Coneflowers in Bloom

One of many.

The Weekend

It was a busy weekend on the farm. Our niece Hannah stayed with us. On Saturday morning, Hannah and I went blueberry picking at Blueberry Haven.
Maggie is checking if the hay is ready to bale.
While waiting for the hay to dry, I caught a frog on a lily pad in our garden pond.
Part of the hay crew. Notice the "Samurai Sweatbands" we are sporting (Jenny, Mike, and Hannah). Zachary says the Sorensons are legendary sweaters. I think he is jealous.

As of Monday afternoon, we baled about 2,000 bales from 35 acres. We have about 25 acres left.

Inspiring Lolcat

Queequeg says hello.

Meet Bob

This is Bob the Bull. His official name is Joliam Garrison under the US Registered Holstein Association. We call him Bob. He seems to be getting along with his herd mates. After a few more days of getting used to his new home, he'll be ready for service.

Not much happening in the dry hay baling department this weekend, too wet. We did cut more hay down on Saturday, so maybe Monday or Tuesday we can start baling. The forecast is looking more promising this week.

Veggies, Crops, and Cows

First picking of the season: Green Beans. More where those came from... Peas will be ready soon.

On a farm crops side, this week we started cutting hay for second crop. We are intending on making the second crop dry hay bales. We have a rain in the forecast for the next few days, so that will slow the dry hay process down.

In other farm news, Zachary and I bought a bull today. We need to come up with a name for him. I'll try to get a picture of him sometime and properly introduce him to you all. Hopefully our cow ladies will be impressed with him. :-)

Saturday in Iola

Yesterday we spent the day at my parents' cottage in Iola. We were helping build a roof over a portion of the deck, to create a shaded breezy retreat. Zachary and my brother Mike were on the roof most of the time. My Dad was the foreman and supply handler. I was their assistant if they dropped anything. :-)
Since my job wasn't vital to the success of the build, I wondered around the property with my camera and snapped a few pictures. I ran across a lot of Monarch Caterpillars.

I also brought my bike along and went for two rides on the country back roads for 12 miles in total.

Catnap

Queequeg is caught napping in the window.

Eat Your Veggies

Our vegetable garden is doing great this year. We have cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, peas, snap peas, green beans, carrots, romaine lettuce, spinach, gourds, pumpkins, and onions planted. It looks like it will be bountiful this summer, perhaps too bountiful...

Saturday Night Fireworks

Here are a few pictures of the Cloverleaf Lakes Fireworks on July 5th. We had great seats from the shoreline at my parents' house on Grass Lake. I had a lot of duds from all the pictures I shot, but I also managed a couple nice ones. Most of the pictures had about an eight second exposure, which was a little tricky without a tripod.