I'm sure several of you have been wondering where I have been and what I have been up to all summer. The short answer is.....working! It has been a tremendous summer with a myriad of things going on. I'm proud to say that the farm has never looked better. Along with planting and picking berries, the brunt of the time was spent cleaning out garden beds and berry rows. It was quite the undertaking! The goal now is to do my best keeping them cleaned out. We were so busy during the spring, doing our best to eradicate Asian honeysuckles, that everything else kind of got out of control. 🙄
I do have a couple of updates. Last spring I shared about the two female cats we adopted from the humane society. They are doing so well! They have decided they enjoy being members of the Coker household. They like to hang out on the front porch and wait for the dogs to come outside and play with them. One of them in particular, Carly, has really taken a liking to Morgan Elizabeth. They are big buddies. Every time Morgan walks out the door, Carly runs up to her, rubs all over her and follows her around. It's pretty funny to watch. We have been quite surprised. They are supposed to be feral cats, but they are the friendliest little things! 😺
The other update is about the pepper plants. A while back I wrote about the pepper plants I kept alive over the winter and planted in the spring. They have knocked it out of the park!! It's actually pretty amazing. Those pepper plants have produced the biggest most beautiful peppers. It worked so well I'm probably going to do it again.
Summer is quickly coming to an end..... although with the heat index like it is this week it certainly doesn't feel like it. 🥵 It's been fun though. It wasn't all work. Over the the Fourth of July holiday we celebrated my mother's birthday. We all ( Craig and I, my parents and my sister and brother-in-law) got together in Gatlinburg Tennessee for a wonderful celebration. It was so much fun, that we are all ready to go back and do it again!
Craig's sister and brother-in-law visited us for a few days at the end of July through the first part of August. We had a lovely time with them. As usual, it wasn't a long enough visit. 🫤 A few days later, Crystal, Craig's daughter arrived from Texas toting all 5 of the grandkids with her. We had a grand time!! 😁 They were here for about 11 days. We kept them busy!! We did all kinds of fun things....the water park, a trip to Bernheim Forest to see the giants, and another trip to Gatlinburg and the Smoky Mountains National Park for a short hike (just to name a few). I think they were surprised by how much energy Grandpa and Grandma have! 😁
I could go on and on about all of our fun adventures, but it would take too long. Instead, I'll post a few pictures. They do a better job at telling the story. Stay cool out there! 😎
