a few more berry thoughts

• today I think I found out why I've been at the road selling raspberries at the stand. You see, today I didn't start out at the stand, I started out in the field picking raspberries to sell at the stand. And I am awful at it. As in terribly slow. As is my 8.5 year old niece picked about as fast as I did and my sister picked twice as fast! Did you read that people? For every basket I filled she filled two!!!


• Monday brought some wonderful visitors to the stand. They were in their early twenties, hilariously giggly, out on a road trip and having a whale of a time. After crawling out of their car and rooting in the trunk for some shoes to wear they approached the stand with money in one hand and a big zip lock bag of cheerios in the other. After stating they definately wanted some of these delicious raspberries one of them (the marine biologist) asked through spouts of giggles, "can we milk your cow?!" (yes, there is a cow in the field beside the stand) Turns out they were riding the countryside looking for fresh milk to go with their cheerios. Unfortunately our cow is dry but I couldn't help but ask, "would you know what to do if I had said yes?" She said she had worked on a goat farm for years and thought she could probably figure it out. The chemical engineer asked if the cow was camera shy as they really wanted a picture with the girl. And then away they went, still laughing hysterically. What fun!


• Last Friday brought an incident not nearly as funny. Cara was playing in the van where I had parked it near me on the driveway. I'm not sure if Sam thought through the scenario or not but he went and locked and shut all the doors I had wide open. Which was all of them. And there was Cara, locked in teh van with my keys and my purse which held the spare key. Thankfully it was another cool, cloudy day or we would have probably been forced to smash in a window. We provided one customer with great entertainment as I stood there, "okay Cara, put your thumb under the lock and lift it up!" over and over again all with great actions and intonations. It just wasn't working as it is an older vehicle and the locks are quite tough to pull. So, there I went trotting to the house to call Steve to come from work to let us back in the van and let Cara out. Thankfully she was still calm about the whole thing and Steve was able to come. Let me tell you, I've been sure checking my keys/windows down situations a bit more carefully the last couple of days.


• Then there's just the other things. You know the ones you always have when you have kids around. Today Tyler went to pee in the field just like a farmer. Too bad for Cam, he was in the way and got pee on his shorts, socks and boots. It's one that would have been hilarious to see how it all came to be. They were playing by the digger. Was Tyler on the tracks trying to see how far he could go with Cam below trying to take measurements? Maybe Tyler was up on the bucket and Cam was trying to tell him if he was was clearing the sides? Who knows but if you can picture these two boys at all you can just imagine.

For Brody - The Berry Farm

So we've been spending some extra time in the berry field picking/selling raspberries this week. Delicious raspberries.

They don't get fresher than this! He doesn't even use the extra step of picking them off the bush with his fingers :) Just get in close enough, open wide, and let one juicy berry tumble in. (Although I noticed a few times he wasn't too worried about the ripeness factor - some berries were still awfully orange)
It's too bad that I was in a bit of a hurry to open the stand because these three were certainly not the only ones out picking. Dad, Mom, Les, Krista, Brian, Leanne, and a bunch of faithful young people were out there as well.

This is where I spent my day with customers of all kinds. Most kinds were delighted to stop by, interact with the kids and nibble (raspberry baked goods) and sip (fresh raspberry juice) on all the delicious stuff Krista brought along as well as pick up baskets and baskets of the "best raspberries in the valley." I'm not bragging, I'm just repeating what the repeat customers said over and over again ;) (Very happy repeat customers are some of the most fun customers to have, them and the elderly)

It's not all fun and games. It's hard, messy work too!

Some of us are great at multi-tasking. Les was holding up the bottom branches so the picker could get those berries as well. For those interested the two vertical "brushes" are I think quite flexible and they vibrate as well as slowly spin in a circle to drop the berries on conveyor belts waiting below.

The berries then make their way to the top of the picker. A fan blows the leaves out the back and then there's someone(s) at the end of the conveyor belt to pick out the bugs and "junk." There's my non-technical version. These berries are falling down into the barrel and will be made into juice or jam. Kayla and Leah also spent time up there on the chair Sam's sitting on and I think it is the most favored job on the farm right now!

Some of the other special things to do on a day like today... help be "banker" at the stand ;) have tractor rides in fields where other work is going on, play on Gramma's bouncy blow up water slide, eat all the special treats Gramma sets out, just be free to roam around on 10+ acres. The kids walk from road to the back fields and everywhere in between. Farm life might be the nicest way for kids to grow up. We (and they) are so blessed in this. Now to make sure we aren't taking it all for granted...

One of the other cool things about being on the farm is learning to "drive" (or at least steer) when you're just 4 years old. Cam was so proud of himself for steering from the back field to the house all by himself he thought he "should ask Grampa for money for turning all those corners!" Precious! Please note I am holding both boys on my lap and am still in charge of all foot pedals.

And as you can see, Brody, the strenuous work of watching Dad on the conveyor belt makes one big and buff! Wow! what a brother I have :) Love you, Brian, now breathe!

We missed you WI-ians or WI -ists... you pick, it's whatever you prefer. This post wasn't geared to make you sad but help you get a sense of what was going on. Love all four of you - lots!

ps. looking back I realize I didn't post a very good picture of the picker... maybe another day.

Just Like Daddy

Cody started it all with this stack of deck board cut off's.

"Whatcha making Cody?"

"Turkey barn!"
Which immediately sparked the imaginations of two of his siblings and together the three of them designed quite the turkey barn layout.

It kept getting bigger and better. None of Opa's neatly stacked wood was safe.

Not even the heaviest of the logs!

Go, Cam, go!!!

Uff da!

A pretty grand turkey barn if I ever saw one. :)

Anyone want to guess what Papa was framing up back home while we were on holidays?

When Cody went to bed that night he asked me, "how long till we go home to Papa?"

Imagination = wonderful hours of fun for kids!

Legal Fires

One of the wonderfully cozy things we did with Opa and Nana.

Home Again!

So thankful to have been brought safely home again.

It only takes one semi to carelessly put on his signal and start to move over to be reminded that there's not much we can do to keep ourselves safe on those busy highways. God has been so good, we (my mom, the kids and I) travelled a lot of pavement this past week and it really is so good to have been brought home safely!

Today's highlight, besides seeing Steve, was seeing this grizzly bear. Gramma spotted him on the side of the highway and backed up so we could get a better view. He was about 6 feet from the passenger side of van! That kind of moment squeezes my chest with awe of our amazing Creator.

It was the sprinkles on the cake-with-icing-extra-ice-cream-and-caramel-sauce-kind of week we were able to spend with Opa and Nana. Hope to share some more pictures of that next week. A few pictures to wade through first.

Ps. I had a good camera this time so no excuse there. Sure wish I knew how to use it well!

heard in the van the other day... Cara and Cody were on opposite sides of the back seat with a car seat between them!

I forget what the argument was about but it went mostly like this. did not, did too, did not, did too, Did Not, Did Too, Did Not, Did Too, DID NOT, DID TOO, DID NOT, DID TOO, DID NOT!!!!!!!!!!!, DID TOO!!!!!!!!!!

And then there was about 2 seconds of dead silence.

Cara: Cody?
Cody: Yes, Carwa?
Cara: You arwe my herwo.
Cody: Fanks, Cara!


You think they're picking up on the "a soft answer turns away wrath" instruction? :)

Some more remembering

Tonight the 3 oldest and I went to the library to take out a mountain of books. Before we could get in the doors I was convinced to first walk to the pond and look at the ducks. There was a mama mallard with her 9 little ducklings that hopped into the water the minute we got too close. There was also a line of roosting Canada geese. Cam walked up to them calling, "here lucie goosie, here lucie goosie." Mama goose must not have liked the well intentioned moniker cause she quickly stood up, spread out her mighty wings and beat the air a couple of times.

"Get away, Cam" I warned, "those geese can get a little mean and grumpy." (yup, I would know)

"And break your front toofs in half, right Mom?" Cam queried. And I had to laugh. I couldn't believe he would remember that. It's more than a year ago now. Apparently though, it's firmly settled in his mind. Be careful around geese. They can take out your front teeth.

Thankfully he didn't mention the last mother goose had a bit of help from my clumsy, stupid self. Hopefully that part of the story got lost in the maze of gray matter.

Now, if you haven't already read my post about the time I "fought" a goose and lost, you can read it here. But please, don't hold it against me :)

new friends

you know when you come across an afternoon and when you ponder the incredible blessings piled high over a 6 hour period and you wonder...

where did this story actually start?

Was it at the BBQ where Leah met her new friend or did it in a way start before that.

Last Friday night we went with our gang to my friend Heather & Richard's for a BBQ. Every kid on this end of the valley counts their place the best backyard ever to explore. So we were a little pumped at our house. (Side note: this is the same friend Heather who a couple months ago warned me one morning at Bible study to be dressed at 8:00 that night because her and my friend Laura were kidnapping me for the evening. A couple months ago = cold rainy days in which I was cooped up in the house with my dear children and as some of you can well empathize this kidnapping was a precious breath of delicous appetizers & copious bouts of laughter fresh air. Yup, I'm blessed with friends like that!) Anyway, back to Friday's bbq Heather had a neice visiting from a more eastern province and Cassandra and Leah clicked like bic pens. (Do bic pens click?)

Cassandra's one of those girls that if you could hand pick friends for your kids you'ld surely include her, she's a sweetheart like that and those two had so much fun that night Leah begged for the next three days to have Cassandra over to play some more before she boarded that plane and headed for home. So in a way, Tuesday afternoon's story started Friday night.

But in a way Tuesday afternoon started years ago. Long before I was even dreaming about being a mom. Way back to the days when we used to organize basketball games at the school gym on Friday nights. We knew Mom always had cake and if weather permitted a campfire for anyone and everyone to show up at to spend our Friday nights in good clean fun. The older I get the more I'm realizing what a huge blessing this was. Kids knew they were welcome and they knew they would always get fed something great.

So, when Leah asked for Cassandra over to play I knew without consulting my mom that we could invite her for the afternoon of fun planned at Gramps and Gramma's house and mom wouldn't blink an eye at one more kid added to the mix, one more kid to hand out snacks to. And so invite her we did.

Don't have a single picture of those hours of fun that had my mind sliding back to Friday nights of old but lets just say Gramma bought one of those blow up waterslides (you know the ones that run off an air compressor and act like a bouncy castle?) Tons of fun.

Then Cassandra came home with us, did the whirlwind supper that's Tuesday night and came vaulting.

The sprinklers weren't switched on so the sand was one dusty sandbox so we started our evening outside. What a beautiful evening it was!



Then we went inside and watched Leah practicing on the barrel


and on the horse.

And then Cassandra was allowed to take a turn.

Second time around the ring and she was already up on her knees. On Sparkle! I think she would agree she was a long way up but she sure didn't seem to mind.

Before we left and I got all nostalgic they thanked their ride with pats and carrots.

And that's the story of how Leah got a new friend and sent me spinning into a reminising mood. Sorry if you couldn't follow my logic or lack thereof.

Note to Parents

Cara would like you all to note a fabric reuseable bag is a wonderful fun time of gunny sack hopping. She is currently training for future olympic races.

She will petition for races with and without big baskets on the head.

And will sway popular opinion and judges in her favor everytime with a grin like that.