I would love to tell everyone that we fixed our pump/well issue, but we haven’t. We did however learn our well was 90 feet with 52 feet of water! So our well is not dry but the pump is not working correctly … I mean, it is nine years old. It’s only holding 5-10 pounds of pressure then failing. No big deal, everyone stays clean and hydrated.

It has been a pretty productive week. I strapped Daphne to my back, grabbed Harper by the hand and headed out to the orchard to take care of some sticker bushes while Phil and Ed figured out the depth of the well. I cut and cut at those darn bushes for a couple of hours. They were woven in and out of the chicken coop and the greenhouse.

Phil took care of a plum tree that was grafted onto an apple tree that had made itself a nice little barrier in front of the greenhouse. The tree is not going to produce any fruit because it sprouted from the root stock and if it were to produce fruit, it would not be too tasty. The greenhouse and chicken coop look much better. There still are sticker bushes in between the two structures but the thorny demons are cut way back … until I get after them again.

We also started clearing some of the brush, sticker bushes and extra-long grass away from the other fruit bearing trees so we can start the pruning on them. They have been producing fruit for a number of years now.

We have eight apple trees, six cherry trees, six plum trees and six pear trees. The raspberry bushes have gone crazy and have decided to grow wherever they wanted. The red currant bushes need a little love as well. We sadly only have three blueberry bushes (we need more) and unfortunately have about four acres of Himalayan blackberries (There is so much wine to be made and I guess jam).

I started thinking about having a vineyard since we have the four acres of blackberries. I was saying how we should make all this wine and sell it! Ed shot me down real quick as he rubbed his beard, “Jaymi, we can’t do that because it’s called bootlegging.” If you know Ed, he rubs his beard when he doesn’t want to tell someone that they are being ridiculous.

Our bee boxes were destroyed by the marauding bear that is no longer with us. We have the material to build two new boxes but still lack the bees.

The triple bunk beds are basically done. We just need to put the “face” of the outside on, decorate them and add a couple of 2x2s for the railing. The girls are so excited. They have been climbing all over them and jumping onto the bed down below.

Phil and I got to spend some time together away from the farm this weekend. We dropped the girls off at my mother’s house in Port Angeles and drove off to Silverdale. We checked into our hotel, watched a little TV, turned on all the lights at once and headed out to get some shopping done for Harper and Riyan’s birthdays.

We had a couple dinners because how can you just pick one place? The next day we were worn out from city life and hurried back to our girls and farm. The rain welcomed us back. It was very pleasant to get back home.