Friday, October 26, 2007

Fall time

We had a beautiful fall day yesterday--in the 60s. So we FINALLY went out and tackled all those leaves that have been invading our yard. We only did the front and one side of the house, but managed to fill up about 15 bags. WOW! The sad thing is that our back yard and the other side are much worse. Hopefully we'll get another nice day to get it all done before it....snows. Bryce was a great helper filling up the bags. Abbi and Cambria did their share by picking up all the sticks and branches to add to our fire pit. Here they are sitting on our back steps--so cute!

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Beet Harvest

It's beet harvest time again, and Rick is busy driving truck. It seems like our whole lives get just a little "off" during harvest, which is why it has been so long since I posted last. Plus, we seemed to all get hit with some kind of bug going from one kid, to the next, and on to me--somehow Rick missed getting this bug. I told him it was because he has been gone for driving truck and hasn't had to deal with all the kid snot. HAHA!!! He is so blessed!
Anyway, I took Cambria out yesterday (while the other two were in school) to spend time with Daddy on the beet truck. Here is a picture of Rick's truck full of beets.
Then on to the piler. If you are not familiar with what is involved with harvesting beets (if you remember watching Sesame Street---way long ago--you might remember the song: "Beet-beet, sugar, beet-beet, sugar, beet- beet" and they showed the process then), then here is a summed up version. You pull up the beets from the field with a lifter (okay, don't laugh at me those of you who know all the technical terms/equipment--I'm just keeping it simple), and they are loaded into the truck. Then you bring your truck to the piler where you drive on a scale (they weigh your load), then you dump your beets--and the extra dirt from your field is separated from the beets, and then dumped back into your truck. They weigh the dirt that is dumped back in to know what the actual weight of the beets is. Then you do it all over again. In this picture, we are sitting at the piler waiting for our turn. You can see two trucks, one on either side. And look at that pile of beets!!
At the field, Cambria got to "help" drive the tractor with Kurt (our friend and church member who Rick works for) lifting the beets out of the field, while the beets are being loaded into the truck. She had so much fun! However, on the drive back to the piler, she fell asleep--maybe she had too much fun.
It's been a great harvest so far--with only a few more days to go (weather permitting). Speaking of weather, if it gets too warm or cold (usually around 60 or freezing), then they have to stop. Also if it's too wet from rain. We have had to stop for it being too warm and too wet so far this year.

Well, that is a summary of our life right now. It's all about the beets...