Summer Happening

 My boys have found a series on Netflix called "Top Shots". It's all about shooting all types of guns at all sorts of targets. With this inspiration, the boys got their bows out and enjoyed a little practice shooting at the bear target. Zach shot first.

 Next up was Caleb....

 Lance bringing his bow down to the right height.

 Also this summer we've been taking lots of pictures. Making memories of all the fun things we do!

 The boys have also taken up "trap making". They each designed their own squirrel trap.
 Here is Zach's creation.

 Lance went with the crate option....

 Here is the funny man demonstrating his trap in action.....

 Caleb's design involved lot of materials, including LOTS of binder twine.

 Miss Julia doesn't shoot bows, but she cheers for them on the sidelines! She's not into trapping things, but she helps them collect bait. She's a good sport for having three brothers, and just likes to hang out with them.

 Her thing lately has been making tents in her room. I think she slept in this "tent" for at least four nights out of seven last week. The two oldest boys went to camp last week, so she wanted to "camp out" in her room too, cute huh?

Ways of Transportation on the Farm...

I'm sure you can think of several modes of transportation on the farm. My children have came up with a few new  ways of getting around that are...let's say creative. Want to spy in on them?

Sometimes they use the tractor....

 If they are lucky someone willingly hauls them in a Tonka Truck....

If they are really lucky they get to ride in the wagon behind the tractor without manure in it...

 Then if your brother gets tired of pulling the Tonka...he hops in the wagon...and let's the tractor do all the work....DISCLAIMER: I did make them sit down after snapping this quick photo!

Who knew that hauling manure could be so creative and fun at the same time? 

It is what you make of it.....

Click here to join the Barn Hop....

Farmboy Fun

One of the things my boys love to do is ride dirt bikes/4-wheelers. I'm not sure I've ever met a farm boy who doesn't enjoy these sort of things. A few weeks ago before we got such a terrible HEAT WAVE we enjoyed an evening a of playing around. I enjoyed shooting pictures with my new camera and they enjoyed kicking up some dust. Here are a few pictures to prove that we don't just work around here....we have a little fun too.

Caleb giving his classic thumbs up.....

 Zach having a good ole' time.....

 Lance is leading the pack on the trail.....

 Lance zooming by....

 All lined up for a little photo opt.

 Justin getting in on some fun too....whenever he wasn't restarting or helping one of the boys

 All these pictures are not on our property. Across the road is "The Cattle Pond" (shown here), and that is where we happened to be riding this night.

As you can see it offers some gorgeous views as the sun sets. We are glad for our "play time" because right now the month of JUNE is CRAZY BUSY!!! Not a whole lot of free time, but we are enjoying our summer and staying out of trouble.

Julia's FIRST QUILT & Her FIFTH B-DAY!

On Monday, Julia celebrated her 5th Birthday.....I can't believe my little baby girl is FIVE already!

 She loves to kick back with a good book, loves the outdoors,  and help mommy in the garden.

 He loves to create things: We bought her a little bead kit on clearance the other day and she went to town. She made a couple of bracelets, and a necklace...she was in a creativity zone!

 She made one bracelet with her name on it, one that said "CAT" and her necklace was "Hello Kitty".

 Julia shares her birthday week with two other members of our family. We enjoyed some strawberry angel food cake

 Though there may be a large range in ages...we all have fun celebrating together.

Julia, Grandpa Cormany, Aunt Janelle

 Speaking of being creative, Julia designed her first quilt this past winter! She picked out the print fabric and I had a package of pastel fabric squares. She laid out the whole design all by herself. Then she would with sit on my lap, then put her hands on top of my hands and help me sew it together. If she wasn't sewing with me she was handing me the next row of squares to sew together. She is very proud of her first quilt....not to mention her mommy is so happy to have her enjoy quilting!

 After making the top, we sent if off to our long arm quilter. She used to this rainbow like design to help soften all the squares. She also used lime green thread to quilt it (I would have never thought of using that color, but I love it! So i decided to bind it with lime green fabric I already had on hand.

 I really love this bright, but not overwhelmingly bright fabric Julia picked out.

 On her special "party day" she wanted chocolate cake, chocolate icing with sprinkles on top, served chocolate ice cream!

 Guess how thrilled she was when she got pink glitter fingernail polish? Yep, she is girly!

 Dont' let all the girly-ness fool you, she loves to be dirty and exploring with her brothers!

A Garden Tour....

It's been an unusually dry Spring here in our part of the country, but our garden still seems to be thriving. . It might have something to do with us lugging around the hose and sprinkler and giving it a good heavy watering each week. We are praising the Lord and enjoying our garden progress.

I though I would introduce you to some helpers of mine in the garden...my handsome hubby

We used this old guy to trench out a spot for potato planting.

This little piece of machinery helped to break up all the dirt clods when we first tilled up the soil

It may seem a little silly, but here is my compost pile! It's going to be a great help in the garden this fall after harvest! We also plan to add in a black dirt and sand mixture.

Let's start in the fruit garden for our little tour, shall we?

One of the objective to the fruit/flower garden is to "feed my precious honeybees", feed us with the fruit, and enjoying the beautiful flower blooms. My COSMOS are coming up great!

My blackberries are at the end of flowering and getting ready to start forming fruit.

This is my thornless red raspberry patch. I have picked about a handful of berries so far. Since I just planted the starts last Spring I don't think my harvest will be very plentiful, but I think by next year I'll be in business.

I have three cabbage plants in here as well, I know this is the fruit/flowers garden, but I had room so I made an exception. I'm such a rebel like that.

My blueberry bushes are loaded up with berries, but I've learned it takes a lot of blueberries to get just one quart! I'm not sure this first year of harvesting that I'll get much more than that , but I'm planning long term that the three bushes I have with give me a bounty harvest in the years to come.

 My strawberries are still giving me a few berries here and there. but this weather has them all messed up. I ended up with around 25 lbs.+ for the year! I also have zinnias coming up between my blackberry bushes. My rhubarb starts are doing great, as well as my chives.
Now moving out to the veggie garden....My Sunflower patch is shooting up nicely and I know my bees with gladly pollinate them, while I enjoy their blooms.

 I also discovered that I have two separate wild raspberry patches to the right and to the left of my bee hive! Praise the Lord! My bees have been going crazy on all the flowers.

 We planted two varieties of corn this year. This is a picture of the second planting of corn.

 This is the first time we've ever planted potatoes, and so far so good. They look gorgeous, and I love the little flower blooms on top of each plant. I have some purple flowers and some white. We planted three varieties: Yukon Gold, Red Pontiac, and Kennebec

 We have lots of onions in the garden! They will be great for making salsa and spaghetti sauce.

 I have a whole host of vining plants in the garden. Three varieties of pumpkins (10 hills in all), cucumbers, zucchini, butternut squash, gourd mix,  & watermelon.

 I have an abundance of tomato plants as well, 44 plants in all. I planted one grape tomato (seen here), and all the others are from two varieties: Better Boy & Celebrity.

 We have 24 acres of field corn planted to our south. It seems to doing lovely as well in spite of our "no rain" situation. (note: We did get a little last night, and the forecast call for more today.)

 Here is another helper in the garden....He actually doesn't usually come in the garden...good boy...but he does provide ample moral support from the side lines. He also offers a great distraction and excuse to take a break and sit and pet him. (note: The muddy little paws are from a trip to the swamp with my boys to check their "fish trap". He LOVES to go along with them!)

 Here is another shot of the 24 acre field, looking towards our house.

 This seems to be the brand of tractor we are using around our homestead. My Adorable Husband might be boarderline obessed with the Cub Cadet line of tractors. Somehow by some form of magic (or Craigslist) we keep acquiring more of them. At last count there were 3!
Intervention might be needed, just saying!

There you have it! That's what is happening here at The Gaertegang Homestead. Be sure to go check out what other homesteads are up to by visiting the Homestead Revival barn hop.