APRICOT OVERLOAD

I'm not sure why, but this year has been an amazing growing year for our fruit. Our apricot tree has never produced more than a half a dozen pieces of fruit until this year. The tree was in danger of broken limbs because it was so loaded with apricots. Big C was so happy! He loves them. I don't like them so they were a irritation to me. More work- cleaning up the dropping fruit every day, making bags and bags of dehydrated fruit and dozens of pints of jam. It is safe to say we are done with them!

Family Night drying.

We got together for a combined family night and filled my in-laws' industrial sized dehydrator with every piece of fruit we could get to. It's actually pretty tall for a fruit tree.

My new niece and her mommy.

Who's going to eat all these? Not me!

BAPTISM GET-TOGETHER

Baptisms are great times to get the family together. I love to see my kids playing with their cousins. I loved my cousins so much and I hope they are building life-long bonds with their cousins, like I did with mine.

Miss G and Princess P- cousins and buddies.

I never did get a photo of the sweet cousin that was baptized...

After the baptism, we went up to the Barn for a luncheon and family bonding time.

Cousins C and L, with Gma and Gpa snoozing in the background.

My in-laws grew some great raspberries this year and were kind enough to share them. I was thrilled! Raspberry jam is my favorite- ESPECIALLY the homemade kind! It always reminds me of my Aunt J up in Logan... They grew their own raspberries too and she made great jam! I miss you Aunt J!

Gma and Gpa picking the raspberries.

Big C picking raspberries and feeding them to Baby W.

I {heart} raspberries!

Look at all those luscious berries! YUM!

My jam turned out so yummy!!

Baby W will even eat the sour pears that grow in the old orchard. Crazy kid!

HEADING INTO FALL

As sad as I am to see summer go, autumn is one of my favorite times of the year. I LOVE the change in temperature, the colors of the changing leaves, the smell of burning weeds and leaves, the wearing of sweaters, eating pumpkin treats, and pumpkins!

Here's some other things that have defined fall this year...

I love the new Women's Meeting that our Church does. I love being able to go all together (well, Princess P and I- but if S had been in town, she would have come too) as women and girls! It is always a wonderful meeting!

Princess P and I on our way to the Women's Conference session.

Our trampoline has had a huge hole in it for a year now, and we finally ordered a new mat! Yay!

The kids helping Dad put in the new mat.

The kids proving that it works.

We actually grew an edible watermelon this year! It's the first time ever. Big C has tried to grow one a few times and they never make it. He was pretty proud. It's all because of the greenhouse...

Little C enjoying watermelon.

OH WHAT DO YOU DO IN THE SUMMERTIME?

Our daily lives change A LOT during the summer months, as I'm sure they do for everyone. In our case, Princess P is now the mower of lawns and all things grass. She was not super excited about her new job, but has really stepped up to the plate and is doing great!

The Natural Mower.

She struggles a little with the maneuvering of the mower, but is getting the hang of it after two weeks and I'll bet that after another week or two she won't even need me to edge for her and will be doing it all on her own.

Another thing that changes during summertime is our clothing choices. This year, my boys have decided that tank tops are awesome and they needed to buy some. I think they both have two or three each. I have no problem with it as long as they only wear them on casual occasions. 

A in his new summer clothes.

GREENHOUSE

We bought a greenhouse a couple months ago and have slowly been constructing it. 

A helps Big C add the panels.

It took forever and was not an easy task, but I think it will be pretty sturdy. We actually already have volunteer peas coming up inside... One more step towards self-reliance! 

EVERYTHING BUT CILANTRO

Our garden is producing like mad lately. I just picked so many peppers and tomatoes yesterday that I gave half of them to our neighbors. Then I made fresh salsa for dinner. We grew everything but the cilantro. It is very yummy! It feels so good to grow your own food. Very satisfying indeed.

Salsa veggies

GARDEN REPORT

This has been a strange growing year. Some things have done really well, but other things have really struggled. We have a total of two green bean plants out of 3 rows. Not sure what happened there. Big C eats a tomato or two a day. We planted Early Girls and Romas. The Early Girls are the ones he's been eating and the Romas are still green. Our green peppers have done great as well as our onions and potatoes and cucumbers. After a few false starts our carrots have started doing well and we have eaten some yummy corn (my favorite). There are only 5 pumpkins in that patch and I am sad about that. I love to grow pumpkins. 

The Gordon garden of 2012

DAY 4- SOMETHING GREEN

PHOTO CHALLENGE:

My peas are very tall and are getting pods! Yay! They aren't quite ready, but close...

YARD PROJECTS

Our family night took place out in our yard again last night. The hole our trampoline is in is collapsing thanks to termites in the wood.

So, of course we need to brick it. Big C is worried that the ground is just going to cave under the sidewalk, so here he is starting the brick. My two older boys helped him...

... while the two younger kids helped me with the tomatoes and peppers. I hope we even get any it is so late, but it has just been so cold I haven't been motivated to do much in the garden. Our peas are coming nicely though...

SPRING CLEANING THE YARD

Every spring we have a clean-up-the-yard Family Night. Last night was that night. It was the first nice Monday night we've had all year. My kids groan, but it always ends up being pretty fun.

S has moved back home now and was thrilled to be back and participate in our family work activities again. She did a great job on the rose bed.

Princess P helped me weed and clean out flower beds. She stayed with it the entire time (even though she kept asking how much longer). Here she is resting after her hard work. She decided Kevin the cat was cold and zipped him up in her jacket.

Meanwhile, the boys got all the junk and made a big fire to burn it all (I'm sure we were popular with the neighbors). This is actually after it had burned down a bit. It took a little while until you could get close to it, but then they roasted marshmallows. We even had scriptures and prayer around the fire. It was a fun night and our yard looks LOTS better!

GARDENING

My peas are peeking through the dirt! It is so exciting to plant things and have them come up and watch them grow.

I just wish our weather would warm up a bit so that I could plant more stuff. We have dropped down to 22˚ f the last two nights. Nothing but peas can survive that. Our growing season is all of two- two and a half months here.

This is a list of what we are planting this year. Anybody else doing anything different?

1. Corn (first and foremost my favorite thing to come out of a garden!)
2. Potatoes
3. Tomatoes
4. Peppers
5. Onions (salsa garden? Yes.)
6. Cucumbers
7. Carrots
8. Green beans
9. Pumpkins
10. Cilantro (going to try it)

Hope it all comes up and the weeds stay down!

GARDEN RECONSTRUCTION

Big C decided we needed to redo our garden walls from wood to cement. When he decides to do a project, he means business.

Here it is, all formed up. The guys (boys) have been helping too.

He also wants to add a green house, but I am opposed to that idea. I spend enough time in the garden without having to feel like I need to spend more to justify buying a green house. (I am not fond of gardening).

GARDENING

We are enjoying the 'fruits of our labors.' We haven't had a garden for quite a few years now. Neither my husband nor I are ever very excited about it, but this year I felt strongly that we needed to do it, not for us, but for our kids. We've had them out there weeding and helping off and on all summer. I am actually really surprised we got anything because we planted in July, but we did!

Last night we had fresh green beans (which I LOVE) and corn on the cob (which I believe is one of life's true joys)! Some of my family aren't as thrilled as my husband and I, but they don't like anything, so it's not much of a surprise.

We are going to have quite a few pumpkins this year too. They are mostly mini pumpkins, but that's okay. They were volunteer, so who can complain?