Hello, hello! It's week 30 and counting. The routine feels a bit more comfortable...

This was last Friday's misty early morning after the boys had left on deliveries and mama had a quiet moment to just stand there and look and breathe. And take a photo to share, of course. See the waning full buck moon?

This was them pulling out into the sunrise for the day's deliveries.

This is how we work in the fields as a family on weekends. E in his toolbelt, cowboy boots and hat, and with watermelon in abundance to help lengthen our attention span.

This is our trusty (sort of) harvest vehicle on loan from our friend Susan. Invaluable...when it starts.

These fields are amazing and overwhelming. It's that time when there's just not enough time in the day, and you just have the call it, turn off the headlamp and go to bed.

The celosia and the zinnias especially have been going crazy with the heat and rain. It's so fun.

I'm already planning for next year in my mind. Is that crazy? But it's what we do, learn from each year and try to apply it to the next. Now that we have a better idea of what we're dealing with over here on this new ground, I feel more able to plan appropriately, and we're expanding our varieties...so exciting.

We're having a harvest party on October 8. Please come and see where we're at! I'm working on growing some fast pumpkins so you can take one with you, we'll see how it goes. 

Thanks for all you do so that we can grow flowers and food. We do love it.

J,M+E

We started harvesting watermelon this week. Oh boy, E is pumped. He keeps trying to harvest the not quite ripe ones, much to Papa's chagrin. He actually wants to sell some of those, not just eat 'em all. These guys really love watermelon. They think I'm weird because I'm not a big fan. I don't hate it, I just don't love it. I do love what it symbolizes on our farm.

Watermelon is not just a fruit in our world. It's a big sign that the bounty, and the fullness, and sometimes craziness of the season is definitely in full swing. And it symbolizes so much about farming food. Its sumptuous, messy, super sweet deliciousness is what is so wonderful about eating seasonally, and with earth's patterns. It's the reward for all the work. And you eat so much when it's around you actually get sick of it, and then just as soon, it's done producing and we're on to fall crops. Then you start to look forward to it in March or so. There's something good about waiting for something, enjoying the smack out of it, then letting it go until next year.

We're feeling pretty good going into August with an herbicide drift and major storm under our belts. Okay, I'll stop talking about it. It was a traumatic time, and an amazing bit of perspective for us. We're grateful for the experience, and for all the help and support we got afterward. And we're learning A LOT about farming up on this beautiful ridge.

We had a some sweet friends come to visit and help us "paint" the barn, and play in the field a bit. Keep us on your travel list, everyone, we LOVE when folks come to visit over here. After living and learning on a community-run farm with folks coming and going everyday, this has been a new experience, and the reality is that we love having people around, enjoying all this wide-open space with us.

Check out this full cooler. So exciting. We meant to put in shelves, and that bit of unpainted floor is E's spot that just hasn't gotten painted...but this is how it goes. We do what we can, fall into bed and get up and do it again until October. 

And in the field, there's more coming. The long daylight, the heat, the water, the wind-stress, whatever the myriad of reasons...everything is beginning to bloom.

Sarma is our harvest queen. She's rocking it in all ways, and has proven to be a natural, making bouquets, and learning the flowers. We feel so grateful to have her with us this year.

And there's Lindsey on Thursdays. She and her sweet family are working on their own farm across the river valley, and bring exciting stories of ducks and chickens and the other animals in their care. 

We also have our farm manager, E. He recently told his caregiver that he has been promoted to farm manager from flower picker because he was stepping on the flowers. Hmm. Did we really say that? He really does run the farm. And as soon a we get a battery in his kids gator, he has some big ideas about changing up harvest. 

This here's the view of a normal harvest day. As with most of the big harvest Thursdays this year, we get some sort of rainstorm at about 5:30 am when we're supposed to start harvest at 6. So we wait a bit, then set up the fans, and let the sun and wind to dry it out. Then we harvest like crazy and make bouquets like crazy, and pack 'em all up to bring to you.

We're going to have a harvest party on October 8th. Please come and hang out with us. Next year we'll have an earlier party when more flowers are in bloom, but for this crazy year, we'll have a harvest party with a bonfire, and fall colors, and dare I say it today, cool weather. 

Be well, and stay cool,
J,M+E

And so it goes...friends and family, littles and big ones, came on Saturday with chainsaws and gloves in hand to clean up and harvest and get ready for a new week. And here we are in the middle of it. 

We found out that we had 6 confirmed tornadoes and straight line winds in our area. We came out pretty well, with no structural or people damage. Our neighbors lost barns and roofs along with an assortment of trees, etc. Our county park down the road is still closed for clean-up.

 Molly climbed the maple and Susan hoisted up a sawzall so she could cut off the remaining connected edge of the limb. She did and we pulled it out carefully, because tree limbs are very, very heavy. Craig cut up the tree on the fence line and Breckin helped stack it neatly. We have a lot of wood for campfires. And a good space left in the maple for a tree house. 

Gabey kept us in smiles and high fives. Susan, bearer of the chainsaw, has been an invaluable help this week on multiple days this week. She is a shower-upper. We just love her. 

Molly gave some super high swing pushes. So high that when I was pushing my son after she left he said "No mom, super high, like Molly!"

Could I get these goofball cousins all in one place along the banister? You can see I could not.

On Monday we were back at it in full force. Oma had a family commitment and couldn't come, so we tag-teamed with the boy. He doesn't love this at all. :)

Then a friend came for some kiddie pool time and ice cream and good pack shed sweeping.

And another friend made her way back to the pack shed with some ooos and ahs, and beautiful bouquets and dancing of course.

So the moral of the story is, life can be crazy and you never know what's around the corner (like tornadoes and straight-line winds), but your peeps who show up and pick you up and dust you off and make you laugh make all the difference. 

Family farming has its challenges, but the relationships and community built in the process are gold. We're so fortunate and thankful for all y'all.

And then there are the flowers. They'll keep coming. Nature is so resilient. We do have a sunflower shortage at the end of this week, and our plant babies that would bloom later in August suffered last week, so we anticipate a possible shortage then. We'll do our best to keep you informed in a timely way. 

And as always, thank you, thank you a million times for supporting our family farm.

xo
J,M+E

Tuesday night we had a huge storm, the likes I haven't seen in my lifetime that I remember. After the worst of it passed and we were standing in our basement getting ready to go upstairs, I said to Mike, "how can anything be left?"

It's left, just not in its original condition. We worked like crazy yesterday to stake and preserve and harvest what we could. Today we're working like crazy to fill our orders. We'll regroup this weekend. and figure out what's next. 

 The calm last night.

Be well, and keep us in your thoughts,

J,M+E