And Yet...

Another year of poor gardening comes to a close. The chile peppers didn't go anywhere. The basil was a bust. Even the tomatoes went down in flames. Who can't grow tomatoes? Apparently us.

And yet... Just when we were ready to completely write off the whole endeavor... hope has been ever so slightly restored.

While the strawberries didn't exactly yield a lot of fruit, they didn't die. And because they are perennials, they might have even established a firm footing with next season in mind.

The pumpkins pulled off a comeback in the nick of time. There won't be many of them and they won't win any prizes. They will however, make Tracy happy whenever she goes out to check on them. This is, for me, almost entirely the point.

And perhaps best of all... Blackberries. In an unexpected turn, the vines I hate have produced something I love. Will there be more? Enough to make a truce? Or better yet a pie? Stay tuned...

Patch Work

Maybe this lousy garden thing is actually turning out for the best. For the second year in a row (that counts as a tradition, right?) we all hit Mabey's Pumpkin Farm to overdo things as only we can.

What We Learned in August

We learned that some people do better in the shade.

And some people prefer the sun.

We learned that "our parenting" is an officially an oxymoron.


We learned that our bird feeder is a better gardener than we are.


We learned that it's possible to be proud of and worried by the exact same pictures.


We learned that maybe we should get out more.




Or in more.


We learned that Tracy rules.



We learned that nothing lasts forever.







Sadly, my posting had an inverse relationship to the amount of things that happened this month. Evan had a 14th birthday. We went to Bear Lake with the youth from church. We went to scout camp in the Uintahs. Hailey made and modeled more dresses. And lastly, but not leastly. We dropped Eden off at Utah State to begin her college thing.

We are tired, grateful and proud. We could have done more this summer, but we did some things nonetheless. School is here. Fall is next. Winter waits.

Our house is a little more empty than it was. The dinner table a little quieter. We're mostly okay with it... although now that the stairs to Eden's room aren't covered with clothes, books and lacrosse gear, I sort of wish they were.

Harvest Time

We planted a garden this year. But thanks to the rainiest June we've ever seen and some fairly mediocre soil, just about everything we planted was a bust. Or maybe this guy was to blame. (no, not the grasshopper)

Even the pumpkins (Tracy's favorite) only turned out okay.

So, to supplement our harvest, we visited the pumpkin pro shop.


Everyone grabbed their favorites.

Or tried to anyway...

The pricing was vague. Had we spent $8 or $80?

Only $27... Maybe we should go back for more?


Note: Eden missed out on the family festivities to take part in some of her own. Homecoming. Dances these days are apparently an all day affair. And even though it's halfway into October in Utah, somehow boating was involved. I don't know all the details (I never do) but I know she had fun.


Maybe September was just a hinge connecting summer and fall. We've turned the corner toward better things. The air is different now. Stay tuned.