CSA

Well my garden is growing at a rate that I can't seem to keep up with. It is not just the veggies that are growing or the weeds, it is also the bugs. They are breeding and growing at a speed that is a bit out of control. I currently have Flea beetle on all my Brassicas (Kale, Brocolli, etc.) and the Cucumber beetle on all my Curbits (squash, cucumber etc.). After some time, I decided to spray the cucumber beetle with an oranic spray called Trounce. Basically it is the most mild and least harmful way I could control them. It makes them sick and hopefully die and stop breeding. I did not want to spray at all but years of other farmers in the area growing mass amounts of these plants has encouraged the bugs. Anyways, I am going to try and control it organically and then if this doesn't work, there are other options. These options are: basically loose my crop or spray synthetic pesticides. What is the better choice? For me it depends on my day. Right now, I am frustrated that companion planting, and collecting and monitoring the pests didn't work. I am realistic enough to know I need a crop. But if I spray, I have to tell all my customers, and that will slow down my market and make me frustrated in my growing inability. Well this is farming I guess and I am in it. Yes, I am and I have 8 members of my farm already!!! Michael and I are really excited. I spread the word that I would be doing a trial CSA for 10 weeks instead of 20 and that if it went well I would get a greenhouse and try it for 16-20 weeks next year. Word is spreading and people are looking for ways to get local produce so this seems to be good timing for us as a farm. Timing is everything isn't it?
Look how time is flying for this little girl.......

Doctors visit

In the past month Maetia has gone to see her new pediatrician twice and the Asthma and Allergy specialist once. The pediatrician put her on Prevacid for Acid Reflux. We really don't want our child on such strong medication but within one day, she was eating better and sleeping better. Food is always hard with babies but she is exceptional. She previously always refused to eat after 2 spoonfuls of anything, even ice cream. No wonder she is so thin. She also always cried when we laid her down but we thought she just wanted to move around. One month after starting her medication, she has gained a pound and is starting moving up on her growth curve which she hasn't done in about 5 months. We are so happy that she seems happier and is enjoying her food. She is also having a longer daytime nap and has slept through the night a few times!! We are told that they usually grow out of acid reflux so we are praying that it will happen for her. Fortunately for us, our pediatrician recognizes our financial situation and has given us samples of the medication so we don't have to pay for it. Maetia was tested for allergies to dogs/cats, dust, milk and soy. She tested negatively to all of them, so the doctor has said that her symptoms of milk and soy allergies are also something she will probably grow out of. Lately we have been frustrated with doctors because they only rely on science for their diagnosis'. We completely understand that science has improved and saved the lives of millions of people, I am just venting. The Naturapath is great because they understand and believe you but you are still left with, okay so she can't eat all these things, what can she eat? It is frustrating when your child is extremely cranky, congested and constipated when she eats dairy products but you are told that it is only an old wives tale that they can have those symptoms from milk. Well, thousands of mothers who have experienced this may disagree. But we want to believe the doctor and pray that she will not have any food intolerances as I am all too familiar with how uncomfortable and annoying these can be. But we celebrate that she is growing and doing well and filling our lives with joy. She is turning into much more of a toddler lately. She moves quicker and with more confidence. She teases and tickles us and loves to play games. She will sit still for a few books at a time and loves to bounce up and down on the bed. With every new stage we have some sadness because she is growing and changing faster than we were ready for. We have a little girl, not a baby. It seems like parenting is full of joys and sorrows mixed together.
The pictures of the house framing are of a house that Michael put up with his work Arlington Timber Frames, on Cape Breton Island last week.
The photos of Maetia are at our first cook out on the beach on the weekend. We saw whales moving past (right in front of us) in the Bay of Fundy!! Maetia scoots around on the rocks like it is no big deal to drag her leg over all those rocks.

photos to go

Here is my land that I am planting on. It has floating row cover on the sensitive stuff.

My table at the market, the wave in the background


Maetia and I at the market


Maetia loves this toy, it plays music and blows air in her face and she gets to stand up all at once!


She choses cars and trucks over dolls every time.

time to relax

First it was my first market, and then a rally, now we can relax. The Young People in the CRC Maritime Provinces get together twice a year and take turns hosting what we call 'rallies'. We just hosted one and we are exhausted. There were 80 people at the camp and Michael and I planned and co-ordinated the three day weekend. Our theme was taking care of God's creation. We did different activities like a beach clean up, visiting elderly people and planting trees. It rained for most of the weekend but the kids were good sports and we had a lot of fun.
My first market last weekend went really well. I made a small profit and met many different people. The question I was asked the most was "Who are you?". I wished I had an answer. Thank you so much for your responses to our blog about our farm name. I forgot to mention that the land where I am planting most of the veggies has this strange rock in it. It is black and lightweight. It looks similar to Obsidian, so I thought I could go with Obsidian farm but Michael laughed and said that it sounds like obscene. I can't name it something too descriptive of what I am selling because that is bound to change. I also can't name it something that describes the area because we might not always farm there, (that is another story). Right now, I am really liking Anavah Acres, which is Hebrew, not Greek like I said it was. Also, I apologize to my family because some of them did give me feedback and I grouped them all together and said they didn't.
Maetia is doing well. She is growing and changing all the time. We wish we had high speed internet so we could put videos onto the blog. She is a really funny little girl. She has learned to crawl up and down the stairs safely. She is eating better now and gaining more weight too. Horray!! She is very vocal and has many words that are quite clear. Her favourite word is Daddy which means: mummy, daddy, man, opa, water and look at that. She only says mummy when she is hungry, but I can understand that. She is currently getting all four top teeth at the same time. Needless to say, those herbal tablets that Anne Contant recommended are my best friend. We can see all of her first teeth just sitting in her gums, ready to come out, even the molars. She is going to the Asthma and Allergy specialist tommorow so we are hoping to have some more answers on what she can and can't eat, hopefully some ideas to get her to eat more and hopefully they will tell me I can take her off her medication soon and give it a try.
We are having a late frost her tonight so I am worried about my little plants that are barely covered. Hopefully this is the last one. We are also putting a deck onto our cottage. Our back yard is full of mud and water because there was a stream running under the house that we found when putting in the retaining wall.
We are having trouble posting photos so we will try again tommorow.

Farm name

We are only 4 days from going to the market for the first time as a primary producer, not selling for someone else, but my own stuff!! Unfortunately due to the cold spring we are experiencing, there is not a lot to sell. I am planning to collect edible wild plants like fiddle heads and make some bouquets out of pussywillows and dogwood. I do have a little bit of lettuce and arugula so that will have to be good enough for this week. It is really all about exposure for myself and to pass out my CSA survey (thanks Dan!). There are two very experienced vegetable growers that will be there with at least 20 different varieties of vegetables, so it is hard to compete. I am hoping that by showing my face and my interest in local agriculture, I will eventually get a clientel that I can depend on and hope to sell straight from the farm. Michael is going to take Maetia and help me until she gets tired and then will go home. We are transporting our tent, table and produce on our new truck. The Nissan 'Wave' is a little light weight truck that we bought from my Opa (thanks Opa!!) and it should have a little more room than the Toyota Corolla. The main reason for this blog is to get some feedback about our farm name. We have struggled for a year with this and still have nothing. It isn't even like we have to have a name right away, but we thought it would be nice. I wanted something with my father's farm name (Annashoeve), and my uncle's farm where we lived (Foote Family Farm). Other than naming it Annas' Foote, I haven't come up with much. There is a stream on the land, but it has no name. I found that Anavah means gentleness in Greek which I liked but got no response from my family on that one. I was also thinking of Linley Farms, or Linley Acres. Linley is a woman whose two sons were so good to us when we lived in Australia. It also sounds somewhat like Lyn which is my middle name. Any ideas? We would love to hear from you. Here are some pictures too because we know that is why you really are looking at our blog, but who could blame you.

pictures

Here are some recent pictures that we would love to share


This is the painting Michael did for our Doula, Rosella Hutten.


This is Maetia's favourite 'toy'


Just lounging around

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Maetia and Daddy kissing


Maetia in her new chair. She has a little trouble getting in but no trouble jumping out.


This is our new dog Red whom we have renamed "Drake".


Already sharing their water.


Silly girl with silly hair.

From zero to one

Here is zero

Here is one




Well it all happened very fast and now before we could catch up, Maetia turned one!! A brief summary: She is a beautiful little girl with so much personality and spunk. She is a little elvish and we think she will be sneaky at times and try our patience. She also seems very clever (all parents think this of their children we know) and she already has a love of music. She is wiggly and wiry with her little bum still in the first size cloth diapers. She can clap and wave, shake her head and scream (sometimes all at once). Her sounds are: baba, bye, bubu, mama, mmmm, dada, dudu, dodo, dogga, gaga, gigi, kitty, tees, hoss, hi, and hya. She loves all animals and will point out animals in every picture, painting or sign. She points at everything and when she gets really excited she falls over from pointing so vigorously. She eats almost all food both purees and finger foods and we did decide to give her meat in the end although we debated. She does not have any dairy products and minimal soy. She seems to do better without them. She has always been a skinny little thing and the doctors have done multiple tests to see why she is so under weight. They have not found anything wrong with her and we feel that she is just a little person, not unlike some of those little Footes and Contants in her ancestry.
As a couple, we went from living with my sister and her children for a summer (2004)and thinking we knew quite a bit about parenting, to having a baby of our own and realizing we didn't know that much after all. To be honest, Maetia's colic and breathing difficulty put a strain on the enjoyment of the first few months. It was hard on our marriage, hard on our bodies and minds. Once she began to settle, we started to meet this little girl whose belly didn't seem to want to let her relax, and we fell even more in love with her than we already were. Most of our pictures of the first three months she is sleeping because otherwise she was often crying or moving. We also spent a lot of time with her upsidown with our finger in her mouth. When she learned to sit up and was able to sleep on her own for more than 20 minutes at a time, we all felt better. She smiled at 3 weeks, laughed at 7 weeks, ate cereal at 4 months, drank from the sippy cup at 5 months, sat up at 7 months, scooted around at 9 months and can almost walk unassisted at 12 months. Maetia spent (and still does spend),a great deal of time in her sling and we walk everyday loving the fresh air and wind in our hair.
This has been a journey of learning. We have learned how to be parents, learned how to share each other, and learned how to live life outside the womb. As with all journeys we learn as we go and we get a little wiser the more we experience. We expect the next few children will not have to experience quite as much trial and error and for that we will apologize to Maetia in the future. On the other hand, she is the only one who will get our undivided attention, all of her siblings will have to share us with her, and she had us all to herself. But just so you know, there are no siblings brewing.
We tried to make a slide show but with dial-up internet and not being very internet savy we didn't do such a great job. So we have pictures on the Kodak photo page: www.ofoto.com You can sign in with our account which is: contant_love@artlover.com and password is maetiaalese. The album is called Maetia's first year. We hope this works for you. If not we can try again on something like Flickr.
Thanks for loving us as a family and for sharing in our joys and struggles. We feel like we have been given the most precious gift we could ever get and we hope and pray that we will do a good job caring for her.