Dear Family and Friends,

The cicadas have been sounding for the past week. The woods seem to vibrate all day long. When I first heard the sound I looked up to see if some huge piece of equipment was coming down the road. I even stepped outside expecting to see Ricky with his tobacco setter or the road crew with their procession of mowers. The sound seemed so mechanical. I stood there for a few minutes trying to remember all the different sounds I've heard since I've been here. Then I remembered a summer trip to Chicago.

Mary Anne and I were visiting John after his first year at the Art Institute. We took a commuter train to the suburbs to do a couple of errands. When we got off the train I thought there was some kind of problem with the electric wires. There was this god-awful buzzing all around us. John identified it as an insect sound- cicadas? That was in 1991- seventeen years ago.

Sure enough we are seeing empty exoskeletons still clinging to the trunks of trees, shrubs, and the walls of my house. Sasha showed us holes in the ground where they crawl out from the tree roots. Every so often we see one emerge from the split back of a "shell". Cicadas are quite handsome with black bodies, large red eyes, and transparant orange-veined wings. They have about 30 days to mate and lay eggs. After hatching the larvae migrate back down to the roots of the trees for another 13 -17 years.

I spent last Friday chasing little groups of lambs back into the pasture outside my kitchen door. It got to be a game. I was working on a sermon so was right there to see them duck under the barbed wire fence. As soon as I walked toward them the smart ones would duck right back into the pasture. Others would panic and start running back and forth along the fence while the lambs on the inside ran back and forth with them. Sometimes a ewe would stand there and bleat at them? at me? There is a little space between the barn and a fence-pole, so if I could get the lamb headed in that direction he would spy the hole and squeeze through, ready to start the cycle all over again. Paul had to set up some electronet outside the barbed wire so we could all be away on Saturday for market.

On Monday the long-awaited bulldozer arrived to level up the ground for a future 30' x 96' High Tunnel. This is a kind of greenhouse that requires no heat source except the sun It is constructed of steel poles and a heavy grade of plastic coverning. We have friends who have been growing in them for years. They deliver fresh greens to customers almost year-round. They also have vegetables and flowers earlier in the season and later than those of us who grow outside. So we are looking forward to fresh greens this winter.

On the same morning our donkey arrived. Paul and Daniel have been shovelling manure out of a neighbor's barn this spring. (Compost is so essential for all that we grow). Junior Walker raises donkeys and mules. Paul had talked to him about wanting eventually to do more of the work with animals. The cost of fuel is making this an even more attractive possibility. About a month ago Junior told Paul he had a donkey for him. On Monday he arrived just after the bulldozer, 6:30 am, to say he would be bringing the donkey around 10Junior arrived with his grandson and the donkey. They unloaded the donkey. Junior then demonstrated how to place the bridle and work-harness on him. We are in the process of deciding on a name for him.

Today is harvest for the 3rd week of our market season. Strawberries are sweet and plentiful. Robin has put up 38 pints of her amazing jam. Spinach, arugula, and lettuces, along with lovely white icicle radishes have made beautiful baskets for our shareholders. Meanwhile beds of tomatoes, peppers, celery, cucumbers, and squash have been set. Some of the earlier tomato plants have even been caged. Sasha and a few of his friends set out his gorgeous giant pumpkin plants. He is hoping to grow a really big one this year.

Hard to believe he turned 9 this month. I am so grateful to be here to see him and Madeline developing into such delightful and competent human beings.

Love to all of you, Louise