Shobacres update

The summer has literally flown by, and we have been incredibly busy throughout. We have made great strides on the acreage, as we have done a lot more bush clearing, had new perimeter drains dug for the house and then had the yard "re-created" so we can re-seed it. We are now well on our way to getting our re-zoning and subdivision done, having had preliminary approval from both districts and our two public meetings proceed without incident. We are now working on the needed approval from the ministry of health re suitability for septic - this involved digging many holes for a "perc" test and doing lots of paperwork. And of course, fee after fee after fee!

Heather's organic garden has been fabulous, as have our fruit trees and my little herb garden. Right now we have harvested literally hundreds of tomatoes, from our 11 plants, with many more still on the vines. We have eaten raspberries, beets, cabbage, beans, zucchini and broccoli all summer, and are now harvesting cucumbers, peppers, corn, spaghetti squash and potatoes along with the tomatoes. Heather has several huge pumpkins awaiting harvest as well. We ate all of our cherries, although I did freeze one bag of them, and are now picking pears, apples and 2 kinds of grapes. I will be making apple and pear sauce to freeze. We also have picked lots of blackberries, as we have no lack of blackberry vines on the acreage! I have several bags of frozen herbs in the freezer, gathered from my two little herb boxes. Heather and I are already planning how to improve next year's garden so we can drastically reduce the weeding and the rabbit damage (they were the only ones who got to eat carrots!)

Of course, along with this come a few issues - rampant weeds, slugs, wood bugs, deer, rabbits and now bears! We have been trying to keep the fruit off the ground, so transported a bunch of rotten windfalls down to the edge of the stream. The idea is to keep the bears from coming up into the orchard, as they reportedly did each fall, and so far it is working. The other issue is disposing of all the brush - we are eagerly awaiting October, when we can start burning again.