Klickers is a great, family-run strawberry farm here in Walla Walla. They've been around for 90 years and for over 80 of those years they've been employing Walla Walla youth as their harvesters and processors. It's an awesome, G-rated environment where kids can learn to work hard and earn money. Yesterday was Amber and Haley's first day. They had to be there at 6:45 AM, which, in the summer, is a feat in and of itself! They will work 5 days a week, spend their day picking strawberries and come home in the early afternoon covered head to toe in red juice. They were SO tired last night that they both voluntarily went to bed at 8:30!
The funniest part of yesterday (and taking one look at their dishevelled, strawberry-stained selves was pretty darn funny) was that Amber won an award for being their top first-year strawberry picker! Don't get me wrong, Amber is a great kid and we love her to death, but she is not necessarily renowned within our household for her natural work ethic. Brad and I were a little bit surprised to find out that she is a work horse in the strawberry fields! Looks like she's been holding out on us! She even got asked to stay into the afternoon and learn how to process the berries on an assembly line (which is way more lucrative than picking.)
So, summer's off to a good start! An exhausting, hot, sticky, start, full of great life lessons!
13 comments:
That is awesome! My kids are headed for some serious manual labor jobs in their early adolescence. I'll see to it. :)
that is so awesome amy! tell amber congratulations! i had many, many friends (including ryan) that picked strawberries for many years. i unfortunatly wasn't in any of their fun memories because i was stuck at orange julius. :)
Amber, ask Ryan if there is a secret to getting the strawberry stains off their hands!
LOVE IT!I think I'll send Todd up for the summer so you can strawberry him into a good workin' kid!
I wish they had something like that around here. That is a great summer job for pre/teens!
I think teaching your kids the value of work and having a work ethic is one of the most important things you can give your children. Good for you, maybe you can come kick my kids in the rear and get them to do some manual labor. I'm considering sending them to the pineapple farms in Hawaii!!!!! BTW, thanks for your sweet comments on my blog, you're too kind. I really need to update it but can seem to think of anything interesting to say.
ryan said that bleach and lemon juice is what they found worked the best to get the stains off. :)
What a great opportunity that is! I'll have to do some searching for jobs like that around here.
Way to go girls!! (And mom and dad for teaching you how to work. Reminds me of many a good ol' summer at the K-bar-B!!)
Reminds me how Jana would never give me free fries covered in seasoning salt when she worked at the K bar B. Keith ran a tight ship.
hey amy, call me a blog stalker, but i was just looking at someone on your blog named rita, pretty sure it's your sister. and, i WANT one of those aprons that she makes! is there any way that i can order one or something? are they even for sale? just wondering, they are super cute. :)
well, i'm not sure if she is your sister, but whatever. :)
Amber, Rita is definitely my soul sister, but not my biological sister. She actually grew up with Brad and then I was lucky enough to meet her at BYU. I agree with you on her aprons, by the way! I love those! I will check and see if we can "place orders" or if we'll just have to drool over the pictures on her blog :)
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