Christmas Break 2020

After a wild and interesting 2020, the Christmas break has been a needed and welcome break. For me, it's meant that as soon as my office job ended end of day on Dec 22nd, I crashed for 4 days with sleeping being a key theme in my activity schedule. I didn't realize how tired I was until I stopped and because of that, I've slept in and napped until Dec 27th when I finally got outside and started cutting firewood and doing work around the farm. It ended up being a beautiful snowy day that was still and quiet and gave us all a chance to pause and reflect on the moment. Being present in the moment has been hard this year but the Christmas break has given an opportunity for that with today being a highlight.

Being able to enjoy the farm in this slower time is always a treat but this year has been a unique exception where it was needed by everyone. With so much of the year being busy with activities like haying, fencing, and barn renovations, this season has been a welcome reprieve where spending days in between naps and watching movies has been a guilt-free activity. 

With both of us going back on January 4th, we still have a full week before that happens so what will be the way to get rested before the winter push of work and classes? Most of the day will include some light work outside like cutting firewood, barn chores and general maintenance. The mid day cycle will include a nap and evenings are TV time which is very, VERY rare on the farm since we normally work on other office work in the evenings like finances for the farm, blog entries, social media updates and general research. 

I am looking forward to this next week of relaxing and socially distancing from everyone and everything while we recharge for 2021.

COVID and the Farm - Second Wave

 As we move into late December, it's clear that the second wave of COVID is upon us but what does that mean for us on the farm? For the majority of our work, it doesn't impact anything or very little but it has impacted some things more than others:

• The Christmas tree U-pick that was scheduled for the last weekend of November and the first weekend in December had been reduced with no one from HRM area allowed to leave for unnecessary travel. This was unfortunate but we had encouraged that everyone remains in HFX until this is under control. Hopefully, 2021 will see a different U-pick. 
• The community Christmas festival was canceled which is what drives a lot of traffic to the U-pick. Although we understand, it isn't thrilling to hear that all that work volunteers have put into things is going to have to be canceled. 
• Getting parts and supplies takes a lot longer. With most dealerships experiencing shortages of parts, it can take longer than normal to get a part. 

What hasn't really been impacted?

• For firewood production, I am still cutting lots of wood for next year's orders. This has been a good news story from the farm this year. After a big investment in a firewood processor, there is a huge demand for local firewood, and since I have worked out the bugs of the process like having a moisture meter and sending pre-approval pictures of the load, my firewood quality has gone up.
• The cattle still need the same work and also the demand for local beef is very strong. This is particularly good since I've just invested big time in the barn renovations so it will help pay for those renos. 
• Our work from home situation with our office jobs. Although I still go to class in Dartmouth on Monday and Wednesday nights, I don't commute in during rush hour traffic which is much harder and longer to accomplish. It appears I'll be doing this until April and hopefully beyond as well, Christina only goes in 1 day a week or so. Since our upgraded internet, we have been able to work so much more efficiently from home so this has been one of the pros of this COVID time. 

As I said in earlier posts about COVID, farm living is inadvertently built for this pandemic since so little changes about the day to day operations and I can work around the farm with no interaction with anyone else for days at a time.