Gathering Time Again

Too much work.

Just a typical summer here on the hill, hot and dry with high humidity thrown in every now and then. The heavy dews make it uncomfortable, to say the least, when getting out early to gather fruits and vegetables but it gets too hot later in the day. We try to get started by the time it is light enough to see what we are doing so we can be back inside with the air-conditioner going before noon.

Our pole beans, planted on Good Friday, made enough vine, bloomed quite a bit but didn't put on any beans. May have been because of a lack of insects needed for pollination. We hardly ever see any honey bees any more. The squash and cucumbers are still doing fairly well but need watering every few days. We need to pick a few blueberries almost every day so as not to get behind in the harvest. Yesterday we picked enough blackberries to can seven quarts and put one quart in the freezer. We would love to get a few more.

Our butter peas seem to be loading up with pods but may not make any seeds in them and the tomato plants have good sized tomatoes on them but only a few salad tomatoes have ripened yet (too many tomatoes in that). A few of our late potatoes are up and growing but we don't really think that we will have many come up. Oh well, we tried.

We had spent much of June working in the flowers, taking up, dividing, cropping and re-setting iris but that job has been put on hold for a few days while we get all the picking, canning and freezing done. We started a few weeks early in the iris because we knew we couldn't keep up all the work when it really got hot as it always does in the summer time, especially here on the hill.

Speaking of the hill, all of us here are doing as well as could be expected , probably better, but we don't get out much in the afternoons. It feels so much better inside with the air-conditioner going. But that's still better than freezing. Thanks for your time and input. Stay tuned. - William