This is the time of year I usually show you how the garden up at the barn is doing, how the corn is growing and the tomatoes are ripening, how the sunflowers are blooming and how cute the tiny squash and melons and pumpkins look. Remember?

Instead, I'm thinking very non-Disney thoughts, in which the vile rodents gophers, who Uncle Walt would have shown you as singing and dancing and being adorable, are dead. Or at least living across the canyon.

But no, they're here, and hungry and busy and of all the things I planted (see first paragraph) all that remain are three lone tomato plants and a bit of French thyme. And I'm trying not to get too attached to any of them.