“We still have a fair amount of summer left but you know Fall is approaching in North Idaho when the pumpkins are maturing and the corn crop is ready to harvest,” posts Sunny/Bent’s Beer Garden. More here.

• Dream a little dream (of school’s first day)/A Butterfly Moment
• Book review: Republican noise machine/Arch Druid
• 1st Priest Lake triathlon successful/As The Lake Churns
• Cyberspace show and tell/Atmospheric Ruminations
• New Orleans 5 years later/Community Comment
• Thank you Walt Whitman/Gathering Around The Table
• Welcome to hotels.com/ilovecda.com
• Serious yummage/JeanC’s Cat House & Shooting Gallery
• Getting a point across/Live, Love, Laugh, Hope
• Idaho cultural experience/Slight Detour
• Empty/Tumblewords

HucksOnline numbers (for week of Aug. 22-28): 50,923/31,020

At Bent’s Beer Garden Facebook page, Sunny posts a photo of the first summer tomato that she has produced this year. Which caused me to look at the tomato plants that I bought from her Mostly Sunny booth at the Kootenai County Farmer’s Market — 4 different varieties. None ready to produce yet. But buds on all and fruit appearing on some. Can hardly wait till I take that first bite of that first tomato from my garden. BTW, my roses — miniature and large — are spectacular this year.

Question: How is your garden doing this year?

So Dad, here’s to all the little things….the little things you have taught me and shared with me on this path called life…they are really the big things…the things that mean so much to me: Thank you for the family hikes, the family bike rides, and the family picnics at Farragut State Park…and thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to take us kids fishing at Hayden Lake (even though it was me you were usually fishing out of the lake). Thanks for teaching me how to mow the lawn, how to pick potato bugs, wash the car and clean the pasture. Thanks for teaching me that girls can do anything boys can do. Thanks for teaching me that it’s okay to dig in the dirt. Thanks for teaching me how to be tough…physically and emotionally/Sunny, Bent’s Beer Garden. More here.

Question: What did your dad teach you?

“Please don’t hate me family,” pleads Sunny/Bent’s Beer Garden, “I couldn’t resist the temptation. … Yep, you guessed it … I ate the first ripe strawberry of the season … I feel so guilty … I must say it was very tasty … but not as tasty as the first snap pea was Lol!” Sunny, your secret’s safe with us Merry Hucksters. More here.

• “Tea Parties for Dads”/A Family Runs Through It
• Book Review: “After” (Glad it’s now history)/Arch Druid
• More info: Timberlake Fire District/Herb Huseland, Bay Views
• Chief Kirkpatrick’s e-mail to Seattle mayor/David Laird, Community Comment
• Go, Monty!/Kerri Thoreson, More Main Street
• What’s up with the cattitude?/Prime Beauty
• Endangered sea turtles/Robin Loznak Photography
• Red eyes and Annie/Marianne Love, Slight Detour
• Endings are the same/Tumblewords

HBO Numbers (for Thursday, June 10): 8138/4980

At Bent’s Beer Garden, Sunny posts w/exclamation points: “Yes we have zucchini!!! … .and yes you can use it to make more than just bread. One plant will provide you with more than enough zucchini for the entire season.” Now, I don’t know about you. But zucchini is a staple in the vegetable part of my garden. Gotta have ‘em, along with yellow crooknecks and some other type of squash that usually doesn’t grow for some reason. Also, I’m neighborly enough not to try to pawn the ones that grow to the size of large hogs because I forget to check them every day.

Question: What do you do w/your excess zucchini squash late in the summer when you’re overrun by them?

Pepper plants will be one of the things for sale at the Mostly Sunny booth at Farmer’s Market tomorrow morning in Hayden, along with Straight Eight cukes, cabbage, various herbs, and various tomatoes. Sunny, of course, is one of the regulars at HucksOnline, who helps compile Bent’s Beer Garden blog.

I am very excited to be a part of the market this year and I must admit….I’m a little nervous as well. I have no idea what to expect and I know that many folks who participate have much larger growing operations than we do. So I guess my only real fear is we won’t have as much to sell…at least not in the front end. I heard from a fellow market vendor that some vendors simply don’t show up until they have produce to sell. Nevertheless, we want to be there on opening day just to get a feel for how the market operates…if I run out of plants to sell then rest assured we will be back to the market when harvest time comes around/Sunny, Bent’s Beer Garden. More here.

Question: Have you started your garden yet?

Tomorrow is opening day at the Kootenai County Farmer’s Market. I chose the name of our farmer’s market business to be “Mostly Sunny”. We went with this rather than our blog name of The Beer Garden because we obviously can’t sell beer at the market. The Beer Garden blog got it’s start on The Spokesman Review’s blogroll on Huckleberries Online and many of our local friends know me as Sunny and they know Jeff as Bent. These names were simply monikers that originated from the Spokesman’s blog world. Hopefully, this clears up any confusion … I am very excited to be a part of the market this year and I must admit….I’m a little nervous as well/Sunny, Bent’s Beer Garden. More here.

Question: How many of you are going to join me tomorrow in welcoming Bent, Sunny, & Daisy Girl to their corner of Farmers’ Market?

“Okay, so maybe I was a little premature in starting our Dill’s Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds….but who would have thought they would get so incredibly big so fast?” Daisy Girl/Bent’s Beer Garden. More here.

• Half marathon/Adventure Junkie Mom
• Snarky answers to give to GOP political census/Arch Druid
• Phone calls home to your aging parents/From A Simple Mind
• 9-1-1 girlfriend/Nuts & Nonsense
• Time, toils, Tollbom/Skookum Photography
• Old-home-week tales/Slight Detour
• More below

“My dad and I spent most of yesterday planting potato seed in the family garden,” posts Sunny/Bent’s Beer Garden. “We utilized the potato planting tools that were passed down from both of my grandpas. They still work like a charm…..the only problem was that the newly tilled soil still has a lot of sod pieces in it.” More here.

• My office/Accidental Rabbit Trails
• Save the cupcake/A Family Runs Through It
• Is this Noah’s ark/Community Comment
• Is it only a matter of time?/Dogwalk Musings
• Free spring breakfast at historic Pleasantview School/Get Out! North Idaho
• Uniquely you/Live, Love, Laugh, Hope
• Runway IOU/More Main Street
• Bad attitude/My Life’s A Freak Show
• 5 things I’m loving right now — April edition/Prime Beauty
• Bite and fight, et al/Slight Detour

HBO Numbers (for Wednesday, April 28): 8119/4771

• Much more to come