This hot weather has made the garden a place you do not want to go. The rain has come regularly enough to keep the garden watered but also regularly enough to keep it a little muddy. Two rows that I did not get tilled the last time I was tilling have a good stand of grass in them and I do not have any trouble getting up and down those rows when I am picking. Picking has become a problem as there is too much to do every day just to stay up with it. I have canned 40 quarts of tomatoes so far to give you some idea of how much I am picking. I have been getting a 5 gallon bucket of yellow squash every 5 to 6 days. I get another 5 gallon bucket of cucumbers every 5 days. Add to that a few cantaloupes, some peaches, and bell peppers. I have picked one 5 gallon bucket of bells and there is another one out there now. I have not started picking hot peppers, not that they don't need it; I just haven't got to them yet. 

There are two sides to every story and while it’s hot and muddy in the garden and a place I don't spend much time in right now, the other side is last Friday's supper. I made a small pot of tomato soup with fresh tomatoes and sweet basil from the garden. We followed that with BLT sandwiches and for dessert we had ice cold ambrosia cantaloupe. A month or two from now I will have forgotten about the mud and the heat but I will remember the taste of that fresh soup, BLT, and cantaloupe. That kind of memory will be one of the reasons I will start another garden next year.

Life is like that also. We tend to remember the good times in our life, church life, family and yes, even our jobs. Do not let small things bother you because you will not remember them a year from now. We need to put the Church, our families and our friends first and the rest will take care of itself.

Herb