Busha's Migrant Workers

Busha called me yesterday to tell me the Amaryllis she had waiting for me were sprouting and needed to be rescued. She said when we came by, the kids could pick strawberries. So today I dropped by her house on the way home from picking BabyGirl up from school.

First of all, the boys were sound asleep when we got to the school, so I locked the van & picked BabyGirl up without waking them (I love electronic key fobs). When we got to Busha & Bucka's BabyGirl was the first one out of the van & B.B. was still asleep. I finally convinced him to wake up enough to get out & he crawled out of his seat. As I walked him around to get his strawberry bucket, he saw his sister in the berry patch. "Hey! Mommy! BabyGirl's here!" Guess he assumed she'd been at Busha's all day.

Busha explained to the kids which berries were ready to pick & set them to work. The kids could squat down to pick berries, but since Busha is in need of a knee replacement, she has to bend at the waist to get to them. One berry bed is slightly raised, but the other is just a patch of ground...that can get tough after a while. I cannot squat as my legs quickly go to sleep, so I planted my rear end in the grass & helped B.B. avoid the green berries.

Suddenly Busha stood up and said, "Oh, shoot! You should have brought your camera! We could have sent Uncle R a picture of my new migrant workers." Last summer I went to visit and found the Aunties (Busha's sisters) picking berries in the heat of the day. Since they live about 5 hours away, they come to visit for a week this time every year. When I came in the house that day, I joked that it was a good thing Busha had found such good migrant workers to pick her strawberries for her since her Rheumatoid Arthritis was acting up & I had 3 small kids to chase & not much time to help with the berries.

Today as we were picking I said, "We're a sad lot, Grandma. Child labor, an old lady, and a pregnant woman picking berries." She laughed and agreed, the infirm, small children, and one that's pregnant...and the kids gave up way too soon. It was more fun to pitch bad berries into the yard than pick good ones. Busha said they'd never really make good migrant workers...they quit too early.

But as pay, we all got ice cream topped with our fresh strawberries. Yummy!

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The Queen Mother made me cry today. She posted about mothers.

Art the Omnipotent made me laugh today. She had an interesting incident with raw sewage.