So here we are, two months into the process. Everything is growing extremely well. There are more than 10 each of zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkins, spaghetti squash, bell peppers, anaheim peppers, and brussels sprouts already on the vine. We even picked up some wood and started building a structure for the pole beans to climb. These are exciting times.

I was at work last night until after dark, so I had to take the weekly photos 12 hours late this week. That may not sound like much, but at the rate some of these plants are growing, it may be a lot.

The concrete crew was really great. They were careful with all the sprinklers, trees, and plants. Of course, there were a few casualties. We lost a hill of cucumbers, but I think we’re still going to have way more than we can handle. We also lost some pumpkins, but again, I’m sure we’ll have many more than we know how to use.

We’ve been talking about getting a deck and a patio since we moved in to this house almost 2 years ago. Well, those plans took a quick turn this week. We figured this was a good time to do some of this work. With the construction industry on a down cycle, we hoped to find someone that really needed some work. After the first bid came in, we realized that the construction industry in Utah isn’t as desperate as we had hoped. The first few bids were coming in a little higher than we thought, so we asked our friend Brett if we were way off base in our expectations. Brett made a phone call to check the prices of a few things, such as a concrete pump, and the next thing you know, we’ve got a crew pouring a patio less than 48 hours later.

We started the long process of pulling weeds this week. The garden area is starting to look pretty good, but the outlying areas are still out of control. We did manage to weed around most the squash and pumpkin hills, but it wasn’t until after I took the pictures this week.

Rob and Amber are in town from Oklahoma. They helped us weed the front of the garden and plant a couple rows of potatoes. We had no idea what we were doing, so it’ll be interesting to see if any of them actually grow and produce any potatoes.

Charmaine mixed up some Miracle Grow and poured it on several of the plants. Most of the plants started growing like crazy after that, but some decided to give up and die… sometimes a single pumpkin hill would have an example of each… one plant decided to grow like crazy and another decided to die. I decided to increase the amount of water each station was getting, thinking that the combination of the fertilizer and hot sun was what killed some of them. We should know if it’s helping by next week.

As the posts are starting to pile up, it’s becoming obvious that the way I was inserting pictures before was painful to the reader. I’ve gone to a gallery style with this post. That should make it easier to see what you want to see without being forced to scroll a mile to see the next post. Let me know if this new way is any better for you.