Strength & Health

Just when I think we've reached the peak in garden production, it goes up again.  Yesterday morning we picked green beans, expecting a big harvest of a full bucket.  We got two. What a strong garden!

Snapping beans and getting them in the freezer is a good excuse to watch a movie.  We've been watching Gone With the Wind since the twins are studying Civil War history.  We sat around the table, snapping beans and watching a 70-year-old movie on my 1-year-old computer. 

After the bean snapping was half done, I got going on blanching.  I blanched and blanched and blanched. 

By the end of the evening, we had five gallon bags ready for the freezer.

Today we have tomatoes to harvest and three boxes of peaches to can.  The cucumbers are producing hard and we may work in a batch of pickles. 

An old friend came to visit on Tuesday.  He's gone back to school and was bemoaning the unhealthy patterns he'd fallen into — not enough exercise and too much unhealthy food.  I thought about how this lifestyle keeps us all healthy without trying or will power.  We just eat what the land gives us.  We work for the harvest and food preservation.  And God gives us strength and health.

Trellises

Here it is July and we are finally getting the green bean trellises put up.  My husband sank two posts and then screwed in a top bar.  My daughter and I ran twine from the top bar around a lower bar, held in place just by the twine.  It's not very sturdy, but it doesn't need to be.

After we got the strings all done, we helped the little green bean runners find their way. They are already several feet long, so it wasn't too hard to wrap them around the twine.  There is something about these wooden structures that makes the garden seem complete, although we only got half of them up.  Tomorrow it will look so nice.

It occurred to me that I wanted to start some seeds the first of July for a fall crop — Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and echinacea.  I put these out, nice and wet, in the full sun.  If it gets too hot, I'll bring them inside for the heat of the day.

We have one week left before we start our new homeschooling "year" with still a lot left to get ready.  I just love the beginning of new year, so many new books to look forward to, so many new interesting things to explore.