Yesterday Matt went around the farm and got some great shots of the flowers. I thought I'd share some...
The beans and peas continue to produce well. I have one green pepper almost as big as the plant and lots of blossoms. We're praying that our tomatoes don't get hit with the blight that most people in this area are dealing with. We have some small green tomatoes developing. 
The weeds are doing great, too!
Here he's pretending to be inside an egg. When the laundry basket was pulled off, he yelled, "He's hatching!"
And here's Rachael...not too impressed with her little sister.
Katelyn has had a few days of feeling under the weather. She's had a slight fever, aches, and pains. Captain has been on duty giving her lots of love and cuddles. His TLC must have helped because she's back to normal today.
My herb gardens are bursting and the bees are VERY happy. I'm starting to dry the herbs for potpourri.
Several years ago I read an article stating that a "Norman Rockwell" lifestyle was a thing of the past, and anyone who believed that such a lifestyle could be lived was living in a fantasy world. The article went on to say that families are too busy to have meals together, spend time on the porch talking with each other, or any number of scenes that were captured in his paintings, and in fact, those paintings were idealistic--the reason for their popularity being that they portrayed a lifestyle which everyone wished for, but no one could ever attain in this day and age. I shook my head sadly as I read that article and wondered why the writer had so firmly declared such things as impossible to experience.
Now, I admit, that life at the Jackson household is far from idealistic, but there are moments when I catch my breath and realize that we are living a life with precious moments that are snapshots of Americana. I think what endeared Rockwell's art to so many people is that those paintings captured a moment...sometimes something so mundane that we never really thought of it as painting worthy, but a moment that brought back a memory or encouraged us to strive for what was represented in the scene depicted. Life IS crazy more often than I care to admit, but the Lord has reminded me so often lately to take the time to enjoy the little things. Those little things will be the 'paintings' in my memory gallery in the years to come. What 'paintings' will be in yours?
Peter has made the transition to the alpaca barn and pasture. We were a bit concerned that the other alpacas were being mean to him, but Wayne came in the other day and told me we didn't need to feel sorry for Peter anymore. While Mystifier and Indian Paintbrush were enjoying a rest in the 'dirt spot' where they love to soak up the sun and roll in the dirt, Peter walked over and kicked both of them! Since they let him in the barn I guess he's been accepted as part of the herd.
Last, but not least is Pumpkin. She's settling in and giving us delicious milk. She and Twilight have had a few head butting episodes, and Little Creek sometimes tries to bully her, but Pumpkin is holding her own and fitting in with our goat herd. She eagerly runs to the fence hoping a human will give her a scratch on that lovely 'Roman nose'.
What's summer without a big juicy slice of watermelon?
(This is Ian "dusting" his newly shaved head.)
We received a delivery of pullet chicks the other day to replace Marc's laying flock. (Thanks, Grampa!) The older 'girls' have faithfully been producing eggs for a few years now. Since Marc has several egg customers he needed to get some new producers to keep up with demand. We've ordered some meat birds to be delivered next week so we'll have lots of little peepers in the barn.
Marc got his newest addition to the goat herd yesterday. We met Jo Ellen at the Fire Dept. parking lot to transfer pumpkin from the back of her truck to the back of our van. I told Marc on the way home that I never expected that I would be driving goats around in the back of our van.
She's adjusting to all the activity on the farm. The other two goats are trying to adjust...they bawled and bawled yesterday...to the point that Wayne actually took a lawn chair out and sat near them so they'd quiet down. As long as there was someone near by they'd stop crying, but when it was just them and the 'new girl' they'd start in bawling again. They were fine once they were shut up in the barn for the night. They are much quieter today.
And we won't say how old Linda turned...
The other day the boys were out playing. Ian is pretending to be "Pepper" a little boy that is a character on one of the Lego computer games he likes to play. Whenever he has his hat and backpack on we know we're supposed to call him "Pepper". If we want to talk to Ian we have to ask Pepper to go find Ian for us. Ian will then go to the back door and yell, "Ian! Mom and Dad want you!" He'll come back and tell us that Ian is on his way back to the house and will be right with us. Then he'll take off his backpack and hat and become Ian again. Jonathan decided he wanted to learn to ski...he had a hard time understanding that we can't just order snow when he wants it.
The other night we had a beautiful sunset...
Even though the saying goes, "Red sky at night, sailors delight" we had plenty of rain the next day. Thankfully, the river continues to stay within its banks.
Here's Rachael with Peter...
And this is a very frisky Captain...
