Greetings and a big woof, woof, and arf, arf to you readers of the Seven Oaks Farm blog! My humans, Nancy and Dave, are so busy these days that they don’t have much time to write so I thought I’d give it a whirl. I’m their precious dachshund, Farley, whom most of you already know as the ‘Twelve Pounds of Terror’ who rules the roost at Seven Oaks Farm. I’ve been a part of every, single stage of the work that has happened here at the farm for the last three and one half years, so it is about time that you get a taste of things from my perspective.

Plain and simple, they say I’m a dog with nine lives…or maybe more since lately I’ve had my share of old age problems. Sure my back hurts, my teeth are broken (indeed, some have most recently been extracted) and I’m as grey as Richard Gere, but I’m still the enforcer here! I defend this place like it is the Taj Mahal and my people really appreciate it when I make it clear to any stranger who comes to the door that I mean Business with a capital ‘B’ or even a ‘G’ for Grrrr!

Nancy and Dave left me to guard things today while they went to their favorite composting site. Sure, they have a new and fancy twin composting unit behind the driveway, but when they want to recycle the big stuff, or the nastier stuff, like poison ivy, they haul it away in Dave’s pick up truck. Today they went to St. Louis Composting for a large drop off. They think it is a very fun field trip every now and then. Dave likes to show Nancy how strong he is when he hoists the bags into the mountainous pile of debris. Nancy says he has a cute butt…but is it cuter that mine???? The operation at the site they visit is wonderfully active with trucks dropping off waste material that can be composted into the most fabulous of recycled material. The operation is fabulous to observe as loaders and backhoes work and grind their way through all the dropped off deposits until they are ready to be picked up and hauled away as renewed material.  Wouldn’t you know, International Compost Awareness Week is May 5-11 and they are all about that. Details can be found at stlcompost.com and a ‘Lunch and Learn’ is offered at the 3 facilities that St. Louis Composting runs at Valley Park, Belleville and Fort Bellefontaine. Woohoo…Nancy and Dave are such nerds! They love this sh_t!

While they were out, they passed by the Valley Park Elevator facility which is where the potato starts came from. It is a quaint old building with lots of history. 

But back to me! I do have a gentile side to me which is evident when I photo bomb most of their photo shots. Here is a recent example…Nancy and Dave were planting more peach and nectarine trees in the orchard today and they were transporting them in the utility cart. I try to show them the way…do I have to do everything???I’m like their scout, showing them the right path to take. When I’m not photo bombing, I’m doing selfies with Nancy. Gosh it was gorgeous out today! Wherever I looked, I was surrounded with visions of everything greening up and blooming against a blue sky. Advice to humans, remember to stop, smell the air and look up! Here is one of the blooming apple trees from my view. I like to avoid the bees that are buzzing all around the blooms these days but Nancy is always snapping pics of the bees…as if they are her current favorite subject! Here is one of the avid pollinators working its way through the orchard. They say that the presence of bees contribute to the pollination of fruit trees by 90%! Imagine that! Youza, Arf, arf!

It doesn’t seem to faze Nancy that she recently did a bee visit to the new hives and found that the funny feeling inside her shirt was that of a bee meandering about. She doffed her shirt (Oh My!) and found this lovely specimen lingering around at the collar but this gentle bee did not sting her. Reminder to all, honey bees are harmless and do not want to sting you, so do not react in their presence if you can help it!

Thank goodness Nancy and Dave have gotten many of their vegetable seeds planted already. The weather cooperated last weekend while Kate was in town and they were able to plant seeds for Swiss Chard, Turnips, Cabbages, Pak Choi (aka Bak Choi), Radishes, Kale, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts, 2 types of Carrots, 3 types of Lettuce and 3 types of Spinach. Yahoo, the potatoes and peas have sprouted already! Can’t you see I’m so excited? Yawn! But the day never ends with these guys…they just keep working and working. Like today, late in the day, Nancy planted something like a million of her petunia plants. It seemed like a million to me anyway since it was hours and hours of work. Here is just a sampling.She thinks these will look great on the terrace for Kate and Jason’s wedding. Can you say SNOOZE? I plan to sneak away for that whole weekend and play with my Aunt Mary Ellen and Uncle Imre. They offered to entertain me for a couple of days while their sweet dog, Duncan, is away at doggie camp.  Wow, I’m so lucky! I will keep you all posted whenever Nancy and Dave let me post some more about the farm!