God is good!

Just in case any of you doubted we were gardening this year... I'm giving a glimpse of the garden.  It is a jungle since we've had 3 weeks of rain.  This means that the garden is wet in the morning before I go to work and in the evening it has been POURING. 

This makes for wonderful growth in the garden... the plants we want to grow and the weeds we don't want to grow. 

The blueberries are plumped and blushed.  The strawberries rotted on the vine for the most part.  We were able to pick during one short reprieve in the rain and picked about 4 pints.


highbush blueberries



We picked a few peas last night to cook up for dinner, yum!  Also pulled some radishes for Mr. D... I don't eat them much, but he loves them and will snack on them all day. 



peas in back, rhubarb (gone to seed) strawberries in foreground

  If the weather holds we should have a few days of sunshine and maybe I can get caught up with the weeding.  I know these pictures don't look it, but we weeded for about an hour last night.

winter squash gone wild



romano




red runner



We pray that God allows a good harvest this year.  Got a couple months to go.

Sorry the pictures are a little fuzzy... I was in a hurry to get to work on time... the time on my camera is not right either.  This was about 7:10 AM.  At least the date is right.

I was thinking today of the many failures we've had gardening.  It starts out just like this, but something happens, powdery mildew, bottom rot on tomatoes.  We had a hard time the first year making anything grow except where we had burned brush and there in the ashes the soil was good for winter squash.  I was also thinking today of friends who had 5 goats shot by an angry neighbor.  I know they worked hard raising them and all the money they used that went into feeding them grain through the winter and three of them were kids born this spring.  I was heartbroken.  It's hard enough farming, but then to have someone shoot your animals because they got off your property and onto theirs?  That is just mean and not very neighborly.

I must remember that these things happen to all of us.  Good or bad, right or wrong, God is still good and He is still God and He will always be in control.  We can labor hard for our provisions, but it is God who gives increase.

Matthew 5: 44-48

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

No matter what the circumstances may be, that last verse sums it up  "... be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

Perfect here doesn't mean sinless, but it does mean we should strive to have the mind of God in all circumstances... whether we are dealing with grumpy neighbors or mold in the garden.   We know that God will provide what we need.

Praying that all our gardens produce well and that God will give grace to our friends who lost their goats.

God Bless!