Answered Prayer...in Progress

Remember this post?

God provided the shredder!  Okay, it's not exactly what we had in mind:  it's pretty old; it's only a shredder and not a chipper, so we can only shred branches up to 1/2  inch in diameter; it doesn't work.  Yet.

Here's what we've learned from this: when a person offers to sell you an item whose functionality is unknown for a certain price, offer half that amount until it is known if the item is in working condition.  If it works, pay the full balance.  If it doesn't work, fix it, then negotiate a lower price and pay the balance of that reduced amount.

We thought of this after we discovered that the shredder doesn't work.  Paul's still working to fix it.

But we don't regret the $20 we spent on it.  With the trimming we'll continue to do on the fruit trees, we'll have plenty of opportunity to use it.  And wood chips are far more useful to us than a column of smoke and a pile of ashes. 

Yeah, it's pretty old.  Pray with us that replacing the coil will be easy and cheap.  =)

Raspberries!

I never knew that raspberries would flourish so well in the waning days of summer.  This second flush of berries impressed us far more than the first: they're bigger and they're more plentiful.

All told, we've picked almost 10 pounds of raspberries.  I realize that berries are most often sold by volume, and not by weight, so it's hard to compare the value of what we find in a supermarket.  Of course, we all know that there is no comparison between homegrown berries and supermarket berries.  =)

However, if you sadly do not know this for yourself, drop by our place sometime next September, and we'll share the pleasure of allowing you to experience it for yourself.  MmmmmMMM!  Words cannot describe it.

The hard frost is coming soon, and our harvesting days are drawing to a close.  We praise God for the blessing of the bounty.

The Last Pear

They look like a cross between apples and pears, and Asian pears taste and crunch that way, too. So sweet. Mmmm....

Paul found this pear on the other side of our back fence after we thought we'd seen the last pear on the tree. It's a perfect specimen, completely unmarred by epicurean insects. What a fitting way to signify the close of a fruitful season.