Woo Hoo

It rained three times in the last two days!! Woo Hoo! We had a super wet spring and summer has been quite dry.  I am partially glad for the wading pool because once a week I have to drain it to clean it.  I get to use that funky water to water the parched gardens.  Of course the first time in three years I decide to put in a garden, we have a drought!  I am sure I will not have much of a harvest of tomatoes but some are better than nothing.  We are slowing losing the cucumbers to some wilt issue and that is quite distressing to Baylor and I.  He loves cucumbers and our four plants looked to be able to provide us with enough all summer.  O well, we will take them out and plant something else.  We are already planning on planting corn next year.
The strawberries are producing sweet little berries every day and if we can get to them before the slugs and ants we enjoy the sweet treat while playing.  The tiny tomatoes are turning red and Baylor eats them with gusto.  I will have to get a photo and add it to the post.  The plants are huge but the fruit is about the size of a large pea.  They are full of tomato flavor, amazingly so considering their size.  Baylor ate them last year too and has been sticking his head into the plants looking for red ones. 
The second round of raspberries are looking good and we will be eating dessert out there until frost.  I neglected them for two years while I was pregnant and while Baylor was an infant.  Last year I whacked them back pretty aggressively so the spring crop was fairly sparse.  But things are looking up for the reds and yellows. The black raspberries are another matter.  I have been trying to set up a patch since we moved into this house. Picking black raspberries was something I always looked forward to each summer.  My grandpa had a huge patch and each summer at our fourth of July picnic, I would work my way deep into the patch and pick as many as I could reach.  I may have only picked a quart or two but it was something I really loved doing.  I would emerge from the patch completely scratched and bleeding but I could eat a quart myself so it was worth it. I got plants from my grandpa and planted them in my yard where I thought they would do well.  I ended up moving them to a new perfect spot almost every year. We never got any berries because I was always moving them.  I finally found the perfect spot at the end of our property and they lived there happily for two years.  We ate berries off them for the first time last summer. Baylor and I loved going out there and picking off the vines.  At the end of summer a new township officer patrolled the town and decided they needed to be moved as it was not technically our property.  Our property stops about 18 inches behind our trees and the rest to the road belongs to the fire hall or township I cannot remember which.  They do not maintain it or mow it and the raspberries were not inhibiting anyone from passing our backyard.  Rather than be fined, I had to move them, again.  It was late August/September and after I moved them, I did not water them well.  They were at the very end of the property and lugging the hose all the way out there with Baylor on my hip, because he could not be separated from me for longer than a blink, was way too much work.  My beloved raspberries were on their own.  Only two survived the move and the winter and I have been nursing them along.  Guess what, I moved them again!! They were not doing well where they were and I moved them to the side of my garden shed.  They survived the move and hopefully that will be their forever home.  Heather has some shoots at her house and I think I will grab a few next time I visit.  Since the farm is no longer in the family I cannot get any more from there and if I lose them I will be very sad because they are a link to those memories of summer picnics on the farm. Hopefully the rain will help everyone to grow!  I am looking forward to when we can pick black raspberries again.  I love them and the memories they bring to me.