Utah House Bill 49

Deni and I went on our last "long" bike ride before our race next Saturday. We drove to my parents house in Springville (where we left the kids with my parents) then rode into Provo.

As we left my parents house, they mentioned it was about 16 miles roundtrip from their house to the MTC. So we headed towards the MTC.

As I went down my parents street, I was able to get up to about 35 miles per hour without peddling. It was nice, however I knew I'd have to ride up that same hill at the very end of our ride. I then turned and headed towards my sisters house (which has another huge hill, however this one we had to ride up). According to my sister, I "made" Deni go up the hill. I don't remember making Deni do anything on our ride. We continued on into Provo and had a fairly good ride, however Deni had a close call with a van that refused to change lanes and give her room as we road on the edge of the road (on the white line) on Hwy 89. I wish I would have been able to get their license plate number and reported them. Eariler this year a car drove up along side of a cyclist and hit him on his back, he got the license plate number and called the police to press charges. This will be the first attempt to prosecute using Utah House Bill 49.

Utah House Bill 49
prohibits an operator of a motor vehicle from knowingly, intentionally, or recklessly operating a motor vehicle within three feet of a moving bicycle, unless the operator of the motor vehicle operates the motor vehicle within a reasonable and safe distance of the bicycle.

We continued on to the MTC and then road up and around the Provo Temple. We headed back to South Provo and stopped at Mad Dog Cycles to make a few purchases for our bikes. We then continued back the same way we came and back to my parents house. With our detours, we went about 18 miles, not too bad of a ride.

Sweating Chlorine

As I was doing my daily work out today during lunch and I started to smell Chlorine. Since there isn't a pool at the Novell onsite gym and no one else was around, I knew the chlorine smell was coming from me.

I swam yesterday and no matter how many times I shower, it's impossible to get the chlorine smell off me. The joys of training for Triathlons.

Time is getting near. I have 1.5 weeks until the first big race of the summer.

Running back to work

Ever since I started a vanpool (through Utah Transportation Authority -UTA) 2 months ago, I haven't been able to consistently swim twice I week like I have wanted to. Because we lease a van though UTA for the vanpool, they are pretty strict on the mileage and only give us a few "personal" miles a month. In an attempt to get my swim in today, I had a co-worker drop me off at the Provo pool where I was going to do my swim and then run back to work (which is about 5k away).

I didn't take anything with me other than my shoes and shirt, so I wouldn't have to run carrying anything.

I swam a 1/2 mile, dried off, got my shoes on and 4 minutes after getting out of the pool, I was running back to work. As I started running I got stomach cramps, which is always fun at the beginning of your run. I pushed through it and had a slow run, but it was good.

I ran right back to the Novell onsite gym, showered and then headed back to work.

Exercising is expensive

Time is getting short for our last minute training before the 2008 Spring Salem Triathlon. Deni and I decided to hire a babysitter for this morning so that we could go train together in Salem. We left the house at 9:30am. We were riding by about 9:50am. I planned on riding more up Payson Canyon but the wind was horrible this morning so I just rode the 20k bike route.

Deni left about 5 to 10 minutes before I did and I was attempting to catch her but never was able to. I did pass her, but I still had about a half of a mile to climb up Payson Canyon as she was flying down the canyon. I continued up the hill to the turn around point and started flying down myself. Payson Canyon Road isn't the smoothest road I've ridden, but I was able to stay right around 28-31 mph all the way down the Canyon. I never did catch up to Deni. I finished the ride in just over 42 minutes. Deni had finished a few minutes ahead of me, but had dropped her bike, transitioned to the run and ran the 5k race route while I waited for her. I saw her running across the bridge as I came into the parking lot. Deni finished her run just in time for me to load the bikes and make it home by 11:30am. 2 hrs at 2 bucks per kid per hour, that's $8 bucks for Deni and I to exercise together. $8 bucks may not sound too expensive, but if we do it each week, that's $32 bucks a month just to exercise together. Exercising is expensive! If I went to a movie and spent $8 bucks, I could at least say I spent $8 bucks for a movie. All I can say is I spent $8 to ride my bike up a big hill without my kids. WhooooHoooo.

Actually the time is well spent. One of the biggest reasons I wanted to start doing triathlons was to beat Deni, uh, I mean spend more time with Deni. Yeah spending more time is good. It's always a good feeling to go riding with Deni. I look forward to being able to bike with her into our Golden years, when we can tour around the United States on bikes.

The rest of the day we spent in our yard. A flowerbed on the side of our hose was so overgrown with weeds, I had forgotten that there were actual plants under those weeds. It's amazing how nice it looks now. When Deni and I were about 90% complete, she reminded me that I should have taken before and after pictures. As we were weeding, we found 4 or 5 different bugs that I've never seen before. We gathered them up for Ryan (as he loves bugs, and learning about bugs) and put them in his bug catcher. We also harvest worms (Deni found them but wouldn't touch them) for a potential fishing trip on Monday.

Deni's favorite 6 little words

I took today off. With Monday being a holiday, I decided I should turn a 3 day weekend into a 4 day weekend.

As soon as I woke up Deni said, "Let's go running." My response was "But it's my day off, I don't want to run right now, how about later today." Deni said "But it's gorgeous outside right now, let's go now." It was gorgeous outside, sunny, a little cool, but a perfect day.Apparently I'm more stubborn than Deni, as she gave up and we decided to run later in the afternoon.

We ate lunch around 12:30pm then headed out to Salem to run the race route for our race on June 7th. As we drove to Salem it started raining. On top of the rain, it was already chilly outside, 48 degrees to be exact, but because I was more stubborn this morning, I got what was coming to me. As we left on our 5k run pushing Sydney in the rain, Deni heard her favorite 6 words. "You were right, I was wrong."

The run wasn't too bad but was not great. 28 minutes for 5k. There are a few good hills on the run. Pushing Sydney made the run a little harder, so I'm hoping for a faster time in the race as I won't be pushing her.

Disclaimer: No children were cold or wet during the duration of our 5k run. Sydney was in our jogging stroller which has a cover to keep out the weather. She also had a blanket inside listening to Deni's ipod and singing. (which was fun to listen to, as she couldn't hear herself.)

A really long time

Tonight was Sydney's dance recital. Deni has a running class at UVU, so I was in charge of getting Sydney to the dance recital on time. We got there about 5:45pm and I helped her get into her first outfit. The recital started at 6:30pm and lasted for about an hour. As I sat down and saw other parents holding flowers for their daughters I knew I was in trouble. I remembered last year and feeling like I should have gotten Sydney some flowers, but forgot this year.

Sydney was cute, as usual, and great in the 3 little dances she did. The theme was "The Wizard of Oz".

Here is a quick video clip of Sydney dancing. I was videoing and Ryan was manning our digital camera, so Ryan took this video. Not too bad for a 7 year old. Sydney is on the far left of the video. I love her watching her look over her shoulder then twrilling around.




After the recital, Sydney saw alot of the other girls getting flowers and said to me, "Dad, where's my prize?" Of course I felt bad and quickly said, "Let's go to the store and get you a prize, what do you want?" She said "Bubble gum". So we drove to the grocery store and she got her a pack of bubble gum tape. It looks like I got off easy this year, but next year I won't forget the flowers.

Ryan and Sydney after the dance recital.



Sydney the dancer.




Deni and I usually take turns putting the kids to bed. Ryan normally gravitates to Deni and Sydney to me, however we usually switch every night. I enjoy putting both to bed, however Ryan always thinks that I put him to bed the night before (meaning he really wants Deni to put him to bed most of the time.) In this case, he was right, I did put him to bed the night before, however I put both kids to bed as Deni was gone to her running class.

As I knelt down to say prayers with Ryan we had the following conversation:

Ryan: Dad, It's been a really long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long time since Mom has put me to bed.

Me: Ryan, how many long's was that?

Ryan: About 8 or 9.

Ryan always makes me laugh.

Yard work

I've always struggled keeping weeds out of the flowerbeds in our backyard, especially the flowerbed that sits infront of our back fence. As I was walking to my carpool one morning this past week, I looked over the back fence to see why so many weeds come under the fence and into my yard. Both of the neighbors behind me have grass go right up the fence and it was quite tall. So I decided I was going to go in their backyard, weedeat their side of the fence and then spray some grass/weed killer so that it doesn't come through the fence. I'm brilliant. I wish I would have thought of that 2 years ago when I moved in.

So tonight, armed with a weedeater and grass/weed killer, I knocked on my neighbors doors and asked if I could weedeat and then spray their back fence (its actually my fence, just their side of my fence). It was kind of awkward asking them, however after they agreed that I could do it, I think the 20 minutes I spent in their backyards will help me keep the weeds down in my yard. Who knows, now that I've knocked on their door and done it for them once, maybe they'll keep it up so I don't have to do it again. Either way, I'd rather do it than have to constantly weed the back flowerbed.

I was also able to finish a few other yard things I've been attempting to accomplish for a while but haven't had the time. I finished automating my garden spots. No more watering for me. It's all programed. All 3 garden spots, as well as the 3 raspberry boxes. Now that the garden is planted and the water is automated, all I have to do is wait a few months and I'll have fruits and vegetables.

I was also able to mow and fertilize the lawn. I really enjoy mowing the lawn. I know people think I'm weird for saying that, but I truly enjoy it. I'm not sure why I like mowing lawns so much, but maybe I like mowing lawns because of the successful lawn business I had as a kid, maybe not. I'm pretty picky on lawn mowing. I usually mow my lawn at an angle, today as I mowed, I mowed at an 90 degree angle from the last mowing. When I was finished, my lawn looked like the baseball fields you see on TV. Deni says I won't let her mow the lawn, which is not true. I'll let her mow the lawn, I just want her to mow it a certain way, which is probably why I always mow the lawn. It's like vacuuming, it always looks nice when you have the vacuum lines straight in the carpet. Ok maybe I have OCD.

What a 28 mile bike ride does to you

This is what a 28 mile bike ride does to you when you forget to put on sunblock.



And, yes it hurts.

With 3 weeks until our first triathlon of the season, we took advantage of a Primary activity (that both our kids went to) and Deni and I took a long bike ride today. We left our house and headed into Salem, more specifically to Salem Pond. From there we rode the race route we will be racing in 3 weeks. It starts at Salem Pond and heads into Payson and up Payson canyon. It was a beautiful clear day, not too hot, not too cold, but apparently perfect for getting a sun burn.

All in all we rode 28 miles. 28 miles sounds like a long way, however once you've ridden 28 miles, what's another 10 miles or so. I wanted to keep going, however we had to get back to pick up the kids so we headed back to the church to get them.

I am Ironman

Novell is notorious for taking their employees to movies. In the past, they've even bought out multiple showings of a movie on opening day. Today I worked from 8 until 12:30. My director bought lunch for all of us and then we headed off to watch Ironman as a group. Ryan is quite jealous that I'm going to see Ironman. All he knows of Ironman is what he sees in commercials, which appear to be very persuasive for him.

The movie was really good. But probably not appropriate for a 7 year old, which is why he won't see if for a long time. After the movie, I headed back to work and finalized a few things but didn't get too much work done before I left at 4:30pm to go home. I could learn to enjoy these type of work days. They don't come too often, a few times a year, but they sure are great.

When I got home, I decide that I was going to put on my aero bars on my bike. I ended up putting them on mine and Deni's. I've had my aero bars for months and Deni just recently got a pair for her bike. We hope to go on a long bike ride tomorrow and try them out.

Continuing Education

I got home tonight and I could tell Deni was feeling rushed. I had forgotten she signed up for a running class through Utah Valley University Continuing education and tonight was the first night of the 6 week class.

We ate dinner and then Deni was off. The kids and I planted most of the garden. Around 8pm I put them to bed. Both of them wanted me to read to them, but it was getting dark and I needed to get the rest of the garden planted, so I told them both to read to themselves and turn their lights off when they were finished. I went back out and finished planting and watering the garden. When I came in I fully expected both the kids to either still be awake or for both of them to have their lights on and be asleep holding a book. I was wrong, both of them were a sleep and the lights were out. I felt bad that I didn't take the time to read to them tonight. I'm very blessed to have book worms for kids. Ryan more than Sydney, however once Sydney learns to read, I think she will take off. Usually we try to read to the kids each night at bed time.

Ryan and I are reading a fiction LDS book by C.B. Andersen that his Grandma Bigler bought for him while she was here a few weeks ago. It's fun to read with Ryan.

Since Deni was already up in Orem for her running class, she decided to take advantage of her favorite babysitter (me) and go swimming as well. Which was ok, as the kids were already in bed, I had already worked out during lunch and my favorite TV show (LOST) was on. Deni won't watch LOST with me, so it worked out perfectly, however she didn't get home until after 10pm.

Horrible week

I usually feel like I'm a fairly happy person most of the time, however so far this week has just been a crappy week. It's mostly work related and I really don't want to go into the details but let's just say I'm quite unhappy at the moment. May 1st I hit my 8 year anniversary at Novell and in the 8 years at Novell, I can't say I've ever felt like this.

I know I've been bringing my less than happy attitude home and I hate that. I've been a grouch at home when it has nothing to do with home or my family.

Tonight we went to Young Men/Young Women. We had combined activity tonight and played human foosball. It was fun, I was able to get a little of my frustration out by kicking the huge soccer ball as it came by.

Both our kids where there (as usual), however since it wasn't an activity they could really participate in, they were great kids and hung out and watched. When I got home, Deni handed me 2 cards the kids had made for me during the activity.

On the front of Sydney's card, she wrote Sydney (heart) Brett, then on the inside there were 2 drawn people. (I'm assuming one is me and the other is her.) They are both smiling. If Sydney is ever sad, she'll draw a picture of a person with a frown.

On the front of Ryan's card, it said "U work hard" and on the inside it said "Dad, Thank you for all of the work you do for are (our) family. We love you dad. He drew a picture of me sitting at a desk with a computer in front of me. How can I continue having a horrible week when I have 2 great kids and a great wife supporting me and helping me along.

I know I need to change my attitude and it's hard not to after getting cards from my kids.

Nothing says I love you like

Nothing says I love you more like footwear for Mothers day.

Deni found some new footwear that she recently tried on and fell in love with. They are made by Vibram and are called "Five Fingers".

Here is a picture of them.

FiveFingers enhance your sense of touch and feel, while improving foot strength, balance, agility, and range of motion. Because wearing Vibram FiveFingers is so close to going barefoot, you’ll enjoy the health and performance benefits of barefooting without some of the risks.

Garden time

It's that time again. Time to plant the garden. After I got home from the Father/Sons campout, we headed into Springville to drop off Landon, as well as stop at the Nursery in Springville to purchase the plants for our garden.

Our garden is 100 Square Feet, in 3 garden spots. I have two 4ft x 10ft garden spots and one 2ft x 10ft garden spots.

We bought and are going to plant the following:

10 Roma Tomato plants
2 Early girl tomato plants
1 Beefmaster tomato plants
13 total tomato plants in all.

1 tomato plant takes up 4 square feet, so 13 x 4 = 52 square feet. Half our garden will be tomatoes.

We are also planing 1 squash (4 sq ft), 1 zucchini (4 sq ft), 8 potatoes (8sq ft), 2 cucumbers (2 sq ft), 4 squares of carrots. The rest of the garden will be 8 sq ft of onions, 5 sq ft of jalepeno peppers, 5 sq ft of Anaheim peppers, with 8 squares left for some marigolds (to help with garden pests.)

That is 100 sq ft of the available 100 sq ft being used. I started officially square foot gardening last year but had been doing something similar for the other years. As you can see, you can have a large garden in a small amount of space. I'm looking forward to making more salsa this year than last.

I also bought 2 pumpkin plants that we will plant by the trampoline. We tried pumpkins last year for the first time and enjoyed having 8-10 pumpkins for carving around Halloween.

Fathers and Sons Campout

Last night was our Ward's father and sons campout up Spanish Fork Canyon. I invited my nephew Landon to come with Ryan and I. We left right after Ryan's very last soccer game of this season. We got up to the camping spot around 8:30pm. With little light left, we got the tent setup quickly. Of course it got dark and cold today and looked like we were going to get rained on pretty good.

We played a few games like Pass the Pigs, which is a great game for all ages. I sat around the campfire while Ryan and Landon watched movies (one movie in a 5th wheel trailer) and another family brought a projector and projected a movie on the side of a white utility trailer. I really wouldn't consider sitting in a 5th wheel trailer watching movies as camping, however Ryan and Landon seemed to have a fun time.

We got to bed very late. At 11:15pm, Ryan and I climbed into bed, however we unluckily placed our tent next to the utility trailer being used a projector screen, so until the movie was over (about 11:45pm) we couldn't go to sleep. Landon came into the tent around 11:45pm after the movie was over.

It did sprinkle on us a little bit over night, but we were able to remain warm and dry.

We got up this morning, ate breakfast (provided by the ward) and then cleaned up camp and headed down into Spanish Fork to go fishing.



This is my nephew Landon, in front of our tent.



Ryan wanted to take Landon to our "secret" fishing spot. For the first 30 - 45 minutes I kept worms and hooks on the poles, until I realized Landon had caught 4 fish, Ryan had caught 1 and I hadn't caught anything. I did help Ryan and Landon with their poles, but I started to focus on my fishing too.

At the end of the day, Landon and I had each caught 16 fish. We threw them all back, but had a great time catching and releasing them. We caught mostly Rainbow trout, however there were a few albino trout (had red eyes, completely white, with a yellow stripe).

Creatures of habit

When Deni decided she was getting into doing triathlons she went to a specialty shoe store up in Orem, Ut. When she came home with her new shoes and told me she had spent $80 on shoes and she was only going to wear them for running and after 350 - 500 miles she needed another new pair, I thought she was crazy. That's a new pair of shoes every 6 months or less.

Fast forward another year when Deni talked me into doing triathlons. I decided if I was going to do triathlons with her, I needed to do it right, which meant getting some nice running shoes and all the other gear I needed. Deni took me to the Running Corner, the specialty shoe store in Orem. The cool thing about going there versus going to foot locker or someone other store where they hire unskilled teenage labor is they first watch you run and determine what style of shoe you need. Next they bring out multiple pairs of shoes and they put a different shoe on each foot and have you run outside down the sidewalk and back. From there, you tell them which shoe you liked and they leave that shoe on and put another shoe on the other foot and have you run again. You do this until you find the pair that feels the best for your foot. This is a great tool to get the shoe you like, however after you find the shoe you like, you have to look at the price and decide if you want to pay that price. 2 Years ago, I bought the Asics Landreth. When I went back last year, I had liked my shoes so much, I decided that I was going to get the exact same shoe (same size,color,etc). The style had been discontinued however they happened to have it in stock so I got it for a little bit cheaper as it was last years model, which was great for me.

This last week I went back in to get some new shoes. As I do in most of the other areas in my life, once I find something I like, whether that is a specific meal at a restaurant, or a brand of clothing, etc I stick with what I like. I'm not sure if I'm afraid to try something new or if I'm lazy but I know it's easy to stick with what I've done in the past and not make any changes. So I go in and try out the new Asics Landreth III along with alot of other comparable shoes and end up walking out with the Asics Landreth III.

I think I'm going to try and only wear these when running to help them last a little bit longer, however that means I need to get yet another pair of shoes for normal wear.

After we purchased my shoes we headed to the Orem pool as a family to swim. I normally swim laps in the Provo pool during lunch. The Provo pool is a 25 yard pool. (25 yards = 22.86 meters). I've been swimming 32 laps and counting it as a mile, however in a 25 yard pool, it's about 3 laps short.

Up until tonight, I had thought that 25 meters and 25 yards were very close in distance, however as I swam 50 meter Orem pool tonight, I realized there is a big difference and my time showed it.
Along with the distance difference between Provo and Orem, you also don't have to turn as much. I think turning more often gives me a little more of a break. Swimming the longer distance I felt like I was swimming in slow motion.

Overall I swam the real half mile in 16:01 and I finished the real mile in 32:43 with my best 50 meter lap at 49 seconds and average lap of 61 seconds.

After I got done swimming, I watched and played with the kids while Deni swam. Because of the rising gas prices and how far away we are from the swimming pools, as well as trying to fit in swimming, running and biking into our schedules, I think we might start swimming once a week as a family, where I watch the kids while Deni swims and then I swim while Deni watches the kids. This will be good for the kids too. Sydney is picking up swimming quite well and as I've said before has no fear of the water. Sydney can float on her back, swim under water, and is close to doing a freestyle stroke on top of the water. Ryan, on the other hand, isn't as far along as Sydney. We are going to try some private swimming lessons with him this summer to see if we can get him over the fear of water and hopefully swimming better than Sydney by the end of the summer.

Take 2

When I was in college, I had to retake a class in an attempt to get a better grade so I could get into the business program. Retaking the class wasn't fun. Matter of fact, I hate having to redo anything.

I went out to check on my water automation project I did yesterday with my dad and there are 2 places where it is leaking. Grrrr. Because it is put together with PVC pipe and glue, all you can do it cut out the joints that are leaking and re-do them. I considered just leaving it alone and letting it leak, but I decided against it.

So tonight for an hour or so, I cut out all the work I did yesterday and did it again. I'm hoping that it doesn't leak this time. I was able to do it quite faster the second time, which is good, as it means I learned something.

One reason it leaked was I didn't use teflon tape for a joint that screwed. I decided I could do without it as I didn't have any and I didn't want to drive out to the store again. Lesson learned.

Luckily I had all the parts (and borrowed some teflon tape from a neighbor) to do it again. I haven't tested it yet. So I hope I learned my lesson well.

After I put it back together, we decided it would be fun to fishing as a family. Deni and Ryan went and dug worms while I finished up. The pond is about 2 miles from our house. When we got there, we had noticed we had forgotten the worms, so we happened to have mini marshmellows in the car and decided to use those. There were people in our regular spot, so we had to find a different spot. Although we didn't catch anything, we got many strikes and had an enjoyable time.

First ride up Payson Canyon this year

It's been a while since I felt like exercising, however with the Salem Tri only a month away, I thought it would be a good idea to get out and ride my bike today. Up until I got sick just over a week ago, I was riding 20k and running/elliptical 5k on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. However because I got sick, I've done nothing the last 10 days.

Last Saturday, when I was sick, Deni took the opportunity to ride from our house to Salem, then ride the Salem Tri bike route up Payson Canyon and back. Total distance is just over 25 miles (40k).

I decided to do the same today. The weather was quite nice, in the lower 60's. I rode with a light windbreaker jacket on. It took me about 22 minutes to get to Salem (about 6.5 miles) and then I started up the bike route.

You can't tell this from the map, but there are quite a few hills getting to the mouth of Payson Canyon and a constant uphill up Payson Canyon. The ride was a lot harder than I had expected up the canyon. Total elevation gain is 519 feet (in 6.4 miles, most of it coming in the last 4 miles). However,what goes up, must come down. As slow as I rode up the canyon, it was fun flying down at speeds over 30mph. This will be an interesting ride on race day. There are about 800 participants and the ride up the canyon isn't too great (the pavement needs to be redone). It was very fun and easy coming down by myself, however adding even 20-50 other riders going down and another 100 or so going up, will make it an interesting ride. I rode back to the "finish line" and then continued on home for another 6.5 miles. Overall I went just over 25 miles (40k).

When I got home I was exhausted, which I shouldn't be at this point, but I'm going to blame it on getting and attempting to recover from getting sick last week.

Digital SLR's make you a rock star

A few years back, we spent a large chunk of our tax return on a Digital SLR. I bought a Canon 20D and love it ever since. It was a big purchase for us at the time but was the best use of that money at the time. I love how fast I can capture pictures, especially action photos. I always wondered how photographers captured such good action photos and after getting a Digital SLR myself, I started to understand. I can take 6 to 8 picture a second. I'm not saying that photographers aren't skilled in what they do, but with a Digital SLR on fast mode, you can shoot alot of pictures in a short amount of time and pick the best one.

My brother bought a zoom lens (70mm-300mm) for his Canon and he didn't like it, so my let left it with my dad to use. My dad bought a different lens, so I "borrowed" my brothers for a bit. I used it at Ryan's soccer game tonight for the first time. I took 62 pictures in about 40 minutes. (At 5mb a piece, I'm going to have to get a bigger hard drive soon.) Not all of them are high quality pictures, however I captured quite a few that made Ryan look like a very aggressive professional soccer player.

The team Ryan was playing against didn't have enough players so Ryan volunteered to play on the other team. It's a good thing he did, as because of his generosity, his "temporary" team won.

Here's a few of the pics I captured tonight.









Ryan also had the opportunity to play the goalie or keeper tonight. I'm not sure what draws everyone to want to be a goalie, but without a doubt, 90% of the team wants to play goalie.



Not really an action picture, but I liked how it looked.



After the soccer game, Ryan got a Gatorade and a treat. As we drove home, Ryan said - "Dad, this is totally right, Gatorade does quench your thirst." I asked him what "quench" meant and he didn't know. I thought that was funny.

Automating my gardens

I love planting and reaping the benefits of a garden each year, however I always hate going out watering. Sometimes I forgot to water, sometimes I leave the water on for hours and flood the garden and all surrounding areas. Since we moved to Spanish Fork and built a garden, I've wanted to automate the watering but haven't done it.

I found out why I haven't done it in the past after a quick visit to Sprinkler World. I left with a bunch of little parts and a $150+ bill. Sprinklers are expensive, especially drip irritation systems. Both houses we have owned always came complete with finished yards. After a few hours at Sprinkler world, I'm very grateful for that.

My dad met me at Sprinkler World and we attempted to get all the parts we needed to automate my garden. About an hour and a half later, we left. I didn't think it would take that long to get the parts.

We headed home and stopped by Wendy's to get a quick bite to eat. Dad brought my nephew, Dawson, with him to play with Sydney (they are 2 weeks apart in age). So I went through the Wendy's drive though to get a quick bite to eat for Sydney, Dawson and myself. (Dad wasn't hungry yet. Since retiring, my parents don't eat breakfast until about 11am.)

For the next 3 hours, dad and I worked on getting my raspberries and garden spots automated.

I've been doing square foot gardening for the last couple of years. This year I added raspberries to the mix. I built three different boxes. They are 16 foot by 1 foot spot, and a 5 foot by 1 foot spot and finally a 9 foot by 1 foot spot for raspberries. I now have these three boxes automated so I don't have to remember to water them.

I also have 3 garden spots. They are 10 feet by 4 feet, another 10 feet by 4 feet and finally a 10 foot by 2 foot spot. We got these garden spots mostly done before my dad had to leave. They are close enough that I'll be able to finish them tomorrow.

Even though it snowed a few days ago, gardening time is coming quick. In Utah, right after Mothers day it is usually safe enough to plant, as we usually don't get frost after that, however this year the weather seems to be a little colder than usual.

My baby, my mustache

I very rarely get pictures taken of myself as I'm usually the one taking the pictures, however he's a picture of Sydney and myself.

This picture serves 2 purposes.

First, it's a very cute picture of Sydney.

Second, it documents that I can grow a mustache. (I know, you have to look close). I hate to admit it, but I think this is about 2 1/2 weeks of growth, pretty sad, especially when my brother can grow this in 12 hours.