strawberries

Dear Reader,

How are you? Busy, I’m sure with everything that is summer!

The days have just been packed here on our little farm this past month. It seems like we went from winter duldrums to GO! GO! GO! all in a couple days!

Apple Blossoms!

Everything is green here now and growing. We got our little orchard of 3 peach trees, 6 apples, and 2 pears in. They are still alive, so that is good… Fruit trees are a new animal for me. Veggies and berries yes… but I haven’t ever become acquainted with fruit trees before this. It is all very interesting.

Strawberry patch. (needs the straw)

I dug out a small plot for around 100 strawberry plants. They love the spot in front of the barn, so if I can keep the critters at bay we should have a nice crop. I also put in about 25 asparagus plants. I will have to wait patiently for 2 more summers until I can start enjoying those.

Plowing up the garden… the sea gulls loved it!

Our neighbor (the same one who rescued us from all the 6-7ft snowdrifts in our driveway last winter) very kindly plowed up a 2400 sq. ft. piece of land for the vegetable garden. I am pretty much going to try and grow everything in it. So far I’ve got carrots, parsnips, peas, snow and snap beans, bush beans of all colors, 20ish assorted pepper plants, 20ish assorted tomato plants, sugar pie pumpkins, jack-o-lantern pumpkins (found in our compost pile!), winter and summer squash, zuchinni, cautalope, sweet corn, radishes, red potatos, sweet onions, and all kinds of flowers 🙂 It has been 2 years since we have been able to have any kind of garden at all so I’ve gone a little crazy.

Of course, I might not get to eat any of it if I don’t take care of a rogue deer that has been wandering around back there. I think he is scoping out the area for future delectables 😦 He walked through my onion sets, in between the tomatoes and then down the wheelbarrow path and out again. Hasn’t bothered anything yet. Will have to take preemptive action!

This was taken about 2 weeks ago. It is very hard to get good pictures of them right now because they are still in the brooder box with the red heat lamp. When they move to their suite in the barn I’ll take lots of good pictures for you!

The chickens have arrived! All 20 of them and they are growing like crazy! We have a mixture of Barred Rock, Australorps, and Araucana chickens. They are supposed to be all hens. There is one who is a bit smaller than the rest who’s tail feathers have been slow about coming in. I named it Ducky, because it looks alittle like one of those Indian runner ducks that stand straight up 🙂 It may be a rooster or it may just been a runt. Either way it is my favorite one. I really am trying not to get attached. We will be keeping them as egg layers, but down the road some will become Sunday dinner. My husband has been looking forward to home-grown roasted chicken dinner for a long time. (Groan) I just know I’m going to end up being a vegetarian 😛 I am trying to be the stoic “this is how things are done on the farm” type of person, but I am not there yet…we shall see. I won’t be able to eat Ducky. (No more naming the chickens!) But for the time being they are just egg-layers so that is good. I love fresh eggs 🙂

The loser lawn tractor!

Mmmm… what else. Oh, I know. Our lawn tractor burned up. Yea, you know… the one we just got like a month ago. Yea that one. It had a minor leak… Nothing too crazy… Worked like a charm. Jason was mowing the lawn like always and all of a sudden: BAM! Overheating! BAM! Locked-up fused-together blob of metal for a motor. (Sigh…)

Upon closer inspection it looked like the thing had decided to vomit all of the oil contents of it wretched mechanical body onto the mower deck all at once and then die 😡 Sooooo… Guess who spent the last two days before the rain came push mowing the remainder of the property. Yep… But it was okay! Very good exercise and I got to see a toad 🙂 We are supposed to go check out a replacement motor this evening. Hopefully it will work out. I don’t want to have to push-mow all 2.25 acres.

How renovations have begun in earnest as well. Jason has worked hard to get over 100 years worth of dirt, stain, and varnish off of the upstairs wood floors. Just a few more touch-ups and it’ll be ready for stain and finish, and then I can take it from there with patching, painting, decorating, and ultimately getting my sewing room organized and operational!

Original wood floors under years of gunk and grime… they will be beautiful!

New window trim. All the windows on the back of the house have been installed incorrectly, so Jason is having to reset all of them. We are putting the trim back in the original style of the house. We will eventually be restoring all of the clapboard siding on the house as well… it’s all there still.

I bought a few flowers for some pots for the porch and walkway. I’m hoping to get out and get them planted this weekend. I also need to get out and weed! weed! weed!

The other half of my time has been spent working on some custom quilt orders for Pie Bird Quilts. This time of year is my busiest. I have been really enjoying that as well. It seems every year I have a particular quilt request that challenges me more than all the others. Last year was the California King-size wolf quilt.

One Hand-pieced, hand-appliqued, hand-embroidered, and hand-quilted California King size Quilt for a 10th wedding anniversary! Love my job 🙂

This year I think it will be my first ever linen quilt. I am collaborating closely with my customer on a quilt that is to replace their wedding quilt (that is going into retirement) from over 20 years ago. I will let you know how it turns out 🙂

Well, I guess that’s about all the farm news I can think of at present.

Hope you all have pleasant planting and a lovely June!