I am well rested after 2 hellacious days and as MLK’s world turns continues.

Andy and I headed up to our farm today for some grass cutting and serious weeding. We had 4 hours to accomplish 12 hours worth of stuff. Schedules have not been good as of late and we live in my house in the burbs most of the time.

I immediately triage all of the wilting flower baskets on the front porch and decks. Off to the tomato patch as I am curious to see how many lovelies we’ll have for dinner tonight. I spy a wire cage in between the rows and OMG there is something in it! I scream for Andy and the creature turns around. AH HA!!! It’s a giant racoon, face spattered with remnants of juicy heirloom tomatoes and peanut butter-laced cookie bait. I scream for Andy again. He arrives ………. “ooooooooooooooh, it’s NOT a groundhog.”

You see, SUMPIN has been feasting on our precious tomatoes and assorted blue ribbon crops. And he never finishes like a polite invader - nope - just takes a bite or two and runs, leaving enough of a hole for all of the flying bugs to crawl in. Andy wonders how he got in. The fence is buried completely all the way around.  Of course I started talking to it … cute itty bitty witto racoonie … Andy moved the cage to the SUV. He is going to let it go in the woods near Valley Forge Park. Back to flower weeding for me. Time is a wasting. I look up and see Andy is now trying to get a water dish in the cage.

“Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Growl. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.”

Big coonie fangs come out.

“Andy, he is going to bite you.”

“No he won’t.”

Next goes in a homemade chocolate chip cookie slathered in peanut butter.

“If you want the cookie, you have to move back to the other end of the cage, baby.”

Oh, Lord. I have found me a softie

It gets better. I am weeding around the beets and I spy, under the yellow zucchini leaves, a TURTLE!!! A medium sized snapping turtle. How did HE get in the garden???

We have pets.

Picked two huge basketfuls of tomatoes today - ate my first big pink one. Fresh tomatoes are twice as heavy as the ones you buy in the store. We had a Brandywine, Super Sonic, Early Girl, Yellow boy, Lemon, peach and a ton of various cherry tomatoes today.

Here comes the rain. Rain barrel is working very well and we used a lot today.

ml