The years roll by but the activities stay generally the same. It wasn't too many years ago that the grape pickers were the kids who are leaving home. They too enjoyed the abundance of grapes and finding the biggest bunch. This group did not disappoint and required almost no reminding to work. In fact, I had to stop them after they had picked a box more than I planned on. There's always a lot more grapes than I have energy or desire to do when we get home.
We live in a valley of abundance. Thanks to visionary water projects there is little that can't be grown here. I love harvesting.
Merle loves the grapes. And the other things we purchased that day pears, peaches, and apples. Its all delicious and low enough for him to reach right now.
Harvest brings out the need for helpers. Watching my kids learn to work together and gain self-confidence from their shared experience makes my heart swell.
At home they were quick to ask for a movie. After a minor disagreement about what movie would be entertaining they got to work. I think we got about 40 half gallons of juice. We always have grape juice with pizza. It's a favorite.
In conjunction with all the canning is the bi-annual case lot sale. I'm thankful for the teaching to store what we need and use what we store. We are working to put everything in it's place and as always wrestling with how much is enough.
Although I was bone tired at the end of a 10 plus hour day of canning I'm just thankful. I worked with Livy making fruit cocktail, she lit the stove and helped with the fruit prep. She did really well. Aliza processed the first day of grape juice. Millie came and helped with laundry and house clean-up. Afton and Bruce did the same at grandma Saunders house. They are learning, they need the knowledge and skills just like the older kids did and do. I always remember the first year being married to Greg and him insisting we can grape juice. I had never done that but we went to a dusty little grape patch and picked and made juice. Since then I have found better grape patches and some years we don't do the juice. It's purely an extra, but it feels so good to have what we need and like to have our shelves full and know that our hands did the work. Yes, Costco is probably cheaper but right now for this season learning to care for ourselves and working together is so much more important.
The corn harvest rolls on. Thankfully Greg drove so I could can at home. The older kids diligently worked putting up wire fence for cows coming very soon. There is nothing like some good outside time to curb some teen attitude. Maybe that's a key reason we can have so many kids there is plenty to keep them busy?
I ponder often while driving truck back and forth if we are doing the right things, if we are focused on the right areas of what life has to offer. Yet I know from study of history hero's are not made from life's that were easy, people that achieved great and rare feats were not coddled along. Their lives were tough, they were expected to hard things from very young ages. So we persist in hard and pray that it turns out ok. We are blessed life is good.
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