Blueberry Pickers {for the Third Time}

When I look back over the measly 65 posts that I've written for the blog this year (well, it will be 66 when I publish this) ;-), I begin to berate myself for failing so completely to capture 2017 in blog form.  So many high points of the year, so many significant happenings, never made it to the blog; and although I still tell myself that I'll go back and catch up on what I missed, I know realistically that I won't be able to get nearly everything written down that I had intended to record.  It feels pretty pathetic right now.

Another odd thing is what did manage to find its way into blog posts: little snippets of daily life, rather than exciting and special events, for example.  Take June--I didn't make the time to write up a post about Josiah's 15th birthday, but I did do a post about freezing peas.  Really??  Was that more important than my firstborn turning 15??

So yeah, it feels pathetic.

But I'm going to do it again.

Tonight I wish I had the stamina to stay up to do a lovely, long post about the birthday Shav just had.  But no, instead I'm going to do a quick post about our trip to the blueberry farm, and then call it a night.  Maybe I'll get to Shav's birthday tomorrow.  ;-)

At any rate, this was the third year we made the trek to the blueberry farm to harvest delicious, healthy blueberries there.  The first year, I was heavily pregnant with Benjamin.

 The second year, I was glad to have him on the outside!

And this year, he didn't even get to go along!  He wasn't sad though: he got to stay at my dad's house and PLAY WITH TRACTORS, an activity that he LOVES doing.  :)  And I got to pick without wondering where my inquisitive toddler was and how many blueberries he had managed to stuff in his mouth and whether he was breaking branches or otherwise getting into trouble.  :)

Benjamin wasn't the only Fisher boy that stayed behind.  Tobin was invited to go along with our wonderful friend Cindy to ride horses (and that deserves a blog post of its own!), so I left him and Benjamin at my dad's; and then when Cindy came to pick him up, Tobin was able to go riding.  I missed his helping hands in the blueberry patch, but I was thrilled that he got to ride.  :)

As it turned out, our crew seemed small this year!

My apologies for the poor picture quality.  It's from my cell phone, which I passed off to some random person standing in line to pay for the berries, so that we could get a group picture right before we left.  Next year, I should take my good camera to get a better shot!

My apologies again if this picture led you to believe that I might be pregnant.  I am not.  I could say that it looks that way because of the way the fabric of the shirt hangs.  Maybe it's time to get rid of that shirt.  ;-)

Maybe it's time to get rid of that weight.  ;-)

As in other years, the bushes were loaded with fruit which made picking a pleasure--especially because the bushes have grown noticeably during the past two years, so I didn't have to lean over nearly as much but could pick while standing upright more than in the past years.  I was quite happy about that development!  :)

 I was really grateful to have the help of four of my kids; it makes the job go so much faster than it would otherwise!

In the group picture above, you might wonder what the tall things are that Josiah and Shav are holding: it's actually bamboo!  Shav remembered from past years that they have a patch of bamboo at the blueberry farm and that it was a troublesome enough plant that the owners were glad to get rid of it (or some of it).  We inquired today to see if they might still be of the mindset to pass some along to others, and indeed they were.  I offered to pay, but they brushed that aside; and in the end, Shav came home with a LONG bamboo staff--two, in fact.  Moriah has claimed the other one, but it's so long that she can hardly handle it.  Maybe she'll grow into it.  ;-)

We kept some of the berries to eat fresh, but tonight I got the rest ready for the freezer--30 pints!  It's such a rewarding feeling in the middle of hot summer to know that we're getting ready for cold winter, for evenings when we'll eat supper long after it's dark, and I'll make pancakes, and the kids will be excited, and I'll pull some blueberries out of the freezer to use for the blueberry sauce...and when I do, we'll catch a taste, a whiff, a sensation, a memory of the heat of July and a beautiful drive through the countryside, all the way to the blueberry farm.