Farm Fresh: Fruiting

The kids have been picking strawberries every day. Usually only about a pint or so make it back into the kitchen.  I would estimate we are getting about 2 pints per day. I need to read more about how farmers keep rows between strawberry beds. They have been spreading so happily.  I guess I should have thinned them and made rows earlier this spring? It is just one giant patch at this point, not the most convenient for picking or for ripening.   

 No lack of creativity here. "Look Mom! It's my butter car".

 Hubby spotted this luna moth yesterday. Brother M admired how well camouflaged it is when on a green leafy tree.

Perry's three ducklings are getting big.  I am afraid they may all be drakes. 

 Our Silver Appleyard ducklings are well grown now and good foragers. Their coloring is such a pleasure to look at after four years of plain brown khakis.

 This is the other muscovy sitting on eggs. Her name is Sadie.  Mostly she is on her nest in the dog crate. But when she ventures out for evening bath, drink, and snack she always has an eye out for the barn entrance.  I keep trying to sneak in and look at the eggs.  When I start walking towards the barn so does she -- here she is running to get back to her nest before I could get in the door.

 Lovely feverfew.

 The hollyhocks are starting to bloom.

 I dusted the tomatoes with diatomaceous earth this week. Aphids were starting to attack en masse and I have not seen as many lady beetles as usual.

 The sage is blooming.

 The peas are fattening.

  The little June/ Saskatoon berry bush that I planted last summer is already fruiting. I love the bright pink color. There was just one dark blue ripe berry. I ate it. Yum.

 The photo below is to show Grandpa J how happy the hydrangeas are here now that he pulled out those laurel type bushes that were crowding them in front.

 Hubby put together this new deck box and sign at the end of the driveway.  Hopefully it will reduce the risk of our dog attacking any marauding delivery trucks in the future.

 Another successful year of mulching the fig tree. Looking forward to lots of figs this fall.

Farm Schooling: Hatching

 Remember that cecropia caterpillar that we found last summer? It finally emerged from its cocoon. We put it out on the elderberry bushes where we originally found him. Hopefully he can find a mate and have many babies. They only live about 2 weeks from coming out of their cocoon and their sole mission is mating and egg laying.

 Many more robotics designs and programmings are happening with M's Ev3 set.

 New baby A continues to delight us all.

 Time for haircuts

The guineas hatched in tandem with baby A's birth. Seven of ten eggs hatched. 

 Hubby and kids know the routine and got them all set up in the basement brooder while I was at the hospital with baby A.

 Everyone helps around this farm. Today is a good example: Brother M is in charge of bringing in and washing the duck eggs. He also picked the strawberries (no hardship there!) and watered the corn. Brother S and Miss L chopped the bananas to load the dehydrator up.  (Hubby brought home another bushel from Hornings.)  Big sis A held the baby while we spread DE. She and L picked the lettuce and sorrel for our salad. Brother M and Miss L helped me put DE all over and around the tomatoes (combatting aphids). All livestock were fed by the kiddos and hubby evaluated the latest rat trapping/killing formation.  We are so lucky to have great helpers.

Happy Birthday to Me

The kids cleaned and decorated the house as a surprise for Baby A and my homecoming as well as my birthday. Wow!

 Hubby made ham, mashed potatoes, and salad for my birthday dinner.

 Ice cream sundaes instead of cake for dessert

The kids made me some amazing homemade presents including: a lego set complete with hand drawn instructions (to make a lego flower), a comic book and an illustrated story book. Plus they figured out how to make slideshows with google photos and prepared several for me. 

Our First Springtime Baby

Baby A arrived right on time, much to my relief as threats of induction were looming. 

  Baby A came with two serious pushes and Hubby "caught" him and put him right up on my belly. The midwives give mama and baby a "golden hour" -- which means that before the cord is cut or the baby is examined much he gets to lay skin to skin against mama for an hour. I love that time.

 Big sister A watched the other kids during the labor and delivery (about 3 hours).  And then since she had everything under control daddy was able to stay the first night with us in the hospital.

 We had to stay a second night since I had group B strep and Baby A was making some grunty noises (which turned out to be nothing, just the usual self soothing noises all our babies have made).

The kids have been anxiously awaiting his arrival for months. Asking all kinds of questions and looking at all the family photo albums from their babyhoods to try to see what to expect. Miss L had some great questions about how exactly he would come out and how he eats and poops in mommy's tummy.  The last 2 weeks of the pregnancy we had to limit the kids to only one question per day about "when do think he is going to come?" because my own patience was wearing thin and I had already explained that there was no way to know exactly when he would come. We skyped with the kids from the hospital, but they were all anxious for their turn to hold him, except brother S who is somewhat ambivalent about the whole thing.

Big sister A's first diaper changing in 4 years.  She helped with Miss L a little bit too.

All dressed up for his first pediatrician appt. The pediatrician said that he is very healthy so far, except that mama has shingles and hopefully he won't get chicken pox from me.

 

  As one of my college friends said - "What a great quarantine project" - Baby A's birth and the quarantine will be remembered together as Spring/Summer 2020. Playing with baby A is the most exciting part of every day for our family.  I am grateful for this peaceful time at home keeping ourselves to ourselves and getting to know our new addition.