High Summer

While it's technically only the third day of summer, summer has been here for weeks. The spinach bolted long ago and the lettuce is bolting. As usual, we're behind in our gardening with much left to plant (beans, corn, squashes, cucumbers, etc). We just got the tomato and (most of the) pepper plants finally in the ground. It is a little disappointing because we had such a strong and early start this year. With potty training and extra work hours it's hard to find the time. The gardening is often relegated to a few minutes between after the boys go to bed and before the sun is down and light is lost. I haven't resorted to night gardening with a headlamp yet. The mosquitos are chasing us inside before need of supplemental light.

We naturally tend to focus on the things we didn't get done yet that we had hoped would be finished. The permanent garden fence, the clearing of the orchard, the selection and scheduling of a roof contractor. But there is so much we've accomplished and I've recently been reflecting on that and feeling good about it. I can't forget those things that are as yet undone (because we still need to find the time and energy to do them), but they will get done eventually. We hope to be in this "new" old house for so many years that in some sense there is really no hurry.

The bees are doing great so far and I'm really enjoying keeping bees. If I also like extracting and bottling honey (which I will hopefully experience this year) I think I'd like to expand the apiary to include more hives.