My daughters kindly dug it all up for me but I was so slow that it was as hard as a rock by the time I was ready to plant. So I spent 2 days digging again. Most of my tomato plants I had bought died before I got them out there, so I ordered more from Burpee. Unfortunately they didn’t send them all and I haven’t received a reply to my email yet. Then I looked out the backdoor last evening and there was a huge old groundhog heading for my tomato plants! I went running out there screaming “Get out of my yard!”. It worked :p

After researching live traps, which it’s hard to catch groundhogs, and then do you know in some places you have to have permission to let them loose on peoples property (like out in the country) and a lot of places you can’t loose them on state property. So, being that I don’t want him as a pet, then I read about poison pellets and decided that was the way to go. Only when I got to the hardware store they didn’t have anything except rat poison, which might work. But who wants to risk killing neighborhood cats and dogs wandering about? So he told me this Fox Urine Granules is all I need. I hope he’s right. If it works I might not even have to share my corn with the raccoons this year or the beets with the rabbits.

I hope everything grows fabulously this year. I saw on CNN about a fellow who started a website to list food pantries all over the country that will take fresh produce. I’m hoping I’ll have enough to share.

I can’t wait for zucchini, I just love that stuff. This year I am feeling 100% better than I was last year at this time so I am ready to deal with the garden and even the critters. 🙂

Just sort of an update post here. It hasn’t been a good year for me.  I lost a bunch of weight since Christmas and felt God awful. After tons of tests, they basically found nothing. Argh, I still have to pay for all those :p

Anyway, my neighbor and a couple of his friends dug my garden up and planted it for me. I wouldn’t have had one at all if it weren’t for them. It wasn’t the best garden year. I had one picking of beans all summer and thought they were done. Then I went out there in the middle of September and found lots more! I must buy more tomato plants next year though. I canned 10 quarts and that isn’t enough for a year. Then I bought a bushel at the farmers market. That was a waste of money. They had a few nice ones on top but all of them had blight. I canned a cooker load and it was gross just taking care of them. Then I had a partial jar that I left on the counter overnight. It was like fermenting or something in that short time. Really gross. So I looked online and they recommend that you do not can blighted tomatoes. So I tossed them all 🙁

In August my kids came for my birthday and got me a new porch swing! Mine was junk. I just love it!

They also took my new car for a test drive and I wish I’d gotten a picture of Melissa hanging out the sunroof waving her arms 😉 I drove that piece of crap car for 10 years. Three of the four door handles were broken. Although we could mess with them to open from the inside. The drivers outside handle broke last year and I’ve had to open the passenger door, crawl across to open the drivers door, get out and go around…that was a real pain. So my new one is a 2005 Grand Am with only 18,000 miles on it. You cannot know how much I love this car. 😀 Between full coverage and the car loan and the insanely high registration fee, I may have to give up food. But I don’t care!

In September I caught the flu so that was bad for a few days, but then I got this whole huge neck/head pain going on. I knew it could be meningitis but I told myself my brain is functioning okay, no worries. After a few days though I broke down and went to the ER. They admitted me and had to test me all out to see if it was bacterial or viral and to make sure I didn’t have hydrocephalus and such. I kept telling them that wouldn’t happen because I have a shunt. But you know doctors. I was in a day and a half and I figure those bills will start rolling in around Christmastime.

The thing about having a pretty lousy year is that it shouldn’t be that hard for next year to be better I figure. 🙂

A memory to get me through the winter 😉

“I know the year is dying,
Soon the summer will be dead.
I can trace it in the flying
Of the black crows overhead;
I can hear it in the rustle
Of the dead leaves as I pass,
And the south wind’s plaintive sighing
Through the dry and withered grass.

Ah, ’tis then I love to wander,
Wander idly and alone,
Listening to the solemn music
Of sweet nature’s undertone;
Wrapt in thoughts I cannot utter,
Dreams my tongue cannot express,
Dreams that match the autumn’s sadness
In their longing tenderness.”
–  Mortimer Crane Brown, Autumn Dreams

My garden is a sad, sad place now. I hoped the last of the tomatoes would ripen but they’re doing it so slowly that the slugs are getting more than me. There are still a lot out there and very green but I’ve decided not to hold my breath  waiting on them. A few summer squash are still growing too, and one lone zuchinni. I found last years old seeds about mid July and threw them in my flower bed. From those I will have 2 winter squash (yay!) They are small but better than none. Once I’m feeling better I need to get busy and clean up the mess from this years garden. Oh yeah, and there’s that long overdo (hopefully) last lawn mowing to do. The broccoli plants finally got huge but the broccolis didn’t so I didn’t even pick them.

^Winter Squash plants!^

I almost stepped on this lil guy yesterday. That would have been really really gross. Being that my garden is about finished and the fact that I don’t have the heart to kill him, I just moved him off to where I’m putting the tomatoes already eaten by slugs. I really couldn’t kill any of them, if they crawl into the beer I put out, that’s different. Apparently this one is a teetotaler.

Other things

• I have been cigarette free for 9 days. It’s getting easier.
• I have been going to the Y consistently. I average between an hour and an hour & a half each time.
• I am going into the advanced life skills class (I think that’s what they call it, the next DBT group anyway).
• I wasn’t perfect with my garden but I loved every minute of it and I followed through all summer long caring for it and preserving the food.

Things to do

• Figure out how to be social again.
• Make friends.
• You realize I have no clue how to do that?
• Find someone to haul compost and mulch for my garden.

I have come a long way this summer. I think my blog is great, if for no other reason than here is proof of my progress when I start to doubt myself. And I surely will 😉 It doesn’t seem to be appealing to many others and I wish it was but I can understand why it isn’t. For those of you who do read and comment still, I thank you for your kindness, it means a lot to me!

“Kiss of the sun for pardon. Song of the birds for mirth. You’re closer to God’s heart in a garden than any place else on earth.” ~ Dorothy Frances Gurney

I can go out there any day and not be sure what gifts I’ll be bringing in that day. They are always yummy though. Today, I found 5 ripe tomatoes, 1 summer squash, enough beans for a couple more freezer bags and yet another precious zucchini. It finally rained, I was watering because so many days it’s been a false alarm. This evening when it slowed to a sprinkle I went out to see what I might discover this time and it was more than I expected. And there is still more to come!

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