This is definitely lemonade and shade tree season. Unfortunately, our work keeps us from spending much time indulging in either. We are in the midst of getting our hay in. Laird, along with Chad and a crew of willing visitors and guests, has been contending with a cranky baler and all the usual stuff that happens during haying. I've been amazed at everyone's good humor about it all.

The garden crew is putting in lots of time finishing up the planting of summer crops, doing the necessary maintenance on what's in and growing and beginning the harvest. Our food processing kitchen is seeing more activity as greens,broccoli, peas and other crops are put in the freezer.

The small fruit are really starting to come in now. We are finished with the strawberries, but have lots of red and black currents, mulberries, and gooseberries to pick. The black raspberries that grow wild all over our farm are bountiful this year, too. Laird made a particularly yummy berry crumble for supper last night.

Work in the food processing kitchen is also up due to an increase in tempeh production. Tempeh is a soy product, often used as a meat substitute, that we sell frozen to stores and restaurants. Thanks to increased marketing efforts, orders are growing. We now have a solid tempeh crew comprised of Laird, Cedar, Sol, Sue, Michael, Jen and myself and we are able to deal with the new business.

Gigi and Jen went to the Clayton Farmers Market in St. Louis last weekend and did very well. They combined it with a number of deliveries to our customers there and visited friends. Jen was in Kirksville this weekend for the farmers market downtown and some errands and socializing.

Stan has been in western Nebraska all this week doing inspections of organic farms. We've missed his early morning presence on the front porch and his "stand-your-spoon-up-in-it" coffee. He'll be home tonight. I'm sure he will be glad that he hasn't been the one who had to contend with the baler this year.

Cedar,Sol and Skyler went to Columbia this weekend for their final appointment with the midwife and to visit our friends Brent and Carol near Sedalia. Brent and Carol have just had a baby boy of their own. Sue has been in Rochester, Minnesota on a short trip with a friend of hers and should be back today also.

Kate has come back from her week at Dancing Rabbit to spend another month with us. Tony, who visited here a few years back, is with us for a week. Our old friend Kalen, who used to live at Dancing Rabbit, will be here for two weeks. We also had Jeanna on the farm for a two day visit and she hopes to return this fall after she finishes an internship in Tennessee.

Kalen and Tony are both blacksmiths(among other talents)and they have fired up our forge and made us some very nice hooks and curtain rod holders. Tony and Chad are cooperating on making an improved sorghum harvesting blade and maybe some wind chimes.

We have had two birthdays recently. Rebecca's was on the fifteenth and Miss Cory turned six on the twentieth. Rebecca's birthday lunch featured three(count 'em, three!)cakes, along with ice cream and Rice Dream. Cory's birthday dinner featured one of Michael's yummy pasta meals and a beautiful chocolate torte made by her mom, Gigi. Some little(or not so little)elf decorated the door of her bedroom beautifully for the occasion.

I've been noticing lots of activity in the birdhouse outside our office window while I have been working on this week's column. It looks like our house wrens have three very hungry mouths to feed. The parents haven't been too happy with Lee, one our cats. He has been hanging out in the shade by the back door today and I'm hearing them scold him. By the looks of things, the three young ones will be out and about soon.