Blueberry Bounty

I don't know what happened to my last post, but I hope it doesn't look all goofy on your screen like it did on mine.  The blog people (whoever that is) changed the format of blogging, so I probably wasn't doing something right.  Why do they always have to change the format on technology every time I get comfortable using it?  Grrr..........Hopefully this post will turn out right.

 So last week we went to the cabin again, this time for the sole purpose of picking blueberries.  We got there on Friday night so Chuck could mow the lawn.  That way we could get right into picking after breakfast on Saturday.

So after breakfast, Chuck went outside and took care of that fallen tree that was blocking our winter snowmachine path, while I washed the dishes.

    

After the dishes were all washed, we got busy!

We started in some smaller patches that were hidden away from the big obvious patches.  We decided to save those two common patches for later, or for our friends if they come to pick, cuz those two patches are easy to find and easy to get to.

   

So we walked through the woods until we came to a patch and it took us about an hour and half to clean it out.  We were going to keep going to another patch that we knew about, but when I walked back to the bins to empty out my berry picker, I took a wrong turn and stopped dead in my tracks.  I looked down and there was another patch that we didn't know was there, just loaded with berries begging to be picked.  We spent another two hours cleaning out that patch.  And then our bins were full, so we had to quit.  We didn't even touch any of the patches that we knew about.  These two patches were just accidentally found.  So, we are telling our friends at church to please go there and pick some, cuz we can't pick them all, and I know that I will be picking more than I can use.

I also picked some rose hips as I saw them, because they make a great tea!

After about 4 hours or so of picking, we ended up with about 5 gallons, with some rose hips mixed in there.  So this week I am busy sorting and cleaning them so I can get them in the freezer.  I am already going to give some away today - to the guy that's remodeling our bathrooms for us.  Next week we are going to go and pick 5 more gallons.  And after that we'll probably make one last trip to pick more before they get overripe.  I will be giving away a lot of berries.

In my last post I told you that I was trying to get the curtains the right length.  Well, I lengthened them, and they are still a tad shorter than we would like, but they are at least below the bottom of the window, so I am going to just leave them.  The main thing is that we don't want any peeping toms coming along trying to peep in our windows while we're not there.  We know that some cabins get broken into, and thankfully so far we have been pretty lucky as far as that goes.

While we were there, the weather was absolutely PERFECT for berry picking!  It was at least 75 degrees out, and sunny.  We actually felt hot, so we were glad that it was also kinda "windy".  There was actually a burn ban because of the dry weather and the wind.  As much as we relished  that perfect weather, so did the flies!

When I went back into the cabin to get lunch ready, I walked in the door and all I could hear was a buzzing noise.  Flies everywhere!  Especially on the windows!

I've never seen them that bad and it was too much for me.  I emptied out the used water bin, cleaned up a little, gathered all my stuff and took it outside and told Chuck "I am not going back in there."  Chuck tried to vacuum them up, but it was like shoveling your driveway in the middle of a snowstorm.

After we ate, we hopped into the ATV and went for a ride on some paths.  Good thing Chuck had his chainsaw along cuz we came to a fallen tree that had fallen across the path.  After Chuck cleared it out, we kept going, and there was a moose in front of us running along the path.  It was interesting watching his long spindly legs running from behind.  I didn't have time to take a picture cuz he veered off the path and disappeared into the trees.  And then a minute later, we came to another block in the path - this time two birch trees.  So we got out and Chuck sawed it up into manageable pieces, and it took both of us about an hour to get it all off the path.

Anyhoo, about 5:00 we decided we should probably head back home.  So we went back to the cabin and Chuck went in there and did everything we normally do before we lock up.

I wasn't gonna go back in there!

So next week we are planning another ATV trip to Knik Glacier, and then more blueberry picking the day after that.  So next weekend will be fun and busy!