Loving Life On The Island

A quick hello from Front Porch Farm!  We've been settling in and getting ourselves oriented to the lay of the land and the somewhat different pace of life here.  Things are a bit more spread out than we're used to, and although we have basically everything we need within 45 minute's drive of the house, not everything is in the same direction! Running errands tends to be a bit more time-consuming than we're accustomed to, and we do try and make our time and trips worthwhile. It hasn't been unusual to be out of the house for 5 or 6 hours as we organize flooring, painting, and 'house' supplies, purchase tools, and simply explore.  We've had to do a bit of searching for particular items we need, including a chainsaw and a ride-on lawnmower.  2 days, and almost 5 hours behind a lawnmower for my first pass on the property showed how important a lawn tractor and a gas-powered trimmer was going to be - just to maintain the property already cleared.  We now both have steel-toed boots, several pairs of work gloves, respirators with air filters, and the basic equipment we will need to see us through until the winter. Speaking of winter, we arrived to find the woodshed had been emptied, so we need to work on that very soon!

We've been settling into the property as well, and getting used to the house and garden - and the quirks that come with each.  The garden soil is oddly barren, and I've started to stockpile rabbit manure, kitchen waste and grass clippings - but have yet to site and build a proper compost pile.  The spot I have in mind is currently overrun with bracken fern and other wild growth.  I have my work cut out for me, as I think the previous owners were accustomed to throwing Miracle Grow at their plants, rather than feeding the soil.  There are some lovely (though rampantly-growing) raspberry bushes which have been keeping us in fresh fruit, and I do have carrots, peas, greens, some root vegetables and other assorted veggies seeded to the existing garden beds (which had been full of chickweed, hawk weed, and plenty of raspberry volunteers when we first arrived).  I've focused on planting for the fall and winter, so I'm seeding carrots, turnips, parsnips, beets, chard, collards, cabbage, kale and lettuce in hopes of having some small amount of harvest after the heat of summer is over.  I also planted a short-season corn, beans, and some tomato plants just for the hell of it. 

I managed to plant out my blueberry, black currant and honeyberry bushes during our first week (and then discovered I will be needing to net them off against the robins next year!). Most of the perennials and herbs which we had potted up and brought over with us have been permanently planted to the beds around the house, or to the "fenced" kitchen garden.  The fence is merely a visual deterrent, as a strong wind could currently push over many of the old posts, and the wire sags fairly heavily.  Fencing is on our priorities list, somewhat behind replacing our 20-year-old well pump and adding a 2500 gallon cistern.  We've run out of water multiple times - which we were assured by the listing realtor was never a problem with 5 adults and garden irrigation for 20 years prior..... *sigh*

On the bright side of that, we've been told that there is supposed to be an undeveloped spring in the low-lying area we are thinking of as a future pond site.  That's an interesting project for next summer - one step at a time.

We've had visits from the local wildlife - a deer in the orchard, and a cougar sniffing around the rabbit cages on one of our first nights here.  Luckily, I had just picked up net fencing from 'up-Island,' and a farming friend was on a day trip for new rabbit stock.  She popped in for a visit and gave us a crash course on setting up our own little electric net area for the bee hives and rabbit cages. No sign of problems since!  

Currently, we're working on the house interior before we unload our shipping container full of furniture and assorted belongings.  The carpet has been ripped out - all but 2 bedrooms on the second floor - and we are prepping, priming, and painting the main floor in preparation for some new subfloor, vinyl and carpet flooring, and low-flow toilets. Vinyl goes in this week, and new carpet the week after that.  We're painting ceilings, walls, and trim in advance, so that we only splatter paint where it doesn't matter.