Garden at the Gardiner's Cabin

I have been working hard to establish a working garden at my cabin for the season this year. The Saturday before Memorial Day was spent in the garden hoeing and tilling the rocky and clumpy ground to establish enough mounds to plant some seeds. We planted 4 rows of peas, 1 row of green beans and 21 mounds of pumkins (of all sizes).

This garden is basically an activity for the kids and something for people to watch me do... as part of my interpretation I do laundry with the kids, and have them help me in the garden as part of the pioneer chores the children would have had to do. We also beat rugs... but that is another story... :) Because of the garden's value to my interpretation I was very stressed that it might not start growing... the rocks and clumps in it made for a lot of obstacles, and no one seemed to know how old the seeds actually were... So there wasn't a lot riding on them... Plus, these plants get watered every 3 minutes all day long... We tried to keep a large garden so we wouldn't drown the poor things... but without corn, there isn't much we could do.

But I came to work last week and discovered that I have sprouts!!! YAY!!! I didn't kill them and they grew in the terrible soil that I have to work with... I am absolutely impressed. My pumpkin mounds all have 5 or 6 good sized sprouts. My green beans are all growing nicely as well... I wish I could say the same for my favorite crop (the peas)... but I discovered most of those seeds washed up from the rain moving around those good for nothing clumps of manure...

With a new found excitement I spent most of last Saturday in the garden again. With all the rain my ditches where I have the children pour water are starting to get a little shallow and washed out. So I grabbed a hoe and started to work for a second time, although this time I had to be careful of sprouts and roots... ;) I am very proud of the turnout. This is the first garden I have done myself. I remember a couple of gardens growing up... but I had the help from my all-knowing parents... in my pride, here are some pictures...

The Green Beans


Pumpkin sprouts!

Adventure to the Y... almost

A sad truth in my life is one that I don't tell many about... I have lived in Orem all my life and in Provo for 2 years now... I can look up at the Y on the mountain every day and know that I am not lost... and yet I have never hiked to it. Its true...

The gate leading to the trail head...

The adventure to undertake wasn't officially planned...(this was the day before I started work at This is the Place... just to give you an idea.) Bryce and I just decided to go up one night upon finishing our pizza. Bryce told me there were a couple of switch backs... it wouldn't be too bad. So I decided I would try to accomplish a very big milestone in my life. Turns out, spontanious ideas only work sometimes...

We got to the first turn and I was panting rather hard. I had to sit on the convienient bench they had placed for me there. After I caught my breath again I decided I could make a couple more to reach my goal. I needed to get into shape... right? We got up to the second turn and my leg muscles were screaming very angrily at me... so I sat again, and told Bryce I could go no further this time if I was to start working tomorrow, I didn't want to start sore and tired. He tried to tell me we were about half way and that I could make it but I told him "another night" and "someday."

This is me and Bryce at the first turn... I am still happy and optimistic at this point...

This story has a twist... I passed the sign that showed the trail... there are 10 turns all together for the shorter hike... yes, I only made it to the second. So my attempt was more of a failure than a success. But on the bright side... I got closer than I ever have... right?

The proof that I made it as far up as I did... plus, 2 turns is high up, that parking lot is where we left my car. What a great view it is from up there!