Spud Days

Shelley Spud Day is a local celebration to commemorate the grand ol' russet potato.  Family and class reunions revolve around the festivities.  Their is a beauty pageant, 5K, band stand, and tug o war into a pit of mashed potatoes.  And since our physical address is Shelley, we take part too.  

The girls participated in the Tater Trot this year.  They were a little nervous, but did great.  I love exposing them to new opportunities.  Ruby ran one lap (400m) and Dalanie ran 2 (800m).

The parade is unlike any other.  There is a large presence of tractors (although most farmers are busy in the fields with harvest.)

And to seal the deal, in true commemorative style, we dug our potatoes after the parade this year.

And our carrots too!

But the best part of Spud Day is that is ushers in the two week long harvest break for the school kids in our district.  It's quite controversial.  I don't suppose it will last forever.  Many use it as a Disneyland vacation or trip to Yellowstone, but we use it as a time to involve our kids with our own corn harvest.  I LOVE harvest break.  It's a bit of a reprieve from strict schedules during one of the craziest times of the year for us.

Homecoming

This small school of ours in seeped with tradition, good and bad.  Tradition is a hard thing to move away from.  I never knew that the homecoming parade affected every student and teacher in the district until I had kids of my own in school.    I just thought it was for the high school, silly me.  

Kids everywhere sport their cougar pride by dressing in black and blue for the parade.  Hudson was kind enough to let his sister wear his old jersey.  

The parade route turns around at the elementary school.  So all of the kids and teachers line the sidewalk.  All candy is collected and turned in to the teacher who divvies it up in baggies for every kid.  After all, things have to be fair, right?   Kids anticipate the bag of candy they will take home.

Hudson was plotting how to ration his candy for his sisters because, yes, all football teams participate in the parade.

Delsie made bank.  We were still picking up candy long after the last float passed.  Homecoming kicks off the fall candy fest with the Spud Day parade and Halloween to follow.  

Watermelon in the Classroom

I love going into the kids classrooms!  It is especially fun to take in watermelon and teach the kids about growing them.  They are always so attentive.  

"I love being a watermelon farmer because they make people happy.  Now, imagine how a broccoli farmer must feel. . . "  And so it goes.  I get to interact with the kids, ask them questions, and teach them things that reinforce what they have been learning in school.  Every once and a while you can almost see a light go on.  I love the possibilities and potential that exists in classrooms.  Of course,  I throw in a little of my plant science background for good measure.  It's an environment that I thrive on and enjoy.  So it's no surprise that Farmer For a Day is my pet project.  

We have the cutest book about an alligator swallowing a crocodile seed.  I read it to Ruby's class.  They were able to choose between a red or yellow slice of watermelon.

Grid Kid Football

Football got under way the first part of August with daily practices.  Hudson hadn't talked about football much since finishing up last season. As soon as he started playing again he was talking the talk.  He officially knows more than me about football.  

Right before corn harvest got underway, there was a game in Salmon.  The whole family loaded up and made the drive out there.  It was a lot of driving for a little bit of a game, but Hudson was appreciative that Brent made the effort.  Our boys played well and didn't have much opposition.

The megaphones proved to be the most entertaining for Delsie.  She would shout "Go Hudson!" whether he was playing or not.

Grandma and Grandpa came up for a few of his games.  We had beautiful weather for the season, almost too nice.  We had to hide under the umbrellas to keep us from melting.  Grandpa watched Hudson through his binoculars and was impressed.

Grandpa Hillman even made it to a game!

I can't say it enough, but the coaches have made Grid Kid such a great experience for Hudson.  He really values what they say and mirror their attitudes.  

Hudson sure hustles when he's being subbed in or out.  It's nice to watch him work hard.  He isn't the most athletic on his team, but what he doesn't have in talent, he makes up in size and heart.

For the homecoming parade, Hudson let Dalanie wear his jersey from last year.  I stayed up the night before making his sweatshirt.  He wasn't about to spend $40 on ones the team was selling.  So with a little skill and my silhouette, we recreated one.

He had plotted to save candy just to throw for Delsie.

Stephens also came to a game.  The boys were a little surprised that a football game could happen outside of Merlin Olsen Stadium.  They have only watched Aggie football.  Grid kid isn't quite that much fanfare.

It's fun to watch the boys come to rely and depend on one another.  The thing I love about football is what it does for Hudson.  He is so motivated to work hard in practice.  His coaches build him up and validate him.  He wakes up early to get his piano practiced and is willing to do whatever needs done during harvest.  Somehow he manages to juggle it all.  Football doesn't trump other people and other activities.  We have made sure to let Hudson know that the most important team he belongs to is our family.  But for now, his football has been a pretty thing for him.  

Their last game was against a Rexburg team in the playoffs.  (The top A seat and we had been playing C teams) Our kids were undefeated and weren't used to going up against much competition.  Their nerves were on high alert.  Hudson was feeling a bit of pressure after hearing that they had a huge kid he'd been going up against.  Even the coaches were a bit high strung and the kids weren't sure how to react.  Hudson was struggling to hike the ball, they made some errors, but overall they played respectable.  

Coach Nelson was sure to pick Hudson up and reassure him.  All good things must come to an end, so although the boys were a bit disappointed with their last performance, they could hold their heads high for a season well done.

Backyard Fair

This year marked the 5th annual Hillman Backyard fair.  It was low-key, we didn't mess with the hassle of the Dad's swing with harvest underway.  (Although it is always the life of the party.)  We had face painting.

A little free stage magic show by Gabe Cornia.

Dalanie hid behind the fence keeping the fish pond going for most of the time.

It is always a hit.

We repurposed some of our old front step into a balance square game.

And our newest addition was a redneck dunking booth that Dad helped me create the day before.

It worked like a charm and we had all the kids lining up despite the cool breeze a-blowin.

Ruby and Delsie quietly entertained themselves while Dalanie and I cleaned up.  That had been having a lot of fun painting their nails and then faces and arms with acrylic paint.

The most amazing thing about it was that they didn't even get any paint on their clothes.  I could believe it and stripped Delsie before their luck ran out.

Holding Down The Fort

During harvest while all the men are out on assignment chopping, I get to try to keep things going back on the farm.  It is generally irrigation issues that I attend to.  It was one thing to turn on handlines and pumps, but another when the access road is so swampy and boggy that you nearly get stuck.  I smelt like a swamp monster.  Add to the facts that there was a blowout near the end of the line and couldn't get the pipe to move more than 1/2" at a time.  That meant a lot of walking back and forth, but I got it done.  There is a sense of satisfaction in completing my assignments.  And a slight sense of irritation and anger too.

I was covered with the swampy muck.  A shower barely touched the stench.

Rest assured, when it was time to turn the lines back off I walked in.

Another phone call left me cutting hay, which I was pretty excited about.  I mean, who doesn't like to mow with a 20' cutting deck.  The real kicker were all the pre-requisites.  First I had to figure out how to dispense fuel and fill the thing up.

The next road block was getting the pivot to move.  The tires just spun in the mud-filled trenches.  I had to get a ride home to the RZR to pick up Dalanie to come and grab a chain.  We had a plan all figured out, complete with hand signals.  Once hooking the chain on to the swather I waved for her to start the pivot and override the system.  Problem was, I couldn't get the swather started (it was being super particular about the exact placement of the throttle and park brake relationship.)  So I jumped down and waved at her to stop.  Since she was at the pivot point, several towers away, she assumed that was her signal to stop the pivot- her task then completed.  She hopped in the RZR and drove home.

 That left me in quite a pickle because I had arms nowhere long enough to override the system and try pulling the tower through the gunk with the swather.  I was fuming but patiently waited for her to return home so that I could call her on the house phone.  This time I requested a shovel when she came.  We rehearsed the plan several time, making sure she came back and checked with me before leaving.  We were able to get the tower out, so she went on home.  Once back at the pivot point I looked down the line and instead of it being straight, the end tower was way farther ahead of the rest. So I backed things up, trying to remedy the situation.  In the process, the end tower got stuck and would not move.

It wasn't until later that Alan came and we were able to free 4 towers from the horrible mud.  To beat all, once we had the pivot out of the way, I finally got to start swathing.  I was really deflated when Blaine showed up and said that the knives needed replaced before I continued, and the cutting was stripping more than cutting.  Oh what a day!

Watermelon Business

We love bee stings, the tell tale sign of a ripe watermelon.

With the construction going on in front of our house, we set up a temporary stand which quickly translated into our permanent stand for the year.  We added the corrugated watermelons this year.  Hudson cut them out with the plasma at Grandpa Parish's.

You have to make sure and differentiate from all the other 'local' produce wagons.  Most bring in the produce from across or out of state.  We make sure to let people know they're grown on Goshen Road in Firth.  That catches people's attention and curiosity.  Many a melons have been sold just because people wonder what kind of melons we turn out right here .

Out in front volunteer watermelons not only grew, but they matured.  It was quite amazing considering the harsh growing conditions and lack of care.

Of course, you can only tell if it was a good volunteer melon by eating it.  Two thumbs up!

We set up shop 4 or 5 times down at Hard Times.  Some days the sales were slow, it was hot, and kid were restless.  Other days we were hopping.  We still have yet to determine all the factors that contribute to business.

Some things we know- good signage is a must!  In fact, next year we probably need to set signs up before the turn in so people have advanced warning.

Another tried and true factor is cute salespeople.  I can't tell you how many times the girls get tips.  When it's just a dollar or two, people will usually tell them to keep the change.

We had a great growing season for our melons.  They didn't freeze until October.    As a matter of fact, lots of little melons were still setting on the middle of October.  These pictures were taken the 17th of October.  By then people want pumpkins, not watermelon.

All in all, business was good and we are looking to expand our patch for the 2016 season.