Ryan gets excited about two things: metal music and peanut butter.
He is passionate about much more: LED light bulbs, strong enough coffee, the messes his children must be allowed to make, expensive stereo equipment, oh, and his wife and kids.
But because he lives with someone who gets excited enough for the whole western hemisphere, he cannot afford the luxury of everyday thrills. We would implode.
He told me at lunch that this day had the potential to be the very best day of his life because we were going peach picking at Entz Orchard. I asked if it topped the day we got married. He said yes. He hesitated a bit when asked if it topped the days the kids were born. Then we were interrupted by the two bigs fighting and Sage shrieking for "more mama," and he never answered. Touche'.
(Side note - "more mama" is Sage McCage's mantra these last few days. As in "I want more of you, Mama, hold me right now so I can kiss you all over your face and don't you dare put me down or I will shriek because I only want you, Mama." I love it. Oh I really really love it!! 97% of the time I love it.)
So the peach picking...
They had gone once before - 2 years ago - when I was out of town.
I expected to be hot, grouchy because I was hot, and just plain picking peaches.
But it was so so so much better than that.
I spent the first while in a total tizzy that there were so very very many ripe peaches on the trees. Like I had stepped back into this depression-era-resistance to a single shred of waste. It would be absolutely impossible to pick them all, which means many will fall to the ground and rot. Unacceptable. These peaches are so tasty and so juicy. And so expensive when you buy them at the store! We must pick every single one. Tonight! Someone run to the road and flag down some cars and tell people to come and pick. This minute. How can this possibly be the best day of our life when we will need to pick until 11 am tomorrow to get them all? I must shove 5 peaches in my mouth this minute just so that I can medicate my aching mind about how insanely delicious these are and how it is outside my human capacity to pick them all.
But we just couldn't. We did pick 250 lbs. though. And we ate maybe 10 lbs along the way.
And once I breathed deeply and started taking pictures and stopped eating and started helping with the kids, it was such a great time.
The kids went after it in ways so typical of their personality. Sage toddled among the rows, eating peaches from the trees and peaches from the ground - oblivious to the difference in taste or dirt or rot. Calling "hi" like a little dolphin to find us when she lost sight of us.
The Buzz was careful and deliberate. Oblivious to the heat. Choosing only the ones that were just so, frequently moving the ladder for a better angle, not at all annoyed or distracted by his sisters' "help".
Eva picked a hearty armful, and then was so horribly hot and itchy and full of exasperation that she just had to take off her shirt. Then she walked along the row, monitoring everyone's progress and eating peaches, exclaiming frequently over having found a more perfect peach than the last one.
250 pounds. 100 of it is ripening in our basement, waiting to be cut and frozen. I'm drinking peachy keens in the meantime. Ryan said it really was one of the best days of his life.