I wish I had 40 people to invite to dinner tonight. I would NEED 40 people to get rid of the yellow squash heaped in a huge wood-turned bowl in my kitchen. Apparently, our builder has a garden that went wild. He's been gives away brown paper bags of his overages. We received a full bag of yellow squash and one of cucumbers. What am I to do with all this?  Mark has this brilliant idea that I would have fun making homemade pickles. Ummm….. get real.  I am still wrestling with the blackberry jam concept. Don't know if I'm up for pickling yet. (My Laura Wilder Ingles gene isn't as strong as one might suspect.)

Our neighbor, Gary, has twelve acres next to us. He and his wife are wonderful. Been retired for years and their home is beautiful. There granddaughter stays the entire summer, and has become Neva's best friend. Mine too, because every time she sees me feeding the horse, she comes to help. Cute kid.  Gary works on the land all day. He's created gardens, waterfalls in the creek and charming places to sit or lay in a hammock. He collects old Oil company signs and they are on his workshop like an antique collection. He also has a second cabin home on the property that they rent on occasion for extra income. I hope we have that someday. It all goes to show what time and attention can do to a piece of land. Anyway, Gary thought he was planting cucumbers but they came up as squash too, so I already have received an armload of his gift produce. And Dianne planted a garden in her backyard and passed on three yellow squash with her tomatoes. Remind me NOT to plant yellow squash next year when I get a garden. It takes over the world, like the blob. Fact is, there aren't that many creative things to do with it – or at least, not that I know of. I should do some research. Now, if it was zucchini, that would be another matter all together. I make marvelous zucchini bread and I could gift it right back at whoever forced the produce on me. Ha. That would be a way to get even.

Why am I blogging? I don't have time for this today. I have to look up how to make blackberry jam on the internet, check recipes, and maybe, delve into yellow squash soufflés. (Cooking is number two on the "how to avoid your homework" chart.) Time is of the essence when buckets of hard earned berries are sitting in the fridge, threatening to mold.

I must go.  If I stumble upon something interesting, regarding foodstuffs, I'll report it here. But don't count on that being my next blog. I got my llama sheers in the mail this week, and I think today is the day Mark and I will tackle that one. One of the people working on our house raised llamas and they made big fun of us as newbies considering what we were going to encounter. Sounds scary. Ha. I'm not intimidated. Can't be worse than a dance parent with vengeance in her eye because her kid didn't move up a level.  I will let you know how it turns out – and take pictures. My llama may end up look like a three year old who cut her own bangs, but I will take pride in trying something new, if nothing else.

Gotta go. Thank Goodness yellow squash isn't fattening.