Wormin' Woman of the Year

I'm back from completely and totally checking out from reality. Okay, so I was still a somewhat responsible mother for the month I was away visiting family, but I got to say goodbye to a few of my cares for awhile, and with that went my blogging. So much to catch up on, so I'll take it a day at a time. It was wonderful to see so many family members and friends in Idaho and Utah. We were able to see everyone in Clint's family as well as mine, which is very rare these days.

Story #1 from vacation: WORMING

Snake River Valley, Idaho has it's quirks. A few worth mentioning: school lets out for a two week potato harvest vacation the first of Oct., swimming in the summer is done in irrigation canals instead of swimming pools, and worming.

Worming is one of those things you don't know how weird it is until you leave, because it is completely normal to see your neighbors up early picking multitudes of worms out of the dewy grass or pasture. So this is what it is: You fill a big barrel with water and add a chemical called "wormer" into it. Then you dump out the barrel on your lawn or pasture and prepare yourself with a bucket and your fingers to start picking. The chemical somehow makes the worms surface because it takes the oxygen out of the ground. You pick worms as quickly as you can and put them in your bucket before the chemical wears off and they go back in the ground. You have about 5-10 minutes for prime picking, and then you fill the barrel and do it again.

Why would anyone do this? Well, what else--money. You take the worms to the bait shop and sell them. If the bait shops have an excess, they will still buy them and the rumor is they send them to Japan where they feed the earthworms rice meal until they turn translucent and you guessed it- they are a delicacy.

My darling children got to worm with some of the best in the business-- my parents. My mother may be the only woman alive with a worming trophy. It is a cup with gummy worms in it and it says, "Wormin Woman of the Year." That was a few years back she earned that, but she hasn't lost the touch. My children learned from the best, but they weren't the best wormers around. Josh did okay the first day because the worms were so Grandpa could take him fishing. The next day we did it for $$ and Josh was too cold and too tired, but the slime didn't bother him. Kayla, on the other hand, thought they were too slimy, but she held the bucket and pointed out where the rest of us should pick up the worms. So here are some photos of our experience- the worming and the fishing. And just for the record we made around $40 in a couple hours. I can't remember the total, but not too shabby. And yes, those are worms.