February 8 – Chris has one more installment left on cleaning the basement, but we’ll change subjects temporarily for now and give you a review of our latest “Harvesters Day.”

[ Beverages for all ]
Arriving at the church, we sat in our truck, awaiting the arrival of the big Harvesters truck, which arrived ten minutes early this time. A much smaller vehicle arrived around then too, with three youngsters from the Summit View Adventist School. Jim Willis picks them up each time and brings them over to help out. Today they seemed to have forgotten how cold it was going to be, and did not dress appropriately, and had a miserable, shivering time of it. Their efforts were much appreciated, and hopefully the March event will be warmer.

[ Papayas anyone? ]
There was another compartment full of big trays of beautiful peaches that had to be put into plastic bags, so many per family. Another compartment had a large variety of items, assorted drinks, etc.

[ An egg comparison ]
The day before had been a mild day, and we got some exercise by walking around our property. As we approached the house, we came across a dead grackle lying on the ground, with the most beautiful plumage of varying colors. Chris was anxious to take some pictures of it, but we were having problems with the camera which kept requesting fresh batteries, despite our just having put new ones in. I planned to get new ones of a different variety on Thursday, but then decided to try to recharge some that we had stored away. So I put four into a recharger plugged it in, and left it for several hours.
When I eventually put two of them into the camera, hooray, it worked again, and Chris was able to take all sorts of pictures. Some of the pictures were of old phonograph records from her collection, along with old newspaper sheets between them that advertised foods from long ago. But for some reason, those prices do not reflect the prices shown in our present newspaper ads. Prices are way up now, yet the interest rates we get on our bank funds are way down.

[ A toothy grin ]
Since we were walking along a small stream bed, happened to find an old bucket to carry the water in. It took quite a few buckets of water, but then there in the mouth of the burrow was the head of a big woodchuck. It made a dash for safety to somewhere but I grabbed it from behind by the hindquarters and managed to escape any damage by those large biting incisors. Son David came to my rescue by helping to turn the animal over so it could not bite my arm, which it was endeavoring vigorously to do. The water bucket now became a temporary cage with a board over the top.
We carried our prisoner home and put it in a wood and wire cage on the front porch, where it sat morosely chomping its teeth instead of us. Next morning the cage was empty, having been chewed apart overnight. This escapee may have been the forerunner of the woodchuck family that had their den in the far backyard and would periodically raid our garden. They had many happy Groundhog Days in following years, eating our bean plants there. – DALE