becoming farmers

forgot to post these pictures, but must document. my brother and his wifey came out to the farm to work the garden and i think we'd all agree the garden worked us. we tilled, we made raised rows, we planted corn, and we had some tasty drinks.

uncle will instructs med on the art of raised rows


surprisingly med looks like he's listening, appearances are deceiving


me enjoying the rototiller a bit much


corn planters & 1 week later they sprouted


jen & med bonded that day, a very special day for them both.

and in other news...



don't rototiller your fence



it's as fun as it looks.

the corn has hatched

never knew this is how corn sproutlings looked, one point down for learning something new today. pretty excited about the corn, actually i've never been so excited about corn before. it seems like just the other day my brother and sista were over helping plant the seeds and then the rain came and then the sun and out these babies popped, if only child birth was so easy. oh and it was just two weekends ago, AMAZING, i love this thing they call gardening.

CHANGES at the farm.

things are starting to grow, the garden is looking like a garden and we might turn into farmers after all.



tyler made some trellises, bought raspberry and blackberry plants, and planted his brains out. then he went and planted a dozen blueberry bushes, HEY-OOOOO.


nothing makes me happier than a bunch of garlic on pretty much anything (not dessert related), so i decided that i should plant a bunch and is it ever easy. all you have to is buy a clove or two of garlic at the store, break up each little piece, stick in the ground as deep as the garlic is tall, pat the soil down, and wait a week, i love it.


chives anyone? good with garlic and potatoes and salad and pretty much ties with garlic and isn't it pretty?


a little peak at the chicken's new palace, it's huge and they are spoiled -we better see double egg production, that's all i'm saying.






we love andrea home, the girls can't get enough of her and i think she likes the work out.




after a long day of working outside, the boys are tired, dog tired, iggy says it all.


wishes he was one of the big dogs but we love the Doogie even if he tries to hitch a ride whenever possible, pee on almost anything, but i enjoy his company, he's like a little shadow, and i love him. plus he always looks like he has a secret in that little black head of his.

LIKE and Don't LIKES

there are some things i do not like

1. FENCES around my garden, i like the idea of wide open spaces, fences, well, fences fence my spirit in or something crazy like that.


2. RABBITS. Make me have a fence and I don't have a picture of them because they come out at night to nibble on my sweet baby greens and well, I don't have night vision camera abilities to capture them, yet.

3. IGGY who likes to sleep like this (even though this is when he was a puppy, he hasn't changed) and watches the rabbits get into my garden.


4. DANDELIONS around my garden. they are pretty yellow, but i do not like what they turn into (see next picture)


6. Even if they are pretty and fun to blow, they are not welcomed, why do they insist on growing right next to my baby garden?


what i do LOVE

1. GIRLS picking all those beautiful yellow flowers for a penny a piece.



2. GIRLS laughing at my jokes, i think i just asked them what they thought dandelion bottoms look like. in fact, i bet if i asked them what anything or anyone's bottom looked like they would start giggling. let's see, what do ice cream bottoms look like? "HA HA HA HA".


3. IGGY. He is such a sweet huge muffinhead and even if he doesn't chase the bunnies from my garden, he's sweet with the kids, takes Tyler for walks and make me feel safe at night, I still have the whole summer to get him chasing bunnies.

SEEd Update

raised row #1: beans just beginning to push through the dirt.
raised row #2: peas are sprouting up all over the place!
raised row #3: little red and green beet sprouts are a welcoming site to 1/4 of this row, the rest of the row is another type of sweet pea, who likes peas?
raised row #4: no action yet, but i think they are enjoying their new home.

biggest TWO garden challenges:
1) keep getting those clumps to nice fine dirt for those tiny seeds to work their magic.

2) keep the dogs out of the garden! Iggy's hugeness does a number on my rows, why do dogs like to play next to my garden?

saturday sun = raised row #4

saturday forced me to do more gardening, plus tyler spied some sprouts coming up from the beans and peas so i was ecstatic to get some more seeds in the ground, this gardening thing might pay off after all.

first off i tilled the entire garden with a tiller attached to a tractor, just a quick pass to try and declump the soil once again, those clumps don't stand a chance. then i took the tractor over the garden about 10 times where i would do the next raised bed. the dirt looked pretty good, finer particles, less clumps, i guess seeds don't like to try and grow around hard dirt. and i read that if you plant carrots in clumpy soil they will grow all crooked like, hey maybe that'd be kinda fun. so anyway, declumped and then with my handy dandy rake made a large 2 foot high x 2 foot wide mound of dirt. without stepping on the fresh mound i used the flat side of the rake to smooth a foot wide top down to have a nice even planting surface. then my sweet garden gnomes, i mean helpers, my mom and girls planted beets, buttercrunch lettuce, spinach, and fennel. we also sprinkled in radishes throughout since they grow super fast and will help mark the rows and let us have something to nibble on while the rest of the stuff is hopefully growing.

by the way, all these pics are taken with my mom's little point and shoot camera, i like how it fits in her pocket and it is so easy to use.

here is a good way to mark your seeds, just use the seed packet (my mom says they are waterproof), staple it to a stick and poke in the ground, very complicated.






doogie helps with the spinach, well he does look like he's doing something, probably thinking that helping means getting in my rows and taking a nap or quietly observing my every move.






does the barn look different? it's not finished yet, but oooooh so close.


remember it used to be this...

from the local garden at costco

had a cowgirl dinner over the weekend and wanted to have some flowers for the occasion. so i looked outside and saw a lot of muddy worn out from winter grass and a few dandelions that were of no help to my party decor plans. then as i was getting groceries at the good old costco i spied some beautiful bright flower bouquets and thought they would work perfect, but then for the same price i spied these beautiful soft purple flowers that just screamed or more like softly whispered to my little heart and i snagged them up and then made them pose for me for a little shoot.