Farm-ville

• Farm-ville may be an online game for some people, but we've been enjoying the live version this spring. Jason has come to the conclusion that he can not have everything mowed all at once. He was diligent in attempting to do so until a few flooding rains knocked him into reality. So for now, we are becoming content to keep the house and circle drive mowed with a path mowed along the fences and between all the out buildings.
• Earlier this spring, we ordered berry bushes from the MO Dept. of Conservation. We built a "berry fence" to plant the blackberry and golden currant along. Ironically, we have more blackberry bushes in the woods than we care to count. However, they are so thick and overgrown with wild rose and Japanese honeysuckle that they are more of a mess than anything else. We also have a bundle of elderberry bushes left to plant. In quite a few places, we've discovered fruiting mulberry trees and have enjoyed picking them over the last few days.
• Our dilapidated orchard has come into it's own. We have a pear tree, a peach tree, and what we think is a smooth skinned peach tree (aka, not furry). Now that we know which ones are alive, we'll have to do some pruning work later this year to help them out.
• We are making some progress on our trails in the woods. On our west fence line, we have a trail that goes almost the entire length of our property. We have a few short paths in the middle and another trail we've started along the east fence line. Our goal is to get a large path cleared on the west, north, and east boundaries of our woods so that we can use a controlled burn later this year. The buck bush, wild rose, honeysuckle, and blackberry brambles are so think they have choked out many of the native plants and wildflowers as well as swallowed most of the young saplings.
• We recently finished building our garden plot. We probably planted more than we should have for the space we cleared. We planted tomatoes, peppers, corn, green beans, zucchini, acorn squash, and summer squash. So far so good. Jason also planted a soybean crop out in "pasture #2". We found some bags of soybean in the box car at Jason's parents' place. We're using the soybeans to create a food plot for the wildlife. 
• Speaking of wildlife...spring turkey season came and went with the turkeys on the Brant Ponderosa remaining safe and sound! The only luck Jason had was to see a couple toms one morning and to call another hunter in on a different morning. Miranda and Joanna are tired of hearing him practice! We're beginning to battle groundhogs around the drive, the barn, and house. So far, they are winning. They haven't torn up our garden yet, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.
• Miranda and Rebecca have been enjoying the trails we've built. Miranda pushes the stroller up, down, and all around while Rebecca sleeps the time away. It seems like the more bumpy or noisy something can be, the better she'll sleep. If things are too calm, she wakes up.

That's a fairly lengthy entry, though it's not everything that's been going on. We will write more again later. Don't hold your breath though...It may be a couple weeks or months from now. We're not the most diligent in keeping up with this.