The Amazing River Adventure

    My cousins are in town for only a couple more days so we decided that one of the last things we wanted to do with them was go canoeing and kayaking down the river. So today we borrowed two kayaks from a friend and rented another two kayaks as well as two canoes and made a day of it.  

    Truly -- it took the whole day . . . a whole wonderful day.

    The river wasn't terribly busy today -- despite having lovely weather so our trip downstream was really nice. I had to relearn how to steer a canoe, but everyone finally got the hang of it about an hour into the day. We all took turns in the canoes and the kayaks.   

 

One of my cousins found this tiny frog. It was so small it didn't feel real.

 

My mother loves times like these.
There's nothing like being all together, in nature.

    We packed a lunch and found a bank to stop and eat.

We did some wading and swimming and just enjoyed the break.

    It is so good to be back in my home state.  I have missed the trees, the tall grass, rivers & streams, the humid air and I especially have missed my family. It's so good to be home.

    What an awesome life I have!

Home Again -- For Just a Short Spell

Well I'm back for about a month. College keeps getting easier and more and more fun, but I will always love coming home. The sounds are different, the smells are different the AIR is different and it's just what I need to get back on my feet.

Every time I come home I am blown away by how beautiful this place is. When I'm surrounded by the gorgeous trees, streams, hills, lakes, flowers and people of this state it feels like heaven. 

We are rapidly approaching the peak of the harvest -- my favorite time of the year. I only have a month at home before heading west again and I plan on enjoying every minute of it!

What a absolute wonderful time to be alive.

Early Morning Pickers

        One thing that I miss every year now that I'm away at school January through July is blueberry season. It was always one of my favorite times of year -- along with apple cider and maple tapping  season. We have blueberry bushes of our own now, but they don't bare enough enough to freeze so we drive three minutes up the road to an Amish-run You-pick blue berry farm.

   We put on our belts and our buckets and let loose in the rows and rows of bushes. Because it's usually hot this time of year, we go in the early morning before breakfast and pick as much as we can before it gets too warm.

    The rows are so long that I've never actually been able to pick myself to the end of one. My bucket is always full before I reach the end. It's fun to go as a family because we like to talk as we pick. We talk about everything: the harvest, the books we're reading, what we're learning in school, world events, and lots of other things.

There are green berries, purple berries and blue berries.

     When our buckets are full we walk back up to the barn where they are weighed and we pay by the pound. We sure picked a lot this year with my aunt and cousin's help. They like to spend a half-month with us every summer and take the fresh produce back out west with them.

    After that, we sort them. Ripe berries in this bowl, almost ripe berries in that bowl, and not ripe-at-all-berries in another bowl. The green berries that were accidentally picked get thrown out and the purple berries that still have to ripen are spread out on cookie sheets and laid in the sun for a day before they're bagged ad frozen.

Sorting blueberries with our friends

    We use blueberries mostly in our morning fruit smoothies, but we also use them in Icy Jeweled Parfait, muffins and pancakes occasionally. The funny thing is that I don't particularly like blueberries to eat, but I LOVE picking them because I'm with the people I love.