At the farm for Molly's 25th

We went to the farm Friday and Saturday for Molly's 25th birthday. Seems like the best place to be... unless it's 104 degrees, which it was Saturday. It pretty much kept us in the house in the early afternoon, but the rest of the day we were outside. We had a wonderful time with some old friends that Molly invited. Everyone seemed to tolerate the heat and make the best of the day.

Jonathan on Wimpe.

Brody and Leah on Tank and Dolly

Leah, Molly, Brittany and Loren... old great friends! We have so many of our memories around this batch of girls. I can't tell you how much we've laughed at them. A creative bunch!

Grey and Papa G

Grey hangs on for dear life. He liked being on the sheep. He pulled up on the coffee table today and stood up. Things will never quite be the same again, or in the same place again:-)

Molly Deanna turns 25!!!

I really can't believe that Molly can possibly be 25, much less married with two fine boys! How can it be? Seems like only yesterday she was laying on the floor of our house in Spring sticking out her tongue at me while I read the paper. That can't be 22 years ago... I guess it is. Wow.

It's been so much fun and a blessing to have had the girls so young. We are blessed to get to live close by and go to church with them weekly, as well as have them at the farm on a regular basis.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOLLY!

Molly D and Amber

Mikki, Molly, Jack, Amber and Caroline at dinner tonight.

Jonathan and Molly, blowing out the candle on the ice cream ball rolled in caramel and coconut...

Molly in her festive attire...

Jonathan and Molly.

Sweet Corn and Tomatoes this Weekend! Wow!

Friday and Saturday we had guests to the farm. Mikki fixed a great meal both days that included all of the fresh vegetables from the garden. The tomatoes are huge and sugar-sweet! The sweet corn roasted fresh from the field was to die for.

52 ears of Sweet Corn! We ate a ton of it. It was so sweet we could eat it raw. Decided not to consume too much of it before it was cooked.

Tomatoes are beauties. And some of the sweetest I've ever tasted. Its a crying shame that the stores can't carry vine ripened tomatoes that don't taste like a baseball. They must have to work very hard to make a tomato that has no taste. Ours this year are wonderfully delicious. Really!

Red bell peppers are ripening as we speak.

Brody and me pulling corn. We had a good time.

Brody in the corn patch.

Some new Chicks Arrive at Go Away!

Brody holding a baby chick. He and Caroline were at the farm but taking a nap when I got home with them. We took them out to the wood shop and let them hold a chick. They loved them. Not sure the chicks felt the same.

I picked up 8 new chicks at the feed store this week. We built them a new home for a month or so in my wood shop away from the vultures and pests. Now, if we can keep the Standard Poodles away we'll be in good shape. We added four Rhode Island Reds, two Barred Rocks and two Araucanas. The Araucanas lay a naturally low cholesterol egg that has a blue shade to it. Visitor eggs:-)

The Castleberry Family Grows Up

Ethan, Lacie and Camille at Lacie's wedding this month. It's hard to believe that Keith's babies are standing here attired in an Army uniform, a wedding dress and a bridesmaid dress... How can it be? Ethan is headed off to boot camp no.2 for the National Guard this summer after graduating from high school and Lacie ups and marries Nick. They can't be old enough to dress themselves and here they are moving on with their lives. Well, maybe I'm just aging and don't want to admit it. We wish them the best. I suppose Keith and Melissa can now dote on poor little Camille. I'm sure Keith will ramp up the discipline on Camille much harder than he was on Lacie and Ethan:-) Right.

Funny kid photos

Sometimes, they don't have to make a funny face to have a funny photo. Something about this silk hat and outfit that I find funny when I look at Grey's face. Kind of like he's playing some part in a play.

And then there's the one in control and the other one that is just fine with it. I think we had worn out our welcome on the photo taking Easter Sunday. Just ran across this tonight and thought it was worth posting.

2009 Graduates!

Seems like our family is finally growing up, with all of the nephews, nieces, great nieces & nephews graduating at one time (or so it seems)... There is a large crop this year. As I can collect the photos, I'll add them to the blog at this location. If you have photos of graduates, feel free to shoot them to me via e mail.

After an exciting and fun-filled year, Randa walked the stage last week and got her just reward after 12 grueling years in lower education. For those of you who don't know who Randa is... she is my great niece, or, she is my youngest sister's (Diane) grand daughter, and our niece, Dana Michelle's oldest daughter. Seems there could have been an easier way to say that. This is quite a feat considering the rest of Randa's busy year. We are proud that she graduated and can now get on with enjoying the casual life where things are just wonderful every day. Randa, never again will you have to put up with silly teachers telling you what to do, parents nagging at you constantly, alarm clocks, nor all the other things that drove us all crazy during our school years. Life is good. Except for the bad parts. Congratulations Randa!

Preston Cale with his proud mom and dad, Gay Sumrall Cale (Mik's middle sister) and David. Preston is headed to University of Oklahoma to study geography which there isn't much of that topic around Oklahoma that he'll find too interesting. So hopefully, they will be studying geography other than the immediate surroundings. We wish Preston well. He graduated a National Merit Scholar and in the National Honor Society from a class of 420.

Oh My Goodness!

You can't believe how sweet these large Rosborough black berries are... Especially after setting in sugar:-) But on vanilla ice cream, they are exquisite! Rosborough is a Texas A&M variety that came out in 1977... They can produce about 5,000 to 8,000 lbs per acre. That is a lot of blackberries and even more thorns! Man, they are thorny!

The Farm Is Ripe for Picking!

The garden is brimming with vegetables! We had fresh tomatoes for lunch today. Wow! After eating these tomatoes, you simply can't stand to eat store-bought tomatoes. Had a salad this week in a fine restaurant with beautiful tasteless tomatoes. They'd have people standing in line outside if they'd taste these! The Red Globe peach trees we planted from bare-root stock winter-before-last produced their first ready fruit today. Smells wonderfully sweet. Can't wait to place it on some Homemade Bluebell Vanilla for dessert! We did that very thing two weeks back with about a pound of giant black berries. Oh my!

I won't repeat the same copy from the Go Away blog about our genetic testing. Just suffice it to say that we're not going to grow any more Potato-ducks. They're just too much trouble. Kind of cute though... little head, feet and winglets:-)

Red Globe peaches almost ready. My luck, the birds saw me taking pictures and will come in for the kill later this week.

Red Potatoes! A bunch of them.

Red and yellow onions. Wow.

Pirate's Beach Trip

Mikki, Amber & Molly took Brody, Jack, Caroline and Grey to Pirate's Beach in Galveston for a little respite. They had a great time. There was no one on the beach during the week except them. The place is coming back remarkably well. There are some homes still with damage, but the majority along the beach have been renovated and are ready for the summer vacation and God forbid, the next storm. Of course down there its not if, but when.

Brody, Jack and Liney devour watermelon the way it's meant to eat. On a towel and without many clothes. Not sure why Caroline is in pajamas.

Here's Grey ready to go to the beach. He seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself. He scooted all over the living room floor.

The gardens at Go Away Farm

The lush lawn, flower gardens and organic vegetable garden are all the product of one person, and that is Mikki. She is the brainchild behind all of the color and detail that can be found in every corner of the farm. She is also my best friend on earth and a wonderful wife. I have truly been blessed to have her in my life. She very obviously loves gardening and being out in God's creation. But the amount of work she puts in deserves recognition, just in case anyone thinks I'm doing anything related to the gardens other than taking photos and eating my share of the vegetables. She has enriched my life with her work in the gardens and I so appreciate it. The work I've done is in the vines, berries and orchard and they pale in comparison to her gardens. Mik gets the credit for the color we're enjoying herein.

Fresh yellow onions, just pulled.

This is one of the bad boys of the garden. They can do an enormous amount of damage in an organic garden before you can shake a stick at them. All of the limbs here that are clean-cut are the handi-work of these creatures. They serve a purpose on God's earth. What? I have no idea, but I don't think he'd have allowed such a mean little guy (probably female) eat up our tomatoes:-)

Check out the detail in this Passion flower! Amazing. It looks like a ride at Disney World in full spin. They are the most beautiful and unusual flowers we have at the farm. The light green buds all around the bloom are the new blossoms about to burst forth.

I'm not sure what this is, but it appears to be a miniature verbena, if there is such a thing. I'll check and get back ... oh never mind. As soon as Mikki reads this, she'll straighten it out and I'll edit this and put the right name on it. Anway, I love the detail these beauties show. Looks like tatting or a wall paper design.

More detailed little blossoms that are gorgeous right now. And again, I have no idea what this is other than beautiful.

Grey Ensey

Grey is dedicated... Molly, Jonathan and Dovey Ensey (Jonathan's Mom)

Grey's dedication.

I love this photograph of Molly and Grey. This little guy smiles and laughs non-stop. He is a happy guy and a great baby. We were just with he and Jack, Brody and Caroline at the beach for a couple days and Molly would just lay Grey on a pallet and leave him and he'd wile away hours playing. On occasion he'd catch our eyes and flash that grin. Hard to beat that in a grand baby.