Home Grown Tomatoes

As soon as the tomatoes are ripe in our garden, I start singing one of my favorite songs.

Check out this link and sing along!

http://youtu.be/g0C4FOL1qIw

Goat Stampede

Have you ever been to a goat stampede? We have! Michael and I went to the Northwestern Michigan Fair tonight to watch the goat stampede. It was hysterical! Lots of children and their goats got their evening exercise in the arena. On the count of three, the children ran and the goats followed...except for a few of the goats who would rather stay in one spot, all four feet firmly planted in the ground. One baby goat cried all the way. She was adorable, but so scared!

If you have never been to a goat stampede, we highly recommend it!

Happy Anniversary to the Brontman's

Happy Anniversary to Stuart and Susan Brontman! They are a lovely couple with two great daughters and two adorable dogs (I have not met the newest member of the family - Trevi, who is pictured above, playing with Pluto).

Stuart surprised Susan with a weekend up north to celebrate their anniversary. It was a great weekend to be here.

The Brontman family spend as much time as they can in northern Michigan, and I get the privilege of seeing them at several farm markets when they are in the area. They love our mixes and I love sending them home with Michael's latest inventions.

Farm markets are so much fun. We meet the nicest people there!

Hope Stuart and Susan have a wonderful day!

Salads

We just heard that the average American family eats 36 salads per year, or about one salad every ten days.

Boy, are we different than the average family! Michael and I eat a salad almost every night. We may miss one salad every ten days, instead of eat one every ten days like everyone else.

Since June, we have eaten salads fresh from our garden. First, the spinach, then the leaf lettuce, with the second run of spinach almost ready to eat. Now we have carrots, peas, squash and beans. Soon, we will enjoy our tomatoes, corn on the cob and cucumbers. If a veggie was not ready from our garden, we could always pick up something fresh from the farmers markets!

Dare to be different and try a salad every night! It tastes so good and is so good for you!

Sad Day

I received notice yesterday afternoon that my sister Marsha's husband died unexpectedly in the morning, while he was at work. Rich was only 45 years old, so our family is in shock and disbelief.

Yesterday was my father's birthday. He died in 1995. He would have been 83. Rich and my father celebrated Dad's birthday together with Jesus.

I will be going to Jackson tomorrow to be with my family, so will not be at the Farm Markets or available to ship any orders until next Wednesday.

Prayers would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Seven Bourbon Brownies

Well...I see I have not blogged in two months! Shame on me! Must be the nine farm markets each week. The eighteen hour days are catching up to us and I am not finding time to blog (or anything else!).

There is so much news to catch up on, including our new doggie of the week. More about that, later.

Today, Michael baked seven Bourbon Brownies for the Father Fred Benefit Run and Bake Sale. The volunteers suggested that he take them in the back door, so they could eat them directly, instead of selling them tomorrow at the Bake Sale.

More to come, I promise!

New Mixer

This space age looking thing is Michael's new mixer.
It can make about fifty mixes at a time.
That is going to make his production time so much better!

It sure looks funny, but as long as it works,
it will be a fun new way to make mixes.

Snow Flowers

Last week, when the snow was horizontal
and we ended up with about eight inches of heavy, wet snow,
my poor little hyacinth flowers were shivering from another dose of winter.

These flowers were sheltered from much of the snow at the front of the house,
so we can see bare ground in this image.

That still does not give the flowers the warm spring that they would prefer.
Snow is cold and wet, whether it is eight inches deep or just enough to cover a blossom.

The flowers have been basking in the rain today.
Let's hope they get some sunshine soon
so they can really bloom and show us their beauty!

Opey Visits

We have a new visitor to our bird feeder. Michael calls him Opey (O-Possum, get it?). I call him creepy!

A few nights ago, I looked on the deck and let out a scream! Mr. Opossum was dining on some leftover bread, saw me (or heard my scream), and squeezed himself into one of our old feeders. He stayed there for hours. Was he comfy or scared or bored or sleeping? I do not know.

He only has half of his tail. I am not sure where the other half went.

Michael was amused. I was not. Who knows what else will show up for midnight snacks at the bird feeders?

Blizzards to Flowers and Birds

Last Saturday, I was in Jackson for a funeral. I drove home on Sunday in one of the worst blizzards I have even been in! I was in the center of the storm for two hours! First came the freezing rain, then zero visibility as six inches of snow fell on the roads that were not plowed yet. I drove 25 mph for two hours on icy, unplowed, unsafe roads. When I arrived home, my fingers had to be pried to straighten them up.

Little did I know that within a week, we would be outside raking and taking a wonderful evening stroll and watching the hyacinths peek out of the ground and listening to the birds!

Michigan weather!!! I cannot wait to see what is next!