I went out to see if my tomatoes needed water. They did. They also needed some TLC. I am trying to keep the vines going until the fruit that is set gets a chance to ripen. The tomato blight has been just awful because of the heavy rain earlier in the summer. There are only a few healthy green leaves on the plants. I have pulled most of the bad ones off but I am afraid to take off all the affected leaves. I am not sure if the fruit will stay on the vines. I did not harvest as much as I have in the past. Last year I picked three full pints of cherry tomatoes and a dozen smaller early tomatoes that were so good sliced on BLT's and deli meat sandwiches. This year I have picked maybe one pint of the cherry's and three of the others. I have been getting tomatoes from the farmers market. Not a bad thing really. I have two favorite venders who sell me the blemished ones for a small discount. Pretty does not always guarantee flavor. I feel the same about most things in my life. I drive a 2000 Oldsmobile Silhouette mini van. It starts. It runs well. I can go anywhere I want if I plan ahead and not be in a thundering hurry and it is paid for. The old man is in pretty good shape body wise. I had some rust repaird a few years ago and the damage to the back bumper from an accident that was not my fault was repaired with only a small dent still noticeable. I have owned four autos with back hatches. Three had damage from weather and the hatches were supposedly fixed. They all leaked. Even after multiple repairs. I refused to let them take this hatch door off to fix the dent. It does not leak....case closed. I digress..... While I was checking the plants I noticed something that made me laugh out loud. I helped a squirrel survive last winter after his mama was attacked and killed by a raccoon. He was barely weaned at the beginning of summer and such a cute little stinker. Late one night the raccoon attacked both nests in my tree killing mama his twin and all the squirrels in the other nest. I managed to chase it away with a flash light and pounding on the tree with a large rake. It was two days before the little guy wandered down the tree. I removed mama and the others earlier and put out apples corn cookies and sunflower seeds. He took his sweet time to trust me. I never tried to tame him. I did make sure he had enough food to get through the winter months. He is still small but he comes when I whistle and just loves animal crackers and peanuts. He is the reason I have volunteer corn growing all around my house and yard. It is a good thing roasted peanuts do not sprout. I found a peanut in the pot of ginger. Something so simple made my day. The big picture is that some times you need to do nothing and sometimes you need to do as much as you can. The hard part is making the correct decision.
