Feeling Farmy Again

How has summer been for you?  

It flew by here... as I suspected it would.  Here is a smattering of what has been happening in our neck of the woods...

We had late-August grass (dry, dead, crackly, brown) in May/June and May grass (green, lush, soft) growing in August due to no rain and then rain-every-other-day.  And sometimes Andrew even got caught in the rain while mowing.

Ineke teaches her pupil how to suck goodness from a beebalm petal.

(Adele' took this picture of a pretty kitty who is NOT named Oreo because all black and white kitties are named Oreo.  So this one remains Nameless.  And Nameless is a cute name too.)

The flower circle continues to give me such joy. 

This year I have to divide plants which is going to be quite a job.  Some of the bulb clumps feel like concrete.

More petal sucking

Thanks to a few large and looming jobs that took my time and attention, my first garden harvests did not come in steady sprinkles but rather one insane harvest of all baseball bats.

It took a very intensive week of All-Things-Squash to take care of all of those baseball bats... and while I was busy making zucchini food and canning zucchini relishes, the zucchini in the gardens just kept growing.  So I have been harvesting baseball bats almost all season.

Ineke learns how to make from scratch mac n cheese

We welcomed two little piggies in May.  A different breed than we are used to, but all pigs are beautiful.  (Or at least the baby ones...)  A few days after they arrived, one of the piglets escaped the electric fence and went AWOL for over a week.  I spent more time chasing that pig around...  a neighbor up the hill would call and let us know they had seen it.  I would get corn around to go try and catch it just in time for a neighbor DOWN the hill to call and say it was at their house now.  That happened for days.  Eventually, I just wished a coyote would eat the dumb thing.

But on the 8th day of surviving the wild, a neighbor returned it to us in a live-trap.  

We named that ornery pig Shenanigans.  The other one is named Faithful.

(The pictured one is Faithful.  Shenanigans was off on her shenanigans at the time...)

Hmmmm.  Wonder what she has in HER mouth...

zucchini muffins and breads, lots

soft skinned boys waiting for breakfast

Zucchini soup

zucchini brownies

soooo much zucchini relish

the tiny last bit of a huge roaster pan of delicious zucchini casserole

And MORE roasted zucchini for supper

I've canned up...

 67 pints of zucchini relish

25 pints of yellow squash relish

11 jars of "faux pineapple" made from yellow squash

The garlic harvest was so much better than last year but a harvest a week or two later than I wanted to.

I'll miss the days of fresh garden meals for supper

I'll miss the flowers too.

On August 9th, a new calf was born.  Named Tornado because there were tornado warnings that day, she's a beauty.

We found her, already born, in the field.  So THAT was easy!

After a long hiatus of having nothing but cats... it feels nice to have some pigs, a calf, and a cow to milk.  Makes us feel more like a farm again.

Although we still don't have a farm dog.  :-(

(Anyone have any sweet, smart, pretty and gentle border collie puppies they want to give us?  Pretty please?!)