Food, Friends and Hobby Farming

Lots of grape vines on the property. It's been fun (and very therapeutic) doing a little bit of gathering.

The old owner left a juicer behind, so we got to try it out on a few of the grapes we harvested. Very yummy, and even better if you mix it up with a few other juices. Also discovered an apple tree as well, and made a small amount of apple juice from the few apples that were left. 

A PG friend game to visit while they were down visiting family, and soon Hazel was showing them around the property. I'm very glad that Hazel has adjusted so well so far (way better then I ever expected her too). 

In the process of trying to decide which grape vines should stay and which could go. We (Oma/Mom and me) decided to pick a laundry basket of grapes together and try make grape juice by boiling the grapes and mashing them rather then the little juicer. We probably would have been able to process them all had we stuck to one laundry basket, but I brought one and Oma brought one and soon they were both full! We learned that de-stemming grapes is very time consuming, but also made 3 very large juice jugs full of yummy grape juice that we got to share over the few family events happening that weekend. (we did run out of time though and only made it though about half of each of our baskets)

Family from Smithers was down for a visit, Hazel had not seen them before (at least not old enough to remember). But she warmed up much quicker then expected despite the large amount of people around and really seemed to have a good time. 

Hazel has also grown a lot during and after the move, so we went to the shop to find some Sunday boots that would fit. And what did we find tucked in one of those boots? a long lost favorite little pink bear!

Tired of renos and sorting items for the day, but still wanting to spend time on our property, we started clearing away the grape vines from the shop's back door. 

Hazel was content making flower juice. I love when she just plays and makes things with what she finds in the yard!

Much better! Now I can walk into the shop without ducking under grape vines and walking into as many spider webs!

Playing on a trampoline at a friends house, though we didn't maintain that much contact over the years we had see each other once and while. It was nice to have a catch up visit and see our two "slow warm" girls slowly warm up and play together. 

This is Dad/Opa's hobby barn. A wonderful place to head to every morning!

It has a nice spot inside where you can watch the chickens. There are a few other pens as well with different stages of meat birds too. 

Hazel and Jade really enjoy collecting eggs when they don't need to walk through 90-100 chickens to get to them. 

So far our cats are still sticking around.

And Custard had 5 kittens that we found behind the hay bales (poor cat must have been moved pregnant). I was surprised that they are all so similar looking, so far all the kittens litters have had more variety in coloring.  

Quite a few years ago Dad/Opa gave me a sign that said "Home is where the barn is" with a horse head on it. Though there are not any horses in this barn a lot of concepts are the same. There are animals that need to be cared for and fed, routine chores, the smell of feed and hay, a place to go that just makes you relax as soon as you walk though the doors.