Why I wish I was retired

I woke up this morning with the garden on my mind.  I've got some extra incentive to get things nice because Lauren and I are taking engagement pictures here sunday.  I was up early so I made some coffee and raisin bran for my boo and me.  I let the dogs out; our two, cash and holden, and the two we're dogsitting while kurt and camille are out of town.  The puppy shat her crate so she got a bath and a cleaned crate.
Got that done before 9 so the rest of the day was divided between chopping wood, weeding the garden, and getting the yard looking nice.  I'm thankful it was a gorgeous summer day.  Last June got so hot that all of my blackberries just turned brown and withered on the bramble.  Today was upper 80's but pleasantly overcast.
I got some work done in the kitchen today too.  The pots and pans cabinet looked like my childhood closet when I was supposed to clean my room.  You had to open the cabinet slowly so you could cradle everything as it fell out.  I got that little project done and I froze some of the zucchini that was taking over our counters according to the directions on http://www.pickyourown.org/freezing_summer_squash.htm.  I loved my squash soup earlier this week so I started to make squash and barley soup.  Luckily for me the barley takes 1.25 hours to cook.  In that hour plus of thinking about the soup I decided that squash and barley sounded nasty so I would get some meat at the store later.  I put the harvest to use as I made some pasta salad for lunch.  I used the beet water from the pickling this weekend to boil the pasta in.  I added banana peppers, squash, onions, and basil from the garden to make a pretty tasty snack.
When Lauren made it back from work we went over to the school to look at the bird that has been causing so much fuss lately.  We picked up a couple beverages from the store and sat on the curb watching the Gastonia anomaly.  Stacy Trull, who works for Gaston County Schools, said he had seen people there in the past couple of days with enormous "gun barrel" binoculars and super zoom cameras.
Just 20 more years and I can make this a daily posting.  For now, I love the summer time.