A short Friday addition

I have not been blogging very much lately.  I love to blog too and I read all of your blogs and comment, but by the time I get done with reading and commenting, there is no time left for posting anything myself.  I don't know how you all find the time.  Maybe I am just not organized enough, but I would rather say it is because we are very busy right now.  Last night I meant to come to the library to post something and work on the "budget" and then I forgot all the paperwork on my desk because I was in a hurry to get to the parts store to pick up a rotor for my car, but then got caught in traffic and the parts store was closed anyway so I just went home and picked beans, did laundry and hung it up and made supper.  By the time I had shelled the beans, and cleaned up from supper it was 11 pm and time to hit the sack.  I was tired.  And you are probably tired of reading this horrible run on sentence :)

I thought after Brandon went home I'd have a little more time for this stuff, but not so.  I have even less it seems. Work is busy and during my lunch breaks I have errands to run.  All the garden is coming in at once it seems.  We must pick the shell beans this weekend or they will end up being dried beans again.  I don't mind the dry beans, but Mr. D like shell beans very much and I do admit they are very good with a little milk, butter, salt and pepper.  I have been picking Bible Beans each day and they just seem to grow so fast.  Tomatoes are starting to ripen up and the beets will need to be picked right after Labor Day.  Plus Labor Day weekend we must slaughter the meat birds.  They are stumbling and bumbling around in the coop... to lazy to even go outside where they can get out of the muck.  I'll be glad when they are in the freezer, 'cause they stink.

Well, this really wasn't a complaint about all the work I have, just a statement of fact and that I hope to get back into the blogging groove asap.

I love you all and apologize for the lack of communication.

See ya all soon!

Say good-bye Spotty...

Prairie Flower Farm is Having a Party

Don't you just love parties?  I have been following the Prairie Flower for a while now and have been incredibly encouraged by her handling of the ups and downs of life.  Christians have ups and downs just like everyone else, we just have a Savior to go to for help and to share the good times with.  We also have one another... the "family".  Hope you have a chance to stop by and visit this wonderful blog.

Misty Morning

I'm going to post a few pics of the garden from this morning.  I just couldn't resist the green.  I love green.
Kari asked me how my garden was doing this year.  Well, everything has been coming in early due to warmer than usual weather and a good balance of rain and sun.  God is the one who does all that... we just put the stuff in the ground.   Some years are good, some not so good.  Last year we lost all our tomatoes, but had a bumper crop of beets and squash.  This year looks like it will all be good if the weather holds.  Notice the corn that was laying flat after the downburst we had about 3 weeks ago.  Now it is all standing (somewhat) tall with tassles and hopefully we'll be picking some next week.

and a little bonus... momma and the babies

You may have to enlarge this to see them... the yellow blob in the distance.  Please disregard the produce boxes in the foreground, they are headed to the recycling on Saturday.  The pallets are to keep the poultry out of the muck that collects in front of the coop everytime it rains.  We noticed that the grass will grow up right between the slats and that's what we're hoping will happen here.  Those birds love green too :)

Have a really happy day everyone.

Just a note to let you know we're still here.

We have had an incredibly busy last few weeks.  I will try to summarize and I have lots to share, but no time right now for that.

Brandon came to stay with us July 6.  He has been a real joy to have around and we will miss him very much when he goes home.  His Mom is coming on the 13th and he will be going home that following week.  He has learned lots and we've gotten to know him much better.  Because he lives so far away, it is not always easy to know much about him under those circumstances.  He's learned a little about farm life.  We lost a few ducklings while he was here.  The dog had to be disciplined for taking one of them and that was quite an experience.  He learned that Spot had to bear the consequences of taking the duckling but that we still love her and after her time of discipline she will return to her place on the farm and will hopefully not do that again.  We went swimming in the Baker River and cooked corn on the fire and he helped Mr. D with outside tasks, even helping to fix the tractor a couple of times.  For being only eight years old, he sure has learned things quickly.  He found a few more vegetables to likes, cauliflower and summer squash and zucchini.  We even made zucchini brownies, a recipe we found on "Home Joy" http://homejoys.blogspot.com/ .  This is a really yummy recipe and well worth a try even if you do not like zucchini.


I finished having my teeth out and have been fitted with dentures.  I feel so much better but it has been quite an adjustment.  I still am eating a soft diet and grinding up meat.  Brandon discovered he liked steak the way I eat it and I have to admit it is pretty tasty.  My last dentist appointment for 6 months was last week and afterwards we went to the ocean to celebrate.  It was a most beautiful evening.  We ate a little lunch and walked along the beach collecting shells and watching the fishermen and the waves.  The water was quite cold, but it was so beautiful.

This weekend we are planning a trip to Clark's Trading Post.  We always enjoy our trips up there.  We hope to take a couple of the boys from church with us.  It should be a fun trip with a picnic lunch and lots to see and do.  This is our last weekend with Brandon, so we plan to really enjoy it.

I promise that the next post will include pictures plus I have lots more stuff to tell you about.  Hope you are enjoying your summer too.

Love ya,
Mrs. D

OK... GARDEN PICS

As promised to some of my friends, I finally have taken some garden pictures.  This morning on my way down the driveway to work I had a couple of minutes, so thought I'd snap a few shots.

Thank you Lord for such a wonderful garden this year.  Mr. D and I are both amazed at the plants.  This is our first try with corn in this garden and if all goes well, it will be a success. 

thought you'd like a before and after picture.  This is the beet/pea/chard/radish spot  I wasn't sure what would happen to the peas because it was so hot so early, but put them in a shadier spot.  Of course I had to hold the camera in some whacky angle... but you get the idea.

some of the old chard has gone to seed and we have eaten lots this summer so far.  I really like chard... probably better than spinach.  The peas are doing OK... they aren't as high as last years, but they are loaded with pods.  I planted regular peas this year, not sugar snap because Mr. D prefers these and said he would shell them :)

This is the "before" of the squash/cucumber patch.  We left the lower part of this area fallow and you can see now what happens when the garden is left to it's own "devises"...

This is from the other side, but all in the foreground are weeds... lots of weeds.  You can see that the squash have filled in a little and then have gone on to overtake the fallow area as well.  We were going to till this over a couple of times this summer, but guess that's out of the question now.

We have harvested:

cucumber

zucchini

chard

some beans

radishes

some peas

rhubarb

asparagus

parsnips

basil

lettace

and lots, lots more to come.

Thank you Lord!

jacob cattle, romano pole beans, tomatoes, and more squash (planted late).

The Summer is Flying

I'm grabbing a few moments at my lunch today to post an update on our summer.  It has been flying by.  Our grandson is visiting from Washington, DC and this is keeping me very busy and very happy too.  He's a delightful young man, and is quite interested in just about everything.  He love helping Mr. D with the tractor and various stuff that needs to be done.  He loves sleeping in his tent, though we've had a couple rainy nights we brought him in onto the couch to sleep. 

We went to Dorchester Old Home Days on Saturday.  We participated in a tug of war, ate ice cream and Brandon got to ride a pony around and around and around... no one else was in line when he got there, so they just kept going.  He really enjoyed that.  We saw a man talk about his work with black bear... very interesting... then we came home and went to a birthday party for a young friend from church.   We had ice cream again, then Mr. D and Brandon played a game while Spot and I went for a little dip to cool off in the river.

so serious here... not sure what he was thinking about, but probably about the car.  He had asked hundreds of questions about it, how did it start, were there lights, how old was it... etc...etc...

Our poultry have been reproducing.  Momma Muscovy hatched 12 little muscovies this weekend.  She's Mommy #1.  Mommy #2 hasn't hatched her brood yet, but will probably within the week.  We have another RIR who is setting, her sister hatched 4 chicks who are almost ready now to join the ranks now.  We're just waiting for her to take them outside. 

The garden has gone wild.  It's hard to walk around out there without stepping on something.  We had to consolidate the squash a little this year, so they are crowding out almost everything else.  We ate zucchini last night and the night before and will probably be looking for unlocked cars soon.  The Jacob Cattle beans are coming and I snitched a few last night just for munching.  Basically the garden is a sea of green.  Thank you Lord for the wonderful weather.  I brought some cukes today for a friend at work who loves them and eats them everyday summer and winter.  Next week we'll be doing pickles, no doubt.  We make a garlic dill.  Very crispy and excellent on burgers and even on pizza (OK, I know that sounds goofy, but really they are excellent on pizza).  The pizza thing was discovered by some kids we were working with at the time who actually did it for a joke, but turns out they were really good.

My garden pictures didn't come out too well, but I'll include a couple.  It was kinda late in the evening and was cloudy too, so the pictures were a little blurry.  Guess I'll need to get down and take some better pictures.  I like to document the gardens successes/failures for our garden journal.  If I don't hop to it, there won't be any pictures this year.

Happy Monday

I really and truly haven't forgotten that I have a blog, I just have been so incredibly busy there has not been much time for doing anything.  I have wanted to take some pictures of the farm and post them so you can see the progress of the garden and how the meat birds have grown, but just have not done it yet. 

My grandson is visiting for the month of July and I want to post some pictures of him too, but have not had time for that yet either. 

No promises, but I hope this week we'll get caught up a little.

We had a wonderful time yesterday for the 4th.  We had church and then the church family had a wonderful picnic lunch and a blessed time of testimonies.  Then some games for the kids.  After the picnic we went home and got ready to go swimming.  I took clothes off the line 'cause it clouded a little and didn't want a repeat of last week where the clothes line collapsed in the rain and the clothes I had out there had to all be washed again (yuk!).
We went swimming at Canaan Street Lake, a beautiful little beach.  We then went to the fireworks at Cardigan Mountain School.  It was a wonderful day.  After a little supper we got to bed around 11pm. 

Tomorrow will be busy too with my daughter heading back to DC.  Brandon and Mr. D will be spending the day together.  In the evening I'll be taking the bus home from work, then I'll have to recall how to cook for an 8 year old.  Any help gladly accepted :)

Hope you have a wonderful day....

More pictures to come, Lord Willing :)