Grape Harvest

This morning Amanda and I left the house at 6:30am and started out to the Church Welfare Farm in Madera to pick some grapes. As we crossed Whitesbridge, I said to Amanda, referring to the pink and orange sky to the east, "look at the beautiful sunrise!" Just at that moment the sun poked above the mountains and quickly began to rise into the sky. It was the first time that Amanda had seen a sunrise as it happened, so she thought it was pretty cool.

We had already gone out on Wednesday night and worked with the rest of our ward to pick grapes. I did a lot of picking, but I also did a lot of picture taking! There were a lot of kids there with their parents, so I tried to get families together. They had baby sitting at the chapel (Kevin was helping there) and so there were several couples at the vineyard as well. Amanda always has a great time picking grapes and the ward did a whole row and started on another before the sun went down. There were a lot of people out there and it always goes so much faster when there are a lot of hands doing the work.

This morning we also picked up Amanda's friend Bailie and she came with us to pick grapes. We got there and the Kerman Ward rows had already been completed (a total of about 1000 trays!), so we started on Madera 3rd Ward's rows. Amanda, Bailie and I got six trays completed on our own before some more people from our ward came, including the sister missionaries, and we all worked together down the row. We got half way down the quarter mile row before it was time for us to go and take Bailie home. As we walked to the van we passed the Van Ness Ward rows and so we got to see a lot of old friends that we haven't seen for a while. It was fun!

At the Church Welfare Farm, all the labor is voluntary, and all the raisins go to help with humanitarian aid. For example, when Hurricane Katrina hit, the Church sent water and food, including raisins. As dirty and sweaty as you get, and all the spiders and weeds you have to contend with, it feels good to know that you are doing this work for the Lord and for the needs of His children throughout the world.

See all the Wednesday Night pics here.

See all the Saturday Morning pics here.

See Fresno Bee article, "Fruits of their labor" here.