I was supposed to post this last night but ran out of steam.

Finally, a bit of sunshine!! The butterfly milkweed has begin to bloom.

As have the daylilies....

And the wild yarrow.

We were finally able to run the still, and distilled a gallon of comfrey hydrosol.

We started cleaning out the drying shed...a raccoon or possum got in there this winter and made a HUGE mess.

It broke open out stash of dozens of bags of packing peanuts. It's a Very Big Mess.

Donna channeled her inner firebug and we burned the HUGE pile of brush that's been sitting there, drying. It's mostly wild plum and mulberry wood. Keeping some of the wild plants under control can be quite a job.

And in the evening we went to Des Moines for good eats, good wine, and excellent live music played by Daphne Willis :)

We've been having a bit of weather here.

We had some help harvesting strawberries today.

Donnas main perennial bed continues to look amazing!!!

This color combo makes me go all swoony!

Due to weather, we didn't do anything outside. We made some things...

...and packed some orders. This photo shows our assortment of packing boxes.

We are growing potatoes vertically. Or trying to anyway. We found some round wire cages on the curb this spring (yay curb crawling!) and got a ten lb bag of seed taters at an Amish store for $3.75. We shared the taters with our friend Becky, so we probably planted 6-7 lbs in five round cages. Put cardboard under the cages to supress weeds, threw the cut up seed potatoes on top, and covered with leaves and old straw. That's it! As the potato plants grow, we add more straw or old hay. I've covered them twice do far and as you can see they are ready for another layer.

Tomatoes are doing well, we will have to think about stringing them up soon.

This ambitious little pepper plant has a pepper on it already.

BABY PEACHES!!!

The very first St. Johns Wort blossoms!

Dante is a faithful (and talkative) garden helper.

The big, icky, super-duper sweaty project today was hauling lots of very heavy barn refuse (MAN those mini horses produce a lot of manure) out to the raspberry patch. Donna weeded, and Maggie mulched. It wasn't very hot - maybe lower 80's? - but the humidity was 91 percent and the sweat was literally dripping off us. Sweaty drippy manure-covered us. That's sexy farm life for ya. There's at least another 3/4 left to do, too. Here's hoping the berries are plentiful next year!!

Today, John and Maggie vended at the Downtown DES Moines farmer's market, and had a wonderful time as always!

Donna womaned the shop, and nearly died of boredom (I think) labelling and shrink-wrapping tons of products. Note Abby, faithful canine companion.

The sweetgrass looks wonderful! Nearly ready for harvest.

And, some gratuitous kitteh cuteness. Leo is hysterical...one of two Persians living on the farm, he is so dirty we call him "pigpen" he just adores playing in water and then "helping" in the garden. He was recently adopted from the local shelter, and is an absolute sweetheart.

Just another June day

Hay is really heavy. Also unwieldy, and scratchy. Mom and I loaded 60 bales of hay into the barn this morning, stacking it way over our heads. Not too shabby for a couple of broads. There's 120 bales there now; we need another 100+ to see the minis through 7 months of pastureless winter.

I love my still. The weather was actually cooperating today (not too windy, not raining), but I only thought of starting it up... When it was too late. *sigh*

This is Peter, a cat we fostered as a kitten. We adopted him and his mom from the local shelter. This picture of him is notable, becaue his mouth is closed. Most picture of him show him with his mouth open, mid-meow. Peter REALLY likes to talk.

Today we packed orders, and made a bunch of bath salt samples to give away at farmers market tomorrow.

Also John fixed the mower, and mom did a bunch of mowing. She pulled a bunch of weeds today too.

And then we packed farmwagon for market! We are hoping for a really great market tomorrow :)

Today began with some kitty lovin's. These are barn babies, caught last week, along with their feral momma. Momma got spayed and is safely back in her barn, happy and healthy. Now we are making the kittens friendly; they'll be spayed/neutered, and adopted out.

Donna's rose garden by the house looks spectacular!

And the lavender is starting to bloom already! A bit early this year. It never grows very well for us, but we have a few nice bushes that overwintered well.

Here's a photo of one of Maggie's lasagna beds, in the early phases. I take big cardboard boxes (of which we get many!) and flatten them, and lay them in thick layers on the ground. On top, we pile all kinds of organic matter: old hay, weeds, compost, trimmings, horse manure,leaves, bedding from Maggie's rabbit's litterbox. I usually am working on the beds to be planted next year, but you can also plant directly into it the first year. The soil quality is wonderful, no tilling is involved, and weeds are minimal.

Here's another project in the works: mulching around all our fruit trees (three peach, one plum, two pears and two apples) and planting perennial herbs and flowers around the bases. This will provide extra food for our bees, and make orchard mowing and maintenance much easier.

This is Beatrice, our first bee hive! She is doing well... Currently the Beatrices are enjoying the roses, lavender, and alexander. We installed two new hives on local farms a few days ago. Catherine is at Picket Fence Creamery, and Diana is at Raccoon Forks Farm in Redfield.

And last but certainly not least, we had a major Barn Cleaning Event today! Removing junk, sorting, and reorganizing. A very dirty dusty job (achoo!) but it's more spacious and clean now!

Test, test, 123 test

Trying out a new app that allows me to blog with my phone. (it's a little weird to even say that, right? What has technology become!). If this works. I'll be much better able to keep the blog updated and fresh!!

Shown here, btw, are some of our first springtime harvests - fresh strawberries and garlic scapes, picked fresh last Saturday. (I picked gooseberries as well, but neglected to get them in the photo).

Ready for summer? Let's celebrate with a fantastic fun Summertime Sample Sunday! This Sunday, June 12, 12-5 at Prairieland Herbs, Picket Fence Creamery, and Flowers by Donna Jean.

Randi Stone of Lovin' oven will have her delicious homebaked goods including her ever-popular Powerballs, as well as brand new strawberry lemonade cupcakes, YUM!

Sally Kilkenny will have her luscious selection of handmade jams and jellies for sampling and for purchase!



Sarah Macht will have her funky Magical Magnets and beautiful handmade notecards, as well as a big box of mostly new funky hippie clothes to trade/sell barter!

Lynn Parkey of Gauranga Reiki will have a wide selection of her exceedingly popular herbal goods, including teas, tinctures, remedies for pets and flower essences.


Rebecca Brandow of Willow Avenue Pottery will have her gorgeous handmade pottery - she's sure to have something your favorite fella needs for Father's Day!



We're pleased to have a new guest vendor: Kristina Steffen, a.k.a. KaoticKrafter, specializes in creating handmade treasures from recycled materials. She will be out for her first time offering some great blank journals, blank note cards, vinyl record bowls and cups, as well as some beautiful felt flowers.



Michelle White of Organic People salon will have her John Masters products...and don't forget to schedule a pedicure with her - remember, it's sandal season!

Jenny Van Rees will have her beautiful selection of handmade clothing and goods- each piece custom made, one of a kind, and completely beautiful!

Ila Heins, our favorite kid entrepreneur and pet lover, will be there with her River's Ropes and Yeller's Yummies dog treats. :)




Deniece Gaudineer will be doing reiki treatments and will be selling beautiful aromatherapy necklaces - ask her a bout custom creating an essential oil blend that's perfect for you.

Melodie Proffitt of Mind and Body Massage Therapy free hand massages, and 10 minute neck and shoulder massage for $10. If you haven't had a hand massage you have GOT to try one, they are amazing! She will also have her beautiful artwork for sale - Melodie has many talents!



Marjory Krueger will be debuting her line of natural, handmade cleaning products, including Orange Sherbert Carpet Freshener, Lemon Sparkle dishwasher soap, glass cleaner and laundry booster! Wonderful stuff.

Prairieland Herbs will have our EXCEEDINGLY POPULAR Healing Wands and Buzz Off wands on sale - $3 off the large wands, so they are $6 instead of $9. Stock up now!



And of course our friends at Picket Fence Creamery and Donna Jeans Flowers and Gifts have a wide selection of fantastic sales, events, samples and much more happening at their locations too, so come check out all three stores!

Yesterday started out innocently enough...browsing the craigslist ads, we found some wonderful red raspberry plants! a LOT of red raspberry plants.....I picked them up, and then zoomed off to work to try to get them planted before the rain hit. We decided our new raspberry patch would be near the mini's pen, so I got out the tiller and started tilling....much to the delight of the minis. They lined up to watch as if this was the most thrilling spectacle they'd ever seen!

Pretty soon the sky looked like this...


and then THIS. We managed to get all 62 plants into the ground just as the first raindrops hit. We closed the doors and windows and sprinted for the shop! It was a doozy of a storm...but the berries got watered. :)