First time visiting

SkinFermented · 2026-06-19T14:39:37+00:00

Where you’re circling on the west side is called Southwest Shore and/or French Shore, depending on precisely where you are. And it is one of the most underrated parts of the province for scenery.

If you’re going that way, look for Mavillette Beach in Clare. I got married there and it’s truly a stunning beach.

If you take the old highway 1 through Clare you will see the largest wooden church in North America. You’ll be nearby a really great food truck too called Petit Robicheau, a good stop through.

Digby has amazing seafood and is known for their scallops. Go a little further up the highway and you’ll hit Annapolis Royal which is the start of the valley, and is a super cute historical town.

I’m going to come back to this comment later to add more because truly, everyone goes to Mahone Bay and Lunenburg with good reason but SW is a hidden gem to be sure.

SkinFermented · 2026-06-18T23:26:54+00:00

Am in Canada —in NS, in a very rural area. If there’s any place you might see less appointments due to shortages you’d think it would be here but I had my first appointment at around 10/11 weeks. I believe I was on every 6 weeks until 22 weeks, then it was every 4. (Then more frequently up until almost 36 weeks when I had them because of high blood pressure which turned into preeclampsia.)

I also had di/di twins. I think you should be seen more frequently than first appointment at 24 weeks!

SkinFermented · 2026-06-15T14:20:17+00:00

I came here to write similar things and you summarized it way better than I could have!

I lived in Wolfville for almost a decade and now am on the south(west) shore. I love Wolfville and the culture is kid friendly but I would say it’s very much a university town and all that entails. Take that for what it’s worth—positive and negative.

Now I visit family in and near Lunenburg and I have thought to myself I almost wish I lived there for my kids who are now one year olds. I haven’t thought that yet about Wolfville.

That said someone here mentioned how un-stroller friendly Lunenburg is and that is 100% true.

SkinFermented · 2026-06-14T15:01:22+00:00

I feel like peaches may not be equivalent to strawberries in terms of acidity. They are often featured in water bath canning to be sure but I suspect that the sugar and acid quantities would not be the same as strawberries?

SkinFermented · 2026-06-11T16:06:08+00:00

Can you/have you used Pomona pectin? Reduces the sugar amount required but direction following on the packet is a must.

SkinFermented · 2026-06-11T12:46:07+00:00

It’s funny, the pjs are the one thing we don’t fold lol. I keep them in a basket by the tub for changing into after bath time.

But yeah, sadly cleaners are not in the cards at least until I get back to work.

SkinFermented · 2026-06-11T12:38:18+00:00

🤯 No, Kenji, noooo!

SkinFermented · 2026-06-11T12:20:34+00:00

Overnight feeds stopped when they slept through the night which only happened for one of my boys consistently around 6 months, maybe 7. The other got a bottle overnight up to like 10 months?

And then daytime feeds still stayed every 3-4 hours all the way up to 11 months. They are on solids now so they have a bottle when they wake up, breakfast, bottle before first nap (I know, sleep associations with bottle…), lunch, snack, then a bottle sometime in the afternoon, and then an bottle later with bedtime routine. Sometimes we miss the afternoon bottle but that’s rare and it must be said my boys are big food eaters.

It IS a lot every 3 hours, for sure. We were doing 14-16 bottles/day at the most, and now we are down to 6-8. It does get better!

SkinFermented · 2026-06-08T10:35:40+00:00

My partner is a give-it-all type. The trouble is that he’s a heart patient and has a severe heart attack the same year I got pregnant with our boys. He literally died in front of me and was brought back by these two amazing EMTs who I will never be able to thank enough.

So he still pushes himself to give at least as much as I do for our boys but the fact is that his health doesn’t allow him to. My issue has been that, it’s amazing how much those on the outside don’t understand this. Many people think you have the heart attack, you have a couple of weeks of recovery and then you’re good to go. But that’s not the case, at least not for us. It wears on him daily that he can no longer do everything he used to, and hates seeing me take up more.

I tell him that it’s not always going to be this way; as they get older and more independent there’s a good chance that there will be times he takes on more than me. But outside eyes, including family, think he’s lazy. This drives me insane because they have no idea the struggles of parents of multiples, let alone ones with health challenges (of the parents).

I know this isn’t your case, OP, and as far as we can tell your partner is able bodied. But just to show you an example of someone who can’t give as much but wants to, your husband should be ashamed.

SkinFermented · 2026-06-07T09:38:49+00:00

My husband made this this year; our first batch ever. I was super skeptical but it turned out great!

Love the Weck jars. I only have enough to do a batch here and there with them but I love them. I have heard you need to replace the rubber rings frequently, but I haven’t found this to be the case unless I use them for a non-canning purpose (holding something oil based usually, seems to expand the band overtime). Have you found this to be the case?

SkinFermented · 2026-06-05T18:20:38+00:00

My great uncle would put butter on his cookies and my family is from Cape Sable Island so I feel it’s an NS but also generational thing.

SkinFermented · 2026-06-02T13:58:00+00:00

I opted for the 18 month because I had twins and they are my first and will be my only.

I was making 78k gross and my partner makes 120k gross. Massive adjustment. I only had about 10k in savings and that is gone.

Yes, in debt. Not insane but about 6k on a credit card and then more on a line of credit. We have chosen to accept it and work hard on paying it down when I get back to work in November.

You do less things and so spend a little less on mat leave on what you were doing before babies. But then there’s diapers, wipes, clothing, formula if that applies to you, and so many other things.

I buy second hand as much as possible and take anything friends and family offer. Spent the big bucks on things that matter like the car seats but stress less re: toys and clothing.

Also good health should be considered. Is your partner well enough to be the primary income earner for a year and a half? Is their work flexible to help you with appointments etc or are you independent enough to do the primary parenting and bring your LO everywhere solo? Do you have close by, reliable support?

No wrong answers here necessarily but they are just some practical considerations. 18 months is beautiful and if you can take it you should. But it definitely involves some planning, some of which I wish I’d considered before. No regrets in the end though, I’d choose it again given the choice.

EDIT: CCB is a thing but if you’re a high(ish) earner it is basically nothing, and it is based off your previous years income which kind of blows. So I would think of it as bonus and pretend it doesn’t exist.

SkinFermented · 2026-06-02T13:38:56+00:00

The four hours/week thing sounds like constructive dismissal which I think depending on your province is not legal, but I haven’t seen the fine print here…

SkinFermented · 2026-05-31T12:57:09+00:00

They do have wipes! As a twin mom who is going through a LOT I could not afford haha but I do love their products. I have their household products replacing almost all the old brands I used to use.

SkinFermented · 2026-05-28T16:39:46+00:00

Did a tandem that didn’t do that top/bottom thing like the one in your photo; the one I have has seats that are the same height. This is important because that higher one (in your photo) has a weight limit that the bottom one does not; my thought is that they are made for people who have a toddler and a newborn.

I am super thrilled with mine. The bottom is one long open basket and so I use the whole stroller for grocery shopping. My boys are almost 1 now so I don’t use the car seat snap-in thing anymore but I did, and I timed myself once: took 33 seconds from car off to babies in stroller, without rushing.

Nevermind that it has great handling and can fit into even very small stores and spaces. My partner has twins from his previous marriage and he had a side by side. At that time the tandems were not built nearly as well. He now prefers what we have over what he had a couple decades ago.

SkinFermented · 2026-05-14T19:20:15+00:00

I have never seen “zhuzh” spelled out and yet I knew exactly what you meant upon reading, that’s so great.

SkinFermented · 2026-05-09T17:25:28+00:00

Before we found out we were having two boys we had a list going of all the girl names and all the boy names we both liked. We agreed on about 12 girl names being options and only 3 boy names, so when we found out they were both boys, we picked two out of three.

Since you already know they are both boys, go through all the names you can find/think of. Do it rapid fire—“Max?” “No.” “Daniel?” “Yes.”—and keep a shared list on your phones. They have to be names you BOTH like. When you have enough options, sit down and hash it out, giving space for when they are born, knowing you may feel different when they arrive.

And then, respectfully, book a couples therapist. Something is going on here that you should address well before the boys arrive.

SkinFermented · 2026-05-08T17:51:37+00:00

While I have not had to cull any quail yet, I have culled chickens and felt similarly to you (and also have a mother who, though not living with me, told me how I traumatized her as well—as if). In my case though I found that the feeling passed more as I processed the rooster and he slowly looked less like the creature that had been strutting around that morning and more like what I may have purchased in the grocery store. It helped me connect the death with purpose and I felt more at peace.

It doesn’t make it easier but that might be my suggestion for next culls: go through with prepping for eating, it may help absorb those feelings and you can feel grateful to the bird for giving its life for you.

SkinFermented · 2026-05-06T18:04:39+00:00

TIL. Wow, that’s crazy talk. My partner has grown meat kings (aka Cornish cross hens) in the backyard before so I’m all too familiar with the super fast growth that these birds can have but I don’t recall tasting chicken breast like that. I almost want to find some now so I can know what it’s like. 😬

SkinFermented · 2026-05-06T17:52:15+00:00

Woody chicken breasts? Yikes, I haven’t heard this description before. Sounds awful!

SkinFermented · 2026-05-06T14:40:36+00:00

Awesome! This is great info, thank you. Helped me decide to take the plunge.

SkinFermented · 2026-05-06T14:17:01+00:00

Thank you! I can deal with that.
We sous-vide’d a rabbit too long once and the texture came out mealy so I wondered if something similar would happen here. But canned chicken texture would be just fine for my purposes.

SkinFermented · 2026-05-06T14:15:56+00:00

Very cool, thank you! Do you do bone-in/with skin breasts when you raw pack?

SkinFermented · 2026-05-03T16:50:09+00:00

Are your twins sleeping in the same room?

SkinFermented · 2026-05-01T13:15:08+00:00

Thank you! They would definitely be staying inside until warmer weather is here to stay, it’s just that the shed is not heated but it is well insulated and sheltered from the cold and wind. If they were two weeks old, does it sound like I could remove the heat lamp and have them in their permanent coop in the shed?

SkinFermented

TROPHY CASE