2024-11-21 for 2019-2023 at the Farm in Almonte, Ontario Canada

Mark and I live on this 50 Acres farm in Eastern Ontario, Whispering Grove Farm, about 1-hour Southwest of Ottawa, Canada. In addition to Mark's full-time job as a CPA (Certified Professional Accountant) and me as a driving instructor in the last year, we are busy with our horses, goats, pigs, chickens, ducks, rabbits, dogs, cats, birds.... and we love it. My business “Then I met a Horse”, as an Equine Gestaltist has been put on hold with COVID just as the inside arena was completed (hence the driving instructor job).

Waiting for the interior arena to be built, we erected a beautiful yurt where I can meet my clients. Putting up the yurt is an interesting process and requires a few people. The horses are curious and are taking part in the progression, every step of the way. I love my horses, my curious sentient equine beings. The yurt is so beautiful that Mark and I decide to get married in this magnificent and magic structure on October 13th, 2019. A beautiful Fall Day with dear friends and family, and of course, the horses! They make sure to be in all the pictures.

Almonte is a charming little town, where countless artists reside and prosper. Its nature-oriented environment attracts the outdoors enthusiasts from everywhere. The Mississippi river running through with the old paper mill is only one more aspect of its appeal.

We are fortunate to have my son Dang, his partner Samantha and their child, my beloved granddaughter Ariel, live on our property. Ariel is fueled by her love of the animals and at her young age, she loves to help in her own way with the endless chores of a farm, but her favorite is to play with the bunnies and visit the horses and the baby goats. Admittedly, she is not a fan of the pigs, although she is curious about the piglets. It is a blessing that Samantha is an animal lover and spends much of her time with Ariel and our four-legged fur members of the family. Having said that, Ariel is much attracted to the layer chickens and the beautiful Cayuga ducks.

Winter can be a challenging experience and depending on your perspective, a long one. Winter sports lovers can’t get enough of it however, 4 to 6 months in our situation can be difficult. Our driveway makes its way up to the road for almost a kilometer. When it snows, the blowing wind fills it up. Fortunately, Mark has the foresight to plant markers before the snow arrives. Their little red “head” stick out of the snow, which, luckily, indicates where the road is. If that simple road wasn’t enough, we also have a driveway that we built, which leads to the back of the interior arena. Then another one to the barn and a small one to the garage. On blistering days, when Mark has 4 hours to spare and we no longer have a choice but to plow the driveway since we need to go in and out, he returns to the house unrecognizable from the abominable snow man. You see, the blower on the tractor is on the back. Don’t ask me how this works but regardless of the way he goes, the snow keeps blowing back into his face. Nope, we don’t have a cabin on the tractor. One expense at the time! And of course, driving backward the whole time, he ends up with a sore neck. At first, the tractor was a new “toy” for him, and he loved it but after a few winters of clearing the drivewayS, it is no longer his favorite pastime.

If you have a farm, you know about the work. We don’t have crops, we have animals. Hay delivery is always fun. Our trusted provider, Paul, lives 1.5 hour away, on the Quebec side. He is reliable and so friendly. Three or four trips a year to fill up the barn with huge round bales and small square ones is what it takes. I’ll spare you the price. We are very fortunate to have him.

When we purchased the farm in 2018, the barn was equipped for dairy cows with all the steel stalls on the first floor. The floor on the second floor was rotting through and dangerous in many spots. The roof was leaking (I guess that explains the rotting floor). Mark worked hard to remove the hardware, and we built one horse stall for emergency and confinement when needed, goat and pig stalls. We left a huge space as a run-in shelter for the horses. They love to be together, and the run-in is perfect. They come in mostly when it’s freezing rain. Otherwise, they stay outside. They love winter as long as they are sheltered from the wind by the side of the barn. To watch them soak the sunup on gorgeous days simply melts my heart.

With down trees, we cut them with our sawmill and made planks. What a learning experience but the floor was all redone over 2 years and we now store the hay, the motorcycles, and the lawn tractor in the winter. Doug, a dear friend of ours and master electrician, redid all the scary electricity in the barn, the well house and the garage. He also put brand new electricity in the interior arena. When lit up, it’s a beautiful sight at night, in and out!

Beside the building of the interior arena (built by a contractor), we accomplished so much more. We revived an old well and winterized it, so the horses and the goats always have access to fresh water. We put a few waters access near the bunny huts, the inside arena and of course, near the large winterize trailer my son and his family live in. Of course, the barn roof was patched, three times, but still, the water finds some holes and drips down. The large chicken coop was insulated, a few pens created to separate the chicken from the ducks, and mom and chicks when they come so we can hang heat lamp and monitor them.

Spring is my favorite time of the year on the farm. Babies of all kinds are born. I fall in love every spring. Once the mud dries up, the grass starts growing and the flowers peep through, the air is fresh, the days are longer – it is heaven if you ignore all the spring clean-up that is required on a farm. You wouldn’t believe what shows up once the snow melts. Unbelievable!!!

Our farmhouse sits in the valley between the main road, Wolfgrove Rd, and our forest of maple trees on the other side of the creek, tapped for delicious sap we collect in the spring. Labor intensive and timely critical fun work, we start feeding the stove every 7 minutes to boil the sap and make maple syrup. We continue the process of bringing the sap from the collecting point on the other side of the flooded creek to the sugar shack from the time is starts flowing until it stops. None stop! It is our mandatory together time Mark and me. You miss the window of opportunity or mother nature does not cooperate with below 0’ at night and over 0’ during the day and you’ll forgo the golden liquid for the next year… or buy it somewhere else. Once boiled, I bottle it all up and look forward to enjoying the exquisite flavor. The first year, the pump blew up as we started the process. We got very little that first year. The second year was awesome. Every year, our whole family reserves liters of the delicious maple syrup. The caveat I forgot to mention is that this maple syrup process falls at the exact same time as tax season… do you remember that Mark is a CPA? It’s his heavy season of 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. He enjoys the time we spent together processing the maple syrup and even though we joke and take turn filling up the huge boiler with wood, having a beer, I know that he is thinking about his clients and the files he needs to deal with to meet the deadline. I’ll help him to file the taxes but still, it is loads of work and little sleep!

Fall is also a favorite season of mine because of the beautiful foliage displaying its myriad of colours. The air is so fresh, and it is sweater season for a while. The horses grow their winter coat, so thick, so soft. Unfortunately, it is a short period of time and from one day to another, the leaves fall off the trees and cover the ground like a colourful and deep carpet. The days are “shrinking”, the weather is getting colder, and nature is preparing to slow down and/or sleep during that time. We know that the snow will be at our doorstep soon and the winter hard work will begin. The cycle of the seasons!

It is an oasis of tranquility and positive energy here on our little and despite all the work, Mark and I are convinced we will spend the rest of our life here. We are grateful for this paradise.