It's All In, Hope It Lives!

The kids had the day off today for a teacher quality day. There are only 13 days left in the school year, so I'm not sure why. Turns out it was a good thing. We got the garden tilled on Saturday, but nothing planted. The kids were home and wanted to help, and I was glad to let them.

This little terraced section was full of rocks. Amazingly, they were excited to help move them all over a corner of the yard. Erica taught the boys about shot puts, so they used the time for shot put practice.



They did a fairly decent job of hitting the general area, but it's probably a good thing no one was over there. The tall vegetation is our bakyard neighbors yard. Good thing they don't have a fence, because that way our yard gets lots of sun.

We planted lettuce, onions (red and yellow), corn- hope it grows because we've never had much luck with it before, tomatoes, cantaloup, watermelon, pumpkin, and my favorite- strawberries.

Tonight the little boys from next door came running around back while we were having Family Home Evening. After explaining that we couldn't play, we talked to them about only walking on the bricks or grass. They seemed to understand. We went upstairs for refreshments (Spencer made chocolate chip cookies by himself and the were awesome) , walked out on the deck to look down on our work, and saw where little footprints jumped from one row of planted seeds to another. It will be interesting to see who's tougher- plants or little boys! If the plants live long enough to produce food, they should be able to survive anything!

Thoughts

For the last week I've wanted to write about something, but didn't know what. I spent two days last week at Women's Conference and thought I should post something about what I learned. Life all week has been busy, like normal, but nothing specific has stood out. There's have been several little teaching moments, I just haven't been sure how to put all my thoughts into words. I'm still pondering on some, but I'll share a few.

1) I sang in a choir that taught me that my voice doesn't have to be the biggest or best, it just needs to be there. All of us combined together create a beautiful sound. Other aspects of life are the same.

2) Many hands make light work. Even if you don't feel like your efforts make a difference or that anyone notices them, they are missed when they are suddenly not there.

3) Looking out for the happiness of others will bring as much, but probably more, joy and satisfaction as making sure your own wants and needs are met.

4) Life gives us experiences that enlarge our souls and create the capacity to hold more JOY. I always thought it was just to help me grow up, I never really thought that it was to make me happier. If I do this life right (in general, anyway), my ability to find joy should increase at least a little bit everyday because the container can hold that much more.

5) Heavenly Father will let us know things we need to do. It's up to us to ask, listen, and then act. He's waiting to bless us and happy to do so, but will wait for us to do our part.

6) If I was the only person on earth, Christ would have still come and performed the Atonement. That's important.

7) Being a mother, and the willingness to do so, is one of the most important jobs in the entire Plan. The men hold the Priesthood that gives us the ordinances and covenants to help us return Home. Mothers hold the power to bring spirits to earth and teach them to accept those blessings in the first place.

8) "It's not what he doesn't know that bothers me, it's what he knows for sure that just ain't so." -Will Rogers

9) Joy and gratitude can be both found and expressed in the most difficult of circumstances.

10) Though both are good, working together will strengthen your family in a way that just doing fun things together can't.

A Little Help, Please!

Greg brought this plant home on Friday. There wasn't a plant ID tag inside it, so I'm not sure what to do with it. Does anyone happen to know what it's called so I can look it up online? Thanks!

Before...or During...or After

Apparently Mother's Day weekend is "the" time to plant a garden in Utah. As our garden is replacing a yard there's been a bit of work to get ready. This week has been pretty busy and today was the big push. Greg picked up 4-1/2 cubic yards of compost, deposited it in the driveway, and then we spent the better part of the day moving it to the backyard and tilling it in. Monday will be spent putting seeds in the ground. I wish I'd remembered to take a "before" picture, but I didn't until we were about 1/2 way finished, so I didn't bother. Instead, I'm posting this as both an ending, middle, and beginning- end of today's work, middle of the planting process, and beginning of the hopefully fruitful garden.



Below is a little more towards the beginning phase. The top dirt part used to be a pit that contained a fountain that was filled with slimy water, trash, and bugs when we moved in. Pumpkins and watermelons will hopefully inhabit that space soon. The rocks on the next terrace down still need to be removed. We're planning to put bell peppers and maybe a couple of zucchini plants or lettuce there instead. That's next week's project.

Raspberries..And Not Enough Else

The title is somewhat misleading. I did get the raspberry plants into the ground, but as tomorrow is the start of Women's Conference (yea!) and I will be effectively out of commission for two days, I didn't get everything I needed to for Thursday and Friday done. Oh well. I'm sure the list is not going anywhere. Most of the regular Wednesday stuff wriggled it's way in somehow. It has been strange to spend the day before Women's Conference planting raspberries and grocery shopping instead of driving, but that's another story for another day.

The raspberry plants came to me as 5 or 6 foot long sticks with a few leaves. The man who gave them to me said to plant them, cut them down to 18 inches, and fertilize next fall. I like that- short, easy, and all things I understand and, better yet, know how to do. Especially the "not" fertilizaing part. I can "not fertilize" really well. So, here are our raspberry sticks. I had 6 plants, but two were stuck together so well that I just planted them in the same hole. Good thing, too, be cause I was getting tired of digging. (The cute legs and shadows you see are the kiddos who live next door. There are three- twins almost 4 and another 2-1/2 year old. They are true boys and love all things to do with tools and dirt. We are becoming good friends this week. I can finally tell them apart!)



The idea is to grow a raspberry hedge along the side of the house. We'll see. I know, you can't see the sticks in the pictures. So here's the double stick up close.

They look eerily similar to, but should not be confused with, the cocktail fruit tree stick I planted last fall. It is still standing and is still firmly attached to the ground, so I hope that means it (and the raspberries) will eventually do something besides be a stick. (Thanks you dear-next-door-neighbor for mowing our yard right before I came out to take pictures. Otherwise, there would be lots and lots of pretty dandelions included!)


As a prize for making it to the end of this post, you get a free bit of trivia. If you didn't already know it, you've learned something new and get a free trip to bed early. Knowledge and extra sleep. Double bonus. Now, for the trivia- according to George W. Dickerson at the New Mexico State University Extension, there several colors of raspberries, including black. There is a simple way to tell the difference between raspberries and blackberries. The cores of a raspberry, when harvested, stays attached to the stem. The cores of harvested blackberries become part of the edible fruit. Sleep well! (I know I will.)

Moving Rocks

There's just something about working in the garden, even if the garden doesn't exactly exist yet, to make me feel great. Our backyard gets to become one this year, but it's going to be a very long process. The first step today was to remove some very old dead sod next to the back porch (aka small square of cement) and replace it with some of the flagstones from another part of the yard. Moving the stones will allow the hose to be up and off the ground and gives us quite a bit more garden space.

I wish I'd thought to take a "before" picture, but I didn't. The ground looked something like this, only bordered on one side by the A/C unit. The horizontal stripes are caused by the rain dripping between the boards of the deck above. Great sod, don't you think! Funny what no water for a LONG time will do. This particular spot of ground will get to host a bed of strawberries in the near future. (Yum!)



This is the after. It's not perfect, but I moved all those stones by myself and I feel pretty happy with the results. Everything is settled in pretty well and none of them rock when I step on them- I hate that! I'm trying to decide if I want to place smaller rocks to "smooth"out the bottom edge. We'll see.


I found a few "treasures" under the stones- about a billion ants who were NOT happy to have their roof removed and a black widow spider. Blech! Glad it wasn't one ant and a billion spiders! About 1/3 of the stones are left. They'll get to become borders and/or stepping stones through the garden. Their former home will be home to watermelon and pumpkin plants, and maybe a cantaloupe or two. I didn't take a picture, but the ants all eventually calmed down and went back under ground. I'll have to take care of them tomorrow.

We were also given a few raspberry plants today that will hopefully get a dirt home tomorrow. Hope my calendar realizes I need a bunch of free time!

Not Feeling Too Bright Right About Now

Something didn't sit well last night as I was writing my last post. 10 hours later, I finally figured out what it was. The Marriage of Figaro isn't a Shakepeare anything, it's a Mozart opera. Obviously I'm not much of a classics kind of gal. So, sorry to Mozart and Shakespeare for giving credit where it wasn't due. That's what I get for staying up late to write.

Good thing I already have my high school and college diplomas. I think Mr. Perry and Ms. McGovern have already retired, too. Whew! I'd really have to bone-up for a final exam were I to take it now!