Wish You Could Smell The Blossoms On This Tree!

Summer has finally arrived.....after a very rainy, cool, long spring.....and the Catalpa trees have burst into bloom. They have the heaviest bloom this year that we've ever seen and the smell is heady, especially in the evening. It makes working in the garden in the evenings even more pleasureable.

Our Family Has Grown

Our beautiful Great Pyranese dog, Max, died a year ago and we didn't think we'd ever get another dog. However, things don't always work out the way you thought they would! A friend who volunteers at the local animal shelter told us about a beautiful Anatolian Shepherd at the shelter and really encouraged us to go see her. She thought the dog would be perfect for us. We like large breed dogs and still have a very large outdoor kennel (which we'd taken down last year!) and two buried cable runs.It took us about two weeks of discussions before we went to see her. This breed has a reputation for being head strong and somewhat difficult as a family pet. My hope was that she would snarl at me or have a bad attitude and we could walk away feeling like we'd at least checked her out. I didn't really want to get another dog!

She turned out to be so sweet and gentle and good tempered! We visited her twice and then thought it over for a full 24 hours before calling the shelter and telling them we'd take her. They were so relieved! She was going to have to be euthanized because she'd been there so long - since 4/23/09 - and no one had been interested in her. They were running out of room. Turns out she was a favorite of the staff there because of her sweet temperment.

We've had her now for 3 days and discovered right away she'd been a house dog....NOT an outside dog! She's leash trained, obeys commands, is very well mannered in the house and house trained. She's been good with all our animals....sheep, alpacas and cats. She sleeps in her crate in the living room at night and isn't a "barker". She's got us wrapped around her paw now! We're all crazy about her and can't believe our good fortune in finding such a great dog! She seems grateful, too, at finding a loving home! So, welcome to our home Brandy! Hope we get to share many, many wonderful years with you!

Nearly Perfect Planting Weather!

Today's weather couldn't have been better for getting the last of the tomato seedlings out into the field. The corrugates were all in and some of the trellising system was installed, too. We use steel T-posts and rigid 16' fencing panels to trellis the tomato vines. We've found this system to be sturdy (even in high winds) and easy to harvest from. It's also very easy to fertilize and weed around the plants. As soon as they reach 10" in height, the suckers will be removed and the vine will be tied to the fence. That process will continue until they reach the top of the fence when the top of the vine will be removed preventing it from growing any taller. This will force the vine to ripen the fruit that's already set on the plant. Our growing season isn't long enough for the fruit above the top of the fence to ripen. So, with a cool, overcast day and a light, misting rain off and on, we were able to finish transplanting the last of the tom's to the field.....626 plants in all! We had 800+/- seedlings growing, but we discarded the weak ones as we went and repotted some of the extra cherry tomato plants to sell at the market. Our experience with cherry tomatoes has been that they can produce more than we can sell at times. The large tomatoes are always in demand especially for home canning and we've had no problem selling big quantities of them.

These three tomato rows have the steel T-posts in place and the rigid fencing hung on them. All the tomatoes have been planted, fertilized, mulched with grass clippings and watered. What a wonderful sight!

The broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage was thirsty, too! Everyone needed a drink today. We've had really hot weather for this time of the year....that is up until today anyway!

The potato patch (or weed patch as we refer to it now!) got a much needed drink, too. After the soil dries out a little, we'll head into this area with our hoes, clearing out the weeds and mulching around the plants. We've been so busy with the expansion this year that this area has just gotten ahead of us. Such is the life of the small, organic farm!

What a great sight the empty table in the greenhouse is! Next, we'll be planting out all the squash plants that are ready. You can see in this picture that they're already blooming in the greenhouse! What a crazy busy time of year this is! We're late getting most of this stuff in the ground, but there were other pressing things that had to be done first. Next year will be better....