The Yoder Family: October 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008

Yes! Lunch is in the oven, and now my official answer to anyone who asks is that lunch is on the way. So it's a couple hours late. I don't know when breakfast was, I wasn't here. I was getting jug caps about 20 miles from here. Sigh.

It's a lovely, bright fall day here. The walnut huller has been in near constant operation since sun up this morning. A short while ago a semi truck rolled in to take away about 20,000 pounds of the ones we've hulled previously. Needless to say many of the family are engaged in walnut work one way or another---hulling or loading, or in the case of the littlest people simply watching, which then necessitates big sisters' watchful eyes.

The traffic in and out of this place today is worse than a city street! I've often joked we need our own traffic cop.

Black walnut season officially ends at the end of the day tomorrow.

Wednesday morning I woke up with a sort of dread, knowing there were about 40 heads of cabbage to make into sauerkraut. In itself, that project wasn't that big of deal. It was that project coupled with so many others made the thought a little overwhelming. Enter my 3 daughters who enthusiastically volunteered to go over to the neighbor's and grate the cabbage so I could stay at home and get school done with the little boys.

They were back so soon, I figured they'd come back for something they'd forgotten! Audrey then proceeded to weigh and salt cabbage (as you can see by the pictures below). Boy, am I glad that's done!!

Later that same day, I found myself needing to go make a delivery in town. Normally Maria goes with me, but she volunteered to stay home to help out as needed. Logan was chisel plowing up at another farm; Blake was mowing hay for someone else; Paul was an hour or two away tending to farm business; and Josh had gone to pick up Logan. That left Maria and the little boys to tend the walnut huller. She got a few lessons in maintaining composure under stress as 3 big truck loads of nuts arrived in rapid succession AND the walnut huller kept plugging up. I'm sure she was glad to see the boys get back!

Audrey told me as she was wiping down the last sauerkraut jar that we'd gotten no less than 23 phone calls that day!

I also meant to write a short little paragraph about Christine (whose lovely face appears a little further below beside the handsome face of my son....) Christine is, as one might guess, the girlfriend of Blake. (The word girlfriend really isn't ample for someone as prayed for and God sent as she is.) She is from Vermont, and she's just left after having spent a week or so with us. We met her family probably 10 years ago as friends of mutual friends. Her brother Josh appears in many of our posts right now, too.

Who couldn't love a girl who comes here and cuts up hog fat with the rest of the family and takes the little boys to pick up walnuts in a truck where she can barely see over the steering wheel?
~Colleen