OK, I need to work on adding the pictures but hey, I got one to at least show up on the screen this time. Just not straight. This is the Easter picture of the most special people in my life - my grandbabies. This is the first time we got them all together at once. Don't they make your heart melt.

I have spent the last 4 hours outside working on a raised vegetable bed. I lugged and dumped 75 bags of compost and topsoil this afternoon. I'm trying the square foot gardening method. I read about it this past winter. Hopefully this experiment will turn out better than most of mine. Maybe I will be able to post an upright picture of the gardens. The weather is just fabulous right now.

I am getting ready for an Herb festival in our local area (Terre Haute, IN). We set up a booth and sell our PourAPie, flowers, craft items, just things found in and around a farm. It is such a fun time. This is the first time I get to see friends and customers from the previous year. It is fun to see how big the kids have gotten over the winter.

We just heard a few days ago that Appleseed Farm won an award from the Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce. I did not even know we were up for one. There is a dinner banquet planned for the award winners (I guess there were a couple of us). I'll let you know what we won and how we were nominated as soon as I know.

The kids just came in. Gotta go spoil those grandbabies. They don't stay little very long.

See ya on the farm

Charlotte

Spring is coming

I tried to upload a picture of my grandson, Wyatt and myself Iafter we made a pie with PourAPie. I kept getting error. I'll keep trying. Wyatt is here for his weekly sleepover at Nana's. He is old enough now that he is sometimes staying home to play with his friends on the block instead of coming to Nana's. This makes me sad.

Spring is coming on the farm. The peaches, pears and cherries are all in bloom. The rest of the orchard is starting to leaf out. The blueberries (we have about 8 bushes right now) and just budding. Our orchard is just a sea of pink and white blooms. It is beautiful.

The bad part of spring coming to the farm is the hard work begins. We have started to clean the flower beds. We sell bouquets at our local Farmers Market every Saturday. All the stall need their spring cleaning. (YUCK!!!!) When it is really cold, you just shovel out the worst of it and pray about the rest. I think my mom calls that a lick and a promise. (not a good visual). Our chickens have begun brooding. They are sitting on their eggs hoping to hatch out some babies. I guess I need to tell them the facts of life because as of right now there are no roosters in the barn. I have 4 or 5 in the greenhouse growing but not ready to be a man yet.

This past week has been a horrible week. We have been the busiest that we have ever been at work. The barn went up. It just took the guys 3 days to build the barn. I also had carpet laid in the living room and master bath. (tax check return put to good use). You do not know how much junk you have in your living room until you have to clean it out. But the old carpet had to come up. I have 2 granddaughters who are on the floor now and our carpet was hideous. For some dumb reason, I chose champaign colored carpet the first time around. On a farm, no less. This time something darker and kid proof is on the floor. This all had to be done on top of trying to get stuff ready for a festival in about 4 weeks. (Does any of this sound familiar?) If I would have had time, I would have had a meltdown and cried. How do you handle all the stress and pulls on your time?

Notes from the farm

Last time I told you about life changing here on the farm. Today I came home from work and there were about 10 Amish guys putting up a barn in the pasture. I knew we were getting a new one (we've been saving forever) but when I left this morning there was nothing, I came home at 2:00 and the frame was already up. Sometimes all the progress even amazes me.

I wanted to tell you a little more about the Country Living magazine conference. I met some pretty neat people and saw some pretty amazing stuff. Some was real cool and some made you scratch your head and say, "What would I ever do with that?" This one lady that I met made the most adorable picture frames. Her name is Marnie. She makes them in her garage workshop. The ones that I saw were about a 5 X 7 size. Add the most up to the date fabric. Instead of those nasty picture holder things on the back that you break a nail trying to open or just breaks off completely; she used ribbon to hold the picture in. Changing pictures could not be easier. I am thinking Christmas gifts for my family. Like me, she works a part time job outside the home. She doesn't have a web site yet, but when she gets one I will share it. Marnie and I shared the same nervous elevator when our pitches got delayed. Talk about two nervous nellies!!! But she encouraged me to get through and I hope I did the same for her. Now just to hear back from Country Living.

Just wanted to catch up a bit. It is fixin to rain tonight and through the weekend so I have to catch up and get a head on a few chores. Talk with you later

See ya on the farm
Charlotte

Greetings from Appleseed Farm

Hi, everyone. This is my first blog on this site. I have a page on my website that I update every month or so but this is the first official blog. My name is Charlotte. As you can tell from my name, I live on a farm in Indiana. We grow specialty produce, have value added products and am just now getting ready to put in a blueberry u-pick. But enough of that.

I attended a Country Living conference for women in Chicago last month. Talk about culture shock. First I could not believe how much the hotel costs and then the amount of people in the city was just mind boggling. Talk about taking the farm girl to the big city!!! But that was a huge leap of faith for me and there really was a net there to catch me. I met a lot of nice people who I am happy to be able to call friends now. And was able to pitch to a major magazine. If you haven't been out of your comfort zone in a while, it's time to shake things up.

When I got home, it was life was usual. Life on the farm is always the same and always changing. New births, new growths, garden expansions a new barn, etc... I hope to be able to figure out how to put pictures on my blogs so you can see what I am talking about. Sometimes it is just hilarious to see my daughter come walking out of the pasture with no boots on because she lost them in the mud or grabbing at your heart strings to see my Sam, my granddaughter feel a baby chicken for the first time and giggle.

I'm not sure how long these posts are supposed to be. I guess I will learn the rules of blogging as I go along. Hope to hear from all of you soon.
For now,

See ya on the farm
Charlotte