Front Porch Farm Is Going Legit

We are in the midst of packing everything left in the house, and are due to re-pack our 20 foot container this weekend before it's hauled away and shipped across to the Island.  We need to take our boxes and assorted belongings back out (the stuff we needed to remove from the house in order to 'stage' it for sale), get all of our bulky furniture loaded in, and then somehow put all of the boxes back in amongst the furniture - as Adrian called it, "giant, boring tetris."

In the midst of all of this planning and misplacing of the packing tape, we have become the new owners of a small 4x4 truck.  We're very excited to have the ability to haul and tow farm and life-related items in the near future, and now we won't have to worry about the weather come winter. Vancouver Island's temperatures are far milder than those I grew up with in Ontario, but we are down a rural road after all.  It's good to be prepared.

And there it is, sitting beside our lovely, much larger transport container! I think it's a great compromise in size, and I foresee lots of things that we will now be able to do at the property, without needing to hire someone - moving livestock, hauling building supplies, getting loads of wood for the woodstove, moving equipment..... makes me feel like we're heading in the right direction.

We Bought The Farm!

Our buyers finally signed on the dotted line last night, so our move to Vancouver Island is a go for the end of this month.  Front Porch Farm will be located in Cassidy, B.C., and we're thrilled!

We need to have our bees inspected per the provincial Ministry of Agriculture, and we just found this weekend that our artificial swarm, which contained 3 potential queens, has no brood but lots of pollen, nectar, and honey.  The original colony had brood, but minimal stores.  There seems to be some confusion.....

We took a chance, and pulled a top bar with the youngest brood we could find, and placed it smack in the middle of the potentially queenless hive.  Maybe she just hadn't made her mating flight yet?  We have fingers and toes crossed that when we do our inspection this weekend, we will either find evidence of new brood, or note that the bees have adapted one or more of the introduced potential queen cells.  It "should" be possible to tell if they've expanded a cell for the development of a larger queen.

Along with the bees, we'll be moving 32 rabbits in 8 cages (we have 3 moms with their litters).  On a ferry.  In a UHaul. Never a dull moment.