Farm cleanup continues...as does the rain! We actually got some things planted last Friday, and had hoped to do some tilling today (wednesday), and a bunch more planted. But we got DUMPED on (random 5:30 AM thundershower), and it's raining again this morning, so....no tilling and planting today. *sigh* Maybe we'll get the garden in by the 4th of July!!

But the farm cleanup is going well. We hired a fellow with a beautiful John Deere tractor (shown above) and he spent a few hours at our place digging out HUGE rocks that we couldnt' get with a skid loaded, pulling out trees and stumps that were in the way of mowing or were too near out buildings, and removing old fenceposts that were no longer in use. Then he tilled our back pasture area (behind the barn, for those of you that are familiar with our farm). That machine is amazing! Even though we spent 2 weeks in May digging out rocks and old concrete, the back area is still loaded with rocks. that tiller was just spitting out rocks the size of volleyballs - it didn't even slow it down. incredible! We hope to seed that area to pasture really soon, so we can care for it ourselves from now on.

Fowl update!!! Beaker, the fellow shown above (who used to be yellow and fuzzy but is not getting his feathers!!!) is a Canada Goose - thanks to all of you who called or emailed to help us identify him! He is, I think, the world's most spoiled goose. He has his own huge and comfy pen in the barn for at night, and during the day he wanders around at will, eating just about anything he can find (grass, dandelions and bedstraw are favorites, as are worms, ants, and crackers) and getting lots of attention from us and our customers. He gets in our little pond several times a day and has a good swim, and eats the water lily leaves. he sure is handsome! He chases the cats and will even snitch their food - he is one onery goose!

Sadly, we lost his duck brother, Stu...the neighbor dogs came over and, well....we never saw Stu again. Our dogs are fine with the fowl, but the neighbor dogs...not so much. We are keeping a very close eye on the situation. Our most fabulous neighbor and postal-delivery guy has offered us a few of his ducks to keep Beaker company, so we think we are going to take him up on that offer. We'll keep you posted on their progress!

The other day when Donna FINALLY got to plant a few things (it's been so wet here, we haven't even gotten our garden in....can you believe it?), Beaker discovered very quickly that when she digs up soil, there are worms....here you can see just how eagerly he is awaiting each turn of the pitchfork. Aahhh..gardening with a goose. Every day is a new adventure around here!!