A Little Pumpkin Spice and a Whole Lot of Funny Farm!

Anytime I start a blog post, I think back over the last couple of weeks since the last post and think of two things. First, wow, two weeks goes really fast. And second, what a crazy couple of weeks.

Every single time.

We tend to fit a lot into this time of year, and this year we have a couple of additional things on our plate. They’re things we’re happy to have on our plate, but they definitely add to that feeling of time just flying by.

So, where do I start? I think I’m going to start with the garden.

It’s that time of year when a lot of the garden is either at its peak or just starting to move past it. The beans, Swiss chard, kale, peas, zucchini and some of the other crops are producing like crazy, while other things are starting to wind down.

We’ve been harvesting and eating Swiss chard for over a month now, and it’s delicious. We also apparently planted enough to feed at least six families. So, if you’re in the area and need some Swiss chard, come on over and take some. Seriously. It’s huge, too. It’s like dinosaur Swiss chard. Some of it is probably a foot and a half tall.

Basically, the garden is crazy.

You can definitely tell autumn is just around the corner now. Our mornings are getting down into the single digits—8°C, 9°C and sometimes even 6°C—while the afternoons warm up to somewhere around 18°C to 22°C. It’s not hot anymore, but it’s beautiful weather. The leaves are just starting to change too. There are little patches of fall colour showing up as you drive down Giants Glen Road, and we’re starting to see them on our property as well. There are signs of fall everywhere.

Because of that, we’ve been focusing on harvesting the herbs and anything particularly cold-sensitive first. I wanted to cut the herbs early enough that they’d hopefully have a chance to grow back and maybe give us another harvest before we get a hard frost.

I’ve actually been pretty good about harvesting the herbs regularly this year because we love using them, and I have some big plans for preserving them. I want to make compound butters and different herb-and-salt mixes, and I’m also thinking about putting together some herbal tea blends. We have some really excellent varieties of mint and other herbs growing out there that should make beautiful teas, if you’re into that sort of thing—which I am, and that’s exactly why we’re growing them.

We’ve also made some actual progress on the garden itself. During one of our days off, Addy spent the day finishing the main entrance at the front of the garden. We’ve always wanted an arched entrance, and our grapevine also desperately needed somewhere to grow, so he built one.

In true Funny Farm fashion, it’s made from pallets, a couple of two-by-fours and a piece of fencing from our old buck paddock run. Addy cut a section of the old fencing and attached it across the top of the arch so that, once the plants get tall enough, they’ll have something to grab onto and grow across.

On one side we have a grapevine—I think it’s Concord—and on the other side we have our new-to-us wisteria. The wisteria is hanging on. I gave it some fertilizer; it’s enjoying the rain, and it seems slightly less enthusiastic about the cooler weather. Hopefully it survives its first winter here and eventually grows all the way up the trellis and over the arch. I can already picture it: flowers growing over one side and grapes over the other. It’s going to be beautiful.

Addy also built a giant gate so we can easily get wheelbarrows and whatever else we need into the garden. He’s been trimming everything when he gets a chance and putting down some pretty heavy-duty landscaping fabric to keep the paths clear and hopefully keep some of the weeds back.

Eventually, in true Funny Farm Homestead fashion, we plan to cover the paths with wood chips. We do own a wood chipper. We’ve used it twice. It worked great both times.

We have not used it since.

So, in theory, we own a wood chipper and should be able to make our own material for the garden paths. That’s another project currently filed under “work in progress.”

The other really big garden project over the last couple of weeks has been something that has actually been waiting for us for about three years.

When we first moved here three years ago, Addy wasn’t working, so his job was basically helping us get the homestead set up. He built things, started creating systems and whatever animal I decided we were getting next, he figured out where we were going to put it. I kept him pretty busy that first year, as you can probably imagine.

At some point, he found a ShelterLogic frame for free. The catch was that he had to take the whole thing apart and move it himself, so that’s what he did. I helped. I think I mostly passed him tools and carried the easy stuff, but that counts.

He brought it home and set it up in the garden, and for the last three years we’ve had this giant ShelterLogic frame sitting there. We’ve used it to support our tomato trellising, but that was pretty much it.

Back when we first got it, we had grandiose plans. I ordered 6 mil greenhouse plastic online with every intention of turning the whole thing into a high tunnel. Then we either ran out of time or got busy with other things, and the next year… I don’t know. Maybe I’m speaking more for myself than Addy, but I think I was scared to screw it up. The plastic wasn’t cheap, and somehow that turned into this weird paralysis where I was so worried about doing it wrong that we just didn’t do it at all.

For three years.

Then, on Labour Day weekend, Addy and I were sitting around a failing fire that he was trying to keep going, talking about how cold it was supposed to get the next night. We didn’t really have enough frost cloth to protect everything, and Addy basically said, “I’ll just grab the plastic and throw it up.”

Oh. Really?

Thankfully, earlier this year Addy had already added slats across the ShelterLogic frame so we would have somewhere to attach strapping and hold the plastic down. So we got the greenhouse plastic out and just… did it.

It took us about two hours.

Three years of staring at this thing, and in roughly two hours we had the plastic stretched, tightened and secured over the frame.

It’s not completely finished yet. We have a proper door frame on the end closest to the goats, but the other end isn’t framed at all. Right now we’re literally using paver stones to weigh the plastic down. When we need to get inside, we move the pavers and lift the plastic. It’s not perfect, but the plastic is finally on there, and we officially have a high tunnel.

Now, when the temperatures start dropping to 3°C or even around freezing, we can add some frost cloth inside and hopefully keep things going a little longer. I’m especially hoping we can give the tomatoes enough extra time that, even if they don’t completely ripen on the plants, they’ll at least get more mature before we have to pick them. Maybe we’ll actually get some tomatoes this year. We’ll see.

The other interesting experiment is going to be whether the whole thing survives a New Brunswick winter. I’ve seen plenty of plastic high tunnels around here, so I believe it will. We’ll obviously keep an eye on it, and if snow starts building up, we’ll knock it off.

We did have one little mishap while putting the plastic on. It snagged on a bolt near the top of the frame and made about a two-inch rip. Thankfully, we had some extra plastic, so we patched it up and taped it, and so far everything seems to be holding really well. It’s been pretty breezy, and the plastic is handling the wind without any problems.

So, good job us. It only took three years.

As for the rest of the garden, the berries are pretty much finished for the year, but the sunflowers are absolutely beautiful right now. They didn’t get to eight feet tall or anything crazy like that, but they’re blooming and doing really well.

The garden isn’t the only place where we’re starting to see signs that summer is winding down. Things are changing in the goat yard too, although thankfully everybody is doing really well.

I’ve decided to start drying off Meg. I put her daughter back with her at night, so now they’re together 24/7 again. Meg is still feeding her, so she’s not completely dried off, but honestly, that works well for both of them. Her daughter gets all of her milk now, and I don’t have to milk Meg anymore. Win-win.

Meg wasn’t producing a ton of milk anyway, and taking her out of the milking rotation saves me about twelve-ish minutes every morning. That might not sound like much, but twelve minutes every single day definitely adds up after a while.

It also helps that we have an abundance of milk right now, which I’m very grateful for. Even with only three goats in the milking rotation, we’re still getting around four litres of milk a day. That is more than enough to keep us supplied with fresh milk and keep me making lots and lots of cheese.

I’m still experimenting with flavours. I want to use some of the last basil from the garden to make something like a basil and sun-dried tomato cheese. We’ve made quite a few berry-based cheeses this summer, but now that the berries are pretty much finished for the year, maybe it’s time to shift into fall flavours. Apple cinnamon, perhaps? Who knows?

I’ve also been making cranberry cinnamon quite a bit, and that one is delicious.

We have a ton of cheese. Obviously, we’re not eating all of it immediately, so I’ve been vacuum sealing and freezing it. Some of our local friends enjoy it enough that they’ve started requesting certain flavours, which I’m more than happy to provide. That’s actually been a lot of fun.

This year, I’m also going to try to keep the girls in milk for as long as it makes sense. Last year we had to dry everybody off fairly early because we had a wedding to attend across the country. This year, we don’t really have any travel plans, so I’m curious to see how long I can keep them producing at a level where the amount of milk we’re getting still makes the daily effort worthwhile. We’ll see how it goes.

The boy goats are also doing really well, although they’re giving us another very obvious reminder that fall is coming.

If you don’t know this about goats, many breeds have a specific breeding season, including the goats we keep. There are some breeds that can cycle throughout the year, but ours generally come into season in the fall and very early winter.

And what does breeding season mean for the boys? Rut. The hormones start kicking into high gear; they become very interested in the girls, and they start to smell.

I was going to try to find a nicer way to say that, but they stink.

We’re used to it now, but it is a very particular—and very pungent—smell. So the boys are doing great, but you can definitely tell they’re looking forward to the dates they’ll be going on later this fall.

I’m planning to start breeding a little earlier this year, with some of the girls potentially starting around the end of October. Of course, we have to work around their heat cycles, decide who is being bred to whom, and there’s a whole process involved. But I think I’ll save that for the next update, when breeding season is actually getting underway.

For now, everybody is happy, healthy, and doing well. Three girls are still providing us with around four litres of milk every day, Meg gets a break from the milking stand, her daughter gets all the milk she wants, and the boys are getting stinkier by the day.

Yep. Fall is definitely coming to the Funny Farm.

Speaking of things keeping us busy, I mentioned at the beginning that we’ve had a couple of extra things on our plate lately. A big part of that has been helping my parents get their new property ready.

My parents bought a piece of property here in New Brunswick that previously had a house on it that burned down. The debris had already been removed, but it still had a septic system and a well, which gave them a good starting point. They’ve hired a guy with an excavator who has been doing a great job cleaning everything up, levelling the ground and getting the property ready.

They also bought a mini home, which looks very much like what I would have called a single-wide mobile home. Apparently there is a difference between a mobile home and a mini home. This was all news to me. I honestly thought maybe the East Coast called them mini homes and the West Coast called them mobile homes.

Apparently not.

They’re organizing all of this remotely from British Columbia as they work toward moving to New Brunswick to be closer to us, their grandkids and the rest of the family. I’m very excited, and happily we’re here to help with some of the things on this end.

Which brings us to the deck.

The mini home had a deck attached to it, and Addy offered to help my parents move it. Against my better judgment, I might add, but I love my parents, so here we go.

Addy found somewhere we could rent a 20-foot flat-deck trailer and figured he had a ratchet driver, so… have driver, will travel.

Then we showed up, looked at the deck and realized, holy crap, this is a much bigger job than we thought.

We did successfully get part of it apart and moved, including the front steps that hadn’t gone with the mini home. Since my parents’ property wasn’t ready yet, we brought everything back to the Funny Farm temporarily.

About six days later, they needed the steps and some PVC conduit at the new property. Thankfully, everything fit on our little utility trailer, and with Josh’s help, the three of us got it loaded and drove it about 25 minutes up the highway. It ended up being much easier than I’d built it up to be in my head.

So that’s been another addition to the Funny Farm workload lately. But I’m incredibly excited about having my parents—and my brother—living closer to us, and helping them get settled in any way we can is the least we can do.

I remember what it was like coordinating our own move across the country three years ago, and I wish we’d had somebody already here to help with things on this end.

Although, to be fair, we didn’t have to move an entire house.

And because apparently we didn’t have enough going on, we also added some new dodos to our little flock. Three more, actually, bringing us up to six guinea fowl.

Our original three are the regular colour you typically see in guinea fowl, while the new ones are a colour mutation called lavender. Addy suggested we call the new ones the “dodoettes,” even though we have absolutely no idea yet whether they’re boys or girls.

In reality, lavender is more of a soft, pastel grey than what I would actually call lavender, but they’re really cool looking. We put the three new ones in with our original dodos, and thankfully everybody is getting along great.

They’re such strange little birds, but they’re really fun to watch. So now we have six dodos—three original and three lavender—and apparently our little guinea fowl flock is growing.

While we’re talking about fall creeping in, I have to talk about one of my favourite parts of the season: pumpkin spice.

I love pumpkin spice season. Honestly, I usually start looking for pumpkin spice coffee creamer in the stores a little earlier than I probably should. I had found some already this year, but when we went back to get more recently, they were out.

So naturally, I decided to make my own.

I picked up a can of pure pumpkin purée, a can of sweetened condensed milk and some pumpkin pie spice. You absolutely don’t need to buy a pumpkin pie spice blend—you can make your own with spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger—but I cheated and bought the mix. I also needed whole milk, and as you know, I’m not exactly running short on that around here.

I followed some directions I found online and used about 1¾ cups of whole milk, one can of sweetened condensed milk, about three tablespoons of pure pumpkin purée—not pumpkin pie filling—two teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice and a teaspoon of vanilla.

Everything goes into a pot over medium heat until it comes up to a simmer, then you let it simmer for a couple of minutes. I strained mine afterward, poured it into a jar and put it in the fridge. It should keep refrigerated for up to two weeks, and you just give the jar a good shake before adding it to your coffee.

And let me tell you, it is very, very good.

So apparently homemade pumpkin spice coffee creamer is another thing we’re making around here now. Between that, the cooler mornings and the leaves starting to change, I think I’m going to have to admit that fall really is coming.

And just like that, summer is winding down, and fall is creeping in. I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to summer yet, but I have to admit, I’m looking forward to cooler days, cozy evenings and all the things that come with fall.

I’m already thinking about fall foods and pulling out the craft supplies, so I’d love to know what everyone else is making. Do you have a favourite fall craft? Something you make every year? Or maybe a favourite fall recipe you can’t wait to make again? Let me know—I’m always looking for ideas!

And, as always, if you made it all the way to the bottom, thank you. We really appreciate you spending a little bit of your time following along with our adventures and general chaos here on the Funny Farm.

Until next time, enjoy these last little bits of summer—and bring on fall. <3