I love being a farmer, I hate being a farmer.

That almost has a Dickens "best of times, worst of times" feel to it. I'm both excited and frustrated today. I'm excited because the buckwheat, our major crop is coming up like gangbusters. Lots of little cotyledons popping out all over the no-till field. This is our cash crop so we want it to do well. We're very thankful that the drills worked correctly, we had good soil to seed contact and a beautiful rain right afterward. The perfect recipe for germination!

At church this morning, a lady asked me if I wanted some bedding plants because she had purchased them and now doesn't have time to put them in. I always have space for plants, especially free ones! So I told her I would take them thinking that even if they were a flat of marigolds (which I detest) I'd find a place for them. To me, the term bedding plant means flowers. Imagine my surprise when she brought me a flat of 7 tomatoes, 4 peppers, 8 cucumbers, onions and kohlrabi! Not only free plants, but vegetables I can certainly use!! I'll definitely be sharing some produce with her as the summer continues.

I'm frustrated today because I planted a LOT of sweet corn seed over three weeks ago and it hasn't come up. Three different varieties and there is nothing out there. So I was forced to replant and I'm not happy about it. The most frustrating thing is that I don't know what happened! Did it rot in the ground? (we can't find any seeds so this is a real possibility) Did the cutworms get it? (but then there should be some plants out there) Did the birds scavenge it all? (are they really that smart to get every one?) Grrrrr, it's frustrating, really frustrating. If it was just John and I, it wouldn't bother me as much...so we have later sweet corn. But my CSA customers are depending on me to provide them with sweet corn and I don't want to let them down. I seeded six 75 foot rows today and I'll seed more tomorrow...all in a two different spots, hoping that a change of location will help with whatever struck down my first planting.

Our lawn mower is a vital piece of summer machinery out on our farm. We have a lot of lawn to maintain, I mow just about every day for a bit. It's a good rest for the pregnant mama to ride for a while! Then today we replaced the belt on the lawn mower. It had worn down and was in need of replacement. So I took it out and worked the old girl pretty hard. After the rains this week and grass had taken off. I was mowing over a rock I'd mowed over many times before but this time it jumped up and bit one of the blades. And tore the blade in half!!!!!! The bolt is still in the deck and the blade is in two pieces! I'm not sure how I managed to do that, but it's done just the same. And of course, I saved the grass around the house until last so the farthest reaches of our yard look great. Around the house is a bit of a jungle. Grrrr, it's hard justifying a trip into town just for a lawn mower blade.

But, even though I'm frustrated today, I'm so thankful. Yes, my sweet corn is a no-show and the mower is broken, but my gardens look wonderful. The radishes are getting ready (we sampled one yesterday), the potatoes have grown 6 inches this week, all the squashes/gourds/pumpkins are up and getting ready to run, the cucumbers are up. Yup, life is good.