Getting the kids outside isn't that hard here in Panama. They're always wanting to play with friends or run around in the rain. The problem is getting them to help with something like plowing up the ground and planting rows of sweet potatoes, but recently I was able to do it!
We spent a day a few weeks ago pulling all the grass out of an area of our yard. There were little mini trees trying to pop up, but we tackled the project in a few hours. We had a backhoe come in a few months before and scrape off some of the grass, but there was still a lot of work to do.
I told the kids that with there being 7 of us, it shouldn't take that long. Really it wasn't so bad as long as everyone kept working. Obviously some wanted to work harder and get it done and some needed to take more "breaks." Ha!
The prepared area sat for a few weeks while we waited for our schedule to open up. Finally that day was today. Nothing was going on, it wasn't raining, and we had nothing on the calendar all day. What better thing to do than to finish the project!
I got the kids out there and even a neighborhood friend joined us today. That made things go even better because he works pretty hard and there seemed to be much less complaining with him there. I'll have to remember that in the future! Ha!
We got all the weeds pulled again, the ground all tilled (by jumping on shovels), then the boys made the rows while the girls looked for sweet potato starts to plant. We also collected some old sheep poop to use as fertilizer.
The rows were finished, so we dug the holes, put in a handful of sheep poop, put in the plant, and covered it back over. I was surprised we actually accomplished the whole project today - I thought we would only get to tilling the ground!
To celebrate, we headed to our favorite bakery and everyone picked out a treat. $4.15 later, everyone was happy with their choice, the project was done, and one more thing can be checked off our to do list! I am pretty excited to see this little area grow us some food. My thumbs are not green, but maybe this will be easy enough that we get a good amount of sweet potatoes out of our effort!
Sweet potatoes are so easy to grow, I grew one! I am sure you will be very impressed with your harvest. I am very impressed you got your kids to help plant. As I also homeschooled my kids, I also found that when a hard working friend of theirs was present to help, my kids worked far harder to prevent being outworked by their friend. LOL
I love that ramshackle little outbuilding behind the garden. It's amazingly picturesque.
Thanks!
Ha yes! I'm glad to have learned this lesson about the friend being there to help and creating a bit of competition among the kids. Now I'll have to see where else I can make use of his presence. ;) Ha!
The little shack in the background was the sad chicken coop the kids and I built out of pallets many years ago. It was literally falling down (but hasn't yet), so my husband built me a much better one! I had hoped to use the old one as a storage building for some gardening stuff and I still might, but I heard one of my wild Bantum chickens is sitting on a nest of eggs in there! Good news! :)
Thank you @ackhoo & @qurator for the curation!! Much appreciated!