Garlic, fire ants, and pitchforks

The hard thing about farming isn't just the work. It's not the work, actually. That's the fun part. Bugs (ticks, no-see-'ems, bumble bees, fire ants, huge horseflies, etc) are the tragedy, here. The heat is secondary. Sometimes the heat is hot: hot heat-especially when you are squatting over black plastic planting eggplants. But it is so rewarding to save the lives of greenhouse eggplants that were wilting in the sun. The heat that reflects off the plastic into my face is no big deal whatsoever!

On the "eggplant planting day," Alex

also taught me how to

prepare garlic for drying and this was a very enjoyable task because I got to stand in the shade of the barn and listen to Band of Horses and CCR while tying bushels of

garlic together with wire to hang up to dry.

After garlic-ing for an hour or so, we mulched the okra and got stung by many many fire ants. Those dang things are much more bothersome than anything I've encountered in this Tennessee country!

But after the days work ended around 7, we made pizza with garlic and basil from the gardens and Hattie, Henry, Lori, Alex and myself sat around the table playing cards.

At the moment, I'm able to get online because we came into

the small town, Savannah,

about 30 minutes away to drop off the CSA food for the locals, here. This library doesn't have the best connection, so I hope the photos get posted!

P.S. Hattie (she's 6) thinks she invented apples with cinnamon sprinkled on top. If I get into any arguments on this trip, it's going to be over the issue of who invented apples with

cinnamon. Clearly, I did.