![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/030.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAnd when you do find the vine, you can’t even see a single melon for all the lush greenery.<\/p>\n
Plus, you almost step on a guinea who is either hiding or trapped in all the overgrowth.<\/p>\n Yep, it’s time.\u00a0 See how discerning I am?<\/p>\n So I milked the goats as soon as I put the kids on the bus.\u00a0 I had a healthy breakfast of free range eggs and\u00a0 a 1\/2 can of Pringles (I had to eat the Pringles.\u00a0 I am making goat milk soap tomorrow and need the can for a soap mold.\u00a0 Really.\u00a0 I’m not making that up.)\u00a0 I filled my thermos with iced tea and headed down the farm drive with the wheel barrow and a small trowel for any stubborn tap roots.\u00a0 3 hours and 3 overflowing wheelbarrows later, the job was done.<\/p>\n Now you might think the 3 overflowing wheelbarrows just demonstrates I waited to long to get the weeding done.\u00a0 But I beg to differ.\u00a0 So do these guys:<\/p>\n That’s right.\u00a0 The whole herd waited patiently at the fence by the garden, with saliva dribbling down their chins, as they watched me pull up handful after handful.\u00a0 Oh, they could already taste those delicious dandelion greens.\u00a0 The scrumptious gooseberry vines.\u00a0 The henbit!\u00a0 The plantain!\u00a0 When done properly (i.e. waiting long enough to weed), there’s enough for everyone to share, which means no kicking by Candy Corn and no head butting from Brianna.\u00a0 Just peace, quiet, and chewing.<\/p>\n Charlotte even lucked into a corn cob tucked among the dried up stalks.<\/p>\n And little Chip managed to sneak a midmorning snack while Carmen was too busy noshing to make a get-away.<\/p>\n Some people call this biodynamic farming—where the outputs produced by the farm are input right back into the system.\u00a0 I call it the best way to keep the herd happy.\u00a0 In addition to being an awesome way to burn off the calories in that whole can of Pringles I ate for breakfast.\u00a0 Whoops!\u00a0 Did I say a whole can?\u00a0 Don’t be ridiculous, I meant a 1\/2 can.\u00a0 No one would ever eat a whole can of Pringles in one sitting.\u00a0 I mean, really.<\/p>\n After all that work, the garden was a wonder to behold:<\/p>\n Aaah, that’s better.<\/p>\n There’s the melons.<\/p>\n And the peppers.<\/p>\n Tomatoes still going strong.<\/p>\n Lima beans,too.<\/p>\n This eggplant has a little more growing before harvest.<\/p>\n We couldn’t stop the okra if we wanted to.<\/p>\n The last remaining zucchini plant refuses to fold.<\/p>\n Even the first crop of corn that has come and gone looked better once it was pulled up and turned into bedding mulch.<\/p>\n But nothing could compete with the glory of the zinnias once they were freed from the johnsongrass.<\/p>\n Now the guineas will just have to settle for hiding in the bean patch.<\/p>\n I admit I felt pretty good as I headed for the house.\u00a0 Of course, I did take note of the fine job the goats had done last month in the pasture along the farm drive.\u00a0 They took it from this:<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n