Friday Farm Update

It's been a busy growing week at the farm. Lettuce is ready to be harvested, green beans are happy and saying hello. Strawberries are emerging and trying to turn red. And my purple sand cherry begs me daily to trim it up, but it's too beautiful!

Lettuce, Bell Pepper, Basil and Cilantro

Beautiful purple sand cherry!Bed #1 - look at all that lettuce!

Bed #2 - green bean alert!

For Kelly

A couple of weeks ago Dave took the day off to volunteer at the new temple, but they ended up not needing people that day. So we went to Thanksgiving Point to play. We went to the Dinosaur Museum, Farm Country, and ended up eating ice cream at the deli.

Building his own Jurassic world

Oooh! Sand is dirty!

Yeah, we love each other sometimes.

Clara seriously loves horses these days. She was thrilled to ride the ponies.

Josh befriended the biggest pony in the bunch.

Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function?

We are taking off this afternoon and heading to Grand Junction for the weekend. My hope is that it involves a lot of sitting around while watching the kids play. I'm in need of a sitting around weekend instead of a millions of squats while gardening weekend. I may even try to get rid of my farmer tan.

Josh and Clara are very excited to play with all of the guys. Clara burst into tears this morning when she thought that Dave was leaving without her. But before we leave...

Hanging baskets - so pretty
I'm starting to love container planting.
Another container plant
Front bed - we are in the process of removing the railings on the front porch. You can see a few of the annuals that I planted that will hopefully fill in. What a labor of love!
Front island - lots of new annuals. I can't wait to see what they look like mid-summer.
Awww, I love snuggles.
Raised square foot garden on deck: Lettuce, cilantro, bell pepper and basil
Bed #1: Lots of lettuce, bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash, basil, parsley, cilantro, and bush beans
Bed #2: I spent this week hooking up the sprinkler system so that it will self water. I have a few tweaks that I need to do, but so far so good!
Clara is definitely ready for the weekend
What a diva
Josh is ready, too!

It's In. It's All In.

Well, come on. You've been through a few years of gardening with me now. You know I tweak and tug and plant excessively. However, it is getting hot and I'm tired of my cuticles being thrashed. So this year I might be done. Almost. Anyway.

Friday on the Farm will start this Friday. Won't that be fun? Only this year I have FOUR boxes to take pictures of, plus I might take pictures of various beds for my own entertainment in order to see before/after. Today I planted a bunch of red, white and yellow annuals. I'm starting to get on board with the annual thing. I am creating places for them each year in my beds where I don't put mulch.

So far in my SFG I have planted:
bell peppers - and lots of them
tomatoes
basil - lots of it
lettuce
beets
cilantro
jalapenos
squash
zucchini
cucumber
green beans
strawberries

And I have raspberries growing in half barrels.

I May Be Fat, But You're Ugly and I Can Diet

Yeah, remember that saying? It doesn't work! I can't diet. Well, I mean, I can attempt dieting, but it doesn't work. It used to work. It worked as of two years ago. But it doesn't work anymore. Unless you count losing five pounds in eight weeks successful. That is .625 pounds a week. Who aspires to that?

It could because I am 37 and my metabolism is shutting down. Which would make sense except I have two large zits on my face and who gets zits at age 37? Me, apparently. And not just little pinprick zits, but big ugly under the skin painful zits.

And I have no toenail. Well, I have like a millimeter of a big toenail now, but it has been three months since my big toenail removal fiasco and if it is going to only grow a millimeter every three months it will take five years to grow back.

However, in five years at .625 pounds a week of weight loss I will have lost 162.5 pounds. Which is impossible, but I really like to look at the bright side of things.

And maybe my zit will be gone by then, too.

Community

Sunny and a High of 60!

Perfect temperature. Perfect. The rest of you might be freezing, but I am loving it.

Today Dave took the day off to volunteer at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. Apparently General Authorities schedule visits ahead of the regular open house so they need help with that. Well, no General Authorities were scheduled for today so he isn't needed, but took the day off anyway. I'm working this morning and then we are running away and taking the kids to Thanksgiving Point. We are going to the Dinosaur Museum, the Barnyard, and maybe the gardens to wander around. The point is, we are going to wear them (and us) out. And get them some of that thing called education.

This evening I will probably work on the yard, putting down weed barrier and adding mulch. I may plant the rest of the plants that are just sitting in their containers in the backyard waiting for me. Or I might just sit on the front porch, sipping fresh mint tea (we have a LOT of mint at the moment and apparently just steeping it in hot water helps with digestion. Did I just say that?) and watching the world go by.

I love Spring. Not a huge fan of mid-summer heat, but I love the 60's and 70's (temps, not decades). I love not having the heat or air on and opening the windows during the day. I love that my kids are old enough to ride their bikes all over the place for hours and play army with their friends and hunt for worms and potato bugs. I love that I already have a green bell pepper growing on my plant and it is the size of a walnut. I love, I love, I love!