Late spring is the most wonderful time to experience Long Shadows.  If you ever plan a visit here, late May or early June is definitely when you want to come.  The flower garden is beautiful.  The vegetable garden is beginning to actually look like a garden (but eating tomatoes is still a dream).  Of course, you run the risk of being asked to help with the work.  This is the time of year when we are the busiest, at least outside.  The grass needs to be mowed, the garden planted, and the firewood processing begins. As an enticement, here is a look at what this place looked like today, June 6, 2017.  The temperature hit a high of 75, in the shade.
This year is a first.  Evening grosbeaks have decided to spend the summer with us.
Latest re-work job.  The bird netting draped over the arched plastic pipe was causing serious problems (translation: death)for the resident snakes.  We couldn't stand that, so we have installed 12" tall 1/4" hardware cloth.  No snake is going to get its head stuck in there.	No tomatoes, but the best lettuce you've ever tasted!
By August, these plants will be loaded with tomatoes.	No, it is not a huge mattress!  Last year's introduction of straw as a water conserving mulch had a few technical difficulties.  Wheat kept popping up.  We had to weed the straw a lot of times.  After some research we learned that if you soak the bales, seal them in plastic, and let the sun bake them, it kills most of the seeds still in the straw.  So this "mattress" will bake all summer.  Certainly hope this works.  More weeding is not something we look forward to.
Blueberries soon!	Cherries soon!
It took about a week for the pergola to go from "too sunny and hot!" to really nice and shady
Dianne's LSU irises!
The native vegetation is pretty awesome too.  There are clumps of oxeye daisy all over the place.  The number one native plant in the understory is salal.  Right now there are thousands and thousands of these bushes in full bloom.  The birds eat the berries and so does Cocodrie.  Us, no thanks.
Here are the last few steps of the tomato planting process.  It actually started way back in February when the seeds went into tiny cups.  Planting is the culmination of several months of TLC in the greenhouse.  (Photographer error: She missed the hole-digging part of the process!)
It has been said all roads lead to Rome.  Well, not so at Long Shadows.  Cocodrie is the number one road builder here.  She makes sure that all of HER roads lead to her throne.  Her favorite hang-out is a small knoll at the very western edge of her property.  It is at the top of a long gentle slope, giving her a huge vista.  It is also closer to our neighbors' property, so she can communicate with their dog.  Notice the two pink flags very close to her.  Those indicate the "hot" zone for the in-ground electric fence.  The second photo was taken from atop her throne, where 3 "roads" are clearly visible.  There is a fourth one to the left, but the camera did not have a wide enough field of view to capture them all.
While Nancy planted tomatoes in the hot sun, Dianne was moving firewood in the cool shade of the forest.  HMMMM.  The shade might have been cool, but Dianne was anything but cool. Last January, Charlie took down dozens of trees, for thinning the forest and providing us with firewood. Dianne started with a very large Douglas fir because it appeared to be the closest downed tree to the tractor road.  She quickly learned it was not nearly as close as she thought.  She moved 45 of the 67 rounds until the job of transporting them got way too difficult.  The last dozen had to be rolled.  She moved to another tree that appeared to be close to the road.  When you have a tree maybe 100' tall, the top might be near the road, but the butt is NOT. The pile of madrone could all be carried except for the last two in the front.  By this time Nancy had finished planting tomatoes and basil and had come down to help carry firewood.  We each had one to roll.  We quit after that  --  too hot and too tired.
Long Shadows is a wonderful place to visit this time of year.  Sit on the patio in the garden sipping a glass of wine and you are surrounded by lots of beautiful plants, tall trees, and birds.  Eventually we quit working and will come sit there too.  Come join us.