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My days are really full right now with lots of outside stuff going on. I have a bit of the garden planted – the peas are all planted, as well as some carrots, lettuce and spinach. I am early this year getting things in the ground but these cool weather veggies should be fine. We’re looking forward to a good harvest in a month or two. Things grow quick in the Cariboo.
Spring is one of the busiest times around here. We usually try to get a project done during this time – the bugs aren’t out yet, there isn’t a huge amount of garden work to do and we will NOT have time later in the season to get much done.
But, even without extra projects, it’s a busy time. Here’s what I’m working on, every day, in one form or another. I call them the “5 W’s”.
Weeding – Who doesn’t dislike weeding? I am continually trying to stay one step ahead, but each year the weeds still seem to win. I am not seeing much chickweed this year (yet). I’m thinking that all those hours put in a couple years ago with Jaime and I pulling chickweed together has really slowed that stuff down. A good thing. I’m putting in at least two hours daily on weeding, whether it’s in one of the garlic beds, the veggie beds or the flower beds. The more time I spend now pulling weeds, the better it should be come July and August. I use a stirrup hoe, and have for years. One of my favourite garden tools!
Watering – Lots of watering going on here right now. It has been really dry and hot for the last week, so extra water is needed. Plus I still have little seedlings emerging that I don’t want drying out. Not everything here is on a sprinkler, so I’m carving out some time to get extra water onto everything. Standing at the end of a hose is never a bad thing – I can take some time and look around and all the beautiful things going on right now in the Valley. Standing at the end of a hose while holding a homemade beer is even better!
Weedwhacking – It seems these days if I’m not riding the John Deere to get the lawn cut, I’m pulling out the Stihl and weedwhacking. The lawn mowing will slow down once the temperatures really start to rise, but there will always be weedwhacking on my list. Although we won’t be getting pigs this year, we will have the cattle. I’m looking into secure fencing so we can let them in the yard. That should help with the lawn mowing.
Getting Wood in – We try to fill our wood room in the Spring. This is definitely a chore that needs to be done in the off season. It takes days to fill our wood room, but then, we use the wood stove a lot for heat.
Graham takes down the trees with his chain saw and he bucks the logs. I work on getting the wood over to the splitter. Then we can start splitting and stacking. We like to stay at least a year ahead – this winter we will be burning the wood we got last year. The wood we get in this year will be used next year. It would be great to keep three years worth of wood all the time.
Wine – It’s close to that time of year. If we’re not making it, we’re maintaining berries and fruits. I harvest a lot of the rhubarb and get it in the freezer. A fair bit of it will go towards making wine, but we will definitely have more than enough for wonderful pies and fruit crisps.
In early Spring, I get started on a batch of Dandelion wine, next up is making Rhubarb wine, and later I will make our Saskatoon Raspberry wine.
It’s a good thing I spend late afternoon on the porch, usually with a beer in hand. An hour or so of relaxation after all that work is my reward for the day!
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