Gheeezz.... has it been a week already?

I can't believe it's been a week since my last blog, where does the time go? Okay I'll try not to ramble but will update as to what has happened around The Never Done Farm. Wednesday Dad and I took Cortney to camp. She had to be checked in by 2pm and we actually arrived around 1:30 pm. Everyone was glad to see her and glad she could come at a moments notice. We said our goodbyes and asked the quickest route to the Museum of the Rockies. We found the museum and our first stop was the Planetarium. The shows we've seen in previous visits were much better, this show was more based for children, which is probably due to summer and loads of kids visiting the museum. We walked around looking at all the great dinosaur skeletons, reading info and taking stock of how many digs were from close to our are and even from our county. They have Indian history as well as U.S. history sections in the museum as well. I liked the dinosaur info and was in awe of how HUGE these animals were, but my favorite tour was of the Living History Farm. It's an homestead, and the property is it's original local. The main house is two story( wish I'd have remembered my camera), maybe we can get some photos on Thurs. trip to pick up Cortney, and was built in 1898. They have women who cook meals on the beautiful wood cook stove and a blacksmith and a gardener on staff, in period clothing. My Dad was quick to share with one of the ladies that we live a very similar life. She said, "Oh, you don't have electricity or running water?" I sheepishly explained we do have those modern conveniences, but cook on a wood cook stove, wash with a wringer washer, can our harvest of produce, raise our own meats, dairy and such. I had to giggle; here I think we live such an old fashioned life and she was quick to point out that we aren't so old fashioned at all, we do have the modern conveniences of electric, natural gas and running water, Sheeesh* blushing* Anyway I love this "Living History Farm". If you are ever going through Bozeman, I'd put it on my list of places to stop and see, it's The Museum of the Rockies. You can easily spend an entire day there looking and learning. We didn't hit the road for home until after 5 pm but made good time arriving home around 7pm. Thursday I HAD to get laundry finished*blushing*, pick beans, cukes and a few maters and mow the yard! After an inch of rain in previous days and a few days of sunshine it was almost in need of swathing. We have a riding mower but not a bagger and this grass was long and therefore left piles, so I raked too, and the chickens, turkeys and Mo loved the clippings! I wasn't finished by the time Mike came home, so he pulled out the push mower and started in on the back orchard area. We had it all wrapped up by supper time, many hands do make light work! Friday I spent the day prepping for our first farmer's market. I'd held off picking until that morning to have the freshest possible produce to sell. It was a grey and dreary morning but I had beets, onions and carrots to harvest. It's a good thing I'm not made of sugar, it drizzled all morning, into early afternoon*grin*. I had a bushel basket full of nice sized beets, a bag of onions and enough for several nice bundles of baby carrots. After washing and deciding the best way to present these veggies, I had price tags to make and the table, chair, umbrella and coolers to load. My Dad graciously came over to help with the coolers( one was big and awkward to handle alone) Here is what I took, beets( bagged in ziplock bags, 6 to7 small and medium sized), carrots( 10-12 per) bundled and bound with a rubber band, onions( 2 per bag), tomatoes( three per bag), yellow peppers,( 4 per) and garlic in braids. This is a new market, so it was slow at first(from 4pm to 7pm) but as people were getting off and heading home from work it picked up. I was pleased with the amount of sales I had. I was worried about my pricing( I didn't want to under price but also didn't want to gouge anyone either) The tomatoes were the hit, nobody else had any. I wish we'd had more to sell, but it is just the extras we decided to sell. Beets sold well, not one bag of onions sold, garlic sold well and the baby carrots were a hit as well. From our first ever market sale we made $50 and this is again a new market just starting up so I was happy. This Friday I hope to have New Zealand Spinach, slicing size cukes,green peppers, green beans, possibly a few tomatoes, baby carrots( I NEED to thin them),garlic and new potatoes. I'm not sure if I'll take onions again and I may try to package some fresh herbs and see how they sell. If the market clientele keeps growing I will add breads, but not right now. Sat. Mike had to work and his store had it's 6 month inventory. This is where EVERYTHING has to be counted, every nut, bolt, and hitch pin. It's a job to say the least! Helping hands were short, as one of the employees was on vacation, so I offered to help. I missed not having Cortney to help count while I wrote down the description and count. I arrived later than the rest, due to chores and getting supper thrown together in the crock pot( ham bone, new potatoes and fresh snapped green beans with a little onion and garlic added to enhance the flavor) and worked until 3:30pm. Our dogs are not accustom to being locked up for this long so figured I'd better head home to let them out. The store inventory was NOT finished and Mike and his employees worked until 6:30pm and they still have some small items to count yet. Since they were late getting away on Sat. they didn't do the cleaning. Mike and I decided that he'd like to count some more and I would work on cleaning the store on Sunday afternoon. Sunday we got up and fed at 5:30 am and then returned to bed and slept in until 8am., WaHooo! Mike worked on tearing down a cylinder for repair and I cleaned up breakfast dishes and did reg. chores. I had noticed that the trap under the kitchen sink was dripping a few days earlier( placed a bowl under it to catch any drips) and mentioned it to Mike. He took a look and discovered that our mineral rich water(grumble, grumble) had eaten away a portion one of the nuts that attaches the pieces. So off to the nearest hardware store for a new nut and silicon seal. When we returned we figured we better get up to his store and clean and count so we'd be done for evening chores. We ended up DEEP down cleaning in some much needed areas and lost track of the time, it was 8pm when Mike's cell phone rang, it was Cortney to tell us about her exciting day! After each talking and hearing of her day and all the animals she saw, we closed up the store and headed for home. We had supper already, my Dad had BBQ-ed some venison burgers earlier, so all we had to do was reheat them in a cast iron pan( on low, just to heat not cook) we also had salad, chips and deviled eggs. So far this week I've been playing catchup on cleaning and gardening. Today it's already time to mow again. I NEED to weed whack, which I have begun to really dislike doing*groan* I also need to pick beans, raspberries and finish irrigating the garden. Doesn't sound right I know, over an inch of rain late last week and already irrigating! Our soil is sandy so moisture doesn't stick around for long. Coming soon....... our first harvest of sweetcorn! The electric fence seems to be working, no evidence of coons in our corn nor deer in the melons. The Kentucky Wonder pole beans will be ready for their first harvest in about a week, I'd guess. I'm thinking coleslaw sound good, so will cut a head of cabbage soon. I told Mike I think we're going to have to put our tunnel over the tomatoes again, to get enough heat to ripen them quicker, than one or two at a time. I need to make and can some spaghetti sauce, chili sauce and tomato sauce and that will be impossible if they keep ripening one, two and three at a time. Plus the tunnel will keep the deer out! *Grrr..* Okay I've written a mini novel, may the remainder of your week be full of blessings. I'll work on getting some pictures of the Living History Farm and updated photos of the garden. I'm off to hang laundry, let the girls( cows) out and clean barns and roll up hoses and begin mowing before it gets to warm, although today it's fore casted to be in the mid 80's, not bad! I've missed hearing from all of you*wink*!