Tired, but Satisfied

Does anyone remember the post I wrote a few months ago about planting potatoes?

Well, today was the culmination of that day - and the days following when we hilled and watered. Hubby was at work, but 3 of my 5 kids, their spouses and children, came out and harvested with me.

We had planted almost 400 hills of potatoes.....8 rows. In only a few hours, we had 6 1/2 rows dug up and stored in our newly cleaned out root cellar.

This root cellar is a treasure - but we have not used it because it did not have a door on it. My youngest son (20 yrs) has spent the last couple weeks building a structure over the cement stairs so we could use the cellar. It is not quite finished, but it is sufficient for the temperatures we are getting currently. For a pictoral story of the building of the cellar door, go to my photo blog - day one of the construction was Sept 13.

Anyway, thanks to Daniel - who not only built the structure, but cleaned out the old, dried up potatoes and other junk that was down there - we can now store a large amount of root vegetables.

I am tired and sore tonight....I weilded a shovel for one whole row, crawled along on my knees, digging with my hands for awhile, and then bent down and picked up the potatoes to be transferred to the cellar. As well, I provided a hearty meal for my workers at lunch time, cared for babies, and hauled tools around. For sure, I did not do nearly as much work as my sons and daughters, but they probably would not have let me, anyway.

I am tired and a little sore tonight, but OH, it feels good to be tired because of hard work!

It also feels good to have reaped the rewards of our summer's hard work.

Did I mention that my little girls (ages 6, 8 & 9) also worked steadily and hard?

I am so blessed to have such a great family!

Here are the potatoes along one side of the cellar:







Many of the potatoes were very large, as shown here, compared to the toe of my shoe:

Do you know there was not ONE potatoe with 'scabs' on them? I was amazed, since it is quite common to find blemished potatoes.

Here are some of my wonderful family, working hard:

In other news....I am doing quite well this week as far as eating is concerned. As long as I don't completely fall off the wagon, I should show a loss again next Wednesday. There is a birthday party tomorrow - which means someone else cooking for me AND birthday cake....probably my favorite kind, too, since my son and I share this preference.

I ate too much lasagna for lunch today - but I hope the extra activity made up for it. That is my only 'infraction' of the week, however. Wednesday will tell the tale.