Volunteers

Flickr has been updated! Check out the new Leapfrog Farm set here.



Things really like to grow here at Leapfrog. Christine is especially fond of her volunteers, often going to great lengths to preserve them. Its worth it, though. We fill out much of our salad mix every week with "free" greens. In this image, you can see the fight for space between broccoli rabe, chard, and bronze fennel. It makes for a beautiful, varied landscape.

Here's another volunteer who tried to help Sara and I make dinner the other night... after Sara took him outside, he hung out for quite a while before hopping off into the twilight. Ole' blue eyes!

We broke records last week in the heat department... an unheard of 110 degrees last Wednesday, and high 90s for much of the week. It was a frantic scramble the last two weeks to pull weeds and set irrigation up beforehand, but, happy to say, most of everything pulled through (a lot of the greens bolted, but that's to be expected). In the midst of it, though, we couldn't do much but wring our hands and sweat, so on Wednesday, we took off for the Quilcene River in the Olympic Mountains.

Nothing like icy mountain stream water to bring down your body temperature!

Fruit salad with the boyz. That's Alexander in blue.

Thursday Sara and I visited a brand new farm on Bainbridge Island called Terra Bella Farm. We'd befriended the girls who run the joint at the farmer's market. Sara really wanted to see a new farm in action, and Rachel, farm manager, appreciated the support. We were especially taken with their tee-pee trellis technique for squash and beans. A good lesson in maximizing space.

And now, for my personal favorite, a monocromatic image of (one of ) our kale beds. Maybe I was homesick, but the color scheme out here is unbeatable!

Andrzej, Sara, and the boys and I did a watercolor art therapy session last night. It's one of the many aspects of Bodywork and energy healing that Andrzej teaching and performs. After re-learning how to use watercolor (I'm rusty!), I really enjoyed myself. Found a lot of my art history training (I made a lot of Gerhard Richters) coming out, but also found myself painting a lot of kale, too. Sara painted a bunch of watermelons, and the boys, Danya in particular, regaled us with "advice" on our technique. Fun times, and I look forward to painting more. Watch out, Sculpture!