Summer

Summer has come and gone so quickly.  It seems like Eddie  just finished school a couple of days ago  and yet that was at the end of May; and now he has started school again as of  two days ago.   I think Autumn has tried to keep pace with the school schedule,  because I felt its subtle arrival on the same day, making the last two mornings crisp and cool, while the sun seems to have shifted and has traded off its scorching heat for a lovely golden sunshine.

We have certainly had the heat this summer, and so little moisture.  The forest fires were worse than ever.   On most mornings, I would be out in the heat trying to keep the garden alive by what felt like constant watering, and I would be talking to Elizabeth or Marie, who were in Florida where it was flooding.  We all wished we could swap a little weather with each other.

The summer has been spent with garden and farm work, and little else. I don't say that by complaint, because I enjoy it. Its just that it has been our main focus this year.  We did enjoy going up to some organic farms in the Denver area for the 4th of July.  We picked berries and cherries, and made some black raspberry jam and pies, and some cherry jam and pies from our harvest.  The cherry jam was so good and the first time I had ever made it.  We were also able to attend a Joel Salatin workshop in Colorado Springs last week, which was a highlight for us.  Joel Salatin is someone who is in the forefront of organic and polyculture farming,  We have been working on bringing back our farm/ranch business in the organic and polyculture method, and have such fun exploring  endless ideas for it.

Here are a few pictures of our summer.  My camera has been out of sorts, so the pictures are colored poorly. But here they are just as is.

"Ol' Blue" decked out for the Fourth

 We picked some wonderful berries at "Berry Patch Farms"

Here they are;

Currents, Black Raspberries, and Cherries

We just dug up some of our first potatoes of the season.  They look beautiful don't they?

"Thelma Lou" says to tell you "Hey".

The chicken coop was previously a pigeon coop...notice the little pigeon door above the window.

Steve built our little gals some nice nesting boxes in late Spring,

and brought some of our patio furniture down for me to sit on, so I could socialize with the gals

while I water. 

Those little gals love to socialize....I am speaking of the chickens of course. Then there are my own girls, who I  love to chat with on the phone, while I water and weed the garden... it is my special, happy moment of the day.

The little gals all started coming in the coop while I was taking pictures, to see what I was doing.

They asked if they could personally demonstrate the loveliness of their indoor/outdoor patio.

This is their favorite place to sleep at night, enjoying the best of both worlds.

The corn came up nicely this summer, but the heat and drought has been so fierce, I am not sure what we will find when we start harvesting it.

The green beans and pinto beans are growing nicely.

A nice patch of buckwheat is growing and attracting all of the bees we need.

These are pinto beans.... I can taste the chili now.

The tomatoes are finally bearing fruit after the heat of summer slowed them down a bit

We let a couple of things go to seed this year, to try our hand at saving seed.

These are carrots that have flowered so prettily.

Well,  that's all for now.   Have a great week everyone.  

Blessings, Pam