Life With The Crew

Thankful Tuesday - 6.26.18

Today I am thankful for...

~a Sunday morning fishing adventure for the other two members of the family and barn time for me.  

~a morning of red raspberry picking with the little babe in a peaceful setting with the air smelling of elderflowers.  Just lovely.

~my clothes dryer.  This rain on rain on rain is great for growing green things, but not for drying clothes.

~the opportunities that are available for learning and playing in our area.  I dream about living farther out in the country, but I realize that living near a town does have its advantages.  The little babe is trying out some day camps for the first time this year - so far the first one was a success.

Hopefully next week I will be able to say that I am thankful that a very fat, very hungry, very smart, ground hog has been caught and relocated.  I am getting very desperate.  Row cover has been bought and the trap will remain set 24/7.  Here are random pictures from the past week.

What are you thankful for today?

Just Hanging Around

I've thought several times during the past couple of weeks, "Oh, that would make a nice picture!"  But, I just haven't felt a strong desire to grab the camera.  To much other stuff.  And because I have something new to entertain me.  Frank, the horse, is officially mine!  The little babe is dreaming of outfitting him all in pink, but I won't let that happen.

I don't have much to say here at the moment.  The garden is doing okay, not as good as it was last year, but I can't think exactly that I did anything wrong.  The weather was different this year, warmer and now cooler, and so growing things seem a bit out of whack.  Plus, I can blame the baby rabbit and then two baby groundhogs that ate nearly everything to the ground on one rainy day.  I managed to lure the groundhogs into the live traps with fresh picked strawberries.  We have tons of volunteer tomatoes, a couple of sneaky beans that are managing to hide from the chipmunks, and I just harvested the garlic scapes for pesto.  The raspberry bushes are loaded and the potatoes look good.  I have stevia drying - mint and stevia tea is my go-to drink in the winter, so I have to have a lot of that.  The yard is extremely green right now - the bright spring flowers are done blooming and the summer ones haven't kicked in yet.  I tried to have more flowering plants for this year, but the yard doesn't have any color at the moment (other than green).

Enough boring babble.  The day is kinda gray, so I'm a little ho-hum at the moment.  Not glum, just not feeling inspired.  I am waiting on one skein of yarn that I need to start the colorwork part of my sweater pattern.  I don't want to start the next project, so I have to be patient.  So it is off to the barn to clean the mice out of the tack closet and give my guy some love and a carrot.  Hope you are enjoying Summer and if you're inspired about something at the moment - a craft, your garden, a trip - I'd love to hear about it!

 

The pictures are from Niantic, CT, where we went with my family for a long weekend.    

Thankful Tuesday - 6.5.18

Today I am thankful for...

~the sunrise rays of orange and red, shining beams of light that sneak through the trees and catch me off guard with how they steal into dark places and illuminate just one small spot.  It is always slightly magical, because in a matter of seconds, they have shifted and are gone.  The beauty in the spotlight is left in the shadows again.

~the fact that my daughter has two great-grandmas, who are still spry and young at heart.

~a slow week.  Time to breathe.  Less running around.  Gardening at a normal pace without the rush of having to get things in the ground NOW.  We are maxed out on space, so now it is just maintenance until we start to harvest.  It was an odd spring here.  My early Spring crops just didn't happen.  It was cold and wet and I had to plant late.  I just noticed that the kale, with leaves only 3 inches long, is already infested with bugs.  Pull and toss over the fence to the chickens.  The spinach was mowed down once by a baby rabbit and just never came back, the leaves that did had brown spots on them.  Pull and toss over the fence.  Luckily the lettuce is loving these cooler temps and we have salad every night.  My peonies are nothing to mention this year, normally a highlight for me, but I do have a lot of perennials that should look amazing later in the Summer.  Probably when I am on vacation.  Anyway, this was supposed to be a thankful post, so I am thankful for a green place to putter that is full of birdsong and too much wildlife (Ruby captured and killed a baby bunny yesterday, so one less).

~an afternoon wood's walk with the little babe that was much needed for both of us.  She biked, I walked, we both swatted skeeters.

What are you thankful for?

*My husband is positive the fungus is a chicken of the woods.  However, I am not brave enough to serve the "Sulphur shelf" for dinner tonight.