Gardens & kids

We've had such a nice week! The children and I got a good deal of the garden planted. We have 12 raised beds and planted onions, 3 kinds of tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot cherry red peppers, cucumbers, butternut squash, acorn squash, zucchini, yellow squash, parsely. We still have more to plant.
The asparagus is still coming up and the strawberries are full of flowers. A farmer friend planted our corn plot for us w/ his tractor & planter, which sure made it easier than last year!

The kids have been teaching the calves to walk on lead ropes, which has been really cute.

One of Hannah's friends came over yesterday and brought a wild baby rabbit with her. (she also brought me lilacs!!) Her grandfather came across it while he was mowing the lawn. He doesn't know what happened to the mother. This caused a stir of researching and Hannah found a website with lots of info on feeding wild rabbits.

It was great to have an extra kid here because my dh was busy setting up moveable fencing to let the steers into grass until the other pastures are ready. Well, it didn't work well at first. The cows went right thru it, but they didn't go far-the front lawn was pretty tasty, so they hung out there while the fence was fortified and we all herded them back in (me w/ Alyssa on my hip as she just woke from a nap and wouldn't let me put her down). Loose cows are always an exciting adventure.

We have so many beautiful dandelions right now. I've never thought of them as weeds that many people do. They bring so much joy to small children, so they must be something special, I think.
Susanna has brought me so many dandelions to put in vases. I wish they didn't wilt so fast, though. Hannah & her friend played with the camera while having Susanna pose. Here's a couple of them:



I'm not sure what they were going for in this picture, but it is cute.



I've been reading a book called MaryJane Butter's Idea Book. I think the subtitle says "for the farm girl in every girl." Can't remember exactly. Anyway, it's a really neat book and it has some recipes in it that use dandelions. I also found some dandelion recipes on the internet. We made cookies w/ dandelion petals in it. They were ok, but I don't think we'll make them again. We are having fun putting dandelion petals in our salads, though. My dh doesn't care for it, so I just leave them out of his.

The kids & I would like to add more edible flowers to our salads, so we've adding edible flowering plants to our flower gardens around the house.

The next few days are going to be pretty busy. Tomorrow is Alyssa's birthday-she'll be 1 yr old! I can't believe it. Saturday Hannah has a horse show. Sunday, my dh invited a friend of his from work who has a horse crazy daughter. So, Hannah is going to take her riding. Jonah has a friend over today. It's amazing how boys are like square roots. 1 boy times 1 boy equals 1 very busy boy. Two boys are like 2 times 2 to equal the equivalent of 4 busy boys-especially when they're both into dirt bikes and power tools-oh my!!