Farmer Arti

I love long weekends. Having four days off this week really rejuvenated me. I got so much done around the house and on my to-do list. I even got to spend an evening with my good friend Kim, who I haven't seen in quite some time. Plus, this weekend was the Potato Harvest at the Browns. Every year they get together and harvest their rows of potatoes. All the Brown children and their kids gather to pick, sort, and eat potatoes. I was around this year, so I was able to take part in the tradition. Saturday morning we got up and gathered out at the Otten's dairy to start the harvest. We were armed with 5 gallon buckets and went to work. We didn't have to pull them out of the ground (in case you were wondering). One son was on a tractor with an attachment that uprooted the potatoes so we just had to pick them up. At one point, the oldest son Todd asked me if I had ever driven a loader. Of course I said no, so he insisted on me learning to drive one. It was crazy fun and very simple. It may not sound like a very big deal, but I had a great time. After we picked, we sorted the potatoes into bags with some to keep and some to sell at the Farmer's Market here in town. Most of the big bags were called for before we even finished bagging them. We also had a big lunch with the family where we consumed mass quantities of homemade French fries.
All weekend I joked with my friend Lacey that her family is slowly changing me and helping with what I call "life experiences." You'd never guess from the girl I was in high school that I would know how to drive a loader (that includes bucket operation), retrieve milk from a milk tank (and drink it raw), be fine with elk and deer meat in the kitchen (one of the brothers brought his meat so he could smoke it into jerky), and contemplate that the life of a farmer is not nearly what I once thought it might be. Man, I've shown a lot of growth, and I owe it all to the Browns.
Anyway, the weekend was a blast, and I haven't even thought about school for this next week. I guess I better get on that :)

Below are some pictures by way of proof of me driving a tractor, excuse me, a loader, and above is a slide show of pictures from this weekend and from the NAMI Walk (which was a great success by the way). A group picture from the walk is on its way.