RhinebeckFarm.com

I cannot say it was the most joyous July 4th we’ve spent at the farm, with a B2, an F-15, and a B-52 passing overhead on their way to an air show and our president promising statues, walls, and graves, but Daisy is unperturbed by such matters, and by all other matters as well.

After dinner we put on our masks and climbed Burger Hill to watch the fireworks up and down the valley.

The world is far from perfect, making this weekend’s splendid, cool weather a relief.

Here are the last of the peonies.

Here is Del Wolcott, spotted this afternoon as he was clearing the horse trails. We bought the farm from Del in 2007, when he was nearing eighty and thought the farm would be too much work to maintain. Now he’s in his nineties, still driving the tractor. He stopped by to let me know that the water pipe into the barn had burst.

These days of endless hunkering have given Jen the opportunity to grow her entire garden from seed. We are expecting quite a bounty!

If you are a deer, and you do not respect the apron, you will be chased! Daisy shows really impressive speed here. Because deer seem well aware of Daisy’s electronic fence, sometimes she needs some backup.

Jen woke up too early (or possibly Sarah and I slept too late) for breakfast in bed, but we did make her huevos rancheros and let her know what an A+ mom she is!

Jen and Daisy enjoyed the first really warm day of spring, sunbathing on the lawn. Jen had to get Daisy her own towel.

Everything is starting to bloom, even this aged pear tree.

Herman, our bachelor muskrat, can be seen each evening swimming back and forth across the pond, building his nest.

Spring is bursting forth: here’s a fox carrying around her kit, temperatures were above 50 degrees for much of the day, and Jen’s garden-in-exile is thriving in our dining room. We are hoping the last frost is behind us!

We had weird light and moody skies yesterday, rounding out four weeks of quarantine. The days run together as we try to get some work done, attend video social events, plant whatever we can think to plant in the garden, and cook whatever we can think to cook.

Today we removed the kimchi from its fermentation crock quarantine and put it in jars. I made a grilled cheddar and kimchi sandwich for lunch and we are making kimchi and chive pancakes for dinner. Somewhat to my surprise, it turns out that Daisy is quite fond of kimchi, which was handy when cleaning up the crock.

Here is Jen having a Zoom cocktail hour with her friends — the new normal.

Jen deserved to unwind after a full day of preparing the garden for spring.

She’s gotten a big head start this year!