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oh that beautiful winter light..
 
While many may complain about the cold bitterness of Winter, the photographer in me embraces it for its beautiful low light. I love how it sparkles off of freshly fallen snow and how it covers a frozen field in golden embers before tapering off for yet another evening. I find myself scurrying outside in the first and last hours of daylight just to watch it turn our farm from blue to pink to orange and yellow..there is no artist on earth who could ever outperform the prairie sky.
 
What inspired me to snap this photo was how the Winter light could transform my morning walk to the chicken coop into something so beautiful and peaceful. I walk this farm every morning to take in the beauty that surrounds us in the country and in the winter? A fresh cup of coffee is a constant companion..

 

Please continue on to view Lisa and Laurie’s entries for this month
 
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Posted in farm life , Farm Life Inspired Series , photography
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Yesterday, I opened every window at our farmhouse and let the warm breeze inspire me to start thinking about my 2015 garden. I wandered thru our farm in my Hunter wellies and caught myself thinking it was actually April! But since it isn’t, I did the next best thing…I ordered seeds from my 2015 catalogues and I started rereading my favourite gardening book of 2014: 
this book is truly worth the cost and covers every type of food garden you could possibly imagine. Have a small patio but want to grow some food yourself? This book has you covered. Want to preserve your Summer harvest? This book has you covered. It gives you 73 plans for every type of garden you could ever want. Heirlooms, potagers, gardening with chickens, herb gardens..the list goes on!

I read about this book before it came out while reading a 2013 issue of Canadian Gardening. The author of the book, Niki Jabbour is Canadian (but don’t let that stop you if you are American!) and she has garden plans for every type of garden. I personally love the illustrations to give you a better idea of the setup she had envisioned when creating all of the garden plans..

In this book, every garden plan is its own “chapter”. I use that word lightly of course because it covers 73 plans and is 262 pages in total (basically 3-4 pages per plan) but you get a summary of what that “chapter” entails, tips and thoughts on each garden plan and illustration (as above) as well as a detailed planting list as well as a detailed illustrated garden plan broken down into sections.
My personal favourite chapters are: Culinary Herbs for Beginners, Eggs & Everything, Backyard Orchard, Canners Garden, Vintage Victory Garden, Vertical Vegetables and even a Cocktail Garden (!!)
So if you are in the mood for a new gardening book to inspire you this growing season..I highly recommend Groundbreaking Food Gardens!!

Posted in book review , Farm Garden , gardening
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  • dawn - Hello Dawn, yay for spring breezes and dreaming! We can’t open our windows here, it got VERY cold again and windy, brrrrr even though Saturday we didn’t need coats and it was sunny and warm. Just another tease for us I guess, will happen a few more times before Spring really comes and stays.
    This book sounds very good, will tell Rich about it. He has been looking over his catalogs and bought sunflower seeds already. Can’t wait to have green and color in our yard.ReplyCancel

Happy Sunday, friends!!!

This was a crazy good week for us here at the farm!! We honoured & celebrated my dads life on the 2nd anniversary of his death on Tuesday, on Wednesday we celebrated 31 years of my life (I still feel 25, is that odd?!?), we have had snow this week, rain, and sunshine..everything has been thrown at us but one thing is for sure – it definitely feels like Spring today and I am LOVING it!! A few weeks back, Adam left for the city while Hudson and I watched over the farm solo. It was a good week but I ended up having one too many problems with a few coyotes so I asked Adam to teach me how to properly load, carry and shoot a firearm..and this week we finally got to it! I’d say for a newbie that my aim was pretty dang good 😉 Today we culled the last 2 roosters from this Springs hatching..its been a long time coming and today just felt like the day! We have been wandering around outside with our rubber boots on and light jackets. I have all the windows open in our farmhouse and I am dreaming of Spring! Today I ordered seeds and made plans for my clothes line and cutting gardens..have I mentioned I love living on a farm? Or Spring? or gardening? ’cause I do! I really, really do!! Here’s a small peek at life here this week..

it never fails..the skies over our farm get me every time!!

this little man marked 1 month post op this week and I couldn’t be more proud of him and his recovery..such strength babies have!!

as mentioned above..this week I learned how to properly shoot a rifle..I don’t appreciate coyotes going after my chickens one bit and this should help!!!

 not bad aim for a former city girl, eh?

my ladies have ramped up production and this week I sold my first 10 dozen eggs..so excited!!

the stores are stocking up on tulips and I am biting the bullet hard these days..love filling our farmhouse with fresh signs of Spring!!
most definitely the biggest part of this week is that my farmer has been taking a lot of time out to work on a big, very special project that is just for little old me…anyone want to take a guess as to what that might be?!? (photo below is your hint!! More to come soon!)

so that was our first full week of February! As I type this the wild birds are chirping on all four sides of our home, the sun is slowly setting and I am enjoying a cup of tea and taking in the beauty of this Sunday..hope you all enjoyed your weekends!!! Here’s to another full week on the docket…

Posted in chickens , farm life , farm photography , photography , the week in farm photos
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  • dawn - So glad you posted your weekly pictures, they always make me smile. I love the flower/calendar in the first photo, would like to paint it. The sky is gorgeous where you live, wish our yard was wider like yours, gorgeous!! Sounds like a fun week with the family and farm, so happy for that and Hudson doing so good a month later. Time has flown by already since that big day. Relax and enjoy each minute now, it’s going to fly by again.
    Would love to see any PL if you have them ready. I need to take pictures of mine and will blog them soon.
    Take care and hugs for all of you, happy February!ReplyCancel

    • Dawn Cosgrove - Hi Dawn!
      Thank you so much for leaving me all these thoughtful comments :) yes I plan to do a PL post of my entire album thus far but waiting on photos from the printer. I’m looking at March now for that but I will get it up!!ReplyCancel

  • Linda - Im guessing a photo lab-do those things still exist? Or a canning house. So wish i lived near so i could come and purchase some of those eggs. Amazing photos as always and Hudson is looking so well you would never know that he had major surgery a month ago.
    xxReplyCancel

I have been thinking a lot lately about the direction I would Iike to see this blog take in the future. I know I haven’t been the best at keeping this space updated these last couple of years but oh how I love this place. Taking a quiet moment out from our busy life here on the farm to write and update has always felt so special to me and I cannot tell you how immensely passionate I am for this life I live out here in the country! Reading a new comment or hearing from readers always makes my day and I want to continue to inspire and share with you all as life continues here at Cosgrove Farms!

My hopes is to have the farmgirl diaries be a hub of farmlife inspiration for you. Whether it be posts about farm life in general, farming operations, the farmhouse, the farm garden, recipes and canning and of course the farms feathered and furry creatures! I would love to hear from you about what you would like to read about more often or even learn!!

This year I really want to preserve more of my own harvest here from the farm garden. I have been going through all of the new seed catalogues with excitement and planning up new plans for a new garden space (more on that soon!) and have been reading through all of the canning cookbooks I purchased in the last few years but have yet to actually preserve from. Then I thought well maybe I could blog about canning as well! But then I was feeling silly thinking, “well how can I write blog posts about canning when I barely put up much of my own?” Sure I make dill pickles every year and my homemade raspberry jam last Summer is still causing cravings..but what about preserving the rest of the harvest? So here’s the deal. This year I am going to learn everything I can about putting up the garden..and I am going to share it all with you right here on the blog. Every failure and success..and hopefully there will be more success than not but hey, we’ve just got to start, right?

So last night I went through my books and marked out my favourite recipes using produce I know we will enjoy. I am not wasting my time on preserving things we won’t eat..ain’t nobody got time for that!! But what we do have time for are things like: dilly beans, pickled asparagus, vanilla-rhubarb jam with earl grey (!!), salsa, boozy canned peaches, pickled beets, tomato sauce, tomato juice..ack I am so excited!! Below are the cookbooks I will be preserving from (as seen above as well)

Personally, my favourite books are Canning for a new Generation and Food in Jars
My list above of things I will be attempting to make this Summer are recipes found in either of these.
I can’t even tell you how excited I am for this year..so many exciting things planned for the horizon!!

Posted in canning , Farm Garden , farm life , farmhouse kitchen
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  • Nikala - I love your blog; it’s a favourite! I look forward to seeing more harvest pictures..am already quite Quite anxious for spring! And your canning! Especially that vanilla-rhubarb jam..sounds delicious!ReplyCancel

  • Linda - Im excited to follow you on this journey and learn from what you do.
    xxReplyCancel

  • dawn - So happy to see this, we should be preserving more of our food and you will motivate me now!! We give a lot of our harvest to family/friends which I love doing but it would be nice to have a few things saved just for us. Can’t wait to see more on this from you, I know you are excited!ReplyCancel

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