Day 199: Bitterroot Dig

We spent all morning and part of the afternoon at the Bitterroot Dig over near Hot Springs. Lex mainly tried to run away with Sage. They were convinced all the low bushes covering every area of the ground were some sort of maze they had to find the end to. Every once in awhile he'd come find us and say "Hey, you finding more carrots? You got a lota good carrots in your bag?" And I'd explain to him again that everyone wasn't out here digging carrots, instead we were looking for Bitterroot. "Oh ya." Then he'd run away again and about ten minutes later come back: "Did you find some more carrots?" We'll keep working on the plant identification, but honestly I was just so proud he knew carrots came from the ground and not just a bag in the grocery store. (Thanks Mom. I'm going to leave him with you more often while you're working in the garden!)

While Lex was hiding under bushes and finding trails throughout the area while checking on everyone's carrot progress, Israel & Zoran were hard at work. They both dug up quite a lot and Zoran even peeled all his before dumping it into the pile the whole group had gathered. They all seemed to enjoy it and the older boys seemed to enjoy it even more each time they'd remember some kids were actually in school today while they were out here. Also, more and more I'm thinking the key to getting Zoran to eat some real food is to have him work on growing it. He was pretty interested in the whole process of gathering and preparing and eating this today.  He even told me last week "maybe" he'd eat some of the vegetables he planted with Yaya a few weeks ago, when he was explaining excitedly about what they'd put in the ground and how it was going to grow.

We've already assigned Israel the task of making us some tools before next year. Maybe he can also work on planting us a garden, so eventually his little brother will weigh more than 40 pounds.