Perfect summer day.

Windstill and cool enough to have the windows open.

Children splashing in the pool.

And me? Waking from a two and a half hour nap with the fan blowing and covering any noises.

See, my mind had a hard time letting me go to sleep until the wee smalls. Then a distraught little boy couldn't sleep and I tried to settle him down. He came back to my side saying,"I'm still not satisfied." He tried to sleep on the floor next to our bed while holding desperately to my hand with both of his. So like a good Mom who realizes in ten years he'll never be asking for this kind of comfort I snuggled him next to me and he conked out.

Still no rest for the weary. Last week  Francesca came down with what looked like chigger bites that morphed into ugly,oozy blisters on her legs. Benadryl cream was drying them up until Saturday when it popped out all over  from bottom to toe and even some on her arms and back,friend Judith said she had the same kind of thing and kindly gave her list of rememdies which we put in use.

After Clement's nocturnal episode,Francesca woke,crying and absolutely beside herself with itching. Freeman even got up while I gave her a Benadryl and swabbed her down with iodine and Benadryl cream.She finally fell asleep after frenzied tossing and turning.

This morning I dragged the boys out while it was still cool to dig the potatoes.

The children all ate breakfast on their own while I tilled the garden and cleaned out the gardening shed. It was 12:00 when I came in the house, shaking and weary, to fix lunch and collapse in a summer induced daze.

And Clement? He told us why he couldn't sleep. Last evening we went to the pond,fishing and the children went in swimming. Francesca got in a little deep one time and Shannon pulled her in to where she was safe. But he had awful thoughts in the middle of the night about what could have happened. I think that warrants scooting in close to your Mom. Bad thoughts in the middle of the night are not comforting.

So there's a night and day in the life of Margaret-on-the-Farm.Who made $275 worth of free stuff from her party last week. Isn't that wonderful? Now please lead me to a home party that sells living room furniture. That is a real, breathing NEED in this house.

What is rest?

Sundays make me wonder. If I took off and said I'm going to the lake to rest in the shade, there is that element who would be afraid my Sunday is not so spiritually spent.

But if I say,"Yes,I'm having three tables  of company for dinner after church", this is doing my duty.

I love taking off to rest in the shade. Hosting a houseful of friends or family is another kind of pleasure.

Today was the Sunday for company. Lisa and the boyfriend deigned to spend time with the family today so we gathered at our house for dinner. The other ladies brought food too, it was all very uncomplicated.

Lisa grills an outstanding chicken and Joan makes a scrumptious butterfinger dessert. The rest of us filled in with the other items.

Freeman is doing his wonderful fatherly duty by splashing with the children in the pool on this 100' afternoon.

Harvest is over for our family crew. A feeling of accomplishment but there is that adjustment as Freeman goes to work again and I have to corral the boys.

Here's a total ,different subject.

Last evening the girls and I took a quick jaunt to our church cemetery a half mile from here, in search of several names I was pretty sure were there. We found these two.

Today at dinner,I asked my FIL, the local historian, about them.

"Oh yes", he said. "They lived a mile west of here, down the road from your parents." And I know exactly where he means.

Then he proceeded to tell us how Solomon Detweiler lived a quarter mile from the corner. The mail carrier didn't come up to his lane so he rigged a pulley to pull his mail box to the corner and back so he didn't have to run down there every day.

If he was so ingenious, it would be interesting to know what kind of things he fixed up for his wife.

So many stories of things that happened right here.

I love stories from the past. Sadly, there are dozens of old homesteads that are no more. It's tough to eek out a living here. As people moved out, the old places were deleted for farmland. On the section we live on there are three houses. Two on our road and one on another. The other two miles have windmills which tells you there used to be something there.

The three headstones in the front row tear my heart every time I see them. Those parents buried a baby in 1909,1910 and 1911.  So many babies didn't make it in those days.

I think, 110 years ago, Salina Detweiler was sweltering in the afternoon heat of a Sunday afternoon. I wonder what she served for dinner.

These days I'm trying to stick to the budget and alotting myself only so much for groceries and Wal Mart so when harvest came up this week I stayed pretty basic.

Usually it's the one time of year I buy cases of soda but Freeman can get all the soft drinks he wants at his regular job so this week we're sticking with garden tea.

Last winter I got a couple rolls of Lebanon Balogna and kept one in the freezer until now. My MIL has this handy hand operated meat slicer so the girls and I sliced it up and packaged it. So there's the lunch meat.

We have plenty of our own packaged hamburgers, that's one meal a day.

Then I found a couple cans of biscuits in the freezer so one evening I took out fried chicken and biscuits.

Apples or grapes are good items to pack and for snacks they like shakes and cookies.

The SIL and MIL gave us green and yellow squash so that's another thing some of them like to have fried and added to their sandwiches.

The other day after some of the children and I came back from taking out lunch they all made a dive for the pool. And me, I pulled out the mandolin slicer. A potato  and an onion from my garden and a yellow squash all sauted in butter to a browned crisp. Add freshly chopped basil and drizzle with Italian dressing. The food to eat while perusing the new Victoria mag.

And now, what can you do when the refrigerator is emptying fast and the week is not over?

One and a half frozen bananas, a handful of grapes,half a can of orange juice concentrate. How are you supposed to make enough out of that?

Great selection for making lunches,eh?

Then you head to the pantry for cans of pineapple and pears and make---  two quarts of fruit slush.

So there, budget. You may irritate me but I'll take care of you.

Now that the kitchen end of harvest is chronicled, lets go to the field.

The tealady and her farmer. Yes, why should it always be the farmer and his wife,pray tell?

The favorite place to play-jump into the wheat.

His work truck and my farm truck. Except out here they are called pickups,regardless.

Aunt Lisa and Francesca were tickled to drive the doodle bug when we moved vehicles from one place to another.

A little scary to figure out in the dark. She used her cell phone to check out the gear shift pattern.

The combine shed also houses a lot of odds and ends--even tricycles from a generation or two ago.

She's a true blue farm girl. Running barefoot through fields of stubble to deliver lunches.

This morning we woke to a rain shower which the SIL,MIL and I raced to pick the SIL's green beans. Now it's clearing off,if the wind we've had comes back, hopefully things will dry off quickly to get back in the saddle-er,combines.