Friday on the Farm

As promised, here is a picture of the little poults living in our garage:

As you can see, they are not very photogenic, and will pretty much try to do anything in their power to get away from humans. We don't know why this group of babies is the most flighty we've ever had. They came from the same breeder we got ours from last year, and last years poults were extremely human curious, they loved to check us out and were often intent on pecking at wedding rings, buttons, or other shiny things we might be wearing. These guys are the complete opposite of that; we will have a fun time catching them to move them to their outside pen.

Due to an odd, overly warm spring, a lot of our plants are ahead of schedule. At the end of the 1st week of June, we are already nearing the end of strawberry season, and many of our roses are in full bloom. We have a new one we bought for $3 this spring, that was just twigs when we set it in the ground, but now after just a month or so of babying, we are rewarded with this:

I didn't think that much about it, but Ryan brought it to my attention that this yellow rose with pink edges is very similar to the ones we wore and carried as boutenieres and bouquets at our wedding. I knew I picked this variety for some reason!

As strawberry season draws to a close, we've been searching for new to us ways to preserve this bounty of produce. We made jam, and froze some, but you can only use so many frozen strawberries. Yesterday, I sliced up a bunch and put them in the food dehydrator we borrowed from Mom and Dad. They have completely dried out in 24 hours, and have went from bright red little slices, to dark red, dry little bits of strawberry sweetness. They will be a welcome treat on cereal or as a snack later this year.