Christmas 2013
Merry Christmas from the Windsor zoo, I hope this note finds you hale & hearty. We’ve had a screaming busy and productive year.
Darryl is still with the ferries and now has a permanent job on the Skeena Queen as 3rd engineer. This is a major step up from staffing pool of being on call and covering other staffing shifts. After 30+ years he managed to quit smoking – a major achievement.
I’m still part time at Slegg lumber – your friendly neighborhood “stocker”. In February, Darryl and I celebrated our “20” & “14” year anniversaries – 20 years of living together and 14 years of marriage. We are quite impressed that after all this time we are still getting along.
Micheal is still operating TNT Tree service and living in our house on Rainbow Road.
Kayla turned 19 this September and quit working at Barb’s Bistro after having her shifts cut back to 1 day a week, she moved over to working at Calvin’s Restaurant 5 days a week. She also moved her financee from Burnaby; Matt Sejbjerg turned 19 in November and is working full time at Tree House Café. They have a farm sitting job for a month and a half then will be joining Michael at the Rainbow Road house. Kayla lost her cat Snowie to bone marrow cancer and then bought 4 rats – no we aren’t impressed and they are all boys. She just last week brought home another cat “Sofia”. She is around 4-5 years old and has had a really rough start but in 1 week has already made a lot of progress.
Britty turned 17 on St. Patricks this year and is looking forward to graduating in June. After another school assessment they have come to the final conclusion that Britty has Asbergers which is a form of Austism, this answers a lot of questions and will qualify her for permanent disability. Britty was a huge help at the Tuesday market, she is participating more and more every year. She is still exchanging farm credits for school credits and has already completed grade 11 since September and is partway through grade 12. As a project through the school this year, they are funding Britty to raise a few pigs for the cafeteria. They are providing the piglets and all the scraps from the school.
Dogs – We still have the three border collies, Buttons has reached the ripe old age of 13 and likes to watch the world go by as long as he’s near mom. The puppies Lance and Guin turned 2 this August and don’t sit still for long. We are waiting for Guin’s next heat so we can breed her, we just have to find a stud she isn’t related to.
Cats – Oliver and Blue turned 4 and little Buster turned 3. We were also adopted by a barn cat “Minnie”. She just showed up one day in the sheep barn. After figuring out she gets fed every morning she decided to stick around and proceeded to bring us either a mouse, rat or baby bunny every day. She is especially helpful when we are gardening, you usually hear her long before you see her, packing her rodent “present”. Then promptly crawling into your lap for loves before eating her treat.
Cows- Near the end of March Thelma (Angus x) delivered “Mabel” a very friendly red and white heifer. 5 pm Britty and I were going out to collect the chicken eggs and check on her, when all the cows were up at the house except Thelma. After calling her, she announced she was behind the chicken coop and pushed out her water bag. 20 minutes later we had our little “Mabel” in the trailer on the back of the quad on her way to the cow barn. After 3 days of being locked up we let mom and baby loose and the stampede was on! Thelma’s calves always give her a run for her money and Mabel was no different. There is nothing funnier than a calf with it tail pointing straight up in the air, galloping across the field as fast as she can, followed by her 1500 lb mother with a very full udder, followed by the rest of the herd kicking and bucking. We patiently waited for Louise (Hereford x) to show signs that she was due but March went by then April and we figured that after prolapsing the year before that she was going to end up in the freezer. She was getting the ‘one more chance’ and fingers crossed she would be due in March 2014. Well apparently she didn’t get the memo because November 9th she delivered little Porterhouse. Apparently Stroganoff the bull caught her before I sent him to the neighbors instead of after we got him back. We sent Prime Rib and Stroganoff as well as 2 feeder heifers “Cass”erole and “Sally” Salisbury Steak off to the butcher in Nanaimo then picked up two feeder steers – the meatballs; Honey garlic and Sweet n Sour from Cobble Hill. Thelma and Daisy (Jersey) are both due the at end of March, then we get to learn how to milk and make cheese, yogurt, etc. The learning curve just never ends around here.
Sheep – We had 12 lambs in March this year. Instead of getting the names out of the Joy of cooking cook book we had a little more fun. Rose had 2 lambs for St. Patrick’s so they were Shamrock and Clover and Princess popped on April Fool’s so she had Joker. Pumpkin had 1 white and 1 black lamb so they were Yin and Yang and Penny had nickel and dime. The 4 bottle lambs we went with a sesame street theme and had Bert, Ernie, Oscar and Grover for a total of 16 lambs. After lambing we got our 1st ram – Walter from Cottonwood farm, after suffering an identity crisis from hanging out with the cows, Walter enjoyed a few months of breeding the ewes for next year. Unfortunately Walter and I didn’t get along and in middle of a farm tour I had to be rescued by Darryl because Walter decided I was either the next ewe to be bred or he just didn’t like me but the next morning he moved on to Sechelt to Judi Tyabi and Gord Wilsons farm. Adios Walter. Hopefully he did a good job before he left and we’ll have lots of lambs in February.
Poultry – We stepped up the poultry this year. We did the usual three batches through the incubator of laying hens and the three batches of meat bird but we upped the meat birds from 70 to 100. Plus we did a batch of 2 dozen Pekin ducks and 2 batches of large white turkeys – 1 for Thanksgiving and 1 for Xmas. We found the turkeys to be the most friendliest birds ever. Anytime you walk past them the all come running to say HI. We processed all the birds through the new abbatoir on the island and would continue in the following years if they hadn’t doubled their prices in September.
Pigs – We also grew a batch of pigs this year who were also super friendly. Usually when loading them to go to the butcher they give you a hard time getting into the truck but not these guys. They were in there faster than you could blink. Matt and his brother Isaac were still getting the back up gate into place and we closed the gate on the truck.
Garden – The garden did phenomenally this year. Almost everything was a bumper crop and as soon as one plant was harvested and pulled out in went the next crop. Our experiments this years were;
Daikon – not so good –we had a few excellent roots but a lot of root maggot. Britty’s favorite was shaped like an octopus which she delighted on putting on your shoulder and wiggling it – AT THE MARKET – resulting in many screams and jumping people.
Sicilian Saucer tomatos – excellent – each plant produced 10 – 15, 2 -3 lb tomatos. They are a beefsteak/Roma tomato and are all meat with very little seeds or juice producing over 200 lbs of tomatos per week off 30 plants for over 1 ½ months. They were a massive hit at the market.
Wheat – Darryl intensively planted Britty’s wheat and we harvested about 12 lbs which we ground into flour. This may not sound like a huge amount but 4 years ago Britty started with 2 little baggies of seed which she has planted and harvested, pretty much by herself each year. This year Darryl made a thresher which sped up the process by a few months.
Yams – excellent – yes we have done them before but this year we grew them in the big greenhouse.
Quonia – (Keen – wa) excellent – What an ordeal. First you start the seeds, then plant the starts, wait for it to grow 4 – 6 feet tall then harvest the flowers. We had the rains early this year and some of it resprouted right on the plant. Then you dry all the flowers on racks in the car port and then put it through the thresher. Then is goes into a garbage can with the garden hose in one side and a paint whip on the end of a drill in the other side. The quonia sinks and everything else flows over the edge of the can. Then you wash it 8 more times to get the saponin (soap) off it and then spread it out on clean garbage can lids all through the living room with fans to dry it. Then weigh and package it. We harvested 16 lbs at $20/lb. Not bad for a first try.
We had the farm tour for Labor Day weekend with much better success than last year. We figure just over 100 people came through the farm. We would finish one tour just in time for the next group of people to arrive, with many happy reviews.
The Tuesday Market was a great success. We had a new layout and more marketing and a lot more attendance, as well as a coupon program for young families and seniors. We did our “On farm food safety” course and although I didn’t get around to filling out all the forms or applying for any of the funding we did learn a lot which I think is most important.
Thank you everyone for supporting the farm and all the best in the New Year.
Darryl, Sheila, Micheal, Kayla, Matt, Britty and zoo
Merry Christmas from the Windsor zoo, I hope this note finds you hale & hearty. We’ve had a screaming busy and productive year.
Darryl is still with the ferries and now has a permanent job on the Skeena Queen as 3rd engineer. This is a major step up from staffing pool of being on call and covering other staffing shifts. After 30+ years he managed to quit smoking – a major achievement.
I’m still part time at Slegg lumber – your friendly neighborhood “stocker”. In February, Darryl and I celebrated our “20” & “14” year anniversaries – 20 years of living together and 14 years of marriage. We are quite impressed that after all this time we are still getting along.
Micheal is still operating TNT Tree service and living in our house on Rainbow Road.
Kayla turned 19 this September and quit working at Barb’s Bistro after having her shifts cut back to 1 day a week, she moved over to working at Calvin’s Restaurant 5 days a week. She also moved her financee from Burnaby; Matt Sejbjerg turned 19 in November and is working full time at Tree House Café. They have a farm sitting job for a month and a half then will be joining Michael at the Rainbow Road house. Kayla lost her cat Snowie to bone marrow cancer and then bought 4 rats – no we aren’t impressed and they are all boys. She just last week brought home another cat “Sofia”. She is around 4-5 years old and has had a really rough start but in 1 week has already made a lot of progress.
Britty turned 17 on St. Patricks this year and is looking forward to graduating in June. After another school assessment they have come to the final conclusion that Britty has Asbergers which is a form of Austism, this answers a lot of questions and will qualify her for permanent disability. Britty was a huge help at the Tuesday market, she is participating more and more every year. She is still exchanging farm credits for school credits and has already completed grade 11 since September and is partway through grade 12. As a project through the school this year, they are funding Britty to raise a few pigs for the cafeteria. They are providing the piglets and all the scraps from the school.
Dogs – We still have the three border collies, Buttons has reached the ripe old age of 13 and likes to watch the world go by as long as he’s near mom. The puppies Lance and Guin turned 2 this August and don’t sit still for long. We are waiting for Guin’s next heat so we can breed her, we just have to find a stud she isn’t related to.
Cats – Oliver and Blue turned 4 and little Buster turned 3. We were also adopted by a barn cat “Minnie”. She just showed up one day in the sheep barn. After figuring out she gets fed every morning she decided to stick around and proceeded to bring us either a mouse, rat or baby bunny every day. She is especially helpful when we are gardening, you usually hear her long before you see her, packing her rodent “present”. Then promptly crawling into your lap for loves before eating her treat.
Cows- Near the end of March Thelma (Angus x) delivered “Mabel” a very friendly red and white heifer. 5 pm Britty and I were going out to collect the chicken eggs and check on her, when all the cows were up at the house except Thelma. After calling her, she announced she was behind the chicken coop and pushed out her water bag. 20 minutes later we had our little “Mabel” in the trailer on the back of the quad on her way to the cow barn. After 3 days of being locked up we let mom and baby loose and the stampede was on! Thelma’s calves always give her a run for her money and Mabel was no different. There is nothing funnier than a calf with it tail pointing straight up in the air, galloping across the field as fast as she can, followed by her 1500 lb mother with a very full udder, followed by the rest of the herd kicking and bucking. We patiently waited for Louise (Hereford x) to show signs that she was due but March went by then April and we figured that after prolapsing the year before that she was going to end up in the freezer. She was getting the ‘one more chance’ and fingers crossed she would be due in March 2014. Well apparently she didn’t get the memo because November 9th she delivered little Porterhouse. Apparently Stroganoff the bull caught her before I sent him to the neighbors instead of after we got him back. We sent Prime Rib and Stroganoff as well as 2 feeder heifers “Cass”erole and “Sally” Salisbury Steak off to the butcher in Nanaimo then picked up two feeder steers – the meatballs; Honey garlic and Sweet n Sour from Cobble Hill. Thelma and Daisy (Jersey) are both due the at end of March, then we get to learn how to milk and make cheese, yogurt, etc. The learning curve just never ends around here.
Sheep – We had 12 lambs in March this year. Instead of getting the names out of the Joy of cooking cook book we had a little more fun. Rose had 2 lambs for St. Patrick’s so they were Shamrock and Clover and Princess popped on April Fool’s so she had Joker. Pumpkin had 1 white and 1 black lamb so they were Yin and Yang and Penny had nickel and dime. The 4 bottle lambs we went with a sesame street theme and had Bert, Ernie, Oscar and Grover for a total of 16 lambs. After lambing we got our 1st ram – Walter from Cottonwood farm, after suffering an identity crisis from hanging out with the cows, Walter enjoyed a few months of breeding the ewes for next year. Unfortunately Walter and I didn’t get along and in middle of a farm tour I had to be rescued by Darryl because Walter decided I was either the next ewe to be bred or he just didn’t like me but the next morning he moved on to Sechelt to Judi Tyabi and Gord Wilsons farm. Adios Walter. Hopefully he did a good job before he left and we’ll have lots of lambs in February.
Poultry – We stepped up the poultry this year. We did the usual three batches through the incubator of laying hens and the three batches of meat bird but we upped the meat birds from 70 to 100. Plus we did a batch of 2 dozen Pekin ducks and 2 batches of large white turkeys – 1 for Thanksgiving and 1 for Xmas. We found the turkeys to be the most friendliest birds ever. Anytime you walk past them the all come running to say HI. We processed all the birds through the new abbatoir on the island and would continue in the following years if they hadn’t doubled their prices in September.
Pigs – We also grew a batch of pigs this year who were also super friendly. Usually when loading them to go to the butcher they give you a hard time getting into the truck but not these guys. They were in there faster than you could blink. Matt and his brother Isaac were still getting the back up gate into place and we closed the gate on the truck.
Garden – The garden did phenomenally this year. Almost everything was a bumper crop and as soon as one plant was harvested and pulled out in went the next crop. Our experiments this years were;
Daikon – not so good –we had a few excellent roots but a lot of root maggot. Britty’s favorite was shaped like an octopus which she delighted on putting on your shoulder and wiggling it – AT THE MARKET – resulting in many screams and jumping people.
Sicilian Saucer tomatos – excellent – each plant produced 10 – 15, 2 -3 lb tomatos. They are a beefsteak/Roma tomato and are all meat with very little seeds or juice producing over 200 lbs of tomatos per week off 30 plants for over 1 ½ months. They were a massive hit at the market.
Wheat – Darryl intensively planted Britty’s wheat and we harvested about 12 lbs which we ground into flour. This may not sound like a huge amount but 4 years ago Britty started with 2 little baggies of seed which she has planted and harvested, pretty much by herself each year. This year Darryl made a thresher which sped up the process by a few months.
Yams – excellent – yes we have done them before but this year we grew them in the big greenhouse.
Quonia – (Keen – wa) excellent – What an ordeal. First you start the seeds, then plant the starts, wait for it to grow 4 – 6 feet tall then harvest the flowers. We had the rains early this year and some of it resprouted right on the plant. Then you dry all the flowers on racks in the car port and then put it through the thresher. Then is goes into a garbage can with the garden hose in one side and a paint whip on the end of a drill in the other side. The quonia sinks and everything else flows over the edge of the can. Then you wash it 8 more times to get the saponin (soap) off it and then spread it out on clean garbage can lids all through the living room with fans to dry it. Then weigh and package it. We harvested 16 lbs at $20/lb. Not bad for a first try.
We had the farm tour for Labor Day weekend with much better success than last year. We figure just over 100 people came through the farm. We would finish one tour just in time for the next group of people to arrive, with many happy reviews.
The Tuesday Market was a great success. We had a new layout and more marketing and a lot more attendance, as well as a coupon program for young families and seniors. We did our “On farm food safety” course and although I didn’t get around to filling out all the forms or applying for any of the funding we did learn a lot which I think is most important.
Thank you everyone for supporting the farm and all the best in the New Year.
Darryl, Sheila, Micheal, Kayla, Matt, Britty and zoo