Late Spring around Tanglewood

Spring is coming to a close right before my eyes. The first snap peas are nearly ready for harvest. I'm so close to finishing planting all of the gardens that I'm beginning to feel claustrophobic. I'm constantly obsessing: I only have 3'x5 left to plant this crop or that crop, or maybe I can stick a row of spinach in under that trellis. Really what dawned on my yesterday is that this is the time of year I get a week or two to relax.

The summer horse camp that I run begins at the end of this month so if I can get everything in the ground and decently weeded in the next week I will manage to have a few days to do very little with myself apart from water beds, spray a little fish emulsion here and there and ride horses to prep them for the slew of little kids that will be riding them this summer. That sounds nice, I think.

Anyway, here are some late spring photographs from around the farm.

Cajeta and fresh strawberries. I posted the recipe for cajeta over at Not Dabbling this week!

The mock orange bushes are threatening to take over the entire yard. They've at least doubled in size since we moved in. This year they are sweeter smelling than ever, and at least 25'x15x15. Huge!

Our lady ducks are sharing their nest again. We've decided to let them hatch a few eggs since they spent so much time lining the nest with soft down. They are definitely better at setting this year than they were last year!

 

Okay, I'm super embarrassed by the awesomely sloppy job I did of shearing my sheep this year, but I figured I'd post a photo of Gertrude, giving me the "yeah, you prolly should've sheared my neck dumby" look... She was so done with standing nicely that I gave up before finishing her neck. Ah well. She'll live.

Brighid is getting to be humongous, and she is still harassing the chickens, though one of our hens has started hanging out with Ingrid more so she's had to adjust to that. The chickens have such big personalities, it amazes me that I can tell them apart by the way they act (since nearly all of them look alike). 

Ah yes, and the itty bitty planted-super-late tomato seedlings have been planted out. They're still small, but they're strong. They'll be getting a big dose of fish emulsion today since the weather is sunny and cool.

And of course harvest will begin in summer as usual, right smack dab in the middle of camp season and I'll be left scrambling around before 8AM trying to get produce in and gardens watered before the heat of the day hits and I am stranded in a barn with 12 little kids wondering if my peas are going to get sunburn. I try not to think about that this time of year. :)