May on the Mountain
The road is FINALLY open!!
With spring on the horizon, I had a bunch of projects waiting for the snow to melt. Once it finally did, game on! It seemed like the day would never come. It warmed up, the snow melted, and the road finally became drivable.
Suddenly things became VERY busy.
The first was getting pigs. A friend was holding onto three piggies for me. Two pregnant sows and a boar. Their due date was quickly approaching and I was feeling the crunch to get them to the homestead. Curt and I built them a pen and a little piggie house and waited for the last stretch of road to thaw.
We picked up the little porkers and they settled in right away. I gave them some straw as bedding. They promptly carried it into their house and made a big cozy bed with it. On May 7th it snowed and the pigs spent all-day cozy in their house.
We built our first greenhouse - on the roof! Hopefully having it up there will help it to stay warm overnight. Also, it will help to keep out pests and bears. We built it using wood we milled ourselves and polyethylene wrap. It was a bit of a challenge to do without falling off of the roof but so worth it! There are tons of seeds in there germinating now. We love salsa so there are 5 different tomato varieties, peppers, onions, cucumbers and many more!
My brother watched the homestead for a couple of nights while I went to the city for my annual hair appointment. Even when you’re living your best life a couple of days of vacation are nice. The first night away we stayed in Osoyoos and had an awesome bath. Living in such a tiny house that’s wood-heated makes me and my clothes smell a bit like smoke. Having a bath before I get into the city makes me feel more ‘normal’.
After a few hours at the salon, I’m a blonde! My stylist knows that I’m very low maintenance. Since I only go once a year, it’ll grow out into my natural dark brown nicely. I'm super happy with how it turned out! Once plus is that you can find ticks more easily in blonde hair.
Since we headed home on a Saturday I couldn’t resist a trip to the animal auction. We bought another rabbit! A big young New Zealand/Flemish doe. Bidding on her was exciting and we ended up getting her for a low price - 20 bucks! So I’ve named her ‘Twunni’ the twenty-dollar bunny.Â
It seems a lot wetter than last spring and plants are sprouting everywhere. Time to start identifying them. After a little research, I’ve started trying out a few wild edibles. Oxeye Daisy, Miner’s Lettuce, and Stinging Nettle are all tasty and abundant in my yard! There are a ton of little bushes with little yellow flowers on them. I think they might be huckleberry - I’m so excited to see if they are!
The litter of bunnies is all grown up. Next on the agenda was building a ‘rabbit tractor’. It’s a movable cage with an open bottom that can be moved a few feet daily. The young bunnies can then happily eat the grass and have more space to hop around. At first, it seemed a little sad taking them from their mum. But as soon as they realized how much space they had to play they were excited! Kicking their little bunny feet in the air and chomping on the fresh grass for the first time.
If we weren’t busy enough already - we bought something at the auction. Another truck and not a Toyota. The price was right and we just couldn’t say no! So welcome to the fleet - ‘86 Suburban. It’s an ex-ambulance and has a scary/curious stain in the back.. that’ll need to be addressed.
