Happy New Year!

Sending us all a fine & fortuitous 2012.

Christmas misfortune

My friend Terrie's sister lost their home & possessions in a house fire Christmas evening. We're all pulling together trying to help them out, if you'd like to participate in the helping, here's a place for coordinating contributions & donations.

And a special thanks from me in advance for even a prayer of help.

Life moves on

Got the 1st leg and rafter of the small greenhouse put up on the back of our house yesterday. 9 more to go plus 2 pieces of polyethylene to top it and 2 ends to cover plus a smattering of slats, stakes and gussets. Tomatoes are growing great in the basement along with some super happy looking cukes and zukes so the greenhouse is becoming a pressing issue.

Xmas behind us, New Year ahead. Lots of work to do real soon & already falling behind on the pruning and spraying of fruit trees. But I wouldn't know how to operate if I wasn't behind schedule :)

Hope life is turning over little treasures for you all.

We've got the unpleasantness of the funeral and the pleasantness of seeing so many wonderful family members behind us now. The hard, cold, icy snap of the last 2 weeks is abating before a stormy night tonight. I'm starting to get my mind back on the work plan. Tomorrow I plant tomatoes, squash, and peppers. Wishing you all a fine late autumn night.

God Speed Johnny

At 3:45pm today our father Johnny Giesbrecht at last set down the burdens of this world and went on to that great adventure which awaits us all. He was surrounded by his loving wife and children and was in no pain. We're all grieving here but you needed to know Johnny to understand why that grief comes with a silver lining. Though dad was often a sombre man he was never one to dwell in grief. His humor and stick-to-it-ness support us even now. Dad often said "Take care of your job & the rest of your life will take care of itself." and with that we should all get back to the business of living.

Late autumn relaxations

another foggy Oregon morning. Aunt Anna & I are enjoying a nice pizza breakfast with hot tea.

Uncle Leo, aunt Margret & uncle Ben left a little early yesterday, uncle Ben wasn't feeling good so they made sure he had plenty of time to rest at the hotel before their flight left this morning.

Dad is resting ok, but he's got the hiccups pretty bad.

It's Sunday, so no work for me today :) Hope y'all enjoy this fine day and find many inspirations.

2011 season end

Hi folks! Just wanted to let everyone know we were throwing in the towel on 2011. It was a great season, we had lots of fun growing great food for you all but business has slowed down too much and we've just got too many chores that need doin' so next year will be even better. Thanks again & God bless you all.

autumn check-in

Busy! Good weather means good work. Mom & I are gonna break routines and run errands in town this evening. Hope fall is treating you well.

Prizes from my niece

My niece is having a giveaway! on her blog "Cooke's Frontier", 3 boxes of cereal & a 25$ Walmart gift card. Check it out & sign up at Cooke's Frontier. Expires in 3 days, on Oct 12th so get on it!

Dad inspecting the gala apple harvest.

Sweet seedless grapes

Today's canning corn orders

Some went out in bags so it wasn't all cased. Lots of happy canners!

Here's our little buddy Sparky enjoying one of his favorite repasts....

Cantaloupe crown pick is upon us!

Gotta go crash into my bed soon, must get up early while dew is still on the melons to pick them and pack them in before they get even 1 degree warmer. It's the crown pick, I'm predicting better than 4 wheel-barrow loads. Sizes are running A-1 to freakin' huge! And just standing over a bag of these things is like intoxicating.

And on that note I'll tottle off to dream land.

Sweet & fragrant !

I'm just astounded by how many large cantaloupe are coming out of the field. Their fragrance fills the stand & even seems to billow a ways out into the breeze where I sit in the shade.

Still a steady trickle of our regular customers finding their way to our new/old location & here's one now!

Summer sales & fun

Cantaloupe continue to come on strong. Saw one of our good regular customers, Randy, at the post office & told him where our new/old location was. He showed up shortly before closing & picked up some corn and 'maters.

GPID sent out the ditchwalker yesterday & hooray! today the water is full and deep. Now it will be interesting to see if we can keep any water into the week. In the meantime, the extra power service is really paying off. We've been able to run a big sprinkler across the top cornfield in just 2 passes. Really soaked the fields too.

Hope these fine summer days are delivering a harvest of fun.

Sweet, sweet melons

Can hardly believe how great the cantaloupe crop is turning out to be. Glowing feedback from everyone who has taken one home & the crown pick is still to come in. Now if the water stress just won't squelch the late season fruit set we'll all be happier. Corn is coming in really nice too, just picked the 1st of the "Incredible" type, a little young but so tender and sweet.

Gotta go now and pick a few more mickey-lee watermelon, sure don't wanna run out.

Y'all have a fun day.

Corn harvest begins

Nice bit of corn coming in, and the cantaloupe are so sweet. Wow! was the stand busy today, the melons sold like crazy.

Lots of familiar faces coming in all day, "rediscovering" us back at our old address in our new location in the same building we used to have down the road. A few new people have also been brought in from our web presence. Which I find very cool, thank you much!

Work will be intense this week as we lean into the beginning harvest-avalanche so posting will be sparse and sporadic.

Here's a heartful of peace for everybody :)

Fresh cantaloupe

Just picked these sweet Oregon beauties!

Sweet and pretty

Yummy plums