booty from the festival - tomato roll call

tabitha and i both got straw hats. five dollars each. we couldn't find our georgia flame pepper so we settled for a serrano pepper. the kids got cherry tomato plants that tabitha just planted in the garden this evening. our tomato varieties are:
- Principe-Borghese (cherry)
- black cherry (cherry)
- cherokee purple (purple full flavor)
- omars lebanese (large pink slicer)
- pantano romanesco (large red slicer)
- amish paste (red canning tomato)
hopefully we'll have a yellow pear that was a volunteer from last year. that would be a seed saving accident. if it did make it we'll be sure to nurture it for next year also. it'll be the first omelay heirloom. actually it was tristan's favorite i really hope it makes it for his sake.
we had a bunch of fun. deb from work came and brought her husband and another couple. i guess gale and husband from work were there also, i didn't see her though. the thompsons were there with their whole family in tow. we really like them, their kids are nice and fun for our kids. i brought them our extra tomato plants that wouldn't fit in our garden. i hope they produce for them. i invited them to help butcher our chickens. we'll share a few with them (around 5) for their trouble. we can do the butchering ourselves but having help would make it less of a daunting task. plus we want to share our wonderful milk-fed chickens with such a nice family.
nimue is bloating up--she'll calf any day now. i can't wait for fresh cream in my morning coffee.
the garden is starting to really look good. i put mulch (wheat straw) between all the planted rows of tomatoes and beets. the swiss chard and other greens are still to small to mulch in yet. i hope to get cattle panels from mike tomorrow. we'll use a total of eleven cattle panels in the garden. five will make up the pole bean arch. two will be for trellised cucumbers. two will go to pumpkin trellising and two will go to the butternut squash. i'll buy them from mike since they are only slightly used in perfect shape and it'll save me the trip to ozark-MFA in a borrowed truck and trailer.
best of all, mike is giving me his surplus wood from making his loft in his barn. it will go for exactly the same purpose in our barn. i have heavy plywood there now but cool rough cut hickory one inch slab will keep up the rustic feel. i can see the finished barn in my minds eye. i hope to get to work on it very soon.
summer is almost here. life feels so rich right now that it seems like a dream.