Summing Up This Summer ...

I asked for Strength and I was given difficulties to make me strong.

I asked for Wisdom and I was given problems to solve.

I asked for Prosperity and I was given a brain and brawn to work.

I asked for Courage and I was given obstacles to overcome.

I asked for Love and I was given troubled people to help.

I asked for Favors and I was given opportunities.

I received nothing I wanted …

But I received everything I needed.

~ Author Unknown

We all have times in our lives when things just do not go the way we plan or want.  The past month or two has been that time for me.  

My main focus has been on my family, my relationships and my hobby farm with little time for writing or for social media. To say I have been busy would be an understatement.  I have also been spending a lot of time outside this summer working on the much needed renovations and repairs to my home and property.  

There is poor drainage on the acreage and pipes needed to be laid.  "Have tractor, will dig" has been the mantra for the past several weeks.  The job has taken more time than it should as the daily summer rains in Florida can impede even the best of progress, as can accidentally digging up a phone cable or a power line. (I can neither confirm nor deny that either one of these issues occurred. FYI - Call 811 before your dig).

While not working on the drainage issues, installing new exterior doors to the farmhouse became the second most important project on the list.  Having never installed doors before, it took the hubs and I over a week to get three doors installed. When the openings for the doors are not entirely "square" due to the brick fascia settling, it can take much longer than anticipated to get doors to fit correctly. The doors now look beautiful, so it was well worth the time and effort.

All three doors previously looked like this one:

The new kitchen side door, which faces east and gets full sun for most of the day, is now solid and blocks out the incredible heat from the hot Florida sun.

The door going to the back patio from the kitchen is now half window and half door.  I like the look of this so much better that the 15-panel glass French door we had before.

 

The door going to the patio from the living room is the same as the kitchen door, except the door handle is on the opposite side.

 

If these projects weren't enough, hatching and raising over thirty-five Royal Palm turkeys from an incubator was the proverbial icing on the cake. Yes, that is a lot of turkeys - especially at feeding time when they all want their dinner at the same moment! Thankfully we have re-homed many of them as pets to other would-be breeders and turkey aficionados.

Oh, and let me not forget about the massive garden that we planted a few months ago.  In many ways it was a resounding success this year and in many ways a complete failure.  

The watermelons rotted on the vine from an apparent lack of calcium  (oops) and the garden bugs were uncontrollable (without using pesticides), eating leaves and fruit on most every plant we had in the ground. The corn grew beautifully, but was only suitable for cow feed and the cows didn't like it either. Although there was much produced, it was not a bumper crop. However, it was the best garden we have had in all of the years we have lived on the farm. 

Feed corn for the cows ...

 

An over-abundance of tomatoes this season!

A nice harvest of green bell peppers ...

Now that much of the spring and summer work has come to a lull, I am preparing the raised beds for a fall/winter garden of kale, broccoli, cauliflower and swiss chard.

I am also getting back to working on my next book, which is the next collection of personal essays in the "I.T. Geek to Farm Girl Freak" series.  I hope to have it released by January 2016.

Hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the summer!