FULL OF BEANS

We are full of beans!  They are everywhere, the garden is teaming with them, there is beans in bags in our house, there is beans in our fridge, and the freezer is bulging with them.  Where once there were romantic notions of fresh and easily accessible meal ingredients, a trip to the freezer now produces anxieties of how one will actually close the freezer should we even find what we are looking for, and the notion that actually driving to the store may well be the more convenient route.  My days have been full of picking, snapping, blanching, freezing and pickling, and while it has been quite time consuming, there is the appreciation that being encumbered by too much food is a blessing not to be taken lightly.

BEANS!!

The garden is shared territory these days, I first discovered my gardening companion while picking beans, taking notice of her beautiful shock of yellow as she casually strolled onto the plant I was harvesting, then almost peeing my paints when I realised what "she" was, seeing her very long, very hairy legs.  My trips to the garden are now with great trepidation and the involuntary paranoia that I must always be looking over my shoulder, or at least on every leaf, in the event that my friend may be hosting her annual Garden Party for the Mutant Eight Legged Ginormous Ladies Guild For The Freakishly Hairy.  While it sounds like a toe tapping good time, the idea of running across such a specimen in plurals quite frankly makes my skin crawl, and so, each day, I locate her web, and gingerly work my way around it.  She currently lives in the Broccoli which has prompted me to thoughtfully adorn her home by allowing the Broccoli to go to flower around her, in fear she may latch onto me with one, or all, of her eight hairy legs, should I try to harvest on her turf.

MY GARDENING COMPANION

The farm is rolling along towards fall, Jamie has gotten a small start on baling straw for the winters bedding, and has already received his call to return to work and prepare for Potato Digging season.  We have been weeding out any aged cattle that we do not expect to thrive over winter, taking them to the abattoir to sell for Hamburger, and choosing heifers to hold back and replace them.  We are very happy with the breeding quality our last bull produced and so we will be keeping quite a few as replacement heifers.  The heatwave we experienced over a couple of weeks wilted several of our older cattle and we lost one that was particularly aged.  Another we have been watching is an old gal we've stared calling Grandma, a strong and steady producer in our herd, but now up in years has begun to deteriorate with this years calf taking a lot from her.  We've been treating her with a bit of extra TLC, giving her extra grain and monitoring her closely until her calf is ready to ween.

WHO NEEDS TO PICK THEIR NOSE WHEN THE BIRDS WILL DO IT FOR THEM?

A MAN OUTSTANDING IN HIS FIELD

GIVING GRANDMA SOME EXTRA GRAIN BY THE CALF FEEDER

 

 Grace is growing more and more excited for Kindergarten and we took her school supply shopping over the weekend.  She was dazzled by cartoon character supplies and "oohhed" and "Awwed" as I inwardly groaned at their extra price, then to my surprise and appreciation, allowed her genetically practical side to prevail and settled on generic supplies in all her favourite colours. Opting only for a brand name Princess backpack (after I discouraged her choice of one with Spider man), which even I couldn't deny was down right sweet.

Miss Beth of course is just "doing her thing", following Grace around and insisting on doing everything she can do, and having anything she can have.  This generates various reactions depending on Grace's mood, but overall she seems to enjoy being someones idle, and even helps her little sister accomplish her many goals.  Beth has begun getting a few words out and has taken to calling Grace "Baby" and Jamie "Big Man", her typical greeting when either walk by her is "Heya Baby!", or "Heya Big Man!" Beth loves the trampoline, and while watching her climb up all by herself and then jump like some sort of Crazed Lunatic, wildly out of control and laughing hysterically at herself, was enough to give me heart palpitations, she has learned her boundaries and with Grace's guidance, has become a fairly respectable little jumper.  Her latest adventure was on Grace's Slip n' Slide, which is actually 3 Slip N' Slides hooked together and runs the length of the hill behind our house.  This has provided Grace with hours of entertainment, and until lately Bethany has been happy to just play in the water at the end, however, the other day she insisted she could go down all the way and I watched in helpless horror from just out of reach, as she jumped on at the top and careened to the bottom, spinning out of control and then sliding head first.  I ran to grab and console her, only to find her laughing with that same hysterical giggle as she wriggled away from me and ran back to the top.

JUST CLIMB UP

AND AWAY WE GO!

TWO LITTLE GIRLS ON THE SLIDE....

THEN THE IDEA, AND THE PARTY, GREW

 

LAURA

 

COURTNEY

 

GRACE GETTING READY WHILE LAURA AND CAROLYN ADD MORE SOAP FOR EXTRA SLIP

 

 Our Donkey, Pablo, has become the Friendly Barnyard Buddy That Everyone Loves To Hate, he has a reputation for being an Ass, sweet, loving and hilariously quirky one second, and biting and threatening to kick you the next.  We brought him in from the field last week to trim his feet and worm him, then Jamie decided that he was a very handy Whipper Snipper, and tied him amid the long grass to trim along the barns.  Proving himself very adept at this chore, but spending his time trimming in direct sight of the front yard, immediately grabbed and held Bethany's interest, and I spent a good deal of my day defending Pablo from her.  Tired of chasing her, I kept her in the house until she protested so hard that Grace volunteered to watch her in the yard, and so after several firm warnings about not taking her eye off of her, the two went out. I ran between cooking supper and the window to check on them until I noticed Grace alone in the yard.  Enquiring out the window as to where Bethany was, Grace very casually informed me that she had gone to visit Donkey (as she calls him).  Immediately dawning my Super Over Protective Mommy persona, I ran out the door to find Pablo laying down and Bethany running as fast as her little legs would take her, then slamming into Pablo's head, grabbing his nostrils in her two little hands to hold him still while she layed a huge smooch on his for head. Once again experiencing heart palpitations I hurried across the yard, all the while watching her back up 10 or so feet, racing towards him and repeating the process several times before I got there.  Fearing that Pablo would either jump up and step on her, or use her for his Coyote Defence Training Program, I whisked in and grabbed her, only to realise that the look of disdain in Pablo's eye was actually shear contentment as he seemed to enjoy all the attention from his new little friend.

WHEN PETS AND THEIR PEOPLE START TO LOOK ALIKE
(GRACE AND PABLO TAKEN LAST YEAR)

RECIPE: 

STRING BEAN CASSEROLE

1 bag String Beans (I use both yellow and green)
1 can Cream Of Mushroom Soup
1/2 cup Sour Cream
1/4 cup Mayo
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar (optional, a very yummy addition but I seldom use it and love it without also)
Buttered Breadcrumbs

Boil or steam beans, and place in casserole dish mix bottom ingredients (except breadcrumbs) and pour over beans, give a gentle mix, then top with buttered breadcrumbs and bake at 350 until golden brown.  You can also do this with Broccoli and Cauliflower, or a combination of veggies and add Chicken for a full meal.

LEARNING TO RIDE WITHOUT TRAINING WHEELS

PLAYING WITH HICCUP
(AT 30 DEGREES, HE'S NOT AS HAPPY TO SEE US AS WE ARE TO SEE HIM)

SNACKING ON THE DECK

 

FIRST TIME IN THE SEA OF BALLS AT THE WATER PARK

 

MISS GRACE FACING HER FEARS

 

MAX ALSO LOVES THE TRAMPOLINE

 

A BUSHEL OF YUM

Our garden has begun offering up it's great bounty, in truth, it's manifested itself into it's own entity and, like a seen out of Robin Williams "Jumanji", may well consume the entire farm before all is said and done.  Just a few short weeks ago I was complaining of the misses in the seed and, having written my green thumb off for a more dismal shade of gray, fully expected we'd have very little to put in the freezer this winter.  However, despite the dry year, we are thrilled to see our garden flourish, and I've been doing a bit of freezing with the early veggies, spinach, broccoli and onion greens.  Our beans and peas have leaped into production this past few days as well, and after keeping close watch for some time with no beans visible, I almost missed a good pile of them having almost over ripened in a day or two.

The most imposing constituents among our garden kingdom are the pumpkins, their long tentacles seem to creep before our eyes, claiming their corner of the garden, then flowing over and transcending on their Corn, Carrot and Brussel Sprout neighbours, before advancing into the pasture and hay fields around them.  Having assumed an all consuming existence, they must frequently be put in their place with a good trimming and redirecting of their vines.

Naturally in the midst of our bountiful garden fare is a bumper crop of weeds which require daily removal and even at that continue to get the better of us.  This has worked to my favour as I've been quite derailed in my fitness routine and have managed to shave 5lbs off while gardening in the last week and a half.

TODAYS BOUNTY

THE GARDEN PATCH

The farm is at a lull for the time being as we are between hay crops, Jamie has been using the time to do a motor conversion on our White tractor which has required several head gasket jobs over the past few years.  He is switching the engine from it's original Perkins to a Cummings which has required a great deal of research and out right grunt work on his part, as the tractor has to be broken down from many angles, and of course the engines exchanged.

We've been taking time to tidy up loose ends in our home, apart from gardening, Jamie has split and packed our winters wood into the woodshed and we have been working on my new round pen to start getting some work done with the horses.  This lull is welcomed and has offered us the opportunity to spend some time as a family and soak up some summer weather by enjoying time on the water in our oyster dory, and at the beach.

Grace's adventures of late have been in regaining her confidence as a Cowgirl.  She has been working incredibly hard with Hiccup and today she lead him on a trail ride which took us about a kilometre from home, as I walked behind them, assisting where needed, I noticed Grace wilting in the 30 degree sunshine and asked her if she would like to ride on Hiccup for a bit.  This brought out her best "are you nuts" look, which I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised when the look passed, she took a deep breath and said "sure", this is huge considering a month ago she wouldn't even lead him, after having several horse related scares.  She rode Hiccup all the way back to the farm, offering him so much encouragement and praise, that it was obvious it was not just for his benefit.  Yet she was able to quell her insecurities and could have ridden the squirliest of broncos, in her mind, by the time we got back to the barn.

A LITTLE R&R

HELP FROM A FRIEND

After recharging with some lunch, Grace decided a bike ride was in order and she and her cousin Zack, whom is visiting for a couple of days, struck out while I put Bethany down for her nap. It seems that Grace, still riding high after her adventure on Hiccup, decided that she no longer needed her training wheels and had her Dad take them off for her.  They spent the rest of the afternoon practising in the pasture fields, Grace pedalling with all her might and Jamie and Zack following along for support and "just to get her started".  After recieving one of several progress reports, I headed out to water the garden and Jamie and Grace struck out for another practise run, I briefly heard Jamie suggest she try riding on the road before a terrified screech, followed by resounding sobs could be heard.  Pushing aside the urge to run to her and tell her that she never had to ride her bike again, I allowed Jamie to handle whatever the situation was, and prayed that no news was good news.  Assuming all was well when no status report came back, Grace returned about an hour later with several scrapes, a couple of bruises, a Texas size smile on her face and a story to tell.  As she ran down our hill to the garden she announced that she "pickle flipped'er", having forgotten to use her brakes as she veered wildly through a shallow ditch and into Jamie's Grandmothers "Forever Green Trees".  I interjected with all the necessary gasps and looks of shock, hugged her with pride, then knowing Grace's common philosophy of "trying is the first step to failing", I asked her if she got back on the bike.  Flashing me the same huge smile, she proudly told me "yup, I got back on and Zachy wouldn't get out of my way, so I squeaked my horn at him and pickle flipped'er agin."