Quiet Gardens, Raging Seas Part Deux
A String of Nevil Family MomentsArchive for Cool Stuff
My First Time as a Parent Helper!
Ok, you’re right, I said I had no time for this. But, it’s within the norm…sorta. (And the kiddos are finally in bed!) Today, I went on a fieldtrip with Cooper’s school to Terry’s Berries off the River Road in Puyallup.
Terry's Berries in Puyallup, WA
It was so much fun! I know this doesn’t sound like a big deal, but to me, it was a blast. It is a fully organic farm. They have everything you can imagine there; cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, all sorts of berries, apples, pumpkins, corn, green beans, carrots, potatoes, etc!
They had a guy who called himself Farmer John running the tour for us today. All his talking to the kids brought to my attention that these days, kids probably don’t know that food comes from farms-not grocery stores! So it was really fun to see and hear the kids as they realized that food comes from the earth.
That hilarious video is of the kids laughing as the little tractor pulled them along on the tour. So cute!
Bee Hives!
We learned about bees and how important their job is for plants like raspberries and apples.
Mmmmm...raspberries
We got to pick and eat raspberries too! We couldn’t believe how many raspberries were left there too. Quite a lot and they were so sweet and juicy!
Farmer John with a massive purpleish red carrot
But probably my favorite part was learning all about the carrots! Ok, fun filled facts about carrots from Farmer John: carrots are not just orange. In fact, the carrot originated from Afghanistan. It migrated throughout Europe as it gained popularity as a food. It came in all kinds of colors: red, purple, yellow, white and orange. Eventually, the carrot made it to the Netherlands and turned up orange. The King apparently thought it was an omen to them that the Netherlands was the best country EVER, so he made a decree that only orange carrots could be planted and grown. Hence, why orange carrots are the mainstream. Isn’t that neat? So fascinating!
Anyway, after that we went and fed the chickens. I got a lesson at this point too because I seriously thought chickens ate like corn and bugs and maybe bread. Well, did you know that chickens like lettuce and kale and cabbage and especially broccoli?
The chickens actually spotted us walking towards their coop a long ways off. They all started running over and it was cracking me up. I know…it doesn’t take much.
Pardon my squeaky commentary…but it was REALLY amusing to me ok? Ok. The one chicken who was lose was on the other side of the fence and wasn’t exactly bright enough to figure out that we were throwing the food over the fence…so really he had the best seat in the house if he wouldn’t have been so concerned about trying to figure how to get in with the other chickens! HA!
In the end, Cooper came home with 4 carrots, 3 apples and cute little pumpkin. Here’s our spoils for the day.
Pretty Produce!
It was a really fun day today and when I got home…I decided that maybe I shouldn’t blow Jeremy off when he says he’d like to own some land so that we could have a small farm. Hmmm….he he he he he!
Go to the flickr site to see the complete gammant of pictures from our fun morning at the farm!
Did I mention it was pretty cold this morning? Here's Coop, proud of his pumpkin and bundled up with Daddy's skull cap on!
A Little News and a Couple Fun Stories…
It is 4 am right now..I should really get to bed but just wanted to say that I talked to Jeremy just now! A big shout out to the Maine Troop Greeters organization! Because of you I got to talk to my hubby for an entire hour almost! Thank you for taking care of our soldiers!
Jeremy flew out of Boeing Field around 10 and they landed in Maine 4 hours later. Now he is off to Germany, which he said will be about a 6 hour flight. He told me a couple of funny stories.
When they were at McChord AFB here in town, they were sitting around eating MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) and one of the guys walked over and sat down. The guy had like 4 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. All the guys looked at him like “dude! what’s up? where did you get those?” and he said “some lady over there is just handing them out”. So of course, all the guys get up to go see what is going on. There was a room the size of my living room apparently, that was full from floor to ceiling, wall to wall, of nothing but Girl Scout cookies and a lady was handing them out to the guys! HA! So Jeremy was quite thrilled with his “couple” of boxes of Somoas and Thin Mints!
When they were on the plane, they had their weapons with them and Jeremy said it was so funny hearing the flight attendants tell them how to situate their weapons. He said at one point they announced “If you have a large machine gun and need us to store it, we have a closet we can put it in” ha ha ha ha! Too weird to hear THAT on a plane! Parents, Jeremy had beef tips and veggies with a salad for dinner. So he’s well fed and well taken care of. He said that the flight was good and he slept pretty much the whole time.
When they got off the plane in Maine, Jeremy and a few guys were the first off. He said that as they were walking, several older gentlemen walked towards them saying “there they are!” and came up to them. They were wearing their Viet Nam hats, etc. They shook the guys hands and said thank you and told them where they could go and what was available. I guess this group, the Maine Troop Greeters, had a little cell phone area set up with Verizon phones so that the guys could call home-for free! That is how Jeremy got to call and talk to me! YAY!
Jeremy let me know that he would try to talk to me again when he gets to Germany. So what is 6 hours from 4 am? 10 am? Ok..I’ve gotta be ready to catch him! Hopefully he can call. I think they’ll be on an AFB over there, not at the commercial airport in Frankfurt or anything like that. I only sent Jeremy with one phone card and now I’m thinking that was so dumb! I hope he can buy more once he gets to a couple of those bases he’ll be at in this transition time. If you guys think of it, mail Jer a phone card! I think he might get to use them more than we thought. I’m holding out hope at least!
Ok, I need to get some sleep before it’s time to get up with the kids. Thanks for all your love and support everyone!
