Harvest Time

Before beginning my garden work, I let Jet out to graze in the yard. The dry weather made the pasture grass go dormant. There's still some green grass near downspouts in the yard.

Lily the Pony and the ram provide music while I pull up bean plants and pick the beans. Lily is calling to her pasture buddy. The ram just wants some of the harvest.

I oblige and give him the bean plants.

He burps his appreciation.

My tomato crop is just getting started. I've harvested twice and made two small batches of sauce. As I harvest, I marvel at the plants' ability to suck moisture from cracked and parched ground and then to produce tomatoes -- lots of them.

The chickens are great fans of harvest. I toss the rotten and damaged tomatoes to them.

They cluck and call their friends.

Wet weather delayed the start of garden season, and now, dry weather is hastening its end.

But, a typical gardener, I remain hopeful. I have fall lettuce that's about an inch high. Sweet potatoes and white potatoes are still in the ground. And then there's tomatoes... lots of tomatoes that will keep me making sauce well into sweatshirt weather.