A mess of beans....

It's been a while since I posted but boy have things been crazy around here.  I injured my back about two weeks ago (the joys of being tall) and have been out of commission for several days.  I actually spent all of last weekend lying on the floor to help the healing process.  This weekend I am feeling better but am still limited to short periods of work before my back tells me to stop.  So this has meant no weeding, no cleaning chicken pens, no lifting, digging, or even bending over.  So poor hubby has had to take over the chores I normally do, such as feeding the chickens and maintaining the garden.  Could the timing be any worse? 

Luckily the garden is happy and growing.  We have had lots of rain and lots of hot weather and the garden seems to be loving it!  Unfortunately so do the weeds.  This year I managed to keep on top of the weeds when we started the garden, but I fear another week of me not being able to do the dirty work of pulling those little monsters may mean our garden will become a jungle!  Thanks to the hubby though for hanging in there and getting some of my chores done on top of all of his!  I hope to be back to weeding in no time!

Today hubby picked our first "mess" of beans.  We are hoping to be able to can and store a lot of our garden's bounty this year.  Our biggest question was whether we planted enough beans to get a good crop for canning....and boy has that question been answered!  We have more than we know what to do with! 

Other news on the homefront...

Hubby and my dad are building our shed!  Hubby has needed some extra storage space and building a shed off the back of the garage was the perfect solution.  Of course time and other things have gotten in the way of building the shed, but we finally found the funds and the time to get it started.  Its great to see the progress of such a needed addition!  I will post pictures when the project is done.  We are so grateful to have my dad to help with projects like these!  I told him he better be careful, if the word gets out to the neighbors about his outstanding workmanship, he might start getting solicited to build all kinds of things :-)

Also exciting, I am a member of the Farmland Preservation Advisory Board here in our county and our board organize and executed a farm tour for our local legislative delegates, extension and soil and water staff, local educators and a few other key members of the community.  The purpose of the tour was to educate these folks on the importance of state funding for farmland preservation and clean water/stream restoration.  The tour was Friday and went off without a hitch.  I feel like we made a major impact on those in attendance and feel great pride to have been part of the entire process!   It feels great to be making a difference in all things agriculture! 

That's all for now...stay tuned for pictures and progress as the summer rolls on!  Here are some pictures of the garden!

Beans

 Tomatoes and pepers

Tomatoes and hot peppers