The Inadvertent Farmer

Public Service Announcement from the Farm

We interrupt this regularly scheduled nonsense to bring you...

Well, more nonsense.

It seems as though next week we are getting...

Drum-roll please!

 

Three Donkeys!

 

There is a nice lady moving to town who needs to find a home for a mama, daddy, and baby donkey.

She was told that there was this crazy farm lady that loved to take in homeless animals.

Hmmmm wonder where she could have gotten such an idea...

Ahem!

 

I will need to talk to Danni at On the way to the Critter Farm...she knows all about donkeys!  She also writes a wonderful blog about her life with her darling critters!  Here are her two charming fellows...Chester and Beau!

Danni...oh Danni...I need some advice!

KinderGARDENS week 13 Rainbow Hunt

When I was talking to my kiddos this week and we were brainstorming how we could do a scavenger hunt for KinderGARDENS, they came up with all kinds of ideas...

Baby Boy:  Garden Bugs, Garden Monsters, Slugs, Garden Super Heros.

Sweet Girl: Prettiest Color, Favorite Vegetable, Nicest Bugs, Most beautiful Chicken

I decided to go with one of Sweet Girl's ideas, but instead of looking for the prettiest color we have decided to see how many colors we could find in the garden!

Of course things like green and yellow were easy to find but I had the darndest time finding black or grey...maybe you will have better luck! 

And to make Baby Boy happy, we are going to see who can come up with the most colorful insect this week!

So here we go, let's find the rainbow!

Purple Cauliflower, Potato Blossom, Chicken House...

Blue Berries, BlueMan Scarecrow, Blue Borage an herb planted for our bees.

 

Field Daisies, Early Girl Tomato, Nasturtium Leaves...

 

Sweet Meat Squash Bloosom, Sunflower, Broccoli Blooms...

 

SunGold Tomato, Nasturtium, Marigold...

 

Pink Swiss Chard, Pink Dahlia, Cosmos

 

Red Raspberry, Red Bucket,???... I don't remember!

 

White Rose, Cosmo, Guara... or "Whirling butterflies" (thanks Eileen!)

 

This is for Baby Boy, Bugs! 

Sorry Baby, no super heroes.

 

Well maybe just one...

Captain Pajamas to the rescue...on guard!

 

I Sooooo Know Better...Parenting Lessons

I have been a mama for over 25 years now.

I am familiar with some of the do's and don'ts of kids...

• Don't buy a bunk bed and not expect at least on broken bone
• Don't think that every stick, lego, and finger will not be turned into a weapon eventually no matter how anti-violence you are...it certainly will.
• Don't have boys with long hair and get annoyed that every old person thinks 'he' is a 'she'...even if he is wearing a Spiderman shirt and carrying a transformer.
• Don't buy permanent markers...ever!
• Don't have a camel and not expect them to try to ride it!
• And...

No matter how much you hate plastic...

And its impacts on the enviroment and our health, don't every serve yogurt...

To a recently turned 4 year old boy...

In a glass bowl...

I Soooooooooo Know Better!

What have you learned to do or NOT do as a parent?

 

 

Kids Conversing on the Kitchen Counter

Welcome to the Friday Funnies.

A funny (or strange) photo from my life!

Why the kitchen counter is the choice for a place to converse I will never know!

But when it happens these things are certain...

Baby Boy is always animated,

#2 son is always attentive,

and Sweet Girl is usually moving too much to get a clear photo when she is telling a story!

Happy Weekend all my blog friends!

 

Alpacas Arrive KinderGARDENS week 12

We have been waiting and waiting for them...

They finally arrived yesterday!

 

Alpacas! Three females and their cria...two white girls and a carmel colored little boy.

 

And MoJo our new male (neutered...shhh don't tell him)

They are very curious about everything in their new home, the dog, the kids, and especially the llamas!

 

Who were equally curious about them.  They have been staring across the field at each other since yesterday...just staring!

 

So today we are just hanging out getting to know each other!

 

Alpacas?  Why?

As with the other animals around here the Alpacas are just for fun.  I probably won't do anything with them but enjoy their company. Farm ornaments as I like to call them!

But I will gladly use their manure in the garden...if they are anything like the llamas there will be a few very large community piles around the pasture which are easy to collect.  I add them to the compost pile or directly to the beds a few weeks before planting in the spring, either way the stuff is marvelous!

So my question for you is...

Do you have animals? 

What kinds? 

Do you incorporate them in your KinderGARDEN?

Besides the manure from the animals in the pasture we have a cat that hangs out in the garden keeping down the mice.

We also let the ducks into the garden from time to time to help with the slugs.

The chickens free range in the garden in the winter to to eat whatever they can find.

And let's not forget the rock star of the garden...

Ollie, he lives full time in the garden in a 'rabbit tractor' of sorts.  He is moved around from here to there eating down unwanted grass and leaving his little pellets behind to fertilize...yes he is indeed a superstar!

Note:  if you follow the above link I apologize ahead of time for the skinny dipping reference and the turky head thing...sorry. 

That's all I've got...what about you?

I can't wait to hear about what critters you guys have!

*****

New Blog Button...notice there is now a 'Grow to Give' button in the right sidebar?  Each week I will update it and in the tomato put the amount in pounds of food we give away.  Just let me know and I'll keep a runny tally.

I'm so thrilled that we are teaching our little ones to think outside of themselves to help those in need!

Here is a link to the original post on Grow to Give if you want more information on where to give to.

*****

Next week we are going to have a scavenger hunt for the kids...come prepared to play!

*****

 

 

Rain Photos and New Alpacas

I was not going to post anymore rain pictures...

But I just had to show you these.

Rain rocks on pansies...

 

And cosmos!

 

Just in case you ever wanted to know what bird netting looked like in the rain!

*****

Breaking News: We just received our new alpacas...3 mamas, 3 babies, and neutered male named Mojo!

Come back tomorrow for pictures and find out what our resident llamas thought about the whole thing!

 

Photo Study of Raindrops

Well it rained all last week and this week is not shaping up to be a heck of a lot better.

My greens are in heaven, the chard and lettuce and kale are loving their little wet universes!

My eggplant, tomatoes, melons, and peppers have gone on strike refusing to grow even one more inch until it warms up...seriously it has only been in the upper 60's and very low 70's.

The only upside to all of this wet weather is that raindrops make for magic when photographed!

So while my tomatoes are pouting I will just keep wandering around with my camera in hand!

How about you? 

Are you baking in the heatwave or like me are you keeping your umbrella handy?

Lucky Little Country Girl

When I was a kid we moved across the state from Western to Eastern Washington.

My folks looked and looked at houses to buy in our new town.

One day my folks toured a house in town.  It was a lovely home in a nice suburban neighborhood, my sister loved it...

I cried and told them that if they bought that house I would tape a picture of a farm on my window and never leave.

For my parents' mellow oldest child to pitch such a fit over a house in town was completely out of character.

They proceeded to buy a house in the country...much to my sister's annoyance!

 

I walked out my own grown up home in the country yesterday to find this...

 

My own sweet country girl carrying on a converation with a pygmy goat and a baby llama!

 

 

Pretty sure she, just like I did, would pitch a fit if I tried to move her to town!

 

 

I don't think fluffly the goat would like it much either!

Ahhhh goat heaven...a girl who will pet you endlessly while weaving tall tales about goats kings and princesses!

 

 

 

KinderGARDENS week 11 its Raining again

Well we have gone from this...

All sunshine and loveliness...

(as a side note of complete honesty...that is my compost pile behind Baby Boy.  Hmmm, I'm thinking I need to do something about that, good grief!)

 

With all our little pollinators so covered with pollen they could hardly fly...

 

To this... everything being all wet and droopy.

But we do have a few exciting updates!

So come on in and take a look around...

 

The Scarlett Runner Beans are blooming!

 

And twining...

 

The cucumbers are finally blooming.

 

The maze is slowly starting to fill in.

 

As are each bed...this one has from front to back...eggplant, lentils, heirloom bush beans, early tomatoes. 

I have completely mixed up all my beds this year with a variety of plants from different botanical families in each bed.  It should make crop rotation a nightmare next year!  But I like the mixed up look better than the one bed, one crop, look of past years...much more fun!

 

On a completely different subject may I just suggest that everyone have this in their gardens?  Yes everyone needs a chicken or two, or twenty...they are just so much fun to listen to and watch while you're out their weeding!

And if you have chickens you have an excuse for a chicken yard, which leads to a reason for having these growing on said chicken yard fence...

Which of course in turns leads to an excuse for...

Taking a little break from weeding, to take a few photos of the roses blooming, on the chicken yard fence, all because you have chickens in your garden...see my logic?

So until the sun comes out and we are back to doing this...

I'll be doing this...

Taking pictures of sad, sad flowers that have tipped completely upside down due to moisture overload!

*****

Next week look for the new button in the sidebar for our 'Grow to Give' campaign for giving our produce to those hungry in our communities.

I can't wait to see how many pounds we can give to those in need!

*****

 

Life in a Word...Wet!

I'm sorry for all of you who are in the grips of the horrible heat wave.

For us here on the left coast it has been in a word...

WET!

We can handle a couple of days of rain.

But dear sunshine...don't stay away too long or my tomatoes will get a bit grumpy and my eggplant will pout!

 

Although my peas are lovin' life right now!

 

 

 

Photo Editing or Straight out of the Camera?

Some people are highly edited.  They always have perfect makeup, clothes that are hip and modern.  They watch what they say and do and usually drive cool cars.

Other people don't wear makeup, have no clue what the is 'in'...and frankly need to edit what comes out of their mouths before speaking just a little bit more.

I will let you all guess which camp I am in!

Well photos are often the same...

Some are highly edited with flashy colors and high contrast.

Some are not...they are straight out of the camera.

I don't usually have time for dinking around with photos, so after a little tweaking of the brightness or contrast I'm done.

Today is not that case!

Today's are highly edited...flashy and highly contrasted.

 

Its fun to be flashy once in while!

 

Although I wouldn't want to make a habit of it...

 

 

 

 

So what about you? 

Are you highly edited or straight out of the camera? 

How about your photos?

Waging War on Weeds at Tip Junkie

Hey all!

I'm over at Tip Junkie where I continue my Gardening 101 series.

This week we are discussing how to get rid of weeds!

Waging War on Weeds

Come on over and share your advice on how you deal with weeds!

KinderGARDENS week 10 Up Close

First I want to share with you my favorite quote from the KinderGARDENS posts last week...

"I'm dressed like a vampire because I sunburn faster than a naked hen"

Pretty much had me chuckling all week! 

You'll have to go through the links from last week to find out who said that...you are supposed to be visiting everyone anyway, ahem.

*****

This week I did something I haven't done in a looooong time.

I got out my macro lens...

I forgot how different the garden looks when you get up close.

As a gardener I tend to take a longer view...I rarely take the time to appreciate the beautiful nature of a leaf or an individual blossom.  I am more concerned with keeping ahead of the weeds, killing slugs and watering.  I forget to take the time to look, really look, at the wonders that are in my garden!

 

This is what the tiny blooms from buckwheat look like!  I rarely give them a second thought when I plant them as a cover crop for the bees.  Frankly until today I did not realize just how lovely they were.

 

This is what a green lentil seedling looks like at 4 days old!  I have never grown lentils before, I can't wait!

 

Baby yellow zucchini!

 

Baby green zucchini.

 

I rarely take the time to stop and look at a pea tendril...the are very cool!

 

Even the showiest of flowers takes on a whole new dimension when seen up close.

 

What I thought was a plain white blossom is not so plain from here!

This is going to be your assignment for next week.  Take the time to look at your garden not as a whole but as lovely individual plants.  Get out your cameras and document the wonder of the up close world of gardening!

Even weeds can be beautiful up close!

 

As can be the first tomato of the season that you do not share with your kids...not that I know anyone that would do such a thing!

So have fun with it! 

Photo tip:  I have found that with macro-photography the best trick is to hold very still.  Propping your camera on something whether it be a tripod, piece of wood or your knee, helps tremendously!  And you don't need a macro lens to take tight shots, just get as close as your regular lens will allow and be still!

*****

 

Boys and Their Toys

I have learned over the years that boys never outgrow certain toys.

My husband will never outgrow these...

Baby Boy is headed for the same fate.

He loves things that go fast that have lots of chrome.

He picked out many favorites at last weekend's car show...they were always the ones with the exposed engines that had everything dripping in shiny chrome!

 

But being a typical 4 year old...

 

He is still partial to lamp posts!

 

So do you have a grown-up boy that has never outgrown his toys?

 

 

Orchid Obsession?

I always thought those people that collected orchids were a bit strange.

Seriously why collect a plant that you can not eat?

Or that need bright light but not direct light...or is rather expensive?

It all alluded me until...

My sweet daughter wanted this for her birthday...

Yes for her 8th birthday she wanted a pink/purple orchid!

So on my windowsill stands this intriguing little plant.

I have enjoyed having it there.

Which came as a surprise to me as my windowsills are usually filled with seedlings or herbs.

Then...

I saw this one...

And I had to have it!

But then there were two orchids sitting on my windowsill.

Everyone knows that odd numbers always look better than even numbers so...

OK...now I'm one of the freaky orchid collectors (of course I mean freaky in the kindest of ways!)

But I still cannot eat, dry, or can, an orchid.

Which begs the question.

What the heck does a farmer needs with a windowsill of orchids?

I'll have to get back to you on that.

 

Newly Orchid Obsessed!

Happy Independence Day!

 

May we all remember that our freedoms were not even remotely free.

Never forget just how lucky we are!

Have a happy and safe weekend my blog friends!