Raspberries

We got a few last year.  But this year.....we are getting a tray like this every 2-3 days.  The plants are still loaded.  When they run out the blueberries will be ready and shortly thereafter the blackberries.  Liz, I see a blackberry gin fizz in my future. For now though it is vanilla yogurt with fresh raspberries and homemade granola.

Emily and Andrew come to visit

We had a great visit from Emily and Andrew.  Emily came to make a quilt and Andrew came along to play with Uncle Pat and have an all around grand adventure. Emily arrived with yardage on mid-morning Saturday and left mid-afternoon Sunday with a completed quilt.   She is very proud of all she accomplished as she did all this with bouts of nausea and pregnancy sleepiness.

Andrew keep occupied riding the tractor, working in the shop, chasing chickens, reading books and just being a boy.

Good photo representation of the weekend but we are obviously not his daddy on the other end of these cameras.
http://www.fleenorphotography.com/

New Shop Project and Home Decor

We finally found a picture for over the fireplace. We didn't want to put just anything up there as it needed to be a signature piece that fit with our Arts&Crafts style. The image is a signed and numbered block print by Yoshiko Yamamoto, who is a well known contemporary artist in the Arts & Crafts movement. This past week I made a frame for it out of oak. While the image is entitled Colvos Passage, ( it is in Washington State on the Puget sound), this could just as easily be of the shore at Lake James. I love the way it turned out.

New Trellis

When we were at the beach we brought a load of plants home from Mom's yard.  We also had a jasmine plant that needed a trellis to climb on.  We looked at Lowes and found just what we thought would work but they wanted $40 for each section.  We pulled out our handy phones, snapped a few detail pictures, went to the lumber section and voila....we have 2 sections for less than $30.  We attached it to the barn, stabilized the "feet" with some rebar and planted the jasmine.  As you may recall the old arbor on the deck at the old house was covered in jasmine and it smelled heavenly when in bloom.  I have missed that smell.  So in a few years we will get that same smell as we wander around the new yard.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

When you harvest 34 pounds of rhubarb in a season this is what you get to have for dessert.

We've Been Busy

We have some good excuses as to why we have not put up a post for 3 weeks. We have been busy in the garden as you will see.  We also went to the beach "to check on the old folks" as my Mom loving refers to our visits and calls now.  While at the beach we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary, walked on the beach and had a nice visit in general.  We are happy to report that the "old folks" are doing fine.

Back home in the garden we have been busy with............

asparagus-we had multiple meals out of our first year crop.  Next year we should have a lot more. This is just one picking,,,,,it looked as pretty as flowers in the vases.

French breakfast radishes...don't know why they are called that but we had plenty to use in salads and now that they are done there are carrots growing in their place.

Rhubarb- lots of it- 34 pounds to be exact. I think we are done cutting for the year

Red Russian Kale- this is the first cutting and it is really starting to put on now

Onions- with this years rain we have finally been successful in growing good onions. We have pulled some to use in meals but most are just continuing to grow big

Lettuce- we got a late start on our lettuce.  I hope the soon to be HOT weather doesn't make it bolt

Potatoes- we are trying a new technique this year.  We are growing them in straw.  We read great things about this method so we gave it a shot.  We will see the final result later in the summer. We planted 4 different varieties

Green beans growing on our new trellis

Squash that sprouted from the compost pile. Mystery variety as only time will tell what it is.

Tomatoes- lots and lots of tomatoes is various areas in the yard. We have several varieties growing; some for eating, some for canning, some for spaghetti sauce.

The new bean trellis. The weight of the beans have always collapsed the supports in prior years.  Hopefully this will be strong enough

 Sugar snap peas. These are about done and crowder peas or edemames will go in their place.

In addition to this garden stuff we have both been busy in our respective workshops; Pat completing a project that I will show later and Lisa quilting away. Oh yeah, and we do still have jobs. We will try to be better at more frequent postings.