After all the negative, depressing writing about the cougar and sheep deaths, I thought it would be good to share some positive news.  I thought a report on my garden would be in order.

As you may remember, Dennis built raised beds in the garden this spring.  Planting was delayed due to the beds being built, but we are now enjoying a bountiful harvest.

The topsoil we had brought in was good, but did contain a lot of weed seeds.

So, the weeding began.  It was a lot of work, but easier because the raised beds allowed you to sit on the edge and pull the weeds, or kneel beside the beds.

Here is the finished product.  I think it took a week with us both working on it:

Here are some more recent pictures, taken today.  The following photos are of my herb bed which is out between the house and the lake:

Here are some pictures of the roses that grow in the flower bed around the house:

And finally, here is the garden as it looks today.  The weeds have gotten away from us between the beds and in the potatoes, but all in all, things are growing nicely.

 Butter lettuce - lots of it! (above)

 Turnips and parsnips. (above)

 Carrots.  Plus a lot of weeds that need pulling from around the beds.  We are planning on mulching. (above)

 Cabbages.  One red cabbage, some crinkle cabbage and regular white cabbage. (above)

 Cauliflower and broccoli. (above)

 Zucchini.  There's also one butternut squash, but it hasn't flowered yet so I'm not positive we'll get a squash off it.  (above)

 Beets. (above)

 A few peas

 and a few more peas with their companion onions.

 A volunteer squash of some sort.  It is growing in among the potatoes.  It has not bloomed so not sure if we'll get fruit from this guy, but it's interesting that it survived the winter, plus the rototiller and is now growing away like it belongs there! (above)

You can see a lot of weeds to the right of the bed.  There are potatoes in there, but the weeding has got out of hand.  Dennis has had the flu for a couple of weeks now so has slowed down significantly.  Not to mention that he got stung by a huge black wasp yesterday, on each hand and on his ear lobe.  His neck and hands are so swollen now, even after 3 antihistamines.  Poor guy is ready to move into a condo in the city!

 About 10% of the peas actually sprouted, but the rest is doing well.  We have more broccoli than we can eat and it goes without saying that we are begging people to take lettuce!  We are eating baby carrots now and new potatoes.  The zucchini grows like a weed.  The greenhouse is also doing well:

If you look closely, you can see the peppers and cucumbers.

One more topic for today.  One thing I do enjoy doing each year when the wild roses are in bloom, is making wild rose petal jelly.  It is a mild, gentle flavoured jelly, delicious on warm baking powder biscuits.  A nice treat for afternoon tea.  Here is this year's batch:

I hope this post has left you feeling a bit more positive!  It certainly has done a lot to lift my spirits!  As you can see, life goes on.  One cannot let the sad days overwhelm the rest of one's life.  Bye for now.

Warning:  some pictures posted today may be disturbing to some readers.

It has been a busy time here on the farm.  Busy and discouraging, at times.  Farming out here, away from civilization, close to nature, is rewarding and pleasant.  However, it also has a darker side.  Predators are always close at hand.  Our fencing is good, strong and fairly predator proof.  We have never lost livestock to bears, wolves or coyotes.  Cougars are another story altogether.  Two years ago at Thanksgiving we lost two sheep to a cougar.  We called the Conservation Officer who set a trap.  The cougar was not trapped but did not come back.  We kept the flock close to home after that.  We lost about a month of grazing time which added to our cost.  This year we lost 5 sheep to a young cougar.

After the first killing we called the Conservation Officer who came out and set a trap.  Nothing.  After a few days he pulled the trap and left.  A week later we lost another lamb, this time one of our bottle babies.  And it was during the day.  This time a dog man was brought in from Smithers.  He arrived at 7:00 and by 7:30 all was done and they were in the house drinking coffee.

I know some will say that it's a beautiful, wild animal and should not be shot.  I agree that it's a beautiful, wild animal, however once it has figured out where the sheep are and that they are easy prey, we will lose our whole flock.  Relocation is not an option.  Cougars have a huge home area and if taken out will find their way back.  It is just a matter of time until we lost our whole flock.

Here are the dogs responsible for getting the job done:

The centre dog is a Korilian bear dog.  She is the dog that was relentless, chasing the cougar in circles again and again until the animal was treed.  It is great when working dogs are put to work doing what they are trained to do.  When not working, they are beautiful, gentle dogs.

After all was said and done, we lost 4 purebred sheep and one mixed breed.  We lost our best, prized young purebred ewe.  She was 165 lbs and had triplets in her first lambing.  She was bred to Ben, our 275 lb ram and produced beautiful lambs.  The cougar killed her and one of her lambs.  We lost our bottle baby, Little Guy.  We lost 2 purebred ram lambs, both large, potential breeding stock.  There is no way to tally up the potential losses for our ewe as she had her whole lambing life ahead of her.  Our losses are too big for a small flock like ours.  Thus, we are selling our flock.  The agony of losing a sheep or lamb is just too much.  The work involved in every day going up and gathering the flock, housing them in the barn, then every morning letting them out, is getting to be too much.  That still does not guarantee the safety of the animals, as cougars will hunt during the day also.  Since the sheep must graze and forage during the day, and since we live in such a wild and remote area, there is nothing more we can do to protect our animals.  It is not fair to them to have them as sitting ducks for any passing cougar, so our flock is now up for sale.  It will be hard to part with Ben, our lovely, friendly ram.  I am looking for a good farm home for him.

Dennis and I are looking for a different lifestyle for a while.  So, Dogstar Farm is up for sale.  If you are looking for 100 acres on a pristine lake, a lovely, comfortable home, barn, woodshed, incredible garden and the wilderness at your doorstep, then please consider our farm.  A steal at $479,000.  Wander through this blog to see more pictures.

Bye for now.