Dry Times, Exciting Times, Beautiful Times

The end of the month of May and most of the first two weeks of June was a period of time in which rain was absent.  Nothing.  The air was even dry.  Mornings arrived without dew, without moisture.  Yet the blueberries were growing in size and beginning to ripen. No rain, hot weather, and sunny skies make for early ripening blueberries - but small ones. My fears of a lost crop laying heavy on my nurturing farmer's heart.

Ben and his class celebrate the completion of their Senior Project presentations.  The Mighty Mississippi flowing by. Ben, Farmer's Husband Gary and I ventured to the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana campus for Ben's registration.  The campus is beautiful and the folks there very inviting and friendly.  Certainly helped to reduce some of my mother's anxieties....

Watering, watering watering. The ground dusty.  The heat oppressive.  Tomatoes wilting.

Midway through my hauling load after load after load of water from the pond (about 25 trips in all), the water tank broke in two.  After many faithful years of service, our auction find, was irreparable.  And although I used a little transfer pump to help me water the blueberries, the task took five days 6-8 hours each day to go through the field even once.  Enormous effort. Exhausting work.

Stacy-friend told me about a big old heavy brush fire tanker for sale from one of the county's fire departments.  It holds 250 gallons, can discharge 125 to 30 gallons per minute and comes with a electric hose rewinder!  Sweet!  We bought it.  Farmer's Husband Gary placed it on our old F150, tinkered with it a bit and said, "It runs well!".  Can't wait to try it.....ah, wait a minute. I can wait.  Hopefully our four week dry period is done.

The flowers still bloom amazingly.

And the garlic sends out its flowers faithfully.  I cut hundreds and hundreds of scapes.

A gift from Stacy-friend last year.  The cluster bellflowers are lovely!

I love blue.  Scabiosa is such an airy beautiful blue.

But more than farming continues.... the farm home is starting to take shape.  Footings poured and last Friday the foundation was poured.  Huge trucks everywhere.  It was amazing.

Now that's a pumper truck!

Our guys from Morton Building scoping out the forms and preparing to set the bolts when the concrete is poured.

I kept trying to remember during all this dry time.... "Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation." (Habakkuk 3:17-18).

Today's Journey Joys: baby kittens frisky at play, gushing rain on Saturday evening - weeds easy to pull, fruit widening, black raspberries juicy, blueberries scrumptious, flowers blooming, leeks thickening, university friendly, songs from Ally-girl, conversations and encouragement from friends.

Multi-tasking

Oh! How the days are filled with wonder! Farming, planting, weeding, tending, caring, and building.... Celebrating and rejoicing.  It's been a full month around these acres. 

The barn is finished! (sans the floor)

Catching swarms!  I should have split those two strong hives this spring! At least I caught the swarms.  This one took three attempts.  They kept flying back to this branch about 12 feet in the air. Gary would lift me up on the big loader and I would either snip the branch or drop them in a bucket.  It's a little tricky with such a big swarm and being lifted up in the air.

Needed more woodenware for the new swarms.  This is the first time I've ever painted my hives the traditional white. Looks nice. 

Our baby chicks and turkeys arrived.  Alas, two weeks into their life a varmint attacked the coop and we lost about half.

The first year I actually got my tri-colored chrysanthemums in their pots by mid May! 

Poppies!  The bees seem to love them.

Preparing the new blueberry field.  Peat moss and our secret recipe acidifier applied and tilled in.  Followed by making raised beds with 20+ year durable, water permeable fabric.  I'm going to get on top of these weeds yet!

The biggest events have centered around the graduations of Ben.  He graduated first from our area's Community College with his Associates in Science and then from  high school (yes, in that order!). We are SO proud of him!  I cried so many times at his high school graduation. The closure of one chapter and the hopes of a new one, yet unread, unlived, awaiting. (For both of us!)

Ben (and his classmate majoring in aerospace engineering) will be attending University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in the Fall majoring in Biology.  He is yet unsure of whether he wants to pursue medicine with an emphasis on research or genetics or something else.  It will be an adventure seeing how his decisions and life's passions come together.

Today's Journey Joys: Growth - plants, chickens, farming and most importantly our son Ben. My heart cannot contain the love I have for this young man.  Tears of joy oozing out everywhere.