we are all planted with transplants! That means all the little plants in pots and trays that had been babied for weeks/ month are in the ground safe from drying out, especially with the rain. We celebrated on Tuesday with a staff pizza party. We prepared the toppings and dough before and cooked it together and ate till we could eat no more. It is a wonderful year with everybody working hard to get those grass beds prepared and seeded and planted. A heartfelt thank you to all that toil here.
We had deer in the gardens and needed to fix the fence where a tree had fallen and crushed it. The also made a nice big hole right next to the back gates. Two nights ago Steve said he saw another one in the evening and told it "you shouldn't be here". I found some chewing in the beans. Talking of beans, they are flowering and doing well. We are about to start harvesting the second planting of peas and shell peas and the zucchinis and summer squash decided to start through, yeah, zucchinis. It has been a long time without.
I saw some humping of cows in the field and got Goldie checked and confirmed that she is pregnant, due on Halloween. So it must have been Carol in heat who we don't breed anymore. Everybody at the farm says that I am not as stressed and tense this year and I think it is in part due to only milking once a day 2-3 gallons instead twice a day half of that. The cow is eager to get into the barn to get milked and I don't have to go to the dewy field to find them and convince them to come to the barn. The are also used to going out after milking instead of being and pooping in the barn all day.
I want to get back to the fence one more time. Life has been so much less worry about eaten veggies since we built the fence in 1998 all from scratch with 200hrs extra while planting in the spring. Before the fence the dear came freely snacking preferred on beets, beans and spinach and we put out bags of smelly hair or dirty laundry to repel them to find ourselves camping next tot he beans and I have fond memories of camping with my friend Sharon next to the flowering smelling wonderful milkweed in a thunder storm. The milkweed is flowering and I am glad for the peace, of mind of the fence, miss you Sharon!
I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July and a party or river to go to. We will be harvesting for the day and see after that definitely some river in there.
peace, Dulli