Final Summer Days

This summer was one of the best.  Really.  We got some good camping in, spent some fun days at Lagoon, swam, spent time with family and friends, and just had a good amount of fun.  I loved having a short camping trip planned every few weeks.  It was fun to always have something to look forward to.  We definitely had our moments of kids fighting and me losing my sanity, but all in all it was a great summer.

We ended the summer by trying to do as much as possible in the last two weeks.  We went to the lake, visited cousins, went on one more camping trip, went swimming, to a bike park, and fit in a couple more trips to Lagoon.  Basically my kids hit the "I'm bored" part of summer and started fighting constantly if they were home.  I decided I couldn't handle it and so I planned non-stop activities.  Yes, the kids won.  I was exhausted by the end of the summer, but it was worth it.

I can't finish talking about summer without addressing the "Great Garden Experiment of 2017".  We planted a huge garden.  It was a lot of work, and as we were planting I couldn't help but think about how much work it would be to harvest.  Anyway, we gardened following a new method.  The method is tried and true, but we've never done it before so for us it was an experiment.  (Zack insists it can't be an experiment if its already been done, but whatever.)  We put posts in the ground, put rebar across the posts, and tied strings to the rebar.  All to try some vertical gardening.  We also used a special fertilizer, and let me tell you, it worked.  I've never seen such big plants that produce so much.  It's crazy.  Our skills at the vertical gardening definitely need work, but all in all I'd say the experiment was a success.  Now we're into the agony of the harvest.  Those of you who have never had a big garden might wonder why this is agony.  I'll explain.  Yes, it's great to have fresh veggies.  So great.  And you eat a lot.  And really enjoy it.  But then it just keeps coming and coming and coming.  The other problem is that harvest time does not follow your schedule.  The vegetables don't wait for you to have time before they ripen.  Oh no.  So of course it was time to harvest everything the last couple weeks of summer.  Kids are all home.  We're running around crazy.  And somehow I'm supposed to find time to preserve all this food.  So I did a couple of batches of dilly beans.  A couple of batches means 14 jars.  These jars are like gold because of the time they take.  And then the kids eat a whole jar in 5 minutes and I want to cry.  So I limit them to one jar/week.  We've made fresh salsa, so much squash, lots of zucchini bread and muffins, 7 jars of pickles (hopefully I'll find time to do more of these), and lately we have 2 ears of corn each for every dinner (because we can and because there are like 1000 ears of corn).  On Sunday the girls and I loaded up a wagon with squash and delivered it to poor unsuspecting neighbors.  They acted grateful, but I know the truth.  And I don't care because I just needed to get rid of squash.  Surely we won't do this again you say?  Oh, but we will.  Because Jake loves gardens and you must have big gardens.  Maybe after I have a nervous breakdown he'll shrink the garden size, but until then if you come to our house plan on leaving with some squash.

Oh, our chickens have also started laying eggs.  We're up to 4/day.  So you'll probably leave with some eggs too.  But you can't take eggs unless you also take squash....

The Garden

Zack wiping out on the flow rider.  He did get better.  I promise

Making pickles

Precious jars of pickles

Dilly beans

Fun at the park

Camping up above Strawberry

Don't ask why we didn't take the trailer.  Just know that we're no longer going to get rid of the trailer, so mission accomplished;)

We watched the eclipse at Lagoon

Sage at back to school night