The Reality of Picking Wild Berries

   With the first day of summer always comes the first ripe berries of the season.  This past week my boys and I took twice daily trips out to the berry patches to see if they were ready to pick yet.  Finally on Thursday morning we found the first plump black raspberry ready to pick.  The outdoor wild berry smorgasbord had begun. Snack times for the next couple weeks will consist of taking walks out to the woods and eating fruit right off the bushes, and my sons' hands and faces will be stained a deep shade of burgundy from now until mid-July.  And when they're not stuffing their faces with fruit, I'll try to pick some extra to put in the freezer for this winter, and for sorbet and jelly.

Homemade, Natural Deer Repellent

   One of our big dreams of country life is to have an orchard with a bountiful harvest.
   So far, we have failed at this endeavor.
   This was the year that we were going to get our orchard going.  Again.  We replaced all the dead trees and were diligently checking on them.  It was during one of these routine checks that GD and I discovered that all the leaves below a certain point on the trees had been stripped and a couple of the smaller trees were just barely hanging on to life.

Chicken Catching Lessons

    GD recently turned 4.  He was very certain on how he wanted to celebrate his birthday.  The theme he chose for his party was "Planes, tractors, monster trucks, chicken catching, and donut holes." (I couldn't fit all of that on his cake)

Life Lessons from a Broody Chicken

   Watermelon, our Buff Orpington, is one of my older son's favorite chickens.  True to her breed, she is very mild and lets him scoop her up and carry her around the yard.

   Recently though, she was very broody.

"I's Really Wants To Be A Farmer When I's Grows Up"

GD is very certain about what he wants to be when he grows up. He plans to have a brief stint as a monster truck driver followed by many, many years devoted to farming (with monster truck driving as a fall back). He talks about his future as a farmer every hour of every day. He knows what crops he'll plant, what animals he'll raise, and he definitely knows what tractors he wants. He is very serious about his farming goals and has laid out a plan not only for learning how to farm but for saving his money for big tractors.