Sniff. Sniff.

Well, we did it.

Dad decided it was time to harvest all the carrots and beets, so on Saturday we pulled them up.

I'm particularly attached, out of all our plants, to the carrots and beets. I planted them this year, and have cared for them almost by myself. But I haven't done the picking. Dad, Mom, and my younger sisters have done that.

As Dad says; "you take care of them, but you can't stand picking them. You think of it as killing them, don't you?"

Well....yes.

I'm not crazy. I grew them so we could eat them. But they look so pretty, standing up from the ground in a sea of bright green, waving in the breeze.

However, if it had to be done, I wanted to get in on it. What would my plants have thought of me, anyway, letting a stranger root them up?

I hope they appreciate the sacrifice I made. We went out early in the morning, while the earth was still damp from the night's rain. Do you know what damp and humid equals around here?

Well, I'll give you some clues:
~ They buzz
~ They annoy me to no end
~ The have great big eyes and a little tube for a mouth

I was nearly eaten alive by mosquitoes. All so I could pull up my carrots.

We had about 1/2 a bed to pull up. That's about 4'x6'. Not a huge harvest, but the best we've ever had of carrots. Last year was our first time that I remember trying carrots, and they turned out about as thick as a pencil, and as long as my little finger. This year was better. We filled three grocery bags full of carrots.


Of course, most of that was the tops of the carrots. To store the carrots, the tops ought to be removed, and because we didn't care to donate half our life's store of blood to helping keep the mosquito population alive, we decided to top the carrots indoors, in our kitchen.

Never mind the fact that the floor had been mopped the day before.

Aren't these beautiful? Dad snapped this picture as we worked. We saved the tops for our three rabbits. They're spoiled, I know!
This is what those three bags melted down to. One basket full. But, hey, it's better than nothing.
We'll do a second crop in the fall.

And here is what I got to sweep up after we were done. Fun, huh? I've come to the conclusion that if I were to try to keep up with all the stuff that gets tracked into our house and onto the floor, I'd never do anything else. In the fall, I thought the leaves were the worst. In the winter time, I thought nothing could be worse than the mud. (Around here, we don't know what white snow is.) In the spring and summer, it's the garden causing the mess. Then there's the bugs that come inside....

Naw, I won't get on that subject. Despite the tone of this post, I'm in a good mood this morning. (Despite the window shade that I just broke, and the two sewing projects calling for me that must be finished by tonight, and that I haven't even started....)

Yup. I'm in a good mood. Know why? Because my joy doesn't have to depend on my circumstances. It doesn't come from what I know, but from Who I know. So... praise the Lord for carrots!