Camping

Spending the days at the farm are special.  There's always a lot of work to do and work shared is very, very pleasant.  Seeing as our kids are quite a bit bigger, I found it easier for our family to spend a few weeks on the farm. 

You know, as long as Gramma's feeding them breakfast and all that!

Every time we headed home, though, we had a van full of blankets, pillows and clothes.

But thankfully the clothes were mostly clean.  Usually it went like this... get dressed in the morning, get filthy all day, get cleaned up and into pj's at night, get clothes into the washer and dryer, repeat!!! Didn't have to spend much time deciding what to wear :)

Broken

So Gramma puts up with a LOT in berry season!! She has kids and adults tromping through her house all day long asking for this and that, cookies and bandaids, containers and bags for collecting fruit, etc. etc.  Gramma's kitchen is also the berry farm chuck wagon and so she works hard putting out breakfast (for our kids) lunch and supper.  Every day.  For lots of people.

Gramma has to put up with a lot.

There was a novel that got brought outside to be enjoyed and then left where it got wet when the sprinkler went on and the reader moved on to other exciting adventures.

There also was a bowl that was on it's way out to one of the forts to be a collection container for who knows what. 

I was minding the stand during one of the slower days and Gramma was gone visiting out of the country.  I had made my way up the driveway and over the lawn to check on some noisy kids when Cam happened to see me coming his way. He just thought it might be wise to mention that he had broken a bowl.  A little while ago.  You know, a small after thought, just in case I thought it might need to get cleaned up.

Are you kidding me already?? How did he not think it was appropriate to come running to get me the minute this thing hit the floor!!  I'll just mention that this is right in front of the back door so any unsuspecting person heading in with bare feet would have put all kinds of slices into their soles!

That's a corel soup bowl, by the way.... you know, just in case you didn't recognize it.

Snuggles and Sqeezes

Sure were glad when we had time to just enjoy this tiny bit of sweetness!!!

Standing

I signed up with a phone for berry season because there are so many reasons to be connected while in the busiest time.  Steve started calling or texting just to say hi and see how things were going.  The first time he phoned he asked me, "are you standing"?  I quickly sat down, unsure of what kind of news was going to follow that question!

But what he meant was, was I tending the road side stand. :) I was there often enough but I never did get completely used to the question or text, "you standing?"

For the first few weeks, "standing" was a completely crazy busy and totally fun place to be.  Once it slowed down, the days started to feel a bit longer!  Cara started coming to sit and play Uno.

One windy day, as I started to deal out cards, she advised me to just put her cards up her "short sleeves" to keep them from flying away :)

 

Day on the farm

For the last few years we've had some great visitors come by near the end of the season.  The boys were convinced that their friends would enjoy a elaborate croquet course so they added tunnels and jumps.  They spent the whole morning planning and setting it up.

A couple great ladies were willing to give it a go and it was pretty sweet to hear the boys coaching and cheering them on! 

 

After supper

It didn't happen very often this year but every once in a while we head out to the field as a family after supper.  It's not like everyone is excited about it, but it is a pretty time to pick!

I don't know how she does it but Leah picks almost twice as fast as me!

Always animals

Probably Leah's greatest joy of being on the farm is having all the animals to fuss over.  She was even willing to go catch one of the chickens that was free ranging about so that Gramma could give it a little doctoring.

I took great joy in getting this picture after Leah was in bed.  Gramma has this fluffy cat that hides all day and only comes out for some loving in the early morning and night.  Leah would have snuggled the cat, I stayed as far away as I could while still looking close. :)  Nope, she won't be getting any house animals here in town any time soon!

Daily Visit

There are lots of things about farming and berry season that cannot be predicted but one thing is for sure, if Opa and Oma are in town Opa will be by at least once a day.  And there are lots of great grandkids to hang on his truck and shower him with love and nonsense. 

Driver's Ed

The one thing about having tons of room to run around is that often there is something that's needed on the opposite end of the farm and it isn't always fun, or possible, to make deliveries or pick ups on the bike.  One day, Leah and I went to go get the blue berries that she had picked for our freezer.  We didn't actually have Gramps' permission so I told her that she had to sit on my lap to drive so I could reach the pedals if necessary.  On the way out back I remembered that I probably was her age when I started driving Gramps' blazer for picking sweet corn. 

You know how it goes with grand kids... they have it WAY easier.  :)  Gramps didn't seem too worried about Leah driving his truck but I think I'm confident enough in her driving that I would even let her take the van out back if needed. 

With a speed limit of 20, of course ;)

Game Over

The nieces and nephews love to tease Auntie Shelly and she gives it right back! Her ongoing threat is that if they bug her she'll throw them in Gramma's pond.  Well, one morning she decided Cody needed to go in.

He only got dipped not tossed but it was enough of a lesson that he'll think twice before teasing Auntie Shelly again!

Canada Day Hike

Canada Day was  a bit quieter at the stand so we took the chance to leave a bit early.  We thought to make a special treat of it, stop by KFC, eat picnic style and then quickly do a hike.  I wasn't maybe the most cheerful or willing hiker to leave the parking lot at 7.  In my Mom eyes that was a bit late to start.  Still, I'm thankful for this picture...

And for the bit of time we had to enjoy the gorgeously quiet lake.

And it's always good to have a rock throwing contest.

Leah's always showering love on this dog.  Missy didn't mind posing in a Canada Day hat, even if it was pretty battered.

Swimming

We were so thankful for the generosity of Mr. & Mrs. Les for inviting us to cool off and be refreshed in their lovely pool on a few of the very hot days! Sam captured our collective cannon ball :)  All 10 or so of us.

Never Bored

Did you know, Mr. Bosman, that if you get tired of riding the skelters the normal way that this way works almost as good.... after you figure out how to coordinate it properly, that is!!

Birthday

This dear, dear boy's birthday was pushed a little to the side! Already before the harvest season we had talked about how he would probably not be able to have a birthday party with his friends while we were doing berries and how we would try to do something in July.  The night before his birthday Steve and I warned him that actually we hadn't even had time to get him presents.  He shrugged his shoulders so acceptingly and peered up at us hopefully, "maybe in July?" he suggested.  He sure did love the ice cream cake Auntie Krista went to town for with her brand new baby. And he didn't mind at all that the day of his birthday slowed just enough for Steve to sneak off to town to buy a couple gifts! And now he's excitedly counting down the sleeps till we have his friends over to play in 2 more sleeps. :)

Tired

All the guys worked SO HARD.  They were working a crazy amount of hours in a day doing both berry harvest and regular construction work  (or in Dad's case only berry work) in the very hot sun.  Steve's a hard worker but always comes home willing to help if needed. This night he was completely finished.  I can't imagine how tired he was to fall asleep 8 feet shy of the trailer door! 

Soccer

We also got to finish off a very fun soccer season in the middle of the craziness.  Sam had great coaches and a  lot of fun with his team mates.  Cam also had a fantastic coach but Auntie Krista has his last game pictures.

Entertainment

Sometimes customers bring the best entertainment of the day. The boys quite enjoyed having this truck come on the yard a couple days in a row!  When they asked if they could sit inside the back the sheriffs quickly assured them the back was gross and only for bad guys and they NEVER wanted to sit back there! They offered them the front seat instead :)

 

A Big (Enough) Scare

Cam gave us quite the scare one evening when he came crying back to the house with a banged up face and without the motor bike he had left with.  The main concern with the bump on his head was that he absolutely couldn't remember what had happened. He started to panic when he couldn't remember and was starting to act a little scary so we beat a quick path over to the ER.  They are such a great group there and they took it VERY seriously.  I was very thankful for it because I wasn't so sure he was ok either.  Mostly not knowing what had actually happened left for a bit of room for my imagination to come up with some scary enough scenarios.  They let him a sleep and they did some xrays but soon enough he started to come around, whine about being hungry and anxious to go home. He also started to remember bits of what happened shortly before he crashed and after he came to again.  We know he wasn't going super fast and that he did have a full face helmet on (he won't ever leave the yard without doing the chin strap again!) but we still don't know exactly what really happened.

He spent the next couple of days with a good head ache and spending lots of time resting inside but thankfully tomorrow will already be a month ago that it happened and we haven't seen any side affects.

He also hasn't been willing to get back on his "horse" yet.  We'll see how long it takes.

Freezing Raspberries

One of the big jobs the kids helped with was freezing many, many raspberries.  More raspberries than fit in the big flash freezer.  It was hilarious watching Cody trying to get the baskets out without cracking his ribs or dumping berries.  :)

New arrival

Absolutely delighted and thankful for the safe arrival of a precious cousin!!!

End of Year Tradition

They might have had celebratory cake and juice after this year's closing program but the kids insisted it wouldn't be right to not end the night at Timmy's.

Boxes

And speaking of boxes if we have anything in abundance during berry season, besides berries, it's boxes! So, Cam and Chelsie got right to work while the boxes were stacking up upstairs.  Welcome to our fort!

School Can't be Done!

And it wasn't quite done yet but all their stuff was already coming home.  So they found themselves some cardboard boxes and made desks to store all their stuff and do some work at.

Snakes

And Leah's trip to the crazy reptile rescue center.  She loved every minute of it.  Anyone surprised? Even snakes, lizards and tarantulas fit in the animal category :)

Hiking

There were plenty of field trips to go on at the end of the year.
Library, Safeway and the Heron Reserve one day and a second gorgeous day at the beach for sand castles with Cara and Cody.
A bee field trip, a wetlands trip and also sand castle day with Cam.
But, selfishly, even with a trip to Fort Langley thrown in, my favorite field trip was Sam's hiking trip.

 

Reading

Pretty fun to find one willing reader and two willing listeners.