A Harvest Day and a Staycation

So it's a little bit odd for the Mangums to enjoy a "Stay-Cation" on a 3-day weekend. But it's already proving to be a fabulous holiday. Yesterday we kicked off celebrating the labor force by making pinecone birdfeeders with the cousins; and then hit up Friday Night Lights at Cottonwood High School to support some kids from the neighborhood.

As I'm writing this, Utah State is beating Auburn 21-14 at the half (though it's not the first time USU has given a ranked team a scare). I like the Aggies (I mean, they're no Utes), but I can't remember wanting them to beat a team so badly since they claimed a "W" over BYU last year.

But before we camped out in front of the big screen in our basement to usher in Fall (Danny has gotten me addicted to College Football), we visited Salt Lake's Downtown Farmer's Market for breakfast pastries and a grip of fresh fruit (pie cherries, a watermelon too heavy for me to carry, plus fresh peaches and apples); and Holden and I trekked to the great outdoors (ok, just our yard) to do a little reaping of what we had sowed earlier in the season.

We picked the beets he planted, and I plan on roasting them to eat today. He ate a carrot (dirt and all) from the planter boxes, plus cherry tomatoes and then we dug up potatoes. This was by far our favorite part. Thanks to PBS Kids (yes my child watches TV now), he has learned from Dinosaur Train's "Dr. Scott the Paleontologist" about fossils...and as such, he told me he was "Digging for Dinosaur bones" as we played in mother earth in search of potatoes. We talked about fossils and dug some more. He searched for "T-Rex" and then would light up with excitement when he'd uncover a potato.

I know I talk about having a garden for environmental reasons, etc, but more than anything, I feel like some days the time we spend together out there is such a special time. There are so many positive things that come from our garden space. Potatoes are so cheap and easy -- but they seem to be the highlight of the garden this year. We're definitely planting them next year... he'll need to show his sibling how an expert digs for dinosaur bones.