First Week of CSA!

Sunlight bathes the green, lush grass as the trees sway in the warm summer breeze. I collect water for the baby turkeys from the creek, which is warm and crystal clear, flowing over thousands of smoothed over pebbles with tiny snails affixed to them. I snap on the lid on  and walk to the turkeys and dump the box of birds into the new turkey tractor as they dizzily adjust their eyes to the sunlight and the green grass.

The garden is getting soaked today. It's looking amazing and we have staggered the plantings with the experience of quite a few CSA seasons. The radishes are heaving, the kale is lush, and Pepper flushed out that rabbit that likes to hang out in my herb patch and eat all my lettuce. She looks very happy and accomplished for the day and will indeed be rewarded with many frisbee throws and a couple self induced swims in the creek.

The heat of the day has sufficiently absorbed into the ground and now I'm off to pull some weeds in the zinnias and put some cucumber seedlings in the ground.

First CSA pickup is tomorrow and I'm excited to see everyone back! Email me if you have any questions or just stop out and chat. It's going to be a beautiful season. I can just feel it.

A good day for dingo dog.

Walking around the park today just gives me a minute to sigh, fall back and regroup. That last frost really disoriented me and threw me off my super planting trajectory and reminded me that I am actually indeed not in control. I just adapt to what is thrown at me and hope for the best.

So today after a killer week at work, I enjoyed re-centering myself with my new companion, my new foster puppy dog.

He came with the name "Dingo," which I'm not keen on, but if I rename him, I might want to keep him. I say might because we had an awesome day together and I already kinda might want to keep him. He's awesome.

He watched me get supplies for setting up these little guys in the old chicken house. Any guess as to what type of deliciousness (and mild annoyingness) these little guys are?

Then we checked on the small fruits. Looks like the grapes are in blossom and didn't get hit by that end of the month frost like the ones at my work vineyard did.

Here's a couple currants that are coming on for the first time ever. Not sure what CSA members will do with a couple currants per basket, but hey, they grew. Wohoo!

My dad was trimming around the gooseberries, which each have about 2 berries per plant but I am going to net them this year. Darn birds won't get my two berries! I've actually never tasted a gooseberry despite attempting to grow them pretty much since I heard about them. One thing I do know, they make excellent goat feed. Darn goats.

We checked out Corina and Travis's beautiful garden and weeded the onions. One of us might have peed all around the perimeter of the fence to keep the groundhogs out, which also counts as helping.

Then while fixing the sheep fence my hat finally lost the rest of it's stuffing. Oh Marcs. How I love you and your ability to trick me into thinking a paper hat actually can function as a real hat.

After finding a real light bulb for a source of heat, the birds were set up and Dingo made it his job to keep going in there to make sure they are ok. He'd check on the turkeys then check on my car to make sure I hadn't left him and then sweep back to my dad mowing and then the sheep then back to my car. It's like he knows that somewhere in his bloodlines he was made for work like this and he was happy to invent new jobs for himself.

The mowing then progressed into my slightly overgrown part of my garden while my mom weeded the planted part. We are trying to plant in weed fabric and mulch everything early. So far so good.

My mom's pomeranian sneaks into my herb patch and nestles down in the lemon balm. That should make him smell slightly better than normal.

With the bunny on the corner working through the thistles, my mom spreads the grass clippings around the potatoes while my dad's pomeranian suns himself in my beet patch.

While walking up the hill, I might have been texting, head down and got thwaped in the head with a branch covered in mulberries. I really should put the phone away when I'm outside. I am continually amazed at the little things that I miss while I'm focused on something else.

The hops climbing up the barn are in flower, which look like little space ships or burrs. The green leaves are brilliantly colored against the old barn wood.

So I'd say Dingo had a pretty good day. He's curled up around my feet taking a nap with one eye open. Must be an odd feeling to go from jail to this. I sure hope he finds a home soon or else I just might keep him. He's pretty and sweet. 

CSA planting is well underway and we are excited about another great season. We've got a couple turkeys for thanksgiving meals. The lambs are growing like weeds. The weeds are growing like weeds. I am working through the large catalog of seeds that were purchased in the cold dead of winter as each of them finds a spot in the garden and gets loving encouragement to flourish.