Joshua and I recently visited our favorite botanical gardens.  They had an excellent display on edible container gardening.  

Corn in a container?   Yes,  we were quite surprised and very inspired.   I have so many wonderful ideas for next year.

The last time we were at the garden,  we discovered these very large Tulip Trees.  We went to find them but found this massive one instead.  WOW!!  It was the largest Tulip Tree we had ever seen.  Joshua has been asking since he was three to go see the Redwoods in California.  He was so excited about this large tree that it was like he couldn't breathe for a moment.  He then said,  "Mom,  I don't know if I can handle the redwoods!"
I love his passion!!!

We discovered this cutie in the Children's Garden.  We had a wonderful time watching it eat.

I'm on top!!!

A not so Giant Redwood!

We also discovered the library at the botanical gardens.  We were in heaven.....over 200,000 books on plants.  Many scientists come to this library to do their research.   Joshua and I checked out a few books.  Medicinal plant books for me to continue my studies and Cacti books for Joshua. 

I harvest Bee Balm almost daily for the dried teas I sell and creams that I make.  When I harvest I cut it so it will branch out and grow another branch that will flower.  I try not to take too many flowers (although they look beautiful in the teas) because the humming birds love the blooms.  It is such a delight to be working in the garden and hear their chattering and humming.  I always try to also leave enough flowers for more seeds.  I do this with all the herbs/medicinal plants that I grow and harvest from the wild.

When I was harvesting yesterday,  look what I discovered:

That is my pinky in the photo to show you how small this little guy is.

Isn't he/she so cute!!!!

This is St. John's Wort and it is one of my all time favorite plants.   I make herbal tinctures and oils  from the flowers on this plant.  The oil and tinctures turn a beautiful red.  Did you know in Germany they treat depression patients only with St. John's Wort?  Yes the Europeans have known and used  this amazing plant for a very long time.    It is not only an amazing anti-depressant but also an amazing anti-viral.  

The tomato plants have gone wild and are taking over my greenhouse.  Even though they are wild,  I'm starting to get the most delicious tomatoes from those crazy vines. 

This was my view from the middle of my medicine wheel.  We are going to have to get more supers for our hives,  I can smell the honey when I'm working in the garden.  Time to give the girls more room!   They need approx. 100lbs of honey to survive our winters.  So we need to help them as much as we can.  Next summer we should be harvesting honey.

My cauliflower plants are doing quite well under the branch of a white pine tree. During the hottest part of the day they have shade and then later full sun.  The plants seem to like this mix.

I also harvest almost daily,  calendula flowers for drying.

I'm working on a few new recipes for my soaps and creams.  It will be interesting to see how they turn out.

Saving celery seeds:

Bottling my favorite herbal oil...St. John's Wort oil

.
I made a light but rich cream this week for your skin.  Bee Balm Cream

Olive oil infused with Bee Balm, Bee Balm tea, organic coconut oil, beeswax and organic lavender essential oil.  It is wonderful and I'm quite pleased with it.  It is very moisturizing on your skin.

Snuggling.

Climbing.

Having fun at a funky art show.

We've been so busy with the weekly farmers market and this week we did an extra farmers market.

Our booth yesterday.

I gave away samples of the herbal teas in hopes people would buy the dried teas and it did work!

My dried herbal teas were the biggest seller yesterday with the soaps and perennial plants coming in a close second.

I've been making a lot of herbal soaps.

Dried chamomile glycerin soap in the shape of a sheep.

Some of my herbal oils in the making.

 
 A few of my oils and tinctures

My favorite products that I made this summer is a jewelweed salve and jewelweed soap.  They work amazingly well and soon I will have these products on our farm website for sale.

We had volunteer help on the farm for a week and half.  We are so grateful for Daniel's help.  My gardens were covered in weeds.  Between the farmers market prep and my Neuro-Lyme Disease, I am behind in many areas.  Daniel got things jump started for us!  Thank you Daniel!!

Some of Daniel's work.  He made a few stone walkways around one of my herbal beds and the strawberries.  I expanded a new bed and it will be all herbal plants....Yarrow,  valerian, mugwort, calendula, mullein, narrow leaf plantain and chamomile.

We've been unbelievably busy the last couple of months but we managed a wonderful visit with my parents.  Joshua was greeted with love, hugs and a new bike!   He loves it and he's learning to ride it.  We are looking forward to lots of family bike rides.

One night we heard the garbage cans banging around and some snorts outside our window.  Sure enough a bear had paid us a visit in the night. No pictures, but I did get up and close the sliding glass door since he/she was right outside.

Joshua loves trains as much as he loves rockets and outer space.  His grandparents treated us to a steam train ride.

Of course he was just bursting with joy when he got to sit in the engineers seat!  I think he looks at home in this picture.

Joshua's grandparents also treated us to some cave exploration.  We had blast, found it fascinating, and we were pretending we were on space mission exploring a space cave.

Farm update:
We're still at the farmers market selling plants, produce, tinctures, salves, soaps, teas, turkey eggs, trees and wool. Soon, I will updating our farm website with our herbal products.

I harvested some potatoes last night from the garden for dinner. Nothing beats fresh produce!  We've been busy harvesting many herbal/medicinal plants for drying or making oils as well as garlic, kale, onions and lettuce.  The chronic lyme disease I am experiencing knocked me on my butt again so we are very behind in many things and especially in the garden.    However,  thanks to Help Exchange ,we have a lovely volunteer from Australia helping us get caught up.  What a great experience for all of us.   We are incredibly grateful!!

Farm pics soon!

Joshua had some fun while working on his astronaut training.

He has also been busy studying and learning all about the various species of frogs that live on our farm.

Frog eggs....photo by Joshua

photo by Joshua

Joshua is continuing his studies of plants.

This is his illustration of Jewel Weed.

Baby rooster....photo by Joshua

As we were enjoying a breakfast of fresh stone-ground whole wheat flour panckes and freshly picked black raspberries on our outdoor table,  we could hear a tapping noise.  The boys followed the noise to our front lawn on our big maple tree.  There he was enjoying his breakfast too.

It's a little shaky as I had to zoom in.  He was probably 100 feet away from us. 

We went to the drive-in last night to see Toy Story 3.  We loved it.   I cried as I watched the movie in the end.  I thought about my boy getting older and how much he has changed already in seven short years. These were tears of love,  tears of happiness as he grows and changes, and tears of missing what was.   When Joshua was 2 and 3 he would lay on the floor and stare at his beloved "James"  a red train engine from the Thomas the Train collection.  James was extra special because Daddy came home one day from work and handed James to Joshua as a surprise.  James is still loved but not as passionately or if it is the same, we don't see those looks and sighs while holding James. 

Once we took Joshua on a very special Polar Express train ride.  It was fabulous, but 20 minutes into the excursion we realized Joshua had left James at the train station.  Oh my!  My very joyful boy was devastated! Joshua's tears were silent as they slowly fell down his cheeks.  My very passionate boy was so sad he couldn't even muster the normal crying a small boy would do when they were unhappy.  This sadness was deep.   I grabbed one of the Conductors and explained what had happened.  He looked at Joshua and told him that he would help.  He walked away.   The conductor had the train Engineer radio the station.  One of the staff searched the station and they found James!   The conductor returned and let our very sad boy know James was safe and sound and waiting for him back at the station.  Hot chocolate and cookies were going to be served after the ride.  We joked about how cheeky James was and how he stayed back at the station so he could eat all of those cookies.  Joshua's joy slowly came back but he did say he missed not sharing this wonderful moment with James.

Joshua has  been passionate since his birth.  I always knew where we stood with him and so does everyone else. This passion can be challenging at times, but you know,  I would never want it to change or go away.  Last week at the Farmers Market one of our acquaintances commented on how she needed to really listen to Joshua.  She said,  "he almost commands your attention as he talks to you and what he talks about is amazing."  She didn't mean that Joshua directly  asks for your attention (although he might ), but that the way he delivers his message.  She went on to say, "His message is so passionate you need to listen or you are going to miss something really important."  She also wondered how does a little boy hold so much knowledge and passion about his subjects, like trees.  Her nephew is seven and she said the differences were amazing.  She also said talking to him was like talking to an older person and you can learn so much from him. Yes!!  I have learned so much from my boy and I continue to learn each day. 

Every day we grow a little older.  Watching your child grow up is a wonderful experience and we are so grateful and blessed to be on Joshua's amazing journey!

I have learned from my beautiful son to follow my heart,  follow my passions, and live this joyful life!  Thank you Joshua for showing me the way.

  and go to the beach for an afternoon. 

Creating a meteorite impact site.

This past Saturday I gave a hands-on demonstration on Vermicomposting (worm composting) at the Millerton Farmers Market. 

JAHanson of the Millerton Farmers Market took some photos of the demonstration.  I'm glad she did because I was so busy that I did not get the chance to take any photos.  The demonstration was hands on and many enjoyed helping while some liked to stand back and watch.  One person decided she would leave her husband and kids and go to another booth when the worms came out.  One little girl was interested but scared that she had to touch a worm.  It was fun and most people seemed truly engaged.