Firewood

The farmer purchased some apple firewood.

As you can see by the boot the pieces are rather large

The depth of the pile is 5 rows

The width of the pile is about 10 rows 

A few pieces were cut to shorter lengths but not many

Without the help of the farmers two youngest sons 

the farmer would have had a heart attack.

The farmer moved about 1/2 a load.

The sons did the other 2 1/2 loads.

The farmer drove the 20min runs between farms though.

He hitched up all 30 horses A.K.A.

The Kabota to the 6 X12 cube trailer and set off.

Each run was colder than the previous one.

He was pretty much frozen by the end of the day.

The sons sat at home eating drinking and relaxing.

When the cell phone call came in they hopped into the car

5 minutes later they would hop out toss the wood in and zip back home.

Where the farmers wife would feed them again.

Well worth it to the farmer.

At the end there were 6 pieces left.

The farmer went back the next day to get them.

That's when the back decided it had had enough.

So here the farmer sits with a spasm in the right side of his back.

With a huge pile of wood needing to be sawed up and split.

Maybe it's time to show the boys how the chainsaw works.

The reason for taking the wood is twofold

When the 5 kids come to the farm there is almost always a campfire.

And secondly cooking with apple wood is simply delicious.

Here is a sample a pork loin roast roasted to perfection.

   Have a nice day

Sheep

The Farmer and the farmers wife have recently decided to play shepherd / shepherdess.

They started this September with three organic mixed breed meet lambs from Zeta Farms.

Then at the end of January they added a purebred Romney ram from Willow Farm.

As is usually the case they didn't think to take pictures right away.

Living life rather than photographing it is one fault they both share.

After the snow was flying they remembered the camera.

Here are some shots the farmer took.

You can see why the farmer isn't the photographer

The farmers wife playing shepherdess

Its cold but our new ram appears to be equipped for that no brass monkey issues here

 

Meet Ramses he is a handsome fella

Coco Chanel she likes to be covered in hay that will be a pain to clean out once she is shorn

Annie named after the farmers wives grandmother Anastasia

And Lastly Gracie after the farmers grandmother Grace

Well that's all for now 

Hopefully the romp in the hay in January will soon bring little ones to photograph

GARLIC

This past fall the Farmer and the Farmers Wife planted just over 4000 head of Garlic

The crop has a mixture of varieties.

Magic

This is the main garlic started it in 2004

 Northern Quebec

Planted in the fall of 2010

Persian Star

Planted in the fall of 2010

 Yugoslavian Porcelain

Planted in the fall of 2010

 Chesnok Red

Planted in the fall of 2010

 Forbes Wild Canadian

A gift from Johnathan Forbes

http://www.wildfoods.ca/

Planted in the fall of 2005

Its very similar to Magic but the cloves are not as tall.

It's scapes come later in the season and are shorter as well

 Red Rezan

Planted in the fall of 2010

 

Leningrad

Planted in the fall of 2010

 

The new varieties he planted this fall were purchased from various sources.

As he gets to know them he will decide if he will continue to grow any or all of them.

Northern Quebec and Leningrad only have 4 large cloves.

So from a replanting standpoint 4 to 1 isn't all that appealing.

That said they are very large heads that could possibly equal 4 or 5 heads per pound.

The Flavour of course will also be a factor in the decision.

Persian Star and Chesnok Red are a beautiful deep red

The heads are much smaller though maybe 7 to 10 per pound.

So they could take up to twice the planting room and labour.

Once the blanket of snow has cleared he will post some pics of their progress

Next post the Farmer may introduce you to the Sheep.