Day 222 - Wednesday August 12

Jim spent several hours today mowing......I spent the same amount of time picking raspberries.

NEVER have I gotten so many berries in one picking......about 10 litres. Of course, the last time they were picked was Thursday evening, so it had been almost 5 days....but that means that there were more berries dried up, too.

No, I won't be making jam.....we don't eat enough jam to warrant that. What I do use berries for is my smoothies and/or yogurt in the morning.....or for a 'sweet treat' in the evening. Frozen, unsweetened berries cost quite a lot, so I've frozen my berries in small-ish containers to be thawed and used in place of the expensive ones from the store.

I'm also willing to share - if you want to come pick....as long as I get one picking a week. Of course, the yield will be beginning to drop, I'm sure. I'll definately need someone to come pick when I am gone to Montana.

Here is 8 of the 10 litres I picked:

Day 217 Thursday August 6

Jim's still not feeling very good, but he was getting a bit of cabin fever so he decided to come with me to town on my mission to get groceries for the weekend.

Before town, though, we took Andrew a jug of water at his worksite.

We came home, unloaded the groceries, and sat down to check our mail, etc. We were both a little tired (we'd done quite alot of shopping - at different stores) and Jim was especially dragging, since he still isn't feeling up to par.

Less than 10 minutes after we sat down, the dogs started barking and we were pleasantly surprised to find we had guests......Mom and Dad Hutch were in the yard, greeting the dogs. Needless to say, we sat down and visited them - getting the lowdown on Dad's appointment in Calgary with the Cardiologists.

Dad and I took a short tour of my garden to discover that the dogs have been enjoying the cabbage! (Emma had told me this before, but I thought she meant they were eating the leaves)

When I went into the house to unpack groceries and make us some supper, I discovered that there was a 'Mini Pansy' growing between the boards of the deck!

This little guy must have grown from a seed that dropped between the boards from one of the flowers that I grew last summer! Cool, eh?

After supper, we started working on our meal preps for the campout. Jim peeled and cooked potatoes. I cooked eggs and made Jello and ........I forget what else I made, but I also did quite a bit of packing so we'd be ready early in the a.m.

Mom helped me peel eggs.

Rob and Lana showed up during all this preparation......they came to pick raspberries so Lana could make a fresh raspberry sauce for pancakes on Saturday morning.

Lizzy helped her mom. They got a full pail of berries.

Robert and Titus stayed inside and visited with Grampa.

A long, busy day.......Mom and Dad went over to visit at Ritchie's for a couple hours after Mel got home then came back to sleep in our spare bed (which THEY put clean sheets on for me). That is something else I did today - laundry and putting clean sheets on both beds.

Day 213 - Sunday, August 2

Jim and I spent another quiet day since he is feeling quite sick.

I accomplished a few things, however.....

I picked tomatoes from my inside plant - there were about 10 that had ripened in the last 2 days.

We took a walk around the yard to find a few things that had blown off the deck in the storm the night before......I found this, laying on the ground beside one of the pine trees......

The egg is empty and the nest sports pieces of Lucy's hair!

Later, I spent time in my raspberry patch.....

The raspberries are full of thistles so I must wear long sleeves, jeans, and boots to pick berries. Normally, I take care of this job early in the day so it is not too hot. Today, I went out in the middle of the afternoon - not so smart.

In spite of the heat, I got 3/4 of a pail of berries! Not bad for the first picking.