Good morning friends!  Hope all is well in your homes, hearts, and lives!!  We have been very busy with our garden.  We got our early stuff in, greens, onions, radishes, but now comes the later crop.  With the size of our family we need a LOT of food so our garden is HUGE.  The picture above shows just a teeny tiny bit.  And actually that picture is fake, the guys (and I)  had been working most of the morning out there but we were done, I drug them back out for the picture so if they look kind of staged, they were!  :) 

I'm convinced that one key to having a successful garden is having the right tools.  One of my favorite tools is a pitch fork, the mulch goes on so much smoother.  We worked with a fork that probably 2 times out of 10 I was pitching the fork along with the mulch!  Tom would jam a wedge of some sort (usually a small piece of wood) at the top of the fork, that would last for a few minutes then there I was slinging that darn fork again!  We did that for years!  Go figure.  So, when the tools were first coming out this spring I bought myself a new fork and I can't wait to use it.  Another thing I've found useful, since it kills my back to bend over for very long weeding is a shower stool.  You know, the kind people use to sit in the shower?  Celia's Grandpa bought one at an auction for her.  We weren't sure at first what we would do with it since all of us can shower o.k. but one day we decided to take it to the garden.  The legs on that stool adjust so we have it at the shortest setting and it works great!  All of us use it.  We may look kind of dingy to the neighbors but it serves the purpose all right. I'm going to Menards today to grab a weeder my friend was telling me about.  It has a long handle with a triangle at the bottom, it has kind of sharp edges on the bottom to drag or cut (I don't know) the weeds.  She said it has been around for years and I think I have seen them but never used them.  She loves hers and said she did almost her whole garden in about an hour.  Her garden is pretty good sized.  I'll let you know on this one, if I can find one today since I don't even know the name of it.  It's a wonderful mystery.......

We have 3 families of Canadian geese living in our pond.  Normally I would love this but those little buggers came up on land, waddled right into our garden and nipped a couple rows of our corn off!  Tom wasn't happy. Jamin had the idea of letting one of our Golden's out to chase them off so he let Isabella out.  She just kind of trotted over to them and all the geese waddled into the pond, Isabella just sniffed her way around the pond and paid no attention to them.  This is a BIRD dog!  You'd think she would at least bark or something, nothin!  So we still have our residents living in the pond and pooping on our bank and up on our farm lane.  You don't know truly how much geese poop until they're living with you.  Josiah says it looks like Tom aerated the lawn.  I guess we need a fence or something. hhmmm.

AAAHHHH, summer time!!!  Gardening, grilling out, sitting around the fire bowl, Shalom splashing in her baby froggy pool, flower pots sitting on the porch, the endless song of the red winged black birds, mocking birds, robins.  The great rains, then the promise if the sun. Mowing, doesn't the smell of a freshly mowed lawn just make you giddy?  Well, I guess those of you who are allergic aren't so thrilled, but I so love it. Then comes the Fair!  I am such a Fair person I am already dreaming of the Fair smells and sounds. The animals, food row, demolition derby, people, lots and lots of people.  You gotta love it.

Well friends, I need to close. Here's hoping your day brings all the wonderful things you enjoy about the summer time!  Whether it's gardening, dancing in the sun (try it sometime),swinging on your porch swing , whatever, enjoy this day!!!  As for me, I am about to make my way through the goose poop and head to Menards for the tools I desperately need to make my garden grow.  :)

Blessings on finding your rich homespun heritage!

Janele ;)