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Show EDITOR: RANA LEHR Saturday, October 24, W9S, THE DAILY HEKALD, Prawn, UmA 344-25- Pape CI V Brent Barlow Believe it: Eighty years of marriage! Do you have a wedding anniversary coming up? Is it your first one? Perhaps your fourth or fifth. Ten years of marriage? Twenty? Forty? Maybe even fifty? How about this? George and Jessie Shephard of Milton, Washington have been married for eighty years. Six more years together and they will tie the record for the world's longest marriage of eighty-si- x years set by a couple from India in 1940. There is also record of a couple from New Hampshire married for years in 1829. The Shephard's were married Aug- 1, 1918. Both were eighteen at the time. eighty-si- x - anniversary. Aug. 1, 1918. Let's see. Where was I on that day? Where were you? Imagine what the Shepherds have experienced together in eighty years of marriage: two World Wars, See MARRIAGE, Flip side V MAC LXSTEJL T)k Daily Herald Carvers: From left, the Slater boys, Jacob, 3, Zachary, 8, and Jesse, 10, carve some of the pumpkins that grew in the compost heap in their back yard on Monday at their Provo home. Backyard mischief Pumphins, gourds grew under spell of compost pile By RANA LEHR - Family and friends recently gathered together to help George and Jessie celebrate their eightieth wedding anniversary. Also in attendance that day was one of their sons, Willis and his wife, who recently celebrated their fiftieth wedding . The Daily Herald PROVO Like magic they appeared. One, two, three more than 40 pumpkins and nearly that many decorative gourds. The Slater family didn't cast a spell to make the pumpkins grow, they simply threw last year's pumpkins and gourds in their compost pile. Luisa, the mom, led the family in a new adventure: composting. She built the compost bin out of scraps of wood, wire mesh and other leftovers from past projects. The composting began last fall. Leaves, weeds, mushy tomatoes, wilted lettuce, cores and peelings, even egg shells are all thrown into the pile. So of course, after Halloween, the pumpkins followed. Jake, her almost son, loves to throw tomatoes and egg shells into the compost pile. The two older boys, Jesse, 10, and Zach, 8, are in school when most of the garden work is done and Rob, the dad, is busy being a mortgage banker during the day. doesn't Luisa mind, because she does have one very dedicated garden helper, Jake. The best thing about the time garden is the mom and son have spent one-on-o- ne grass clippings. together, Luisa said. The only daughter in the family, Mekenzie, 2, was born with multiple handicaps so Luisa devotes large chunks of time to her. Jake, who was still quite young when she was born, didn't get quite as much time as his mom might have wanted. one-on-o- ne Fertile ground "After sitting all winter, it made a big pile of stinky mulch," Luisa said. The mulch was spread, the tomatoes, beans and other veggies where planted in the center of the plot. A couple feet on the edges were reserved for raspberries and strawberries. Then Mekenzie got sick and by the time the operations were completed and she was back home, the planting season had passed. Goodbye to those would-b- e delicious berries and hello to a surprise of tender green startups. Despite warning from neighbors and friends that the volunteer plants would be worthless mutants, Luisa and Jake carefully nurtured the healthy, little green plants. "We didn't know what they we're," Luisa said. "I hoped they weren't zucchini. Could you imagine growing a couple hundred zucchini plants? But I knew they were something from the squash family. See PUMPKINS, C4 |