The Joys of Autism

For those who have been following me for a while, you may recall that our youngest son, Garrett, is autistic. He's thirteen now, and while he is still mostly non-verbal, he has demonstrated several traits that show us that he's got a lot going on in his mind.

First of all, he's shown an extraordinary ability to memorize things. He watches a video on YouTube, and not long afterward, he's reciting it word for word. That might not seem like a big deal, until you realize that the video is in Russian or Spanish, not English.

Second, take a look at this collage on our living room wall:

Yes, he's printing off coloring pages from Finding Nemo off of supercoloring.com. But look more closely: He's printing them and coloring them IN STORY ORDER. He's literally storyboarding the movie. Again, that might not seem to be a big deal, until you learn that he hasn't watched this movie since we moved here five and a half years ago. In fact, the last time I can remember him watching it was almost eight years ago when he was five.

Click on the link to see the pictures. I wondered why he would have me go through the whole list, scrolling up and then down until he would point at the one he wanted. It never occurred to me that he was actually doing the movie in order. My wife noticed it and pointed it out, which is when I took this picture.

Autism is something we really don't properly understand yet. But make no mistake, autistic children are not morons. They are highly intelligent; they just can't express themselves the way most people can. There's a powerful brain in there. If you have an autistic child, give them the chance to use that brain and show you what they can do. You may be shocked and surprised at what they come up with.

Another Painful Goodbye...

 

Yes, the puppy that's been my blog profile pic since I started is no more. Dexter sadly passed this afternoon at 5:30 local time. He's been living with our oldest boy and his girlfriend for the past couple of years, but he's still been part of our family.

He was only eight years old; cancer took him. Vet bills to treat that are simply out of our reach, and there was nothing we could do for him. He was supposed to see a vet on Tuesday, but today he was drooling blood, and Ashton took him to Charlottetown for an emergency visit. The vet said she could give him steroids, but it would only delay the inevitable for a couple of days. They made the hard decision and said goodbye.

Losing a pet sucks. Losing two within six months sucks rocks. My wife doesn't ever want to get another dog because it hurts so much to lose them. I'm looking at it from another point of view; a dog's life is full of wonderful memories, and those memories are worth the pain at the end.

I'll never forget the first time we met Dexter. It was shortly after our other dog, Harley the Shi-tzu, died; Raven was about four years old, and she missed him terribly. She would sit on the back step for hours, moping and waiting, hoping that Harley would somehow come back. Of course, that wasn't going to happen, but you can't explain that to a dog.

We started looking for another dog to hopefully cheer up Raven. We looked at a few dogs that didn't really fit what we wanted. Then, we found a little puppy who was being fostered in Chatham, and we made arrangements to have a meeting to see if he'd get along with Raven. We couldn't have imagined it would have gone as well as it did.

When Dexter showed up, he was wearing a Superman cape that trailed behind him as he ran. And he ran. Oh, did that little puppy run. As soon as he got in the backyard, he locked eyes with Raven, and the two of them took off with the worst case of the zoomies I have ever seen. I tried to take a picture of them. I tried to take three or four, actually. But they were moving so fast that by the time the shutter snapped, they were out of frame. I felt like a World War II fighter pilot trying to lead my target so I could capture the moment. But it was no use. He wore that Superman cape for a reason; he was identifying as Krypto the Super-Dog. And Raven was keeping up with him every step, her depression gone in an instant.

The next day, Dexter officially came home. He was the happiest dog in the world, as long as he wasn't left alone. He hated to be alone, barking for hours if we had to leave. So we tried to keep at least one of us home as much as possible. He became a fixture in our bed, and I mean that literally; I nicknamed him 'Wall' because despite his small size, he stretched out between us like the Great Wall of China. And there was simply no moving him.

Dexter made the move out to PEI with us, driving in the back seat of Dannielle's truck the whole way here. He adjusted very quickly, and absolutely loved the wide-open freedom of the farm. After Ashton bought his own place, he brought Dexter with him. It wasn't as wide-open as the farm, but he still had plenty of space to call his own.

We knew last year that he was sick, and that the cancer might not be benign. But he got through Christmas, and we were hoping it would stay dormant. Unfortunately, it didn't. He's struggled for the past month or so, and when my wife went to visit them yesterday he didn't even climb up on her lap, which was his favorite bed for most of his life. So, we knew it wouldn't be long. Unfortunately, we had less time than we thought.

So, once again we say goodbye to a cherished member of our family. Dexter was a fantastic dog, loyal and protective, with the fastest tail-wag I've ever seen. There's a reason dogs are called 'man's best friend', and Dexter was the platonic ideal of that sentiment. We will miss him terribly.

Goodbye, Dexter. I hope you, Raven and Harley are all playing together like the family you always were. Godspeed.

Not a Good Week...

My apologies for the lack of posting the last few days. As you can see, things weren't exactly great. Thursday saw a very narrow escape from what could have been much, much worse. Trying to avoid a snowplow on the road, I stupidly hit the brakes and the car slid off the road, missing the guardrail by maybe three inches, going into a gully and hitting a sign and a tree. Had we gone over the guardrail, it's very likely the car would have flipped over into the gully, and the snow was waist-deep. It's only by the grace of God that things weren't worse. The tow truck driver was able to pull it out of the gully and bring it to the farm; we were less than a mile down the road from our house when it happened, so it was an easy trip.

The insurance adjuster hasn't been by yet to look at the car, but since the front wheel is completely off and the front end is a total mess, I'd say it's pretty much a guaranteed write-off. We'll see what happens.

So, I'll get back to posting properly soon enough; I'm still a bit shaken up by the experience since Garrett, our youngest and autistic child, was in the back seat. He's been complaining about his wrist, so we're going to get him to the doctor's office on Monday to get him checked out. It doesn't look broken or sprained, but we'll find out Monday.

Cracking the Whip

Yes, it's the weekend, which means more work for us. The Saturday market is the culmination of a week's efforts to bake a bunch of bread and baked goods in order to convince people that it's the most delicious stuff they've ever eaten, and they should buy as much as possible. Running a family business like this takes a lot of work, but I have to say, the rewards are pretty sweet.

First of all, we're working from home. No getting up to drive to a job. I get up in the morning, brush my teeth, get dressed, and head to the kitchen to make dough or bake loaves. Simple, easy. I can take breaks at any time and spend time with my boys or the dog, or just chill out and relax for a little while. Best of all, I get to spend time with my wife. We don't spend all of our time together, but we work as a team to make this a success. It's a full partnership, and it's the best thing we've done since our kids were born.

In this day and age, it's tough to find gainful employment, particularly for someone who has just started getting senior's discounts. Jobs are not quite scarce, but jobs that pay enough to support a family on a single income are as rare as hen's teeth. So, the only workable solution is to go into business for yourself. Is it easy? Hell, no. In the run-up to Christmas we were preparing about 30 Christmas boxes that required bread and baked goods, and I pulled three straight days of 16-hour shifts. In half a week I got overtime. I fell asleep on the stairs with my head leaning on the wall at one point. Dannielle and Ashton got a good laugh out of that.

But even though it's a lot of work, the rewards are more than worth it. We don't have to pay rent since we work from home, we get to claim nearly everything as deductions, and we are selling pretty much everything we bake. And we get free bread and treats. Sure, it's usually the stuff that doesn't pass quality control, but it still tastes great even if it doesn't look quite as beautiful as we would like.

So, all in all it's something I would recommend to anyone who is struggling to find their place in the rat race: find your niche and monetize it, turning it into a business. You'll be surprised at how much it can change your life. It's not easy, but it's worth it.

Reflections

So, we're coming up to the end of yet another year. Can you believe we are a full quarter of the way through the 21st century already? I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. And yes, technically that happened a year ago at the end of 2024, but let me process. In five more years, I will have spent more time in the 21st century than in the 20th. Which is wild.

So, 2025 was a busy year for us. The big news...well, there were two big news things. Three, maybe. The biggest was that our family business, Come to the Table PEI, got big here on the island. We started out with doing pop-up markets in parking lots in different towns, then settled down in the Summerside Farmer's Market by late February. Since then, we've busted our butts to make this business a thing, and it has done quite well by us so far. Much better than we had expected. And now that we have a new stone bake, triple-decker oven on its way, our production is going to ramp up quite a bit. I just hope we can keep up with the expected demand come tourist season.

The second big thing was my surgery. I knew in the back of my mind I would need it eventually; I just thought 'eventually' would be later. But it wasn't. The surgeon told me that if I'd waited another six months, I might not have made it. That was a sobering thought. But the surgery went well, and now I'm working on building up my strength and my endurance. After all, we're still on a farm, and there's work to do. It's possible I'll need to have the surgery again in a decade or so; we shall see what happens then.

The third big thing was that we went back to Ontario for a week, our first trip back since our move five years ago. In fact, it was five years to the day when we landed at Pearson Airport and went to see my mother. It was nice to see the people we saw, although we didn't see everyone; my sister was in Portugal, and our trip was split up due to the inconvenience of going to a baseball game right in the middle of the trip.

But that was an awesome game. My 55th birthday, and Tanner and I took the train to Toronto to go watch the final game of the season, which the Jays needed to win to clinch the AL East. And needless to say, they did, putting an absolute beat-down on the Tampa Bay Rays to secure the top seed in the AL on their way to a heartbreaking World Series loss to the Dodgers. Two outs away. They were so close...

Anyway, the trip was a bit rough; Garrett doesn't travel well, and Tanner had his own issues. But it was important for us to finally go back and see people we hadn't seen in five years, including some old friends as well as family. I'm not sure when we'll go back again, since it did take a lot out of us. And I caught something on that plane that hasn't disappeared yet. Three months, and I'm still coughing.

So, that's a brief look at the highlights of 2025. We're still raising chickens, although pigs are still off the table until my health is improved. But I can't wait to see what 2026 brings us. It's always an adventure, and anyone who's read my blogs knows that I love adventure.

See you all next year!

Merry Christmas to All!

I wrote this little ditty at my wife's request last night, and I thought I'd share it with my faithful readers on this blessed day.

Twas the night before Christmas in the sourdough bakery.

All the loaves were sold out, both the sweet and the savory.

The dough hook was hung by the chimney with care,

with hopes that a big oven soon would be there.

Customers settled all snug in their beds,

while visions of sourdough danced in their heads.

And I in my apron and he in his shirt

Were wondering how so many body parts hurt.

When up from the kitchen arose such a clatter

I went down the stairs to see what had just shattered.

I flew to the pantry to see for myself,

And found there an animate Elf on a Shelf!

He stood by the mixer, a spoon in his hand,

Then stared at me sternly and made his demand:

"More everything bagel! More apple! More cheddar!

Make plain loaves and minis with spicy hot peppers!

Give me chocolate chip cookies, and brownies so good,

So they can be shared by the whole neighbourhood!"

His eyes--how they twinkled with ravenous hunger

as he smiled and said, "I'm not getting any younger!"

He threw in some flour, some water, some starter,

Then grabbed all the spices right out of the larder.

"Get baking," he said with a waggling finger.

"There's more stuff to make, so don't you dare linger!"

But as he kept stirring the dough bowl to mix it,

I knew there was only one way I could fix it.

I took a deep breath, then I shook my poor head,

Then I woke from my dream in my warm, cozy bed.

Safe and sound, with no orders for bread in my sight,

I said "Merry Christmas, and to all a good night!"

Well, she liked it. Merry Christmas, everyone, and have a blessed New Year as well.

Christmas Prep...

Running a home bakery is a lot of work, even for two people. And with Christmas nearly upon us, it's been even busier. We've been making cookies, specialty sourdough breads, waffles, and more. Now we're preparing special Christmas breakfast boxes to be delivered and distributed by Christmas Eve. So, I don't know how much I'm going to get to post over the next week or so. But I'm not disappearing; I'm just exhausted from baking.

If you're interested in learning more about what we're doing, check us at out Come to the Table PEI on Facebook. And if you're on the Island, come see what the fuss is all about.

Happy Birthday, Peanut!

God help me, I have two teenagers in the house now. Happy Birthday to the sweetest boy I've ever known. Autistic or not, he is a bundle of unconditional love who is very much into Lego, puzzles, and coloring. He has certainly come a long way, and he has been one of the greatest blessings in my life.

Here he was at the age of three, before we knew about his autism. Big Brother Ashton was teaching him how to run a riding lawn mower. Actually, that's a tractor with an excavator bucket on the back. Ashton has always been into that sort of thing. Garrett always had fun with Ashton; they are very, very close.

I don't take a lot of pictures of my family, but the ones I do have are precious. Garrett means the world to me, and I am so grateful he's been in my life for thirteen whole years. I used to write a daily journal for him, but unfortunately our precious dog Raven ate the flash drive on which it was stored when he was only a couple of years old. Ah, well.

Happy Birthday, Peanut, and may you have many, many more as fun as this one was.

Happy Birthday, Honey Bunny!

It's a day late, but we were out late yesterday celebrating my wife's birthday. So, I wanted to simply drop a quick note that Dannielle is the greatest wife, mother, friend, and woman I've ever known, and I am eternally grateful to God that He brought us together. I can't imagine what the last eighteen years would have been like without her, and I'm glad I'll never have to know.

She doesn't like to have too many pictures taken of herself, but I do have a few saved, so here are some of our favorite memories over the past few years.

Prepping for our first pigs, Aug 2022

At the playground with the kids, Sep 2016

Leaving port for our fifth cruise, March 2017

I really don't have a lot of photos on my computer, which is unfortunate. But I've certainly got a lot of memories. Again, I am totally grateful that I get to be her husband. And we're even growing old together. But not that old. She's still young and beautiful.

Back on the Farm

After a fun week back in Ontario, we have returned to the homestead on the island and...well, it's back to work. Chickens to feed, gardens to prepare for the winter, bread to bake...yeah, it's back on.

The trip had its ups and downs; we got to see family we haven't seen in a few years, we got to see Niagara Falls and spend a couple of days there, and Tanner and I got to watch the Blue Jays clinch the AL East and the #1 seed in the American League. That was the best birthday present since the one where we moved here five years ago and I got a house.

We're all tired, of course; travel takes a lot out of you to begin with, and we're fighting colds and such. So, I'll keep it short tonight, but I intend to continue the Let's Read ASAP. In the meantime...Let's go, Blue Jays!

Ahhhhhhhh.....

A really short post tonight. We are taking a well-deserved break, and are visiting family in Ontario this week. I will try to post something while we are gone, but relaxing is hard work, so I might miss a day or two along the way.

Requiem for a Friend

What can you say about the best dog ever?

Raven came to us on Hallowe'en, 2013. She was the tiniest puppy, a bundle of energy and love. My wife brought her home from a visit to the pet store; it was the last time she was allowed to enter a pet store, because every time she did, another dog found its way into our home.

She had been born on a native reserve and had not had a home prior to us bringing her into our family. We were the only family she ever knew. And she fit right in with our other dog, Harley, a Shi-tzu whose previous owner happened to be allergic to his fur. Raven and our young son Tanner immediately bonded; Garrett was still a baby, less than a year old. Neither of them can remember a time in their lives without Raven there. For that matter, my wife and I can hardly remember a time when she wasn't a part of our lives.

Being so small, my wife was convinced that Raven would make a fine lap dog like a Shi-tzu. I tried to warn her, because we knew Raven was part Lab, which meant she wasn't going to be a small dog. But she did end up a lap dog, anyway. Even at fifty pounds and more than three feet long, she was still my wife's lap dog. Oops...

As she grew, Raven never lost her incredible affection for her family. She was always there, seeking attention and 'lovins' whenever one of us had a free hand. And she never lacked for lovins. Nor did she stint in giving it back. Curled up on the bed at our feet, or laying down with the kids while they watched TV, she was an endless bundle of love. Tanner was so excited the day he got to take her out on a walk solo for the first time. It was such a beautiful bonding moment for them, one he will never forget.

When Harley finally passed, Raven was about five years old, and she spent a week pining on the back porch waiting for her friend to come back. But of course, he wasn't coming back...and she fell into a depression that lasted up until we adopted a new puppy, Dexter the beagle (he's my profile pic to the right). They hit it off incredibly well, and she was overjoyed at having a new little brother.

When we moved from Ontario to Prince Edward Island, she was the most patient dog in the world during that long drive, sitting in the back seat of my car in her kennel. When we stopped for a break or to camp for the night, she was as frisky and fun-loving as ever, but always stayed close by Tanner and I. When we got here, she immediately took to the joys of farm life and twenty acres to run around, still playing with Dexter.

But being out on the farm instead of in town brought us some new surprises. Raven learned that the family now included chickens, and the garden I was carefully tending was sacrosanct and needed to be protected. And so, she became a fierce and loyal guardian for the farm. This played out one day when we heard Dexter barking frantically in the treeline. We saw nothing at first except bushes shaking, and we heard something squealing and screeching while Raven came into view bounding around and growling and snarling. We soon realized she was actually fighting something! At first, I had the wild idea that she'd gone nuts and attacked Dexter, but he was off to the side barking and cheering her on.

A few minutes later, she came trotting toward us with something in her mouth. Something almost Dexter's size. Something with a tail. A ringed tail. Yes, she had fought and killed a raccoon, and she was returning home a triumphant warrior. She pranced right by me with her ears alert, then deposited the dead raccoon right on our front porch like a conquering hero's trophy. I was not quite ready for that display of martial prowess at that point, and our oldest boy, Ashton, had to take the trophy away and dispose of it.

Raven loved being on the farm; the freedom of being off-leash at night, able to wander around and guard the barn and the chickens every evening, letting the foxes and coyotes know that this was not hunting territory for them. She was pretty successful, although we had a couple of unfortunate incidents. But those weren't Raven's fault; she was an excellent guard dog for the farm.

It was in the last couple of months that we knew something was up; she was struggling to keep up on her walks, and soon we cut her down to half the usual distance. Her appetite wasn't very good, either. We took her to the vet, and the initial diagnosis was arthritis, which isn't uncommon in senior dogs. We got some medication to help control it, but it didn't help very much. Finally, a couple of days ago, she simply stopped eating. I couldn't even give her a treat or wet food, which she would normally gulp down with gusto.

Yesterday, August 23rd, she got to see Dexter once again; he lives with our older son now. They came over for a visit to help us with some plumbing issues (he's much handier than I am), and Dexter came along. Then in the evening, as I was getting ready to go to bed after a long and exhausting week of baking for our business, I got a mental nudge to go downstairs and see where Raven was and what she was doing.

She was on the dining room floor by my wife's chair, where she often lay whether my wife was sitting there or not. But now, she wasn't moving. Her breathing was labored, and she didn't even lift her head when I called her. An arrow hit me right in the stomach, and I went upstairs and told Tanner he needed to come down right away. He did so, and started petting her and hugging her head. We both knew somehow that this was the end. When her bladder released and she peed all over the floor, I went up and called my wife and Garrett down as well; they needed to be there for this. Holly, our new chocolate lab, came as well. Together, we petted our beloved puppy-girl and told her how much we loved her until at last, she left us. Surrounded by her family, she knew it was okay to go.

Tanner is still heartbroken, of course. I came up the stairs tonight and looked at the spot in my office where she always lay by my chair when everyone else was getting to bed. She'll never lay there again. I told my wife that I'd have to return to the hospital for surgery, because there is a Raven-sized hole in my heart now.

She didn't appreciate that attempt at humor. I'll have to do better.

This afternoon, Tanner and I brought her to the crematorium; Tanner picked out her urn, because he wants her on a shelf in his room. We shared some memories and photos with Gaylene, the woman who handles the cremation business. Tanner carried her in by himself, all 62 pounds of her, wrapped in the blanket she always lay on in my office, which is mixed in with her ashes now.

Tomorrow, I'll go pick her up along with some mementos for Tanner: a paw print, a nose print, and some of her fur. Why he wants that I don't know, since she left a lot of fur all over the house; she would shed like she was always stuck in a windstorm. But he'll always have those pieces to remember her by, and he wants to get a tattoo of her pawprint. I've never approved of tattoos, and my wife hasn't either. But she's willing to make this exception for him, and I don't see how I can say 'no'.

For such a long time I would scratch her behind the ears and tell her 'you're such a good girl'. But the truth is, she wasn't a good girl; she was the very best girl. We will have other dogs (my wife thinks otherwise, but I know better; I just have to take her to a pet store and that will be that), and we will love and cherish them. But none of them will ever mean the same to us as Raven did. She was our Puppy-Girl, and she was the best dog ever.

Goodbye, Puppy-Girl. We'll see you again someday. I expect your spirit to knock me off my feet when we do. Because your love was always even bigger than you were.

Farewell, Puppy-Girl...

Raven Sprigg, 8/31/2013 - 8/23/2025

The best dog ever. We will miss her so, so much.

Prayers Answered

So, after a trip to the vet and some fairly pricey medicine, our puppy-girl is doing better. She's got arthritis, which isn't curable but is manageable. We figured out to get her to eat her food to take the medicine (canned dog food is the key), so she's walking better without so much limping. She's still not chasing raccoons and chickens, but at least she's not whimpering in pain with every step. I don't know how long the medicine will be effective, but I'll take whatever we get. As I said last time, we aren't ready to say good-bye just yet.

So, for those who did keep Raven in your prayers, thank you, and God bless.

Prayers for a Family Member

 

This is Raven, our puppy-girl. She's turning twelve in three weeks, but she's struggling right now. We're hoping and praying that it's just an injured shoulder, but she's nearly unable to stand, let alone walk or climb the stairs. So, we'll see what the vet says on Wednesday. Until then, please add Raven to your prayers. We're not quite ready to say good-bye.

Another New Year...

Okay, I see that people have actually been visiting the blog despite my lack of activity over the past six months, so I guess I really need to get back to it. And now seems as good a time as any.

So, a quick review of 2023: I published four books at the beginning of the year, then fell off the writing wagon as my work situation drastically changed and I became a full-time farmer. We raised about 125 meat chickens, learned how to butcher them ourselves, actually DID butcher some of them ourselves, and raised five pigs from weaning. Three of those pigs are now in the freezer; two of them are breeders, and will be giving us bacon seeds in the spring. We also got a bunch of chickens and a coop from a homesteader who moved to North Carolina last month, so we currently have about forty egg-laying chickens, two pigs, and three bunnies. And a crap-ton of rats, which stubbornly refuse to die off.

That's 2023 in a nutshell. Now, on to 2024.

So, what are the goals for this year? Well, I have a few. First we're going to be getting a greenhouse in the spring. I'm going to be growing a LOT of tomatoes and peppers for sale, as well as a bunch of other veggies. We're also planning to ramp up our chicken flock, particularly in the meat-bird category; the goal for 2024 is at least 200 chickens. We're also going to get five or six more pigs for meat, since Samson and Delilah's kids will take a year to grow.

Why are we ramping up like this? Because I'm going to be selling the veggies to a local business that will turn all that fresh, naturally-grown produce into meals for people to buy. And we grew our customer base for our meat as well. We're only selling to locals and friends, since we're not a commercial farm. But it definitely provides us with some income.

So, that's the farm. What about the writing? I candidly admit I failed miserably to meet any of my writing goals after publishing that fourth book in April. The switch to farming really upended everything, and I found myself constantly putting off the writing in favor of other things that seemed more important. I'm not going to make that mistake this year; I'm still aiming for ten books to be published in 2024. I'm starting the first one tonight; I don't have anything nearly complete that I can just whip off in a few days and get ready for publication.

I'm also going to take the books I've already published and get them on other platforms besides Amazon. I'm not sure how much work that will take, but if I can add them onto Indigo, that's the main Canadian book seller (like Barnes & Noble in the States). It will certainly increase my potential audience, which can't hurt.

Another interesting development is that my wife finally gave in on playing Dungeons & Dragons. Not that she's going to ever play, but since our middle son wants to play, she finally relented, and we've got a biweekly game going at a local place with some of his friends. I'm the DM, at least for now, and we'll see how long it goes on for. We're starting a new campaign, a conversion of the Shackled City campaign from twenty years ago, converted to 1st edition Advanced D&D. It's going to be a blast.

I'm also going to be more diligent in keeping the blog going; I really wasn't expecting this many people to come see what I've been doing, so it's really great to see some traffic. And I'll have to give people a reason to keep coming back, so it's time to get this done. I don't know if I'll be able to keep it up consistently all year, but I'm certainly going to make every effort. And I plan on doing the A to Z challenge in April again as well, with another writing theme.

One more thing that we have going on: My son and I are going to France next year, April of 2025. It's a school trip, with a strong history theme. We'll be going to Vimy Ridge, Normandy, Versailles, and a day trip to the Netherlands as well to see how much they love Canada there. I can't wait to go; it's going to be amazing.

Alright, it's another new year, another set of resolutions, and it's going to be the biggest year yet for me, for the family, for the farm, and for the blog.

14 Years

The love of my life, now and forever.

Why We Chose to Farm

Hello to any new readers who have stopped by thanks to the Big Based Book Sale. I'm honored that you chose to visit me here, and you're probably wondering what a guy who writes fantasy, sci-fi, mysteries, and steampunk superheroes is doing talking about living on a farm.

It's simple, really. When we moved out here in September of 2020, we had been living in a small town for the entirety of our marriage; our two youngest boys were born there, and raised in that same small town. But we always knew that wasn't our forever home; we just didn't know where we would end up.

The decision to move was an easy one; we knew that we weren't happy where we were, and we wanted to give our kids a better place to spend their remaining childhood years. But we were still thinking about suburban life, near a big city; San Antonio, Texas, was one place that we actively looked at, years ago. But moving to the States isn't easy, and during Covid...well, that was just out of the question. So, that eliminated Tennessee, Florida, the Carolinas, and a few other places we had been considering.

That left moving somewhere else in Canada. Again, rural life wasn't on our radar, but when we started looking at the Maritimes, the thought of living outside the city and out in the quiet land was more and more appealing. So, we picked a small hobby farm in western Prince Edward Island, bought it, packed everything up, sold our house, and trekked across Eastern Canada for five days to get here.

So, why farm? We're not doing anything commercially; it's a small, 20-acre farm, half of which is woods, so there's not a lot of room to grow anything significant, like wheat or barley. It's an old dairy farm, so there are buildings set up for that, and grazing fields for the cattle. But we don't have cows.

But we took a long, hard look at the economy in Canada, and realized that things were going to get much, much worse before they got any better. Inflation wasn't jumping up the way it is now, but the writing was on the wall for those who knew how to read it. Add to that the issues with the food in the grocery stores (overpriced, processed crap, for the most part, including the produce), and we decided that we'd have to learn how to grow our own food. And by 'we', it was obviously going to be 'me'. My wife is amazing at prepping food; she is a kitchen goddess, a living cheat code for cooking. And she even has experience working in her parents' garden centre when she was a teenager. But when it came to actually digging into the ground, planting stuff and making sure it grew, that was on me.

And it's a challenge that I have learned to relish. I've spent decades looking for some meaning in the work I do, whether it was working in retail, selling life insurance, bookkeeping, teaching...but none of it had the impact that this life does. It's an incredible thing to put seeds into the ground and watch them turn into amazing, delicious food. Not only that, but we've got plenty of meat as well: chickens, pigs, and possibly rabbits, if the ones we do have start producing young. I'm planting trees today that my grandkids will sit under and pick apples from. That's an amazing legacy to leave behind.

It's weird, especially for someone who grew up with a military father and a lifetime of city or small-town living. But it feels amazing. To get up in the morning and just breathe that fresh air (okay, it's not infrequently seasoned with fresh cow manure from the surrounding fields) is an experience in and of itself. And every morning as I step outside to go feed the animals, I thank God for giving us this opportunity. It's His farm, after all; I'm just tending it, like we were commanded to do all the way back at the beginning.

I've learned that this life isn't for everyone; there are a lot of people who would never be able to make the transition from city or suburban life to this way of living. And it is a fundamental change, something that requires a wholly different mindset. Out of the rat race, focusing on building something sustainable, something long-lasting, something my grandkids will be able to come home to someday. It's a challenge I never thought I could even contemplate, but it's a challenge I'm facing head-on. And with a beautiful, loving wife by my side, and three boys with their own unique contributions to make, I really believe it's possible.

And if the world really is going to hell and society is teetering on collapse, then we're giving ourselves the best opportunity to pull through it and make it to the other side. And if not, at least I'll eat better than ever before, knowing where everything on the plate is coming from: My own backyard.

A Very Big Announcement

Well, there's been a lot of soul searching, a lot of discussion with my wife, and a lot of praying. And the decision has been made. It was actually made a couple of weeks ago, but the turning point is just around the corner. So, here it is:

As of this Friday, I am retiring.

Okay, that's rather dramatic. But I am leaving my job, and I'm not looking for another one. I've been looking, but nothing has come up that would fit the circumstances our family is in. And so, as of Friday I am going to be home, full-time, working on the farm. Raising the animals, growing food, doing building projects...yeah, I'm taking the plunge.

Why? Especially in this economy, with jobs being hard to find and inflation hitting us hard? Because it's necessary. And it's a leap of faith, no question. But the truth is, this was inevitable. This is what we've been moving toward for three years now, ever since we started looking eastward for our family move.

I've spent my life jumping from job to job, hobby to hobby, always looking for something that was the right fit. I've worked in fast food, book stores, grocery, teaching, music, insurance, telemarketing, telephone customer service, bookkeeping...and nothing, not even the book stores, gave me a sense of satisfaction, or made me feel I was doing something truly worthwhile.

And ever since we moved here, I've had that feeling when I worked on the farm, whether it was feeding the chickens, digging out a garden, planting seeds, even building a rabbit hutch. This feels like it matters, like nothing else ever has. For the past three years, I've been drawn more and more to this life, and I'm finally surrendering. And while it's scary as hell, it's also exciting and amazing at the same time.

Frankly, when I stop to think about it, it's not at all surprising. After all, what was the very first thing God commanded Adam and Eve to do, after telling them to have lots of kids? He commanded them to till the land and keep it, and to have dominion over the land and the creatures on it. It doesn't get any more elemental than that. So really, I'm just doing what God told me to do.

So far, we've had a lot of support from friends and neighbours, as well as family. Which is gratifying, to say the least, not to mention surprising. In a good way. We will need that moral support in the months to come as we go through this change.

So, what does this mean? Well, it means that I'm going to be able to give the gardens the attention they will need. Instead of a couple of days a week plus evenings, I'll be full-time in the gardens, using them to their fullest capacity. I'm planning to enroll in a couple of courses that will help me maximize the garden's output so we have enough not only for ourselves, but also to sell. After all, there are still bills to pay. And there's a lot of work to do on the farm that I just don't have time to do when working at a full-time job, things that absolutely have to get done.

It's a big deal, I know. And it's going to be an incredible journey, one that I wish I could have taken years ago, but one that I wasn't ready to take until now. But I am ready, and so is the rest of the family. And yes, I'm still going to write. And I'll have more time for that, too.

Construction Season

Well, now that we're into May, it's time for actual spring, as opposed to official spring, which is a joke here when the last frost date for the season is around May 28th. And so, that means it's time to get farm stuff done. Our first building project of the season: A bunny hutch for the Flemish giants. The goal: To breed the bunnies and sell the babies, either as food or as pets, I don't really care either way.

My wife got me a book on homesteading projects for the rookie builder. That would be me; I've mentioned before my lack of affinity for tools. But I'm getting it done, and it's looking pretty good. I'll get some pictures up when I get it completed, which I hope to be around tomorrow or Sunday.

The best thing about this project is that both the older boys are helping me with it. Ashton's better with the tools, but Tanner is learning and doing stuff as well. It's important bonding time for a father and his sons. And with every project we do, our collective skill and understanding of how to do it will improve as well.

As for Garrett, well...he's starting to do more stuff outside, but he's nowhere near ready to be working with tools. But maybe I'll get him to help some other way this summer. It will be good for him.