The farm feels as if it is transforming daily. The longer days are fully taking hold of reaching green leaves and encouraging them to stretch and settle in for the many days of growth ahead.

With the warm days and lengthening sun, the starts in the green house have started to glow, buzz and create somewhat of a commotion. With roots ready to reach beyond their plastic square homes and upgrade to more spacious lodging; a movement akin to Occupy was rumored to take hold. They were ready, in mass, to take over the fields. I knew the weather would be a bit dicy, but with a busy schedule you can’t always accommodate to precision timing. If time and good weather presents itself and plants are begging to go in, then you just have to do it. Monday was a big planting day, half of the tomatoes went into the ground at 60 plants, some peppers and eggplant too. They were given love, water, a blanket of frost cloth, a gesture of prayer flags and wished the best of luck for the somewhat chilly nights ahead…like Firday, when we were ‘graced’ with snow. As slyly as rumored, Siskiyou County weather tossed in a wicked curve ball. I think the local Spring saying goes as such; in like a lamb, out like the abominable snowman.

Although the weather outside was frightful, those sun-soakers hunkered down and pulled through! Yahoo! At present the frost cloth is off and hopes are being cast for amiable lows that don’t dip below 50. A girl can dream and dream I will.

With non-stop work on the daily docket and the dockets of days yet to come, additional hands, smiles and company out in the fields is a blessing. I’ve already expressed how the journey of this land and project has filled it’s significance and reward, just with the people and relationships it has cultivated. Homeward Bounty has seen and will see a lot of special visitors, but this week might take the cake, or the lamb chop, as would be appropriately coveted by the O’Brien family. Memorial weekend brought the whole clan to Lake Shastina. All five of my Dad’s brothers and sisters and their partners, my sister, cousin Ben and Kelly all made the trip for one fun-filled and incredibly loud weekend. Now the weekend couldn’t be all play and no work. That would have been horrible, right!? While the guys when out golfing all the ladies rolled up their sleeves and set out to work on the farm. It meant the world to me to show them all the land and work that’s been invested into it. They were great out there, planting tomatoes like professionals. What a blast! Talk about hard workers. They even folded up the frost cloth like fine linen.