Good morning to you all on this wet and final Friday of July. The weather people say that this month ranks number one on the all time wettest list. Actually July 2011 has a double distinction--wettest and hottest. We have had (and are still having) on and off showers so I probably won't get anything done in the gardens--unless I sneak out between the raindrops. But I have the blueberries to process this morning. Mom will be doing the first of the corn after her bone scan this afternoon. All of the corn this year will be cut off the cob for freezing. We still have corn-on-the-cob in the freezer. The first of the ground cherries fell off the plants yesterday--four of them. I tried one and, though it wasn't bad, I don't think it is good enough to keep in the gardens permanently. It has a faint strawberry flavor but, if I want strawberry flavor, I can buy strawberries or even grow my own. The seeds were a freebee so it was worth trying them out.

Well, that break was longer than I intended. I have all of the blueberries taken care of. Six pint bags though not a full or packed pint. I spread the berries in a single layer in the bag so they would freeze quickly. And I have three trays in the dehydrator. Those I will put into snack sized bags. Then I filled another three trays with stevia--it was ready to be cut.

I agree, Lois. I love this country but despise our dysfunctional government. Lead characters in one of my favorite mystery novels, Gaudy Night, make the point that the first thing a principle does is kill someone. Too many of those idiots in Washington feel so righteous clinging to their principles while killing our political and economic systems. What makes me very sad is that Obama has been willing to negotiate and to put aside some of the Damnocrats' long held principles only to be despised for it by the Repthuglican ideologues. He might as well have told them to go to hell and stuck by his principles for all the good his willingness to compromise has done him (or us). Now they are putting their pedal to the metal headed for the cliff while firmly believing that he will cave in and save them. I find my self more hoping he doesn't because that will only encourage them to extort more. It is rather like paying the $50 the local gang demands not to break your windows. Next time they hike the demand to $100. And so on and on. Glad you like the pictures. The garden is doing quite well although I do see a few signs of heat stress.

I hear you, Kay. Like you I tried to balance a marriage that was all too much give on my part and too much take on his. His Navy career took precedence over everything and later his preferences took precedence over anything and everything else. Thankfully, I was able to get Social Security based on his earnings intend of my own. That puts me $30 above the poverty level instead of $700 below it. Save for retirement?? Not when your 'partner' never found a penny he didn't want to immediately spend. Put my foot down and insist on some discipline?? Not when the dear boy stole some of the so-called courtesy checks from my gas credit card, cashed them, and then hid the bill from me while I was out of town. When I got back I found the utilities, water, and cable had not been paid and my credit card was threatening me with a collection agency. I left three weeks later. And they tell me my Social Security is an all-too-generous entitlement?? I wonder how they would like to be castrated since Nature was all-too-generous with the balls she gave them.

Reformed Broker has a very good suggestion of where we can find a cool $1 billion (almost) to held reduce the deficit. And that is on the Senate side of the government alone. We might find another $1 billion from the House.