2008 Summer so far....

30 years of teaching swimming and life guarding
with middle school students was great preparation
for maintaining order in the deck pool.

We have been lucky so far this summer. The really high temperatures have held off. Phoenix has only gotten up to 108 degrees or so....That means that we have only been in the 90's...which is good. The little boys came down and played in the water, but they could only take so much...it was rather cold after they got wet.

Summer here is filled with bird's songs in the morning. The garden taking its time growing, and then of course jam making. I made 5 batches of pineapple apricot jam in the last couple of days. That takes care of the one tree that only puts out about a peck of fruit. Steve tells me the apricot tree over in Camp Verde is loaded. We will be selling some at the Farmer's Markets when they are ready....but then everyone else might too. Last year our early peaches beat every one's to the market and so we sold out every week. This year some trees are yielding more while others are taking a break, after a heavy season the previous year.

Steve has been busy redoing some garden benches. They turned out really beautiful. He never minds getting his hands dirty and doing hard work. I really admire that about him. He is one of the hardest workers I have ever met. It doesn't matter whether he is being an athlete, a football coach, a teacher, roofing a house, mowing the grass, or whatever. He works hard at it and does a good job. His hands are rough and calloused, but I am proud of them. One should never apologise for being a hard worker. My friend Myrna said, "I think God made a mistake when he made men who sit around and do nothing smell good while those who work hard and sweat smell badly."......I think I agree, but with modern drugstore miracles....no one smells badly anymore...so how's a girl to know!?

Anyway, summer is fun around here....relaxing, but full of work that we love. For some reason the weeds in my garden have given me a break....but I still don't see any tomatoes....just a few peppers and one squash. I hope the bees find the blossoms. Usually at the end of the summer we can't get rid of all the squash....so I am hopeful.