Harvest, July 28

Snapdragon, Zinnia, Rudbeckia, Salvia  

zucchini

The Brotman Family

Jack, Carly, Eli with their cousin Liza, Shooter (the dog), and our own Jack

Eli picked me a bouquet, including some pretty daylily blossoms

The Jacks tried tandem bow-drilling (fire-starting) on the kitchen porch.

Bodhi with his "girlfriend" Shooter

Our friends, the Brotmans, came by the farm for a visit after we returned from the Stratham Fair on Sunday. They are staying at a beach house in Rye (about a 7 minute drive from our place). Heidi grew up in Exeter and she's giving me all the inside skinny on the area. Afterward, we headed to the beach for pizza and to watch the full moon rising over the North Atlantic.

Stratham Fair 2010

Go-cart smile.

Check out Art's grip on the "Freak Out"

Haunted Mansion "Ride." 

Ta-da!

63,000 pounds and it's one of the first rounds in the ox-pull! These animals are HUGE!

Dude, your breath stinks.

Woodsplitting

Art and Jack spent much of Sunday morning splitting this load of old stumps Art had cleared from around the old goat shed. The hay wagon bed was empty when they were done. We'll use the pine for fire-starting and in the double-barreled wood stove in the old wood shop.

Crooning at Chewonki

Found another great pic on the Chewonki website!

You're comin' in too!

Here's a pic of Naish I downloaded from the Camp Chewonki web-site. He's to the left of the boy with the red sweatshirt. And he's clearly putting his heart into the song. I can't wait for his next letter. The last one listed his activity electives including archery, wood-shop, and art.

First Winnicut River Farm Bouquet

O.k. not ALL of these flowers are from seeds or transplants I sowed. But most are, including the snapdragons, rudbeckia, celosia, and gomphrema. Zinnias, cosmos, sunflowers, and (a few) dahlias are about to bloom.
My hope is to prepare the farm for growing and selling cut flowers. And the goal for next year is to produce flowers from May through November in preparation for selling the following year. It's fascinating hard-work but being surrounded by beautiful blossoms is clearly a huge perk!

Flying Cloud Friends Say Goodbye

See you next summer!

Good-bye Stone Turtle Shines

We traveled to Plymouth, Vermont yesterday to pick Jack up from camp. As each camper prepares to leave, a conch shell is blown and all campers and counselors holler out from wherever they happen to be, "Good-bye Stone Turtle Shines." But the most beautiful part is when they all come running and hug the departing camper good-bye. The brotherhood that develops at this challenging, reflective, and remote wilderness camp is really astounding to witness and I think is quite profound for these early adolescent boys as they face and share life in connection with the earth, sky, land, trees, and wildlife.

Pit stop on the Vermont/New Hampshire border.

Thank you, Leslie!

            a favored lunar room Tibet

          with moths & flags instinctive

          festival fruit a praying mantis lives

          on our porch it’s gotta be that

          raccoon slipping through the arts

          & crafts paper all sentient beings

          mad with pitched battles & tones

          imagine being able to sleep

          again what’s in that darkness

          & light upon the day it’s every

          leaf & wheel it growls & inside

          us sisters proceed in the drunken

          valley our hands in greater

          reeds humming

                                                 Leslie Bumstead

Stone Turtle Shines with Face Paint

Photo of Jack from Flying Cloud camp web-site. We can't wait to pick him up on Friday.

Irrigation Plumbing Repairman

Art worked all afternoon on repairing one of our leaking irrigation spigots. The main comes in at 6' underground and Art dug and tossed rocks from the pit for over 4 four hours in the heat and humidity. Whole new meaning to "The Granite State." I caught him here when I came out at dinnertime to check on whether he'd fallen in the hole. This spigot is right next to the wood-shop which will hopefully become our flower and fruit prep area.

Sunday in Maine

On Sunday we took Bodhi along to drop Naish off at Chewonki Camp for Boys in Wiscasset, Maine. Naish was so excited and gave us a mini-tour of the camp including the farm, nature center, cafeteria, art center, and waterfront. Here we are on the pier of the bay at low tide.

We stopped in Portland on the way home to visit with Noami, see her new digs, and have a bite to eat. Noami's new apartment is great and she has that incredible view out her front yard/park of Portland and the bay. I'm hoping Noami will come to the farm when the cukes are ready and teach me how to pickle!

July Garden

Sugar snap peas!

Cherokee Trail of Tears heirloom beans

Romanesco Broccoli & Kale (a little bug bitten)

I can't keep up with the raspberries!

Some of my flowers on the way! Front to back, sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, rudbeckia, and celosia. I got such a late start as we didn't put the seeds or seedlings in until mid-June but I'm hopeful that we'll just have a late crop of bouquets.

Tomatoes, basil, cukes, eggplant, pumpkin, and watermelon are all taking off as well. However, I'm not sure we're going to see many of the leeks or celery survive the trip from D.C.

The weed war is exhausting and I'm losing miserably. I'm lucky to keep the rows clear but the aisles and all the reserved garden space is over-run. Even the plot of buckwheat I planted as a green mulch next to the strawberries has fallen to the enemy. I have all kinds of choice words for the weeds when I slam the stirrup hoe into the quack grass or slice the ground-cover with the colinear hoe. It sounds like a bar-room fight in my garden.

Farm & Family Visits

We had a few wonderful visits last week. While Alex and Erin took Naish to Pleasant Lake in New London, I zipped down to Boston to visit with newest niece, Lila, and nephew, Reed (who was sleeping during the photo shoot). Also, big sister Ivy shown here discussing cookies with her aunt. Beautiful babies! Congratulations Christine, David, Wendy, Jeff, and Ivy!

Our friend Sisi came for a farm tour and dinner last Friday on route to picking up her daughter at camp in Maine. Arthur had bush-hogged a path down to the river and, despite some nasty deerfly infestations, we were able to hike much of the perimeter of the farm except for "Beaver Armagedon," which is inaccessible at this point. Clearly that's the barn and hay wagon in the pics. Also the wood-splitter that's powered by the tractor. Art split about a cord of wood by the end of the weekend. Adam joined us too and we had so much fun and lots of laughs. We hope Sisi will bring the whole family next time and soon!

Alex visits from L.A.!

Alex arrived from Long Beach, California for a last-minute long holiday weekend visit. He helped bush-hog the back field we have tentatively named "not-festival field" (thanks Adam!), picked blueberries, went river-bridge-jumping with Naish, sunbathed on the North Atlantic coast (brrr!), caught a leech in beautiful Lake Monomoy, and visited with his wonderful girlfriend, Erin, who happens to live in New London, NH, about an hour and half from here. Check out the farm boots and the cell phone. We love you Alex and wish you all the best in your adventures in Hollee-wood! Come back home soon!

Stone Turtle Shines arrives at Flying Cloud

We delivered Jack to Flying Cloud, his Farm & Wilderness camp in Plymouth, Vermont. Here's a pic in front of his tipi "Rising Sun" with Naish, my father, and his counselor, Rafe. The camp's philosophy is strongly influenced by Native American and Quaker values and ritual. Jack will spend much of the summer sleeping in the tipi, living, working, and playing on the Vermont mountainside.

Jack registered for school before he left. He will be in the advanced math class and has elected to study Latin and band for which he will play the string bass - the only string instrument in the school's band.

My father and stepmother were here for the week and helped with everything including picking berries all of which have ripened at once. We are flush with strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries and are just trying to keep up with the picking, eating, and freezing. Arthur is still haying and has moved on to the back fields. We are having a stretch of beautiful sunny and temperate weather that is ideal for cutting and drying the hay. Plus, the nights are cool and we can snuggle under covers after a long day at work.

Next post: ALEX VISITS FROM L.A.!