Mums Are In...The Ground

Saturday morning arrived and the radar was showing light rain in our area. None was hitting the ground though. So, Linda started us a pancake breakfast early and we started getting ready to plant our mums, all 1,000 of them. We gathered up hammers, rakes, stakes, twine, drill, bulb planting bit, buckets, cups, coolers, chairs, awning, 4-wheeler, truck, wagon and the tractor. Pauline, Stacey, Regina, Linda, Brent and I headed down the road to where we were going to plant the mums. Brent and I started by staking out the rows with twine and drilling small holes to place the mum starts. I then took the tractor into the creek and scooped up water and brought it up to the mum patch to use for watering them in.Regina and Linda were placing the starts in the holes and Stacey was pouring a cup of water on each start. Pauline and Regina were covering the roots with dirt and leveling the area after each plant had been set. Everyone was working together to get the big job done. It was cloudy as we started and kind of cool, really a nice working condition, but as the day went along, the skies cleared and the sun was blazing down on us. Stacey was the first to get to hot, and Linda and Brent set her in the truck for a cool down. About 11:30 we all we ready for a break so we called lunch break', and head to the house. There were 26 rows planted with 25 mums in each row. We were looking for something immediately to eat, so I suggested a bowl of strawberries and whipped cream. Just a snack before we went to the Corner Pool and Lunch to really eat. Hamburgers and fries were the most ordered item and after eating those, stopping at the store, we came back to the house for a 'nap'. It wasn't long till Regina showed up, wanting to go back and plant the rest of the mums. Linda and her talked a while, letting Pauline, Stacey and Brent rest a little longer. About 3 we went back to the patch and started planting the rest of the mums. We were nearly done, when Regina's grandaughter Casey, and her friend Jade, came walking down the road and began helping cover up the planted mums. Brent and I thought we were done drilling holes, but come to find out, there were enough 'extra' plants for 2 more rows. We drilled those holes and started picking up the stuff. Linda, Stacey, Pauline, and Regina finished the planting and watering. We set there a few minutes to admire our work and then headed to the house. It was 5:30 when we finished. It was a long, hot job, much like what they used to do when setting tobacco.
Later that evening we made some home made strawberry ice cream. Put it in the ice cream freezer to churn it into ice cream. Then we set it in the deep freeze to harden overnight.