August and September Are the Worst Months for Us

Well – I’m done with the garden. The garden’s not done. But I am. Dwayne came out and helped me pull the green bean plants out of the ground yesterday morning. We harvested a whole bucket and got nine packages out of those. It all seems so little when you type out details – even less when you read everything. But there’s so much more that goes on around here – in between the things mentioned. With absolutely no exaggeration – I have spent the past two months waking up and hitting the floor running. I haven’t even finished a whole cup of coffee before digging in – over the past three weeks. The layout of this place is so spread out that there’s no way I can get through a day without plenty of exercise. I ended up having to let things go in the garden for certain days so I could get laundry done. Otherwise – I was ready to drop dead by 7pm. Trying to go back and forth was becoming downright stupid. LOL The garden is about 300 feet from the house. I’d walk out to the garden – walk back and inside the house – go down the stairs to the basement – deal with the laundry. I’d make my way back up the stairs and go in reverse. And this would be for about 4 loads of laundry. As luck would have it – there’d be times when the loads weren’t dry – and I’d have to make extra trips. When your area is under a yellow air alert and the temps are running 98* or higher with 89 percent humidity – and you turn 50 years old in a few weeks – just that challenge by itself can be Hell! But then you have to add the other trips down to the basement! You need a tool – getting food out of the freezer or the pantry – or just taking a short cut to get out to the driveway area so you can water all the crap out there – or fill the birdbath and bird feeders! I want a 4-wheeler Mule! But I’ll settle for a dad-gum Golf cart! It was just time to give up the fight. Not only that – but I’ve given up the idea of trying to get a fall season garden going. My husband needs my help! That’s all there is to it. Both of us have tried so hard to handle things around here as best we can – just the two of us. While I’m dealing with all the gardening and all the stuff inside the house, etc., - he’s been working his 12-hour shifts at work and spending his days off trying to get somewhere with completing this huge project of getting our home, porches and decks power-washed and resealed. In between – the two of us have taken turns mowing the 4-5 acres that demand attention. We have what they call Dallas grass here. I never want to hear one more soul complain to me about Bermuda or San Augustine grass – ever again! We don’t even wait for the fifth day before mowing again – unless we get the rain. Timing worked in our favor this week. However – by the time Dwayne finished mowing yesterday – you could not find our driveway. The lowest he could put the box blade down was at 3.5. The answer is not a goat. Goats will eat your trees and rose bushes before they look at grass. But now I think I see why the old man down the road has one sheep with all his other animals. A sheep would be in her glory around our place! And when the grass dies down – wonderful! By then – she’d be ready for us to dig that hole to roast her! Thank you for the thought, Jessie Rosas! But dude – you’ll have to bring me somebody else willing to eat all that stuff you tagged for yourself. I don’t do the brains and all that crap! Nope – I have my limits. The word ‘Delicacy’ just doesn’t include that in my definition! Back on track – I’m down to tomatoes and jalapenoes – no thanks to the squirrel going after the corn that Dwayne busted. We thought it was raccoons. We were wrong. I have about one more case of tomatoes waiting to be canned inside the house - at the moment. I’ve already canned four cases. And we could get about two more cases out of what’s out in the garden right now. They’re not ready – yet. And the plants have started new growth – new flowers – more babies. Uuuggggghhhhhh! I am not even going there. When these remaining full-grown tomatoes are ready for picking – that’s it! Babies or no babies – they’re coming out of the ground! My husband needs my help. It’s going to take the two of us to finish getting this house resealed. And even then – it could take us another month or two of his rounds of days off. If the grass gets any worse – I may go borrow that old man’s sheep. Only because we don’t have time to go buy one and then get a bunch of people up here to experience roasting one underground! The darn thing wouldn’t be old enough and ready for that, anyway. Our house looks like Hell. The kitchen doesn’t look so much like a produce stand right now. We only have tomatoes and Butternut squash all over the place. LOL But it would take us a week to get the entire house back in order before I would be satisfied enough to find it fit for company. My mother wants to come visit. And Dwayne’s folks want to come visit. Our 7th Wedding Anniversary is September 11th. My 50th Birthday is September 29th. Dwayne gets to work Labor Day weekend. Thanksgiving is coming. Christmas is coming. And I already know we’ll do the same as we have for the past 8 New Year’s Eves that have passed – sleep through it. My husband and I never had a real wedding. I barely remember being at the Courthouse. Don’t bother asking what we did after that – can’t even remember. We have never had a Honeymoon. We have never gone on any vacation spot alone with each other. Let me go on record right now. This Dream Home will be ready in three years – if I have to become THE nightmare in the life of Tilla The Hun to get it done. Dwayne and I will be celebrating our 10th Wedding Anniversary in the year 2012. Since the actual date falls on Tuesday – we will be celebrating a couple days earlier. God willing – we will be having a real wedding and renewing our wedding vows! I want an old-fashioned country garden wedding – with the barn dance celebration following – complete with the Bar-B-Que and all! So – all my friends and family better start saving their pennies now! One special gift I’m hoping to receive will be a very special guest in attendance. I’m praying that God will bless good health allowing the late Commissioner Richard Williams’ wife to attend. We were one of the very last – if not – the very last couple that the Commissioner officiated his final wedding ceremony before going in for heart surgery – which he never recovered from. He was a wonderful man – a very Godly man! His kindness extended by overseeing our marriage ceremony was confirmation to the whole picture showing that Dwayne and I were making the right step in our lives! And I would love for his wife to be there in his honor – to witness one of his efforts make another step forward to reaffirm the hopes her husband had for us – as well as our promise to God and the Commissioner!

Man, I look strange in this picture. I almost see that same grin and wince of the eyes I remember admiring about my Grandma Paparelli. Only difference - it sure looked one hell of a lot better on her!