Here we are on a Saturday afternoon, catching up on some chores between downpours.

The work never ends but is oh so important. 

14 year old son mowing the dandelions, um, lawn, in the rain. This is a big job. With all the rain we've had the yard looks more like the pasture it once was instead of a lawn. He is taming the beast. (See his muscles? See his mud boots?)

 13 year old son weed eating. This job isn't terribly huge, but this kid's mother likes it to look "just so" therefore he needs to do it "right" the first time or he'll have to do the job again. Poor kid.

17 year old son helping his dad, my beloved, put the final touches on the back of the little red chicken coop where the run is going to be. This way there won't be chicken poo all over the place (IE: the front porch).



15 year old daughter, planting yet another row of potatoes. She'd MUCH rather be reading, but she does love potatoes and understands the value of growing our own food. So she's happy to help (and I mean that).

Later, we'll gather for a feast of grass fed hamburgers, sharp Cheddar cheese, onions, dill pickles, home fried potatoes, home brew (for the parents).......

food fit for kings and hungry, hard working, well deserving kids!

We had a break in the wet weather tonight so I high-tailed it (do people say "high-tailed" anymore?) out to the garden to put in a few more rows of potatoes. It was 9:30 pm but the sky had plenty of light yet. Hmmmfph. Planting seed potatoes at 9:30 at night.......last year it was corn at 10:30. This year....potatoes.

The view out our back door at 9:38 pm. See, plenty of light yet. Plenty of planting to do.

It does this every year. We have a couple of nice, warm days in early May that lull us into a sense of "false summertime". Then we get hit with lots of rain and chilly breezes in late May and early June. Long about June 15th or so the faucet flips off and summer begins. If you don't have your garden spot worked and planted, you're out of luck. Our growing season is so short that if you don't plant by end of May/ very beginning of June, there's just not enough time for the plants to produce vegetables before the first freeze.


So here we are again, June 8, with the garden completely planted.....almost.

Yesterday it was 33 degrees on my front porch! 33! Brrrrr. But we got out there and finished up the planting after the soil warmed up a bit. We just have a couple more rows of potatoes to put in and several miscellaneous things like Brussels sprouts, a few more cabbage and some cauliflower plants. The bulk of these staples have already found their place in the garden. I just have a few left over plants to find space for. The garden always starts off looking nice and neat with smart, clean rows. But ends up looking like a smorgasbord because I'm forever tucking extra plantlings here and there. (Example: not enough celery to make a row? that's OK.....just plop a pepper plant in there....)

Anywhoo- the bulk of the garden is done. It just has to stop raining so that the sun and warmth can work it's magic.

I can't let the view out the back door fool me into spring time despair.

 I know that behind this:

Is this!

Hurry summer......

My baseball son had pig feeding duty after a game one evening. The pigs were so happy to see him they were dancing! It had just rained and they exploded out of their slumber in the "pig cave"- grunting and all hungry- ready to eat!