Blackberry Time

We are back to black, berries that is.  Time to get the blackberries picked that will carry me through to next season.  Last year we picked 60 gallon ice cream pails full.  Each pail will make 12-13 cups of jam, or about half the amount of jelly.  There were still about 15 buckets left in the freezer by the time this year's crop began ripening.  I'm thankful for small mercies, and will pick quite a few less this year.  At the moment the count is 17 buckets.  Still a long way to go.

This is the time of year my hands seem to be permanently stained.  If I have to go out in public, I usually pour some lemon juice on my hands and rub it around and work it under my nails with a scrubbing brush.  It does help to fade the stains.  

The dogs are gorging themselves on the berries each time we go out to pick.  This leads to copious large black poops:(  We see coyote poop that looks the same, but I'm okay as long as I don't see any bear poop like we did two years ago.  I tried to get a decent picture or two of the dogs picking their own berries, but I failed.  Maybe tomorrow, or the next day, or next week.  The dogs will be eating them for another month at least.  Thank goodness we'll be done picking before then.