Cucumber School

So, back from the Pacific Northwest. Almost two weeks have elapsed since our departure. It was a great trip (and more on that shortly, I gaurentee), but I am happy to be back on the farm. And what better time to be here than at the front end of harvest season!

I thought I would break the usual blog routine of family and kid tales to bring you some harvest news. Well, you could say that we picked a lot of stuff today. Or you could say that we toted a substantial amount of produce into our house. But the best way to describe our bounty would be the Old English term: butt-load or so much that you cannot carry it all with just your hands.

Ok, now to school.

We have 6 varieties of cucumbers growing in our gardens this year. Here are four we harvested today:

Burpee Pickling - A nice, productive cuke with a mild taste. Not my favorite, but they are crisp and not at all bitter.

Early Russian - A productive cuke with a mild taste. Great for pickles or fresh eating!

Snow - This one won our taste test. Great all-purpose cucumber melon... and sweet!

Suyo - A japanese cucumber with a thin, burpless (not bitter) skin. Tastes nice fresh, but it would make great pickles since the skin has a cool ribbed look. These two are about a foot long!

Not pictured are the mystery cucumbers from Mason's garden (they came in a package that simply named them "Cucumbers") and the Armenian cukes. I will torture you with pictures of them later.

So, there you have it: more than you ever wanted to know about the cucumbers in our garden this year. If you are still reading, I am beginning to question how you spend your quality time, or perhaps I have found a partner in my obsession. Whatever the reason, thanks for tuning in.

Oh, we also picked a couple tomatoes.

Medieval Tournament of Sorts

The idea if the theme parties began years ago; back when we first moved into our little plastic castle on the Big Brown Lawn. Back then the lawn was much bigger and much less brown, but we have been dilligent with under watering it, and now it has taken on a husky, golden hue. The past parties have included a regatta, mini golf, Greek olympics, and now medieval games.

This year's event was medieval themed. Well that was the intent. Along the way, some of the theme focus was lost and historical accuracy was put to the wayside. Oh, we still had the common things you would expect from your average party: the catapult, a castle, foamy broadswords with fancy shields. Yet the "Black Knight" was never unhorsed (did I just make that word up?), and the King spent much of the party in his work clothes.

In the end, it was a fun time with the lords and ladies of the land. We will be back next year to do it Bigger... Better... Bears... Beets... Battlestar Galactica!

It's Too Hot!

When the temperature gets so warm the sidewalk is blistering and even the tomato plants are looking for shade, then life at the Big Brown Farm turns inward. 900 square feet may not lend itself to such cool inventions as carpet skates (I saw these once at a toy store and thought they looked cool and I should get some, then realized that our 5x8 foot rug might not be the ideal skating rink.), but there is enough room to do some crafting.

This day, the craft was decorating egg cartons. This, of course, with the expectation that our Hot Chicks will be laying more prolifically in the near future, and we will need custom storage for their calcium coated bundles of joy.

Mason, no stranger to the medium, dove into the watercolors with gusto. While Ellie, curious about the culinary aspects of the pigments, tasted each color much to her mother's disapproval.

In the end, we created enough storage for seven dozen eggs.

Now it's up to the Ladies to come clean on their end of the bargain. So, come on Ladies! Get those pushers pushin"!

And they said, "Let there be bark!"

And then, there was bark.

A ton of bark! Several tons, as a matter of fact! 

And once it was delivered, it had to be moved. At least we had help.

It was, as Mason put it, "Haahh Wuhk!"

Farmer's Market

We decided to spend yesterday away from our yard labors. We took a quick trip to the Sunrise Farmer's Market. We were only there for about 15 minutes, but it was still enough time to buy some fruits and corn, catch a few tunes from the Loose Trio, see a friend, swallow a cherry pit (Mason), and just enjoy the 105 degree temperature.

Quick! Everyone! Back inside the house with the new AC!

Artist in Residence

So, I had this old desk in my classroom that nobody (myself included) wanted. I don't even know where it came from. I just walked into my classroom one day, and there it was. Kind of like The Shoemaker and the Elves, but less cool and less useful... until now.


Jen has been busy transforming our patio into a playroom. This is very useful. Kids, it turns out, come with their fair share of stuff. We have not even bought any of this stuff (probably the work of the desk elves). Anyway, I took that desk, lopped off the legs at the ankles and now it is a fine art desk for Mason.

The summer of recycling continues with this easel. This showed up in our driveway one morning and was partially broken. It was originally built for three artists, but, being a crowd, I repaired the two useable portions and now...


Ta-Dah! Art for the masses. Well, for two.
We wanted to limit Mason's color palate to promote his creativity. That, and, well, we only had orange.


Apparently the elf suppliers are experiencing some sort of paint embargo.

Endless Summer? Don't I Wish!

Summer break. For us it has always been a time of relaxing, traveling, visiting family, and creating the annual project list. This summer had its unique qualities. Many indoor projects were completed so it was onto the outdoor stuff, decisions were made on new fencing and orders were placed, two more trips were added to the annual Idaho roadtrip, and of course, our little Mason was here to join in all the fun. The phrase, "Time flies when you are having fun", was created for a reason and suddenly we are back at school 2 weeks underway to be exact and wishing we had a bit more summer to finish up some loose ends. The triple digit heat sure feels like it is summer. In fact it does bring back the bitter/sweet memories of roofing back in '04. Wait, I think that was just bitter and hot. Anyway, we have a few photos to share that show our work in progress. Josh was hard at work in between trips to build our new front porch. It is almost complete and sealed for the rainy season to come.



And this endless summer post wouldn't be complete without a Mason Montage.

Here's to a summer of great food,

many laughs,

big smiles,

and SEXY TIME!