Keeping Busy...

It's been a busy few weeks here!  What have we been up to?

Well...the kids are off school now, so we've all been adjusting to new schedules.

This week, Jim round baled some hay from an old alfalfa field that he's taking out, and he spent most of the next two days hauling and spreading pazutski before it's replanted with short season corn.

We've enjoyed some beautiful weather...and have had some really hot, humid days as well.  The grass and the garden are growing like weeds! Speaking of weeds...they're growing too!

I found something to kill the potato beetles that were decimating my plants! It's a spray containing Spinosad, and it works tremendously!  I sprayed late afternoon...it even rained in the evening...and by the next morning, dead potato beetles covered the ground!  For those of you who use organic gardening methods, you're in luck...this qualifies!  Now the plants look healthy and are beginning to blossom...

This year, finally, my tomato plants also look healthy.  I've had trouble with early blight every single year, and found a solution (too late) last summer. Once again...it's a spray that is used in organic gardening called Liquid Copper. I began spraying as soon as I planted the seedlings, and so far, so good...

These volunteer sunflowers are surrounding a huge rock that is in the center of my garden.  I'm hoping that some of them are the beautiful burgundy sunflowers that I grew last year from seeds that I received from my blogger friend Kim!

We were at a family picnic last Saturday, and came home to a torn washline. It had been full of towels, but the kids had brought them in for me!

I finally got around to repairing one of the lines yesterday.  It's really simple to fix.  You put in a large eye bolt, thread the wire through these little thingamajigs, tighten everything up, and it's good as new!  Hopefully it will last a bunch of years before it tears again...

The other line will have to wait until next week, when Tractor Supply gets in more of the wire that I like.

These girls are growing, and enjoying spending time in the sunshine...

They're not the youngest any more, as we've had four new calves this week. We're juggling cows around when we milk, trying to get several dried up, and it can make milking time a little hectic.  Hopefully by the middle of next week the extra cows will be "on vacation" at the other farm and we'll be back to our normal barn full, with no extras.

Here's another baby...one of Jolyn's kitties.  He was watching me from behind the gate when I was out in the barn this evening.  He's getting more tame every day.  Wouldn't you like to have him come live with you?

Coming up next week, we'll be looking at combining barley and baling straw. (Update:  barley is coming off today!) We're hoping for good weather!

How's your summer been going?