Cook and drain the ground beef. Chop up the onion, peel and chop the potato and slice and quarter up the carrot - try to keep your chopping and quartering about the same size as you would for potato salad. Stir all the ingredients together in a huge pot and add 5 cups of water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to simmer and cover, simmering for about 1 hour, season to taste and remove bay leaf