Hmmm, not dry yet.

The garden is in full bloom! Or at least, what's left of it. A buck, who has become a regular, has taken care of all of our tastiest greens. So, no beets, chard, or spinach. Oddly, he left the romaine alone. He must be a nice buck. Hungry, but nice. We've already harvested our onions. We've been sneaking lots of tasty new potatoes, and the tomatillos have numerous blooms!

Unfortunately, our broccoli didn't put on any heads to speak of. And a nasty storm took out around 40 hills of potatoes, and nearly wiped out all of our tomatoes. I've had it with severe weather. Because this is the pits. What's a Minnesota summer without tomatoes?

A few weeks ago, we had a great surprise for my family. Aaron, Jodi and the kids plus mom and dad all came out for the fourth of July weekend. I thought I'd try to see if Mary could fly out too from NYC. We were in luck! We were able to secure a ticket at the last minute to get Mary to MPS and Dan and I came to pick her up and drive her back to the farm. All this without letting any of the other family know. We just let them arrive to find her sitting in the kitchen. It was so great, and by far the best money we've spent in a long, long time. The weekend was full of laughing and lounging with family. There is nothing better.



Ah, how conVEEENient. A handy brother who was willing to fix our sagging barn. Soon to be home for sheep and their babies!



Dad's priceless face. Too bad I didn't get mom's. That was scream to wake the neighbors (a happy scream that is).



Auntie Mary and Toby bonding over Muppets musin (mana mana was the weekend favorite). Toby's got this new "buddhist monk" doo. All he needs is a saffron robe.




Cousin Mania!

As you can see, summer is proving to be the best season of the year around these parts. We've had so many wonderful visitors this summer. Too many to count! A few weekends ago, we had our friends the Plotts out for a bit. What a great time Ana had with their girls (and one boy). In that top pic, we were going for a hayride out to the pasture. You can see Grace Marie behind Toby and Mary Ana behind her. It was sad to see them go. We've known the Plotts for over 10 years now (!!). In fact, Cory was my RCIA sponsor way back in 2000.

Ana has been soaking up all the kitten time she can handle. This picture was taken a few weeks ago already, and the kittens were only about 5 weeks old. Now they are nearly 2 months old, and bounding all over the place. Falling over each other and tackling any moving thing they see. I had nearly forgotten how cute little kittens are. And Daisy is still a wonderful mother, coming to their aid only when she's needed, playing with them, and nursing them to their hearts content.

The picture of the clouds was taken last night when a wicked storm system nicked us passing to our south. I do like thunderstorms, so I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get any, but it did give us these beautiful clouds.

Must be off to bed now. These posts are getting far between. I am leaving out some really great stories ... maybe more time later ...

Good night all!