Garden Update

This is our tomato/pepper/herb bed. We got tons of tomatoes although the skins were a little tough. Basil plants went crazy.

I can't find the picture of the squash/potato bed I thought I took. It was huge! We also had hundreds of beetle like bugs that loved the squash plants. Our spagetti squash cross pollinated with our zucchini- so the spagetti had green stripes but tasted fine. Skins on the yellow squash and zucchini were tough if we didn't pull them when they were small.

Potatoes were fun to plant and delicious! The plants were pretty with dark green leaves, we will do those again.

When we bought our plants in February we wanted to do tomatillos, but couldn't find any plants only seeds. We planted them then forgot we did it. They took forever to come up. When we finished our lettuce and pulled the pea plants that didn't survive very far into the summer, the tomatillos finally started getting big. As you can see the plants are huge with tons of blossoms... but no fruit. This weekend we did see three little tomatillos, so we will see what it ends up producing. Little onions on the left.

On the right is our six month investment in asparagus- it keeps growing!

Our cucumbers were fun to do, but the little cucumbers hide. Then all of a sudden you look and they are bigger than your hand! This is the plant after we found the gopher holes in the bed, I wonder if it would have lasted longer if we didn't have gophers?

We made 10 or 12 quarts of pickles, half dill spears and half sweet chips. We might research different recipes for next time though. Yum!

When we found the gopher holes the kids pulled the rest of the carrots and we tried to flood the gopher out. We put the hose into the hole for at least 15 min and it never flooded the bed. So....I think we have some pretty deep tunnels under our yard! This weekend we found holes in our tomato bed. We will see what happens.

Summer Camps

Jarom went to Scout Camp this summer at Geronmino. He had a great time, he was a little worried about being gone so long, but all we heard when he got back was how fun it was. He earned 4 merit badges and raved about how good the food was. -we thought he wouldn't find anything to eat! He came home with a pocket knife he was very excited about.

He wrote us a letter towards the end of the week. His leader said his was by far the longest letter any of the scouts wrote, one page-front and back. It probably would have been twice as long if he had written neatly with spaces between words. He did say he missed us but was having fun.

I was able to go to Girls Camp at LoMia with my beehives this summer. We were busy, but found time to laugh and eat! All the girls got along and everything went really well.

I was asked to dress up as Deborah from the Old Testament and memorize a 3 min. script about her for the Women of Courage night. There were seven groups of girls rotating to hear about all the women being portrayed. It was challenging for me, but it was an incredible night. Another girls camp done!

Karate

Camille and Evan started in May taking Karate from the Rec center. I love the respect and responsibility it teaches them. Camille does find it hard to keep the smile off her face when she is yelling "ki-ya" and throwing kids to the floor. Both kids advanced to a yellow belt in June. Camille had too many other things going on so we had her quit in July, but Evan is still having fun doing it.

here they are in action-

Backtracking...

Piano recital- kids loved playing their recital songs- they all had them memorized. Last concert with Sis. Bowen teaching- Jarom and Camille really miss her!

School talent show- Camille decided on her own she wanted to play a recital song. She tried out and made it. She played perfectly in the performance!

Jarom's sixth grade class performed the evolution of dance for the school talent show. They had a blast learning it and did great. The cool shades were part of the show.

On their way to school on the last day! Ready or not, here comes summer!

Jarom had Mrs. Maas as a teacher for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. Jarom will miss her!

Camille and Co.

These girls were snapping shots to put in a magazine they were going to make. I think they were surprise shots taken by the "paparazzi".

Garden Update

We are trellising our tomato plants on the left in the picture- we are also keeping them pruned back or we would have a jungle! Red peppers aren't growing very fast, but we have already used the cilantro and basil in our herb garden. Can't wait for salsa and pomodoro!

In the top picture, the back garden is where we trellised our cucumbers, and they are just starting to fruit. We pull a few strawberries every couple of days to eat. They are yummy, but I wish we had more! Our radishes grew so fast, we have replanted and harvested them a second time.

The squash bed is growing so fast, but we only count a few squash. The potato plants are big and beautiful, but we have been told to be patient when thinking about digging to take a peek.

In the picture, on the back wall in the sun are the peas and lettuce. The peas don't look very good- we think it might have something to do with our neighbors draining their pool into the grass on the other side of the fence, but we are getting a few snap and snow peas. The snap peas are my favorite. The soy beans (edamame) have a few beans on the plant, and Camille is very excited.

We harvested veggies and lettuce on Sunday for a salad.


We have learned a lot and have made several tactical errors, but everyone is having fun with it!

Temple Trip

The Skinner family all took a trip up to the Gila Valley Temple Open House in April. It was a fun trip. It was a sweet experience to see my children in the celestial room with Ben and I, and I loved being able to explain to the kids about the different things in the temple.

We took a picnic to the park afterwards and sat and talked while the kids played. It was a great day!

Camille had a dance recital at the same time, so we left her here to perform in the recital, but she got to go the open house with her other grandparents a few weeks later.