Gratitude

The three fundamental traits of grateful persons:

Sense of Abundance
Enjoyment of Simple Pleasures
Appreciation of Others

Let us continue to grow happiness at our Farm!

Solstice

Last Sunday, Sarah and Nathan invited us over for Sunday dinner, British style.

It was a fantastic meal of roast chicken with stuffing, potatoes, zucchini, and gravy. The gravy was made from leftover onion soup!

Yum!

Meanwhile, back at the farm, we've harvested all the onions and garlics.

And penned that area off to let the chickens run in.

We've got a pumpkin starting.

And lots of squashes in my garden.

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Weather Note
It's been hot! In the 100s and high 90s all week. It's getting cooler now though, and should be downright temperate next week, with temps in the low 80s and a slight chance of rain.
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I made this tatted hanky for Catherine.

And gave it to her yesterday, which was the solstice.

And just in case Nathan hadn't fed us enough... Meat pies! Amazing wonderful meat pies!

Chicks!

I decided to start four more chicks to fill up and freshen our flock at the farm. I was hoping for four Australorps, but they only had two left, so I got two Silver Cuckoo Marans. They lay very dark, chocolate brown eggs. I think that will be a fun addition. I brought them home from Wilburs in a bucket covered with a towel.

Here they are in their new home, a dog cage in our bathroom. I have a light on them, and I ran the heater to warm them up, but they are a few days old already so they don't need it super hot.

Marans are a French breed, and the Silver Cuckoo variety will actually look a lot like the Barred Rocks (which I didn't know until I went home and looked them up.) Notice how much smaller the chicks are than the Australorps. Marans are active but docile, good for free ranging, and disease resistant. They will lay about 150 eggs a year.
Here's the wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marans
Here's another link
http://www.darkbrownegglayers.com/chicken-breeds-available/french-marans-chickens/
Here's what they will look like grown up
http://www.darkbrownegglayers.com/chicken-breeds-available/french-marans-chickens/cuckoo-marans/silver-cuckoo-marans/

Nathan's BD

Nathan's birthday was last Sunday, the 9th. On Saturday, Sue and Don came up to celebrate. I didn't think to take pictures at the pub, but we had a lovely meal and Don got to try some Sierra Nevada brews.

We came to the farm afterwards to hang out and drink from our growlers.

The next day we had a small celebration at the farm. 

Apricots and Onions

Summer is here, and we have tons of apricots! The tree is just loaded.

Buddy demonstrates the ripeness.

And Rick stalks them.

We've also harvested almost all the onions by now. These are the cipriolinis

And we got a huge bunch of hamburger reds also.

I braided a lot of them.

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What We're Eating
We've been eating like kings! Nathan has been cooking for us all. This was curried chicken over rice with naan bread.

For Rock Band on the 7th we had French Onion soup. Keith shows off his new mug.

Then he made sausage and more naan with two sauces.

And that's not to mention the apricots.
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At my house, the apples are coming along nicely.

The new bed at the farm is fecund with peppers and tomatoes.

The sungolds are already ripe, and the rest of the bushes are laden with fruit.

Peppers are starting to form. This is a Biker Billy.

The zucchinis are producing as well, and I've already made the first batch of zucchini bread. This is one of the first grays, at 6-2.

A couple days later it's ready.

I got the first of one of the three from Renee's seeds, and it's a lovely color. The yellowish one is actually a gray.

Rick has been working on the custom screens for 9th St. Here's one completed. It looks great.

It's getting hot, so we decided Amber needed a hat. She looks styling in her new chapeau.

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Weather Note
As is often the case in early June, the weather can't make up its mind. It's hot... then it's not. We had a week or so of really nice 80 degree weather, then we had rain and cooler weather, followed by some days of strong winds. The wind blew this branch down, which barely missed squashing my car.

There are a few small scratches on the trunk where the branches scraped.

The end of the limb was pretty good sized. It could have caused some major damage.

Today is in the low 90s and it looks like we'll have hot days next week.
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