As you probably know, our move to our new Annapolis Valley farm is now behind us, and we’re mostly settled in. We’re finally taking the time to give you an update.

Moving a farm and homestead, we discovered, is no easy feat. The weeks of moving were crammed with activities and trying to keep organized. Booking trucks, loading and unloading trailer after trailer of farm equipment. Trucking the animals to the new farm. Loading a semi-trailer with household things, meat freezers, and the sections of the vegetable packing shed we had built in modular form last spring.

Those packing shed panels were an adventure both to load and to unload. Every available set of hands was put to work (there’s a reason we don’t have a picture of the maneouvers!). When we got them here, we hoisted the heavy panels out of the truck, barely managing to keep them from twisting or falling on us—or both—in the process.

We made the three-hour round trip with our van nearly every day, sometimes twice. Although we knew we had to keep booking trucks to get all our things out by the deadline, some days we could hardly meet our obligations to load and unload them.

But getting everything to the new place was just the beginning of the drama. Once we were moved in, we had to keep right on moving; it seemed everything needed to happen at once. And we knew winter could hit us at any time!

Starting Over

The old farmhouse was cold and drafty. We didn’t bring firewood from the other farm, and there wasn’t much here to start with. We have over 30 acres of woods here, and lots of dead spruce trees that we need to clean up. But we had other urgent things to look after, so we just hoped the small pile of wood that the previous owners had kindly left here would last until we got a chance to cut more.

Another challenge was getting things under cover before the winter came to stay. When we arrived here, we had to stock up on hay, straw, and organic grains which all needed a place out of the weather. We had bought a 20 by 30 foot portable garage kit, but first we needed to install a gravel base and find time to assemble the structure.

Our new farm has a nice barn, only about 12 years old. We had to set up separate pens for our different groups of animals, though, before they could all get settled in.

And then the pigs became sick.

They’re the two litters of piglets that were born to sisters on the same day back in September. We weaned them from their mothers soon after moving and put them in a nice little pen in the barn. Well, it turns out a cozy indoor pen is not ideal for pigs even in cold weather. They came down with a disease that is usually a result of the stress and crowding. It is common in newly weaned piglets. Apparently the moving, the weaning and then keeping them in the barn was too much for them.

On a Better Way

Those pigs that were still looking healthy we moved out into the shelter pictured above. Then we began treating the sick ones with herbal medicines. Most of them got better again, but unfortunately we did lose several to the disease.

We’ve since done more research on raising pigs naturally. Our findings have reinforced the idea that pigs do better outside. The older pigs are still in the barn, but we plan to build outdoor shelters for them as soon as we can. They will have a fenced winter area on the edge of the woods where they can be outside. There they’ll have lots of straw and old hay in their shelters to tunnel into, to keep them warm and dry.

Whenever the boys had some spare time between school lessons and caring for the sick pigs, they got busy with chainsaws, cutting down dead trees in the woods and sawing them up for firewood. We began cutting trails so we could get at those neglected areas of the woods where all the dead trees were just going to waste. These trails will also come in handy to selectively harvest timber to turn into lumber using the small band sawmill that we got a hold of a year ago. And.. eventually we hope to make maple syrup, that muddy, sticky spring activity that we are so fond of! We’ll have to work on setting that up yet, but the trails will make it much easier when we come to that time.

We installed the portable garage and liked it so much we decided to buy another one soon after. That one was built behind the barn on a fresh gravel pad.

We took down a grain bin in the Musquodoboit Valley, which we just re-erected yesterday on a new concrete pad. We’ll be using it to store some of the grain which we buy from various Maritime organic farmers to make the poultry and pig feeds. We also got a load of grain in large tote bags which we are storing in one of the new portable garages.

We’ve installed a gravel pad for the vegetable washing and packing shed to sit on, and re-assembled it. It’s in a great spot close to the garden so we can easily bring in the vegetables to wash and get them ready for market.

On Monday Jesse took soil samples of the garden which we sent off to a lab. Once we get the test results we can plan the specific amendments needed to jump-start the soil life in our new vegetable plot. While we wait for those, we have begun applying generic soil enhancers, such as seaweed which gives the microbes a boost. We’re working at plans for the garden layout, and are ordering fruit and nut trees and berry bushes. These will be planted on the edges to start our new homestead food supply.

We’re still busy, of course, but those big looming things are taken care of.

Now snow has fallen on the new Bountywoods Farm in the Annapolis Valley; and we’re thankful for our cozy wood-heated farmhouse. The animals are happy, and we’re excited about the opportunities on this new farm.