The Fall Harvest?

Hello, ya'll....Deliverance here....

I know it has been a long time but I have been really busy. On what you ask? Fighting to make all that work in my garden worth something before the season is over. Now I usually have no big problems with my garden. I am up to my elbows in tomatoes by now and have so much canning done by now that Frederick and I have had with the whole busy by now. Not the case this year.
It seems that the gardening fairies were working against me this year. No matter what I tried nothing seemed to matter. I have canned 9 quarts of tomatoes this year and those were given to me by a friend of mine. It seems that it was a good year for some(*%$@#*)!!! What you see above is the first good harvest of tomatoes I have gotten this year. I have more coming but the question is will they ripen before the first frost.
Let me back up a bit here and let you know that it was a long winter this year and I didn't even get started on the garden until mid-May which around here is very late. And then it went from very cold to very hot almost over night which is not good for a healthy garden. It seemed that the seedling were just getting started when the sun would hit them with close to 100 degrees and they didn't have a snowballs chance in hell of getting thru the day. I spent alot of time re-seeding. Spinach...died. Squash...suffered badly. Green beans...not bad...have canned 18 quarts. Potatoes...not sure at this point, but the plants never got very big. Beets...big question there, I'll know in a week or so. Same for carrots but at least they look like very healthy plants. And then there are the tomatoes...which after 2 months some of the plants never got out of sproutsville before they would die.
Now don't get me wrong I am so grateful for what I have managed to harvest, it is just not the harvest I am use to. So now I am ready for this season to be over with so that I can start working on next year. There will be some changes in how the garden is planned, planted, and prepared for planting. More chicken coop cleaning, more sand to get this clay work into a nice soil, and tilled at least twice before the first snow flys. "And as God is my witness, I will never be hungry again" Sorry, my alter-ego, Scarlet O'Hare, just stepped in but I think she is gone for now.
On another note, for all of you who care...That is Barney in the background. His is a very healthy rooster and learning how hold his own with the "ladies". But he does live on the back porch and probably always will, the other chickens know that he is not whole and they are a bit funny about these things. He is a very well taken care of rooster. He comes to the back door just about sun down and either Frederick or myself will bring him in to sit on the couch and watch television a while before we put him in his house for the night. I mean a well rounded rooster has to stay on top of current events, Right?
Mama has given us four more chicks. I think she is one of those Moms that loves to have babies around so she just keeps hatching them out. Bertha, our biggest hen, hatched out two of her own. And she had a serious change in attitude, very protective. And Dolly has one new one and still sitting on a clutch of 8 more eggs so we will see what comes of that. I really think that Mama is a good influence on the rest of the flock. And this also means that I may not have to incubate next year. Which may not work for me...I also like having babies around...baby chicks that is!

Well, that it all for now. I will try to let you know how the rest of the harvest goes as long as I don't slip into a depression or have Scarlet take over my life.
Love ya'll..Deliverance