Pumpkin Pride

This was our family's 6th year growing a pumpkin patch, and it was the most successful one we've ever had. After experimenting with seed varieties each year, I think we finally found the perfect combination that both works well in our soil and is what the customers like and want. We grew less kinds of variety this year, and planted more of what's been most popular in years past. We had one row of orange jack-be-littles, one row of Gyant Hybrid, and ten rows of Connecticut Field (we didn't grow any blue ones this year, though, even though we had requests for them). Then in our neighbor Frank's garden plot, we planted white jack-be-littles and White Moon pumpkins--which turned out to be the best white ones we've ever planted: they were big, perfectly round, and there was no mold issues with that breed. 

As the boys have gotten older, the work load has become less for Josh and I during the summer months: Ammon rototilled the dirt, and the other boys did a great job weeding on their own. But with age also comes extra opportunities, and the patch has become more challenging for us to work at in the fall due to their increasing sports schedules: it took us about 10 days in September to cut and move all the pumpkins into storage, and the pumpkin patch is open for 6 days in October for the sales days. It was tricky for us to get everything done in the patch this fall with Ammon's cross country and Jonah & Micah's football schedules. As a result, we decided this was our final year. This was a difficult decision to make, but we know it is a necessary one.

We opened up for business on Friday, October 10, and the patch was open the rest of the Fridays and Saturdays in October. I took Thursday the 9th off of work all day to get the whole patch prepared because there wasn't any time to do it; it took me 8 hours to get it all set up! The boys had all helped me on Wednesday night getting the hay-bale maze ready, and I'm so glad, because with their help, we were all able to get it done in 2 hours. If I'd had to do it myself on Thursday, it would've taken me 3 times as long!!

For every day that we were open, we pulled two trailers full of pumpkins out of storage to place in the patch. This system worked out great last year, so we did it again this year--it helps cut down on the pumpkins being exposed to weather. Except this year, we started with over 750 big pumpkins and we had to be creative with our storage!! We've never grown that many large pumpkins in one year before! We put 200 in our bike shed, 200 in the calving shed, 200 in the backside door of the calving shed, and the rest went into Grandpa T.'s shop.

Every year, I like to add one new/different thing in the patch. This year, I added a stomping game. You put a bean bag on the wooden plank, stomp the other end, and try to make the bean bags land on the colored pumpkin board to make the design of a jack-o-lantern face. This required minimal work from me to purchase/paint/and set it up, which was nice, and I also liked having something new for our returning customers.

Last year we added the pumpkin cemetery, and it was so popular that we did it again this year. It amazes me how many people like to look at the rotting pumpkins in the cemetery and take pictures by it!

We also had the cinderella pumpkin carriage photo booth again...

...as well as the jack-o-lantern bean bag toss. It required a fresh paint job this year, which took me just over an hour to do on Thursday afternoon. 

I got a few strawbales and set up a group photo area in front of the cornstalks, which was nicely staged right in front of the fall foliage on the large trees in Kathy's yard. 

We bought orange shirts and hats last year for the boys to wear on sale days. But this year there was only one day in October where they were actually all helping at the same time; the twins were gone to football two of the six sale days, and Ammon had cross country practice and hunting and his mowing job and was hardly able to help out in the patch this fall. 

Kanyon turned out to be the biggest and best help on sale days this year! He was courteous, loyal to the customers, very helpful, and worked hard pushing the wheelbarrows around. We were all so impressed with him! In years past, he's usually just come down once in a while to the patch when his friends were here, but he was in the patch all 6 days, and he was an awesome worker!

Sometimes when it got slow, Kanyon and the twins would go and play in/on the hay bale maze that Edward built next to the pumpkin patch. Edward has done this for us for five years now, and this was the biggest one he's built yet. It had 5 rows and was very long. Lots of customers enjoyed running through/playing in the maze when they came out to the patch, and it has become very popular!

The haybale maze has a spider theme, and every year I add more spiders to the collection that we place in/on the bales. The favorite one that delights the youngsters is the "mommy spider". We hid her in a dead-end this year, and when she is touched, she laughs like a witch and vibrates. I always enjoyed hearing shrieks and screams from people when they found her!

The weather was awesome for the first two weekends of our sale days, and we were so blessed to have such beautiful weather! We were open from 11-5, so when the weather is miserable, 6 hours of straight sitting outside can be miserable. But when the weather is nice, it means we have lots of customers, and it's also a delight to be outdoors and enjoy the gorgeous fall surroundings on the ranch.

At the end of each Saturday night, we loaded up the leftover pumpkins from the patch into our enclosed cargo trailer for the week to protect them from the weather in case we had freezing temperatures, and then we placed them back in the field each Friday morning. This system worked out great--I wish we would've thought to do it before this year! The only drawback was if we had special visitors midweek, like for example one Sunday afternoon my parents and sister Trina and her new husband Dan came to visit us. We took them down to the patch, and they walked around the maze, played games, and then picked their pumpkins out of the trailer (which isn't quite as fun)!

We stayed pretty busy the first two weekends, and by the beginning of the 3rd weekend, we worried that we were going to run out of pumpkins--which we actually did halfway through our final sale day. That's never happened before! We didn't have one single extra pumpkin left (good thing the boys had already picked out their own pumpkins to carve!), and we closed down about 2:00 that day. 

Since Kanyon has finally become SO good at growing and selling pumpkins (unfortunately just in time for our last sale year), we have worked out plans for him to do it again next year--but in a different way. The Sacajawea Center began having a fall festival this year, and they purchased a truck-full of pumpkins from us to sell at it. Next year, we will plant just a few rows of pumpkins, and then take them ourselves to the Sac Center where Kanyon will be the salesman and earn the proceeds from it. This makes it feel like the patch closing is not so final, and also gives him a job to work towards, too. I feel confident that this is the right plan for everyone!

One of my favorite pumpkins we grew this year
was a large, white pumpkin shaped like a pear!

I will miss the pumpkin patch, and many of our customers have expressed similar thoughts and feelings! The pumpkin patch has been a good project for our family: it has taught the boys to work together, to save money, and to be self-sufficient. And although it is sad that this phase of our lives is ending, we know that teaching our kids the value of work is a treasure that will last a lifetime.  

Another one of my favorites from this year's crop:
the butt crack with a bulging top

Like father, Like son

When Josh was a freshman in high school, he ran cross country. He has fond memories of being a member of the XC team that year--because the years following that, he was the team manager instead of a runner.

The above photo came from his high school yearbook. His coach took a whole bunch of pictures when they ran at the Wood River meet and submitted them to the yearbook. I'm so grateful for these pictures, because they were taken of Josh as a runner before the accident on October 11, 1991 that paralyzed his vocal chords.   

During homecoming week of his freshman year, he wanted to go to the Powder Puff football game, but he needed to finish his chores on the ranch before he could go. He needed to change some pipe, and he was in a hurry to get it done so he could go to the homecoming festivities. His dad had put up a single-line barb-wire fence that day in the field to keep some pasturing cows contained. Josh was driving his motorcycle fast across the field, heading west to get to the pipe line, which was straight into the setting sun, and he didn't see the barbed line. The single strand hit his upper arm first, then bounced up to his neck, and he was thrown off the motorcycle. Some neighbors were hunting in the field at the time and saw him laying in the field, choking for air. There was no exterior wounds on his neck at the time, but they knew it was serious and they took him directly to the hospital in Salmon. From there, he was life-flighted to Missoula where an emergency tracheotomy was performed, and then he was flown to Seattle Children's Hospital where another (better and corrective) tracheotomy was done, as well as inserting a plate and screws in his neck for a broken vertebrae. He stayed at that hospital for almost 2 months recovering from the surgeries were performed. He came home at Thanksgiving, with lots of scars, a hole in his neck where the trach tube was attached, and he was wearing a back brace. He couldn't talk without covering the hole, and breathing was now difficult (he compares it to breathing through a straw), so running was totally out of the question after that. 

Josh has never stopped loving to run. As an adult, he knows his physical limitations, but he pushes those limits and doesn't let his disabilities stop him. He coached cross country for years after we moved back to Salmon, and often ran practices with the kids and even ran in a few coach races for the fun of it. Now that our oldest son is a cross country runner, Josh has loved watching him excel in the sport that he was unable to.

Ammon is a freshman this year in high school, and this is his 3rd year running Cross Country. He loves running with the team, and he looks up to the older runners who are positive role models. Halfway through his cross country season this year, he also got injured. The second weekend of September, Josh took Ammon with him to go help move furniture for some people in our ward. They were moving a dryer upstairs from a basement. Ammon was at the front of the dryer, walking backwards up the steps, and Josh was pushing it up from behind. Ammon tripped going up a step, and the dryer landed on his knee. Josh worked to get the dryer off as fast as possible, but the damage had already been done. Ammon was in a lot of pain, and when they got home, he instantly iced it and elevated it. He thought perhaps his knee had just been bruised, so he continued to run at practice every day, but the pain in his knee got worse and he began running slower and slower. He ran in a few meets with the pain, but instead of being at the front of the pack like he started out the season, he was now running at the back of the pack, which was frustrating for him. 

Ammon is on the far left--notice his left knee is wrapped.
We wrapped it with heat tape in an effort to lessen the pain; it didn't work.

I worried that he had a broken bone, or damaged cartilage, so I finally convinced him that he needed to see a doctor. Josh took him to an appointment one afternoon at the beginning of October, and the Dr. said he had tendonitis in the knee. She recommended that Ammon keep it elevated and iced (which he was doing faithfully already), and we scheduled an appointment to have an ultrasound done at the physical therapy office, because she said it would help break up the tendonitis faster. When homecoming arrived the second week of October (the same week as in the year of Josh's accident), the cross country team had a bye week. It was good for Ammon to rest his knee from the strains of racing, and his knee finally began to improve. 

I thought retrospectively many times that week about Ammon's situation and how it compared to Josh's experience 23 years ago. When I drove Ammon to the Powder Puff game, I thought about how quickly Josh's life changed in that one night. When I went to the football game on Friday night and saw Ammon walking around with his friends, I thought about how Josh was in a hospital hundreds of miles away during his homecoming football game. And when I picked Ammon up from cross country practice at the end of the week, I thought about how Ammon's freshman cross country season was similar to Josh's, but the endings were much different: 

Similarities:

Josh ran cross country his freshman year, and so did Ammon.

Josh liked running and was good at it, and so was Ammon.

Josh got injured during the cross country season, and so did Ammon.

    

Differences:

Ammon got better and finished out the season strong, but Josh was unable to.

Ammon's team with their 1st place trophy at the District race

And, speaking from the point of view as the mother in this story, I'm glad Ammon had a happy ending.

tackling and playing with heart and soul

Jonah and Micah played organized football for the first time this year. They've been looking forward to it for years and were happy to finally be old enough to! They started practicing the middle of August, and worked hard running and learning moves every day at practice. It turned out to be a lot harder than they anticipated, and it was a rough season. Our youth football organization joined a new league this year, and our teams were placed in a higher division with teams from much larger schools and communities. The other teams have much more experience, and larger pools of players to choose from, and we struggled playing against them. We never won a game, but the boys never stopped trying! They continued to practice hard and steadily improved throughout the 2 month season. I was really proud of them for doing their best and not becoming discouraged. 

The first game was our only home game at the high school field.  Jonah kicked off the opening kick!

Jonah was #74, and Micah's was #63. During the season, Jonah played positions of Tide End, Defensive End, and Kicker. Micah was also a Tide End and was the back-up Defensive End.

Look at all those 5th grade boys!

All of their games were on Saturdays in September and October. The second game was in Idaho Falls. The team we played against this week wasn't very nice, and our boys had only two good plays: both of which the ref blew the whistle on. The boys never stopped giving their all, but we lost by a large margin and it was a disheartening game.

The third game was at Tautphus Park in Idaho Falls. This team was very rough, and we had a lot of injuries that day, but the margin of loss was less this week than the previous week.

Micah is the 2nd Salmon player from the left, and Jonah is on the right

The fourth game was the best of the season. We played at West Jefferson against Shelley. Our team made a first down (for the first time!!!), and had a good running play that almost made a touchdown. Then, they actually DID score a touchdown for the first time! We were all SOOO excited!!! It was awesome, and the team was so pumped! We lost the game, but you would never have guessed from how happy we all were!

 

The fifth game was against Rigby. They had a very large team--both in stature and team size. Two of their players were as tall as the refs. I found it hard to believe that they were truly in 5th grade!! The boys had lots of good tackles, despite the size difference, and I was so proud of them! Jonah and Micah played so well in this game!

Jonah tackled the quarterback of the other team!

The sixth and final game was in West Jefferson again. Josh and I were both unable to go, because of the pumpkin patch. Josh's parents thankfully took them to the game for us. We were so glad to have the season done--after two months of practicing and driving to games, it was nice to see it end. Jonah really liked playing football, but Micah decided he didn't like it so much. Both of them have talked about running Cross Country next year instead to see which sport they'd rather participate in for future fall sports.

Jonah

Micah

Forgotten Reminder

The fridge is a central location in our home; everybody goes to it multiple times a day, and stops when they arrive there. Because of this, I purposefully put things on the fridge that I want us to see frequently. But at the same time, because we are so used to seeing the items so often, sometimes we don't really look at what's on the fridge. Does that make sense?

The front of the fridge is divided into 3 sections...

1. The top half of the freezer is used for reminders for Josh and I: my annual goals, Josh's goals, my visiting teaching list, Josh's home teaching list.

2. The bottom half of the freezer is full of family memories: photo magnets of places we've been together (this is my favorite part of the fridge--we are hoping to someday completely cover the fridge and freezer in photo magnet souvenirs).

3. The fridge door is covered with the boys' stuff: photos, art drawings, colored pictures, and chore charts.  

The south side of the fridge exterior holds baskets with toothpicks and rubber bands, a basket with coupons, a clip with the boys' 100% tests that are redeemable at Burger King, and our 2-year wish list.

Today, I was adding one of the boys' tests to the clip on the side of the fridge, and spotted the 2-year wish list. I stood still staring at it, realizing that it's been over 2 years since I created it and that it was time to make another one. It's been a long time since I noticed that list; and I purposefully posted it on the fridge with the intention of looking at it often as a reminder!!!

When we first moved into this house in 2010, there were a lot of furnishings we needed for it, but I was unable to get them all at once, so I created a long-term 2-year list to hopefully work on obtaining one item at a time until everything on the list was complete. After 2 years, I'd crossed off 10 of the 15 items that were listed. I wanted to continue working towards long-term goals, so I made a new list in the summer of 2012 with 10 new items. Unfortunately this time, only 4 items have gotten crossed off.
1. Replace van
2. New truck [Purchased 12/12]
3. New motorcycle (street bike)
4. Build 3-car garage
5. More chairs for dining table [got ones at D.I. 6/13]
6. New mattresses for twins' beds [got newer/used ones in 9/13]
7. Double-headed shower in master bathroom
8. Outdoor bench swing [put it in the yard 9/14]
9. Couple's trip to Mexico
10. Put hardwood floor in family room

There are two items that were on the original list that never got accomplished so I added them again onto the second list, but they ONCE AGAIN didn't get done: going to Mexico, and getting a new van. I'm determined to make them happen, so I'm adding them onto my list yet again!!!

Here's the new 2-year wish list beginning fall of 2014:
1. Replace van (this is becoming more important as the van is aging)
2. Build a garage (the original plans have been modified making it more affordable)
3. New streetbike motorcycle (we have seriously considered getting one for years)
4. Put hardwood floor in the family room (the carpet has become gross with the wood stove in there)
5. Install a light at the end of our deck (more light is needed by the steps)
6. New couch (the sectional is falling apart!)
7. New wood stove (our current one is cracking)
8. New dishwasher (our current one is leaking and is super noisy)
9. Family trip to Disneyland (I always said when Kanyon was 8, we'd go!)
10. Couple's trip to Mexico (this has been on all 3 wish lists, but I'm gonna make it happen this time!!!)

I think I'm going to put this list on the front of my fridge this time (instead of the side), so I will hopefully see it more often to remind me of the long-term goals for our family and home!

Heavenly Hues

The sky is an ever-changing landscape; a heavenly artist's natural canvas of work and wonder. I am constantly in awe of the sky: I love looking at cloud shapes, and I also enjoy seeing a clear blue panorama, I marvel at sunsets and am stunned at sunrises, I am drawn to dark looming clouds, as well as wisps of white fog. I just love looking up to see what is on display daily that God has created!

One night at the beginning of October, the kids helped me get the hay-bale maze ready for the upcoming opening day of our Pumpkin Patch. After we came home from school and ate a quick dinner, we headed down to the maze that Grandpa T. created. We cleared out weeds, hung up spider decorations, and made sure all the pathways were clear. It took a couple of hours of all of us working together, but we got it all done in one evening. On the way back up to the house after we were finished working, the sun was just setting. I stopped at the top of our driveway and couldn't stop admiring the colors in the sky. The boys were also amazed at what they beheld, and they all ran inside to get their ipods so they could capture images of it. I pulled my phone out of my pocket because I worried that if I went in the house to get my camera, that the gorgeous sunset would disappear. It is hard to describe how breathtakingly beautiful it was, because my phone's camera doesn't do it justice, but the sky only lasted this way for a few short minutes before the colors disappeared. The boys and I stayed outside taking photos, watching the sun set before our eyes, until the last remnants of it could no longer be seen. It was a good moment in time.

It is easy to see the beauty in the world around us. I am so drawn to God's creations and nature, which is why I think one of my favorite hymns is "For the Beauty of the Earth" and one of my favorite primary songs is "Heavenly Father Loves Me". I was asked to sing in Sacrament Meeting at church at the end of August, and I sang a song that I accompanied myself on the piano called "Life is Overflowing with Beautiful Things". It's very similar to those two songs that are my favorites. The first verse in it states: "Blue skies, mountains, rainbows, fountains--These are some things I love to see. Rivers, canyons, pine trees, oceans--Heavenly Father made them for me. Life is overflowing with beautiful things made by our loving and glorious King."

 I'm so grateful that I stop once in a while to realize and absorb my surroundings, because I know God has created these things for the enjoyment of His children. And I'm so glad that my own children appreciate the creations of our Heavenly Father, too!

Swimming, Sleeping, and Sitting {after the Sprinting}

Those items are the essence of camping at Challis Hot Springs in the fall! It's one of our favorite camp spots, so we frequent it every year! It's usually the only place we go camping each year that we have to pay for electricity and water hook-ups, and it's so worth it!!! This fall, our camping trip to Challis at the beginning of October was a quick overnight trip due to our hectic schedule...

On Saturday, October 4, Ammon was scheduled to run at the Mile High Cross Country race at Challis Hot Springs. On the same day, Jonah and Micah had a football game in Rigby. Ammon rode the bus down to Challis with his XC team. Josh and Kanyon drove the truck and camp trailer that morning (after Josh was done working) to Challis and arrived in time to set up the trailer before the races started. I left super early that morning to drive Jonah and Micah to the football game in Rigby, after which we went to Idaho Falls to get gas, have lunch, and do some minimal shopping before we drove to Challis. We arrived at about 3:00, but unfortunately the last race had ended about 2:30, so we missed the races. Ammon ran well, and had a good race, and I was sad that I'd missed it.

When we first got there, lots of teams and kids and families were soaking in the hot springs. That's where I found Kanyon and Josh. Ammon was hanging out shooting hoops with some of his team mates. Jonah and Micah rode their bikes to the basketball court and played with Ammon, while I talked to Josh about the race results. When Josh got tired of soaking, he and Kanyon came back to the trailer, and we ate chicken ranch wraps for dinner. Then the boys and I went swimming in the warm pools, and had a good soak while Josh read.

We hung out at our campsite for a while, and the boys rode bikes and threw footballs. It was nice to relax and watch the boys contently playing.  

Then we went back to the hot springs and soaked until it got dark, and we came back to the campsite once more and roasted starbursts over the campfire before heading to bed. The next morning we got up, and went for a soak once more. Josh stayed behind and read again...he finally got ready to come swimming around the time that we were ready to get out!

We left Challis Hot Springs after we were done swimming, and drove home in our two vehicles. We weren't even there 24 hours this time, but we had to come back early because Josh had some meetings in Idaho Falls that night and needed to leave that afternoon to arrive in time.

We had a lot of driving in the week surrounding that weekend...on Monday the 29th, we drove to Salt Lake City to attend the Katy Perry concert, and on Tuesday the 30th, we drove back to Salmon and then Josh immediately had to turn around and drive a bus to a volleyball game to Ririe and returned home late that night. On Friday, October 3, Josh drove the football bus down and back to Firth. Then the next morning, Saturday the 4th, I drove the twins to Rigby as Josh drove to Challis, and then we met him there. On Sunday the 5th, we drove back to Salmon, and Josh turned around and drove to Idaho Falls for the next 3 days for golf course meetings!!! What a whirlwind! I'm so glad we could squeeze in one final camping trip of the season, though! We just love camping, and soaking multiple times in the hot pools while camping at Challis Hot Springs is always so rejuvenating!

setting it straight again

For almost two years, I've had a pretty short haircut. Before that, I had a straight A-line cut, and I remember when I first got it cut short that the kids at school all thought it looked "messy" because of the body that my hair had as a result of the new cut. 

I've enjoyed having a shorter hairstyle for the most part, but I find that it needs to be cut more often when it's short because it starts becoming lifeless and heavy and irritating to me within a few weeks after it's cut.  So, this summer, I decided I was going to grow the front and sides out again. To help with the process of trying to grow the short hair out, I got a perm in August. I really liked having curly hair--it was super easy to style every morning, and I liked the volume it produced in my thinning hair. But at the end of September, Josh told me that he didn't like the way my hair looked being permed. Apparently he hadn't liked it since the day I got it permed!! Sooo, I asked my hairstylist friend Amanda at the beginning of October if my hair was long enough yet to take the perm out. She blow dried it straight to find out for sure, and indeed it was long enough on the sides to reach the point I wanted it to be at for my requested new hairstyle.

Except, she said she didn't want to straighten it like I wanted her to--instead, she just cut the back short (which is what I wanted), and blow dried the front to make it look like the perm was gone. 

I've had this hairstyle for a month already, and I'm very satisfied with it. I like having it a little longer in front to frame my face, but a lot shorter in back to still add volume to my head.

I'm glad that I can still make choices regarding my hairstyle, and that I can change it up once in a while, because there's not a lot of things my hair can do anymore!! I do not enjoy having thinning, fine, lifeless hair! I miss the days long ago when I had thick, curly, long locks! I remember I used to be so annoyed and frustrated that my hair would tangle up so and get knotted so often, but it's impossible for my hair to do that now, and I wish I appreciated my hair back then when it was still all there and alive and well!