:(

So...sadly I've fallen off the gardening wheelbarrow. Life had distracted me in dozens of different ways and I have very little to report about things I've grown. Here's what I do have...

A harvest of garlic was very successful. So were the beets which grew to be huge! Potatoes are growing and thriving as well.

The chickens grew out of their little cage a long while ago, but Tom and I are having trouble getting the coop finished. It's about 3/4 of the way done and will be quite the masterpiece when finished; but it's a two person job and we've been having trouble coordinating time to work on it. In the meantime I try to let the girls frolic in the yard as often as possible.

When we were away in New York for Tom's grampa's funeral we had to force our little hens to cohabitate with my father-in-law's chickens so his girlfriend could care for them. Sadly, one of my americaunas was pecked to death. Chickens can be jerks.

I just got three new baby americaunas at the feed store today. Our coop will be able to hold plenty of chickens, so I thought, "what the heck?! why not?" Hopefully my chickens are a little nicer than my father-in-laws. I'm looking forward to plenty of blue-green eggs!

My main focus for the garden in the next couple of months will be landscaping-type projects. Tom and I eventually want to sell our house and move even deeper into the country, so home-improvement projects and landscaping will certainly help. If I have time I'd like to work on gopher-proofing the veggie patch as well. Gopher sabotage may have been the point at which I became so frustrated I neglected the garden....not a very good attitude to have in gardening or in life. I live and learn.

One more REALLY neat thing...
My neighbor has goats. They are so awesome! I love them! Three of them were pregnant this spring. I got to see one set of babies right after they were born. They are so amazing. Too bad human babies aren't so self-sufficient at birth. Imagine if human babies could walk around right away. I don't understand how goats do it...they have no opportunity to develop muscle in the womb. Yet they plop out, wobble a bit, then start walking! Now we have six playful kids next door. They are so adorable!