farm life update no. 7

It's harvest again already. I can't believe how fast it comes around!

This year's been a very mild one so far, with less rain & warmer temps than normal. That put harvest a few weeks ahead of last year even, which was an early one. So we are super early this year!

Dar & the blackberry night crew have been putting in looong hours, trying to stay ahead of the heat & get as many blackberries harvested as they can before the heat ruins them. It's been a blur. 

 This year is the first year Dar's harvested his own field. I can tell it's so rewarding for him to finally get to see a crop after a couple years of pounding miles of posts, spraying in a hot, a/c-less cab, chasing the deer from his tender new plants... For a man providing for his family, he needs to see his toil paid off. I'm so glad he's a hard working man! Nothing like a little dirt, sweat, & aches to tell your wife you love her!

 I love that it's berries he farms. Corn & soybeans just aren't the same for fresh eating :). Livy figured out in a matter of minutes how to pick a ripe berry. That girl. She is a goer & a doer.

 

It isn't all work, though. Jesse & Laura were out for a week, so the cousins got lots of kiddie pool time in. All three of them loved it. It's so fun to see the three of them together! 

Fee gets so much love from her Oregon family. Livy hugged her unprompted in this photo, so sweet! I hope they will be best friends. 

It is so sweet to see all Fee's aunts & uncles loving up on her. She doesn't know how blessed she is, that it's normal to always be held & cuddled, to be adored.

This photo, I love. Daddy's hands, a little banged up, a little dirty, kinda hairy, but gentle all the same.

Such signs of summer: bare feet, sunny days, walks in the berries, the shsh-ssssh of the sprinklers...

It's a CRAZY time of year here. But it's a good time of year, too. The whole family is home, the kids are out of school, there's energy & togetherness amidst the chaos. And before we know it, it is over. Til the next year.