Summer Solstice State of the Farm

Just a few days ago, it seems, I went out and looked at the pear tree and lamented that it looked like we weren't going to have many pears this year. I wondered if it was the paucity of bees, or if perhaps the tree was an every-other-year producer like so many apple trees are. But today, suddenly, it's broken out in tiny hard little red pears all over! I think we will have at least as many as last year. And now that I know that pears are one of those weird fruits that don't ripen until AFTER you pick them, I won't get frustrated and pick them all at once and have seventy-five ripe pears in a drawer at the same time. 

I decided to do the rounds and see what's in bloom now, weeds included. I know the Hemlock's in bloom, because I've been wading around in the thistle and stinging nettles trying to pull it all or at least pinch the flowering tops off before it goes to seed. I think I'm becoming immune to stinging nettles. Sort of. Okay maybe not. I did send Homero over the fence into the neighbor's pasture with the gas powered weedeater. He got most of it on that side.

The clover is in bloom, both red and white. The blackberries are in bloom. I spoke to a beekeeper who posted an ad on Craigslist looking for somebody with at least an acre of blackberries to place a few hives and pay them in honey at the end of the season. I called him and told him I wasn't sure about the acreage, but we had a blackberry hedge 400 feet long and twelve or fifteen feet wide. He said he'd come over this weekend, but I haven't heard from him yet. Dang, I'd love to get some local honey to put up.

My tomato plants are in bloom. They aren't looking too happy in amongst the weeds, but maybe I'll get a few tomatoes. The potatoes have not bloomed yet.

The oxeye daisies are in bloom. The roadsides are covered in them, I love it. The butter cups are in bloom. The foxglove is in bloom. A lot of stuff that I don't know what it is in bloom.

Here is Storm Cloud, looking like he might be in bloom. He's big enough to really keep up with the herd now. Up until a week ago, he'd usually lie down in a patch of tall grass and wait for his mama to come back to him, but now he grazes alongside everybody else. He tries to jump and climb with the other babies, but they are way ahead of him. He sure is pretty.

Speaking of pretty. Poppy is just getting more and more gorgeous all the time. She loves to play with the goats, jumping up and bucking and nipping them and then running away, circling back, doing it all over again. The goats don't really get into it so much. Poppy is growing like a weed herself. She's not only going to be tall, she's going to be strong. Look at the hindquarters on her! She's got a nice chunky butt. Maybe her papa was a quarter horse. Who knows?

On this longest day of the year, things are going well. Everybody's healthy - except for Xanadu, but she's slowly getting better. The kids are happy, the chickens are laying, I'm hanging in there and this old world is spinning along right on schedule. 

Blessings!