Paint, Paint, Paint

With an old farmhouse (with porches), a garage, old chicken coop, and the barn (with the attached dairy shed and gym), there is always something that needs to be painted.  I always have a gallon of paint that I am dipping a brush into most weekends in the summer.

Lately I've been touching up the trim on the front of the barn.

I finished scraping and painting the deck.

I need to work on the trim on the garage, as well as finish the windows on the barn.

We're almost in August.  The summer draws short and soon my painting time will be over.

What never-ending chores do you have?

Summer Ride

It is a fine day for a long bike ride.

Down country roads, over hills and by fields . . .

. . . town, . . .

. . . by town, . . .

. . . by town.

Across county lines.

Past fields, . . .

. . . and streams, . . .

. . . corn fields . . .

. . . and quiet farms.

A great way to see what's about!

Verdant

The warm (okay, I mean hot) weather has been great for the garden.  Everything is growing like crazy.

The turnip are going great!

Our basil are getting huge.  I've always had good luck with basil - they especially love the hot weather.

The green beans are climbing like crazy.  I can't wait for them to start flowering.  It will be soon!

The kale is really lush.  I harvested some last week (sausage, white beans and kale - yum!).

The tomatoes are really setting a lot of fruit.  Time to keep them well watered.  Most of our plants are Roma tomatoes.  I expect dozens of fruit per plant!

I did a little tilling / hoeing of the beds.  I dug up a small potato by accident (it was very tasty!).

We have been harvesting spinach for quite a while.  Everything is doing well.  If the carrots do well, then  I predict the year will be a huge success!