Greenstorm's Journal

So with the idea of maybe moving comes the question of what I need to move to. I have a pretty good sense for myself whether a property will fit me, but because my decisions are always based on a huge number of trade-offs and priorities that have different weight when set beside other trade-offs it's not easy to communicate them.

What would make me happy though?


Property has:
-Roughly an acre of basically level or terraced fenced garden for variety trials etc, I don't plan to use it all at first but I know I'll want that much at some point
-Space for at least 1000 square feet of greenhouse eventually, whatever that looks like and in whatever configuration, existing greenhouse can double for winter bird or pig space
-Ability to walk around near the house, at least out one of the doors of the house, without worrying about clothes etc. This could be created with privacy fencing, distance, or vegetation
-Root cellar or unfinished basement room, this can be added if the water table permits
-Own source of reliable water, either a stream or a well, or if on city water than some sort of nearby backup
-Orchard space for at the very least 8 trees (ideally standard size but hey), doesn't have to be level
-Small fruits space (raspberries, haskaps, etc) ideally an acre but flexible, doesn't have to be level
-Loop driveway
-Trailer storage, doesn't have to be covered but has to be off the loop driveway
-Bear-proof dry feed storage, at least 100 square feet, though this can be made or a sea can will work
-At least 600 square feet of barn/stall/shelter space, though this can be made
-Hammock location
-Absolute minimum 2 acres of pasture to rotate the birds through, can double as lawn etc
-Some organic matter in the soil, ideally lots, and at least some areas without swamp/standing water/pure sand
-Gosh fencing and standpipes would be nice

House has:
-One pantry room for shelves of cans and for freezers
-One brewery/wet hobby room with water-ok floors (concrete, lino, robust wood, tile) and ideally a sink or tiled shower surround with a detachable showerhead, though in a super ideal world the curing and brewing and pottery would be separate
-One meditation/yoga space, could be a loft or a room or even a small building on the property
-One dry hobby room with sewing machine and lots of shelving
-Either a big kitchen or an open concept kitchen/diningroom where the diningroom can be turned into a kitchen counter-and-storage extension
-Bedroom with enough room for a king bed and at least two dressers, ideally with a closet too
-Some sort of entertaining space, livingroom or something

Site has (these are more flexible):
-Within half an hour of a feed source
-Ideally walking distance to a corner store or somesuch
-Far enough from an airport that I'm allowed to fly a drone over it
-Agricultural neighbours or crown land surrounding, or very large property
-Far enough away from highway noise
-Safe, trailer-and-bike friendly road
-Wildfire buffers of some kind
-Local food hub of some kind
-Within twenty minutes or so of town or work
-Nurseries in the area
-A robust farm facebook site or similar
-People that say hi or wave when they drive past each other
-Not colder than -30 ever, or -20 most of the time, would be nice
-Some rain in summer
-Bike paths in the area
-Some nice restaurants in town
-A walkable downtown area
-An abbatoir within 30 mins (ha)

Restless. Grumpy. Intense. Reaching.

I can't settle.

Unless I'm outside for hours and hours every day my soul is unsatisfied. I need to build things, to alter the physical world with my hands. I need to plant more seeds and dig (but the ground is still frozen) and fence (but the ground is still frozen). I want to flirt and bite and get bruises.

Those are necessary conditions for the part I like, which is letting my eyes wander off into a bare patch of ground or a goose melting herself down into a nest of eggs and feeling, in the back of my mind, how the past and the future connect through me and what I've done in these moments.

So many things are going on right now.

I don't have the time to dive back into poetry but oh, it's so close to time.

This will be the summer I build structures: 2 greenhouses at least. Maybe I also need to build myself a reading cabin in back as well: big enough for a bed, no pets or scent so friends can stay in it, maybe a tiny woodstove for heat, no electricity. Back by the pond. Outside my little civilizing fences. A shrine to the part of me outside domestication.

Maybe there I can settle.

I'm planning the orchard. I've ordered birds (blue-egged quail, a greater breadth of breeding chanteclers and cayugas). All my seeds have arrived, mostly.

Preserving animals means worrying that no one will carry on after me, that my life's work will be lost because someone eats the pigs and doesn't keep breeding them or that there won't be enough genetic diversity to my geese and so the lines will die out (at least in north america).

Planting trees, though: that's weightless, and it's a rope into the future. I sit looking at my apple trees and wonder: who planted those? what types are they? what were they thinking when they placed them there? what did they do with the apples? I'm planting my apples on BUD118 and Antonovka, the trees could live a hundred or more years. I live in a place that is... not sheltered from climate change, though it is that, but resilient to it already. Someone will eat an apple that I plant, even if the moose eat most of the new growth when I am gone and the bears tear down most of the tree limbs. Or maybe by then we will be eating the bears.

So this year: I have all my animals, and I am planting trees.

First week the pigs were here they were confined in the pigshed/barnthing.

Now they have a bit of a pallet enclosure.

The problem with pigs is they're 1) strong 2) inquisitive and 3) like to scratch themselves on any reasonably hard surface. They are really hard on structures like shelters and fences because a couple hundred pounds of pure muscle rubbing against anything tends to shear screw heads and splinter boards pretty quick. Pigs also love to dig and can go under things pretty well.

If you really want to keep a pig in, a nice solid physical fence can work, depending on the pigs. A physical fence with a strand of electric a couple inches inside it is much more likely to work. The physical barrier prevents the pig just running through the electric, and the electric prevents the pig from dismantling the physical fence.

Unfortunately electric is difficult when you get 3' of snow. Not only will the snow cover it but the snow insulates the ground and so the shock is weaker.

Best thing to do is start the animals on a fence with electric inside in the summer so they get out of the habit of challenging the fence. Then they're more likely to respect it come winter. I didn't really have this option; I got the pigs last weekend.

So: barn for the first week while we size each other up. They're definitely not afraid of me and are ok approaching. They've learned pretty fast that if they're crowding/jumping they don't get fed. I don't put food in till they step back, because I hate being rushed. It works, they're smart. I learn they can't break out of the barn.

So: get out the pick and shovel and trench down to the ground and put a small pallet enclosure against the barn so they can go outside. This should keep their enclosure cleaner because they can eat, drink, and toilet outside. I can observe how they treat physical fences and frozen ground. They can learn to interact with me a little better, to come when called so if they do get out things aren't awful. And the pallet enclosure is inside my perimeter fence, so if they do manage to escape hopefully they can't go far. The dogs can say hi from a good distance.

Next I guess I dig out the fence around that field, reinforce it (right now it is a plank fence and the pigs could go through, so it needs wire) and then electrify it. Then they can have free rein of the orchard field. That's a lot of work though, so it can wait a bit.

Meantime I've learned the pigs aren't afraid of hammerdrills, a couple of them particularly like being scratched. Their names are coming: Rapunzel is the biggest one, copper spots and the longest hair, and she likes scratches. Penny is the copper one with black spots, and she's the shyest of the girls. Then there are the two white-spot girls, one of whom loveslovesloves to be scratched and the other of whom is pretty neutral, and I think they'll end up with solstice/equinox/lunar cycle names. The boar is still warming up to me and I'm terribly afraid he'll be named Baby.

I really am impressed at how exquisitely socialised they are: not pushy, not fearful. So good.

I'm very happy with them. I'm also happy to pretty much have my livestock sorted for the next couple years; I'll be importing some individuals for their genetics but I have all the species I expect to have until my schedule allows for milking.

2019 will be an infrastructure year: gardens all get laid out, some greenhouses get built, fencing gets strengthened.

I've enlisted some folks to talk to about the metamour situations; I definitely need some reality checks because I'm triggering on them hard, and I also need to talk about time/energy allocation.

However! What I really want to do right now is talk about geese!

I need to decide which geese I'm keeping, which geese I'm actively breeding, and what I have capacity for. Turns out I love geese and I love many different types. Here's what I have and what's going on:

Pilgrims: these are the most common auto-sexing geese in North America. This means you can tell males from females because they have different colouring. It also means there's a pretty good genetic base for them. They're a medium size goose and pretty docile; they mix well with the other geese and I've seen them hold their own without picking a fight. They are certainly more standoffish than the chinese geese I raised them with, but also less aggressive towards other geese. Pros: I like auto-sexing breeds, they're no trouble at all, they would be easy to keep genetically diverse, they're popular so I could sell babies well. Cons: I'm not as in love with them as I am chinese or saddlebacks, I don't feel as strong a need to do breed preservation on them, less people-seeking. Currently: Two "lines", one gander and 3 geese total.

Pomeranian saddlebacks: These were my first geese and I love them. They are beautiful, laid-back and practical geese. They are a medium size. Good setters and good parents so far. They get along well with the other geese. They are similar in endangered status to pilgrim geese in north america, but I believe are much more common in Europe so the breed is in less danger of dying out. Pros: low-maintenance, beautiful, I have an excellent start to a flock. Cons: less people-seeking, maybe less popular to sell goslings. Currently: 2 "lines", 2 mature ganders, 2 mature geese, 5 unsexed 2018 goslings.

White chinese: I raised these babies from little (along with 2 of the pilgrims). They splashed in my bathtub. They come up to me when I call and get chest pets. We yell at each other when we're outside (I like noisy geese I guess), they're the loudest in terms of most frequent honking. They're a smaller goose so they're more work for less meat on a carcass. They're the most aggressive geese I think I have so far; the pretty much head gander is one of my white chinese, and he's by far not the biggest goose I have. Pros: I completely love these geese. We are friends. Great foragers. Cons: maybe not great setters? smaller meat weight, aggressive to other geese/ducks, my current genetics are not great, don't need preservation. currently: 1 line, 6 geese (2 of whom are airplane), either 4 geese 2 ganders or 3 of each.

Brown chinese: these seem a tiny bit more sedate than the white chinese, but my pair is 4 years old and the whites are 1 year so maybe age is a factor. They are stunningly beautiful, also small, also very social: though I didn't raise them they will talk to me lots and come close to eat, though I haven't petted one yet. they're reasonably independent and have laid a lot of eggs. Pros: beautiful, good foragers, friendly. Cons: maybe not great setters, don't need preservation. Currently have 1 pair.

Embdens: these are enormous geese, they're basically the cows of the geese world. They're basically unflappable (ugh) and they're the most comfortable with bustle. I got them as "free bonus geese" with my pilgrim gander and at first didn't find them pretty at all but they are growing on me. Because they're so huge they'd be great meat birds. Goslings auto-sex but not adults. I'm curious how they'd do if hand-raised; I bet they could be very friendly. Pros: stick closer than some other geese, great meat birds, get along well with everyone, never need to worry about gene pool size. Cons: rumour is bad setters, not as pretty or as full of personality as the other geese. Currently: 1 line, 1 pair.

Classic (not tufted) Romans: beloved of Juno, protectors of Rome, these are the loudest geese I have in terms of earsplitting single honks. They're wary and took time to like me, but now we talk to each other a lot. They're small geese but not as small as Chinese. They can fly over fences (well, over cattle panels at least) and they are mildly aggressive from time to time. They are vanishingly rare here, as in, I may have a significant percentage of the Canadian population. Pros: I love them, rare breed, manageable size, smart, religious significance. Cons: genetics will be awful to maintain, may not mix well with other geese over the long term, not so sure about containment in breeding season, aggression to other geese may be a problem. Currently: 1 line, 2 geese 1 gander probably related.

Shetland: small auto-sexing breed, can fly, looks like saddlebacks in marking. Excellent foragers, very hardy. I don't have any of these yet but was considering them. Same issues with raising a super-rate bird where genetics are difficult to source and maintain.

African: same beautiful markings as brown chinese but bigger. Some of them have a dewlap (which I don't think is pretty) but others don't. Likely better meat birds than the chinese but maybe with similar personalities. I have considered mixing the african and chinese and to size them up a little. I don't have any of these currently.

For the rare breeds (roman, pilgrim(?), shetland, saddleback) I'd need to have at least 2 and ideally 3 "lines" or different breeding groups for each breed to maintain my genetics. For more common breeds (embden, pilgrim(?) , chinese, african) it would be nice to have two breeding groups of each so I could offer non-sibling breeding pairs for sale, but in no wise necessary. As you can see, that's a lot of little pens during breeding season. It would be nice to have to divide them up a little less in spring, so I should probably pare back a little and be very deliberate here.

My final property goals include many smallish greenhouses that could double as breeding pens in the spring (nothing is going on in there anyhow in February/March).

Anyhow. I currently have communication ongoing about importing Roman geese from the states. I should look into importation from the EU and what regulations are involved with that. I'm excited about this project.