Summer is in full swing here at the farm. The bees are very busy and seem to be mainly interested in the trefoil in the pastures. I was hoping they'd spend a bit more time in the garden, but that's not been the case so far. The garden is doing well nonetheless...with the 50 tomato plants and over 250 peas, 350 beans, 500 onions that we planted, we hope to have lots of tasty eating. We received a welcome two and a half inches of rain yesterday and they only bad part was that a lightning strike took out our fence charger.
This has been the year of the ground squirrel, litter after litter has been born and raised and they are digging up way too many holes and tasting too many squash. We put up new bluebird houses this spring and though the first tenants were tree swallows, the bluebirds finally moved in and made their nests. We're very happy to have them setting up housekeeping. My hope is to have at least ten additional houses by next spring. We've located them on fenceposts next to our pastures and it appear that it's the perfect place for them. Our county fair is fast approaching and the children love this time of the year and enjoy entering their projects in the fair. Last year J. Keeler won the Best of Show in photography, so he's hoping to do so again this year. But the competition will be stiff as his two sisters are entering their photos as well.
I'll update with the full fair report after next weekend. Meanwhile, there's lots to do, so I'd better get to it.
