Our Thanksgiving Day Long Weekend

Saturday, October 11, 2008

We took it easy in the morning. DH slept until after lunch. He’s been so incredibly busy and stressed with work and sleeping in is one thing that he loves to do from time to time. We let him sleep until he decided to get up. We just carried on as if he were not here. We played and watched TV and spent time on the computer. Once he was up and going we got busy! What an afternoon and evening!!!

J started by running over to work and borrowing an old washing machine that he’d removed from one of the homes. He set it up outside with the garden hose and a very long extension cord. We let it wash through once or twice with nothing in it to get the soap residue out. While that was washing we started picking carrots from the garden. We topped and filled up the wheelbarrow with just carrots.

When the wheelbarrow was full we started loading the washer. We did this twice and then took a big break to eat and run to the store.

When we got back CJ and I started the second step of the process while K and J continued out in the garden to wash a third load of carrots. Each load filled a Little Tykes wagon!!! J figured we pulled in and processed 3 bushels that night.

The second step was cutting the end off and putting them through the food processor to slice them to freeze! Ready to eat. So I got a knife and started topping while CJ put them through the processor.

Once we had a very large bowl full of sliced orange yummy-ness, she started bagging. Bagging was I think the hardest part of the job! Once we had a bag full, we handed it to W (20mo) to take to the freezer. He’d hop up on a little red chair, open the lid and drop the bag in! He was SOOOOOOO proud of himself! He would run back for the next one and if we didn’t have one ready, he was so impatient!

By this time it’s getting close to 7 or 8 o’clock at night and the third load is still outside. I had CJ put the littles in the tub and she got in with them while K helped me slice and bag. We got a lot done before I sent her to the tub too. I got the littles and CJ dressed in jammies. Then we pulled out the milk, strawberry and chocolate sauce and protein powder for milk “shakes” (no ice cream though). So, they drank their suppers, watched Dora the Explorer and then I headed them off to bed.

J and I continued working on loads 2 and 3 until close to 11 o’clock! Some hints, if you want to give this a shot:

When pulling them out of the garden, have lots of “runners” – little kids with buckets to run back and forth to the wheelbarrow. Even the littlest can have a job.
Knock a lot of the dirt off and all the tops before putting in the washer, especially if you are using your normal day to day washer!
When cutting ends off, pick large carrots and lay them all the same direction. It seems like you are wasting time sorting but really it goes a lot faster! No sorting through little ones to get a decent sized carrot to cut.
Place carrots into feeder (food processor) big end down.
Don’t slice the little ones! They are bite size anyway. Just freeze them whole or save for snacking.
Don’t pull more than you can process in a day. Take lots of breaks if you start to get tired! After 7 hours, I was wiped!
Snacks, besides what you are “putting up”, are great too. We had chips and dip, pop, coffee and chocolate bars (those mini ones).
For a family of six (with little kids) one medium ziploc bag is perfect for a meal. That’s the size we freeze in.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

We didn’t go to church this morning. We slept in, all of us. J and I actually were in bed until close to 11AM. It was great! The kids just watched TV and played. We took it easy for most of the day and only started on the carrot process around 3PM. That process started with re-organizing freezers.

Saturday night we just threw the carrot bags in wherever they would fit. We have two little freezers. One will be for only carrots at this point and the other for everything else. So I had to remove what was in the “carrot freezer” and lay the carrot bags nicely to get the best use of space.

Part of this process was to clean out the build up of ice on the edges of the freezer. I, being 37 weeks pregnant, could not get the ice out of the bottom! So, I put little M (3yo) in the freezer with a dustpan to get the ice out!

Saturday’s work filled the freezer a little more than half full. And the “everything else freezer” is 3/4 of the way full with other stuff.

The cutting and bagging part of the process started around supper time on Sunday. With all the help that we got from K and off and on from the other kids we were done in an hour.

We have WAY more carrots than we have storage space. We are not set up with a cold storage room so freezing is the best option for us.

Also, we’re taking a box over to a neighbor and we’ve found a family whose garden did not do well this year and they are coming over to help pull up the other half of what we planted. That’s Monday’s job. We’ll see if that gets blogged about or not!