Digging for Gold

I am calling the potato experiment a complete success. It's the one vegetable (aside from pumpkins) that the kids have looked forward to all summer. I am trying hard to catch up on yard and housework that have received only nominal attention over the last month thanks to vacations, over-nighters, family reunions, Scout camp, attempts to get ready for school, and exhaustion. Today made it worth it, though! We dug up our Yukon Gold potatoes, and it was literally a treasure hunt. All of the kids were excited to dig up the next potato plant to see how many, how big, and what bizarre shape would come out of the ground next. We harvested a five-gallon bucket plus two large bowlfuls of our potatoes and shared some with neighbors.

We also dug up a turtle. Okay, not really, but this was our first potato out of the ground today. It's bigger than a softball.

And the Unexpected Treasure Award goes to Bronwyn, who discovered a hidden nest next to our chicken coop, but behind the large bale of pine shavings. One of our chickens was unaccounted for this morning -- we had let them run loose while we were working in the yard and Bronwyn noticed some movement in this unusual spot. The chicken was nesting on sixteen beautiful brown eggs! We thought we were only getting three a day and wondered who the lazy chickens were. Well, some girls are just stubborn about where they want to lay their eggs! These have accumulated over a while now. Scrambled eggs and bacon anyone?