I Hardly Know Where To Begin

The garden: it thrives at the moment. We have just about completed planting everything for the summer. Today I will seed cantaloupe and baby pumpkins.

As of now the Upper garden includes:
Meslun salad mix
Winter and Spring Spinach
Giant Caesar lettuce
Neon Swiss Chard, the remains of the winter chard
Beets
Sugar snap, Snow Peas and English peas (they all look the same)
Red onion, yellow onion
Garlic
Shallots
Green pencil onion
Brocolli
Chinese Cabbage
Roma, Cherry 100 and Razzleberry Tomatoes
Tomatillos
Eggplant
Red pepper and jalapenos
Butternut squash
Strawberries
Kale (nearly gone)
and soon sweet potatoes

Lower garden:
Corn, Silver Queen
Kentucky Wonder beans
Black-eyed Peas
Hestia Bush Beans (dreadful sprouting)
Early Girl, Better Boy, Celebrity and Cherokee Purple Tomatoes
Jalapenos
Zucchini and Yellow Squash
Luffa Gourd
Bush Beans
Cucumber
Potatoes

This is what we call the "salad bar"
and here are the Spring Beets.

I pulled all the ones left from the winter and pickled and canned them. While the winter crop was growing slowly, we ate the leaves in salads but once spring arrived, they grew in size quickly. These you see are growing so fast, I will be pulling them before I know it!
My personal Favorite in the garden, Shallots
Why? Because they are SO pretty and happy to look at! The flowers now are in full bloom and they look like happy suns on thick stalks.

The chickens are doing very well. I think this is the last week we will have Stu/Jethro around. I am really dithering on this. I know. I like him but the girls don't. I mean the hens. He doesn't really add much to the mix as far as protection goes. He is very alert.... but I think if danger were around, it would be every chicken for himself! He badgers the Wyandottes without mercy and I really don't want that for the little girls. But I worry what will become of the Little Bit if he is gone. They pair up and while he doesn't share anything except a roost with her, I don't know how she will behave if his absence leaves this void on the roost. Right now none of the chickens allow the little girls up on the higher roost pole. And sometimes, when they are in a mood, the three hens won't let Stu and LB up there either.
Chickens!

Are You Talkin' to ME?

I have finished sewing and quilting two more samples for the shop.

Double Pinwheel
and Log Cabin...
Now I have one class coming up Monday and although the sample has been finished for a long time, I still have not quilted it. I hope to have that done by the end of Summer.

So that is a summary of the happenings around the farm. I did not get to participate in the Tea Parties in the area but have been keeping with those who did attend. Sounds like another good time was had by all.

Here's a funny story.... we have been seeing fewmets in the Back Two and have determined they come from skunks. When I told Kathryn about this, she said...."Skunks have a funny way of walking.... they look like they hit every bump in the road." and I think she is right. So, two night ago as I was returning from locking up the chickens for the night, I see Polo out there heading home and as I call to him, I see not that far from him a small black ferret with a white stripe hitting every bump in the road. Both I and the cat hightailed it back to the house.