Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay - Part 2

 Me, sporting a lovely sunburn I got while running through Hyrum and my groovy night gear. We had to wear reflective vests, blinking red tail lights, and headlamps for our night legs.

 The wildflowers were gorgeous and in full bloom everywhere we went.

 Just waiting for the rest of our team. The only bummer about this race is that you really don't see half of your team at all because they are in the other van. But you do become really close to the people in your van.

 Still smiling but ready to finish up. It's been a long couple of fun filled days.

 Our team sprinting across the finish line together. What a great feeling!

 The Lime Rookies in all their glory.

 The scene at the finish line...it was quite the zoo there. We were grateful it wasn't raining because the next day Park City was a wash out!

Ready to head for home. Wasatch Back was a fantastic experience, so different from what I usually do. I am grateful that I was on such a wonderful team. Some of us had never met and we all got along like we were old friends. I loved the team aspect of this race.  It was so fun to cheer on our teammates. I thought it was awesome to be a part of something this big - like over 12,000 other runners.

Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay - Part 1

Eleven friends and I ran the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay over Father's Day weekend (June 17-18). It was amazing! The Wasatch Back is basically an overnight relay race where you run from USU in Logan all the way to Park City. That would be 192 miles over several mountain passes.  It's the second largest relay of its kind (and was the largest until the Hood to Coast relay raised their runner cap this year). Anyway, our team was number 708 - the Lime Rookies.

We finished the race with a time of 30 hours and 52 minutes - placing 12th in our division and 19th in overall women's. Our team captain was incredible and placed 5th in the hill climb - that would be running up Guardsman Pass. Way to go Lime Rookies!

Van 1 ready to get running.

 Here we are, feeling the butterflies and packing up our "van" (that's Ragnar talk for whatever you're driving, true van or otherwise). We met at 8:00 and our first runner left the starting line at 10:00.

It was hot, but we were happy runners.

 And we were faster than we thought...she ran right out of the frame!

 Avon Pass was lovely...

 Here's wht the exchanges looked like. Our lady in lime just handed off the slap bracelet to the gal with the thumbs up. We had to carry aroud those orange flags in the background whenever we crossed a "street"

Enjoying the view.

 So much for a clean car...it was really dusty up there!

And sometimes the road was a little sketchy...this isn't a bad spot, there were a few bumper scrapers.

  Is this the trail? Just kidding, everything was really well marked so you'd know where to go.

 Over hill, over dale, we go running up the trail, the Lime Rookies go running along...

Here we are waiting for Van 2 at the team staging area. We are beat, it's hot, but we did it!



Spring Cleaning in the Garden

It's Spring Cleaning time in the garden and I'm enjoying it! Our first crocus opened up yesterday afternoon. The first flower is always a great surprise but was even better because we'd had a couple of inches of new snow in the morning. Our apple trees are almost all pruned, only one more to go. The perennial beds are clean and the daffodils are beginning to grow. The lady bugs are out in full force. I raked some of the nasty leaves off of the grass along the driveway...ick...that early snow last fall buried some great treasures! There is still plenty of work to do, but it's a great start.

I like to prioritize the clean up tasks from the jobs I like least to those I like most. Cleaning up wet, decaying plant matter isn't my favorite so I do it first, while I am still so excited to be doing something, anything, outside. Each Spring I wait for the perfect day and then I tackle it. It's the day that the snow finishes melting off of the beds but the ground is still frozen. I can take care of business before the bulbs and the perennials begin growing without turning my beds into a mud bog.  It is satisfying to see the beds free of debris and to know that, unlike the laundry or dishes, it will stay done until next Spring!

After being cooped up in the house for months I am ready for some good old-fashioned, physically hard, work.  I like going to bed at night a little stiff from turning the soil, with a blister or two on my hands. I like looking out of my window at the little specks of green peeking through the ground and picturing the flowers that will soon follow. I look forward to planting the first peas (which I might do this weekend, just for fun), picking the first dandelion, eating something that grew in my yard instead of who-knows-where. Ahhh. Spring. I'm so glad she's here!

2011 Seed Order

I ordered seeds, onion plants, and new trellis netting tonight from Pinetree Garden Seeds. I am getting excited for our garden this year. I'm looking forward to gardening and canning without being great with child or toting a tiny tot. It's so much easier when they stop eating the soil!

We've been using a lot of our bottled fruit lately so I'll have plenty of jars to refill. I don't really like to eat fruit that is more than a 3-4 years old, it just tastes like cellar to me. I've also dumped out some stuff that wasn't that great, like the kiwi fruit preserves.  They really didn't taste that bad, but it looked terribly unappetizing. Nothing like eating army green, lumpy, black seeded jam on your toast. I have a few jars of pickles that need to go...Nalley and Vlassic just make a better pickle than I do!

Here's what I ordered, if you are curious about these things:

HYBRID RED ZEPLIN ONION PLANTS
SMALL SUGAR PUMPKIN (95 days heirloom)-  Experiment: Do they taste any different?
LINCOLN PEA (65 days heirloom)
WALTHAM 29 BROCCOLI (85 days)
TALL TELEPHONE PEA (68 days heirloom)
HYBRID CANDY ONION PLANTS
DRAGON LANGERIE BEAN (57 days)
SUGAR BABY WATERMELON - Experiment: Can a 5 year old get them to ripen?
DASH SPINACH (F1 hybrid 39 days)
JENNY LIND MELON (70 days heirloom)
PINETREE LETTUCE MIX
HALES BEST MELON (75 days heirloom) - Experiment: Trying out Grandma's old standby melon.
TRELLIS NET 5 X 60
REDBOR KALE (F1 hybrid 55 days) - Experiment: I want to grow a few things that will last later into the fall.
TOP BUNCH COLLARDS - Experiment: Another possible fall crop, plus I ate some delicious collards earlier this year.
PINK LIPSTICK CHARD (60 days) - Experiment: Will Miss E eat veggies if they are pink?
AMARILLO CARROT (70 days)
ATOMIC RED (76 days)
COSMIC PURPLE (65 days)
ROUGE VIF D ETAMPES PUMPKIN (105 days)
EMERITE POLE BEAN (58 days)

A Visit with Grandma Thelma

Last week I had a chat with my Grandma Thelma about gardening. When I was growing up, both of my grandmas grew large gardens,  raised berries, and had several fruit trees. I used to love helping them in their gardens. Grandma Lydia has passed away and doesn't garden here anymore. And due to a series of debilitating strokes, Grandma Thelma won't be planting anything this year either. She feels really sad about it and so do I.

Each spring Grandma Thelma and I would talk about the things we were going to plant that year. I looked forward to it. Sometimes we would just visit at her house, and sometimes she would call me (always a  treat because she rarely called). Grandma always had plans to start several things inside on her big window sills, and I'd have a list of things I was going to grow in my living room. We'd talk about what we were going to can and which varieties we liked best, if it was the "on" year for the apples, and if the frost was going to take the apricots. But this year, her window sills will be empty. And most likely her garden plot too.

After a bit of a good cry, we talked about what I'm planning to grow. I asked her about her melons (because mine never get ripe and hers do), unsure if she would be able to recall the information she'd gleaned from years and years of gardens past. She remembered. Grandma said she always grew an old heirloom variety called Hales Best, but not Hales Best Jumbo. She didn't start them inside because they don't transplant well, but waited until it is warm enough outside to plant. Sometimes a hot cap helped. Grandma said that the seeds saved well, so you only had to buy them once.

So this year, in honor of my Grandma Thelma, I'm going to grow some Hales Best melons.

2010 Garden Successes and Failures - Part 1

Time for the annual garden review!

Here are my thoughts concerning the seeds/plants that I ordered last year: 

MAJOR BROCCOLI (F1 hybrid 43 days)- I direct seeded it in the garden and that worked fine.This variety turned out o.k. but was not as productive as broccoli I've grown in other years.  I liked growing the mixed variety pack better because they matured at different times throughout the season instead of all at once. 

SAMBUSCUS CANADENSIS or Elderberry- My little plants were both still alive when the snow buried them...Hopefully they will not be eaten by mice during the winter.

AMARILLO CARROT (70 days) - Delicious!

COSMIC PURPLE (65 days) - Tasty as always and very pretty.

ATOMIC RED (76 days) - Beautiful.

RAINBOW CARROT - So good!

The only note to self for carrots: Don't plant them next to the peas...our hungry boys and their hungry friends trampled quite a few while picking themselves peas to eat. The carrots were so small that they probably didn't even notice them.

JERSEY SUPREME ASPARAGUS - Plants did well last year, we will see how many make it through the winter.

GONZALES MINI CABBAGE (F1 hybrid 55 days) -Did fine despite a lot of cabbage worms.  I need to buy some Bt to spray them with this year.

FALSTAFF BRUSSELS SPROUTS (95 days) - Experiment #1.Chalk one up to experience...the plants never got taller than 5 inches and didn't make any sprouts. I think I will not bother repeating that one. I can buy a few to eat once in a while and be perfectly satisfied.

HYBRID RED MARS ONION PLANTS - Gorgeous onions. Our boys also stepped on these on their way to the peas, so they didn't get as large as they would have if their tops hadn't been broken over in June! Good flavor.

HYBRID CANDY PLANTS - Awesome as always. They were huge this year.

IMPERIAL STAR ARTICHOKE (F1 Hybrid) - Experiment #2. Successful. I ate 6-7 artichokes before the cold weather prevented the rest from maturing. They were very good. So I dug up the roots and they are spending the winter in a cellar. I'll replant them this spring and see if they come back. If not, it was fun to grow them, though not really a productive use of space.

LINCOLN PEA (65 days heirloom) - These are the peas that resulted in the trampled onions and carrots. They are really sweet and very tender little peas. I'll plant them along the edges of the garden this spring and allow plenty of space for picking.

EMERITE BEAN (58 days) - Very good. I love these reliable beans!

CREAM OF THE CROP ACORN SQUASH (75 days) - I forgot that I planted a white skinned variety and was sad last fall when none of my squash looked ripe at all. Boo hoo! Then  I looked in my garden journal and saw that they were supposed to be that color. Ha ha. The joke was on me. They tasted good...although I think they needed just a few more days in the garden. I should have covered them and bought them a little more time on the vine. 

SWEETER YET CUKE (F1 hybrid 48 days) - The plants were overgrown by a vigorous tomatillo. I thought they were gone, so stopped looking for cucumbers. When I pulled out the tomatillo, there were several huge cukes tangled up in it. Oops!

Tomatillo - I didn't think it was ever going to set fruit, though it had been blooming since June. In the fall, however, I did find 10-15 fruit that were large enough to use. I think it needed more heat and we didn't get it until late in the season. I might try them again, or not.