Surrounded by trees. Never-ending green. That’s what you see when you drive up to my house.

I live on a ninety-acre farm. Thirty-four acres are covered in blueberries and another six with chestnut trees. There’s a lot of work that has to be done

One job that takes forever has to be cutting the grass. We have to cut almost all the land, and yeah, it takes quite a while.

The blueberries take up most of our time. We have to cut the grass in between the rows. That could take up the whole week, and that’s if we actually do it every single day. Then there’s cutting off the dead branches from every single blueberry bush. That can get very tiring.

When summer comes around, it’s work every day, all day. You wake up and eat breakfast. Then it’s out the door and work begins.

Before the blueberry season even begins, we have to wash the buckets and lugs. That job is one of the most boring jobs in the world. You just sit there and scrub. Then, you get the next bucket and sit there and scrub. When you have to take the soap off with a hose, you get all wet from the water that splashes. Then you just let them dry.

When the blueberries are ready to get picked, that’s when it gets crazy. You have to keep cutting the grass so the pickers can actually get to the fruit. Also, a lot of blueberries can fall when the pickers lift up the branches and they get caught in the tall grass.

Another job is receiving. When you’re receiving, you have to stay there the whole day. You have to keep track of how many buckets they bring and who brings them. It sounds easy enough, right? WRONG!!!!
Sometimes two or three people will bring a lot at the same time. That’s when it gets confusing. You have to make sure it all adds up to the right amount. Some pickers will try to get extra buckets to make more money. When you’re not counting the buckets, you have to take out all the bad blueberries. That job can take ten minutes a bucket or two seconds, depending on how clean the picker is.

One more important job during the blueberry season is the harvester machine. The harvester is this huge tractor-like machine that takes the blueberries off the bushes. The harvester shakes off the blueberries by hitting the bushes with these plastic poles. We use the harvester to pick blueberries that go to juice.
That job usually only takes three people. You have one driving and two on the bottom. There’s one person on the left and one on the right. The blueberries land in the lugs and the people on the bottom have to replace the lugs when they get full.

There are also good things about living on a farm. It’s not all work. Since we have such a big farm, we get to have a lot of parties. During all the summer holidays, like Labor Day, 4th of July, and Memorial Day, my whole extended family comes over. It’s not a one-day celebration. They usually stay three days. And those three days it’s partying all day and night.

We set up tents because we don’t all fit in my house. All the kids usually stay in the tents. The grown-ups get the beds. My uncles always grill everything. We really only use the kitchen stove to heat up water for coffee.

My family is a very athletic bunch. Mostly every single person in my family has played soccer for a team. Since we have a big backyard, we have a whole soccer field. My dad picks the captains and the captains choose their teams. It gets very competitive. I prefer not playing in the soccer games. We also play volleyball, softball, and sometimes kickball.

So living on a farm has its advantages and disadvantages. Fun and hard work. But at the end of the day, I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else!!!