Finally!

1:36 p.m. Today's project was to get the technician from Dewey Pest Control over here to find the spots outdoors where rat traps need to be set. He's done a great job of keeping the crawl space clear, but my tomatoes are disappearing nightly, as soon as they get about 2 inches across. At first I thought they were merely growing slowly, even though I'd harvested some cherry tomatoes and some yellow grape tomatoes. We looked more carefully at two promising Early Girl type larger green tomatoes, only to find them bitten in two by the next day.

A squirrel seems to be the culprit, since I actually saw it two days ago, sitting on my front porch!But the size of rat trap we have ordered could catch at least a body part of bigger vermin. It seems that between the gophers early in the spring and summer (which Gopher Purge plants chased away once they took root) and something large on top of the ground that ate my full-grown, producing broccoli plants and two large tomato plants, Garden #3 has attracted a thriving community of thieves. I am so grateful to the Lord that my first two gardens at this home did so wonderfully, as the picture from last July shows. I did have an excellent harvest of peas, carrots, spinach, cilantro and mesclun salad greens this year. Green onions are looking good, as are the tomatillos. My first cantaloupe got eaten while still a fuzzy, hard ball.

But the good news is that all of the plants have blossoms, the peppers, melons, tomatoes and particularly the green beans, which are producing nicely. The corn has its first silk, too. Praise the Lord for a long growing season in SoCal!

God did create all of these creatures, and as Job 38:41 asks concerning God feeding wild animals,

Who provides food for the raven, when its young ones cry to God, and wander about for lack of food?

I will honestly say that I don't wake up with ideas for feeding local ravens, but they are welcome to take a dive into my garden and eat grasshoppers like the small birds I noticed yesterday. I'm allergic to bee stings, but I'm happy that bees are back in my garden pollinating the flowers of my vegetable plants. It's been a fairly light year for bugs, so I can thank God for his servants the birds eating them!

Like so much of life, creatures and situations you can find no good in, actually have a good point or two--as to rats, I'm not so sure! But on the bright side, my exterminator has a job, doesn't he?

As our women at Bible study prayed this morning so fervently for seemingly incurably ill people, my good friend Charlotte not only prayed for healing and peace for Steve, but that he might be used by the Lord in a way that He alone would choose--that's a bold prayer that shows belief in a mighty, mighty God!

If I'm to grow wonderful crops by the end of the summer, I'll praise God. If this garden's a relative flop, I'll still praise God for the opportunity for Steve and me to work together on a busy project that provides outdoor exercise, fresh air, and teamwork. And I'll remember the words of Ecclesiastes 3:11:

He has made everything beautiful in its time.