hobby farming

Our long-term plan of becoming successful gardeners continues apace.  My pride and joy on the land are these black raspberry bushes.  Last year, we had about 5 berries due to some incorrect pruning and water shortages.  This year we probably had more than 100 from the south bush.  The north bush is producing a single berry this year, but is growing great.  I'm hoping for bushels next year.

 We have also enjoyed carrots and lots of greens (chard, spinach, lettuce, and such).  Tomatoes are growing well, and we harvested our first squash.  I planted some pole beans outside of the protected area, but the bunnies ate them.  Boo on them.

Rain has fallen from the sky this year.  We took a trip to Kickapoo recently to splash around in the river.  The kids didn't get much further from shore than shown below.  There is way more water flowing than last year

 I've decided to be less stingy with watering the grounds this year.  Also, water is super fun for the girls!  My water bill was a whopping $9 more last month as a result.

 We didn't plant too many flowers this year.  Thankfully some remain from the previous owners.  I've also started to care for our rose bush this year.  I noted that numerous holes were appearing in its leaves and found the tiny green worms that were responsible.  They were then squished.

Speaking of squishing, both girls are quite successful lightning bug catchers.  Janny is quite rough on them (and all bugs in general).

 Janny is getting big, but not quite clothesline big.  Clara wears the above dress every day (in the last photo below, it is underneath the dress you can see).  Both girls are extremely picky about their clothes.  Jill used to picked stuff out and put it on them.  Now every single item is negotiated.  Somehow, we eventually do get out of the house.

 After planning to do so for more than a year, we finally got out to former co-worker David's bison farm near Villa Grove.  He has 20 something bison, 8 of which were born this spring.  Did you know that bison are pretty smart and independent?  Birthing is handled without human help.  David feeds them some grain pellets every few days, but mostly they wander the pastures eating the grass.  What a beautiful place to spend the weekend!  Smartly, we stayed only for an hour, so we didn't have to put in any work.

Finally, there was nothing to worry about regarding the softball team's hitting.  We won our first two playoff games rather handily against two of Vineyard's finest, included the dreaded Black.  The championship game  is Monday night where we face mighty Savoy United Methodist.  Television rights are being negotiated.