Summer!

Despite the fact that it has rained almost every day for months, summer has indeed arrived in Maine. Beautiful flowers have been gracefully making their appearance and my garden is growing...slowly, slowly growing. Moon Dog Market and the Acadia Farmer's Market are in full swing...you can find me in Town Hill on Mount Desert Island every Friday, selling beautiful flowers and veggies from Sunflower Gardens as well as from other farmers in our area. Willa and Nettie dutifully go with me every day, and when in their better moods are great helpers.

Slugs have been my worst nightmare this year, devouring all my baby lettuce sprouts in one night. Here is one happily munching on a lupine down the road on one of our walks.

Nettie, Tom, and Willa atop the sandpit after Bar Harbor's 4th of July Parade. They had quite a time sliding down after their "hike"!

A pretty columbine that grows near the old homestead down our road, along with apple trees, hundreds of day lillies, poppies, and wild flowers such as flocks, lupines, daisies and black eyed susans. It is truely a beautiful road for our walks, and the girls love picking flowers as we go.

Planting Day

We spent yesterday in the field...tilling and planting. The blackflies are out, but still just flying around and not biting, so I wanted to get as much done as I could! It is so exciting to see our first planting of peas, spinach, radishes, and onions sprouting their little heads and imagining all the great fresh food to come. Willa and Nettie have become great helpers in the garden, really getting into planting tiny little seeds. I'm realizing just how big and independent they are getting to be. They spent part of the afternoon picking bluets, and Willa decorated her fairy houses by the stream with tiny bouquets tucked in peanut shells.

Happy, happy chickens finally getting some fresh greens in their diets. And Tom could not be happier than when he's behind the tiller! Harvest Moon (our yellow lab and inspiration behind our farm's name) and his son Amos did a great job supervising.

And I couldn't resist snapping a photo of my daffodils in full bloom!

The Ducks Go Marching Two by Two...

Images of spring!

Willa has been so excited to practice riding her bike, even though its too small and our terrain is not very well suited for it (picture mama having a heart attack every time she gets too close to the steep edges!)

Beautiful, colorful Willa and Nettie in face painted glory at College of the Atlantic's Earth Day Fair! It was my first time vending at a big fair, and I had such a great time!

And who could resist my army of needle felted ducks...on their way to Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies store on Deer Isle, Maine. She is also carrying my needle felted hearts...my first wholesale order!

Maineteam Spring Photo Challenge!

I've been having a great time taking photos around Happytown for the Maineteam's Spring Photo Challenge. Here's all of my favorites (plus one of the old truck that I couldn't resist:) I am in love with this time of year...the waking world around me, but with no blackflies or mosquitos yet! Our garden is getting ready for planting, and I'll get the cool weather crops in today - peas, spinach, radishes...yum!

My official entry is the second photo of the budding tree limb. I wish there was a way to photograph the sounds of spring as well; the rushing stream as the winter snow melted away, the chorus of peeper frogs I heard last night, the mating calls of the woodcocks in our woods. Guess these photos will haved to do!

Can't wait to hear who the winner is! Thanks to Jenna (AutumnEquinox.etsy.com) for organizing this challenge and donating her beautiful earrings for a prize!

Is it really?

It must be Spring! The girls and I had a lovely afternoon outside in the sun...and took lots of new photos. A few of the things happening around Happytown in the past weeks...

Snow melting

Crocus popping

woodpile dwindling

mud drying

woodcock mating

buds growing

sap flowing

house planning

garden dreaming

geese flying

spirits lifting

A Big Thank You...

goes out to everyone involved in in this little project!

Tory, and her sister Bee, who came up with the idea of giving a series of these photos to their father for Valentine's Day! Just about the sweetest thing ever, and to know that he cherishes my hearts along with the photos is just wonderful!

and to Margaret Boyd, a wonderful photographer from Idaho, who is allowing me to use this photo in my ETSY shop to sell my hearts! Thank you so much!

www.mboydphotos.com

Maineteam ACEO Challenge...

"Springing"



Here's my first ACEO...created for the ETSY maineteam challenge. Since I saw these sweet yellow crocus blooms in Gatlinburg, TN last weekend I haven't been able to get them out of my mind! Partnered with the unfurling fiddleheads makes me dream and hope for spring now that I'm back home in snowy Maine! This piece measures 2 1/2" by 3 1/2" and is made with natural needlefelted wool. It is initialed on the back.

Big ETSY excitement!

I came home from a great afternoon of felted soap fun at the Mercer homestead to some real excitement! One of my felted heart photos was featured on an ETSY blog about Valentine's Day!

http://www.etsy.com/storque/craftivism/special-delivery-share-your-love-3268/#comment-61985

I've sold quite a few of these little guys already, and am loving making them. It's so nice to know that I'm sending these little hearts all around our country and the world:) Spreading the love...

Farmer's Rock!

After driving almost two hours to Augusta with no heat in my car (and -10 outside temperatures), I was SO relieved to make it to the Maine Agricultural Trades Show! My head is still spinning from all the information I gathered. There were vendors there from all over the state. I talked with several fiber ladies (one who was spinning right from an Angora rabbit on her lap), an electric fence guru who helped me figure out what would be our best options for fencing our field and chickens, people who gave me lots of options for finding beginning farm loans and grants, and even tried out a scythe for the first time. I was overwhelmed by all the giant equipment squeezed into the civic center and dreamed of owning one of those big tractors or evaporators. There were honey bees, Johnny's seeds, and just about anything else a farmer from Maine would be interested in. I was very inspired to see all the farmers and gardeners there; from old timers to the young and new, everyone coming together to connect, learn, and share the joys and hardships of being a farmer.
I ended my trip to the Trades Show with the Highbush Blueberry School, learning just about everything there is to know about growing these beauties here in Maine. I didn't get any photos of the day, but here's some pictures of our field, covered in snow...just waiting for spring. You can see a row of mulch peeking out of the snow, protecting the first vegetable planted in our field - GARLIC!

Welcome to Cabin Fever...

It is finally here! Christmas is over...new year's as well. The days are slowly getting longer, but that doesn't help with the thought of Spring being so far away. Even on a nice sunny day I'm preferring to sit in a sunny window with my seed catalogs rather than go outside for any length of time. Here's my latest recipe for dealing with cabin fever:

1. Don't have children. They will officially drive you crazy being stuck inside during cold, snowless days.

2. Love wool. Anything. Really. Not only does it keep you warm in a multitude of ways, if you learn to knit, crochet, spin, or needlefelt the lanolin in the wool will keep your hands from drying out and cracking.

3. Dream of going anywhere warm. My favorites are, in this order: North Carolina, Jamaica, New Zealand/Australia, Hawaii, California, Bahamas...

4. Visit friends, join facebook, do anything that makes you feel like you're part of a community - okay, this may only apply to people living out in the boonies.

5. Netflix helps, as does high speed internet.

6. Cook lots of comfort food. My favorites: moose stew, turkey pot pie, brownies, pot roast. Yum.

7. Marry someone who LOVES the cold, dreams of the cold, can't get enough of the cold. If you're lucky they'll drag you out in it enough that you can enjoy yourself, too!