"P" is for....

...Peas!:

We love them. We can never get enough of them:

This is how we eat peas at our house...raw and in a big bowl that we pass around the table:

...Peppers:

I'm growing red and orange and yellow and lilac (!!) peppers this year:

...Pickles!

Well, cucumbers that will hopefully be pickles soon.

...I'm thinking I may have left this guy on the vine too long:

...Potatoes:
Yukon Gold and Red Fingerling...

Here's the first potato blossom. It won't be long now:

Pooped:

It's tough being a farm doggy. The work (almost) never ends.

Jumping back in

Well, I'm home. Back on Critter Farm at last. Actually, I've been home for almost a week now. Everything is great here, but I've had a difficult time returning to my blog page. So much has happened between my last blog post (in Germany) and now, I'm finding it quite difficult to just start writing about my simple farm stuff again. I feel like I've lived a lifetime since my last post and have so much to tell, yet telling all that past stuff doesn't seem at all pertinent anymore. Yet I have all these great pictures, I tell myself. But who cares, I respond. Back and forth it goes. I'm a great arguer and I could continue this particular argument for a good deal longer, but instead, I think I'll just share some pictures of how I've spent the last couple days and jump back into blogging this way.

...It all started with breakfast for the goats. (It *always* starts with breakfast with for goats):

In my absence, Reggie has become a hat stealer:

He thinks he's pretty clever, too:

The goat boys have become quite the guard goats. Somebody they don't know has just walked around the side of our house:

Back inside, I packaged up some eggs to sell. My nine sweet hens continue to lay, on average, about six eggs a day:

I made a batch of tea in my new sun tea container:

Here's how my ferocious watch dog handled the unknown visitor the goats noticed (that adoring look stopped the guy cold, too):

Although I have about eighty more important things to take care of, I suddenly decided to give my deck furniture a good scrubbing:

Like almost everything else I do around here, this took way longer than I expected:

But I'm pleased with the outcome:

I felt sad when this giant log truck drove past my driveway. The land below us has been divided and is being prepared for two new houses:

This is how Roxy spent part of the afternoon staying cool. It reached 95 degrees yesterday:

I throw the balls in and she tries to get them. It's kind of like bobbing for apples:

The chickens took a nice cool dust bath. A month or so ago, I dug up a small area for them next to their coop. They love it and it helps keep them out of the areas we don't want them digging huge holes in:

There's nothing like a good shake off after a dust bath:

So, that's it. Hopefully, this broke the blogging ice for me and things will feel a bit easier now. Other than the above, there's only one more thing to share....
Reggie says hi:

A final day on the beach: Nebel und Sonne an der Ostsee

We've had more than our fair share of cool, foggy weather during our time on the Baltic. This, however, does not deter German beach goers in any sense:

Fortunately, two days ago, the sun began to break through:

And early the next morning it looked like this:

It was time for us to hit the beach!
The first thing that will catch your eye on the beaches of Germany are the hundreds of "Strandkörbe" (Beach baskets). People can rent these, by the hour or by the day, to sit in, relax and have a bit of shade:

We rented "Lucky #13" Strandkorb:

Here's the view from our Strandkorb...
Straight ahead:

To the left:

To the right:

We settled in for the day and I began my observations in earnest.

This is my kind of beach. There's a small cafe every few hundred yards directly on the beach:

This guy is straight out of Baywatch:

Seriously:

As a relatviely impartial observer I noticed that...:

There are many very creative sand artists:





There are many exciting things for kids to do here:




People from all walks of life come to Heringsdorf:




...and "Speedo" type swimsuits remain very popular with the men here:

Here's my obligatory (but heartfelt) post card:
Having a wonderful time, wish you were here! ♥ ♥ ♥