Summer 2011

It has been a really long time since I've posted anything. Summer is SOOO busy! Wish it would come about a month sooner and last about a month longer.... then maybe I wouldn't feel the pressure to get everything done in such a short amount ot time.

Here are some pics taken through the summer.....


Some of the tomatoes I was harvesting at the time....heirlooms-Mr. stripely & Black Krim, green zebra, regular red slicing, and red romas. The orange slicing and yellow romas weren't ready when the pic was taken. All this color makes for a very interesting salsa! Using just the old standard red ones is boring now.

It was a pretty good year for strawberries given the absolute horrible spring we had. The bad spring pushed everything else back and when the berries started getting ripe, we were still messing with other things and they kind of got ahead of us.

Storm clouds moving in.

This came during strawberry season. Hail is not good for berries in the field! Thankfully we didn't have too much damage.

One of the flower gardens. Even though this birdhouse is mostly for decoration, we had some wrens moved in again. Wrens are very good bug eaters.

A flower garden

I was stitting at the computer one night and looked over my shoulder and saw this on the window. Look at that waistline!

This momma was slated for butcher....then she had a baby (it was a bit of a surprise)....looks like she gets to stay a bit longer.

A hot air balloon took off at the fairground going over the pasture barely above the tree tops then landed in a yard a few doors down. Don't know if this was on purpose or something was wrong. I like seeing these in the air. One of these days, I am going to ride in one of these things.

The guys trying to get the hay wagon in the barn to unload.

Now this is a bit too comfortable! We were over run with squirrels and chipmunks this summer for some reason.....luckly they have moved on (or the cats got them). They are nice to watch but can become a pest real quick and they eat a ton of bird seed.

Veggies growing in the garden. I love mixing different things together. A big mass of the same thing looks boring....plus this helps with pest control.

Broccoli, peppers, potatoes and cucumbers.

Cucumbers, green onions, potatoes and basil

This monster thing is growing out of a little compost pile. I'm not sure yet what it will be but it is growing over the truck cap, shelter, and then heading through the trees.

And lastly, this little guy takes a good amount of time and energy but he's well worth it! It's been a joy to have him around. I will say it has been a juggling act some times for us (and Nathan) to get things done when it needs to be done.

When he's here with us, John has started taking him out with him to do the chickens chores. He wheels him out in the stroller, then throws some grain on the ground by him and little Owen loves to watch the chickens run around him eating while he waits for Grandpa to finish what he needs to do.