The Good and the Frustrating

The garden has really grown in 12 days. We have baby eggplant and tomatoes already.

And Aastha and Daisy have become good friends, especially when it comes to playing tug-of-war with stuffed critters. Aastha drags Daisy all over the floor. The frustration with Daisy is that she also likes Bear (Shepherd mix) and he's taught her to chase the horses--not good. I'm working on that.

My frustration is that I actually fractured my collarbone and have to keep it as immobile as possible for 4 to 6 weeks. Yuck, that's the rest of summer :<( (see July 2)

More good....I'm getting well into the book club world here. I'm in Chris' book club and have now found a mystery club--one for sure and maybe even a better one coming up. I went to Copperfields last night to see three guest mystery writers who were great fun: Rhys Bowen, Simon Wood and Michelle Gagnon. I hadn't heard of any of them, but will now check them out.

4th of July

After a great dinner with long-time good friends Norma, Jeff and Kent, we hiked up the hill near Kent's to watch the Healdsburg fireworks--always the best, even when we lived there. On the way up the moon was setting. All the families next to us made the evening extra special as the kids ooo'd and ahhh'd as the fireworks went off. Soon I'll put up my video of the finale.

Vegetable "garden"

Here it is, for what it's worth. I didn't have the oomph to fill another trough, so squeezed most of it in here (4 tomatoes, 3 eggplants, zucchini, cucumber and canteloupe--it's a big trough). There is some basil that will go elsewhere--somewhere! Oh, and I realized I misjudged the placement of the trough for morning sun. I put it in the shadiest (morning) spot there was !!!! Maybe the forklift? Or why worry when it's often foggy in the morning?

I'm still sore, so no more shoveling. I mowed another several acres instead. And spent a frustrating morning having to reinstall Outlook which crashed for some totally unknown reason.

Today was all about getting the vegetable garden going. I decided the exercise would be good for me so shoveled two loads of dirt/top soil into Ralph, then dumped it into one trough. As I was about done, I stepped out of one trough, caught my heel as I brought my second foot out and fell into the second trough, hitting its edge with my upper arm. Good thing no one was there to see me!!! I feel like a bird with a hurt wing! Otherwise just humongous bruises, nothing serious.

It was all worth it as we all sat around outside with a glass of wine and talked.

More toys

Those who know me will be surprised to hear that my computer has taken second place to the farm equipment.

This is Ralph, with Daisy in the driver's seat. The minute she sees me head for Ralph, she races over and jumps in.

Next I want to learn to drive the mega forklift.

Tomorrow I'll use the front loader on the tractor to scoop up dirt to put into the troughs.

I'm still doing lots of mundane things like unpacking. I still can't find half my stuff. But it's hard to stay inside when 40 acres calls.

Figs, plums and veggies

Time to pick figs--now, before the birds get them all. These are too early to give to Dad (his favorite), so Chris wants to make something yummy out of them.
After picking, Aman and I hauled 2 holey horse troughs to put our vegetable garden in. It's late, but we should get some goodies before the end of the season.