On African Thyme: Lessons From A Pumpkin...

August hit much faster than expected...as the months just seem to do the older I get...but it started with a fun tradition that our family began in 2003 and have done annually since then: get up BEFORE the crack of dawn and tromp to the nearest balloon festival. In Eden we merely had to go the front porch to watch the parade of 20-30 balloons traipse along our quiet mountainside. In Price, we traveled back to Eden each summer (a promise that I made to Wyatt when we moved from Eden to Price) for the Eden Balloonfest. In Craig, we went to the Steamboat Springs Balloon Rodeo last July and this year we visited the Moffat County Balloon Festival in Craig. It was a blast, literally! (0:

After the balloons lifted and wandered with the winds, Wyatt, Noah and Rosalie ran a fun 5K. The laid-back race was a jaunt through hard-packed dirt, grass and sand, and Wyatt blazed his way, with a time of 23:15, to Second Place overall and First Place in his age group (9-12). Noah did awesome as well with a time of 25:30 (his personal best) and Rosalie--in her second 5K ever--came in at 26:45 and was the first female in her age group. The Craig Daily Press had a brief article on the Race--check it out at http://www.craigdailypress.com/news/2012/aug/06/friends-moffat-county-education-hosts-weekend-5k/

I'm so proud of my kiddos. The best thing about it? They love it, they truly do.

Wy and Ryan heading to the finish line
of the Grand Lake Buffalo BBQ 5K--
the toughest 5K you'll ever do!!

I think there was a July that blazed through sometime between this post and the last, though it mostly was a blur. (0: It did have it's memorable moments though, including a quick trip to Grand Lake to run the Buffalo BBQ Days 5K--a tradition that Wyatt and I started by running together four years ago--and this year included Colt, Rosalie (her first 5K), Noah, Uncle Jackie (my brother Steve) and cousins Jacob and Ryan (Wyatt's stiffest competition--Ryan is an INCREDIBLE runner).

We also welcomed a new addition to the Mortenson side of the family on July 26th with the birth of Marty and Whitney's second son, Jacob. I remember Colt coming home a few months after Noah was born and I had broken down in the laundry room, crying "I'm so awful at this, he won't sleep, I can't sleep, Wyatt needs a Mommy too, the toilets need cleaned and I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT DAY IT IS! This is sooooo hard!!!"

Two was the hardest. It is the beginning of learning how to divide yourself into pieces and carve time out of places where you didn't think you had it to get everything done. The amazing thing is, it happens. Somehow you survive, and they survive, and eventually the toilets get cleaned.

July also brought with it a sobering lesson for my Wyatt...

The greenhouse, at the beginning of July, was full of promise.

The greenhouse, at the end of July, had held good to that promise.

The greenhouse, today, held a lesson.

We have battled ants since we first started preparing the greenhouse, constantly disturbing their lairs to discourage them from settling. Ants, themselves, are quite harmless in a greenhouse. Our angst against ants is their tendency to "farm aphids" a process by which they plant aphid eggs on plants near their home and cultivate the aphids, harvesting some for food but maintaining enough for a continuously growing supply. Not a good thing in a greenhouse.

As soon as the plants started growing, the ants were able to move their holes to places we couldn't get to (under my romaine, under the pumpkins, etc.) and they brought the aphids. Boy, did they bring 'em.

When I first discovered them on my romaine, I freaked out. Running to the peas and my slender, yummy green beans (my favorites) I discovered the peas were pretty resistant but the beans had a few aphids. I learned to find the worst hit plants by looking to see which plants had ants all over them. The lettuce, peppers, potatoes and pumpkins (alliterative ants and aphids?) were covered with ants and aphids. Vegetable plants are very sensitive and soap and water spray burned their leaves faster than the aphids. We are organic gardeners, so our options were to recruit ladybugs and spiders and simply smoosh the little fiends when we found them.

One of Wy's cherished white pumpkins

It was not enough. Soon Wyatt's prized pumpkins...the patch that is the first place he visits after the toilet EVERY morning...the pumpkins that he has counted and watched since they were first flowers...were showing signs of stress. I knew we should pull the worst infected plants, but Wyatt would have none of it. I pulled all my lettuce and spinach (which were luckily starting to bolt and seed anyways), but left the pumpkins. I warned Wyatt of the possibility that some of his pumpkins might not make it and that, by leaving the infection to grow, it might cause his corn and our other vegetables to be hurt beyond repair. He looked at the tiny aphids and didn't quite believe it.

Two days ago, I started pulling pumpkin plants. Their leaves were COVERED in aphids. I called Wyatt out and showed him how, underneath the tall, broad pumpkin leaves there were many more in various shades of black and brown just wilting away. Many plants had lots of flowers that had turned brown and not opened. So many plants that should have had fruit, but didn't. He understood then and I reiterated a tough lesson in life...that sometimes a few need to be sacrificed for the health of many.

When watching our swallow fledglings begin to leave the birdhouse, two were able to fly before the third and he was left behind. For a day, we watched and waited for Waterfall (Mom/Dad) to return and feed the last one. Wyatt actually tried to feed the little one pieces of grasshopper when, by late afternoon, there was no sign of her. I explained that often, in the animal world, a mommy has to make a tough decision about the ability of her young to survive. Sometimes she can't feed all of them so the one that reaches the worm in her mouth the fastest, gets the worm. Survives. The slowest one may eventually starve or is sometimes kicked out of the nest. Waterfall probably had to make a decision over who to follow--the two that fledged but still needed her help to eat or the one that was left behind. Luckily, Waterfall came back and fed the little one at dusk, and by the next morning he had fledged. Yippee for the swallow family, but her return didn't let the reality sink in.

Waterfall's chicks in Wyatt's birdhouse

It sunk in when he saw his pumpkin patch truly dying. We have left only the vines with mature pumpkins attached, one of which (a white pumpkin) he will enter in the county fair on Wednesday. After that, if the infestation is still strong, we will pull the rest. Poor kid. Rest assure, we will battle those ants with a fervor unheard of next year!

The Grand Lake Buffalo BBQ 5K Running Crew

Tse and some old lady crossing the finish line...

Tsegereda Rosalie and Nana at Grand Lake

Rodas Reyne in swim lessons...she did awesome!

Noah's first jump off the diving board (took eight attempts, but who's counting?).

Tsegereda treading water for two minutes...with a smile! Whew!

Keeper Noah bootin' the ball. He started out the season a dandelion-picker,
but ended it showing some real promise and enthusiasm.

Wyatt has become a very talented soccer player...reminds me of his Uncle Jackie and
my cousin Jeff, one of his namesakes, who was, quite simply, phenomenal.

Just before sunrise at the Moffat County Balloon Blast

The munchkins watching Flowers (Mountain Breeze is her formal name, but we nicknamed her "Flowers" when we first saw her in Eden. She's out of Fort Collins, but we've seen her at every Balloon Festival we've been to).