In the garden...

 Things are really happening out here right now. I can hide in the corn rows. Picking green beans, squash, kale, lettuce, bell and banana peppers and hot peppers.

The Japanese beetles are horrible this year, plus the June bugs are everywhere. But there are green beans growing! I picked a little mess the other day for my mom. I'll pick more tonight for the market.

These are the Pink Eye crowder peas, flowering.

Peas on left, with sunflowers down the middle, and green beans on the right.

My zinnia bed. My favorite flowers.

Some ripe red tomatoes, peeking through the leaves! I've been getting a few every day now. They are SO good and juicy. I will sure miss my bacon and tomato sandwiches on sourdough bread.

Some green bell peppers, also peeking through their leaves. I picked one the other day and added it to my frittata. I also have red and yellow peppers.

Sweet banana peppers.

These are the red hot Cow peppers. My husband loves hot peppers. I also have jalapeno peppers.

The past several years, I have not had any luck growing cabbages. I got 6 just to try this year. The cabbage moths love them. And the kale too. I see little tiny heads, but I just don't know.

It's getting too hot for the squash and zucchini now. I actually got quite a lot of them. I've been making zucchini bread for the market and they sell really good.

It sounds like a small bee city in the squash flowers. They are buzzing with bee activity!

My old garden furniture. I sit down there sometimes. Then see all kinds of things I need to be doing and get right back up. I did sit the other night for about 15 minutes while the sprinkler was on.

The okra and cucumber bed. It really needs weeded and mulched. Next week for a few days, my niece is bringing her 10 year old son, who wants to stay a few days and help me out here in the garden. We will be working here, weeding. I also have a lot of not good wool that we'll use to mulch the cucumbers with.

Coming in from the garden this morning, this frog scared me!

In between the corn rows. I can hide out there now! It's all got tassels now too. Silver Queen corn. Yum!

I can't wait for the honey bees to find this corn. I remember years ago, when I grew corn. I'd hear bees buzzing while I picked beans. It was the coolest sound ever. Then, when they started growing the Monsanto corn across the road, I couldn't grow corn here. So the bees went away. But they grew wheat or something across the road this year. That's why I think my corn's done so well.

I was going to say that I always leave weeds for the bugs to have. The Japanese beetles will eat these weeds before they eat the veggies or flowers. So I leave a lot for them. The weeds are good for something!

Some of the sunflowers this morning, reaching their faces toward the sun.

And more frogs. This is my little frog pond. When I walk by, I hear lots of plopping. Can you see some frogs?

This is some of the wild flowers I've let go in the garden. There are probably 20 different varieties right here alone.

And this is what I started doing a few nights ago. Right in front of the bee hive. I had let the clover and other things grow here for the bees. Then mowed it all down a few days ago. I started tilling, but it's hard as a rock. We're supposed to be getting some rain the next few days, so i hope it'll soften it up. But next week, while Ian is here, we will work on this too. We'll add some good chicken manure compost and other good soil to it. Then plant more green beans. Then in the fall, more squash and zucchini will go here.

Yesterday, it poured in Ft. Oglethorpe and Flintstone, but not a drop out here. I mean it was fierce too. Big ole black clouds and wind like crazy. I was going out of Aldi with my buggy and I had a hard time walking it to the car. But they all needed the rain too. We should get some Friday and Saturday, then it's supposed to cool off. It's been high 90's for a few weeks now.

So what's happening in your gardens these days? Any canning going on yet? I will be canning tomatoes soon.

Still losing.

As of this morning, I have lost 41 pounds! But I got to thinking, that's just about 10 pounds a month. If I had been exercising, it could have been at least 20 pounds a month. But I'm ok with this. It's coming off slowly but surely. I am getting lots of walking and bending and squats done every day, working in the garden. I see some little green beans, so I will be picking them soon. Can hardly wait for a good pot of fresh green beans. With some squash and ripe tomatoes. Maybe some fried potatoes. Goodness, makes me hungry.

Speaking of being hungry, I am a lot lately. But before, when I was so hungry, I'd eat anything and everything I got my hands on. Usually crap. But now, it's easier for me to handle the hungry. Like right now, I have a bowl of cantaloupe I'm snacking on. I had the rest of the frittata I made yesterday for breakfast. Then did a lot of walking, dragging branches up from the front of the yard to the goats and sheep. Then had to go to Lafayette to get some dog bones from the slaughterhouse for the dogs. Got that all bagged up and made dog food. Got it all in the freezer and just now sat down.

So I am eating so much healthier now. At both weddings, I didn't even think about cake. I did have a tiny bit of wine. But mostly ate BBQ and veggies and fruits. Before, I would have had 2 or 3 pieces of cake. It doesn't even look good to me now.

So if I want to get to 160, I have 49 pounds to go.

Around the farm today.

 I looked up how long it takes for blue bird eggs to hatch. 12-14 days. This poor momma is hot.I put a bowl of water out there for her. So I think just a few more days. I will be glad when they hatch, because then a few weeks later, they will fly away! I have not been able to use my front porch. Whenever I go out the front door, she flies away. I also read that the father looks for food for the mother while she's sitting on the eggs. What a great guy, right?

And look at this! Baby barn swallows already! There are 4 of them that I can see. 2 on each su=ide. They have the biggest mouths ever. And every time I come in the milk room, they are almost hanging out. I put a box with some hay in it right under the nest, just in case one falls out. Baby birds are just really ugly. These are all mouth.

There's 1 on the right side looking over the edge.

One of the parents. They look alike to me. Most birds you can tell male from female, but not these birds. They are very diligent. One of these days, I am going to have a bird right in my face though. They fly out when I go in the door. But now, when I'm milking Freja, both of them will come on in and feed the babies. I am talking to them the whole time. I just love these birds all over.

                                                My front yard is full of day lilies right now.

This is a pot of flowers I bought last year that's coming back. It was so pretty last year.

More day lilies. I love this color. And the yellow ones.

My harvest today from the garden. I've been getting lots of squash and zucchini. I make zucchini bread and sell it at the market. And these tomatoes are SO good.

I spent all day yesterday washing 2 fleeces. The brown is Cameron and the white is another white fleece, not really sure who it is. The black milk crate on the floor is Campbelles' fleece washed.  And in the red basket on the other side of the crate is half of Annabelle's.

This is Adelaide's from last year. I've been using the evil hand combs to make little bird nest rovings. It's so pretty and soft.

It's just HOT here these days. I made up 2 poems or Haikus about the heat.

I like spring and fall.
That is all.

The parking lot
is hot.

Yeah, it's just plain ole hot now. And all week, in the high 90's.Trying to keep the animals all watered and cool. I forgot the milk bucket this morning in the freezer. I hate frozen thawed out goat milk. It's just not good to me. So I put it out in the chicken coop for the girls. They loved it. I've been getting 7 eggs again! All of them laying again. I hope no one tries to steal my hens, since egg prices have gone up. Crazy.

So, all day Saturday, I was outside. Farmers market til 12. Then hurried home to the first wedding up on the mountain at our friends Wolf man and Bambi. Our friend Rodney got married to his girlfriend. Wolf man married them. Rodney was our best man in our wedding 35 years ago. We had good food there. BBQ smoked in a big smoker. Lots of good food. Saw lots of old biker friends there. Lots of old bikers now! It was fun. In the shade too. So pretty nice. Then down to the next wedding at Mt. Cove Farm, about 5 miles from us. The mountain wedding was just 13 miles from us. This was my husband's niece's daughter. It was outside too, way back at the foot of Lookout Mt.. It was nice and shady there too. Then we had more BBQ! Can never have enough BBQ, right? I had to leave at 7:30 to go milk a goat. My husband didn't get home til about 12:30. They danced and had lots of fun after I left. That's ok. They really did have fun. Both our daughters and Kansas, danced and danced. So a very nice busy day. I was so tired Sunday.