What a Wild Weekend!

 Since last we chatted, we've had the gamut of every type of weather.  From nights in the 50's to days with a heat index of 97.   It's been sunny.  It's been cloudy.  The good news is... I've not needed to water our gardens at all due to the generous helpings of rain water that we received a couple of storms.  The bad news is... those storms were ushered in on a wind so fierce that trees swayed and snapped under the weight of their leafy tops.

Each storm brought with it an extra large share of clean-up work.  

Limbs took down fences...

and almost took out the duck house next to the barn.

After Saturday evening's storm, we headed out to the barn for evening chores only to find that a third of this big maple tree had snapped off at the base and was laying across the roof of the duck hut and behind that, the donkey house. 

In this photo, you can see the size of this trunk section peeking out to the right of the leaves behind the pig. 

 It was this portion of trunk that snapped off at the base and flipped up onto the duck house.  How it didn't collapse the duck house roof, I'll never know.

An hour of chainsaw work and the help of our neighbors, Jim and Kathy, took care of this emergency.

It wasn't until Sunday morning that Jack found that one of the locust trees in the front pasture had lost a large limb that took out the pasture fence - for the second time in a week!  We have had to fix more fences, downed by trees, this summer than all of the previous years combined!

Sadly there are quite a few trees like this one around the farm...

with large limbs snapped off too high for us to reach... dangling dangerously from above!

If climate scientists are right, these storms will likely become a way of life for us.  I am so very thankful that we live in an area that is mostly hilly.  Hills and valleys help to keep these winds from gathering too much speed thereby protecting this area from tornadoes (although they have been known to happen on occasion.)

On a happier note, the chicklets are now big enough to venture out into their world.  We have them sectioned off in the chicken yard with a large net and opened the front door of their house so that they have the freedom to emerge.   They are still a little too small to be out on their own.  This phase is one of transition.

Although they venture out a little during the daytime, they seem to prefer the shelter of their house.

Courage grows with time.

Soon enough, they will be out running through the pastures with their older flock-mates.

Thursday evening I mixed up two batches of sourdough pizza dough.  When it was done rising (Friday morning) I put it in the refrigerator.  Sunday morning, I spent several hours making 40 individual pizza crusts...

 for our 4th of July picnic (make-your-own pizza) in our picnic pavilion.  Years ago, we added a wood-fired pizza oven to this space.  This coming Sunday we will celebrate the 4th with our farm family and friends.

Here's a peek at what we are bringing in from the garden these days... and gallons of blueberries as well.

Also... greens - lettuces, kale, spinach, and chard and herbs.

Summer is such a mixed bag of all that is wonderful peppered with a little of all that is not.  

Oh... and happy July!!