Dead Zone Desert Gardening

As I type this I am soaking home grown sunflower seeds to see if I can make sunflower sprouts. They have intrigued me since I had some as a garnish at a restaurant.

August is really a dead season in my garden. It's too bloody hot for me to go outside after 6am and do back breaking labor in my garden...so unless something is growing on its own, it has to wait until LATE August or early September. And this is late August, so, I hilled the garden this morning and planted broccoli, onions, and garlic. I found last year, that by covering the rows with sheets after I planted seeds, it helped the germination rate improve by leaps and bounds. So far this "fall", all of the seeds I've planted were grown in my own garden last year:) That makes me feel happy. Tomorrow I hope to plant one more row of something, and then clear out the rest of the garden. We've been harvesting cantaloupe this summer, but they don't taste good at all...so I'm pulling them out to plant something else. Pulling out a living plant is a rarity for me. It feels like I'm killing something that I brought to life...but I'm trying to be smart about my gardening.
Last night's Family Home Evening was a lot of fun. We got to know each other better by playing a get to know you game (who knew I had 3 children who's least favorite food is poop? And that I'm almost everyone's favorite person...I would have guessed Dad, he's mine.), and then we had a Nerf gun war. I got trapped in the pantry...what a stupid place to hide! They just shut the door and I was out of the war! And I positioned Andrew on the window seat...he was a sitting duck and after 2 seconds he was out of the game. If you haven't guessed, my team lost and the President and his body guards made it to the other end of the house. It's quite a fun game. Especially taking into consideration that my favorite games include shooting people and playing with my family...but just for fun mind you! I absolutely love this time in my life.