A Slide Show Of….Well, Yesterday.

I would say a slide show of today, but it’s already 12:05 as I start typing this.  I don’t seem to be able to get around to writing before 10 or 11pm.  The computer is in our bedroom so by the time everything is done and we’re ready for bed I hate to stay up late typing while Paul is trying to sleep.  So I moved the computer to the kitchen.  Hopefully Naomi will let me sleep in a little tomorrow.  I told the big kids they’re not allowed to come down until after 7 since they were up until 9:30.  Anyway, on with the day.

Paul and I filled containers with potting soil last night so that the boys could get busy planting as soon as they were done with breakfast.  We’re attempting broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage planted as fall crops.  We also planted some onions by seed in the hopes that planting them this year and then letting them overwinter, with a good mulch cover, would give us bigger bulbs next year.  We shall see.

After seeds were done, I had Ethan pick any decent size cucumbers he could find.  Those, combined with the harvest of a day or two ago, got turned into bread and butter pickles.  A gallon and a half for the fridge.  Ethan picked, Micah washed, Ethan chopped, both boys packed into jars and momma cut the onions and made the sugar/vinegar mix.  It’s really only fair to make them do most of the work.  If you could see them eat the pickles a few days from now you would agree.

Next up was a trip out to the field to watch daddy plant another fence post.  What to do when you get bored?  Pick flowers of course.  Tis the season!

This is a shot of the 18 acres we planted last fall.  18 acres of crop land planted in a diverse mixture of grasses, legumes and winter wheat.  The wheat did a great job of getting a jump on the weeds and giving the grasses and clovers and chance to get going.  We’ve only mowed the field once so far.  At this point we’re hoping to let the grasses and clovers go to seed before a second mowing and then hopefully a round or two of grazing this fall.  It’s all trial and error.  Hopefully not too much error though.  This field needs to start paying us back…

A close up of what’s growing in between the brown wheat.  Even though we mowed it after the wheat seed heads had formed, we still got lots more seed heads.  So maybe we’ll get a bonus crop of wheat to be grazed with the perennials.

And last of all, a picture of one of the volunteer sunflower in the garden.  They’re just starting to bloom.  Wish I could say that same thing about tomatoes ripening.  They just keep getting bigger, but no color yet.

What else did we do and not take pictures of….harvested one row of potatoes(momma and children), harvested some garlic(Ethan), picked blackberries(kiddos), pulled lots of weeds(momma and grandma), chatted with our old neighbor who stopped by for a visit(everyone).  Took care of a baby, gave the girls a bath, cleaned the milking equipment really well, caught up on emails, read library books.

It was a busy day.  I should be sleeping.  Pardon any typos, spelling oopsies or grammar errors.  It’s past my bed time.

The Farmer’s Wife

July 10, 2016 by psessen 1 Comment