Sweet Corn

"Could you use some sweet corn?" It was my neighbor, Rob Olson, posing the question. He was walking toward the house from the tractor that he rode up the drive and was calling out as he came. "Sure would hate for it to go to waste."
Waste?? Sweet corn?? No way, no how! Not if I could help it. "Sure," I replied. "That would be great, Rob. Thank you!"
It was early in the morning yet. I had heard the tractor rumbling up the road from the office where I was making copies for our school day. When I looked out the window to see who was here, I noticed that the morning sun was not over the bluff to the east yet. The fog in the field was glowing that golden pink that takes my breath away. I was feeling very prepared for the day. The house was clean and organized. I was ready to teach the kiddos, ready to tackle the first day of school. I had a plan and I was sticking to it.

Hmmmm.

Rob rolled back into the drive with the pick-up this time. He was pulling a small trailer full of corn. That's when I knew for sure that my day was going to be a bit different than what I had so carefully planned. Truthfully, I was incredibly thankful for the gift. Our sweet corn did poorly, only enough for a few meals. Not enough to freeze for delicious soups and stews this winter. This was not the first generous gift from the Olson's. Rob's mom passed away about this time last year leaving her large garden just ready to harvest. Rob and Lori let us pick tomatoes and wow, did we ever! We still have plenty canned up to last through this winter. Kind and generous neighbors, they certainly are!

I would love to rattle on and on with all the details of the day. How shucking, blanching, cutting and bagging the sweet corn brought back vivid memories of when I was a kid. I just can't go into that many details though...I am so exhausted!

I don't know how many ears I shucked for sure. I only kept track for the first two hours. At that point I determined that I could shuck an average of 2.7 ears per minute for a solid two hours. Then the kids joined me and we really got busy. The pile on the table was huge. At 7:00pm I called it quits on the shucking and we headed inside to start blanching. The younger kids bailed on me. Lane and I pressed on. At 10:00 pm I came inside with yet another load to throw in the water and announced that we would only finish what was in the house at that moment. The grand total for ears of corn shucked, blanched and cut off the cob was 452. Yes, you may laugh at me now. How completely crazy must I be?!?! 452 EARS OF CORN!!! That is only counting the ones that were finished. There are at least two hundred more ears on the table outside.

I can hardly move my wrist.
I am so thankful.
I am going to bed.
Good night.

(Sorry, I can't even sit here long enough to reorganize the pictures!)