Tuesday, August 28, 2018

I Have Always Wanted A Wife!

I feel like I am drowning in peaches. My one little tree produces massive quantities. I really thought I had lost my harvest when they were still tiny yellow hard knots on the tree in July. I have usually harvested and distributed them the week of the 4th. So, imaging my surprise when they started to grow and change color just last week.

So many peaches hung on the branches, they were touching the ground. I put all manner of braces under the tree to hold the branches high enough to mow and keep them from breaking. I lost three good size limbs that broke from the weight of the fruit. When they begin to ripen, it happens fast and I employed every available receptacle to hold peaches. Soda crates, milk crates, cardboard boxes and bowls and buckets. HeWho loves to run endless errands took a pile and distributed them to various places like the bank and the tow office and just people he met along the way.

I made people take them when they checked in or came to swim and still I peeled and cut up enough to freeze for pies and cobblers. Made the mistake of giving a cobbler to Kevin (aka my wife) and now he thinks I should make another.

In  case you are wondering why Kevin would be known as my wife …….. Being a wife is hard work, as those of you who are wives know. Wives get to pick up the debris left in the wake of husbands and children. I have always wanted a wife. Someone to do my bidding without being asked threatened. I like to weed gardens, everyone here knows that. I am not a neat weeder like Andrea with her gloves, digging tools and bucket. I am a spontaneous weeder. If I see a weed I itch to pull it up, sometimes I will pause as I mow to grab a weed or two and toss them in the path of the mower. But, mostly I make little piles of weeds everywhere. I get interrupted frequently and will forget they are there. I do pick them up when I remember …… mostly, sort of.

When Kevin came to live here he wanted to work in return for his rent. A lot of campers do that, but only a few will make me happy with the results of their efforts. I have yet to find anyone under the age of 50 who really knows how to work. When I noticed that Kevin had been consistently picking up my weed piles, I knew he was a keeper! Doesn't bother HeWho complains about my weeding ways at all. He is quite happy for me to have a wife, since I still pick up after him.

But, I still have peaches falling from the tree. I love grabbing a peach and eating it as I go about my business in the morning. Bad thing about this late harvest is that the apples are coming in right on top of the peaches. Beware, if you come here, you will leave with peaches, apples or tomatoes!

5 comments:

RunNRose said...

Sure do wish I were closer! I looked at peaches at Costco, Walmart, Kroger. They are all cold and hard, with no smell. Have had bad experiences in the past when peaches never really seemed to "ripen" before they were "bad." Meanwhile. I think you could have a whole lot worse problems!

Val said...

Congrats on your "wife"! I hope he likes peaches! And apples.

Joanne Noragon said...

I am transported back to the day of coming in from school, changing my clothes and standing at the sink, elbow deep in peaches or tomatoes or grapes. I hated grapes; they made me itch!We canned quart after quart of peaches, tomatoes and grape juice. We ate them all winter.

ellen abbott said...

our local peach orchard has called it quits. so unhappy about that. the vendor on the side of the road had to get them from the hill country. peaches are done here. so unhappy about that too! never got any put up as they all got eaten.

Linda O'Connell said...

Didn't you luck out with your wife! And peaches, too. My favorite fruit.