Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! My 2023 is almost over and I’m looking forward to a lot of new beginnings for 2024. The end of 2022 saw the roof of my house almost fully completed, and my goal for 2023 was to get moved in. Duck eggs, from my 7 adopted Muscovy, turned out to be more profitable than I expected so I let them go broody and ended up with 31 Ducks. The year was going very well. I adopted another baby goat, Tommy, who was dropped by an eagle right in front of me. Another baby landed at the nearby vineyard a few months later, so Ruth (male) joined the herd as well.
I was Under 25 sheets of plywood away from fully closed in, had borrowed some scaffolding, and had just convinced DH to help me put up one sheet every day until it was done. Immediately after our first successful sheet went up, working together before work, one of the in-laws came up and apparently the story had changed from “there’s no way you can finish the house, just give up” to “you have to stop building and leave because you’re not wanted here”. I continued to try to work things out, but stopped working on the house and started helping some friends build a Cabin out of my second story walls on another property instead. DH started looking for rentals on a different Island he works on. I still didn’t want to leave.
In September another incident happened with some goat hunters, I had a car accident and finally got fully on board with leaving. We secured a Goat/Chicken/Duck friendly rental for December 1st, and I began building a coop on our utility trailer for the Ducks and Chickens. We moved in in early December, and moved my mother in a week or so later. It’s a “800” square foot two story 3 “bedroom” home. The actual usable/non closet square footage is 550yes I measured it last night. Either way it has heat, running water, and electricity, so I’m happy with that. Most importantly I was ably to bring the 13 ducks, 3 drakes, and 31 of my chickens along with the goats.
I’m not 100% sure what 2024 will bring, but I will be applying at the local grocery store full time. This island has 2 real grocery stores!!!, a small hospital, actual restaurants, and 2 gas stations that don’t charge $3/L CAD for diesel…I will also be running the property’s blueberry farm as a condition of the rental, and Andrew must continue to work at the Abattoir here as well. View attachment 3716147View attachment 3716149View attachment 3716151
Check out the Rastafarian community there, they grow a lot of their own food, and there is a big fishing community that supplies local restaurants. But true, as far as I know everything else is imported, even the chicken meat, which is very strange as there are so many wild and domesticated chickens there.
Everywhere it seems, sure is mild here for winter, and the chooks and I are not complaining
HahahahahaToo cute!!! Is Mr. P the daddy??? You know “at capacity” is usually my incentive to build another coop…
Yea it’s beautiful out there
And here it’s 10:21pm and I should be sleeping, and it’s just gone 7;21pm for you west coastersYesss, I’m always logging on an hour before the crack of dawn due to having an infant… and the chat is all “I let the chooks out, went to the store for feed, came home for lunch, reconstructed a roofing project, phew glad it’s almost cocktail hour”.
not a happy new year for them if so.
I truly expect 2024 to be a great year for you! Wishing you the best of everything.Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! My 2023 is almost over and I’m looking forward to a lot of new beginnings for 2024. The end of 2022 saw the roof of my house almost fully completed, and my goal for 2023 was to get moved in. Duck eggs, from my 7 adopted Muscovy, turned out to be more profitable than I expected so I let them go broody and ended up with 31 Ducks. The year was going very well. I adopted another baby goat, Tommy, who was dropped by an eagle right in front of me. Another baby landed at the nearby vineyard a few months later, so Ruth (male) joined the herd as well.
I was Under 25 sheets of plywood away from fully closed in, had borrowed some scaffolding, and had just convinced DH to help me put up one sheet every day until it was done. Immediately after our first successful sheet went up, working together before work, one of the in-laws came up and apparently the story had changed from “there’s no way you can finish the house, just give up” to “you have to stop building and leave because you’re not wanted here”. I continued to try to work things out, but stopped working on the house and started helping some friends build a Cabin out of my second story walls on another property instead. DH started looking for rentals on a different Island he works on. I still didn’t want to leave.
In September another incident happened with some goat hunters, I had a car accident and finally got fully on board with leaving. We secured a Goat/Chicken/Duck friendly rental for December 1st, and I began building a coop on our utility trailer for the Ducks and Chickens. We moved in in early December, and moved my mother in a week or so later. It’s a “800” square foot two story 3 “bedroom” home. The actual usable/non closet square footage is 550
I’m not 100% sure what 2024 will bring, but I will be applying at the local grocery store full time. This island has 2 real grocery stores!!!, a small hospital, actual restaurants, and 2 gas stations that don’t charge $3/L CAD for diesel…I will also be running the property’s blueberry farm as a condition of the rental, and Andrew must continue to work at the Abattoir here as well. View attachment 3716147View attachment 3716149View attachment 3716151
