Farm day!

Summer is for heading down to the in-law's farm with the boys for a day of relaxing. Indy especially loves it there...the tractors, the 4-wheeler, the riding lawnmower that he can drive himself, the rope swing...

Oh, and the mulberries.

I picked some myself, a task that included mulberries falling down my shirt and branches poking me in the eye. But I got enough to fill the dehydrator.

The light ones are white mulberries which are THE BEST. This winter I shall have mulberries to toss onto granola or into trail mix. Yum. If Indy doesn't steal them all out of the dehydrator, that is.

And since I remembered my camera, you finally get some shots of my garden! (Can't you just feel the excitement building?)

All 30 or so tomato plants, which feels more like 300 when you are trying to prune the suckers off and the sweat is running down your back and mosquitoes are biting the corner of the eye that wasn't poked with a stick. But it is worth it when you see the little babies growing.

This might finally be my year! The year that my tomato growing is actually successful and I have enough to can sauce and salsa and pizza sauce and juice and the dried tomatoes that seem like such a good idea that I always forget to use.

And then I got so excited about the tomatoes and so hot and sweaty from tending them that I didn't take pictures of the corn or potatoes. Which pretty much look like corn and potato plants should, only with lots of weeds interspersed.

So...did I say relaxing? OK, it was a day pretty much filled with a lot of sweat and effort.

Except for Gates.

Other than a few brief stints on the rope swing he hung out in the air-conditioning, apparently planning a cross-country road trip.

Life is good down on the farm.