Why I would never have survived as a farmer...

We had the noble idea that we would plant a garden this year! We know next to nothing about growing things, but figured... how hard could it be? Just put the plants in the ground and water them every day, right? No big deal, any body could do it! So one beautiful Saturday in May we tilled up a large spot in our backyard, bought $75 worth of plants at Home Depot and put them in the ground. We took photos and had the grandparents over for a BBQ to see our hopeful garden. We even painted a sign that said "Bergstrom's Best Garden Ever!" and posted it with pride...

Fast forward to June.... The watermelon, cantalope, cucumbers, corn and one of the pumpkin plants are dead. Was it bugs, lack of light, poor soil... who knows! All we know is they're dead, dead, dead! But it's not a total wash... we still have tomatoes, carrots and three pumpkin plants! We still had hope!

Fast forward to July... Tomatoes are doing great, I don't have the heart to thin out the carrots and I'm loving my pumpkins every day, but they are not growing... they aren't dead yet, but they're the same size they were in May.

Fast forward to August... My pumpkins won't grow or die! My tomatoes are thriving!!! And we decide our carrots have grown as much as they can so we invite Will to come pull them out. It was his favorite thing! He enjoyed every minute of it! The longest one was 3" long, but they still tasted good. And we have fresh grape tomatoes everyday! Yum!

I know that my ancestors were all farmers, but everybody was back then... they had to be in order to feed their families! I, on the other hand, was born in a time when I have the luxury of driving down to the grocery store if I'm in the mood for a watermelon or a cucumber... and I am so thankful for that! The garden lesson was a good one for me as much as the kids... Be thankful for Harmon's!! Can you imagine if we had to survive on what we grew in our garden? We wouldn't last a week!

As for our pumpkins... Kelly's and Geana's are doing great so we'll just rely of the gardening skills of our family for our Jack-o-lanterns this year...

Rockband Update...

Will informed me that I needed to update the blog to let everyone know how much he has improved his Rockband skills since my "Rockband Baby!" post. I mentioned before that the drums were not his forte... but I am pleased to announce that he has been practicing like crazy and he can now hold his own on the drums!! Picture my sweet little Will drummin' his little heart out to "Truckin" from the Grateful Dead... It's awesome! Way to go Will! We are so proud of you!!!

Fishing with Grandpa!

This morning was the scout fishing derby and since Jeff worked the mid last night, it was up to me to play the dad card... (Jeff says this is sexist, but the fact is, I never learned how to fish. Putting a worm on a hook, casting, reeling, pulling the hook out, gutting it, etc. are all things I never had any intrest in learning... maybe it is because I'm a girl... either way, I never learned so how the hell am I supposed to teach my boys? He, on the other hand, knows how to do this so therefore I felt it was a dad thing to do...) Anyway... In order to give our sons a proper experience at the sport, Jeff called in his dad to the rescue! Glen LOVES fishing! So it seemed natural that he would come help the boys in their adventure. I stuck to what I know how to do well... take photos! (Although I am pleased to say that I did learn how to cast... a little) After a few hours with no bites, finally Glen felt a tug on Drew's Spiderman fishing pole... YEHAW! He pulled it in and... it was the smallest Blue Gill you've ever seen! So I snapped a photo and we let him swim away. In the end, I think the boys had fun and learned a little but were ready to head home. I am so thankful that Glen came along to show the boys a good time! Thanks!!

Up, up and away!

The boys and I woke up early and headed to the Sandy Hot Air Balloon Festival to watch all the bright and colorful balloons fill with air and rise into the morning sky as the sun rose behind us. It was so beautiful watching them rise over the copper mine in the distance! This spectacle is probably the only reason I would ever agree to get up so early on my birthday!! It was totally worth it!

Enjoying the Utah Mountains!

Every summer we love to head up to the mountains for a hike! It's a great way to beat the heat since it's usually 15 degrees cooler up there. The boys have become quite the hikers so it's always lots of fun! My favorite hike is to Cecret Lake in the Albion Basin (Alta)... we look forward to it every year.