harvest 2015 - the Framboise Manor Year of the Peppers!

here are some sunflowers blowing in the wind....for my 2 Angels, of course! they know who they are!

and this is the year of the pepper at Framboise Manor! we have a ton of frozen peppers in the freezer and i have been making pickled peppers every month for jambaloney. check out today's haul:



those will be turned into more hot sauce and pickles! and here are some of my piquante and bird's eye chili peppers that my friend Dani sent all the way from South Africa!



is that cool or what? but the greenhouse really makes a difference in regards to the peppers! and being that we overwintered a bunch of pepper plants meant they started producing in may - unheard of for around here!

so let's say you are a dog and your parents bought you a bunch of dog toys...the experts at the pet store tell you EXACTLY the toys that your husky puppy needs. you spread those toys all over the yard...her pull toys, her bacon bone, her cow's foot, all of her little balls....but then one morning your father takes you into the basement and you find the bestest toy in all of the world!

yep! an old pair of jeans! in the background is also 2 more of her favourite toys - my old nightgown and a stuffed garfield! she loves those 3 toys more than anything! except for a pair of old socks. she gets in the tire, which is empty, with her socks.

we've got a storm warning for a ton of rain for the next 3 days....most of the mainland and island will be getting hit. our part of the island will get high winds and rain...but we'll not get hit as bad as other places.

when it's rainy and cold i love to make stew! steak and kidney stew with these beauties from the garden:

these potatoes and yellow zucchini will go in the stew, too.

with onions, homemade beef broth and a ton of garlic - yummeh! the day after i will use the leftover stew to make a steak and kidney potpie - double yummeh!

here's our tomatoe harvest for today.

i plant indeterminate tomatoes so that they don't all come in at once. we have been picking tomatoes daily for over a month, eating them raw, making pasta out of them and freezing the majority of them. i will take the frozen tomatoes and cook them down into a sauce and then can them so that we'll have beautiful pasta sauce all winter.

i have to admit that we have been eating pretty terribly this past month. except for jambaloney's mom feeding us homemade chicken soup and lobster and salad, our meals have been quick and dirty! today i finally had the time to do up our favourite shrimp/vermicelli salad with a bunch of our homegrown herbs, cucumber, carrot and strawberries - it was divine!

we had katiyja out on her tether while jambaloney did work and then we made the salad. this salad takes quite a bit of work - it's mostly the dressing that takes forever, and katiyja played with her jeans and her socks and balls. she is spending more and more time outside each day and she loves it! she is definitely a Framboise Manor kind of dog!

sooo much to tell...and tooo tired to tell it coherently!!!

the story goes back at least 2 months...when i thought i could fool jambaloney by inventing a dance at our community hall for september...he thought it would be sweets and sandwiches and then a dance, like we normally do. he had no idea it was a surprise 50th birthday party for him - his 50th isn't until november! i had our best friends b and c order the special plate from the new moon chinese restaurant in town for 50 guests. i had saved for over a year as people here tend to think of 50th birthday parties as a big deal. as we are not birthday party people, i thought i would do this one for him as a surprise. then his brother back in ontario was worried about his dad, jamie's mom and dad were down visiting, so he sent an email to jamie and mentioned the birthday party. i couldn't lie to jamie when he asked so i told him that yes, the party on saturday night was supposed to be his surprise birthday party 2 months early. he wanted nothing to do with it - he wanted to turn it into a community supper and dance to thank all of our friends here for being so good to us. and of course i forgot my camera!

i had ordered a bunch of disco balls from the internet and we set up the hall with all of the disco balls - the hall looked awesome. all of the people who came in for the supper hugged me and jambaloney and then met his parents. his parents were told some awesome things about my great man! our best friends served the chinese food and everyone thanked us for such a treat of a meal! i have to admit it was pretty good and we sent everyone home with take-aways.

jambaloney's parents were the guests of honour at the party and that was how everyone treated them! everyone took a few minutes to sit with them and talk to them. our other good friends (family really) m &p brought a special gift. m is a crafter extraordinnaire and made jambaloney a betty-boop out of balloons!

that m can make anything out of anything! everyone loved the betty boop and some people even danced with the balloon doll - including me! jambaloney's parents danced their socks off and everyone thrived on their energy - they were tiring out a bunch of us but we tried to keep up with them!

we took his parents on a tour of LobstersRUs - they were pretty impressed by the most energy-efficient lobster plant on the eastern seaboard! who knew that i could bring such a skilled IT worker here and put him to work in a place that really needs him?

jambaloney and his mom bought 4 live lobsters and she took them home and cooked them to perfection! we had lunch with them the next day (they were staying at a friend's cottage while they were down)...and we had such a good lunch!

then we went down to morrison's beach...on some google sites it's called english cove. jambaloney took his mom and dad out fishing...i sat on the blanket with first his mom, yik-yakking about how proud i am of his being my husband.

and then me and his dad yakked in the sun. it was a beautiful day!

we didn't get to spend as much time as we wanted to with them....but getting the puppy sooner than we expected kind of kai-boshed our plans. but we are taking having this puppy very seriously! we are training her to be a work dog...and a protector of her homestead. the cats still can't really stand her..she is so submissive to them and cries to them but they let her get so close and then they bash her on the nose and hiss.

she wants to be friends with her brothers but so far - it's no go from the cats' end. poor little puppy. i think she already weighs close to 60lbs. but still a baby! man - she is gonna be huge!

sorry if i haven't gotten to your blogs. we are living on her schedule, trying to get the harvest in, trying to take care of cranky old cats and a whole pile of other stuff. hopefully normal life will return soon. we hope that you all understand!

we're still alive!

jam's parents are visiting for the past week. we had a surprise birthday party that turned out to be a community dance - more info coming. we did a tour of LobstersRUs with his parents today. we're dead tired as we are sleeping on the puppy's schedule. and trying to get the harvest in. we'll be back soon.

more gonzo work!

jambalony here!!!

okay a lot of photos so few words...LOL!


so i left off the gonzo building with the shack outta a husqurvarna lawnmower box..

i added some old 2x4s to make support..

but first - i added boards from our friend g's old shack to make a walkway - which is being  hauled down by atv-dura and crap-trailer that i fixed up.

here i go.

the walkway makes it much easier to get to our storage area at the river.

back at the shed, here's some boards for reinforcement on the floor.

and here is some boards for the second shelf.

the walls will be made out of tarps.

ratchet ties are a must...

when you are strapping the shed to a trailer!

here's the rest of the materials on trip number 2:

a beautiful cloud in the sky!

here is the frame down at the river.

here is the base for the shed.

here it is in place in the woods.

here it is tarped with room for everything that we need at the river.

here is another angle - the tarps will last a lot longer here because there will be almost no sunlight to degrade the plastic for at least a couple of years.

here it is covered.

cheers all!

we will always remember with our american friends

we will never forget.

i was working at the Solicitor General of Canada when it happened - SolGen (now PSCEPC) was responsible for the general security of Canadians at that time. our union employees were on strike for about a week at that time. we stood in line every morning that week as the union members let 3-4 people in to work every 20 mins or so.

and then someone saw the news and all of us were allowed into work. i didn't see the first plane hit...but i did see the second plane. and then all of the re-runs.

i worked with an amazing group of communications officers. we were short-staffed at the time but it didn't matter. we wrote speeches and speaking notes for our Solicitor General and Deputy Solicitor General and they were delivered in a timely fashion so that Canadians were told words of comfort during this trying ordeal.

we were also tasked with finding places to land over 600 planes as US air space was closed. it was very difficult but we managed.

one of our success stories can be found here.

please, even if you have already read this post, and i thank you if you have, go back and read it. it tells of a story that most people have never heard, about a place no one has ever heard of, and about the love that happened on that horrible day.

please read this post on the 14th anniversary. you will be glad to read it. i promise.

some tomaytees - and some cute pics of katiyja!

here's a basket full of tomatoes. they are our first big harvest of them. my friend SciFiChick would be proud.




we had a couple of rainy days...check out this sky before the rain hit:

jambaloney having a dip:

katiyja is a really good girl - she really loves her father - he runs her ragged! she is so pretty...and big!

her eyes aren't ice blue as they are showing in the pics - her eyes are actually a very dark blue.

she wants so much to meet the cats but they still hiss at her even though they keep sneaking up and sniffing her crate. she has a ton of toys but so far her favourite is my old nightgown. we have had her off the leash and off the tether several times today and she doesn't bolt. what an amazing little puppy!

and here is some sunflower pictures....one for each of my Angels...they know who they are.

i hope you all are well.

pics of katijya...but not good ones! she moves too fast!!!

katijya is keeping us busy but my goodness, she's such a good puppy!



the day that we got her, one of her ears was floppy but it straightened out the very next day. she loves sticks.

she has several chew toys, several balls, a stuffed garfield, a stuffed bumblebee and a shoe.

i am sorry for the bad quality of the pics and the poses but she is a very beautiful girl.

and big. and strong. but she has had no bonding issues and loves us. she's also very interested in the cats but they absolutely hate her. for now. they'll soon realize that she will love and protect them, too. but cats are....well, cats.

she's already learned her daily routine and alerts us when she needs to go outside to do her business. after she does her business, she gets a solid 20 minutes of running, playing ball, digging and chewing on sticks. we wear her out and then walk her a few times around the house and then bring her back into the house. we do this 4-5 times a day and she is really learning.

if you are interested in an excellent site about huskies - go to Shiba Shake. we have been learning much from this site and have noticed how well she learns the various commands. she comes when we call her to "come", she knows her name, she has started biting more gently (we "yip" when she bites and it seems to have taught her in less than a week not to bite hard), she sits, she walks with us without jumping too much (in less than a week of training!), and she goes right to sleep after her time outdoors.

i feel like i want to name her "Framboise Manor-ijya" - that's how well-suited she is for us and the manor.

if any of you have tips or tricks, feel free to leave us a comment. she is our first family dog and a better one couldn't be asked for. but i know that many of you have been raising dogs on your homesteads for years. we appreciate any advice that you may have in your personal experience.

i'd put up a pic but i am waaaay toooo tired!

i've received emails from people asking about a puppy update so i thought i would do one here.

firstly, now we know what new mothers and fathers feel like - we haven't slept except in bits and pieces for 3 days and 2 nights.

secondly, she's HUUUUUGE! and has been growing since she got here!!!

thridly, she's a very good girl. she chews on me but jam won't let her chew on him (he's the disciplinarian) and she is following his commands very well.

when we got her we brought her to the living room, blocked it off, and stayed with her the whole day and night. then yesterday, we put her harness on her and she went outside for the first time. she LOOOOVED it! so did jam as he was running around with her and both were jumping and playing and laughing. we stayed in the living room with her again last night.

she's already been for 3 runs today and the look of joy on her face, and jam's - just priceless. jam's out building a dog house for her right now.

we've both been reading up on different methods for training huskies and jam loves the idea of training them with a particular kind of harness (the name of which i can't remember) that you harness to a mountain bike. as you know, he's a biker-extraordinnaire and our roads out here in the country are very much like mountain bike paths (yes! they are THAT bad!). so he will start training her with the bike (once she is a year-old).

she is demonstrating protective manners towards me, which i love. she is definitely going to be mommy's baby and daddy's big girl.

the cats still hate her and none of them have come in the house since she arrived. we've been taking turns bringing them food and they always have their water bowl and snackedy-moe bowl outside. and they have the plastic enclosed porch to sleep on at night, which is eventually where baby katiyja will sleep at night.

for now, we have moved everything out of the bathroom and have put her, her carrier, food and toys in there. jam will take her for another run in a bit, and then we'll tether her with 20ft untwisting wire near her dog house. and sit out with her and let her run around and then bring her back to the bathroom. jam will take her for one more run this evening so she can see the land at dark.

then we will put her back in the bathroom and sleep in our beds. we are soooo looking forward to sleeping in our bed tonight.

now, i'm off to check on her. dog house is almost built!