Vacation: Is it worth it?

My extended family goes on vacation together at the end of July every year.  It's clearly the best time-choice considering that we go up into Canada and spend a week on a lake there.  Late July means less black flies, hot sun and warm water.

And yet no matter how hard we try, it's a crumby time of year to get away.  Every year, Jamey tries his hardest to take into consideration when we'll be away as he plants corn.  He plants different varieties and staggers the plantings, always attempting to hug either side of vacation week.  Instead, every year, we are up late the night before leaving husking, blanching, cutting, and freezing corn.

The tomatoes love to send us off on our travels, too.  It's as if they're using all our well-timed and planned energy against us and instead fight their darnedest to see us off.  And so, the day before we leave (when I should be packing) I'm washing, de-stemming and halving tomatoes to be thrown in the freezer for when I return.

Then there is all the preparations needed for leaving that has nothing to do with packing and preparing a week's worth of food to take along.  One teenage family friend to come and feed/water the pigs, ducks, chickens, and cat (and collect eggs).  A neighbor to gather mail, pick ripening corn and mow for us (they were so gracious to offer to mow).  A cousin's son to cut, bunch and put out sunflowers to keep Sam's business going (Sam paid him, of course) and not waste the yellow beauties.  Oh, and the hamster (did you know Sadie now has a hamster?) was passed to a friend to be hamster-sat (not to be mistaken for the action of sitting on a hamster).

I know that people who live on real farms rarely go anywhere and I completely understand why.

And then there's the coming home.  The long drive overnight to avoid traffic, lines at the border as well as bathroom and food stops (most everyone is sleeping).  After crashing into bed for a few hours of sleep, we're up working hard to unpack and make up for all the time lost while we were away.

My first order of business was to check on our peaches- were they still there?  Well, it appears that our strange carpet tacking strips did the job and kept peach-hungry critters at bay!

We harvested peaches and winter squash, picked tomatoes and peppers, tended to the animals, unpacked and did load after load after load of laundry.  Sam and I worked on getting more sunflowers out by the road.  The hamster needed collecting and we checked in with friends and neighbors who helped hold down the funny farm fort while we were away.

But it's not over yet.  The next several days meant batch after batch of tomato sauce, canning and freezing peaches, sticky floors, piles of dishes, tired legs and feet, and one dehydrated body (why do I always forget to drink when I'm working in the kitchen)?

So.  I pose this question to you.  For all the preparation before and all the catch up work after, is going away worth it to you?

For me, it is.  It's a hiatus.  It's a dream within a dream. It's time to reconnect with nature, family and myself.  And, truth be told...I'd do it six times a year if I could.

 view from the boat

 view from alone time in the cabin

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