The Great Potato Harvest

Farmer Ted planted potatoes in his raised bed in the backyard a couple of months ago. After much consideration, he pronounced them ready to harvest! Ted says we can't use shovels because we could hurt the potatoes. I get the logic, but I don't really want to dig with my bare hands. Unfortunately, Harry is only interested in moving handfuls of dirt out of the raised bed and Emma wandered off to find her hula hoop. Great. Pregnant girl has to take one for the team and start digging.

I squat down and start rooting around, so to speak. Ted is pulling up potatoes (which Harry is puting in baskets along with dirt). I keep digging, but don't find anything. I can't see what I am touching, but determined to be a good sport, I keep digging. Success! I touch something that feels vaguely potato-ish... then my finger pushes through whatever it is and it frigging explodes. Some sort of warm goo is all over my hand, which is still trapped in the dirt. As I pull up my hand, the smell of rot is overwhelming. So now I'm covered in sticky, stinky goo and screaming while everyone else is laughing hysterically. I run in the house and scrub my hand over and over, but could still smell the funk.

So what was the stinky, sticky goo? Well, contrary to the images that popped into my head courtesy of Stephen King and Dean Koontz, we're thinking it was a very, very rotten potato. So much for me playing farmer! Ted told me I was a bad homesteader. No argument here!

Here's a slightly staged photo showing children who look cooperative...



I did manage to get over my alien pod explosion images enough to eat the mashed potatoes Ted made. Pretty tasty! There's now a basket full of dirty potatoes sitting on my dining room table...

I did use the shovel and pitchfork to look for any left over potatoes after the initial extraction. I had no idea you used your core to shovel- that was a little awkward since my core has gone into hiding. Still, that was exercise, right?!

That blue thing in the background of the picture? Why, it's our lovely pool! Here's some pictures of Emma and Harry in it when it's full. I think these capture their personalities fairly well.




Unfortunately, we didn't empty out the water for like... a week. Yeah, pretty slimy. Let's have a moment of silence for the pool. RIP, slimy blue pool.

Well, I think I ran twice in June...

The first run in June:

Emma was at a friend's house swimming and Harry was at home with Ted napping. It's just far enough to my friend's house that I didn't want to send Emma on her bike alone, so I put on my new maternity running skirt and "ran" over with her. I took the long way, so we made it about a half-mile. I decided rather than stick around, I'd try to keep going (I know, nice friend to dump your kid off and literally run...)

I ran about 3 more miles with a couple of walking breaks. It was in the 90s, which I found irritating. Luckily I was in my neighborhood, and while I still don't know street names all that well, I do know the shadiest, flattest, least doggy populated streets. I poured cold water all over my marathon hat- it's not the best look, but it works. I actually felt pretty good, and when I made it back to my friend's house, everyone thought I was a total bad-ass. Sweet! We all know the real motivation for that run, right?! The maternity running skirt was brand new...

The second run in June:

I took Harry out on a Saturday morning after our customary Walmart trip. It was about 9:30 a.m. when we started. (You have to get Harry to Walmart early because he likes to "march" through the store. Marching is easier without a crowd).

I discovered where my sciatic nerve is the night before. Hello! It didn't hurt that morning, so I thought maybe exercising would help. (Yes, why rest a potential injury when you can make it worse by running?) I ran about a block before I realized my sciatic nerve was still having issues. I thought I could just slow down and work through it, but then I got a weird pain in my side. I couldn't decide if it was a regular side pain or not, because as you may realize, my side is a lot bigger now. And I was getting hot. And Harry took possession of our one water bottle... I decided running wasn't working, so I walked the rest of the way. I made the mistake of pointing out a bunny to Harry (we have lots of wild rabbits in our neighborhood now). He missed it, and then insisted for a good two miles that the "bunny hide" and he "want to see bunny!" Alas, no other bunny sightings.

I'm used to our Goofy training when Harry was still too little to do much talking. He's not going to be making any speeches anytime soon, but it's still entertaining to have him try to carry on a conversation in his stroller. (Although the bunny talk/"more cracker" demands did get a little old...)



Oh, and now my only size appropriate running shirt is getting a wee bit snug around the gut.

Future plans:

Hmmm... there is a 5k in St. Simons on the Fourth of July. I did it last year- it was my first 5k where I broke 30 minutes (29:59 to be exact). I'd kind of like to do it, but I'm not so sure.

The pros: it's a short walk from our place, there are walkers so I probably won't be DLF, it's flatter than you can imagine, I probably weigh about the same now as when I did it last year (really!), and it's another chance to wear my super cool maternity running skirt.

The cons: it's going to be hot, I haven't attempted to run in awhile, they don't allow strollers so I'd have to carry my water bottle instead of having a convenient tray, I'm going to be even bigger than I am now, and my only enormous wicking shirt may not be able to hold me in.

The biggest pro of all? Well, my very first 5k I was DLF. For the last mile or so I was running next to a woman who knew the cop bringing up the back in his squad car. He was literally yelling at us through his loudspeaker! He was teasing/encouraging, but I've never been yelled at through a cop's loudspeaker (or had the sirens flick on right behind me- he did that too)... it was really bizarre. I'm thinking I show up this time with my big ol' belly, and I might get an ambulance escort! Or maybe even a fire truck! That might be worth it (although Harry would be devastated if I get a fire truck escort and he's not with me...)

I haven't completely lost my mind though. There is a 5k in a little town about 20 miles away this weekend starting at 8:00 a.m. Call me not tempted! I'm very proud of that bit of self-control...