The Thirsty Ground is Happy...

The corn and beans have come up...

The garden is growing...slowly...

The flowers are weary of my watering can...

We finally got some much needed rain over the past two days!

Eric's graduation party was on Sunday evening...outside...and we were pretty nervous about the weather.  However...as dry as it's been here, and as much as we've needed rain, we didn't want to complain.  As farmers, we are so dependent on the weather.  Thankfully, we got to enjoy a beautiful evening with friends...and then a thunderstorm rolled through around midnight. Yesterday we had a few rain showers, and overnight we had some more, totaling right around 1.5".

Perfect!

The graduate (almost)...

Yesterday...a wonderful sight to see a gray sky...

The beans are coming up nicely through the old rye field.  After this rain, they'll grow quickly...

My flowers would much rather be fed the natural way.  And Little Ed is glad for some shelter from the rain.  I call him my garden kitty.  Last summer he would follow me everywhere in my vegetable garden.  Since my vegetable garden has shrunk considerably this year, he's moved to my "new", smaller perennial bed. This is where I've saved my favorites...

The thirsty ground is happy!

And so are the farmers.

Celebrating With Family...

It's raining buckets today, and I can't mow...and can't get my flowers beds ready for mulch (only a few weeks late!!)...so I'll take some time to fill you in on something fun we did this past weekend.

The kids and I took a quick trip to Virginia to attend my niece Maria's graduation from Eastern Mennonite University.  It's always good to be together with family, and this was a good "excuse" to head south. We left after Saturday morning's milking and made the trip in under four hours...just in time for lunch.  Eric helped with the driving, and that was nice!  I get sleepy driving even in the daytime.

The weather couldn't have been any more perfect.  You'll be able to see from the pictures just how beautiful it was.  EMU's campus is beautiful, and the lawn was a great place for graduation.  We staked out our spot in the back, on comfy chairs so we could easily move around to take pictures...

Here she comes...all smiles.  She graduated Summa Cum Laude, with a major in Spanish and minors in Bible and Religion...

The beautiful Shenandoah mountains in the background...

We were honored to hear 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee give the commencement address.  She is from Liberia and received a masters degree from EMU a few years ago.  She was a great speaker, and I could have listened to her for a while longer...

Maria with her family...

The "girl cousins"...

With my parents...Grandpa and Grandma...

Shortly after graduation was over, we packed up and headed for home again. It was a short trip, but filled with family and fun.  Thanks Jim, for holding down the fort at home so we could go!

Congratulations Maria!  We're proud of you!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post...I got some great pictures of Virginia fences!