The Joys of Gardening

Each year we plant several very large vegetable gardens, we have four going this year. Although it has been a challenging growing season as we are/were in a drought that has seen some relief in past few weeks the garden as survived. We are now moving into the busy time of harvesting and storing our garden bounty. It is so satisfying to be able to walk out to the garden and pick fresh items to prepare for supper, and when grandsons Henry and Patrick are along it is superbly enjoying as they have such a sense of wonder and adventure.
On Saturday evening the little boys walked out with me to feed the calves, on the way back we stopped off to check on the carrots, they appeared to be ready so I let the boys pull several out, they were so excited and amazed by the carrots. They each proudly carried a bundle of carrots to the house, Henry announced that the carrots smelled really good and he thinks that maybe he might like them now!  Patrick had already eaten a good part of one carrot, dirt and all, before we were in the house.  Henry was so proud of the first carrot he picked that he had to take it home with him, Patrick was more interested in eating the carrots.
The following day we had all of our family over for supper, the boys and I headed off to feed the calves and gather some items from the garden to go with dinner.  First stop the corn patch, oh what fun to run through the corn stalks, what fun to pull giant ears off of the plant. Next stop the tomatoes, early days yet, but could we find a nice ripe one, we could not. Okay off to the potato patch, Grandpa met us there with a shovel, we were going digging for gold, that is gold yukon potatoes, the absolute look of amazement on the children's faces as suddenly potatoes appeared, they were scrabbling in the dirt and the race was on to see how many potatoes they could put in the bucket.  We hauled our bounty over to the fire pit, shucked the corn, stopped by the chicken house so the boys could gather eggs and then headed to the house.
Dinner was great, we did a mixed grill, some chicken breasts, hamburgers, and italian sausage, we had boiled yukon gold potatoes, corn on the cob, salad, and fresh fruit salad, it was a wonderful summery meal made all the more enjoyable because we had produced some of the food ourselves.
I so enjoy keeping our gardens, they are a lot of work, but it is rewarding work.  Yesterday I spent several hours weeding, which sounds like a horrible chore, except I enjoy it.  I enjoy the solitude of garden, time alone with my own thoughts praying and talking with God, the sounds of birds, the whisper of leaves, the distant hum of a lawn mower, the joyful shouts of some children far off who sounded as if they might be swimming in a pond, and the satisfaction upon completing the chore that the gardens looked neat and tidy once more.