Farm Tour

A little over a  year ago, we took a calculated leap of faith and bought a 1800’s farm. 

Best guess (by creeping Google maps) the property had not been a proper working farm in a very long time. Maybe thirty years..? As a result, it would be awhile before I would be able to bring home a pony or two (or five, but sshhhh don’t tell my husband!) First things first, we need fencing, shelters and a barn would need to be built or one of the existing outbuilding repaired.

Best guess (by creeping Google maps) the property had not been a proper working farm in a very long time. Maybe thirty years..? As a result, it would be awhile before I would be able to bring home a pony or two (or five, but sshhhh don’t tell my husband!) First things first, we need fencing, shelters and a barn would need to be built or one of the existing outbuilding repaired.

Et voila! So began our journey of restoring and rehabilitating this beautiful historic property.

All that stands in my way of having a horse in my backyard is hard work and hope. Would you like to see some pictures of the farm? I would love to show you around!

The Farmhouse

Warm and Whimsical

Lush overgrown pastures hug either side of the narrow gravel laneway that leads to Nixon Farm. The farmhouse stands atop a slight hill, looking regal, warm and inviting.  

Whimsical, facifully cut ornate gingerbread trim lines the wraparound porch.

Old chippy paint covers the historic wood siding.

‘Paint house’ is on the massive ‘to do’ list. 

A giant walnut tree means that we have really really fat squirrels around here. These plump buggers make a heck of a racket when they chase each other across the metal roof! 

Summer Kitchen

Historic Charm

Though crumbling, many of the outbuildings still boast oodles of charm. Just look at this quaint little summer kitchen!

This charming little structure stands just across the laneway from the farmhouse. 

A mother and her five bratty little kids took up residence in the summer kitchen this past spring. Worst tenants ever. They left suddenly in the middle of the night, leaving a terrible mess, never to be seen again.

If this dumpster diving trash panda gets herself knocked up again and returns next spring so help me avocado gods, I’ll be playing Nickleback on a loop on the 6 CD changer – cassette – stereo – boombox for the entire duration of her stay!

Take that you greasy knuckled raccoon.    

The Chick-Inn

Get it? The Chick-Inn?

(Consider yourself warned. Dad jokes and bad puns ahead. I can’t help myself)

Okay.. sorry. Got a little bit carried away there. Back to the farm tour. Just next to the summer kitchen is the Chick-Inn. An old garage, turn chicken coop, that we converted into a pig pen! Reinforced fencing, insulation, a hay loft and fancy barn board accent walls were added last fall when we welcomed Mick Jagger, our little mini pig to the farm. Mick is an indoor/outdoor pet, much like our dogs.

He loves spending time in the house, just as much as he enjoys rooting and working on various DIY projects in his pen. I mean he watched one show on HGTV and thinks he is Mike Holmes. However, his shoddy workmanship and loads of half finished projects would suggest that he is no Mike Holmes. 

Amateur pig owner tip: 15 pound piglets can move just about anything. We have him stumped with a half a dozen 90 pound patio stones. 

They are dual purpose: 

1) they keep his hooves filed

2) he can’t expand his pen into the adjacent cordwood building, much to his dismay. 

The Cordwood

WWSKS What Would Steven King Say?

From a distance, the cordwood building boasts historic charm, character the whole bit. At first, this building was inaccessible because this section of the property was overgrown. Raspberry bushes, piles of junk, poison parsnip, out of control Manitoba Maples… had staked their claim to this bit of land. After much blood, sweat and laughter (Come on. It’s funny when one’s spouse goes bum over tea kettle because they saw ‘the scariest spider ever’) we could finally take a peek inside this mysterious barn. 

Upon closer inspection we discovered something alarming. 

The cordwood was boarded up from both the inside and the outside (cue suspenseful music.) 

The only logical conclusion was of course, zombies. The thing I fear most in this world. Given that everything that has ever been written on the internet must be truthful, I have to disclose that there were in fact…. no zombies when we courageously broke into the building armed with a hockey stick and a BBQ scraper-thing. 

The cordwood is filled with a variety of things:

• A filing drawer filled with typewriter and handwritten notes on egg yields
• A crib with a painting of little children on it
• Old metal machinery 
• Newspapers
• Garbage
• Trash
• Junk
• Rubbish
• Debris
• Tetanus hazzards
• Vermiculite (did you know you can order hazmat suits on Amazon?)

We are hopeful that a local museum may be interested in some of the items, as for the rest of it, it’s one helluva clean up project added to the docket!

Machine Shed

“Hey Alexa! How do you turn a machine shed into a horse stable?”

Sleighs, plows, wagons, and eventually tractors may have been stored in this old barn.

The evolution of such farm equipment reflects the changing farming practices over the last century and represents how a whole way of life has changed!

The possibilities are endless with this one. It may very well be repurposed into a temporary stable / hay storage area as we wait to construct a new stable.

Next step is to figure out how… 

The Main Barn

Stumble into a place time forgot

Exploring this beauty makes you feel like you stumbled into a place time forgot. A time when life was slower, when people had a genuine connection to the earth.

Built in the late 1800’s, with a cathedral hayloft, I couldn’t help but appreciate the craftsmanship. Just look at these giant hand-hewn beams joined together with wooden pegs instead of nails! 

This wheel once hoisted slings of loose hay into the loft, lifted by ropes attached to pulleys. 

Sadly, this dear old barn, once likely the centre of a thriving family farm, is fighting a battle with time and gravity. It’s heartbreaking because these barns are an important piece of history, and once they are gone, they are gone. 

Hopefully it can be preserved and restored, I will keep you updated!