What with other things taking my attention, I had spent more than my share of time procrastinating the repair of the front of the house.

Well, I suppose calling my inactivity due to my other needs and wants in life procrastination isn't really fair, but nonetheless the projects that had seemed so important earlier lost their significance during my father's illness.

It's funny how something like that can help put life in perspective, helping us realize that people really matter much more than things.

By looking at how many of us spend our time, you wouldn't know it. Anyway, I finally was able to get back to some of my tasks, something I do to help clear my mind. When I get absorbed in doing a project, it seems I can put the rest of the world on hold and just focus tightly on the task at hand. At least for a short time, it gives my mind a break. Not to mention giving the body something to do. When your main employment involves wiggling fingers while sitting in a chair, real exercise is much needed.

On Saturday, with the timely help of a friend who dropped by for a visit and ended up working and then buying supper for the family, I managed to get the first step of the work done on the front of my house. I capped my earlier work with a layer of foam insulation, leaving the rest ready for another layer of something.

Now that the insulation is up, I can focus on deciding how I will replace the vinyl siding that was there before. I am thinking about going up with some nice wood siding on that section of the house, which is directly under the front porch roof. I've always been partial to wood. However, I could go with vinyl, a product I have very little experience working with. I usually don't really fully decide anything until I buy the supplies for the job, and sometimes not even then.

Then again, there's really nothing wrong with having the front of one's house colored pink and decorated with a cartoon character from days gone by, if you're into that sort of thing. I'm sure it's going to stay that way at least for a few more days, since I have other obligations that are going to prevent me from getting back to task. It felt good Saturday to work at my chores around the house, even though my relative inactivity for a good while was showing on me by the end of the day. The hot sun had left me with a little bit of a sunburn and I was dragging by that evening.

I started off in the garden that morning, pulling weeds and tending

to my plants. The corn is better than waist high now and the other plants are starting to come on. However, a deer has been sneaking in to munch on my green beans. I found his pointed tracks on the top edge of the garden, all focused on the area where the green beans are planted. They must taste better than peas, lettuce, cabbage, beets and squash—at least to a deer. As for me, I think I'll leave the plants be and hold out for the actual green beans. If the deer leave me any plants to harvest from, that is. This is the first time I've seen critter problems since starting my garden where I am now and killing one big fat rabbit.

I think I'll try hanging up a bar of deodorant soap in a sock, a trick a friend versed in horticulture told me about. I remember my father lining the gardens with pie pans, streamers and other attention-getters when I was young. It always made the whole thing look festive, but I don't know how well it kept the deer out. I'm sure it worked at least to some degree or he wouldn't have kept doing it. Sadly, I don't have even one pie pan around the house. Being one who is not fond of sugary treats, pies aren't usually on the grocery list. However, we do still buy soap.

I also took some time to till under my kale, spinach and mustard greens, which do not last very long in the searing heat of summer. Doing so also cleared out many of the weeds that had found their way in between my rows. Although I spaced things out better this year, I still didn't leave enough room to allow for the tiller once all the plants had grown to maturity.

I can also get lost in time while digging around in the dirt, clearing weeds and tending to the plants. I really think it's good for the soul.

Watching things grow can also prove to be something almost miraculous; I never tire of watching a little seed sprout from the ground and then turn into a large plant bearing fruits according to its kind.

Of course, the harvest is the end that justifies the beginning and the middle. If the harvest isn't worthwhile, neither is the work. I really like going out in the cool of the evening, when the sun has dropped below the pines that line the edge of my property, and walking through the garden.

I had missed spending the time there that I would have usually spent while traveling back and forth so much. In doing so, I think part of my peace was also missing, the part that I gather from the quiet times I spend in thought.

Before I sold my little cabin and land on the ridge in Virginia, I would go there and walk down in the woods sometimes, just to listen to the leaves rustle in the wind and the bird and squirrel calls echo through the trees.

These days, I seldom have the time to do that as I would like, but I still have time to get those moments of solitude that anchor my spirit. We all need that.

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