farmgirl: A Run to the Farm

Road trip! - John and I decided on Friday that we could not put off the farm any longer. Poor neglected parcel of land, left all alone to make it or break it. We really didn't expect to see much of anything when we arrived but boy were we surprised. First of all when the last 7 miles were spent driving in rain - Rain? you say - what's that? It is the wetness that makes the grass green and the plants grow in case you have forgotten. According to our neighbor who stopped by to say HI it had also rained the past night - quite a lot.

Strawberry fields is the name of this flower - also known as globe amaranth. I dry them for use in wreaths and they make a very nice addition to potpourri by giving it color and depth. Many of these have been out in the sun too long but I did get a nice amount of them for starters.

Sunflowers are busy smiling!

So we arrived to find things in much better shape than we expected. My flowers - especially the globe amaranth that are my bread and butter this year! Oh Happy Day! So needless to say we brought back home lots of flowers, about a half dozen watermelon, some winter squash, about a half dozen cabbage and a few potatoes which we dug just to see if there were any - and there are! So after some tractor driving and some flower cutting and some atv-ing we managed to spend about 6 hours down at the farm and returned late in the evening with all of our goodies. I also found some screens that I brought home for drying flowers - yay! That old farm house turns up the most useful goodies - talk about trash to treasure.
Meanwhile back at the ranch Kayla was manning the fort and chasing down the army of ants that had appeared after our tea party. Where do these things come from? She is a trooper and today there are only a few left behind to explore my cabinets.

We will return to the farm this coming weekend for several days of work and fun. A dear friend gets married in Lynchburg on Saturday so it won't be all work and no play.

The pear tree is full of pears this year - so much better than last year. The deer have obviously been helping themselves but these need a ladder to get to them so we may even have a few for ourselves. The apple trees are looking good as well.

(uncooperative little sucker)

These goldfinch were busy eating the sunflower insides but every time I snuck up to take their picture off they went. I finally settled for one at the top of a nearby tree about 12 ft in the air while I sat on the ground and we grew accustomed to each other.