Work Worth Doing

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.~Theodore Roosevelt

Oddly enough the man and kids like to eat.  Yeah! go figure!  So this is what sends me out to the garden each morning.  That and I have been told I have to do my part.  So each day I strike out to the garden to put in my time in the hopes that they won't go hungry.  I guess you could consider that work worth doing.

Daily I battle the bugs which think they have more of a right to my produce then I do.  I pick and pick and squash them but the next day they and a couple of their buddies show back up.  The urge to chemically annihilate them surfaces every year.  That's when I break out the cash and pay the kids to search and destroy.   The other vicious bugs which think they have a right to me...these I do use chemical warfare on.

After the bugs is the endless battle with the weeds and some plants which I naively planted.  They have gone haywire.  I once gave Cyndy Jerusalem Artichoke and she cursed me.  Now I curse myself as I planted the same... and mint... and comfrey.  If you even think of getting rid of the comfrey it senses this and makes every effort to reproduce like a rabbit on an endless supply of viagra.

Then there is the battle of the weather.  When you want a little rain to save yourself having to water everything, it pours for days.  Before you can get back into the garden the weeds have taken their cue from  Jacks proverbial bean stalk and are reaching for the sky.  When it has rained for days and you want it to dry out and warm up you find yourself trying to machete your way thru the garden gate in 90 degree temps with 100 % humidity.

Exiting the garden, I stumble thru the door, finger nails ravaged from pulling weeds, hands blistered from hoeing, nearly blind from sweat running into my eyes, face filthy from trying to wipe the sweat away.  My morning cup of coffee has long since been spent and I am dehydrated.  I am either unable to stand straight from being hunched over or my knee's are caked from crawling between the rows to weed.  On top of alllllll that I am  red from sunburn or bug bites. I open the fridge and freezer to find no ice cubes and the ice tea container empty.

When something has finally beat the odds and survived all of the above, it has to be canned which is a whole 'nother battle.  And I do this all for the happiness of my family.

NOT!  I can not even pretend that I am overworked and under appreciated for that is just not the case, I am spoiled rotten.  If there came a point where I did not want to bother with the garden or canning, the man and kids would never say a word.  And if the man ever told me I had to do my part he would be the gone.  So until the time comes when I am to old to deal with it, the man will till when I need it tilled, (his fault for buying a tiller to big for me to control) haul manure, keep enlarging and do a walk thru even when all he wants to do is go sit down.  I tend the garden because I love it and the family loves to eat.  The man tends to me because he loves me and loves to eat.   Yes it is aggravating at times, but so are my kids and I love them...even when they do empty the ice trays and the tea container.

And when I am not outside tending to the garden, I get to do this....

Oh yes I have been spinning.  I even cracked out the electric Babe that I bought 2.5 years ago.  I had tried to use it once and thought it was too fast.  Of course that was my fault for pushing the pedal like I was driving the Indy but now I am doing better. 

This is my first bobbin so be nice, it's a learning experience.  I also forgot I don't have the woolie winder on this one.

Some might say none of this is working hard or worth doing, but I think if you enjoy doing your work you don't consider it hard and something that makes you and your family happy is worth doing.