Irish Roots (literally)

This past week was the annual community service day for LIVESTRONG. For the past few years, we've spent half of a day doing volunteer work in the Austin community the rest of the day at our annual picnic. Both are nice events, and a good break from work and our normal routines.

This year we decided to only volunteer at East Austin based organizations as a way to show our support of our local community and neighbors. As the head of our Sustainability Committee at work (note: Sustainability in the green/eco/environmental sense) I was asked to organize one of the activities and contacted our local farmers at Johnson's Backyard Garden (JBG).

They deliver our CSA (community supported agriculture) to work each week and it felt like a great place to give back to. After organizing 20 of my colleagues, we hit the road to JBG on Thursday morning for some potato harvesting. Yep, potatoes.

In true Texas style, we had some crazy weather for a few hours that managed to impact our work; but not our spirit (yes, that's cheesy - but true!)

After about an hour of potato harvesting, which includes shoving your hand (nope, I didn't bring gloves) into some dirt, scooping out a potato plant, pulling off the viable potatoes and tossing the greens, the weather started to change.

The sky was getting very dark, the temperature dropped at least 20 degrees and lightning could be seen in the distance.

The rain began - light and refreshing at first. Within an hour it turned into torrential downpours and hail. We quickly took to shelter and realized our farming was going to be cut short.

Despite my extremely muddy shoes, soaked clothes and dirty hands and nails, I had a great time. I learned something new and felt proud to work side by side with my colleagues who never complained about the hard (and dirty) work.