Category Archives: Uncategorized

G is for … Sorry… I Have to Say It: Great German Guests

Posted on April 9, 2014 | 7 comments

After the past number of weeks of glowing, gushing, grateful posts about my Great German Guests, it seems like there can be no other theme for today’s post. Indeed, this evening the house is overflowing with Germans – AB is back for her third stay – MC is here for another couple of days and MC’s two friends – also from Bavaria – dropped in for a quick visit as well. NEVER have the dinner dishes disappeared so fast! Imagine a whole team of Germans scurrying around your kitchen figuring out a better system for putting everything away! And the efficiency with which that dishwasher is loaded! Ach du meine Güte!

german flag

What a shame my German mother was not still here to enjoy the company of our young visitors. In an odd twist, just about everyone who has come to stay has been from Bavaria, which was my mother’s adopted home after her family fled from East Germany as the Russians invaded. I grew up with stories of Bavaria and of the war (Mom was born in 1939) and it’s very odd to hear many familiar place names and some distinctive phrases from the region popping up in conversation.

grandparents day cover

Some of my fondest childhood memories are of when my Omi would come to stay (or, when we would go to visit her in Bavaria). I used to love Omi’s stories, one of which was eventually woven into the picture book, Grandparents’ Day. Omi’s family spent some time in Brazil where, as a child, she was bitten by a poisonous snake. The result of that encounter left a spectacular scar on her leg and hearing her tell the story of what happened next (which involved a blacksmith and an impromptu cauterization of the oozing wound with a super-heated poker) was so awful and so cool I loved/hated it when she would say, “Have I told you the story about the snake?” The process of taking such a grim tale from its original state to the final, more-or-less appropriate-for-young-children format was quite the journey…

Hearing all this German being spoken around the dinner table recently has awakened some corner of my brain where, apparently, quite a bit of German has been sleeping. How is this possible that a language can lie dormant for decades only to be activated by endless conversations about how crazy it is we have all these nice big roads and such ridiculously low speed limits? What’s really strange is that I understand the most when I’m not really trying to listen… kind of like the way you see better at night when you don’t look directly at whatever it is you are trying to see.

Speaking of night… time to sign off: Guten Nacht!

 

 

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D is for Dark Creek

Posted on April 5, 2014 | 11 comments

“So, you have a creek at your farm?”

It’s not an unreasonable question, really, given the name of my farm is Dark Creek Farm. In fact, there is no creek (though seasonal springs burble up each winter as soon as the water table rises and the ground is sufficiently saturated). The place isn’t really that dark, either (though, there are some pretty big trees on the south side of the property, beneath which it’s lovely and shady in the summer).

The name is a strange fusion of fiction and wishful thinking, life imitating art imitating life…

The original 1997 cover for Rebel of Dark Creek. The book went on to be reprinted several times with various new cover designs. It was also published in Sweden and Denmark, where the covers looked completely different to those that came out in North America.

The original 1997 cover for Rebel of Dark Creek. The book went on to be reprinted several times with various new cover designs. It was also published in Sweden and Denmark, where the covers looked completely different to those that came out in North America.

When I wrote my first novel for kids (about some horse-obsessed kids living on Vancouver Island) I needed a name for the farm where the main character boarded her horse. To keep my fictional world anchored in its own reality I based the made up barn and small farm on the place where my daughter and I were riding at the time. That farm didn’t have a creek running through it either, but was an otherwise perfect setting for my fake world. I shifted a nearby creek over a few hundred yards and gave it a new name, “Dark Creek.” I can’t even remember now why I chose that name, but it stuck and became part of the title in several of the books in the StableMates series. Rebel of Dark Creek was the first book to come out back in 1997 and six more books followed over the next several years.

 

 

 

Rebel of Dark Creek - the Swedish edition

Rebel of Dark Creek – the Swedish edition

It wasn’t until 2003, though, that I wound up moving two horses here to our place after the original farm on which Dark Creek Farm in the books was sold. At that point, I didn’t really think of our place having a farm name, per se, but not long after the horses arrived and fences and outbuildings were being built that other animals started materializing… a couple of goats, an ancient pony, some ducks, a few chickens, some bantams, then hogs, turkeys, and more chickens… and sheep. The garden expanded – and then expanded again – and again. More fruit trees were planted, we opened the farm stand, and started a CSA. We produce a whole lot of food now from a very small piece of land (and some fields I lease around the neighbourhood) and at some point in that snowballing process we needed a farm name.

Dark Creek Farm seemed appropriate. It had always been a dream of mine to farm – and since the original Dark Creek Farm didn’t exist except in my imagination, I thought it entirely appropriate I steal the name back and use it for my new farm reality. I’m not sure if I’ll write any more Dark Creek Farm books in the original StableMates series – probably not. That world was before cell phones. Before google. Before email and the internet and ipads and all that stuff that is impossible to ignore when writing contemporary fiction set in the here and now. There were more stories planned, but I got a bit distracted with other books and series and projects and, of course, the growing farm and I suspect that Jessa and Rebel and all the other kids and ponies in those books are stuck without a season finale. Though, if I wait long enough, I could add another couple of installments and those books would come out as quaint historical fiction from back in the day before all that Internet stuff took over the world.

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C is for Cute! Piglets!!

Posted on April 3, 2014 | 6 comments

I meant to tack this onto the end of yesterday’s post – B is for Baby Pigs, but they fit just fine here, too… These two boys were farrowed March 17… There were originally eight little oinkers, but it turns out Pearl has matricidal tendencies and, unfortunately, went into labour the day before the new farrowing pen was ready.

Olivia is getting close to her due date and will get to take advantage of the new facilities. We all hope this results in a more successful outcome… Perhaps by the letter ‘F’ (Fun Fruitful Farrowing Fiesta) I will have a more detailed report about how the farrowing pen works out (and, a bit of video with more than two piglets in it).

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Boxes of Books from the Barn

Posted on April 3, 2014 | 3 comments
The Illustrator's Notebook by Mohieddin Ellabbad

The Illustrator’s Notebook by Mohieddin Ellabbad

After the Big Steel Box was moved over, we were able to bring the last of the stuff from the neighbour’s barn where it has been patiently waiting to be retrieved. One of the items in the barn was a large counter with drawers and shelving (part of the kitchen in the old house) and this heavy item was destined for the front end of the shipping container where it will be used in the temporary workshop.

Imagine my surprise/horror/delight when I discovered more boxes of books hidden away behind the counter! I have been culling, culling, culling (I know that’s a ‘C’ word, but there is no ‘B’ equivalent) my library for nearly two years and still have not got to the end of what has been an absolute monster project.

Here are a few of the titles from the most recent boxes and why I’ll be keeping them…

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The Illustrator’s Notebook by Mohieddin Ellabbad is on the keeper list because it provides a peek into another culture and another way of seeing the world. The author/illustrator is from Egypt and has won numerous prizes for his work. I love the integration of text and illustration, his gentle musings on the creative process, and the use of ephemera (as a collector of bits and pieces myself, I appreciate the way he honours the things we hang onto as a way of preserving our past…)

Bloody Moments: Highlights from the Astonishing History of Medicine by Gael Jennings with illustrations by Roland Harvey

Bloody Moments: Highlights from the Astonishing History of Medicine, by Gael Jennings with illustrations by Roland Harvey

This book is deliciously gross and quite informative. I sort of collect medical books, so this one sort of fits into that category… Mostly, though, I’m keeping it because it makes me smile every time I open it up. I particularly like the page describing the world’s sickest man, Thomas Smith (1352 A.D.).

IMG_9018[1]

A while back I read a farm memoir called Hit By a Farm, by Catherine Friend (also a keeper – it’s in my books-that-in-some-way-relate-to-farms collection). Turns out Ms Friend also writes books for children and since her book, The Perfect Nest is a picture book (I have quite a few of those), about farming (see previous sentence) AND features poultry, well, no brainer. That one has to stay, too. Bonus points: cute story, nice sense of humour. Humor (she’s American).

The Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend with illustrations by John Manders

The Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend with illustrations by John Manders

One of the larger sub-categories in my library is books about horses (including some 20 editions of Black Beauty, the first real book I ever read and which, I suppose, was responsible for all kinds of things…). No surprise, then, that this book had to stay:

IMG_9019[1] Right on the front cover it says it’s the BEST-EVER book about horses and, really, who wouldn’t want a horse book that includes a fantastic fold-out stable? Obviously, the most excellent cover suckered me in as this one has settled in nicely right between Wind Rider by Susan Williams and Cross-Country Masterclass with Leslie Law, by Debby Sly.

Curious about that fold-out stable? Here it is:

IMG_9020[1]

 

 

 

 

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A is for Ack (or Argh, or Ai Ai Ai!!!)

Posted on April 1, 2014 | 10 comments

A2Z-BADGE-0002014-small_zps8300775c

April 1st arrives along with a challenge: the A to Z Blogging Challenge, to be precise. Along with some 2000+ other bloggers, we’ll be posting 26 posts during the month of April, each beginning with a letter of the alphabet (we get Sundays off). I signed up a while ago thinking that surely thing would have settled down a bit around here by now. Hah! Somehow, life is busier than ever and the thought of 26 posts over the next month is a tad horrifying.

When the To-Do list includes tasks like 'Back the horse trailer up a slippery hill, threading the needle between trees, hog pens, a narrow gate, up and over a stump that should have been ground down a little more than it was..." it's hardly surprising when the truck slithers off the bank and comes to rest perilously close to the side of the barn.

When the To-Do list includes tasks like ‘Back the horse trailer up a slippery hill, threading the needle between trees, hog pens, a narrow gate, up and over a stump that should have been ground down a little more than it was…” it’s hardly surprising when the truck slithers off the bank and comes to rest perilously close to the side of the barn. Looking at this photo I see I need to add “Take empty vegetable boxes to the recycling depot.”

The TO-DO list has developed some kind of multiplying plague – every time I scratch something off (Move Storage Container) six more items appear (finish chicken turn-out pen, change fences in garden to keep ducks/winter weed-control-team out, plant peas, plant potatoes, start more seeds in greenhouse, harden off larger seedlings, sort best breeding turkeys and establish new pen, continue plow training with Brio…).

That said, the DONE list is looking pretty good these days, mostly thanks to my marvelous German visitors. We now have a new farrowing shed, a new portable hog shed (in position in the leased field at Maypenny Farm),  moved the shipping container, made new curtains for the guest room, planted rhubarb, dug drainage ditches, sanded and oiled the downstairs kitchen counters, put another coat of stain on the cupboard doors, cleaned out the brooding house, and moved the latch on the turkey house door. That last item may have been a task needing only three minutes and a single tool but the To-Do list had got so out of hand that it took me six months to get to it!! The greenhouse was scrubbed and polished and trays prepped in good time for the season and the daily general help around the place has been just fantastic.

Huh. I started out thinking this was going to be a doom and gloom post about how my TO-DO list simply could not handle the addition of 26 blog posts this month, but once I started looking at all we have accomplished around here over the past few weeks, maybe I will find a way to manage after all.

(For regular readers: Turkey hen update:  She lives!! The hen who was rescued from the eagle’s talons of death a few days ago is doing just fine – eating, drinking, pooping, and chatting.)

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