The garden is bare with the exception of a few lonely pepper plants, which finally have enough light to produce fruit. They had been squeezed in between the potatoes and the tomatoes, and were once even over-run by the watermelon vine.

I ended up producing four edible fruit from four watermelon plants, none larger than a basketball. Even so, I was pleased with the way everything turned out. I had been told by many folks that watermelon simply would not grow here.

The tomatoes, mostly bug attacked, disease ridden or just too small to do anything with, were all harvested summarily by pulling them off the potatoes and cutting them with my knife, followed by decapitation by the riding lawnmower.

There really wasn’t much choice since I had to finish digging the potatoes and the tommytoes-gone-wild had taken over most of the potato patch and even a good number of the weeds.

After harvesting the potatoes, a very nice crop of them in my opinion, I had planned to go back and till but never did; my plans to put in a fall crop have been stymied by the recent dry weather.

There’s really no need to plant seeds in dry soil with no water to get them started. Since I get water from a town well and pay by the gallon, I don’t want to get into the business of buying water to pump out on the ground.

I’m trying to decide if there is time for me to put in a fall crop of beets and turnips, along with a few greens, if there ever is any rain. The little bit we had last week was gone almost as soon as it hit the ground.

I took a few days off last week to try to get a few things done. Among the jobs on the list was finishing off the drywall work in the living room.

Once the new insulation was in place, made easier now by the cooler weather and the teachings of experience, I also opted to do a couple of walls in the house. Once those were done, I also decided to do both sides of the wall behind the wood stove, since I already had a bucket of mud and all.

Needless to say, the project that keeps on growing did not get finished. I had also intended to cut some firewood, but was not able to get to that either. I’m sure that the fellow who gave me the wood is beginning to think I’ll never show up.

I’ll be there, though. Don’t worry. It’s not like I have many choices in the matter.

What with the newly insulated ceiling and more drywall, I’m hoping that the house can hold on to a little bit more of its heat now. Maybe I won’t burn as many as the 13 loads I consumed last year. As I’ve said before, several of those were beyond seasoned maple and other soft woods which weren’t really much ‘punkin’ to begin with.

Anyway, on my first day off I mowed the lawn, moved furniture and picked up supplies. I had to clear out the living room before we started the work, which meant my den, which will soon be my new dining room, is now so full of furniture that only a small path remains around the outside edge.

I also hauled a big load of trash to the dump and loaned my riding mower to a friend. After that, I went to fix the antenna that got broke in Glade Valley while I was cutting firewood. However, I soon realized that I didn’t have the right parts for the job and had to come back the following night to finish up.

After another full day of cutting, hanging, finishing and sanding drywall, I was nearly beat.

By Saturday morning, my help didn’t show up to finish the drywall job and I was almost glad. Instead I waited until that evening to sand a little more and apply a good coat of primer on everything before calling it a night.

By Sunday, I was amazed at how tired I had become just from a few days of honest work. Monday morning, I was almost glad to be coming back to work.

Sometimes we don’t appreciate what we have until we wear another person’s shoes, or toolbelt, for a few days. I do enjoy working on drywall and doing construction-type work, but I always increase my respect for those who do it five or six days per week every time I pick up a screwgun and play contractor. If you don’t believe me, try it the next time you get a few days off.

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