Becoming Self Reliant

since kyle and i have moved, we have put several hours worth of paint onto the walls of our new home. we have hung pictures, moved furniture, and decorated. while we are still in the process of giving our home the "mckay touch", we needed to get out of the house for a while and thought planting our own garden would be a perfect opportunity. this is the spot we chose:

in our new ward, the bishop (a.k.a. - my uncle who lives next door) has been coordinating a ward garden. the 1/2 acre of land for the garden just down the street from us was donated several months ago by a fellow family in the ward. early on the morning of saturday, march 6, the whole ward got together to plant the garden. each organization in the ward is in charged with keeping their assigned area free of weeds and well watered.

after hearing my uncle talk so much about the garden, kyle and i decided to use spring break as our time to make a garden. we live on an acre of land and grandma said we could put our garden anywhere in the backyard that didn't have grass - about half of the backyard. so kyle and i picked a spot that will get the right kind of sun and got to work. in the corner that we chose, there was a flatbed trailer, luckily we had kyle's dad's truck to move that. next came the worst part about gardening - removing any unwanted plant life. and believe me, there was a lot. for two hours kyle and i hacked at the shoulder height weed-bushes that seemed to be plentiful in the area we'd chosen. we raked several piles of shrubbery and filled up the bed of the truck. once that was done we took the rototiller we borrowed from kyle's uncle and tilled the rock hard ground. that handy machine saved us hours of work! i told brookie - my aunt next door about the garden and the rototiller and she and loren (uncle and bishop) came over to see it. loren asked if he could use it next door so kyle showed him how to work it and turn it on. loren got so excited that he walked it over to his house and used it right then. funny thing is he had just come home from church meetings and was still in his sunday best - down to his shiny shoes. i laughed so hard seeing him walk through the dirt in those shoes and his church attire, using that machine! too bad i couldn't take a picture. that ended day one.

i woke up on day two pretty sore in my back. (one thing about me: i love being sore. like after a great workout - like weed killing - and i can hardly move. that kind of sore. call me crazy, but it just feels good!) we dumped the weeds and pick up some fresh and *free* manure down the street at fisher ranch. (illene fisher is the young woman's president). then kyle backed the truck into our garden and we sprinkled it everywhere and tilled it in. then we were off to home depot to get seeds, soil, transplants, and a few other odds and ends. we came home and dug trenches on the south and east sides of our garden where we put walls.

addison was hard to take care of during this time of gardening. g-ma has a fenced in trampoline that we put her on with many toys, books, and a drink. she was always fine until she would see one of ours heads peek out from over the wall, or we had to run past her into the house. we tried to let her roam free, but she would just get stuck trying to climb over the berm to see us, or whine for us to hold her. so she had lots of tramp and quiet time. (quiet time is something we have started recently to encourage her to learn to entertain herself. quiet time means she is in her crib with books and a bottle. she does very well with this. i heart quiet time.)

day three was the sabbath, and on that day we rested from our labors.

day four. we made a grid on our garden and placed tile for our two paths. we then planted - which takes a surprisingly long time. we watered our garden, kyle did many excited fingers, and we celebrated with dinner - pb&j. i love pb&j. kyle said the blessing on our delectable dinner and asked God to bless our garden. we both will be very disappointed if it dies. family prayer had the same pleading. there is a sign on the ward garden that says " as the seeds grow, so does the gardener". i'm sure some things will die, but gardening is a process of trial and error and kyle and i have many things to learn.
this morning we woke up and learned it had rained. i think God is looking out for us.