Color

It has been exciting seeing our raised beds turn from brown to green and now to add yellow and red.  May looks like peas, tomatoes and squash for us.  The lettuce began to turn bitter as it got warmer and the spinach began developing brown edges on the leaves so we've pulled them up and will be planting new things in their place.

Peas, Lettuce and Tomatoes.....

Over achiever squash plant

We have a squash plant taking off and growing faster than the others.  Wish I knew what is making this happen! The others are all doing well ~ you can see them right next the big one ~, but this one is like a plant on steroids.  Crazy!  It is so big, it is shading the lettuce so we may have to find it a new home.

The squash blossoms are really pretty!  Yesterday I saw them being sold at the farmer's market.  Who knew you don't have to wait for the squash?  Apparently there are tons of ways to fix and enjoy squash blossoms!

Hoping to harvest some squash soon!

A bittersweet day...

We loaded the pigs in the trailer last night and today, they went off to the processor.  I knew this day was coming and it was the reason we bought and raised them in the first place, but I have to say,  I'm feeling some mixed emotions.  

The loading process was interesting.  There isn't enough space to back up the trailer into our back yard where the pig pen is, so a plan had to be devised to get the pigs from the pen to the trailer.  Below are pictures of the transport.  The guys used wire cattle panels to guide the pigs to the trailer.  Once at the trailer, they convinced the pigs to walk into it by placing some feed at the back of the trailer.  It was a smooth and pretty easy process.  (The guys are talking about adding wheels to the panels to make it easier for future transports.)  

Thankfully the growing process wasn't too long.  Here is a split picture of our grandson with the pigs.  The top part of the picture shows him with the pigs when we first got them in late January.  The bottom part shows him with them on Easter Sunday - just a week and a half ago.  (He was sharing the Easter eggs he found.  The non-chocolate ones.)

When we got the pigs, they were between 30 and 40 lbs.  - and about 12 weeks later, they were between 160 and 175 lbs.

Our first rodeo with raising pigs has been an adventure to remember.  

Tree Swing

It has been a dream of mine to live where we could have a swing hanging from a tree in our yard.  Here it is!  I love it!  

Creating our own mulch.

Clearing and prepping land is quite the chore!  We took down a few trees out back earlier, now we are working to clear some of the trees from the front of the lot.  It seems like the trees went from being upside down brooms on long handles to a forrest with a thick canopy over night.   Since we have to have sunlight to grow stuff and we needed a little more room, out came the chainsaw.  Sadly we also discovered that a few of our larger trees were dead so they had to come down along with the rest.  Today my job is to help drag limbs to the chipper.  I got the easy part.

   Who knew a deer stand would double nicely as a tree climber for getting the rope where it needed to be?

I never thought to move my car before the driveway was blocked.  Glad it didn't stay that way long.