And the Garden Works

Last time I wrote about gardens and dreams. Here is a picture of a dream coming true. Yes that is lettuce! And look at those radishes, in only a few weeks! Next week, I'm thinking that we will be eating our lettuce with radishes and spinach. Yummy! This is only a partial picture of one box, we have two boxes, the other one contains okra, spinach, beets, cabbage, and kale. Not pictured in this box is the broccoli, colorabi and basil.

Next year, our garden is going to be a lush, food producing bit of loveliness on the ranch. But it's nice to know that we get some it the benefits this year.

Steve and Tammy also planted some very lovely roses, all in a row at the front of our garden. They are soooo beautiful. I really do love roses and it's nice to have some planted, and growing, on the ranch.

So we've also been getting the hay in for next year. We don't have all of it in yet, but we do have it ordered, which is very good. No more panic! Willa is so wonderful to keep on top of this! And I'm sure that the horses appreciate it very much.

Last weekend we did Cavalry Drill and Jousting training. Everyone had a really good time and the horses did very well. We will be posting some pictures from the Jousting training and the Mounted Archery soon.

It is so much fun to live on the ranch!

A Work of Garden

I took this picture this morning on my way to work. Steven and Tammy have worked so hard getting our garden just right. It's been an absolutely huge project. First they had to get all the infrastructure in, including a beautiful sprinkler system. Then they built the boxes and hand filled them with dirt.

The boxes are pretty big 4' x 12' each, so it wasn't trivial to fill them up by hand. After everything was ready, we finally (at the end of July) could plant. So we planted all cold weather crops which will grow this fall. We have lettuce, brocolli, radishes, some beets, and other really great stuff.

The thing I've been learning about dreams is that they happen slowly. Much more slowly than I thought at first. They require that you don't give up on them just because they don't happen as fast as you want. Even then end result isn't always what you thought it would be. But dreams are worth doing in spite of all that you go through to get them to become reality.

This year we have done so many things, and now we are looking forward to fall and this year, the fall will be not just a time of harvest, but a time of new beginnings. Usually, lettuce and radishes are the first crop, not the fall crop. But this year they will be. Because dreams that are worth having, take time.

Little by little we cross the ocean.

After Camp

Our last overnight Kids Camp finished on Monday. What a blast! Unfortunately, I got my foot crunched on Sunday morning by Scotch, and so missed the rest of Sunday and most of Monday. I did get to help with clean up on Tuesday.

This time Willa taught the kids horseback archery. They really enjoyed it, and I think they learned some great skills. At any rate, a very good time was had by all in spite of the heat. It was over 100 Saturday, Sunday, and Monday but everyone managed to press through the heat and drink LOTS of water. There are now sprinklers around the outside edge of the arena and it was really helpful to turn them on every so often and cool off.

Someday we might even have our own "Mongolian Horde" with mounted archers.

Also this last weekend, Steve and Tammy got our first two planter boxes done and we all planted the first one, they planted the second one. These are all "cold weather" crops like lettuce, beets, and brocolli. Next year, the garden will be all ready to go first thing in the spring and it will be automatically watered by our sprinkler system. What a crop we will get next year! Yum.

The pole barn is getting ready for this year's shipment of hay. Willa, Joseph, and Bill are working very hard to get the floor evened out so that we don't lose any hay to water seeping underneath the stack.

The chickens are getting used to each other. The new Arucana pullets are fitting in nicely. We did lose two of our new Guineas to accidents, but we still have one left and she seems very spunky and a bit wiser than her siblings were. The new Arucana rooster is quite beautiful with his irridescent blue tail feathers and his gold and red "mane". He is also quite the showoff. He must be, all the big girls hang with him now. It's interesting the new Arucana hens are all hanging with the old Banty Rooster "Pretty Boy" as well as our little Guinea.

It is cool and rainy at the ranch today. Kind of weird for August, but really nice just the same. I know the animals are enjoying this break from the heat of last week. Seems like we've been transported to Puget Sound, but I don't think any of us mind too much.

And so life at the ranch goes on. Next big event: Jousting Clinic!