1 year

Today marks a year since moving here. Shipping our 6th chicken cycle happened to fall on the same day and, yes, it certainly was memorable. I had concerns about the driveway being too soft for the trucks to drive on and had a couple loads of gravel hauled. The gravel truck got stuck but my neighbour arrived shortly after and was able to pull him out. My neighbour spread it around with his one tractor while I moved gravel around in the load out area. We thought we'd have the chicken trucks come in from the south instead of the north this time as the north driveway has remained solid despite all the snow melting and then rain. The only drawback is that the narrowness at the approach isn't very forgiving to big trucks trying to turn in or out. The first truck driver thought he be able to head out the south way ok if he got moving fast enough. Both sides of the road being soft and having a 54' trailer was not a good combination and he ended up coming a little too far to the right and the back of the truck sunk down and he gave stuck a new definition. I called my neighbour around 12:15 AM and he came with his Versatile. The trucker brought a tow strap with him since sometimes one truck will help pull another one around the yard in these muddy spring conditions. My neighbour tried to use it with his tractor but then moved to his longer strap. He pulled him a couple feet ahead and then attempted to pull him out by lunging ahead but not a whole more progress was made. I believe at this time the tow strap bust apart rending it useless. In the meantime the front tires on the chicken truck were miring down and the same thing was starting to happen with the Versatile.

Plan B was to remove the chicken crates to lighten the load with the forklift which is used for loading and unloading. However, considering the angle of the truck it wasn't even possible to remove the back crates. And, now with the truck being moved a little further ahead, it was in the absolute worst spot for the forklift to try and remove the chickens from the front of the truck. The forklift operator tried to drive to the front of the truck and sunk right down on the side. So, my neighbour unhooked his tractor and came and pulled him out. My neighbour's nephew arrived with their other tractor but with the clutch almost gone in it, it didn't end up being used.

Plan C arrived with the discussion to call a tow truck with a winch from Yorkton which is over an hour away but who they call when they run into impossible stuck situations.

Plan D (at which time I was hoping we weren't going to travel through the whole alphabet trying to find a solution) was thankfully the final attempt and successful solution to our problem. My neighbour called another neighbour who is a county councilor and farmer in the area and has a JD tracks tractor. He arrived around 2 AM and pulled the truck out almost effortlessly. And, I finally breathed a sigh of relief that the truck remained upright and intact the whole time.

So, that was enough excitement for today. Another day, another year, another challenge. What can I say? The worst didn't happen, the weather cooperated, I have neighbours that will get up in the wee hours in the morning to come help simply because it is the neighbourly thing to do, and the rest of the trucks made it out the north driveway with no problems.

What can you say about where you live?? Right now I think my area ranks at the top. :D

You can see the tracks on the left where the forklift got stuck and where the truck got stuck on the right.

More truck marks due to the soft ground and heavy trucks but at least they didn't get stuck driving through.

6 months

Today marks six months since I moved way up here to NE Saskatchewan. Can hardly believe how much has happened this year and at times it has felt like somewhat of a whirlwind. Graham, Emily, and I first looked at the barn the middle of March and a week later made an offer. The whole process ended up being a bit of an ordeal but everything finally fell into place and we took possession the end of June.

I came up in May and took a 6 week crash course in raising chickens. : ) I had cattle experience so this chicken stuff was new. The operation was actually fairly simple to run but didn't quite feel that way when I wasn't familiar with all the ins and outs of it.

And then we had another element to deal with...rain. Our area along with many others across the prairie provinces had record setting levels of rain this spring. Growing up in the arid southern Alberta climate where, when it rained you pulled out your chair and sat in awe, I thought it wouldn't be possible to ever get tired of rain. Wrong! When the 8" average turned into 22" it gave a whole new outlook on rain. I was beginning to wonder if we shouldn't have bought an ark instead of a barn! Despite water issues in the barn and a thriving mosquito population, it still turned into a nice summer. I only had to water my garden a couple times and the yard stayed beautiful.

I spent a lot of the summer with yard care (mowing, weeding, flowers) and cleaning up around the yard and barn (whippersnipping, taking several loads to the dump, etc.) The well collapsed due to the rain so that had to be filled in and it seemsed as soon as you accomplished one thing, three others popped up. Now the yard is pretty much in order and all the yard work done for the year which a very satisfying feeling.

However, despite the challenges, it has been an awesome experience to run a place on my own. I love the area here and am quite happy to call it home. : )

Brief Update

Can't believe four months has already passed since I've moved up here. I love it up here and am happy to call this cozy little place home.

Summer is over...the little we had of it! Overall the weather has been cool with an excessive amount of rainfall. The yard kept me busy with the lawn and grass around yard needing to be mowed about every 5 days. The flowers thrived and the yard looked beautiful all summer. My garden did great and the produce was abundant. Mom came over for a couple weeks and canned the purple beans with her pressure canner (and also tended my flowers and washed the trailer windows...thanks, Mom!) I've been canning pickled carrots and making and freezing fries and hashbrowns. The herbs did well and I dried parsley, oregano, basil and chives which hopefully should last me through until next summer.

The well below the pumphouse collapsed not long after I moved into the trailer. Thankfully it wasn't the water source for our house and chickens but the water we use does travel there from the other well and then into the barn so it needed to get filled in to prevent any further possible damage. It was a big job and Dad was able to come over and help with part of it. Last week I finally finished insulating around the outside so the project is complete. My neighbour was able to come over and get the temp sensor set up for the well since it had snapped when the well collapsed. That was a big relief as now I don't have to worry about the well water for the barn and house freezing.

Sure is starting to feel like fall with high temps in the single digits (*C). The area here is so pretty with the leaves changing and beginning to fall.

Now we are heading into the last week of our second chicken cycle and things are going good so far. :) I'm really happy with how this cycle has gone and chickens are doing well. Tomorrow we are going to weigh chickens by hand again to see the adjustments we need to make in the computer for the scale. The scale wasn't working the last cycle so I ended up having to buy a new one from Mackay's in Saskatoon. We weighed them at two weeks and made the necessary adjustments so we'll find out if the percentage is still set right.

There is more to post about but this will have to do for now as I need to go check the chickens! :)

Home, Sweet Home

My new home! :)


Beautiful, big yard.


The barn.


From the back.


Coal boiler shed.