THIS & THAT.
Some random photos from the past week.
Starting winter lettuce in soil blocks.
Soaking some sumac berries to make sumacade!
The worlds largest grasshopper.
We are obsessed with making pasta in a skillet on the grill. This one's got ground lamb. Yep.
We had our first CSA drop-off in Bowling Green last Tuesday!
A DAY WITH THE KIDS.
Bugtussle took some sheep to town to sell earlier this week. And while Eric and Cher drove to Bowling Green, Jesse and I spent the day watching the children.
We had so much fun with Ira, Opal, and Olivia....playing dominoes and reading books and running around with Wendell, swimming in the creek and eating watermelons and apples. It is truly one of the greatest joys of my life that we get to be a part of the Smith family. I remember driving away after my first season as an intern on the farm (not knowing when I would ever be back). My greatest sadness then was in leaving the children, knowing that I wouldn't get to be a part of their lives. Knowing that they would grow up without us, probably forgetting much about Jesse and me. Moving on with their lives, becoming amazing little humans that I wouldn't get to know.And oh how wonderful that I was so wrong about that.- Hannah.
LAMBMOWERS.
Mid-summer every year, our neighbor's at Bugtussle take the rams out of their flock of ewes to avoid having sheep born from December through February––a harsh time to be a baby on the farm. And every year this is an issue. Finding a place to keep them, then having to move the rams separately from the other animals, can be a headache. Luckily for everyone, however, this year Hannah and I not only had plenty of room to keep the rams, but plenty of need for them, too.We don't own any sort of mower––unless you're generous enough to call our scythe a mower, and our hand scythe a weed-whacker––and we'd like to keep it that way, but it's a lot of work keeping up with the grass with our antique tools alone. Since we don't yet own any ruminants, when Eric said he'd be taking the rams out in July, we happily volunteered to take them in: lawnmowers!This is a beautiful concept to me. I read an article last year in the New York Times about a guy who went to neighborhoods and mowed lawns with his sheep and I've been captivated by that idea ever since. Ruminants like sheep eat grass by nature, fertilize while doing so, then subsequently turn that grass into meat (or wool, respectfully). They might do a clean job, but obviously lawnmowers cannot offer the same payback––cannot turn your lawn into dinner or clothing.Anyway, we've greatly enjoyed having these rams around to clean up in places we never get to. In fact, they're further inspiring us to start thinking about getting ruminants of our own next year because honestly, they cost about as much as a small mower, and they not only take care of the lawn and turn it into meat, milk or clothing, but do a quite the number on our poison ivy problem as well. Just ask Hannah how much she appreciates the rams.- Jesse.