're going to share the main house with them for the time being until we get some more housing built on the vacant lot at the back of the property. So far I am completely enjoying this new chapter in our lives.
Back to packing.