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!