Pictures May Follow Over the Coming Months

Looking at my garden today you wouldn't know it but I've never really been someone that grows too much of my own food. Working 6 or 7 days a week on other peoples gardens it was just too much effort to come home and do some more on my own garden at night. I would basically design my own garden with shrubs that required little maintenance but the bare minimum of weeding, and trimming and leave it to do its thing.

Then I got a wife. Who hadn't really had a garden. Who didn't really get to see too much of what I did for a living. And who loved food and is great in the kitchen. Thats when I decided I needed to introduce her to a new experience and so what if I was tired at night after working under the hot Utah sun during the day.

We love our food shows on TV and The F Word made me realise that a lot of us have become disconnected from where our food comes from, certainly our kids have. By growing what little we can of our own food we can choose our food for flavour and not just by looks. Supermarket tomatoes just aren't the same. Our kids can become connected with where our food originates and maybe have more interest in eating some veggies, and less ketchup.

I've also found that by growing our own food my wife gets excited by the "cute" and I get excited about gardening again though her excitement. Its no longer just how I earn my living and an aching back. I am rediscovering my enjoyment and passion through her discoveries. It seems that good gardeners make a good complementary team with good chefs.

A Stubborn Person Deserves A Stubborn Dog

We've had the dog about 8 months, and yet we've only just got to the stage where we can trust her to go on walks with us without the leash (assuming there is no cars, cyclists or skateboarders around).

With tricks she can be pretty good (as long as there is something in it for her - usually bacon treats). We can get her to sit (which also generally works as an emergency controlling command when a car is coming when she is off her leash), lie down, roll over, take, beg and give me five (although with the use of two paws it more like ten).

We cannot get her to stop her attacking our socks. Although I suspect somechileanwoman might have trained her to attack socks deliberately. It's somewhat of a convenience that they both happen to hate socks.

Lately I've been trying to teach the dog fetch. I'm failing miserably. One thing I'm learning from this dog is that she does not do anything she does not want to do. Sure she will fetch the ball belonging to another dog. But not because she wants to play fetch. She doesn't even want the ball.The little slut just wants to be chased by said dog. I say slut, but really she's just a tease. Any time any boy dogs show any interest in her lady bits she soon shows them thats not part of the deal. Good girl.

Anyway I thought maybe I could teach the purpose of fetch away from all other distractions.

Not a chance. She will run at the thrown object, and then decide its beneath her to bring it back and go on a sniff fest instead.

When winter finally draws to an end its usually a sign for us as a couple to think of where we might go to at the beginning of summer. Moab is a popular choice for us as we it was where we had our first holiday together and it helps that it's only a few hours away. However we realised last year that going away for our wedding anniversary meant two things, its damn hot at the end of May, and very crowded, with it also being Labor Day weekend so maybe this year we will have to go somewhere and leave Moab for later in the autumn.

It might be a chance this year to go further north and discover another part of the US, perhaps Wyoming or Montana where we won't see too much of this of thing. But now that these two foreigners are here it would be nice someday to discover for ourselves what treats all the 50 States have to offer.

Ready To Spring Into Action

By last year's standards its been a mild winter. There wasn't much snow at all this year.

Typically though, just when I thought I might have the chance of returning to work the weather would take a turn for the worse. One snow storm would come and go, to be followed by another.

I'm done being housebound. I am so over walking the dog for a couple of hours during the day just to pass the time.

I am ready for life to kickstart once again. I want an end to winter.

I'm not going to lie and say I'm ready for 95 degree weather once more. Far too Scottish for that, but I do want 60 hour work weeks. I do want BBQ's in the back yard. Home made burgers with fresh garden tomatoes.Corn & Hot Sauce.

Fireman's Hike

I call this one the fireman's hike because we have this fancy fire station that serves the canyon, just across the road from where we stay, only there isn't that many fires for the firemen to fight. In the 18 months that we have been living here I've only seen the fire truck out on 3 occasions, each time with no siren going, I half suspect that it was taken out for a ride just to make sure the engine still worked. The one time that there did seem to be something for them to do in the canyon the firemen were standing outside the fire house looking perplexed as a fire truck from the nearby Sugar House area went hurrying past them.

I imagine working at the Emigration Canyon fire house would be a really lonely boring job. I suspect the temptation to go off for a hike in the trail a few feet behind the fire station that seemingly goes on endlessly deep into the mountains to fill part of the work day must be high, but frowned upon by the chief.

This Is The Place

Its hard to believe that its been almost 3 years now since I moved from the land that begat me to Salt Lake City.

That first year was hard. Its never easy moving to a place that frankly doesn't want you there but moving at a time when the world is going through its biggest financial upheaval in decades was pretty poor timing on my part. In my next life I'm going to put some more planning into my emigration. Hell any sort of planning would be nice.

This last year though we really got it together. We settled into the home that we moved into the previous year. Paid off our bills, bought a new car to replace the gas guzzling, bank draining, vehicle that we had before and even bought a dog. It took me a while, my 34th year, but I finally figured out the money thing. All those years of being single I could never understand it but a couple of years of marriage and I grow up somewhat. Now if only I met the wife earlier I might have been that man of responsibility sooner.

Whereas that first year together was long and financially difficult the 2 years since have allowed us to dream. Dreams are where we at right now, but that in itself is progress. The first year we had together things were so tight that it was hard to dream at times. It was a time of simple pleasures, enjoying each others company, sharing things like street tacos and nights at the dollar theater but looking beyond that the day we were living was hard to do when we only had the one wage coming in.

Salt lake City then was a lonely place to be. But through time, hard work and a good dose of luck and teamwork we got it together. We were blessed to move on to better things when so many others were also struggling and unable to do the same.

Now we find ourselves living in a beautiful area, ironically, for two immigrants, called Emigration Canyon, dreaming of a better future. A future just years ago would have hurt to dream about. Right now we feel lucky to be renting in this quiet refuge from the city. It represents for us cosy, quiet winters, and cool, busy, summers filled with family and friends enjoying our little place almost as much as we do.

Many tomorrows away though we have bigger plans. Ultimately we want to buy our own piece of land here, build our own home and if we are allowed, build a little restaurant on top called Immigrant Kitchen, right here in Emigration Canyon, because for us, unlike the Mormon Pioneers many years before who just passed through this area to get to their destiny, This Is The Place.