And then there were four

While it seems like everyone is having a bumper crop this year, our sad little garden is leaving much to be desired. This is our first summer at this house and despite the yard facing south we didn't realize how much shade the trees cast on the property. It turns out that we only get about 4 hours of sunlight a day which means all of our plants are terribly stunted... Our pea plants stand at about 20cm tall (to be generous) and have produced only a hand full of pods with as many as 4 tiny peas inside. Only two of the lettuces plants we planted came up, and then went promptly to seed. Same with the cilantro - a few leaves and then straight to flowering. They must think its fall with the little sunlight they recieve....


We have had a bit more luck with the zucchinis and tomatoes - we have enjoyed two small zucchinis and 2 tiny tomatoes so far this season! Haha.... On the bright side, both have lots of blooms and some small fruits that we are anxiously awaiting to be ready to pick. We have yet to find out how the carrots have done... but if I can take a guess I would say marginally at best.

Despite our inability to grow things here, we have been able to harvest a lot of great food from gardens that are doing much better then ours. Clay's parents had us out their way this past weekend and we came home with a large cooler full of beets, carrots, snap peas and potatoes, two huge buckets of cherries, half an ice cream pail Saskatoon, and two pails of raspberries. Needless to say we have been spending some long hours in the kitchen canning, drying and freezing the bounty. We still have more to process and it looks like we will be heading out to Paul's parents place this weekend and helping out with the garden out there as well!

Canning has been a new experience for both Paul and I... after a bit of a rocky start I am pleased to say that I think we will have some really good food to enjoy this winter. I am particularly excited to try the cherry pie filling and the caraway and peppercorn pickled beats... I hope to get some more fruits from the farmers markets and have those canned as well!

I am sad to announce that we lost another chicken last week. So we are now down to 2 faverolles and 2 silkie chickens, and none of them are feeling compelled to do any laying yet... We think that we may have an issue with worms and that is what is causing our chickens to die, so we are trying some homeopathics on them and hopefully we can keep the rest happy and healthy as we head into the fall. When the first egg does eventually happen, I will be sure to let you all know.

Cameron is now 9 weeks old, weighs 12 and a half pounds and is getting gigglier and wigglier by the day!

Cam is still a pretty easy going guy, but is certainly starting to voice his preferences more these days! He is actually using his voice a lot more in general; he has several coo's that he uses constantly but is now starting to try out some new noises as he becomes more and more talkative.