Planting the Pumpkins

I'm not known for my wisdom.I'm not sure what I would be known for, either, but I'm fairly certain it would be something I'd rather not have as my legacy.  This is true, and I could ramble on, but that would require dishing out juicy details about my failings, so instead let's look at pictures of children working on a Very Hot Day.

I dug a trench behind the coop to grow a sunflower fort this year.  I compulsively wanted to finally finish the last of the planting, so I waited to begin until early afternoon, when the sun was highest and the muggy heat was at its peak. (See above comment about wisdom, please.)I filled it with manure, lugged away the rocks and strips of sod, and asked the girls to line it with larger rocks.

 

The heat forced us to bring out Ye Olde Garden Dunking Bowl, which makes a regular appearance each year.  (They reward themselves thusly: pick up 60 rocks and you earn a dunk!  Or: weed half a row and you earn a dunk!  Or: fill the barrow with rocks and you earn a dunk!)










Piper always ignores the rules and dunks herself silly while the others are working, which drives them batty because she uses up all the water by the time they arrive.








Hopefully the seeds will actually grow to reward our sweaty labor.





 





   



Here's a bonus.  Susannah, covered in an inch-thick layer of grime, asks to "post" on some rocks.

Then, because I'd chosen to plant the Fun Thing first, I tuckered out before digging the pumpkin holes I needed to plant in that same corner due to all garden space being otherwise occupied.
I dug the holes, anyway, but I did stop at 9 instead of the intended 15.  Here's a picture after the fifth hole.  There were no more pictures until we completed them.

Sorry, Molly!  I intended to take pictures of the girls plunking and covering their seeds, but I was slick and delirious.  Here they are with their finished holes.



 



And here's Millie-- pumpkin-lover-- pleased as punch to be finished, who regaled me with tales of her future, milk-fed, Big Max pumpkin as we worked.  This year's the year for a prize-winning pumpkin!