Off the Mountain Path

One of the benefits to living in the mountains, near the mountains and surrounded by the mountains is that you don't have to travel very far to get to the mountain air. You know, the calmness, the beauty, the tranquility that the area exudes....or in my case the splashing, laughing and energy that 5 kids can exude.

A couple roads down from our house is Bear Farm Road. It dead-ends at a couple of old logging roads, which are just perfect for walking. There are also some nice areas to play in the water. Paved on the bottom for vehicles to drive through and your average river rock bottom on either side.

 With all the rain we've been getting the water was moving pretty quickly the last time we were there. Annika had to stay near the edge or she would get knocked down. The boys, however, ran through, attacked the water, and shredded sticks and weeds in the rapid water.

 We spotted this little guy moving upstream across one of the paved areas. He was hard to see with the glare on the water, but Cale managed to nab him.

Annika and Lakin busied themselves with a couple salamanders they found along the bank.

Annika refused to leave the little things alone. She would try and catch them and put them in the water and watch them swim back to shore. She was content to follow their path until they finally disappeared in the wet leaves and sand on the bank.

While the boys, played their favorite throw-the-biggest-rock-you-can-find game. It's the perfect place to cool off on a hot summer afternoon.

This post has been linked to Family Friday, 

Farm Update; June 16, 2013: Growing Up

We've gotten a lot of rain this spring, which means the plants are very happy. All sorts of tiny fruits and flowers dotting the plants. The eggplants are huge, compared to the non-existent plants last year anyway. I keep a healthy dusting of Diatomaceous Earth on them to keep the flea beetles away. I've started dusting the cucumbers too. Just in case the cucumber beetles decided to show up.

The peas are starting to die down. We were picking about 5lbs a day last week, but with the temperatures in the 80s the flowers are done and we are just waiting for the last pods to ripen. I have a total of ZERO peas in the freezer. But I do have 4 boys who have eaten 5 lbs of peas a day for over a week. I guess that is good too.

 The tomatoes are growing like weeds. I am trying to stay on top of the suckers, but sometimes they get out of hand. It seems like I tie them up to their stakes and 2 days later they are needing to be tied up higher again.

No red ones yet, but lots of beautiful, little green fruits. Here are just a couple of them. We've got all sorts of colors- pink, orange, yellow, red, green and white. Can't wait for the colors to start showing!

Some of the stems on these plants are just massive. They hardly need staking at all because they are almost 2 inches in diameter.  I am not sure if it is because of variety or because they were hardened off really well on our windy back deck.

Remember Chickory and her 12 chicks? They are almost 6 weeks old and are finally big enough to be let out to free range during the day. Mama keeps them in line and keeps them safe from the big birds. Since it looks like have a number of roosters in this batch, we let another of our broody hens sit as well. She's sitting on 10 eggs, which are due to hatch this week sometime. Our current laying hens are getting up in age, and are in need to replacing.

The baby goats are growing too. Jack and Jill are 12 weeks as of today, and Kipper and CoCo will be next Sunday. This means they are officially weaning age, and are ready to leave. Coco was picked up yesterday. Kipper and Jill will be staying together and leaving to go to their new home on Tuesday. Jack will most likely be leaving on Tuesday as well. It's sad to see them go, but will be nice to get the extra milk from their mothers and have 4 less mouths to feed!

 I successfully started 5 lavender plants from seed, and they are getting much bigger. I am hoping to propagate a few more plants from cuttings this year once these plants are big enough.  I also  harvested my first cutting of basil today and now have a pint of fresh pesto in the fridge.

This post has been linked to: The Homestead Barn Hop, Thank Goodness It's Monday, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Make the Scene Monday, Homemade Mondays, The HomeAcre Hop,

Farm Fresh Recipes: Crustless Chard Quiche

This post can now seen on my other site, The Free Range Life. You can find it here.