Two rows weeded before supper. The boy wanted down so he could pull things too, and I spent more time squatting beside him than actually weeding. My legs felt it when I stood back up. Dirt got inside my shoes and I left them by the back door, then stood barefoot on the cool kitchen floor while the potatoes boiled. That felt good. I was hungry enough to eat before the lineman got home but waited the extra ten minutes. The boy ate half a potato right off my plate. He had his own. After supper I stretched out on the couch with my feet uncovered. There is still dirt in one shoe and it can stay there till morning.

One new volunteer today. She brought her teenage son and he worked the whole morning without asking when they could leave. I was tickled with him. Said so to his mother while he was carrying the last empty boxes outside. She looked surprised, like she had been waiting for me to complain about him. He was slow at first, sure, but everybody is slow until they know where we keep things. I sent them home with tomatoes from our garden. Not pantry stock. She asked whether they could come again next week and I told her seven o'clock. It will be good to have somebody tall who does not disappear when the truck needs unloading.

Four bags of corn left in the freezer. I counted twice because the notebook said six, and the lineman said he had not touched any. Then I remembered the church supper. I wrote down what I took from the pantry that week and never wrote down what I took from home. Aggravating to have a perfectly good system and skip your own part of it. The boy was helping by moving everything I had already counted to the other side. I gave him an empty basket and let him inventory that. We are lower on green beans than I thought too. Next year's garden will need another row, but the tomatoes are staying where they are.