Busy bees

My goodness it feels like we were been busy this past weekend.  Thankfully, we were at home being busy doing things that felt like they needed to be done and were life giving.  Although even life giving activities can be totally tiring. 

Friday morning I picked six or seven more cucumbers from the garden.  When I took them inside, I was going to simply add them to the growing pile in the fridge when I realized we actually had A LOT of cucumbers in there.  So, making pickles jumped onto the Friday to-do list.  

However, peaches held the highest spot on my Friday to-do list.  I bought a bunch of locally grown peaches on Thursday with super-high hopes of canning them on Friday.  When I bought them, I was told they were free stone peaches, but once I started cutting into them on Friday I quickly found out they were most definitely not free.  So, I was very disappointed and annoyed with this stash of peaches I suddenly had to figure out a secondary game plan for.  We're not big on peach jam or peach pie at our house but finally I settled on jam, and a peach crisp with a few leftover to simply enjoy.  They are small, but super-juicy and very flavorful - even if they cling.  Learning curves are not much fun.

Later on Friday, pickles were made from a recipe I found on the blog Food In Jars.  

We also put together a good sized-batch of refrigerator dills.  Ben and I chose a big container so we'll have plenty of room to keep adding new cucumbers.  Although with as fast the boys eat them, I'm not sure we'll ever actually fill the whole container! 

 Outside of the garden and kitchen - we recently put together a fire pit.  Since we're not sure how long we'll be in our current home, I didn't want to invest too much time or money on this fire pit.  I wanted to use stuff we could find around the farm and make it look as nice as possible.  One evening, I roped my mom into helping me haul cinder blocks across the yard.  The funny thing is, these same blocks spent years in a pile about ten feet from where the fire pit is now.  This past winter they finally got moved to a more suitable spot to be stored away "just in case" there was some use for them in the future.  I'm quite sure neither my dad nor my uncle would have ever thought a fire pit was what that "just in case" would ever be.

If the dairy cows were still at the farm this would not be possible.  It's right next to the old dairy barn, just a stones throw from where the cows lived and almost in the exact spot that young calves used to live.  If the smell wouldn't have driven this idea away, the flies most certainly would have.  But, as it is now, our biggest obstacles are wind and our dog. :-)

We spread screenings around the fire pit to help make a nice surface to walk/set chairs on.  Once it gets rained on it'll be a nice solid spot for roasting marshmallows or warming up by the fire (like in the fall....not now....)

Twice now, the evenings have been cool enough and the supplies have been on hand on to enjoy S'mores at the fire pit.  The boys LOVE it and Noah continues to be an excellent marshmallow roaster.

We do have to watch out that Axle doesn't get our marshmallows!

And, the white barn is slowly but surely turning red.  She's going to look so much better once she's all fixed up!

Our kittens are also growing, becoming more curious and independent.  They were born in our garage and their mama, Chuckles, moved them twice but has since decided we won't harm them.

Sometimes their legs hold them up and sometimes they end up with all four legs splayed out and their bellies dragging.

Levi's meowing for the camera. :-)  Isn't his new haircut cute?!  I love to feel his head.

We also went swimming on Saturday afternoon to the "big pool" in McPherson.  It was a blast to watch Noah go down the big slide and see his confidence grow.  It wasn't quite as much fun to deal with the super-tired post-swimming Noah, though.
A busy weekend for sure, but it was oh so good!

From the garden

Growing a garden has certainly kept us busy this year and thankfully we continue to enjoy it.  We managed to grow three bundles of onions like this one:

an array of potatoes - all the same kind, just many different sizes

and more than eight quarts worth of green beans!  I have been hinting at, talking about, thinking about canning produce for several years now.  Yes, I said years, and finally last night it became a reality.

 We packed seven quart jars with green beans and let the boys "fish" out the remaining beans from the sink where they had been washed.  Everything was going smoothly except all of the sudden one of the jars in the canner was floating!  I took it out to realize it had cracked.  Ben and I immediately started to worry that we'd done something wrong and that all the jars would crack but that wasn't the case.

 Thankfully, we ended up with six sealed quart jars of green beans.  Next time we'll do pint jars instead, since a quart is more than our family can eat in one meal.  I picked some more beans from the garden this evening and there are lots more out there that need a couple days to finish growing.

 We're having trouble with our tomatoes.  Apparently, the brown spots are from insufficient/irregular watering so we're trying to get that straightened out.  We continue to get a few cucumbers and I'm planning on canning some dill pickles with them soon.  I picked one green pepper and there's another one that'll be ready to pick soon.  It's amazing to watch food grow - and in some cases, like the green peppers, magically appear!  I knew we'd had blooms on the pepper plants but I hadn't noticed anything growing until suddenly there it was, a full-grown green pepper just waiting to be picked.  Since there was a big open space left by the potatoes and onions, I decided to try out pumpkins.  We're on the verge of being too late to plant them, but I thought I'd give it a go.  We'll see what happens!

 In non-garden related news, the big white barn is undergoing a serious face lift these days.  The over 100 year old barn is in good shape, but her exterior needs an upgrade.  She used to be red, and red she will be once again.  Only this time it'll be red tin siding instead of paint.  Her old wood siding won't hold paint anymore so the most economical solution is to put siding over the top of the wood siding.  At this point, my cousin Austin it working to firm up some of the spots that were in dire need of repair before the tin goes up.  Red will certainly be a change of pace for that old barn, but I think she deserves to look her best after all she's been through. 

Father's Day

Sunday was a fun family day - I just don't have many photos prove it.  I didn't even get a photo of Ben with the boys.  But this one from back in April is one of my favorites.

 Ben is a wonderful dad to our boys - patient, fun-loving, goofy, caring and hard-working - what more could we ask for?!

 So on Sunday, we gave Ben some of his favorite candy packaged in a bottle with a cute little tag - an idea I snagged off Pinterest.  We gathered with my sister, Miki and Rylee at my parent's house for lunch, then went swimming and a little bit of golfing at my aunt and uncle's place in the afternoon.
My sister and I gave our dad a framed retouched aerial photo of the farm that was taken in 1970.  We've got a wonderful dad who continues to set a great example for us to follow.
We ate supper together, watched the US Open and before we knew it was time for bed!

  It was a full day but also full of good family time.

Rain!

You know that feeling of a fantastic rain after a long hot-dry spell?  Well, this is what we did on Friday morning to celebrate the rain that came the night before.

The rain even made it more fun to feed the calves - I don't know why really, it just did!

Noah tried really hard not to smile for me, but eventually I got him to crack a little bit.

 It was also a cool morning - perfect for playing outside.  It's good for the soul to get a good rain; it makes the earth sparkle and brings out the kid in all of us.

Levi @ Uncle Carl's

 Last week, Levi attended his first Uncle Carl's Camp at Kauffman Museum. His teacher was Ms. Kristin and he had a wonderful time!

 Levi didn't tell us too much about what happened each day, but he always wanted to return and the program at the end of camp was a big deal for him.  We had to keep reassuring him that we'd be there.  I think he was most concerned that we were at the program so he could show us around the museum, "Inside AND outside!"

 He showed us all over the inside of the museum, and after a lot of searching we finally found the polar bear and tiger that he'd been telling us about.  Phew!  We were starting to doubt they were at the museum at all.  He also showed us the sod walls in the house on the museum grounds - he told us ALL about them.

It was a great way for Levi to spend 2 1/2 hours each morning last week - he had fun and he learned a lot.

The kittens

We have four kittens and their eyes just opened a few days ago!  It's pretty exciting and another learning curve for our family.

 The boys put gloves on before holding the kittens.

 Ben, on the other hand, seems to have just the right touch.

 Chuckles is the mom and we're working on names for her four babies.  Giggles has come up, and Calico.  Noah wants to name his kitten Calico because it's white and grey like a cow.  That's his logic and I'm not about to argue with him!

Summer evening

Water, boys and space to run:

 And our other boys:

 they're playful too, just without the water.

 We're enjoying having the calves at the farm, we hope they like being here too.