There is something supremely satisfying about working really hard and then seeing the payoffs. For instance, in the garden.

Take these sunflowers. I dug seedlings out from the front of the house and transplanted them to the garden—in the futile hope the birds would leave my berries alone.

The flowers did really well and I’m sure the birds will enjoy them…just as they enjoyed my berries.

Then there’s the apples. I don’t have to do much work before the harvest. Just a little pruning.

But then there’s picking, peeling, slicing, etc. Thankfully we have a hand-cranked machine that does all that. And I have a client who volunteered to crank the machine. I put 30 gallon-sized bags in the freezer to share with my family.

Tomatoes, on the other hand, require a lot more care throughout the season. Then there’s the worry about frost. So I picked most of them and brought them inside. Delicious for fresh eating for several months.

Yup, sometimes the work is worth the effort. I felt the same way about my writing this week when I got a sneak peek of the cover for Big Sky Homecoming—the third book in the Bell sister’s trilogy under the flash of Montana Weddings. I can’t share the cover yet but it is beautiful. Makes it all worthwhile.