Bouquets

A few pictures I found on my phone of the bouquets from Saturday's market...

And a pretty visitor while I was cutting flowers Friday morning.

Bart's Pumpkin Patch

A trip to the pumpkin farm with Mawmaw and Pawpaw.

Monster Milan made short work of picking out pumpkins for himself and Mawmaw.

In the process though he was found by a critter with a similar affliction to his own...tennis ball obsession.

And so the game began.

And continued...

Throughout the pumpkin patch this dog persisted.

Until Milan found the purple car.

And didn't want to leave the purple car.  At this point I chose to pack my camera up but in hindsight I'm thinking I should have documented the end of our visit as well for all those people who seem to think my child is always smiling.  Everyone who watched him being drug out of the car kicking and screaming could attest to the fact that this is not the case.  The woman taking money for the pumpkins only laughed saying she wouldn't feel they had done a good job if parents didn't have to drag their children away against their will.  I guess that's one way to look at it.  

Friday Flower Runner

While Milan has many "jobs" to do to help me out around the farm like collecting caterpillars (army worms) off of the kale to feed the chickens,

running green beans three at a time to feed the goats, and now moving mulch with his tonka truck,

the job he has truly become useful doing over the course of the summer involves running flowers.  When I cut flowers on Fridays I leave my buckets at the end of my row and cut flowers until my left hand can't hold anymore and then have to work back down the row to put them in water.  At the beginning of the summer when Milan wanted flowers for his bucket too I would cut spent flowers for him to stay busy playing with while I worked.  Lately though he seems to have figured it out so this morning I let him run my small sunflowers back to the bucket and he actually did a pretty good job.

When we were done, only one sunflower didn't make it into the water.  I may have some real help next summer!

Volunteers

While this farm definitely relies on a significant amount of volunteer help, the volunteers that are making me happy this fall happen to be flowers.

Specifically, celosia and sunflowers.

I never got around to adding these two flower beds to our irrigation schedule this summer and while the sunflowers did their thing anyway, the celosia died off toward the end of July.  I ran a disc through this little field with the intention of putting it in a fast cover crop but it rained the day after I turned it all under and it was only a few days later that I saw sunflower and celosia seedlings popping through.  While most of the time I definitely feel like nature is working against me, these beds are a nice exception.  Especially when they result in these on a Saturday...

Tonka Truck

A late birthday present from Danielle and Jon, Milan has a new toy.  

And he likes it.

So far it's gotten him into less trouble than this truck has lately.

Knowing full well that he is not supposed to walk through beds of lettuce, kale or flowers, Milan's latest test of my patience involves standing at the edge of those beds, flipping this red truck back and forth between both hands and "accidentally" dropping it into the bed he would like to step in while uttering "uh-oh".  

I'm hoping he doesn't get any bright ideas with his new truck.

Or at least that he's not strong enough to carry out those plans.

Ready, Set, Go

I think Robert's biggest animal pet peeve is a dog that won't come when called.  Our youngest critter has entered that phase of toddlerhood when he not only will not come when called, but tends to turn and run the opposite direction.

While this is merely frustrating on the farm, there is no doubt that it is dangerous when we go places like the farmers markets that tend to be on busy streets.  So lately, the easiest way to get Milan Monster to head the way we want him to is to call out "Ready? Set? Go!" and steer him in the general direction we want him to go.  

Sometimes it works...

Sometimes it gets us laughed at.

And tomorrow...

I haven't forgotten about this blog!  I've just had my head buried in green beans for the last week or so.  And while a part of me would be happy if a frost came and wiped them out, the rest of me is trying awfully hard to pull off a late surge with this "fall" garden to make up for a dismal August.  I was looking for pictures tonight to write a blog post around and saw that I hadn't even pulled my camera out in over fourteen days!  So, I will do better, soon.  But for now, after a pretty market this morning at Hillcrest and an afternoon picking, I'm re-stocked and ready for tomorrow's market at Bernice Gardens.  This blog will have to wait.

A few pretty bouquets with teddy bear sunnies, zinnias and volunteer celosia...

Rain or Shine, y'all!

Come see us at the Hillcrest market tomorrow, rain or shine!  Beautiful green beans, squash, okra and zinnias!!

Friday Flowers

Helianthus angustifolius....the only thing the army worms aren't interested in on our property.

And then I looked to my left...three inches from my hand.  

Green Beans

YAY!  Green beans!!

In August we planted a fall crop of green beans.  BUSH green beans.  Which always seems like a good idea when it's time to plant but never seems so great when it's time to pick.  For that matter, when it's time to pick, it seems like a horrible idea.  There is no doubt that picking bush green beans is my least favorite task on the farm.  Spending hours and hours bent over picking beans in rows that seem endless is tedious and eventually, painful.  However, I love selling green beans...because they ALWAYS sell and as long as I'm in the act of selling them, I'm not in the process of picking them.  Beautiful, tender green beans are a hit with just about everyone.

Except me...when they still look like this...

YAY!  Green beans!  

Milan's Grey Bird

A few weeks ago I started noticing this grey chicken following Milan around all the time.  No matter what Milan is doing, if he's in the chicken yard, this bird is right behind him.

This morning he finally got tired of her and picked up a stick and we had to have a little lesson on why we don't hit chickens...