First Clover Crop

The garden has started! This has long been a topic around here, but with the heat and the drought this past summer, we put it off.

It had been decided that JL would take his pick axe and dig into the garden ground. We expected rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. What we found was top soil! Trucked in by the previous gardner. Hooray! Now, don't get me wrong - it was still extremely labor intensive to bust through the top soil and churn it up enough so that it was soft and beautiful again. But once that part was done, we ALL got down and played around in it! I haven't seen soil like that in a very very long time. Probably since I left my home in UT.

JL after most of the work churning up the dirt was over.

The dirt is SO soft and rich! And it smells wonderful!
So, after some rejoicing and playing in the dirt, we got to work building rows for our strawberry plants. Did I forget to mention what we were planting? Strawberries. We bought 100 plants from a fellow land owner in our ward that was putting in 300 of her own this same weekend.

They are beautiful. They were mostly just roots at this stage, but there was a bit of a sprout on the crown, so hopefully they will flourish in their new home and we'll have strawberries galore in a few months!

James getting ready to help Dad make some rows.
The kids helped me carefully plant the baby strawberries.
There they are!
Giving them a good drink.

After our hard work, we cooked some sausage over a fire and then roasted a few marshmallows as a treat to top off the evening. Ah, love the ranch!

Thankfully, we've had enough rain around here lately that the burn ban has been lifted.
Mallow Roasting.
It is possible there were a few casualties...