NO, BUT AN ACTUAL REAL-LIFE FARM THIS TIME

I let myself get a little carried away with all my "farmhouse" yadda yadda yadda but the truth of it is, THIS is an actual farm. And it is a GLORY. 

A friend of ours invited us and a couple friends out to help make use of the season's garden haul at her parents' farm just south of town. Her dad is your classic Idaho wheat farmer, many many acres of dry wheat and lentils (I don't remember how many acres, but it's a lot), plus all the tractors, rigs, trucks and silos dreams are made of, oh gosh it was such a feast for the eyes, and then this little hobby garden he keeps out back, which is a funny term for it actually because this garden is BONKERS, considering it's just a hobby. The most intense thing I have ever witnessed. This year they've had a crazy good crop, and I felt so honored to get to help them thin it out. We rolled on up and were met by our friend's sister, who was out wearing overalls and a flannel shirt cutting down giant armfuls of sunflowers, it was pretty much hideously perfect. 

Hey a little bucolic eye candy for ya Tuesday? 

This is Aggie, sweetest old girl ever.  

We got enough tomatoes to can for the whole winter, plus pears for pear butter (pray for my pear butter skills, I'm not sure I have any), and giant bunches of sunflowers and dahlias and zinnias that I literally tossed haphazardly into my biggest pitchers as soon as I got home, and they just look perfect. They've been smiling at me ever since. 

These big puppies like it when you feed them cucumbers (who doesn't). 

Such attitudes on these guys! 

Spending the day in the garden like this made me think of my grandpa Dave. Oh I love my grandpa Dave. He has a garden out back in his home in Grants Pass, and wandering through it to pluck off a green been or two to snack on is always one of my favorite things to do when we visit. (And the gum carousel.) I feel like you can both see AND feel all the love he pours into that garden every day, just by looking at it, and it always reminds me that that same love has been poured into our family all these years, too. It was really sweet to think of him yesterday. 

And at the end, we had ourselves a little picnic.

Peanut butter and honey for the kids, open-faced mayo + tomato on wheat for the grownups. Just-picked basil from the back porch, heirloom tomatoes from the garden, plenty of Johnny's seasoning. Yes. 

I'm feeling lucky every day for the way things are turning out over here. New friendships made, old friendships rekindled. Life's a ride, man. And every now and then you get yourself some dang beautiful scenery. We are loving every second of it.

ps- your classic Idaho traffic jam.