Ouch, oh ouch. That hot summertime weather is here in full force. This level of summer heat and humidity makes me wonder which of our ancestors decided this area would be a good place to live. I really would like to know who said, “Stop the wagon! This looks like a good spot to settle in!” I do know one thing – those settlers surely did not make that decision during these insanely warm summer months. Although, I do hear it’s pretty warm in Alaska right now, too. Ah, summer. May as well embrace it.

Heat or no heat, we’ve been staying busy. Animals keep us darting from one chore to the next. If we’re not feeding one group of animals, we’re busy gathering food (mostly in the form of hay bales) for winter time animal meals. We have been harvesting veggies from our garden lately. A huge portion of those get canned or frozen for our winter time meals. That’s always a satisfying job.

Our turkeys have been growing at an astonishing rate. I’ve never seen a tame turkey in person before, so watching this group has been quite entertaining. Turkeys are a lot more friendly than our laying hens are. Anytime we are near their pastured area, they hurriedly greet us with a unified gobblely chorus. Alas, they are all doomed for the serving platter this fall. Best to not make eye contact.

We recently finished raising out our first group of meat birds. That has been really exciting. We chose to raise a cornish cross bird. In order to keep them safe from predators, they were raised in “chicken tractors” on our pastures until they were about 9 weeks old. We then transported them 3 hours into Tennessee in order to have them processed at an appropriate facility. It has been a wonderful thing to know exactly where our meat supply comes from.

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We’ve also been continuing to spend a lot of time at the farmer’s markets this summer. It has been awesome to see old friends and meet new ones. Seeing our customers truly is a highlight of our week. I get so many new cooking ideas from talking to people!

The temperatures have been a little hot at the markets, so we found this neat little fan to wear around your neck. It charges on a USB charger and lasts quite awhile. Nathan really enjoys using it.

We also have a new resident on Peek Farms! As far as I know, this species is the very first of its kind to live here. Introducing our goat: Baby. She needed to be re-homed and came to our farm from my mother’s farm. “Baby” has an interesting history. She was raised on a bottle as a kid and as a result, she never learned that she is indeed a goat. She believes she is a person. Or at least a dog. She’s great fun for our boys.

Although these summer days are quite brutal, I find myself going outside in the evenings, just to see what variety of sunset we are going to get. I’m never disappointed and the view is never the same.

The days may be long and hot, but they are truly sweet. We hope you’re doing your best to stay cool this summer and can find joy in the simple things! Let us know what you’ve been up to lately or what interesting things you’ve seen -we’d love to hear from you!

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