It seems that every day has been busy lately. But Saturday, we were really busy! In the morning, after chores, we went to the funeral of our friend, Jim, who had been suffering from Alzheimer’s for quite a while. It was very sad. But just as soon as it was over, we had to dash home and grab a birthday present and card for our granddaughter, Melanie, who had just turned two.
Melanie and sister, Delilah, really enjoyed the day, the gifts and the visitors, including aunts, uncles, nephews, and nieces, plus grandparents. It was so much fun watching her squeal and laugh, opening all her presents. But I think the most fun was when Grandma Karla got down the bubble machine and set it to making bubbles!
After we’d partied for a while, eating great food and cake, we grabbed Bill and his family, who were coming to our place to pick potatoes before dark. It gets dark so fast these days! Will had been toying with the idea of using the middle buster (the little plow that throws dirt both ways) to dig potatoes but we really didn’t know if it would work or cut up the potatoes. And, due to the crazy weather, we didn’t know if we’d even have decent enough potatoes to pick. Well, he and Bill hooked up the middle buster and we all headed out to the Wolf Garden.
I think we all held our breath as Will lined up, straddling the first potato row. Then we started seeing nice potatoes rolling into the furrow. Not a single cut or smashed one. And there were plenty of them too! I think I was the most excited of all. I drove along the row with netted onion sacks and two crates in the back of the golf cart. The potato pickers carried buckets and busily picked potatoes and dumped them into the sacks I held open. We finished around 5 o’clock, having something like six crates, two big bags and a couple of buckets full of very nice potatoes! I think it was our best potato harvest yet, and even more blessed, due to the crazy weather we had this summer and not being able to water that garden once. I mean most of them were the size of store-bought bakers. One Ava found was huge and knobby. The biggest potato I have ever seen. And the weirdest too.
They went home with two big bags, two crates and a smaller bag full of potatoes. (Oh, Will tried the middle buster on the carrots so they could take carrots home too.) They were able to take about 2 gallons of carrots home too. Will didn’t dig all the carrots as we already have five crates plus of potatoes sitting in the entryway and bathroom, ready to put somewhere.
There are still a lot of tomatoes I’m trying madly to get canned up. (I did send one crate of tomatoes home with Bill and the family.) I was sure happy to have such a happy, enthusiastic crew of potato harvesters. Grandkids, Mason and Ava, were right in there, busy as beavers, making us very proud. — Jackie
Wonderful looking potato s!Alzheimers,what wicked disease for so many. Friend is at peace. Still have 2/3 rds of the potatoes left to dig. Hope to get at them before the rain s end of the week. Tops are just starting to loose their green. Last of the small crop of cabbage are in kraut. Wonderful crisp sweet flavor cabbage. Bubbles and children equal laughter and good time s! So happy for the family all in attendance! You are blessed. Crops being plowed under..??! NOT right. Farm workers need the income! What a troubling time we are living Praise The Lord for the harvest we are given. Stay warm! The fall chill is here!
Dear Jackie,
What a wonderful party. I loved the bubbles as much as your babies. And I am envious of all those beautiful potatoes. So sad about your friend. My younger sister has early onset Alzheimer’s and is in a nursing home. But she is happy and not sad. That is important for her last days. Be thankful for our health and good times together that we have. Staying busy is good too. I went to an Amish farm today for cabbage. I will make some more sour kraut for this winter. I am older than dirt, but I try to stay busy and helpful for others.
Don’t you just love days when the whole family gets together for a fun celebration. I would not mind a bubble machine myself, but my family would think “she’s gone around the bend”. Taters are awesome, seeing a lot of tater soup this winter.
Oh, my, what a day! My sympathy to you in the passing of your friend. And yet what joy in being able to share in the happiness of family, especially the little ones. Full circle of life.
The potatoes look wonderful! I remember my Dad used to use a plow of some kind to turn over the rows so my Sis, Mom & I would pick them up.
Hope you got some rest Sunday!
A little rest, yes. But I also canned more tomato sauce. I don’t want any to go to waste and I’m feeling unsettled at everything that’s been going on. Florida and California tomato growers plowing under thousands of acres of tomatoes for lack of people to pick them, then the tariffs on Mexican tomatoes. There are dozens of tomato-based products at the store that are going to shoot skyward, from catsup to pizzas.
When you roast your tomatoes in the oven, do you seed them afterward before you make your sauce? Also, how long do you roast?
Super jealous. Potato harvest was very poor. Think it was in a low spot and with all the rain, did not produce well. Oh well, there is always next year!
Thank God for next year! Yep, our corn sure suffered big time. But our potatoes did very well.
Those potatoes look amazing! You are sure blessed with the adorable grandkids! I love that bubble machine 😊
we do have such wonderful grandkids! Bubbles have always been my “thing”. I’ve loved them since I was a child.
So glad you had such a great, productive and fun Saturday. Those grandchildren are growing so fast and look so happy. The potatoes are gems. Congratulations on all those garden vegetables. My late husband was a gardener plus. I always said he could grow rocks. Me-not so much. The try but am seriously considering buying at farmers markets in bulk and then canning, as I still can what I can get my hands on.
We are so blessed, in so many ways, the adult children, grandchildren, our homestead and our crops. We work hard on our homestead but are amply rewarded for sure. Any food you can grow or buy reasonably and can up or put up is definitely a huge thing with today’s increasing prices.
Mine don’t look that good, so it’s proof that ‘mo-poo-poo’ works wonders!
Yes, “mo poo poo” is our homestead motto, for sure. It’ll cure just about any soil. Just keep at it and yours will look great too.
You just cannot beat home grown taters. We don’t plant near as many as you do so we (read: better half) hand dig them. Regardless, the harvested crop cannot be beat.
Before I convinced better half to plant taters, we garnered a 25 lb bag (at a very, very reasonable prices) from an last-of-season farmer’s market in WI (along with some Delicata squash). I do think that sold better half on growing our own.
Carrots eh they are okay raw with a good dipping sauce lol. To each her own as I like to say.
The b-day event looked like a great time. Gotta enjoy those toddler years when there is so much new and exciting for the kids.
Yep, it’s so much fun watching those youngsters squealing and getting excited about the smallest thing, even the wrapping paper! We love growing potatoes…and, darned it, about everything else. Obviously!!
We sure weren’t expecting such nice potatoes after such a crazy weather summer. So, when Will plowed them up, it was like a miracle!!
What a fun and successful day!
And we’re still in awe of all those potatoes!! I was just thinking of all the ways to cook them up. Boy, I think there are millions!!