Berry Picking

One of our summer fun items this year was to go to a berry picking farm.  We found one just south of Nevada that some of our friends went to last year.  It takes about 1:20 to get there, but since it came with a good recommendation, I decided it was worth the trip.

I penciled it in for last Monday as just the boys and I were planning on going.  When I checked the radar that morning, it said there would be a few showers early and then not again until late afternoon.  I figured since we would be there from about 10:00-12:00 that we would be fine.  I'd like to find the weatherman and tie him up by his toes!

It rained, steady and strong, on us most of the way up there.  I called Greg to check the radar again, and still it said it was to clear off, so we continued on.  Thankfully, it did stop raining long enough for us to pick the berries, hooray!

Happy and excited boys at the beginning of our picking experience-

This is at about 1/2 of the way down our row.  Not so happy and excited any more.  If this picture could speak, it would say something like, "I'm so tired of bending over.  My legs hurt.  When are we going to be done?  I want to go home.  Is it going to rain?  I hear thunder.  How much longer are we going to do this?  I need to go to the bathroom...."  Fun times.

And finally, with our loot - 17 lbs of freshly picked strawberries!  I think they're smiling because we were finally done :)

What I don't have pictures of is what came after this.  We loaded up our strawberries and headed back to the front of the farm to pay.  On our way, it started sprinkling.  We had packed a picnic lunch and I asked for permission to eat it in a little 'farm store' building they had on the grounds.  It seemed more like the place where the workers took their breaks but they were happy to let us eat there as well.  Almost as soon as we got inside with our lunch, the sky opened up and torrential rain began to fall, and fall, and fall.  After probably at least 45 minutes it finally let up and we loaded up in the van.

As were were pulling out of their driveway, it began to downpour again.  So here I am in the van, with rain and wind so hard I cannot even see more than 10 feet in front of me in the middle of nowhere Iowa.  Fantastic.  I called Greg again (I'm beginning to see where the smart phone could come in handy!) and he told me I just had to go a little further to get out of the worst of it.  We went another 5 minutes or so (which seamed like 5 hours) and it finally let up enough to drive safely again.  Good grief.

I guess we can at least cross off berry picking from the summer list, and next time we'll go on a day where it's supposed to be sunny and blistering hot the entire day!