Sorry gang - we won't be able to go to the Downtown Farmer's Market tomorrow - there is just TOO much rain predicted! :( See you there on the 27th!

Quiet day here. Humid - storms coming in tonight.

Doing a bit more painting - which really means: Move displays (involving grunting, swearing, and sometimes dropping things and breaking them. whoops). Stand a goggle and how DUSTY it is behind displays, and count how many lip balms have, over the years, rolled underneath them. (answer: many more than you would believe). Clean up dust, throw away old lip balms, wipe cobwebs off walls. Get ready to paint. Paint. Let dry. Paint again. Let dry. Clean off entire display, mop floor. Move display back (more swearing and grunting).

As you can see, it's a fairly involved process.

This afternoon, I'm bottling hair vinegars. I've made samples of the Red Rose and Lemon Balm, and the Rosemary and Lavender. If you're ordering in the next day or two, and want to try one of those, just let us know; we'll add it to your order, no charge. :)

There are 4 dogs alseep here in the shop, on the floor (each on their own blankie), and 3 cats.

Last Saturday, Donna and Maggie hosted a bus tour of 52 folks from Oskaloosa, IA. We actually did lots of these tours throughout the summer - I'm not sure how many, but at least a dozen.
The huge tour buses always look a little surreal, parked out in the middle of the country!!!


Donna usually leads the groups on a garden tour, then Maggie helps them in the shop and answers questions. Corralling 50 people is pretty much impossible, so basically they end up doing what they want. They're nearly always kind and polite, and enjoy the dogs (you can see in these pictures that the dogs sure enjoy all the company). Then they all get back on the bus and head off to the next farm to visit!

NEW SOAPS! We have a new soapmaker, the wonderful Terri, owner of "Biscuit's Boutique Soaps". (Biscuit is her cat's name - isn't that cute?). She is from Des Moines, and makes wonderful essential-oil blend soaps. Now, nobody panic - Karla is not going anywhere! She's still making her amazing soaps and shampoo bars for us. She's just being kept very, VERY busy keeping you all in soap! So Terri is going to make a few new varities for us as well. I promise you'll love her soaps. They smell great, have cute labels, and have huge lather!

Speaking of cuteness. Here is the view from the front door of the shop, taken the other day. Donna lets her mini horses out to graze every morning for a few hours. They pretty much wander anywhere they want, and don't *usually* go too far. This day they decided the grass right outside the front door of the shop was pretty tasty. In this picture we see Contessa (the white one), Baron (the smaller brown with white markings), and Dutchess (Baron's mom).

Delilah is the oldest baby, she is a RIOT. She is SO inquisitive - she loves to investigate everything, and often does so by tasting things. (She loves to nibble - EVERYTHING). She has been known to pick up tools or items and just...carry them off. Why? We don't know. I think she is part puppy. Anyway, all the rest of the herd calmly grazed near the shop, paying no attention to the open door. Not Delilah. She looked up, saw the door, and walked right on in. What a funny girl! (She didn't stay long, just long enough for me to get this quick picture).

A few snapshots from last Saturday. Donna and Zach, our faithful summer minion, um, er.....slaveboy, no wait.....WORKER, that's it....anyway, Donna and Zach are painting the walls of our shop! For those of you that have never visited - our shop is awful tiny. It's 20 feet by 30 feet, and Donna and I built it ourselves (with help from a retired electrician/handyman friend). It holds our office, kitchen, and entire retail area. So...there's alot of stuff in a very small space, which makes painting really interesting. We move things from a section of the wall, paint, wait for it to dry, paint again, wait for it to dry again, then move everything back. Repeat.

Zach was, I believe, mildly horrified to have to paint walls PINK, but he did the job with enthusiasm and gusto.


John was constructing a manger for the mini-horses (six of them sharing the one existing one we had was just tooooooo many!).

Which ended up looking a bit like a coffin!!!
And last but not least....meet our new puppy, a rat terrier mix, named Monk! He loooooove the other doggies and kitties, and was terrified of Beaker until yesterday, when the 2 of them started this new game where they sort of harass each other. He goes up to Beaker and barks, Beaker lowers his head and sort of "fake" chases him off. Repeat.

(To be clear - Beaker is FULLY CAPABLE of chasing this little guy down and pinching the dickens out of him if he wants. He's a goose that's large and in charge. This truly is a game the 2 of them have devised).