Here are my excuses:
I had a post started for James to write because it was all about the things we were spraying and the things he'd bought for whatever reason. Remember the poll? ...see, it's been awhile. I figured it was time for another James's Corner, so I'd been waiting on him to detail it out, because he knows more on that stuff than I do. I did get him to start it, but that obviously didn't get finished. Hopefully, maybe soon?
As a week past that I hadn't posted anything and James hadn't finished up his post, I thought I'd just skip it and come back, but for the next few nights I was just too tired to blog or be creative, so it didn't happen.
After a few more days, the idea of my brother, Cory, coming out was in the air and of course that meant the house needed cleaning up quite a bit. There were no spare moments to blog. (if you're counting, that was my third excuse)
More days past and Rachel heard of the news and she wanted to come with, but it would have to be even sooner than Cory was thinking he'd come. SOUNDS GOOD, right? Except that meant less time to get things prepared for them to arrive. Again, staying on top of the weeds and runners and cleaning the house, there were no spare moments to blog.
Then, just a few more excuses, they arrived. So of course I was spending all the moments I could to be with them and showing them around and going to NYC and on a boat tour, doing all sorts of things that would be great ideas for blogging, but... since they were here, I wanted to spend as much time as I could, especially with Rachel because she was only staying a week.
My last and 6th excuse is that, which I am happy to announce, THE STRAWBERRIES ARE RIPENING! ...so with Cor and Rach being here, helping us pick as much as we could, while enjoying activities in the area, there were no spare moments to blog.
Alas, Rachel has returned home, Cory is still here, but resting, and picked berries are mostly sold, so NOW, after a lovely warm refreshing shower, I have a spare moment to blog.
...with a spare moment*, it is very hard to choose what to blog about. How about a recap?
Runners have been 'running' crazily and they never stop, no matter how many we clip off. We've been clipping them for about oh, three weeks, along with pulling weeds - though I must thankfully add, that there are WAY LESS weeds this year than last!
I ate the first strawberry about 2 weeks ago. We sold our first batch of 16 quarts at that same time. Since then, we've picked and sold at least 1,000 quarts - but more on that later.
During Rachel's stay here and Cory's first week, we did a lot of things other than work in the fields. For the most part we tried to work in the field most mornings and evenings - sometimes not at all due to rain.
James, Me, Rachel, Ed (Cory is taking this picture)
We went to Lake Ontario, which was fun, but unfortunately mostly cloudy, but still mostly fun!
...and yes Rachel and I even made a train going down the slide!
We went to, well I don't know what it's call, but it's a public place that a lot of people don't know about, so it's really nice. Beautiful waterfall which falls into a swimming hole that the creek runs through!
Rachel and I went shopping, well we went to try on cute clothes. It was so much fun, yet so, tiring! We tried on a total of 82 outfits, in three hours, in just 3 stores! ...like I said, fun and tiring. We could try on so much more stuff, no matter what it costs, since we weren't buying anything anyways. Here, look at SOME of what great and strange things we found:
The dressing room was like that before we got there... promise.
We went to NEW YORK CITY, it was a first for all of us, and what a first it was! I have to say, I'd always thought of it to be bigger than it was. I mean, trust me, we got lost our fair share of times and walking over the several mile long Manhattan Bridge was big enough. But the buildings, I thought they'd be bigger. It was a lot of fun, to say the least!
These are our New York Faces!
NYC from a distance, the weather cleared up when we needed it to!
As I mentioned, the Manhattan Bridge was big enough, or should I say, just a little bit too long?
While we were in NYC we:
Went to Ellis Island
Went to the Statue Of Liberty
Walked through Central Park
Ate Pizza
Yes, James is present, just behing Cory's head.
Took a bus and subway*
*subway not photoed
Rachel and I also had our fair share of these:
Last but not least, the other notable thing we did was take a 2- hour long boat tour in Alexandria Bay. James and I went up here last August, but just went to Bolt Castle, not the tour. Remember this post?
Our Ferry
Funny story: This man owned both islands. Left is of Canada and the right one is the US. He states when he is annoyed of his family, "I'm grabbing a six pack and whistling for the dog, leaving the family and going to another country."
IN STRAWBERRY NEWS:
In short, We have picked hundreds and sold hundreds. It's amazing that at just the right time we have people wanting strawberries, whom we hadn't known even days prior to needing to sell any. I'd call that a God thing! We just aren't prepared to head to NYC yet, but there have been 699 quarts record of being sold, but let me assure you, there HAD to have been more, plus we've eaten our share as well.
Today we attended our first Farmers Market. This one is located in Watertown, just 20 minutes from here. We didn't have a clue as to how we'd do, but we sold all but 14 quarts!!!! We didn't know people would want shopping bags, so we used what we had and asked a neighboring stand for a few, thinking that it would get us by. WRONG. I had to go 20 minutes up the road in search of plastic bags. I ended up emptying out a Walgreen's bin of recyclable shopping bags. I wish I had a picture of it, but I just had to get back to the stand! forgot my camera. I am bummed about that because you never get a first time, come around again, but don't worry, we'll be there next week and I'll be sure to take pictures of it! Did I mention, that I love selling people lovely looking berries and having them come twice because they ate the ones they bought as they walked through the market and needed more to take home?! ...because I do love it!
I think of ALL the pictures that have been captured in the last couple of weeks, this is my favorite and I shall leave you with that.
*spare moment = 3 hours...
...oh and if you DID, in fact believe me about the mess in the fitting room, you are very trusting, because it was in fact quite a mess to clean up ...maybe that's why it was so exhausting?
