And keep going. Don’t stop now. Otherwise, you will lose ground. Life is truly a time suck, so keep moving. I have always believed this. I don’t move at the speed of life; no matter, I am stuck here on Planet Earth, which revolves around the sun, and rotates as it revolves.

This amazes me. I don’t want to say that I recently learned this, but rather, that I recently fully understood it. Had to take an actual Summer in the Parks demonstration for me to figure this out. But then, as this happens, the heavens opened up. And yes, I heard angels singing. Alas, on this particular day it was overcast and so I could not look to the sun for verification. I had to trust her. Later she reappeared and I felt like we then had a special bond.

Now I have to figure out what the moon does. Boy, do I now look stupid. But no matter because no one reads these dispatches anyways. They are a writing exercise.

No, today I did not move at the speed of light because I was a little stiff from working so hard yesterday, what with 16 teenagers in the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel along with a handful of adults. They were cleaning and stamping books and having a very good time.

I was pleased because this was momentous. Getting teens involved in this project – enjoying looking at books and talking with one another – is so incredibly important. And it is a form of literacy. As an aside, I should write down how the volunteer work is literacy related. Maybe I will use this in my executive director letter in the upcoming newsletter.

Today, yes, focus on today. I first took the dogs for a walk. Got yelled at by a neighbor who came out on his front porch and told me not to have my dog go on his lawn. I think by go he meant poop – Shadow was just sniffing. He kept yelling at me – I had her leash in my hand. I should have put it on her because then he would have known that I had it with me. But walking and not saying anything was my second-best option.

I got home and I, for the next four hours, harvested the garden produce. I was fairly methodical. I started with tomatoes in the greenhouse, then took the seed shoots off the basil. After that, I harvested the tomatoes in the hoophouse. And after that I picked peas. And after that I worked on the raspberries. Then after that I harvest beets. I say harvested beets because this truly was a harvest.

We had three raised beds. I pulled the beets out of the ground and cut off the leaves. The leaves, I put them in two buckets because there were so many of them. I love beet greens as much as I love Pete. They are far more tender than is kale.

This year, the beets are large. It’s not like the year in which I discovered that voles had eaten a large portion of the crop. No, these were healthy, unmarred beets.

We had the leaves for dinner.

Pete and I went for an afternoon ride on Raudi and Tyra. We came to a chest high log, too large for Raudi to step over. I explored a few options with her. Nothing was in her mind quite right. So I got off. Raudi moved to the right of the high portion of the log and stepped over the lower portion. Smart horse. I remained in awe of her ability to again think something through, something that I could not figure out while I was on her back.

I did not get to working on the newsletter, which was what I planned on doing first thing. Good to be here. Tomorrow I go to dentist. Not so good.

Next: 251. 9/21/26: Turning a Corner