Garden Harvest

Planting a garden is one of the funnest things we do in the spring. We all have a great time getting the garden ready and making sure it is watered and weeded. We all work hard to make sure that the plants are growing and the biggest responsibility is to make sure we pick the vegetables when they are done. Every year we are learning more and more about how to make our garden better. This year we got three new grow boxes to plant in. It helped us get corn, beans, lots of onions, and tomatoes. We made a huge killing on spaghetti squash. Every time we picked peas, I think only a few made it inside to the fridge. Everyone loved eating them right off the vines.  

One thing we did struggle with again this year was squash bugs.  We worked so hard in the beginning killing the adults and picking off the eggs.  We searched every leaf everyday for eggs and bugs.  Then the plants got too big to search.  We also planted a lot of onions and marigolds in hopes that the smell would deter the bugs.  We thought we had won!  But no, the bugs still came, in fact they lived in the marigolds and crawled right over the onions.  The grasshoppers were also a nuisance this year.  We can't win with bugs.  We may just have to spray.  Next year we are going to take a break from squash in hopes that the bugs will go away so we can plant squash again the next year.  Crop rotating is supposed to work in getting rid of them.  

A garden would not be a garden without eating the fruits of our labors and making some really good food with them. A few times we made entire meals from the garden.  One time we had hamburgers and onion rings.  Everything except the bread and hamburger was from the garden.  We had homemade pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, and the onion rings all from the garden.  They were so good!

 

We also made some amazing spaghetti sauce, onion rings, we split the peas and made pea potato soup and pickles. We can a lot of our produce and it is always a lot of work but totally worth it.  The black cauldron has been bubbling for the past month but it is finally done! We put up 13 lbs of tomatoes, 25 lbs of peaches, and about 7lbs of apples in one weekend and that was only the beginning of it. The hard part this year was finding canning lids at the store. It seems like Covid-19 is affecting everything in our lives even canning season.  We had to order some off of Amazon that were way too expense.  Then we finally found some more at Ridley's and took most of their stock.  Crazy times call for crazy measures. 

This is most of the things we canned this year.  We did pasta sauce, salsa, peaches, 3 flavors of peach jam, peach leather, pickles, and multiple flavors of applesauce.  The Lee's had an amazing crop this year with their apple trees and they gladly and willingly shared a lot of apples with us.  Along with the applesauce and dried apples, we tried, for the first time, to make apple juice. It was a lot of work, but we had some great little helpers make it happen. We ended up making about 14 quarts of apple cider.   The juice that came out of our juicer was pretty thick so we call it cider instead.  It is quite good when it is warm because the pulp is mixed up.  When it is cold though it is like drinking applesauce.  If we make it again, we will strain the juice again after it comes out of the juicer to try and get out most of the pulp.  We are happy with our first attempt though.  I look forward to this time of year and putting forth the work to see what comes out of it. I am glad to help pass it on to the kids and give them the understanding of why we work hard to get the food. 

More August Fun

It was a great Summer full of fun times and great memories. One of the fun memories was when the Stewart kids came to visit for the day.  

It was the perfect day for outdoor activities full of water and sunlight. They went to the splash pad at the Canyon park by the Elementary school. Everyone got way wet and way dizzy rolling down the hill. It is always a great time when cousins come and visit.

What would Summer be if there was no county fair? This is one tradition that is a must before Summer ends. The only down fall was it was not as exciting because of all the Covid-19 restrictions. 

There were not as many animals and displays in the different houses. The carnival rides were also cancelled this year.  Even without all of these things, we still had a good time walking around and looking at all of the fun displays, crafts, art, and animals.  Logan had a cool thing to do this Summer to get ready for school. His teacher sent him a pack of fun activities to do outside and a fun little person that looked like Mrs. Kendrick. He got to bring her with him so she could be part of  his fun activities.  He took her to the fair, the dentist, and tubing at Bear Lake.

Another fun little adventure we had was a trip to St. George for a weekend. On the way down we had a little mishap with the tire on the van. As I was driving I noticed that the van was swaying a bit. I thought about pulling over in Scipio but we didn't. Then about 4 miles outside of Scipio, the back tire blew and we were on the side of the road and needing a tire change. 

I was thinking it wouldn't take too long to put the spare tire on and get to the next town. Unfortunately, I took the spare tire out and it was flat. Oh great, I thought now what. So we had the kids chill outside on the side of the road.  We found a roadside service company to come and help. Just before the guy came a truck driver came and pumped up the spare tire and I thought about calling the guy and not spending the extra money. He was just a couple minutes away from us though when I called so I told him to keep coming.  The man came and put a new tire on and it was the most I have ever spent for a tire. Needless to say it was definitely a huge blessing to have it done and we were safe. We made it to St. George safely but later time than expected. 

While in St. George, we had a great time with family and relaxed. The kids had a great time with cousins and friends. Tiffany and I were also able catch up with some friends of ours.  We decided to check out the new park by the Boilers.  Back when we were kids, only the druggies went to the Boilers to hang out.  Now Washington City has made it into a nice park.  The kids had a blast with their cousins. 

Back to School...Finally!

Can you believe it, the summer is over and it is time to go back to school.  After being out of school since March, the kids were ready to go back.  We were all worried that schools would not start back up because the Corona Virus is still running rampant according to the media.  But with certain precautions in place, school was able to start.

Here they are ready for the first day of school!  This is Emily's last year in the elementary school.  She is in sixth grade.

She loves school and was ready to go back and see her friends.  This year she has Mr. Hansen for her teacher.  This is the first year she will have a male teacher so she was a little nervous about that.  I told her it would be just fine.  I didn't get a picture of her with her teacher because, well, sixth grade is too old I guess and guy teachers don't want pictures.  Oh well...

Colby is in Fourth Grade this year.

He was excited about going back to school too but kind of wanted to continue with home-school.  The reason he wanted to do that was because he could get his homework done much faster in home-school and have more time to play.  I told him he needed to go back to school and be around people.  Also if the other kids were going so was he.  He is happy about it now because he gets to see more friends at school than he would if he was home-schooled.  This year he has Mrs. Eames for his teacher.  She seems great so far.

Logan is in Second Grade.

Logan was very excited to go back to school.  He is our social butterfly and loves being around people.  This year he has Mrs. Rocky Kendrick for his teacher.  She is awesome.  He husband works with Russell and she has always hoped to get to teach one of our kids.  Now she gets too. We are happy to have her as a teacher.

And Charlotte gets to stay home with us for another year even though she really wanted to go to school with everyone else.

She will be the only one home but that's okay because she loves to play by herself and do whatever she wants without the bigger kids telling her what to do.  She does miss them though and is happy when they come home.

Because of Covid-19, there have been a lot of changes to the way school is being run this year.  The first major change is that all of the kids, teachers, and anyone that goes into the school is required to wear a mask.  The poor kids and teachers have to wear them all day long with only a break during lunch and recess.  I worried about how the kids would do wearing the masks because I have a hard time doing it.  They seem to be fine though and are used to it now.  The kids and teachers also have to wash or sanitize their hands multiple times every day as well as sanitize and clean the desks all the time.  I don't think this is such a bad thing because it is good to clean and have good hygiene.  The other thing is that the kids desks have to be spread out.  They have to be as close to six feet apart as they can be to accommodate to all the kids.  The kids are also not allowed to switch seats or rearrange the room.  This is so there will be contact tracing in case someone gets sick.  Only two classes are allowed in the lunchroom at all times and the other classes have to eat lunch outside or in their classrooms.  There are no more after-school activities like Running Club, Choir, or Robotics.  Parent Volunteers are pretty much done away with as well.  These are just some of the changes.  It will definitely be a different year but I hope things become a little more normal as the year goes on.  I am glad they are in school though and that helps them with socializing and a better routine, which are all good things.

Because masks are required for school, I spent a lot of time recently making masks for the kids.

These are just a few of the ones I made.  I ended up making five for each kid plus the school gave us two each.  With this many, they will have a new mask for everyday of the week.  I also put it out there to our neighbors that I would make masks for them for $3 each.  Because of this, I ended up making about 20 additional masks for our neighbors so all of my fabric was pretty much paid for.  I am done making masks for a while I hope!

Well, here's to another year of school.  I hope it will be a good one and we will be able to stay in school for the whole year.  

Bear Lake

The summer wouldn't be complete without a trip to Bear Lake. Russell's co-worker, Cannon, invited us to his property on the shore of Bear Lake and we had a blast having the beach to ourselves and playing in the water.  It was really fun.  The kids are fish and love the water.

We brought the kayaks and Emily's tube and just spent the day floating on the water and soaking up the sun.  After lunch, Cannon took us out on his boat.  This was the kids first time being on a ski boat on the lake.  The loved every minute.

They were even brave enough to go out on the tube and be pulled around. They thought this was the best thing ever and did not want to get off.  Even Charlotte and I got on and gave it a try.  I did tell Cannon to go slow with us because I did not want to get thrown off.

However when Russell and his other co-worker, Chris, got on, Cannon was not so gentle with them.  In fact, on the first jolt of the boat, he threw them off into the lake.  He did that a few more times before they gave in and came back on the boat.  We were all laughing even Russell and Chris.  

After enjoying the day, we got some Raspberry Shakes and headed home.  We had a great time and were so glad Cannon invited us to his property.