Hello, friends :) It's been a while, hasn't it? Life has been so full these past 6 months... We've got a big, exciting change coming and all our time has been diverted into making arrangements, planning and preparing. After 17 long years, we're moving "back home" to the coast (which as you can imagine is filling our days and minds with many details and plenty of emotions).
I'll write more about the move as it unfolds, but for now we are in "patiently waiting mode". Little Home In The Country is for sale. When she finds her new owners, we'll be setting off for our new homestead on Vancouver Island.
Meantime, while we wait, we are harvesting honey, putting gardens to bed for the winter, working at lessons for the 2 youngest, decluttering, selling things we no longer need and enjoying our (most likely) last Autumn here on the Alberta prairie. We are in no rush. Life has been good here and we've enjoyed it. We'll move when the time is right - it's completely out of our hands but I promise to keep you updated :)
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In other news, our bees did very well this year and I completed my first ever hive split this Spring. We've pulled 80 pounds of honey off so far and with any luck, there'll be about the same this week before we tuck the hives in for winter.
The vegetable garden was productive but on an (intentionally) smaller scale as we were away a lot over the growing season (house hunting in BC).
Our (many) new bee friendly plantings did very well and were a contest buzz of activity (and still are in some areas).
I've done no preserving this year as we can't move it all inter provincially. Instead, we've been focussing on eating down the stockpile in the pantries and freezers. We're doing well and should be down to zero before the actual relocation.
We had a lovely Thanksgiving complete with a locally raised free range turkey. There's nothing like a traditional roast turkey dinner with all the local/seasonal trimmings. It was wonderful and oh, so tasty. I love Autumn - it's my favourite time of year here on the prairie and I will miss it, actually. With cool nights and sunny, colourful days, I always feel invigorated after the heat of summer.
Hope you are well, friends. Talk soon XO
