No. 37: EARLY RETURNS

This past spring amid our many many farmstead projects we finally got the garden up and running. It's about 400 square feet in size (I'm guessing we'll double that next year) and is home to a nice variety of vegetables. Most of them were grown from heirloom seeds that we began germinating in early April with mixed results. But most everything is roaring along now. We're currently feasting on roma, yellow, and many varieties of heirloom tomatoes along with gigantic heirloom cucumbers, Hungarian hot peppers, leeks, a ton of mixed greens, and some incredible heirloom carrots, a mix of orange, yellow, white, and scarlet nantes.

Curently I'm battling giant 4 inch green caterpillars with horns on their butts that are ravaging our tomato plants but it's all been worth it.

Good eatin'! The crops not the caterpillars.

Wild apples.

Gold and orange organic carrots.

Hungarian hot peppers.

No. 36: BARN SALE DAY 1 COMPLETE

So, day 1 of our 2 day Barn Sale is in the books and it was a chaotic, crazy, really fun success. Here are a few pictures taken before the storm and 1 pic thrown in the middle of happy customer, Steve who rolled up in his gorgeous '55 Ford Galaxie and proceeded to go on a vintage spree. Thanks to everyone who helped make day 1 a big success and a great time!

No. 35: BARN SALE!

Update: Here's a sneak peek at what will be available July 30 and 31. This represents just the tip of the iceberg!

We're having a barn sale! We've filled it with some awesome stuff; tons of vintage goodness, primitive and industrial pieces, school room maps, tables, chairs, storage, flags, taxidermy, kitschy kitchenware, lighting, signage, boxes, crates, oddities, etc, etc, etc.
Got a loft, studio, house or apartment? You should check it out! Got a store? You need this stuff! Opening a bar or restaurant? We have what you're looking for!


Douglas & Son's
BARN SALE
Saturday, July 30 and Sunday, July 31.
9am to 4pm
92 Reid Street, Bobcaygeon (Yep, Bobcaygeon), Ontario

No. 34: KAWARTHA GAL

Over the last 7 or 8 weeks my wife Sacha has been cooking, canning and preserving up a storm in preparation for the Bobcaygeon Farmers Market. The market is enjoying its second successful year (last Saturday was weekend number 3 of the season) and Sacha’s unique and delicious organic and uber-local creations are a great addition. You can check out more over at Sacha’s brand new blog Kawartha Gal.

No. 33: SONG FOR A WARM FRIDAY EVENING IN BOBCAYGEON

No. 33: SCHOOL PROJECT

Back in March Humber College journalism student Jacquie Schifano came up to the farm to do a story on me and my magazine Coupe for her school's magazine. Here’s the story and its sprinkled with a smattering of nice pics (by student Wendy Mach) of the farmhouse.

No. 32: HOMEGROWN MAPLE SYRUP

We have just three maple trees within a quick walk from the house. But they're big maples with a combined circumference of about 30 feet. This year I thought I'd try tapping them and try my hand at making some maple syrup. I had watched old timers make maple syrup when I was a little kid at our cottage in Baysville and I remembered the basics of the process. I also did some online research and got advice from some local guys who had boiled down their fair share of sap. From start to finish it was a pretty big process, a lot of work, a lot of fun and, once I tasted the end result, completely worth it.

I couldn't resist designing up a quick label.

I drilled 2 taps per tree. Trees this size could probably handle 3 or 4 taps.

When the sap gets running at top speed we're talking maybe 40 drops per minute. I was collecting between 6 to 12 litres a day and the sap was really beginning to pile up around the farm. Sap in the fridge, sap in the freezer, sap stored in 6 gallon water jugs outside in the snow . . . . It takes 40 to 50 litres of sap to make just 1 litre of maple syrup so you can never really have enough tree plasma.

I boiled the sap down over a 2 day period over a wood fire. Earlier this winter I had cleared out a small stand of dead cedars so there was no shortage of good easy burning wood at hand. The cedar gave the syrup an incredible smoky and unique flavour and I think it even enhanced its colour.

These 2 bottles represent the result of 18 days of sap collecting and 2 days of fire stoking and boiling. Best stuff I've ever had.

No. 31: TIME IT WAS, AND WHAT A TIME IT WAS . . .

Last night at a local auction I purchased a cardboard box full of odds and ends. Mostly junk to be honest. What grabbed my eye in the bottom of the box was a cool old Westclox electric wall clock from the 1950s. The auction was about to begin and I had just enough time to hurriedly flip through a large photo album in the box. It’s not rare to come across discarded family albums at estate auctions. They’re usually being discarded for a reason. But after just a few pages of the more than 150 incredible photos I knew this one was special. When I got home I sat down with the book and poured over more than 40 years of an anonymous family’s humble and rich history. And I couldn't help but be a little saddened at the thought of this family record no longer the property the people that made it up. 

In an age where the traditional family photo album is all but extinct replaced by laptop folders full of digital photos and Facebook posts this album is an amazing testament to their power and beauty. I bought the cardboard box for two dollars.

No. 30: ENJOY THE SILENCE

No. 29: WINTER WEEDS + TIRED TREES

No. 28: HOW TO GIVE YOUR FAVOURITE PAIR OF LEVIS THAT ANNOYING STORE-BOUGHT WRECKED UP LOOK. THE HARD WAY.

STEP 1: Position yourself in the midst of a tangled stand of dead cedar trees in 18 inches of snow.

STEP 2: Fire up the ol’ chain saw.

STEP 3: Begin to saw down said stand of dead cedars.

STEP 4: Hold chain saw precariously in one hand while directing the fall of the trees with the other.

STEP 5: Get careless with said chain saw and let it ever so lightly brush against the side of your thigh pant-leg.

STEP 6: After a fruitless but terrifying wait for blood to begin to gush from said leg you've now got yourself a pair of jeans with annoying store-bought-looking holes in them. Enjoy!

No. 27: GOIN’ DOWN THE ROAD

No. 26: KING OF “LOUNGE”

Here’s a little blast of summer just before the dog days of winter really take hold.

Last June I found a vintage 35mm slide viewer at a yard sale still in its original box. Also crammed in the box were three collections of slides dating from 1967 to 71. The star of the slideshow was most definitely this guy. Almost always photographed in his signature white cap and shades the man epitomizes ease and leisure. No mowing the lawn, washing the car or pulling weeds for this cat.