Lehman's Country Life

Spring  is  a day away  and here at Land’s End we are busy as ever. Bill held his garden forum in February and it was very successful, About 50 people both current and new gardeners  gathered together and shared information and experiences. Since then he has attended two  more related events and has been asked to speak at another. Just when  I thought he was slowing down  he is getting busy in a different way.  Although he no longer feels like growing vegetables to sell, he is always willing to share knowledge he has learned.

Our goats have all freshened and Myda , my pet goat , has two cute little does. Myda was estactic as last year we didn’t breed her. She almost drove us crazy blatting when the other goats had babies. Sara had two bucks one which was shaggy like a mountain goat. Rachel had one large buck who arrived with horns popped out and as big  as a three week old kid! No wonder she bellered so when giving birth.All I can say is better her than me although I did feel for her.  Poor Hannah birthed prematurely and her only kid died. It is a sad reality of farm life sometimes.
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Quite often over the years people have asked me , “What do you eat? Or does it get boring eating from the garden all the time ?” So I thought I would share some of our favorite recipes with you from time to time. Let me say right here not everything we eat comes from the farm. About 90% of what we eat we produce. Some things I do buy at the grocery store but you don’t need a farm or garden to use these recipes as the ingredients are available at the grocery store.

Let me begin with breakfast because for us it is essential  to give us energy to begin the day’s work. Almost every day begins with oatmeal with other things added that are both nutritious and tasty. We do eat other things too sometimes.
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I haven’t been one much inclined to making New Year resolutions as I tend to forget what they were as the year progresses!  However I resolve that this year will be different and these are goals I want to meet. I will let you know at the end of the year how I did ?

I Resolve . . .

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Greetings from Land’s End! Friday January 2nd. the wind calmed down. The sun shone brightly . Bill and Molly were glad to be outside. I also took my little Yorkie , Lucky, out for a walk. It was a beautiful winter day. Then in the night it warmed up and rained washing away the snow. The next day Saturday the temperature began its downward descent. The weather continues to flip flop between extremes of warm and cold here. With a return to fridged temperatures and high winds Bill is back in the house again. There is a season for all things and winter is the time to work inside where it is warm. If winter projects don’t get finished before Spring they are put off until the next year.

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Greetings from a wet Nova Scotia!  Here at Land’s End , just as we thought the storms had all missed us we had a real dose of reality!  A storm hit Sunday Dec 21st. with rain and wind the such as I don’t remember  experiencing in the twenty-three years we have lived here!  Someone with a wind meter clocked the wind speed at 160km an hour  or near hurricane force! We know of one house that had a window ripped out by the wind. Our old house shook for the first time since we moved in. The windows breathed in as the wind tried to suck them out! I felt the bed move and the lamp shade swayed. It was a frightfully exhilarating experience that I don’t care to repeat!

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Bill and I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We have been taking it a bit easier  here at Land’s End as winter rolls in. With the wood pile under cover and pantry full we no longer feel guilty sleeping in until 7:00am these days.  The goats are dry so there is no milking to do. The hens are moulting getting their winter feathers and taking a rest from laying eggs. The new hens are just starting to lay now so we haven’t had many eggs to gather lately either.  These are the lazy days for us when we catch up on sleep we missed and spend more time indoors by the fire.
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I am back here again at the town library sooner than I had planned. My life never goes the way I think it will.
Bill has been cutting Blue Joint grass in the fields along the ocean shore for straw bedding. It is free and makes excellent bedding for the goats. We had a hard frost so he can bring in the turnips and all the garden will be out and stored for winter. Almost all the wood is also under cover now too. The nights turned cold dipping below freezing. Now today has warmed up. So we have to be prepared for anything. If it is a cold winter we are ready and if it is mild we will have left over wood for next winter.

I had planned to be busy piecing a quilt by now. Instead I have been chasing around town looking for a 3/4 size mattress for our bed. Our foam mattress was thirty years old. It lay on a piece of plywood on the same bed Bill’s great grandparents, grandparents ,parents and we have slept in for thirty years! In the end we had to order a mattress special made as the bed is narrower and shorter than a double bed.

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Here at Land’s End in Short Beach we are busily winding up the years work trying to stay ahead of winter! The past week there has been a definite change and drop in temperature. It has been in the 40s F or about 6° or 7°C at night . Days range in the 50s F or 10°-12°C. The wind blows hard and we have had some cold rain this week. The clouds look more like snow than rain clouds

Bill was waiting for a hard frost before harvesting turnips. Frost seems to take the bitterness out of them. We have had mild frost so far some nights. The cabbage is also still in the field. One step forward and two steps backward is the order of the day. Lay plans and the unexpected always comes along to change them. So we are a bit behind schedule getting things done.

Bill ran into problems repairing the broken mowing machine. In the end he had to take another broken mower and dismantle it and use two to make one. This was no easy task as both mowers are a hundred years old and most likely have never been apart before. Five aggravating days later he succeeded and the new mower is oiled , put away for winter ready to use next year. Bill is a few years closer to a hundred himself after this frustrating week. He hates working on any machinery horse drawn or other wise.

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September 28th  2003 hurricane Jaun tore through parts of Nova Scotia  hitting hard in Halifax . Weather forecasters warned the public the hurricane was coming but most people didn’t take the warning seriously. Present generations had never experienced a hurricane. Certainly it couldn’t be any worse than many wind storms experienced here. One restaurant owner even planned a hurricane party at his water front establishment!  Few people boarded up windows or moved  and secured pleasure boats. Others planned to ride the surf so they thought. One American visitor in the area was horrified having experience with hurricanes.
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[1] When you don’t know where you are going any road will get you there.

[2] I decided the best I could with what I knew at the time. Then when I knew better I decided better.

[3] Rearing children brings us both the greatest joy and greatest pain all at the same time for a life time.

[4] Why do we eat things that are not good for us? I can only conclude the sense of taste is stronger than common sense.
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