Monday Farm Photos: Happy Monday.

Wishing you a week filled with little pockets of peace. (And for the rest of the time, there's always this.)

More (15-year-old!) Lucky Buddy Bear? Here and here.

More farm landscape photos? Here and here.

More of the wet weather creek here and here (which we're thrilled is already running for the second time this month, and even more thrilled that it isn't as high as it was on this day six years ago).

Friday Dose of Cute: Hot Dogs Chillin' Out

We've had over 11½ inches of rain in the past two weeks. I can hear raindrops pattering on the metal roof above my head as I type (one of the best sounds ever), and there are more thunderstorms in the forecast through Tuesday. This never happens in summer. This never happens at all. It's been wonderful. And weird.

The rosemary and lavender plants are very unhappy about their soggy feet (they're now covered with vented plastic laundry baskets in an attempt to keep them from getting any wetter), the 20 tomato plants are looking sicklier by the day, the cherry tomatoes (the only ripe tomatoes in the garden so far) are all cracking, and a lot of rain has fallen inside the leaky Shack, but otherwise things are so far pretty much fine, which is actually kind of a miracle. A lot of places are flooding.

We're thrilled that the hayfield and grazing pastures are getting so much rain after the beating they took during last year's horrendous drought. It's the middle of summer and there's still plenty out there for the sheep and donkeys to eat, with more grass growing up every day. It's hard to believe the farm looked like this last August.

On the way home from an 8-hour errand running trip to town on Tuesday, we stopped to buy 10 pounds of heirloom tomatoes and have a little visit with one of our Amish neighbors. We talked about guinea hens, growing herbs, and of course this crazy weather. I think she figured it out: "We're getting all of last year's rain this year."

As long as we aren't getting next year's rain, that's just fine.

The best part? Our beloved wet weather creek, which usually only runs for a few weeks each year during the winter and/or spring, is swooshing crisp, cool water through the farm during the heat of summer.

10 more photos below. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #29

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a sporadic series where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (mostly on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the previous Friday Farm Fix posts here and here.

Lucky Buddy Bear cooling off in the creek.

Welcome to the Saturday evening edition of the Friday Farm Fix! The best news of the week is that last Thursday and Friday's five inches of rain started the wet weather creek running again on Saturday. A week later it's still gently flowing, thanks to another half inch of rain we got on Wednesday, most of which slammed down during a five minute period while I was out in the kitchen garden. I was afraid that if I went inside it would stop, and sure enough it did.

The biggest news of the week is that an enormous black walnut tree fell over in the barnyard during last Friday night's thunderstorm. Sometimes you don't realize just how tall these trees really are until they're horizontal.  Miraculously, nothing was smashed or hurt.

I laid awake half of Friday night worrying about the sheep while the storm raged outside, because we'd locked them in a section of the driveway adjacent to the barn without much protection from the elements. The next morning when I saw the fallen tree, I was so thankful I hadn't sloshed down there through the downpour at two a.m. to let the sheep into the barn and barnyard like I'd contemplated. And, like my hunky farmguy Joe assured me, they weathered the storm just fine where they were.

What else has been going on? Joe brewed a double batch of beer, and I made a double batch of these classic beef Cornish pasties (only this time I added an egg yolk to the crust); they're great to have on hand in the freezer for quick meals. I also bought and froze another four quarts of Amish strawberries to sweeten up our so-healthy-you-feel-virtuous-for-the-rest-of-the-day morning smoothies.

The weather has been hot and sticky (hello June!), so we've been drinking lots of fresh mint sun tea. So refreshing, so easy to make: just stuff a handful or two of fresh mint leaves in a glass jar, fill with water, set in the sun for a few hours, then strain and chill—or serve over lots of ice if you want some right away.

Lemon balm sun tea is wonderful too (you can read more about growing lemon balm along with my five other favorite herbs here). I love these half-gallon wide mouth canning jars and plastic screw-on caps for sun tea and so many other things.

26 more photos and the rest of the weekly recap below (hover your cursor over each image for a description). . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #25

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a sporadic series where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week. Just joining us? You'll find all the previous Friday Farm Fix posts here and here.

Hay inspectors back on the job.

It's been quite a while since I posted the last Friday Farm Fix, but the other day Joe and I were talking about how much we both miss this series. We love being able to look back and see everything that was happening around here during a specific week, and I confess to sometimes including extra photos especially for us.

This time I thought I would also a list of some of the things we've been doing around the farm, for those of you who are interested. If you've been missing your Friday Farm Fix, I hope you enjoy this cute-filled, spring green installment.

So what's been happening on the farm during the past week? We've been busy. . .

—Eating giant freshly picked kale and Swiss chard salads nearly every night.

—Splashing through the creek.

—Worming the sheep and trimming some hooves.

—Planting 10 pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes (the 5 pounds of Pontiac Reds already in the ground and a few inches tall froze this week but should hopefully make a full recovery).

—Reorganizing the walk-in pantry (it looks and feels so much better in there!)

—Cracking up at our new farm cat (a proper introduction will hopefully be coming soon, maybe when he gets a real name).

—Getting invaded by armadillos (including one that almost dug its way into the shop, which is attached to the house, the other night at 10pm).

—Enjoying the unseasonably cool (mostly under 80°) and beautiful mid-spring weather.

—Locking seven wayward, disappointed donkeys back in Donkeyland (I told you they'd start misbehaving).

—Stopping to smell the lilacs.

—Trying to fix the broken sickle bar mower and the little antique diesel tractor so they're ready for haying season (with a minor head wound to Joe and a sledgehammer to my finger in the process—ouch).

—Celebrating the much needed rain and hoping it keeps on coming.

—Polishing off the third (!) batch in a row of these addictive (and almost too easy to make) Baby Chocolate Chip and Toffee Shortbread Cookies (hint: you can double the recipe).

—Loving all this gorgeous green.

16 more photos below (hover your cursor over each image for a description). . .

Tuesday Dose of Cute: A Refreshing Dip (Not a Recipe)

More photos below. . .

Thursday Dose of Cute: Heading Out to Breakfast (and Another Farm Life Tale)

I was planning to post this series of photos with just a sentence or two about why the sheep were still spending each night in the barn, but then I realized some of you might look at the pictures and wonder where all the lambs are.

I haven't been up to writing about that just yet. I've been telling myself that the story wouldn't really be complete until we picked up our mail and got the check, but that was just an excuse. So I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you what's been happening.

More photos and story below (hover over each image for a description). . .

Tuesday Dose of Cute: Hello, Spring. Hello, Creek!

Hello, spring. You're looking a little pale this year.

In the past five days we've had more snow than we had all winter. The biggest snowstorm of the year arrived late on the second day of spring, with big, soppy flakes that piled up to about five inches in no time. By the time I made it outside the next day with my camera (we're both down with the flu now) most of it had already melted, but it was so pretty while it lasted.

11 more photos and an update below (hover over each image for a description). . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #17

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (usually on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

Heading back from Donkeyland after Monday's surprise rain.

Blast furnace hot, dry as a bone. Nothing has changed since last week, except the thermometer keeps climbing and the fields keep getting browner. Nobody around here has any grass left in their pastures. The only thing that's still green in our front field is the blasted cactus (you can see a patch of it below). Nothing kills that stuff, although even it looks a little peaked. Some of the trees are starting to die.

Our hearts go out to everyone across the country in the same scary situation. I have no idea what we're going to do. And now it looks like feed prices will be sky high soon too.

Thanks so much for all the thoughts and prayers and rain dances you've sent our way. They worked! We were thrilled to get a surprise half inch of rain last Monday, and although it was just a drop in a big, dusty bucket it did make a difference. You could actually see the grass start greening up within hours and practically hear the plants sighing with relief as they sucked up the moisture.

Two more storms have blown through since then, but they must have watered somebody else's farm instead of ours. Joe sneaked a peek at the forecast this morning (I still can't bear to look) and said there's a chance of rain for the next several days—and the high today was below 100° for the first time in I don't know how long (which is why I stopped checking the weather). Please keep dancing!

There's nothing we can do about the heat and drought, but I can keep sharing the cute. So how about 19 more farm photos taken during the past week? Hover over each picture for a description.

More below. . .

Monday Dose of Cute: The Creek's Still Running

And it's been hot enough for a dip.

The Daily Donkey 106: Blending in in Donkeyland

© FarmgirlFare.com, where Lucky Buddy Bear looks a whole lot smaller when he's soaking wet.

Tuesday Dose of Cute: A Nice Cool Drink

For a big thirsty girl

That's our Crazy Daisy!

The Daily Donkey 94: Treat Time Bliss in Donkeyland (one of my favorites)

© FarmgirlFare.com, where the wet weather creek is down to a very refreshing level, and the weather is hot enough to put up hay—which is what we're doing today. Gotta go help pick up bales. . .

Friday Farm Photos: The Calm After the Storm

More photos below. . .

Tuesday Dose of Cute: Safe

Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers regarding our overflowing creek and flooding farm. The short version is that everyone in the farmyard and barnyard is doing okay, including the new baby lamb. More below. . .

Monday Farm Photos: Creek's Up. Way Up.

For at least 11 months out of most years, our wet weather creek bed, which meanders for about a mile through the farm, is filled with nothing more than ten million rocks and my wishes that our peaceful and useful (no hauling water for the sheep!) little babbling brook would run all the time—especially during the heat of summer.

After we've had a lot of rain or snow, the creek will start to run, first upstream next to Donkeyland, then down past The Shack, and finally alongside the entire length of the hayfield before it leaves the property. The water comes off the hillsides and from underground wet weather seep springs. Sometimes it takes several days for the creek to make it down to The Shack, and sometimes it dries back up before it reaches us.

More photos and story below. . .

Thursday Dose of Cute: Flying Sheep (and a Flying Donkey)

Nobody Wanted to Follow Daisy's Lead. . .

Tuesday Farm Photos: Winter Water

On the Move

I love when our wet weather creek is running:
3/18/06: Meandering By The House
3/26/06: The Bigger The Water Dish, The Happier The Dog
5/5/06: View from the Middle of the Creek after Six Inches of Rain
5/13/06: Morning Mist Rising off the Creek
5/13/06: Cat Fishing?
5/15/06: Sheep Crossing

1/15/07: Running Water, Rubber Boots, & Mud
1/19/07: Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Life Is But A Stream

2/25/08: A Rare Winter Sight—And Geese!
3/19/08: Flood Watch
4/7/08: Who's A-fraid of the Big Bad Creek? The Big Bad Creek?
4/8/08: A Fresh New Day Full of Morning Mist (and lots more hazy photos)
4/10/08: Surf's Up!
5/16/08: Splish Splash!

1/18/09: Crossing Over to Bigger and Better Things!
4/24/09: Creek's Up!
10/28/09: Where Did that Creek Come From?

© Copyright 2010 FarmgirlFare.com, the gently flowing foodie farm blog where you have to cross the creek to get from The Shack to the sheep barn. After a while this starts to be somewhat of a pain, especially if you're heading out for a walk on the ridge above the farm, because then you have to wade across in rubber boots, change into hiking shoes on the other side, and then change back for the return trip. If the creek ran year round (something I often dream about), we would simply build a little footbridge—and do a lot of refreshing hot summer skinnydipping.

Wednesday Dose of Confusion (and Cute):Where Did that Creek Come From?

Because It Definitely Wasn't Here This Morning

Wanna get wet?
3/18/06: Meandering By The House
3/26/06: The Bigger The Water Dish, The Happier The Dog
5/5/06: View from the Middle of the Creek after Six Inches of Rain
5/13/06: Morning Mist Rising off the Creek
5/13/06: Cat Fishing?
5/15/06: Sheep Crossing
1/15/07: Running Water, Rubber Boots, & Mud
1/19/07: Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Life Is But A Stream
2/25/08: A Rare Winter Sight—And Geese!
3/19/08: Flood Watch
4/7/08: Who's A-fraid of the Big Bad Creek? The Big Bad Creek?
4/8/08: A Fresh New Day Full of Morning Mist (and lots more hazy photos)
4/10/08: Surf's Up!
5/16/08: Splish Splash!
1/18/09: Crossing Over to Bigger and Better Things!
4/24/09: Creek's Up!

© Copyright 2009 FarmgirlFare.com, the flash flowing foodie farm blog where there's nothing like hiking out for a day of grazing in the far field and then finding a rushing stream of water has suddenly appeared between you and the barn (okay, maybe it wasn't exactly rushing, but still). Fortunately everyone is now safely back where they belong, the two loaves and dozen rolls of Honey Bran Whole Wheat I was in the middle of baking during all of this unexpected excitement didn't overrise, burn, or otherwise become inedible (though I did forget to grease the loaf pans—bummer), and I've now been thoroughly reminded that the big crack in one of my beloved rubber boots is even bigger than it was the last time the creek was up—and I never did get around to buying that replacement pair.

6/13/11: The Daily Donkey 126

Hey, who put this creek here? (Daphne, Dolores, Dan, Dinky, 5/16/08)

© FarmgirlFare.com

4/25/11: The Daily Donkey 79

Dan considers the creek (3/22/08)

© FarmgirlFare.com

4/2/11: The Daily Donkey 56

Daphne and Dolores in the wet weather creek (2/22/08)

© FarmgirlFare.com

The Daily Donkey 7

Dan on the Wrong Side of the Wet Weather Creek (3/22/08)