June brings us to the end of the school year, the beginnings of (hopefully) camping and other yard harvests. I'm hoping for a little reprieve from playing school bus driver.
I spent the start of June weeding the front yard. We have so many lovely salvias out there but it was not easy to appreciate them as the eye had to wander past spent poppies, overgrown fuschias and random weeds. A full day of pulling, snipping, trimming and cutting lead me to a treasure I did not know we had. Apparently my wild yard had turned into a quail habitat.
I found this clutch of eggs under an olive tree, behind the yarrow and buried under an abundance of fuschias. I snapped a quick photo and covered it up hoping that the mom would return to her nest soon and get a good hatch. I have to confess that my mind briefly wandered to the delicacy of those quail eggs cracked atop some sushi ... but then I quickly reverted back to images of baby birds.
Just after school ended for the summer I headed into the foothills with Amira's Girl Scout troop for their June Jamboree. Brrrrr! You wouldn't know it from this photo (taken upon arrival as we were eating our pre-packed dinners) but it was icy cold up there! Good thing I brought my long undies, wool sweater, down coat, hat, gloves, scarf, extra blanket and borrowed Michael's Gortex coat. I still had a chill.
Amira's troop is at the Cadet level and they were station aids for the younger Junior Scouts, Brownies and Daisies. They worked such stations as cooking, art, archery and leather working. There were other stations too. But those are the ones these scouts took charge of. Amira is here in the lower right with the homemade hand warmers (or, finger coolers ... I suppose it is all how you want to see it).
Here is Amira with Trenity in the camp kitchen. These girls can prep food and wash up. I should take them camping more often. I'd like to see more of that around the house. :-)
In other news, we know that it is summer because "shirtless Rex" is back. Here he is with his friend, Andrew, working on the car. It's got new tires, wheels, suspension, mud flaps and all kinds of stuff. It's nice to have another driver in the house.
Speaking of other drivers, guess who passed her written test and activates her permit this week?
That's right! If all goes according to plan, Valerie should get her license by about 15 December. Happy Hanukkah! But, I am getting ahead of myself here. There is so much of the summer to appreciate. Let's not jump seasons just yet.
Our turkeys and "Red Rangers" are getting big already. Well, I mean, the turkeys are really small compared to where I expect to see them in, let's say, November. But those Red Rangers are solid. The turkeys are pretty cute. They bark and chortle and follow us around. And right now they are not aggressively following us. They are just being cute. Let's hope it stays that way. The first batch of turkeys we raised (that were this heirloom type) were seriously aggressive and literally bit the hands that fed them. They also tried to kill each other. I'm hoping that raising these with the chickens will mellow them out a bit. These are not your average "broad breasted" type. These are a heritage breeds (read: a little wilder).
I didn't want to leave Colonel Sanders and his harem out of the photo shoot. They were pretty sure I was giving those other birds something good. They were a little disappointed when I didn't start dropping treats but, instead, clicked a few photos.
And, now on Tifftown, it's time for some Garden Flaunt. I have to capture the highlights so I can look back and remember why it was worth all the work. Ready?
The good news in the veggie garden is that the winter squash that has come up his hiding the gaping holes left by the Caddy Shack incident. And we may have a few potatoes surviving. Maybe not. But let's just admire what we might get for a moment.
In our back row we have tomatoes, basil, marigolds, zinnias, eggplants and peppers. In the background you can see the artichokes flowering up.
Although we had an intensely wet winter (I did not get out to trim or spray) and it looked like half of my orchard was dying this spring, we may get some fruit after all. Here are some nectarines (that I clearly did not thin out!) They are not quite ripe yet. I'll know they are ready when I see all the bird bites.
What's this? An apple? Wahooo!
These gorgeous orange blossoms will become pomegranates in the fall if all goes well.
Donut peaches!! I did thin these fruits. This was the first tree that I trimmed and sprayed ... and fertilized, etc. These are special little fruits. Again, not quite ripe yet. See, no bird bites.
Lastly, a few mulberries. Nom, nom, nom. (Not for you, Scott!)
We are looking forward to some adventures down the summer road. Michael will come home from San Francisco this week and then he turns around and runs off to Mexico. Valerie has sheep shows, sheep shows, livestock judging, sheep shows, officer retreat, trip to the Land Down Under to work with more sheep. I'm hosting a Girl Scout Journey here at the house at the end of the month. There will be some back yard camping I think. Unless it's an inferno. We'll see. We will do some family camping in July. I hope to get out to a few baseball games. Oh, that reminds me. I don't often get photos of Michael here on the blog. Last month we made it out to a local "Chico Heat" game. We sat next to the best hecklers ever. Can't wait to go back. Here's Michael at the game. It will be good to have him home for the summer!
