What else we've been doing: August update

 James spent his summer as a stay-at-home dad. Atticus loved having him all to himself, 

especially when James agreed to built him a fort downstairs. 

We went to the Ogden Temple open house. (Yes, that's the Ogden Temple. It got a major facelift.) Atticus complained the whole time and really tried our patience. The temple was beautiful, but at the end Atticus said, "I didn't feel God there." Yeah, that's what happens when you complain the whole time. He does remember the sealing room mirrors, though.

Taking deep breaths after the tour. We then went to the exhibit tent to check out the historical exhibit I helped put together in three days. Talk about last-minute projects, but everyone seems to remember that the marble used inside was quarried in Egypt and shaped in China. 

Yeah, I totally wrote those labels.

And Atticus lost a tooth. He pulled it out himself.

And that's been our August so far. School starts on Monday. We find out which class Atticus is in on Friday. First grade will be a big change for us. I'm used to walking Atticus into class and helping him get started on his daily work, but that's a big no-no in first grade. You drop them off, they line up outside, and you wave goodbye. Each teacher decides how parents can get involved in the classroom. So we'll see how it goes. It will probably be better for both of us.

Garden Photos

Project for Saturday: build support for blackberries. It's hard to see with the chain link fence and weeds behind it, but it's really quite impressive. Our vines are still small, but I have great hopes for next year.

Project #2 for Saturday: Try to kill this tree. Again. This is one of those weed trees, and it has made itself one with the fence, so it's not so easy to remove. James cut it back a the beginning of the summer, and it's just as bushy now. We bored holes and filled them with epsom salts, but the tree has survived. More on this later.

Our happy trio of garden boxes. James made these in the spring and figured out how to get water to them.

Beans! Our most successful crop so far. I planted whole packets of carrot and beet seeds, but the response has been spotty. Very disappointed in the beets, and the carrots are almost spicy. Weird.

Tomatoes, and more unsuccessful carrots. I swear they've been that same size for a month. Our tomatoes are Hillbilly and Early Girl. They've been tasty.

Our one tiny melon! We'd given up hope on that vine when this little globe suddenly appeared. I took this photo Saturday, and when I checked today there were three more little globes. We can't remember what variety they are--our neighbor gave us the packet of seeds.

Our pumpkin vines have gone nuts. Here's the smallest of the three.

And the biggest, though it's hard to tell. It's a lot more orange today. There's a third, medium-sized pumpkin hiding to the left of the big'un.

The back lot (I'm standing in the garden). Not sure yet what's going to happen here, but we might put a peach tree in the sunnier half.

Another view of the same plot.

James has made considerable progress on the nasty tree, and Atticus decides to help.

If all else fails, bang on it.

We should have taken some of the wood-splitting wedges Dad offered us...

Today's garden haul. Did I mention this is our second crop of green beans? We've had a lot of rain lately, so they've been producing like mad. I might have to pickle some this weekend.

Atticus's portrait of me de-meating a crock-pot roasted chicken for dinner.
I guess it's only fair to include a picture of myself here.