Am I Really a Gardener?

Huh.   You know, I have been planting things since I was a pre-teen.  I can remember riding my bike up Alpha Road to Albanese's Florist in the summertime and spending some of my $1.00/hour babysitting money to buy pansies to plant along the side of our sidewalk in the house I shared with my parents and two brothers.   Seeing the bright purple and yellow faces of the pansies made me smile every time I walked by them.  I think that's when the garden bug first bit me.

And then when I was a young wife and mother I had a small plot in our backyard with onions and tomatoes.   How groovy of me.  Hey, it was the early 70's.    Somewhere in my belongings is a picture of Jarrad as a 9 month old sitting upright on a blanket in front of the garden while I did some weeding.   Even in the years that I was a single mother without a permanent place to call home, I would pick up an inexpensive plant here and there.   Something about nurturing and watering a living plant has always been satisfying to me.

The last couple of homes Joel and I owned in Florida became constant experiments (much to Joel's consternation) plotting our landscape using edible foods instead of ornamentals.    After one particularly frosty winter when we lost our palm trees I replaced them with edible plants.  Our backyard was filled with blueberry bushes, a huge lichee nut tree, a fig tree and I had raised beds with all our vegetables growing in them.  

Now that we live on a for-real live farm I can plow up some dirt just about anywhere I please and plant whatever my heart desires.    The first spring we were here I went crazy and had a huge garden.....can't remember exactly how big it was now but it was somewhere in the ballpark of 52'X72'.    Yup, that's a lot of square footage to weed.   And let me tell you it was overwhelming.  

I planted 35 tomato plants, 3-22' rows of potatoes, and a wide row of corn.  There were carrots, red beets, cabbage, broccoli, leeks, onions, melons, cantaloupe, acorn squash, and pumpkins.   And don't forget the zucchini and cucumbers that overtook several rows.   But I couldn't keep up with the weeding.   And I probably only harvested 60% of what actually grew because I was so overwhelmed. So much of that first garden spoiled before I ever got around to harvesting it.   There was just too much to do that first year.

That all took place before we had our kitchen in place, so I was canning and freezing veggies with folding tables as a work surface.   Our kitchen cabinets arrived later on in October that year after the garden went dormant.   But I sure did "put up" a lot of food that summer even with the limitations we faced that year.    Then we got the alpacas and their pasture went in where the garden used to be.

So now I have the much smaller potager garden up closer to the house.    Initially I divided it into 3 equal sections.   Blueberry bushes on the left third along with an asparagus bed.   This third of the garden is pretty much on auto pilot.    The berry bushes get weeded every few weeks and I continue to amend their soil with coffee grounds that I bury around their roots.   The asparagus simply come up every spring without fail and all I have to do is cut off the luscious spears to serve up for dinner.

The middle section of the potager(pronounced po/tah/zha) is loaded with strawberries.   I kinda overplanted that section without realizing how much they would spread.   Anybody want some strawberry plants?   When I bought the skinny root bundles 3 years ago I had no idea that there were so many plants in each bundle.   And since I am not one to waste anything I planted each and every one of them.   Yup, all 110 of them.   Giggle......let me tell you, we have strawberries every spring!

The right third of the potager has all my herbs and the flowers I grow to dehydrate for teas that I drink all winter.   There is also a huge rhubarb plant and some flowers just for fun.   The far right hand side of the garden is flanked by thornless blackberry bushes that are producing a bumper crop this season.

Many of the plants in this garden are perennials....meaning they come back year after year with little or no care.    I like that.    Makes sense to me to let Mother Nature do some of the work.   For example, the asparagus come back each spring without fail, and the strawberries, blueberries and blackberries produce no matter what I do.   Even some of the herbs return to their appointed spot without any help from me, as does the rhubarb and a few volunteer flowers.

So, what's the big deal?  How hard is it to maintain this little plot?   I have one area in the "tea" garden that is becoming overrun with weeds and I have procrastinated on cleaning it up for weeks now.   You know why?   I hate the heat and humidity.   Yup, there I said it.   I don't mind the work, but I can't stand the heat.    Is it wrong of me to be dreaming of fall already?    Sigh......But seriously, what kind of gardener hates the heat???  Me!

Don't "real" gardeners love standing for hours out in the sun, baking their backs while they toil bent over the plants they have nurtured from little seedlings?   Don't "real" gardeners take pride in presenting a well manicured garden to anyone who happens to wander over to view it?  I like the part where the garden looks pristine, I'm just not so thrilled about the part where I have to do all the weeding to keep it that way.

And to think Joel and I placed 3 huge sheets of black plastic (we're killing the grass before planting this fall)  over another large area beside the potager in preparation for adding onto the garden.    I know!  How crazy is that if I don't want to weed what I already have to take care of?    But I love the plants.   I love harvesting our own food.   It thrills me to see a watermelon developing on the vine and to know that the broccoli I grew will stock our freezer.

 So I guess I'll just have to weed when I can and maybe not be such a perfectionist about the weedy part of my life.    Yup.   That sounds good to me.   Because I sure do love opening up a home canned jar of my tomatoes as I prepare our dinner on a cold winter January evening.  And the addition of three raised beds this year (like the one above) have made it a bit easier to work with the plants without having to do so much bending over....which is tough when you have a bulging disc as I do in my lower back.

I do love going out to the garden to pick our lettuce for our salad paired with our evening meal.  This year I have been experimenting with planting different lettuces every 2 weeks so we have a continuous supply of lettuce all summer long.   And we purposely placed one of the new raised beds closer to the maple tree so it gets afternoon shade which allows cool loving lettuce to thrive, even in the heat we've had lately.

Alright, maybe I am a gardener after all.   It's unthinkable for me to envision a time when I don't have dirt underneath my fingernails.    The thought of not having fresh produce every summer is almost impossible to bear.   And who could possibly resist those beautifully photographed seed catalogues?

I guess most days I can see myself as a gardener.....just please could we have some temps in the 70's again?

The Reluctant Weeder-in-Chief,
Debbie

Believe it or Not

I have debated for several days now about whether or not to share this with you.   Oh, I know, you chuckle when you read about our mishaps and long learning curve.    And you may even sometimes ponder the idea of making the trip here to play farmer for a few days alongside us.   I try my best to convey the nuances of our daily life......the sun rising above the mountain on a clear crisp fall day, the wonder of new baby chicks following their mama, the sound of the leaves rustling in the breeze as a summer storm approaches.

And while you more than likely can visualize what I share with you about our daily routines, I'm not kidding when I say some of you simply won't believe what I'm about to tell you.   Joel witnessed it himself and he told me that if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes he would have had a hard time believing me as I relayed what we saw.    So, exactly what the heck am I talking about here????

Well, here goes.  Three days ago I was standing at our back door looking out into the girl alpacas pasture that they share with Buttercup.   The alpacas had all wandered into the barn and were munching hay.    We have a gate at the edge of their stall that we can close when we need to capture the animals and give them shots.  Buttercup was standing just outside the barn on the concrete pad when I saw her nudge the 12' gate with her nose.    It swung a foot or so toward the barn as she tentatively walked closer to the gate.   Then she nudged it again.  

"Huh", I thought.  "Look at that", said Joel as he walked up behind me.   We stood and watched as Buttercup repeatedly pushed the gate, watched it swing ever closer to the barn and then she did it again and again.   Until finally she had pushed it shut.   Joel and I looked at each other and started to chuckle.   What a funny calf!   But it's what she did next that we can't stop talking about.

She turned around and immediately started to jump around like a 4 year old child let loose on a playground after a long winter stuck inside.  She jumped and jumped and spun around and then casually walked over to the hay feeder in the pasture for a snack.   We were dumbfounded.   We looked at each other and asked, "Did we really see that right?".   And, was she demonstrating how happy she was to have her new stall mates trapped?

We have been experimenting(aren't we always?) with keeping Buttercup with the girls in an effort to give her company....yes, farm animals are social beings too and do better if kept with other animals.  But the jury is still out on whether or not this has been a good idea.   The girls are taller than Buttercup and outnumber her 7-1.   And we can see she is sometimes intimidated by them and one of the girls will occasionally spit in her direction as a warning to "back off", especially when there is food involved.  

I'm not too happy about the way this is shaping up and we are working on another solution.   But solutions take time, effort and money.   Sigh.   Hey, it's just "another little project", right?   I think Buttercup had just about had enough of these bullies and penned them into the barn on purpose.  Her delight at having done so was pretty evident to us.   See, I told you that you may not believe me.   But watching her body language made it clear to us she would rather not have to deal with the alpacas up close and personal.

 Hmmm, is this my "good side"?

 Or does the camera like this side better?  giggle.....

 "Yeah, I got 'em cornered, Mom."   See what I mean about the gate being closed?   She did that all by herself!

 Even though the gate isn't latched, the alpacas don't challenge fences, so, they would never think of pushing against it.  And that means they just stand there and look out toward the pasture wondering when they will be released from their stall.   What funny creatures.

 Yes, Buttercup, you are adorable.   Look at those eyelashes, ladies.

Since this is a cow post, I need to tell you what else has been going on with the cows on the farm across from ours.    Four days ago the farmer removed some of the calves from their mamas.    It's done every year once the calves reach weaning age....which is anywhere from 3-5 months.   The result, though, is some very unhappy mama cows.   They will bellow and bellow while searching for their calves.    It's been kinda pitiful to watch and it tugs on Joel and my heartstrings to see these animals so distressed.

 For four days now these two black angus mamas have been pacing back and forth along their barbed wire fence, looking wistfully toward the pasture where Buttercup hangs out, and bellowing non-stop, morning, noon and night.    Yes, 24 hours a day.   Very loud moo-ing.    Loud moo-ing that echoes deep into our valley below.   Moo-ing until these poor creatures are almost hoarse today.

Every once in a while Buttercup will respond with her own polite little girl "moo" which is nothing even remotely close to the loud sounds coming from the angus moms.  And then the mamas begin their chanting all over again.  

So that's my post about cows.   And cow behavior.   And how smart we think our Buttercup is.   You know, like those folks who brag about how "gifted" their child is.   Giggle......oh, come on, we all know that every kid can't possibly be gifted!   Ok, you can decide for yourself if Buttercup knowingly nudged that gate closed to have a few moments of peace alone in the pasture.  

As for Joel and I, we're believers.
Deb

Details

The day of the quilt guild picnic here on the farm was a crazy busy day and while I thought I was taking the time to take a ton of pics, it turns out I missed a lot of shots that I now wish I had taken.   I have, however, come across a few photos that tie into that event and thought I'd show them to you now.

What we have here are the flower centerpieces from the tables.   After the party one of the girls had arranged them in a row on the table of our screened in porch and I liked the way it looked so much I shot this pic of them.    The flowers kept really well for over a week and added a festive touch to the porch.

This is a close up of the repurposed chalkboard sign from my shop in Florida.   It worked great hanging on the wall under the galvanized W.O.F. letters.   I can think of a ton of ways to use this sign in the future.   The sign is actually an old cupboard door from a vintage kitchen of a circa early 1900's house.   The outside wood has chippy paint and the black is simply chalkboard paint covering the center panel of the door.  It's one of my favorite farmhouse pieces.

Ugh!  Remember this ugliness?   This is the damaged wall and entry to the bathroom in the pavilion before we remodeled.   Well, I had shown you how bad this looks before but never gave you a peek at how wonderful it looks now with new trim, a repaired threshold and fresh paint.

Ta-da!  Quite a difference, wouldn't you say?   And now the door has a sweep attached to the bottom to help prevent little bugs from entering the bathroom and making a mess in our clean space.

In preparation for the picnic I had 4 signs made up at a local sign shop in town.   It was handy to simply drive my car to 3 strategic locations along the road and push the metal sign posts into the ground.   The ladies who came to the picnic said the signs really helped them know where to turn to get to our place way out in the country.

Our red adirondack chairs are usually on the concrete pad of the pavilion.   But there was no room for them the day of the picnic so instead we decided to place them around the farm.   Now that these two chairs are out by the potager garden overlooking the valley I think we may leave them there permanently.   The view of the valley is my favorite and I love looking into my garden, too.

We also placed one solitary adirondack chair way out beyond the girl's pasture on what I like to call "Sit Upon Rock".   The chair easily rests on a huge boulder with another beautiful view of the valley below.   And it's a favorite place for me to sit with my box of watercolors and a sketch pad.....puttering around with my paints.

As I walked outside a couple of weeks ago to walk the dogs, this is the view I had of the full moon rising above the mountain, framed by the big maple tree and the adirondack chairs.   Yup, what a great place to sit and enjoy the simple moments of life.

Life is good,
Debbie

Puppy Post

I wasn't going to post these pics.....mainly because the shots are much less than desirable.....translation:   they're not very flattering to either Joel or I.   But, hey, in the tradition of keeping it honest here on the farm, I'm gonna show them to you anyway.

 Yup, that's a puppy in Joel's arms.   A very cute puppy.   A "soon to be ours" puppy.   First let me tell you how acquiring a new puppy came about.   Joel has been reading (isn't that how we have learned to do almost everything here on the farm?) about livestock guardian dogs.   We have gone back and forth about whether or not we wanted to add more dogs to the list of animals we currently feed and need to keep updated with vaccinations, etc.   But since we have bred our alpacas twice this last month we are hoping to have baby cria next summer....and they will need guarding from the coyotes that troll our area.

Several months ago we met some new neighbors......neighbors who live about 4 miles away....but here in the country that's still considered a neighbor.   We've visited each other's farms back and forth and helped each other do some chores.    For example, I helped to shear their 11 alpacas several weeks ago.   And Craig drove his tractor here to dig a huge hole to bury one of our alpaca after she died....saving Joel from doing it by hand.

While I was there shearing with them, Craig happened to mention that Bella, their sweet Pyrenees dog was about due to have her first litter of puppies.   When I told Joel about that we decided this would be a great way for us to jump into the guard dogs we had been thinking about acquiring.   Bella is probably the most docile, sweetest dog I have ever encountered, so, we are hoping her pups will also have that trait.

 Wouldn't you know, the very day we were driving back home with Buttercup in our trailer we got a text message from Craig that Bella had just had her puppies an hour ago.   And she had 11 of them!   We went to see the puppies a few days later and picked out a black female and a grayish tan male.   Several weeks went by and late last Saturday I called Craig and Kristi on a whim to see if we could take another peek at the puppies.  That's when these photos were taken after Joel and I had put in a long hard day of outside work.

 Here we are, holding the puppies we had originally chosen.....after being smothered in puppy kisses. They are just the sweetest pups!   Aren't they cute, too?

Ok, there's a bit more to the story.    Originally Joel had picked out the puppies and I was okay with our choices.   But after seeing them last Saturday, I inquired about whether or not the all white ones had been spoken for by others who are getting a puppy.    Kristi showed me two males that were still unspoken for.    Because I have an affection for Bella, I think I am drawn to one of her look-alikes.

As soon as I held this little fella in my arms it was love at first sight.   He kept making eye contact with me and I was smitten.   And so, we will soon be bringing home a smokey tan colored little guy and his white brother.   Let the training begin.   Oh, you thought I was referring to the puppies.  Ha!   I was talking about the training of Joel and Debbie......yup, now we have to read about how to train puppies to be guardians of our critters.

Just call it "puppy love",
Debbie

The Second Annual Birthday Party

What's that all about, you ask?   Whose second annual birthday party?    As it turns out, eight of my quilting buddies have birthdays that loosely fall within 6 weeks of each other, give or take a few days, between May and July.   And my "half-birthday" is June 23rd.   Listen folks, when your birthday is December 23rd as mine is, it kinda gets lost in the shuffle of Christmas celebrations.   So, I decided to celebrate my birthday along with my summer birthday friends.

Well, yesterday was our designated birthday celebration.   Last year was the first time we did this and it was such fun we knew we had to repeat it again this year.....only it was expanded by 3 more friends!   We decided ahead of time on a menu and everyone brought their signature dish to add to the meal.   That sure made it easy for me as we hosted the party here on the farm.  

 We each brought one gift and shuffled the presents around the table and then opened up our present from an unknown giver.  Here's Kathy getting ready to "shuffle" her present to the right.

 It was fun to see what everyone received in their pretty bag or wrapped box.   And of course all the presents were quilt related goodies.

 And you know that we ate really well.   To top off our meal, Linda brought a cake her daughter had baked in our honor, complete with sides iced with a flying geese quilt motif.   Yum, not only was it pretty to look at but it was yummy to boot.

See what I mean?

Cheers, ladies.   We wish you all a happy and healthy year ahead.   Valerie, we missed you and hope to see you at next year's party.

The birthday girls got to take home cookies that Linda's daughter baked especially for us with a beautiful quilt design in icing on each one.   Pretty friends above, Linda and Eileen, waiting patiently for us to cut into the cake.

Then, after the ladies left, Joel and I jumped into the Polaris and rode down to the chicken coop to check in on the newly hatched baby chicks.   We opened the large door to the coop and waited and watched to see if we could catch a glimpse of the newest members of our flock.

The hen in the nest on the left has been sitting on eggs for 21 days now.....the right amount of time for chicks to hatch.   Two days ago 2 baby chicks were "peep-peep-peeping" and walking around her on wobbly legs.   But the hen wouldn't budge off the nest to take care of them until all her other eggs were hatched.   Wouldn't you know it but the hen on the right adopted the chicks and Joel saw her proudly strutting around the coop with the chicks trying to keep up with her.

 The adoptive mama is keeping her chicks nice and warm and safe from enemies(A.K.A. Farmer Joel who tried to see if she was sitting on eggs).    Check out the photo below to see one of the chicks taking a look around from in between mama's wing feathers.

 Isn't that just the cutest thing?   Sigh, we love watching all of God's creation doing it's "thing" without us lifting one little finger.  Isn't new life amazing?

Add two more to our animal count,
Deb

Ready for the 4th

It's hard for me to believe but June is almost gone and the 4th of July is right around the corner.   Before we know it we will be saying goodbye to summer and waiting for the leaves to turn yellow and red.   Oh, come on.   I'm not trying to give summer the bum's rush, really I'm not.  But the older I get the more time seems to speed along.  Haven't you found that to be so, too?

Well, maybe not.  I did find myself getting in the patriotic spirit of things a day ago as I pulled out some red, white and blue fabrics from the shelves in my studio and started playing around with them.  And here is what I made:

 I had just enough of the blue fabric with stars on it to eek out 2 "mug rugs".   Yup, that's the current term for a simple, 'ole drink coaster.  It was kinda fun to sew some up to give my table a little festive lift.  And my computer desk stays a lot drier now since I put the mug rug under my icy cold glass of water.  We will have no drips near the new computer, thank you.

 The mug rug was so much fun that I decided to make a patriotic pillow for out on the rocking chair porch.   The back of the pillow is simply done "envelope style" so the pillow insert can be removed and another cover put on once all the summer patriotic holidays are behind us.   That got me to thinking.......why not make a different pillow cover for the different seasons?    If I use the same pillow insert, then I can simply store the out of season pillow covers flat.....now that will take up a lot less space, right?   And here in our itty bitty farmhouse I am careful to avoid taking up precious storage space for frivolities.

So, now I am working on a fall, winter and spring cover for the same rectangular pillow form.   Geesh!   You'd think I have nothing better to do with my time than to invent new projects.....giggle.   But this was just so much fun and I love that making the pillow and mug rug provided some much needed instant gratification.   Ah, yes, I am so easily entertained.

Hey, give me a break here.   After all the massive projects Joel and I tackled this past 2 months it was fun to create something out of nothing and have an actual finished project in under an hour instead of weeks of working to achieve one goal.   Now you have a view into the life of someone with a short attention span.  Ha!

Now what I really should be doing is working in my garden.   Ah-hem.   Yes, there are a lot of weeds to be pulled and the strawberry bed is overflowing with runners.   But, it's too hot to work outside, isn't it?   And I miss sewing......   But I digress.    What you are looking at here is something to behold.   Just over 2 years ago after arriving on our farm, we planted several thornless varieties of blackberry bushes.   They didn't produce much last year and I was ever hopeful we might get some berries this season.

Well, let me tell you, they have gone crazy this year.   And today Joel and I went into the garden and picked our first berries and ate them on the spot.   Oh, yum!   This is how big some of them are.....I mean, seriously, this thing is gigantic.   It's a whole mouthful!   Tomorrow morning I plan on going out there at first light before the sun gets up off the horizon and starts heating up the day.  

Yup, gonna pick me some berries.
Debbie

A "Fantastic" Farm Day Picnic

No, I'm not gloating.  The name of our quilt guild is The Fan-Tastic's.   And so, when it came time to name the picnic this year I dubbed it a Fantastic Farm Day Picnic.   On Friday we had over 70 women find their way to the farm to come to the annual picnic.   This was the first large outing we hosted here in Tennessee and while it was a bit of work to get ready for the event, Joel and I both really had a blast watching the ladies wander our land and take in the beauty that we get to enjoy every day.

 So, who do we have here, you ask?   Well,  it just so happens that a few days before the picnic I got an email from Karen, my cousin from PA that I haven't seen in over 40 years.   She and her husband, Les, were going to be vacationing at Mammoth Cave in KY and wondered how far away our farm was from Mammoth.   You guessed it, after they left Mammoth they arrived here right in the middle of a crazy busy week.  Not that we cared....I just felt bad that we didn't have a lot of extra time to spend with them.  At least we had overnight to visit and catch up on our lives.

 Then it was back to work.  Here's the crew taking a break for some much needed lunch.   When Lynne and Barb P. approached me about the possibility of having the picnic on our farm, I asked Joel if he would mind and we both easily decided it would be fun.   Then I corralled Barb D. into helping as well.  The day before the picnic Barb P.'s husband, Jerry, pitched in (as well as Lynne's hubby, Jim) and helped to load the 14 tables from the church into our trailer and unload them again here.   Jerry was great at figuring out how to lay out the tables and squeeze 80 women onto the covered portion of the pavilion.   Thanks, guys!

Early Friday morning Lynne, Barb and Barb showed up, ready to put it all together.   It sure helped that we had prepped a great deal before the actual event.   A few days earlier we got together and wrapped the Ball jars that had handles with a strip of burlap and red & white gingham.   Lynne brought cute sewing themed pins to attach to each jar and both the jar and pins were favors for all the women.   Plus, they used the jars to drink from during the picnic.   We hope they liked them as we thought we were quite clever to think of something farm-y as a favor.   giggle......hey, I told you we had fun doing this!

 Here is the pavilion all set up for everyone's arrival.   The one table in the foreground was askew while we waited for the hanging planter to stop dripping water.  Oops!   I had watered the plants earlier and forgot how long they drip.  We put a mug at each place setting with a cute red & white straw in each one.   And there were red & white daisies in large Ball jars as centerpieces on the tables.  I wish I had taken the time to take a few more pics of the different areas we set up but I was kinda running around making sure everything was ready before 9:30 when the first guests arrived.

Off to the right you can see the round table set up just outside the pavilion.   It had a chalkboard welcome sign standing on it with a box that contained napkin wrapped plastic ware.  On the box was a label that read "Shovels, pitchforks and scythes".   Bah-ha-ha-ha!   Come on, you know that was funny.  There was also a metal shepherds' crook hanger....you know, like the kind you hang a plant from.  Instead, I hung a bucket filled with bug spray and sunscreen for the ladies to use.

 Joel directed traffic along with Barb D. and after the ladies parked up and down our lane they began to wander around the farm.   Pretty soon we had a mob in the studio while the girls asked questions about the building.   Yes, I was reminded once again what a lucky girl I am to have such a fabulous space to play in.

 And here we have 2 friends admiring the quilts we had hung on the line.   Just how many different ways can you bring a quilt theme into a farm picnic?   You'd be surprised!

 I snuck away at one point to take a pic of just a portion of the cars parked along our lane.   What a great turnout we had!   All in all we had over 70 women show up.

 Lynne had brought a microphone and equipment to use so the ladies could hear us talk about what we had in store for them during their stay on the farm.   I was surprised when they handed the microphone over to me and asked me to tell about how we came to be on this land and explain what the ladies would be doing after we ate.  And then it was time for the food.....and everyone lined up to begin sampling all the goodies brought by the group.

Here is our president, Stephanie, chatting with Joel while they watched the goings on in the shade of the pavilion.   Joel and I were totally shocked when Stephanie presented us with a gift card with thanks from the guild for hosting the picnic.   That was so unnecessary, but we appreciated it very much.

The week before the picnic I sewed an apron for each of the four of us girls using tea towels that said "Everything is better in a mason jar".   I added some chicken fabric for the lower ruffle, and chicken wire fabric for the waistband.   A little bit of frayed red and white striped fabric became the pocket and ta-da!   Farm-y aprons!  Here is my sweet friend, Barb D. taking a much deserved break to eat some yummy dessert.

And speaking of Barb......chuckle....she took the song "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and changed it around a bit to read "Joel and Debbie had a farm".   Well, you know what happened next, don't you?   She wrote up the song to include all the animals and their sounds we have on our farm and printed copies of the song and led the girls in singing every single round to the familiar tune.   We really got a chuckle out of hearing 70 plus women singing about our farm animals.   

Here is Barb P. singing along with the others.    What a great day we had!  After the meal the ladies wandered around the farm using the maps of the farm I had printed out the night before the picnic.   It was a treat for Joel and I to watch as small groups of women wandered up to the chicken coop(Nancy Stewart came away with a shirt full of freshly laid eggs.....grinning from ear to ear as she showed them to me), and over to see the Civil War soldier grave, and down to the barn to check on the animals.   

We even had croquet and badminton set up in the front yard.   Although, I am not sure if anyone played out there because it was getting warmer and warmer with each passing hour.  As the party was winding down I spied Nancy and Nance relaxing on the swing that looks out over the pasture and ran over to take a quick pic of them.

All in all, I believe everyone had a good time.   We had lots of ladies tell us they would like to come back and do this all again next year.    Hmmmm, I think we can make that happen.   Thanks, girls, for your kind words of praise and admiration.   We were totally humbled by your accolades.   And a huge thank you to Lynne, Barb and Barb.   The picnic was a success because of all your hard work and "Fantastic" (I just couldn't help myself!) ideas.

Taking a week to unwind now,

Farmer Joel and Farm Chick Debbie