The chicken runs be throwin shade everywhere!

The evening egg run.

And the evening roaming field trips for the chickens. The ones in the barn like to go to the other side of the building to scour the massive old compost pile for yummy bugs and they help turn the leaves and clippings for me. They're happy, I'm happy, everybody's happy! (except the bugs)

Bouquets for market!

and Hella, the break buddy, makes sure I never have to chill alone, even if I would like to. :)

Pinch, pinch, pinch. I'm not dreaming but the plants may be. Many of them benefit from pinching (cutting the growing top of the plant off to promote more and longer stems). Here is the aftermath of the dahlias getting pinched. Behind them the cosmos, celosia, sunflowers, snapdragons, carnations, delphiniums, basils, calendulas, zinnias and more all got pinched. It can seem harsh as I sometimes cut away more than half the plant! But the plants go 'hey mean person, you wanna cut me down? I'll show you!' and within just two days you'll see a surge in growth that will reward you with many more and much longer (= usable) stems! Not everything likes it and some it wouldn't matter to at all but those that benefit from it get pinched!

After pinching and getting all those long, long stems to grow, they will need some support so they don't get knocked down by the blustery gusts of the world. There are different types of support and these carnations and snapdragons like nets. Small posts are put in the ground on both sides of the row and reusable and almost indestructible plastic netting is placed horizontally just at the tops of the plants and their stems grow up and through. Larger, bushier plants like sunflowers or dahlias like to be corralled by stringing twine around the edges of the posts. Each method can make harvesting a bit harder but without them I might not have any stems to harvest!

Afternoon showers and a setting sun make for a nice reason to stop and take a pic.

Hella, the rainbow kitty, likes to make sure she gets her moments too.

Flower season is on! A bucket of ranunculus a day keeps the blues away! Especially since this mix seems to have so many orange flowers in it, so if deep peachy sunsets are your thang these are for you! I've tucked some in almost every bouquet and will have straight bunches as well!

Follow the yellow brick road, or not, as I mowed the path across the field from the house to the river as the yellow clover flowers were full of happy bees and I didn't want to gobble them all up so I mowed to the side of the yellow brick road instead.

Once at the river, I paused from mowing to jump down and check it out, only to find that I disturbed this little nugget from it's hiding place near the river's edge in the cool shade. After our 10 second stand off, I went one way and it went the other as it crashed/swam to the other side.

Another tiny creature that has a pretty home as it waits for busy pollinators, like bees, to come near so that it can devour them. I left it be and picked the other flowers as there is enough for both of us.

It's busy season for the hummingbirds as the young are fledging and everyone is hungry, hungry, hungry. I often spend a few minutes each evening standing near the feeders getting them to perch on my finger as they eat their dinner (its hard to feel tired or grumpy as you can feel all the breeze from their wings, their tiny feet, and watch their exuberance). It is chaos as they all flit around to each one, chase others off, or startle each other. I have 5 feeders and all will be full of little hummers each night. Trying to walk near them feels like a war zone and I often flinch thinking they are going to collide with me but it hasn't happened yet.

Oh yeah and I grow veggies and flowers too! The Rainbow Radishes have returned. The Dwarf Boc Choy is making a debut (it is great raw as a salad), and the flowers are opening up!

Oscar and Tilly make a good team it was their leader that forgot to lock the differential for the sandy bit so the beds got a little squirrelly. A second pass fixed my newbie mistake. It seems almost ridiculous that 15 minutes (which was mostly spent turning them around at the end of each bed) was enough time to prep 3 full beds. That same task would have taken me 2 hrs per bed before and been tiring enough that I could only do one a day.

Ebony & Ivory, two of the many Easter Egger hens on my farm. They are the ones responsible for the blue-green eggs that everyone loves. They are sometimes called Ameracaunas or Aracaunas but they aren't really the true breed but mutts, one of the 'true' breeds crossed with a brown egg layer. This doesn't mean much to most people except some of them lay eggs that are not blue-green. Ivory, for example, lays perfect cream-colored eggs while Ebony lays blue-green ones. There are one or two other Easter Eggers on the farm that lay cream-colored eggs but even if they aren't doing what they are supposed too, they are still a favored breed as they are very hardy, intelligent, and adaptable hens, much more so than some of the 'true' heritage breeds. Viva la 'mutts'!!!

On one of the sunny days, Hella takes a break from chasing all the mice, moles, voles, and shrews to take a nap in the cool, shady grass.

Nothing goes to waste on a farm! If it is too rotten for the chickens to eat, it goes into the compost. Luckily this lettuce isn't and they get a nice treat on a warm day!

Baby carrots!