Tomatoes and Turkeys

I figured we're probably way past due for an update on the farm, so here's a quick one today.  We spent the week with just Ruby this week because Pla Shee went to camp and Kai stayed with his MeMe.  It was VERY different, but fun to spend some quality time with our little 9 month old alone.  She was my helper today as we picked tomatoes and took care of baby turkeys.

As I probably mentioned before, this was a CRAZY year for us trying to adjust to having three kiddos, a farm, and full-time jobs.  Needless to say, the garden was pretty much an utter failure.  This was actually the first year that we didn't start our own seeds.  :(  But all was not lost.  We bought about 20 tomato transplants from a local farmers market in the spring and planted them in the backyard along the fence.  The wood posts and netting that you see in the picture is our marginal attempt to keep stray chickens, turkeys, and guineas from eating the tomatoes. 

We've had amazing luck this year with Porters--they're very prolific and we literally pick a bowl's worth of tomatoes just about every evening.

Here's my helper demonstrating that tomatoes make good teethers.

We've also had really good luck with our turkeys, and just had another five hatch the other day.  We had to move the "teenagers" to a new pen across the yard to make room for the new babies.

The sheep, goats, and donkeys are managing so far this summer, but we're bracing ourselves for what will inevitably be a very hot July and August.  That said, the Mitschke clan is headed down to the beach at Rockport this afternoon for some fun in the sun!