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Monday, June 1, 2009

The Rock

Picking rocks a springtime tradition in farming country. In the Upper Midwest we there are some crops we can't grow, bananas, coffee or cotton for example. But every field can produce a bumper crop of rocks every spring. Some folks say the frost in the ground works out a new batch every year but where ever they come from the are always there.

After plowing a field in the spring, you need to bribe neighbors kids , nieces, nephews or cousins to come pick rocks. every field has a large pile of rocks in the corner or along the side. We bribe Spark to fill up buckets with rocks from the garden. This day we told spark he could have $2 for filling a five gallon pail with rocks.

Most of the rocks in our garden are fist sized or smaller, occasionally one six or eight inches across turns up (big rocks are a good deal if you are trying to fill a pail). Today, we had prepared the garden to plant some peppers, 53 of them. as we were digging the holes Dad hit a rock, not unusual just dig it up and throw it to the side. This rock was different. Mom, Dad, Spark and Dancer all worked on the rock. we tried for quite a while and never could find an end to pry up, it just kept getting bigger and bigger.

We got the hose to wash it so Spark could see what color it is. We took a break, had pop and icees. Eventually we decided it is probably the peak of some mountain, maybe a cowlick on the top of Lincoln's head on the original Mt Rushmore. we continued planting around the summit of "Mt Pepper". Maybe next year the forces of nature will move it up for us, for now it looks good right where it is.

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