Wordless Wednesday

Garden/Farm Update

What a wonderful time of the year, and it is beautiful outside. The sky is the bluest hue and there are very few clouds to be seen. There is a wonderful breeze and the temperature is a wonderful 68 degrees. I don't believe anyone could ask for a better day. As soon as this is posted I will make my way back outside to continue planting what my mom brought on her recent trip up. We will have squash and zucchini plants put in the ground, a few chive plants, a few herbs, a couple of tomato plants, small lettuce plants, several different flower and decorative plants.

Other things happening on the Mini-Farm Front:

The plum tree has lots of small fruit, but didn't produce any last year, so I don't have much hope for it this year. I'm not really sure if the tree is too old or if there is something I can do to keep the fruit from dropping off like last year.

Our blueberry bushes planted in the fall are beginning to show new life and some are already starting to bloom and grow a few berries.

The new strawberry plants that were planted a couple of weeks ago have started to show leaves.

If I have the time today, we will also try to plant some green beans seeds in the ground, maybe a couple of other things, and start a few seed trays.

The chickens(big) are now happily laying an egg each per day. The chicks are growing very fast and were finally moved from their little box inside the house to a large refrigerator box on the porch. They are very happy to be in a new space where they have more room to run and play. Today the boys and I gave them some limbs from the yard to 'roost' on and they have been happily playing and jumping around.

So far on the new run we only have the posts placed in the ground. I will probably try to dig a trench for the buried hard wire cloth to be put in and then we will put in the larger fencing. At the end of the month we are hoping to move the coop to the new run and begin adding on additional space for the new chicks.

Time to go plant. :)

Crossing Over

This week Nathan received his arrow of light and crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. It is amazing how quickly time has gone. In the last five years we have watch him grow from an imaginative, adventurous little boy, into a fine young man. It has not always been easy or fun and there were lots of bumps along the way, but most things worth attaining in life will be met with challenges and obstacles to overcome. It is hard to imagine that in the next five years we will be watching our oldest son go from the imaginative, creative little boy that we know grow into a man. It is really wonderful to see the qualities and talents that God has given to him begin to emerge and show us a glimpse of the person he can become.

Nathan is creative, artistic, intelligent, kind, and friendly; he never meets a stranger. He is also strong willed, obstinate, overly confident and sometimes very hard to convince that he should be doing things differently. Often, as parents we want to focus on and foster all the good qualities and work really hard on removing the 'bad' traits. We have to remember that even some of the characteristics that we may not like now will serve him well and make him a stronger adult. These traits will be what makes them leaders. Sometimes as a parent we forget to foster those qualities also and remember that they have a purpose in their life; that it is important to guide and not push(something I need to work on).

My hope and prayer moving forward is that we can work together to focus on helping him to become the man he is destined to become. Here is to the future of a bright, wonderful young man and the next leg of his journey. Our oldest son, Nathan. We love you.