What Life Brings Us

Grape Crush in Nova Scotia

rivard — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 13:34:43 +0000

Nova Scotia is in the middle of the grape harvest and crushing grapes is the first part in the winemaking process.

The following little video shows a little bit of what I have been up for the last couple weeks with another week to go. This year’s harvest will be a very good one due to the perfect summer conditions we have had.

Back from London

rivard — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:20:03 +0000

London

Originally uploaded by Rivard

Just back from a busy week in London. Great things are going on, will update later… I enjoy the vide in the UK (also the beer is great

I love London!

The North Koreans don’t like to be on Camera

rivard — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:29:46 +0000

On a recent trip to a border town by North Korea, the North Korean entertainment did not like to be filmed…

We did have a great meal at a North Korean restaurant which caters to mostly Chinese tourists where the North Korean staff entertains the guests, sign North Korean songs which are sometime patriotic or even propaganda based showing off their country. That in itself was nice and certainly interesting to us heathens but when the camera came out to film one of these ladies signing us a song, the mood changed a bit…

Starting to Plant

rivard — Sat, 22 May 2010 22:41:22 +0000

We started planting on our farm today. Planted a 1000 raspberry canes, not easy work with another thousand to go tomorrow. Planting two varieties; Royalties and Novas.

Next will be and acre and a half of Honeycrisp apples, after that it will be a bit under an acre of blueberries.

Feeling good about my new fruit growing venture and the learning curve is very steep. It’s all good though…

Our New Dog -Tess

rivard — Sun, 16 May 2010 23:47:32 +0000

Yesterday we got a new pet. A cute little Border Collie whom we called “Tess”.

She is certainly a handful but very smart and loving.

We will enjoy her company and will be a great addition to the family.

Roto Tilling ’till the cows come home…

rivard — Sun, 16 May 2010 09:44:22 +0000

I have almost four acres of land to get ready asap in order to plant hopefully by the end of the week.

Planting raspberries, apples, blueberries and cherry trees this Spring. A project that is more work than I originally thought but immensly satisfying. So lately, all I’ve been up to is spraying herbicides on this land that has never been cultivated before, plowing, correcting soil ph with limeor sulphur, adding fertilizers, boron, etc and now rototilling, and rotolilling again in order to tame this land. I’m getting there and things are starting to look good.

Looking forward to planting and seeing neat rows of fruit starting to take shape.

The wine will be ready in 4-5 years!

Baby Chicks Have Arrived

rivard — Sun, 16 May 2010 09:35:08 +0000

Yesterday our new batch of baby chickens have arrived. This time a “meat kings” variety.

We now have a new chicken pen to accomodate them and apparently they will be ready to eat in a few months although they are so cute now the thought having to kill them is not very easy to bare.

Basketball Tounament Winners

rivard — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:07:07 +0000

Emma has grown to love sports. Sport was not really encouraged at her school in Tailand but here in Nova Scotia, its a big deal with lots of support. This has worked well for our daughters, especially Emma who’s team has recently won the local basketball tournament.
Go Emma Go!

Going Snowshoeing

rivard — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:13:31 +0000

Spent a cold snowy day learning how to snowshoe. Was a fun time by all, even though I spent most of the time tieing on the kids snowshoes…

Frosty Morning

rivard — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:01:17 +0000

frosty morning

Originally uploaded by Rivard

Waking up to a very frosty winter’s morning. The frost patterns on my bedroom window has put this into perspective and awakened my creative spirit…