Small Prairie Farm

Tag: Regina

  • Garden 2021- The Sunflower take-over

    Garden 2021- The Sunflower take-over

    Sunflowers everywhere in the garden- 2021

    We planted ornamental sunflowers one year to attract bees and now they are an invasive weed. This year we tried to use them as a wind block to the garden. They soaked up more water than prevented water evaporation. Now they are a pretty weed in our garden.

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    Kelly started new experimental planters on the Northside of the farm for herbs and heirloom seeds.

    We added hundreds of flower bulbs in the fall! We’re excited to see what comes in in 2021.

     

    We started Virginia Creeper along the deer fence line around the garden. On the same fenceline, we are trying to get Hollyhocks to grow. NO LUCK. Open to suggestions.

     

    Read more about the farm In our News Section

     

     

  • Wildlife on the Critter Camera

    Wildlife on the Critter Camera

    CRITTERS, CRITTERS, EVERYWHERE! WE HAVE THEM ON CAMERA.

     

    We’ve had several Critters families stop in to try and figure out the cameras. We’ve also had a few who didn’t notice the cameras at all.

    Birds, raccoons, deer, coyotes, fox, MOOSE, Owls, house cat, bald eagle, hawk, cougar, rabbit, white weasle, and more. We’ve had the pleasure of catching a few photos of some of Saskatchewan’s wildlife wandering through the yard.  We just use our simple outdoor Nest Cam.  These little Critters are always welcome until chickens start going missing then we’ll reevaluate.

    FOX

     

    COYOTE

     

    GANGSTER DEER

    DEER FIGHT CLUB

     

    PHEASANTS

    RYDER AND TROPHY GOPHER

     

    We are itching for the season to start.  The family has already started staying overnight at the farm with the camper furnaces in the campers on overnight. Until the snow of course.

    In the fall over 200 bulbs, were planted. We are very impatiently waiting to see what comes up. Last year we also planted Virginia creeper along 1 side of the fence line, Hollyhocks, Delphinium, and more. We are excited to see what’s going to bloom.

    We bought a used metal/fabric Gazebo just to test it in the violent Saskatchewan wind. Hopefully, it can withstand a year as an outdoor TV room.  We are considering the heavy COSTCO one. We just need everyone to fall in love with the idea first.

    This year our 20 chickens will mainly be providing eggs for Over the Hills Orchard and Winery (A local Lumsden company).

    Seedlings are growing in windows waiting for the farm. This year we are eager to plant an extra-large garden to help supplement the 2 piglets we are raising (spring to fall). You will see pictures of the new pen soon!

    We will be posting more updates about the beginning of the year as the weather changes.

    We are excited about spring!

    Read more on our blog

    See our invention videos

    See more Trail cam photos

  • Garden 2020

    Garden 2020

    Summer 2020- Social Distancing!

    Summer 2020 was my (Kelly’s) first full season living primarily at the farm. What better place to social distance is the farm. That’s a LIE! The Rice farm has been a haven for people looking for outdoor retreat! Bon fires, hiking, biking, sledding. We even showed up for Christmas.

    Garden

    Our giant garden produced a little before the swarm of grasshoppers wiped everything out. Cucumbers, carrots, garlic hardly produced. Corn surprisingly well again this year. Of course beans, peas and beets did fine. We used all heirloom fingerling potato seed this year as we couldn’t find red potato seed. WE HAVE CUTWORMS! Gross!

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    Water

    We ran mostly off of rainwater this year. Our dugout went dry. We shipped cooking & shower water from Pence and Regina.

    Chickens

    We had a flock of 20 birds on the farm laying eggs in the new chicken coop. During the grasshopper invasion they hardly had to be fed. Their Eggs were sold by Malcom at SIAST. Next year there will be a price increase in eggs, so we can make our money back. At the end of the season October 25, the chickens were sold.

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    Critters and Such

    For the end of the season we lit all of Jeffs old brush on fire.

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  • Virginian Tiger Moth (Spilosoma virginica)

    Virginian Tiger Moth (Spilosoma virginica)

    Pearls magic Princess Moth is actually a Virginian Tiger Moth (Spilosoma virginica). We found it in the garden and fell in love! Excepts it didn’t grant any of her wishes, DANG!

    Spilosoma virginica is a species of moth in the subfamily Arctiinae. As a caterpillar, it is known as the yellow woolly bear or yellow bear caterpillar. As an adult, it is known as the Virginia tiger moth.

    Tiger Moth
    The Tiger moth we found on the farm

    Caterpillar life stage

    Identification 

    The caterpillar varies in color, but is typically consistent in its coloration in a single specimen, without odd tufts of different-colored hair or separately colored heads.

    Diet

    It has a diet of a wide range of low-growing plants, including ground cover like grass and clover. The larvae are defoliators, skeletonizing the leaves they feed on, but only the late summer batch of caterpillars is plentiful enough to do much damage to crops. This species tends to have two to three life cycles per year, with one hibernating for the winter in temperate climates.[2]

    Adult moth life stage

    The adult moth tends to tent its wings over its back, rather than sitting with them spread. It is white with a darker-colored abdomen, but without the obvious, darker eyes of its close cousin the agreeable tiger moth. It is not poisonous, but some people may have an allergic reaction to the bristles on its body.[2]

    Reproduction

    The female is slightly larger than the male in larva form, and as an adult finds a mate by extruding an organ that emits a pheromone which the male can smell. The male, which unlike the female has the large, feathered antennae characteristic of pheromone-using moths, flies zigzag search patterns, eventually homing in on a female. After mating, he goes off to find other females, while the female stops to lay between 20 and 100 eggs in a single layer on the underside of a leaf. The larvae stay together when very young, but become solitary as they gain size.[2]

    Woolly bear caterpillar

     

    Read more about our adventures in the news

     

     

  • Spring 2020

    Spring 2020

    Spring 2020 is in on a confusing roller coaster ride

    With Covid19 we all started the season early. The more we could get out to the farm the better. Whether Malcolm’s fixing the truck, Tania’s family is out hiking or Kelly’s recluse to her camper the farm acted like a getaway for all of us.

    The dugout is way down of course, the wind has been brutal,  cold toilette seat, cuddling up to the heater at night, all totally worth it not to be in the city with CovIdiots.

     

    This spring we’ve got a lot done (write ups to come):

    Malcolm and Sebastian build a wind generated battery to power the front driveway camera.

    Tent Alley Rejuvenation- Malcolm has filled in the spaces between the trees in Tent Alley to keep the garbage and the wind down. Malcolm always loves visitors and Tent Alley is one of his favorite places.

    Malcolm got the old International truck running in order to get water from Pense.

    The garden has shrunk but all is planted. Spinach, lettuce, kale, dill, cucumber, carrots, potatoes, beets, garlic, peas, 3 different kinds of onion, zucchini, squash, Radish’s, pumpkins. We have everything.

    The Cherry, haskap (Honey berries) , apple, plumb, trees are budding leaves.

    We have a new chicken coop this year made by Jeff. Kelly Decided to up the number of chickens. More chickens, means they needed more space. Jeff magically made the plans up in his head and built it from there. It turned out amazing!

     

    Also new to the chicken fair grounds we’re trying in ground gardens with coop wire over top. This is so the chickens can at the greens but not destroy the plants. We planted different lettuces, spinach, chard, beets, cucumbers and a few more.

     

     

     

     

     

    Kelly’s spice garden planted by the trailer. This year Kelly planted  (experiment saved seeds) pea seeds. Onions, chocolate mint, dill, garlic chives, chives, snow onions, basil, parsley, lemon thyme catnip, saffron and there’s more to come.

     

     

     

     

     

    We have finally picked out new strawberry patch location. We’ve been humming and hawing on a new place to put them. The old place was downing in grass and wasn’t producing garden. We are only on the first layer.  If you know where there are some excellent rocks let us knowing. So after a few years we came up with something! A strawberry rock pile.

     

     

     

    See our previous years in gardening

    Some of the silly stuff we come up with

     

  • Garden 2019

    Garden 2019

    Garden 2019 was huge in spite of lack of water!

    This year we planted the entire Garden plot!

    In the Garden 2019 we grew cucumbers, corn, raddish, (yellow, purple, green) beans, soy beans, swiss chard, spinach, lettuce, (yellow, green) zucchini, (heirloom, orange, purple) carrots, (green arrow, sugaranne, sugarsnap, mixed)peas, (red, yellow, mixed)potatoes, dill, cucamelon, garlic, onions, peppers, hot peppers, Spaghetti squash, pumpkins, beets, Dads tomatoes,

    Added tomatoes along the one grapevine row.

    Volunteer:

    Tomato, spinach, sunflowers, chard, dill, watermelon, squash, borage

    Annual:

    Asparagus (not producing yet), chives, snow onions

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    Fruit Trees/Shrubs/Plants

    Kelly had to nurse the goji berries back from a hard winter. We’re still searching for the perfect spot to put the strawberries. This year we had ground nests in them so we had no great opportunity to get to the berries.The ones we do find are tiny. We got a sandwich bag of hascaps. Lots of plumb and apples, cherries and a few grapes

    Added

    2 Black currant plants, 2 Rhubarb, Gooseberry

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    Canning

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    Pickled:

    cucumbers, swiss chard stems, beans, eggs, peppers

    Pressure canned:

    Beans

    Frozen:

    Peas, spinach

    Some ideas for seeds:

    See all of our garden adventures!

     

     

  • Remembrance Day 2018

    Remembrance Day 2018

    Remembrance: A Couple Who Met During The War

    Written by Jan Densmore

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    In today’s Remembrance celebration,  we take the time to think of My Mom (Margret Bissell) and Dad (Gregory Rice) were in their early 20s when they met during WWII. Both army soldiers. Signing up during wartime, can you imagine how scary the future could be for them? Mom was a war bride who landed by boat in Halifax with my brother John and my brother Danny on the way and made the train trip across the country to Vancouver to meet Dad. She left behind her family in Scotland and all that she knew to start her new life in Canada. Do you think they ever dreamed that they would have 10 children?

     

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