Summer is so sweet here. Early this morning I stepped out with my coffee and found myself face to face with a sweet young buck whom I named Nubs last year. My border collie/pyrenese Prairie Rose came quietly past him. This is the best dog we have ever had. She has such an intense sweetness to her. She is good to all animals and they can sense that.

The hummingbirds dart around the feeder and the finches bring their babies to their feeder to teach them to eat. They holler and demand to be fed. The garden is rebounding, though it is nothing like gardens of the past. Nature repairs herself and my yard is also filled with spiders (including the biggest black widow I have ever seen. That chick is vicious!) and praying mantis. Song birds sing, the grasses are green since I have been watering and we have had some nice rain. It stays around 100 degrees and the other side of our state is on fire so we are thankful for the rain.

My home grocery store is filling up with lots of canned goods for winter. Bright green beans and sunny corn, spicy salsa, and dandelion jelly. Lots of delicious broth and more fill the shelves. Not bad for my first year on this homestead. My daughter, husband, and I take the hour drive east to an organic farm on the Mesa to buy fresh produce if our gardens don’t do well any given year. Both of my daughter’s gardens are doing well in their third years. I am just building the soil and creating a biodiverse environment.

We’ve played at the Pueblo rides, taken the girls to horseback riding, hiked, played in the river, and worked our shop and farmer’s markets. A day on a homestead in summer is a whirlwind of activity. One that makes my heart very happy indeed.

I hope you are enjoying your summer, my friends!