I’ve spent much of the last week working in the garden and yard. It’s a wonderful escape after Summer School and we are in the middle of harvesting vegetables. All of our kitchen counters are covered with tomatoes in very stages of ripeness. We planted a number of heirloom varieties that don’t do well if left to ripen on the vine completely. We had some great discoveries, too. An variety that is bright orange and has great flavor, and the copia, which is striped yellow and red. I’m tired of eating green beans, but we’ve got a couple of pounds in the fridge and a bunch more still on the plants. The zucchini seem to be winding down, and we picked our first four melons, but we haven’t tried them yet. And now Corrie is planning what we’ll put in the fall garden.

I’ve also been weeding the beds: crabgrass, various kinds of clover, mimosa, and the pernicious buttonweed. Yes I know about roundup, but as I mentioned in a previous entry, we try to avoid using pesticides and herbicides, and besides, we’ve got so much in most of the beds, it would be hard to keep from spraying plants. I enjoy weeding, except for the toll it takes on my knees and back. It’s mindless and one can gauge how much one has accomplished just by looking. Sure beats teaching, or the ministry, in that regard.