The Madness Begins!

Man, oh Man has it been busy around here!

Since arriving home from our trip to Wisconsin on Sunday, Jeff and I have been going non-stop. You can read about the trip in my post from a few days ago: Four States, Seven Days!

Carol is out of town since Tuesday and will be gone for about ten days, so that adds some extra work for me maintaining the garden and making sure the guys eat. I quickly settled into a routine: Wake early (usually around 6:00 a.m.) and water the garden/pick produce at Tom and Carol's, return home and pick a section of yard to mow for about an hour, then it's lunchtime. Maybe a quick nap after lunch, then I try to do some work around the house or putting up of produce that was picked in the morning, one way or another. Late afternoon is usually time to workout, then it's time to start preparing dinner for everyone.

Of course, I call it a "routine" as if each day has been the same. Ha!

The mornings have been pretty much the same, but afternoons are more volatile in terms of scheduling one's day. Best thing to do is plan to be flexible.

We actually started HARVEST yesterday (woohoo!) so that changes everything. The madness begins!



The rest of this post is just a smattering of photos I've taken this week. I apologize that this post is fairly unorganized. I suppose it matches my brain and my overall mood right now... That's sort of how it goes during harvest. You can plan all you want, but in the end, the wheat, the weather, and the machinery will decide for you how your day will go. We're fools to think we're in control. I have learned that the best attitude to have during harvest (and really, all the time on the farm) is to just go with the flow and stay positive. Situations can change in an instant.

Enjoy the photos!

Mule deer doe and a small buck as viewed from my car, just down the road from our house. 

Green Pea Hummus

Some of you may remember when we made That Wierd Green Smoothie last spring for Shape Up Montana. The above photo is actually not a reprise of that concoction, but something much better. With the abundance of peas this year in the garden, I made Green Pea Hummus as somewhat of an experiment. We go through hummus pretty fast in our house. I figured, Why not try Peas? Since they are also pulse crops and very similar to garbanzos. Green Pea Hummus turned out to be pretty good! 

I think I mentioned a nap time somewhere in there... Harvey also excels at taking naps! 

Quincy was napping on the steps until I woke him up. He's a pretty cool cat. 

 Raspberries are starting to peak right now, so I spent some time yesterday morning picking berries. Raspberry picking for one of our neighbors who grows and sells berries as a business was actually my first job after moving up here. Here's a post I did about that: Five Senses of Raspberries. One of my earliest blog posts, actually. It's not as easy as one might think, but once you get into a rhythm of picking, it's not so bad.

Zucchini!

 So, when my parents came to visit back in June, my mom brought some zucchini seedlings with her, on the plane, through security, in the car, all the way from Iowa to our farm. Just so we could plant them in our garden! Well, two months later, I'd say they're doing pretty good! We have had a ton of zukes already and there are about a billion blossoms. Relish-making is in our future...

The next two photos are about as random as it gets, but hey-- that's life!

When I went to get the mail today, I noticed a jar of jam in the mailbox, too. It was made by our mail carrier's wife. I have no idea if Tom and Carol were expecting any jam, but regardless, there it was. It just made me laugh. How many people can say their mailman brought them some homemade jam with their mail? How many people can even say they know their mail carrier by name? That's rural America, folks!

You'll have to excuse the shadow of the photographer partially blocking the image, but isn't that thing cool? Apparently that windmill-esque thing is some sort of fan from inside the combine. If I were enterprising and creative and good at fashioning things out of metal, I'd make that into some sort of cool yard art or wall hanging or something. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, let me know. It looks like a sunflower or something... pretty cool.
 Since harvest has begun, I leave you with this image. Jeff's driving the combine, unloading on-the-go into the tandem, which Tom is driving. All underneath a giant, puffy cloud. Even though our days are hectic, madness, and never go as planned, we still live a pretty sweet life around here. I've got the photos to prove it. :)