CORN DAYS —  YESIREE!!!

 3,416 ears of corn went through the cookers at Shady Acres between Monday Morning and Wednesday afternoon.  I haven’t begun to think about the output — but it was probably at least 300 quarts and was for the benefit of nearly a dozen households.

 First, there is the picking, but I didn’t get any pictures of that.  But thanks to all who picked — Mark Jr., Alma, Bert, Joe, Elmer.  That is one of the hardest jobs of all.

 

This was the last day, and there wasn’t as much corn on this day.  Notice the optimism on the faces!
This is Middle Daughter, who is an optimistic help at the beginning and a bossy slave driver of a cooking supervisor by the end of a long day.  (Love you, Deborah, and so thankful for your help!)

 

 

Deborah and her two youngest cousins, Elmer and Edie, who were her slaves in the process.

Elmer  worked very hard for a nine year old boy.  He made many a load lighter.

 

This is my Sweet Mama who lent a willing hand even when she was almost too tired to put one foot in front of the other.  You will almost never see her in a t-shirt, so note how pretty she is in this Choral Camp tee.

 After Husking, there is the cutting/washing/silking to do.  The first day of corn, we did 728 ears for Gokum and Gracegiven.  We got 80 pints and 27 quarts.  A good day!

 

Gokum came back to help every single day.  What would we have done without her? 
Thanks, Ilva!!!  How very precious are the friends who stick by us

 

This was another job that Mama helped with faithfully.  Her back really let her know that she had been doing stuff she wasn’t quite accustomed to doing, but she was such a good sport

 

Edie kept her fingers busy and wet with the washing/silking procedure.  She was another faithful helper.

 

Jesses_girl was always my “water baby.”  When she was a little girl, she could occupy herself for long periods of time with pouring water from one container to another until the water was gone — usually over the front of her little frock and all over the ground.  She is still one of our best water people when it comes to this procedure.  She sticks to this wet messy job until it is done, though she sighs often.

 

This is Gokum, Jesse_girl and me, cutting the corn off and packing it.  Here the true picture of our activities breaks down, because I didn’t get any pictures of the cooking or the cutting off procedure that involved five cutters and two cookers and four cooling stations.  Our temperatures were unbelievable with the heat index over a 100 degrees.  Most of the time, we were HOT, sticky, HOT, wet, HOT, and with corn all over our hands and clothes.  I just didn’t really want to handle my digital camera with those sorts of conditions, so before I knew it, everything was cleaned up and I didn’t have the pictures of the hardest parts of all.  But I promise you, I am not going to do another day of corn just so I can get a picture of it all.  You’ll have to wait for next year. The thing that troubles me most is that there are no pictures of Sarah, Alma, Bert, Josh, Liz W., Joni, Queena, Ethan, Dave Hertzler, Ed, Beloved Son in Law, and Certain Man.  Each of these lent hands in the process, and Sarah and Alma were pretty much the ones who most deserve a picture — So, So Sorry, Sisters of Mine.  You gals are pretty much my cohorts in this yearly insanity. 

Eventually there was reason to rejoice.  We were done!

 

Gracegiven’s smiley face pretty much says what we all felt.

(When I spell checked this posting, the spell checker wanted to change “smiley” to “smelly!”  I had to wonder if that wouldn’t have been an appropriate adjective for most of our persons.  Thank God for “smiley” faces when we all had worked hard enough to be “smelly!!!”)

Thank God for a great crop, but thank God, it’s finally in the freezer!

This little lady, Gracegiven’s precious little Victoria, endured her first corn day with aplomb and grace.  She smiled and watched and eventually conked out in the pack’n play without disrupting the process more than minimal maintenance.  We all were envying her this carefree nap, but after being so good, she certainly deserved it!

For the Yoders who are looking for pictures of the Yoder Breakfast on Wednesday morning —
Hopefully tomorrow!