Its been a good week here on 'The Ranch'. The dogs are running freely inside the new deer fence, and things in the garden are starting to take shape. Our seedlings are germinating nicely, and the ground which I am going to place them has basically been completed. It was a lot of work to destroy years of perennials to get to usable fluffy clean soil, but hopefully its worth it. Things are still a bit clumpy and muddy, but I am hoping that will fix itself as the ground dries out and the weather warms up.
Step 1: Last fall I thought I destroyed most of the stuff... wrong!!
Step 2: This week I pulled out all the roots and crap (back hurts now 6 hours wtf!!!)
We also have been working on the fence for the center field to raise our pigs!
Slow going as we can only work on it on sunny days after Jess gets home from work, but I think its going really well! Probably 25% done at this point.
One disappointing thing though has been how difficult it is to find good pigs. After reading a few books on different types of pigs, and the eating, breeding, and personality traits of each, I went searching for Berkshire pigs. Sadly it seems like its basically impossible to get weaner pigs from a farm that has purebred Berkshires for a person to raise on their own. I found one in Metchosin that sells to my beloved Whole Beast in Oak bay, but they dont sell live pigs. You can rarely find some sort of cross bred mut on Used Victoria, but I really didnt want to settle on a Duroc mix. I even called around in the Fraser Valley but they just refer to the pigs as 'pigs' as if a dog is just a 'dog'. Seems very odd to me that real breeds arent represented. Like why can't I go to a breeder and buy a purebred Tamworth, Yorkshire or Large Black if I want one?!?! Something tells me that might change over time. I dont know what we well end up with, but hopefully something comes along soon.
Also last week I sold my Grandma's car for her, and the people who bought it just happen to be gardening extraordinaires! When I dropped off the 2nd key this week they gave me 7 Greek tomato plants, a huge bag of kale, and a bunch of lettuce plants! Our greenhouse doesn't have a dirt floor, so I tried to make a bit of a pseudo greenhouse outside. If its sunny I'll pull the tops off, and then try to remember to cover them back at night. I brought the tomatoes into the office window and moved them into bigger pots. I am nervous about everything surviving, but I think I moved them gently and gave them a good soil mix... Hoping for the best!!
Step 1: Last fall I thought I destroyed most of the stuff... wrong!!
Step 2: This week I pulled out all the roots and crap (back hurts now 6 hours wtf!!!)
We also have been working on the fence for the center field to raise our pigs!
Slow going as we can only work on it on sunny days after Jess gets home from work, but I think its going really well! Probably 25% done at this point.
One disappointing thing though has been how difficult it is to find good pigs. After reading a few books on different types of pigs, and the eating, breeding, and personality traits of each, I went searching for Berkshire pigs. Sadly it seems like its basically impossible to get weaner pigs from a farm that has purebred Berkshires for a person to raise on their own. I found one in Metchosin that sells to my beloved Whole Beast in Oak bay, but they dont sell live pigs. You can rarely find some sort of cross bred mut on Used Victoria, but I really didnt want to settle on a Duroc mix. I even called around in the Fraser Valley but they just refer to the pigs as 'pigs' as if a dog is just a 'dog'. Seems very odd to me that real breeds arent represented. Like why can't I go to a breeder and buy a purebred Tamworth, Yorkshire or Large Black if I want one?!?! Something tells me that might change over time. I dont know what we well end up with, but hopefully something comes along soon.
Also last week I sold my Grandma's car for her, and the people who bought it just happen to be gardening extraordinaires! When I dropped off the 2nd key this week they gave me 7 Greek tomato plants, a huge bag of kale, and a bunch of lettuce plants! Our greenhouse doesn't have a dirt floor, so I tried to make a bit of a pseudo greenhouse outside. If its sunny I'll pull the tops off, and then try to remember to cover them back at night. I brought the tomatoes into the office window and moved them into bigger pots. I am nervous about everything surviving, but I think I moved them gently and gave them a good soil mix... Hoping for the best!!
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