Have I raved recently or even at all about the people that work here at the farm? The folks that work here are amazing - funny, kind, hard working, dedicated, smart, creative, and did I mention hard working? They are: Kathy, Stacy, Abby, Mare, Leslie, Maxwell, and then there's Rick and me. Over the years there have been more - and sometimes they come by for a visit, I love those days.

Over the last couple of months Stacy and I have been developing recipes for our new line of mixes. In order to work on the recipe we have to make up batches of the goodies (by now Stacy is the one who does most of that while I flitter around waiting for them to come out of the oven).

Stacy is mixing up stuff - Great except we've all gained weight as a result!


Then Leslie inherited Bailey now known as the Lavender Wind Farm Spa Dog. She's a delight - mellow, watching the people and only barking when the UPS guy comes and she knows he'll give her lots of dog biscuits if she barks at him.

Leslie has been so fun for all of us, and boy oh boy can that girl work!! She even dug out moss from our neighbor's place and brought it here for the step into the gazebo. She's an inspiration, too, because she took time off from her career to hike the Appalachian Trail - all the way! She blogs about the farm, too.

Kathy comes every other week or so and files papers for us. She comes in time for lunch - a fine farming tradition that we uphold with devotion. Some of the folks bring energy bars for their lunches and we make fun of them. Then they eat cookies or lavender shortbread. It was Kathy who really got the gift shop started - she kicked me out of the room, telling me to get my potting and gardening stuff out of there - no arguments. We're so glad she did!

Bottom line: I love this group of people! More about the rest later.

Who'd think about Lavender being useful against Bedbugs? On the other hand, since it's so useful against so many insects - why not? Read about it

If you just want to cut to the bottom line: use twenty drops of lavender essential oil into a spray bottle filled with about 2 cups of denatured alcohol and spray onto the affected area.