Information is still pertinent but blog closing down

I hope that those who stumble upon or read this blog will have access to information about the farm. I have included as many of the questions from interested inquiries as possible and feel it is time to close the blog down. If you do have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us
at pioneerfarm@pei.sympatico.ca

Answers To More Questions

Concerning the business.

The business ' Pioneer Farm Ltd ' is not a part of the property sale. It can certainly be looked at if anyone wants to purchase the company.

Question- Does your business make enough money to support 2 people living in PEI year round?

This is a very difficult question for me to answer. After we built the farm Jim became ill and I have been trying to operate mostly alone and actually had a burnout/ breakdown last summer and hospitalisation myself for a month. Under these circumstances we were unable to continue on. My belief is that there are endless possibilities and that with 2 healthy people and some savvy business management you would be able to make a go of it. There are basically 2 tourism operational months in the year but outside of that there are lots of things that we were going to do, but could not because of his illness. You would have to come up with a business plan and see for yourselves.

Can You See the Water from Your Home?

Most definately yes, you can see the water from the home it is a glorious view. We have a huge window in the main house as well as patio doors that lead out to the porch.
We put in a dock in the summer and we row or canoe out to the sand bar which takes us 10 mins it is a little piece of heaven. The property is 3,000ft of ocean frontage and 1,000ft of river frontage bordering on Little Pierre Jacques river.

Where are you located?

We are 15 mins from O'Leary on the way to West point off route 14 at Glenwood at the end of route 176 which is called Macdonald road.

How much of the land has existing trails ?

We have made good headway in developing trails and this is something that is always on the to do list. In the winter there are about 3 kms worth of trails for sleighing, skidooing, snowshoeing or cross country skiing. We Tend to stay out of the woods in the summer as it is pretty buggy in there. but we do have a road /trail that is signed for a public nature trail with all the local trees descriptions of etc and I use this trail for wagon rides and llama trekks too in the summer.

On our website http://www.pioneerfarm.ca/ there are some media links, 2 great videos by Global news and Eastlink tv on the main page when you scroll down also The Canadian Tourism Commision last sept took a video that was posted on you tube and the following is the link. 2008www.metacafe.com/watch/2527879/pioneer_farm_prince_edward_island_canada/

I hope some of these questions help. Last week was a hard week 3 of the goats left Dudley, Tinkerbell, and her baby Tootsie. They will be at Avonlea village this summer and for the rest of the year will be looked after by the farmer in charge of the animals at Avonlea
village. Our peacock Asmaani also left to go to a new home in Hunter river-sad times.

Animals

Are any of the animals staying with the sale of the farm?

The above picture is of Dudley our stud goat and the one above that of Tinkerbell and Tootsie.

The horses April and Jethro, Moses the Donkey and Thumbelina a pygmy goat will be remaining with Jim and I. The remaining herd is for sale these consist of 6 llamas, Dudley a West African pygmy buck stud, Tinkerbell a female pygmy and her doeling baby (Tootsie) born March 9th/09. Also a breeding pair of peafowl. All the horse equipment, harness etc is not for sale. last summer I significantly downsized the animal population and found homes for most of the critters that you see in our website under 'petting farm'

Selling The Farm And Pertinent Questions That Arise

Many of the questons that people put to us are very similar in content. So to be truthful this is an experiment in making it a little easier on myself and perhaps lure interested buyers to this blog. I will copy a response I just made to a couple in ontario.

Why are we selling?
Shortly after building the farm Jim became ill and although we have tried to keep going I suffered a burnout/breakdown last year so we decided with great sadness that it would be best to sell the property and hopefully it would go to others who would have a sense of the vision we started and perhaps carry some of the vison on. We have put an enourmous amount of time, energy and finances into it so with all of this going on it created 'The perfect storm' of financial burden, burnout and ongoing health problems.

Background on the area.
I will tell you a little of the area. We are 15 min drive from O'Leary. This community has everything you need as far as any shopping requirements, Grocery, feed mill, gas station, hardware stores, Tim Hortons! rink, restuarants, variety stores, drug stores, hospital etc. I tend to do most of my shopping in O'Leary and if there is something special I need I go to Summerside which is 45 mins away I probably make this trip once a month. Charlotteown is 90 mins and I rarely go.

What's the weather like?
The weather here is interesting and being an island can be very changeable. They say give it ten minutes and it will change! Winter begins in December and you can usually safely say that by end if April it will mostly be dried up and spring will have shown it's head. Winters are quiet and almost a time to hibernate and re-energise. I like to make use of the time to snow shoe, keep up the trails with the horse and sleigh, read cook and socialise with friends. Many people snowmobile and ice fish. We have a resort called Rodd Mill River and they have a pool and sports complex, squash court also cross country ski trails and in the summer golf course. the island produces a lot of wind and one of the beauties of Pioneer farm is that it is well protected with its surrounding woodland. We are always surprised that when we go off the farm how much wind you feel. In the summer it is the opposite we get a lovely breeze off the ocean. Summers are usually in the low 20's it can get hotter but not intolerably so. It is not as humid as Southwestern Ontario.

What about heat?
On the farm we heat mostly with wood. We go through about 4-5 cords of wood per winter and of course you have all the wood you would need for the rest of your life. I generally use the wood stove during the day and then let the propane kick in at night. if you babysit the wood stove you will use less propane. This year we have relied more on the propane and our season cost will be approx $1000. I close down the cottage during the winter but it also has propane heat. Until this year we have plowed out our own lane but because of Jims health this winter we contracted a local farmer to blow us out and you can reckon on 6-8 times per season at $50 per trip.

What are the locals like?
We have made some really good island friends and also others that ' come from away ' this is the term to describe non islanders! Islanders will give you the shirt off their back. Many especially in rural pei are not highly educated but treat them with respect and you will always have someone to count on. there is a great feeling of community here and for all these reasons when we sell the farm Jim and I will stay in this area we have come to love and feel a part of it.

Alternative energy eqiupment.
In our opinion the next step would be to put in a larger wind turbine on the farm as our self generating energy needs run a little short in the winter time. We have a back up generator which we have to use ocassionally to charge up the batteries. Summer time there is generally no problem. There are no conditions here that would prevent you from putting in any turbine you choose. a good friend has a company called renewable lifestyles and he is in the business of providing people with their alternative energy needs he runs his business out of Summerside, so he would be of great help to advise and order equipment and help install.


Here is a list of most of our alternative energy componants
The charge controller is an Outback MX60, the charger/inverter is a Magnum "Magna Sine" c/w remote. We have six 2 volt Surrette Deep Cycle 2KS33P batteries, a Rutland Furlmatic 910-3 windcharger and a Link 10 system monitor. For solar we have two 100 watt ground mounted (german) and six 60 watt on the roof.

How much are property taxes?
Taxes are approximately $100 per month.

Telephone and possibility of bringing in Hydro?
We have a telephone line that is buried but we are still on dial up. The govt of Pei has promised that all of rural Pei will have accses to high speed bythe end of this year. For those who are interested we have had a quote to bring hydro lines down and the price was $13.000.oo.

When I have more guestions come to me or if I think of any other info that would be good to pass on I will post again.

A Return To Blogging

It has been almost a year since we opened the blog. As you can see there have been no postings made for quite some time. Jim reminded me about it yesterday and now having made the desicion to close the farm and put it up for sale we thought it might be an idea to put in some information here for those who have been making enquiries. I will have to think about what is pertinent information and try and get my head wrapped around this and how to approach it. So I will just let it ruminate for a bit and see where it leads us.

Birth Of The Earth Oven

The project of 3 years is finally being created. For the base of the oven Roy has cut down some Poplar trees and is stacking the posts vertically to create strength and height, when we bake we don't want to be sliding food in at ground level. Inside the walls of the poplar there will be a mass of crushed stone and gravel to create a thermal mass to hold heat. Jim and Roy took off to West Piont last night to get a truck load of sand. The dome of the oven will be molded around the sand. We will also make a mixture of sand, clay and straw to form the walls of the oven and I am looking forward to bare feet mixing as one would stomp grapes.

It has been so long since I last posted I almost gave up on myself but we had some motivating visitors to the farm last week. Francois and Lisa hail from the the States and are a breath of fresh air. He is the chef of Dayboat a gourmet restuarant in North Rustico and Lisa manages the restaurant. They initially came for a short visit to the farm but you know when you "Know" that people fit and I invited them to camp here with us over night. We had an amazing pot luck meal all cooked outside on the fire pit. Our contrbution was local flounder baked in foil three ways with crab, tomatoe and garlic and the third with turmeric and onion which Roy put together. We had prime rib rubbed with a dry rub, potatoes and onions sauteed in duck fat and a salad of duck confit and mushrooms. Lashings of wine and eating outside made for a most memorable meal.

Update on the the peahen. After a month of laying an egg here and there she finally settled on the most unlikely of places. The workshop bench in amongst nails and srews, no straw a most uncomfortable spot but obviously not to her. We shall see if all her efforts hatch!!

The Peahen Laid An Egg

Great news our peahen 'Snow White' has laid her first egg. Asmaani our peacock has been hard at work in the flirting department he is constantly displaying and shaking his feathers at basically anything that moves, isn't he like all men!!! I found the egg on top of the rabbit hutches sitting all alone and cold, so I took a small tyre and filled it with straw and put the egg in it. She may be drawn to the nest or not lets hope so.

Roy has set the big cauldron up for boiling. It now takes 3 hrs to boil a large batch of piggie porridge that will last them 6 feedings. A little better than the every day boil we were doing. the farm is in its usual mud surroundings after a couple of days of heavy rains and snow yet again, but we are looking forward to some sunshine over the weekend.

I have the first Llama trek of the season booked for this weekend and also the first group of school visitors coming next week so we shall put up my signs for the learning stations around the farm of which there are 12. At each station there is information about what animals are there, some history of their domestication and why we have them on the farm today.

Roy and I took some days off while Jenn and her boyfriend Jay were here. We made good food, had a sausage cookout one night. Rode the horses, did a carriage ride and played tock till the wee hours of the morning. And a good time was had by all!

Spring = Lots To Do

With spring finally being here; we have so many odd jobs that need attention. Clean up has been our main focus as the melting snow uncovers more and more things that need to tidied. Katie is coming along nicely, and I want to devote an entry on her progress. The other day we had to go out to sea and rescue the dock as it had spent the day floating past the sandbar. I also want to post an entry on that particular outing; Judy ended up walking the dock through 2ft of cold, cold water, lots of pictures!

Jenny is arriving tomorrow, Judy is so excited. We spent the day grooming the driveway and finding a place for sleighs, wagons and buggies. The Llama's seemed to have found a way through two strands of electric fencing; so this morning was devoted to "llama lockup". Four strands of electric fencing and some extra posts should hold them at bay!

More on Katie's progress and Judys water adventure another time. Enjoy these pictures for the time being.