June 15, 2026
On May 30th, it rained again. During a break in the rain, we picked a few handfuls of blueberries.
The sunset was pretty. The stars in the sky were twinkling and the stars on the ground (fireflies) were flashing.
On May 30th, Bruce mowed. The grass was so tall that it looked like he was making hay.
The peas started to give up, and the grass in the garden bed is growing well. I wasn’t able to weed the low beds as I recover from surgery.
The bucket brigade is looking good.
Bruce played with the tractor by using the backhoe to remove more dirt from the roots of Pine Tree Three.
Aphids found the Japanese persimmons!
On May 31, more rain, so we didn’t do a lot. It did clear up in the evening. We enjoyed sitting out on the front porch, watching the sunset and the fireflies.
June 1st, we harvested more than a quart of blueberries.
The bean plants are starting to make beans.
Some of the potato plants are starting to die back.
The other two rhubarb plants have become sad. The first sad one died.
The Japanese beetles arrived.
This sunset makes me think of a Star Trek plot.
Blackberry Homestead 
Glad to hear you are taking it easy and not weeding those beds!
What an unusual sunset. 🌅
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It was!
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Will you be battling Japanese beetles the rest of the season??? I hope not.
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I’ll be battling them for a while. Unfortunately, I didn’t document when the attack stopped last year.
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Good luck!
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Glad you are healing and the crops are looking great, but it is that last line that I find intriguing…do you write Star Trek stories?
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I did not, but I loved Star Trek as a kid.
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Beautiful pictures! Love the blueberries! Looks like the crops are doing pretty good!
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The crops are doing well right now. I just hope they keep doing well.
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So many outdoor chores! Everything looks very green.
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We’ve had so much rain! Everything except the rhubarb is growing great!
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Pleased to hear you’re not overdoing it on garden chores. Bravo, Julia. What a beautiful sunset.
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It was hard to back off. It was!
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The sunset was stunning–I had to study it to figure out the Star Trek reference. I have seen a few shows, but Randy was the main fan and watched it regularly, being his sci-fi background. Things here have had so much rain, it is out of control. We made “hay” mowing the back yard a couple of weeks ago, so I got to it yesterday before it got out of control again.
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The sunset reminded me of one of the portals they were always falling through.
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Japanese beetles — you just made me realize that I used to see them all the time as a child in summer (so, 40 years ago!), but I never see them now. I don’t know if that is good or bad, I’ll have to look it up.
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It is good since they are an invasive species.
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Seems there’s a lot of work to do. (Nah, nah, nah…just teasing.) Keep taking it easy. All that stuff will grow on its own including the aphid families and beetles.
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So true!
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