I cut through the aronia bushes on the way to the barn. The aronia bushes were covered with creepy, icky, Japanese Beetles–eating and breeding–thousands of them. The leaves were mostly stripped off the bushes. Oh, my God. What do I do?

This was on a Sunday morning. After church, Ginnie and I headed to the farm supply store and purchased a pesticide and water-hose sprayer. That’ll fix’em.

It was hard work in the hot sun lugging the water hose around and spraying the entire line of aronia bushes we have, about 50 yards, I guesstimate. But, by golly, those nasty Japanese Beetles did not like the pesticide one bit. I hope I got to the bushes before they were completely stripped. Ginnie was looking forward to preserving aronia berries in her retirement. We also open up the bushes to the public for free “U-Pick’m Aronia Berries.”

Then I checked the garden. The rhubarb leaves were covered with those nasty beetles, and also the asparagus. Amazingly, they had not bothered the green beans. Why? I dunno. I don’t pretend to understand the eating habits of Japanese Beetles.

Then I noticed our weeping cherry tree and rose bush were infested. It was like the Biblical plague of locusts, and the weeping cherry tree was crying. The wild grapes on the fence that marks our property line were also completely stripped, and the button weeds. Lord-o-mercy, those bugs don’t even discriminate between friend and foe.

I had heard this was a bad (or good) year for Japanese Beetles. Is anyone else having the problem we are? We’ve talked to a couple of people and they say they have a few beetles on their plants, and they just pick them off, but not the severe infestation we have. It must be the fields of soybeans, corn and hay that surround our property. “If it isn’t one thing, it’s six,” my mother used to say.

That’s the ugly part of the story. Now for the pretty part: Ginnie and I noticed a gold finch, Iowa’s State Bird, clinging to the screens of our windows, like it wanted to come in. So, while at the farm supply store, we picked up three finch feeders and a couple of bags of nyjer seed. After spraying the Japanese Beetles, I filled and hung the finch feeders outside our living room, bedroom and kitchen windows.

It took about a day but, by golly, we had a female (they aren’t quite as colorful as the male) finch on the feeder, hanging upside down and eating, and then the male. They are such a pretty bird — gold and black, like Herky the Hawk, the University of Iowa mascot. From my recliner, where I sit and write and read early in the morning, I am blessed with the sight of the sun coming up and golden finches flitting around the feeders. We are so blessed with the life God has provided for us here on the Empty Nest Farm. When the wind blows, like it usually does in the country, the finches hang upside down on their little perch and sway back and forth. So cute.

If they’re eating seed, they need water. I scurried around and rigged up a pan of water on a base, and then also drug up a rusty metal bird bath I had welded together from a farm disk blade and crankshaft. The finches are now eating and drinking. Heaven hath no boundary.

We found our first ripe cherry tomato on July 14. Very late, I know, but because of the wet spring, we didn’t get our garden in until the first of June. Better late than never. From the looks of things, I’m predicting our best garden ever.

July 20: sweet corn is tasseling and green beans are blooming. Hallelujah.

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Have a good story? Call of test Curt Swarm in Mt. Pleasant at 319-217-0526, email him at curtswarm@yahoo.com or visit his website at www.empty-nest-words-photos-and-frames.com