We finally finished planting the almost 2,000 corn plants raised from seed in the growing room, then the greenhouse. Last Saturday in pouring, cold rain, our good friends Maria, Char, Robin, and Nichelle braved the weather and helped us get the remaining 1,200 plants in the ground. At least we did not need to water the plants in. The field was newly plowed last spring and planted with ground cover which was about three feet tall just two weeks ago. Dad came with his handy-dandy weedeater and cut the tall grass. Mark and I raked it and hauled it off the field, then Mark tilled the area three or four times. Whew!!  We planted twelve varieties in 30' blocks. Which ones will produce and which ones will be the tastiest? This is the FUN of planting several varieties. Our last major 'one and done' crop this season--in the ground. 

Max at 13 years and 9 months passed away last Sunday--a really sad day for us. He had a great life--ate lots of chocolate, carrots, peas, broccoli, and whatever else appeared to be food. He was more like a little person than a dog. So many memories and the farm is e-m-p-t-y without him following us around. But we carry on and are so grateful for his gift of unconditional love and cheerful tail wagging.

We were delighted to have six Brownies and a few parents and siblings come Saturday afternoon and plant five - 60 foot rows of corn. That's about 280 corn plants! The girls toured the rest of the farm and learned about George and Isabelle Bush and the butternut tree they planted about 167 years ago. The Girl Scouts collected old butternuts and took some tomato plants that needed good homes. Thank you Troop #43623. We hope you come again--we have lots of planting and weeding.....or maybe for a cookout next year.

The steers arrived from Colvin Ranch  http://www.colvinranch.com/ again this year on Memorial Day, May 28, 2012. They are beautiful yearlings; however, I guess one of them (we think one of the black ones) needed a little more adventure than just a trip over in a horse trailor and new green pasture. Monday night (or was it Tuesday morning?), I woke up and heard what sounded like a raccoon on the deck. Thankfully, I decided not to check out what the noise was and went back to sleep. Tuesday morning I went out to let the chickens out into their yard and noticed that the netting covering the yard was down. I went on to work and then Mark called to take me on a bizarre trip via cell phone as he followed steer hoof prints from one end of the farm to the other. Apparently, one of the black steers decided that the clover was better on the other side of the electric fence and simply ducked under the fence. Fred, (Colvin Ranch) says his calves sometimes learn to do this. This steer was now at the back end of our five acres. He came up to the middle section of the farm and tried to get out of the metal gate between the vegetable gardens and the house--with no luck, he squeezed around our small greenhouse and butted his way through a vegetable washing table that blocked his path. Next, he went to another gate, but finding no way back to his friends, he turned right and plowed through the chicken yard gate and jumped (yes, we think he did) over some blackberries into one of our smaller gardens. He toured this garden--evidenced by hoof prints in the carrots and radishes and on the weed paper, then jumped over the 4' barbed wire fence back into the pasture with his buddies. Moral of the story: If you have cows, never get up and see what the nighttime noises are.....they will find their way back into the pasture. Oh my........