Is Summer Really Over?

Summer seemed to go by way too fast this year. It's hard to think about gearing up for the cold ahead. I think I won't think about it just yet. Here are a few highlights of our summer:

Getting together with my sisters in SLC

Miscellaneous 4-wheeler rides. This one with Karen and John near Lava

With Bancroft friends to the local mountain top called "Baldy"

Boundary Trail with some of the kids and grandkids

We didn't make it all the way around the Boundary Trail that day..maybe another year...

Pontoon boat ride with the grandkids

Swimming at Lava (and trying to get a group shot)

Camping with some of my favorite people

Bear Lake and the Oregon Trail Museum with Jim and Paula

Fishing and camping with the Williams girls at Topance Canyon

It's been a great summer, all in all. We spent lots of quality time with the kids and grandkids. We want them to have good memories of fun times spent with Grandma and Grandpa. Mission accomplished...for now.

My Husband, the Gardener

Roy is a lot like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get. Some years he doesn't want anything to do with the garden, and other years it seems he can't get enough. This year I was lucky...he liked the garden. Early in the spring, right after I planted it, there was a cat that kept doing his business right in the garden. Roy declared war on it and put a trap out there. The next morning, sure enough, there was a cat, but not the stray we thought was doing it. It was someone's pet, and he didn't have the heart to do away with it. Lucky for the cat, it must have found a new place, because we didn't see it again, and the trap was taken away. He also declared war on the birds around here. There were pigeons, waking us up in the morning, making nests in our eaves, and doing unsightly things on our windows. Then there were the robins....do they not know that we are not in the mood to share with them?

Roy built this nice strawberry patch. He worked tirelessly hauling in manure and mixing it with fill dirt. Then getting strawberry starts from three different places. When the robins started showing just a little too much interest, he built this net over it, with some camouflage netting he got at the army store and some copper tubing. It has hinges on it so you can lift it up to weed and pick. I told him it looked like some kind of bunker out there.

The plants are beautiful, and have already given us a handful of strawberries. Next year, hopefully, enough to eat our fill and make jam. And notice, there are absolutely no weeds. He kept them out of the whole garden...lucky me!


The tomatoes in the little greenhouse are doing great, too.

I love it when Roy is in the right mood for gardening. Do you think it is the farming blood that's running through his veins? Reminds me of the old saying, "You can take the boy out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy."