Welcome to the Farm!

I know, I know, it's been way too long since I've written! I tried to write this morning, but would you believe that my own dear Blog had shunned me? "What, you think that you can go weeks without visiting, show up whenever you want and expect me to heed to your every whim?! I think not." ( I had material to write, and she refused to load any pages...). My poor, sweet blog...I promise I will no longer be so fickle, and you will nevermore be ignored.

As for my readers, I apologize to you, as well! If you'll forgive me, will you join me on a quick walking tour of the farm? Wear something to cover your ears - the wind is nasty out there today, I think it's blowing in a storm. I had planned to spend more time showing you around, but I'm afraid we might blow away, so we'll keep it quick. You might want to wear your rubber boots, too - the boys are spreading manure today and a few "chunks" have fallen over the side of the spreader, and all over the laneway. Mind your step. I'll forwarn you, nothing is looking very pretty right now - it's a pretty "blah" and yucky time of year. Soon everything will brighten up and be nice and green again. On the bright side, you'll be able to see a great contrast between "before" and "after"; we'll be doing a lot of cleaning up this spring/summer, because the farm is hosting a big event in July - I'll take you on a better tour when we've got it looking nicer.

This is our road! We're literally out in the middle of nowhere. No street lights, no traffic, not many neighbours. Just fields, and trees - that's the way I like it! Except for in the winter - we get quite a bit of snow, and the plow driver seems to "forget" to come out here sometimes...you might not want to come visit on one of those days.

We're finally here - this is my place, on the right. Our lane is pretty long, with fields on either side - can you see our house waaaay back in there? Let's walk up so you can get a closer look.

Hey, look over there! We get lots of visitors out here - but not many of them are of the human variety. Don't get too close, they're probably guarding a nest - and you do NOT want to meet up with an angry Mama Goose!

We're getting closer now - you can see the house a bit better, and this is the new barn that was built this past fall. This is where we keep the heiffers (ie. young cows that aren't milking age yet).

This is my house - as you can see, there's a lot to be done! The original house burned down, but was rebuilt on the old foundation about 60 years ago. It was in VERY bad shape inside when we moved in, and on two occasions in the past it has been left abandoned. We've put a lot of work into it, and there's still a lot more to do. We just had this new steel roof put on in the fall, we've had a lot of the windows replaced, and I've started to paint. It'll look much better when I show you again in the summer.

Now, stand right there and turn around to look behind you - that's the other half of the farm, across the road. This is where most of the action takes place, and is where my in-laws live. Ted grew up here, and is the third generation to live on the farm. It's the biggest farm on our road - there are 7 buildings if you include the house. If it wasn't so windy, I'd take you across to show you up close, but we'll do that another day when the weather is better.

When Ted's grandfather owned the farm, it was called "Echo Creek" - this is why. This is a part of the creek that runs through the property. If you yell out, you'll see where the "echo" part comes into play. We're in a bit of a hollow, and everything echoes from miles around - it's pretty eerie when you wake up to hear the coyotes howling (it sounds like they're right outside my window), and gets annoying when the poodle breeder down the road has a ruckus.

Another view of the creek...

You've gotta see this little girl - she's so cute, I couldn't have you visit and not meet her! I'm not sure what her name is, I'll have to ask Ted later. Hold out your hand - she'll suck on your finger!

Well, there was a quick tour - now you have a better idea of what it's like to live out here. Come back another day and I'll show you around in more detail - we'll have to plan a visit inside the barn/house one of these days too. But for now, how bout we go inside for a cup of coffee? That wind'll blow right through you...Brr!