Berry season report.

Location, At Home, CA

First, some unfinished business.
 
Berry picking season ended a few weeks ago. The last berries had a mushiness around the stem which effectively ended the picking. I did manage to pick 92 baskets this year. The baskets I use are the small strawberry baskets you get at the market or from fruit stands.

Most of the berries were juiced down immediately as we had little room in the freezer. Clyda then made both jelly and syrup which is really good on pancakes.

Today I cut off all the old canes which had fruit on them this year and put up the new canes which will bear fruit next year. Tomorrow I will water them good and that will be that until fall when they get fertilized with steer manure. Berries should not be over fertilized so no commercial fertilizer is used. I have been doing it this way for 40 plus years.
 
The learning of the new computer with Windows 7 continues. I now have the iTunes library moved over. I haven’t synced my iPod yet but have now reason to believe it won’t work.

There are starter versions of Word and Excel on my system and both seem to accept my old documents so that is a relief. I do need to install my copy of Family Tree Maker to keep up on family history and I need to get all my addresses moved over. I hope there is an easy way to do that.

We are being overrun with little bitty ants. They are everywhere. I sprayed around the house outside yesterday and today put out some bait in liquid form which they take back to the nest. In a few places the ants have found the bait and just covered the small pieces of cardboard I have the bait on. The remainder have nothing near them. It should take a few weeks for all the ants to disappear according to the instructions.

Not much happening.

Location, Home, CA

I have “burned” all of my airline miles making plans for trips this year. We used lots of them to fly to Florida for the start of our Panama Canal cruise and then I used another bunch for round trip tickets to Seattle for our nieces wedding in September. A couple days ago I used more to make reservations to see my folks in Wisconsin this summer and to attend an “all School” reunion for my hometown high school.

The school no longer exists as it was merged with a larger school. In fact the building itself is gone. That probably was a good thing as it stood next to the community hall which housed a beer bar in the basement. The school and bar were only about 25 feet apart. That distance is way closer than the minimum required by state law I would guess.

It’s funny; we hadn’t traveled by air very much the last several years and now we are burning all those miles all in one year. They will build back up again but it just takes time.

Not much else was going on here this past week, so, no blog since last Monday. I did attend two funerals this week, one for a neighbor and another for a fellow worker. Both died of cancer.

I picked the last of the berries today. Oh, there will be a few more ripen but we will be gone for a few days helping our friend Budd with some cement and brick work so what few berries are left can fall to the ground. I am taking my Aleve along for those aches and pains which are sure to happen by the end of each day after hard labor.

I doubt that I will post while we are gone.

It's berry season!

Location, Home, CA

For the past week I have been picking boysenberries every other day. The last two times I picked 6 baskets each day. I thought I would show the process used to pick, clean, and store the berries.
I have 2 rows of berries each 16 feet long. There really aren’t that many plants, however each plant has several vines which are strung on wires as they grow.

A view of the berry rows.

Close up of berries. The vines are heaviest with berries right now as picking has just begun.

Today’s picking.

The berries are washed and left to drain in a colander.

After draining, they are placed on trays for freezing.

After freezing they are placed in dated zip-lock bags for storage in the freezer.

Berries are thawed and made into jelly or cobblers as we need them. We still have a few berries in the freezer from last year.

Trip to Washington

Location, At Home

I am really behind with this blog as it has been almost 2 weeks since the last entry.

So, what has been happening since the last entry? Well, the bathroom is all painted and yes, I did need to get a can of Orange Peel spray and touch up the texture coat. I applied a coat of primer over that, then two coats of Glacier Bay satin enamel to finish. The color is between a green and a blue. Just like glacier ice looks like as the light changes. This all got completed before we left for Washington on Tuesday the 3rd of June. I also got most of the RV waxed. All but a small portion of the rear cap.

We left at 11 AM on Tuesday on Horizon Air which is a feeder line for Alaska Airlines. They fly CRJ-700 commuter jets. Nice aircraft with leather seats and they do serve snacks with juice or wine and Micro brew beer. In this day when few airlines do extras, Horizon gets my vote.

Clyda took this picture as we were boarding the airplane. The irony is that Michael has been accepted for school at Washington State University so we thought the plane decals were fitting for our trip.



We spent 2 days with Debbie and Thomas (friends of our son Tim) our friends also, in Portland, OR. The weather was rainy and cold but we managed to see the Rose Garden, downtown Portland, the river walk area and the new gondola. We also went wine tasting in the Yamhill valley and looked at a house Debbie wants to buy. Thomas was a gracious host and took us to two of the restaurants in the chain he works for. Fabulous food! Thanks Thomas and Debbie.

On Thursday afternoon, Debbie drove us to the airport and we caught the Horizon shuttle to Seattle. Our flight departed late but it is only a 55 minutes flight so that was ok. After spending an hour getting our rental car, being shuttled to the car agency, etc, we got on the road about 6 PM. It was probably better that we were late so the commute traffic could thin out. After driving for an hour we stopped for dinner at a nice restaurant called Maxwell’s in Marysville.

Another hour’s drive found us at our destination in Lynden, WA at Clyda’s sister Candi and her husband Mark. We were in Lynden last summer for three weeks with the RV. The real reason for this trip was to celebrate nephew Michael’s graduation from high school on Friday.

The weather was cold and showery all the time we were in Lynden but it was not raining for graduation which was good as everyone stood outside the gym afterwards to meet and greet friends. Lots of folks show up for graduation and the gym was packed. Along with Mark and Candi and Clyda and I were Marks parents John and Mryla from CA and Michaels sister Dawn who is a student at Seattle University studying ultra sound. More on this later.

Michael is an honor student and a member of the National Honor Society, a wood worker who has built several end tables and book shelves for his mother, has helped build a portable building as part of his school work and helped a friend build a house on Lummi Island. We did get Michael properly graduated. I don’t think he stopped smiling all day.



Michael will spend his first year in general studies at WSU (Wazoo) and hopes to enter the Architectural program starting his sophomore year.

Dawn has been going to school for 3 years and last fall was admitted to the Ultra Sound program at Seattle University. She was a last minute admit so had to scramble to find housing, get her grants and loans arranged and move to Seattle all within a few days. She is on the Deans List and loving the program. After a 4 week summer school she will be working a one year residency at the hospital in Bellingham. We are very proud of both Dawn and Michael and all they have accomplished the last few years.

The remainder of the trip was spent visiting and eating. Mark smoked ribs, chicken and salmon while we were there and was it ever good. Thanks Mark and Candi for a great week.

The return home wasn’t quit as nice as the alarm went off at 3 AM yesterday. We were out the door by 3:15 and arrived at the car rental lot by 5:30 after filling the car with gas. I should mention that the rental car was a Suzuki crossover (small SUV) which is the same design as Clyda’s Equinox. GM owned part of Suzuki until a few years ago so I guess they used a common design. We were back at the airport and through security by 6 AM. After a nice breakfast at Anthony’s Fish House, (thanks for the recommendation, Mark) we boarded about 7:45 and departed about 8:15 for a 2 hour 20 minute flight.

We arrived home to fog but at least it was warmer than Oregon or Washington. Neighbor Paul picked us up and we were back at the house by 11 AM.

After a nap, I picked boysenberries and later went to the Elks lodge for dinner. I watched the last half of the NBA finals. The Lakers managed to pull out a victory.

Today I worked in the bathroom putting all the hardware back on the walls and installing a GFCI outlet and new switches for the lights and fan. The outlet is wired to an outlet on the same wall in our bedroom so that is on the GFCI circuit also. I replaced the tub controls with new hardware which looks really nice.

I painted the baseboard and touched up a spot over the tub and painted the heat register to match the walls. After the paint dries I need to caulk along the baseboard and around the sink back splash and around the back of the tub. The caulk isn’t bad around the tub but it does need freshening up to match the rest of the room. It is amazing how much time I spent in this little room. There is no such thing as a quick paint job when all the other items are factored in.

Steak for dinner

Location, Home in CA

The sun is shinning but I can hear the foghorns so it must be foggy along the coast. I have never checked to see how close to the beach we actually are but my guess is about a mile as the crow fly’s. We often hear seals when it is quiet at night and we do hear the oil service boats also at night as they make their way up the channel to the oil platforms.

We just had dinner at the local beach restaurant. I had won a gift certificate as a door prize at my company Christmas lunch in December. We decided we should use it before we left. We had a really good meal. Mine was a small sirloin done to perfection while Clyda had salmon.

Starting this weekend, every hotel and restaurant in town will be filled because of graduation at the University. It is a hectic few days as thousands of grads and families come in for the ceremonies. This is a good weekend to leave town.

I picked 7 1/2 boxes of boysenberries today. That may be the biggest picking this season. I will pick twice more before we leave. I rinse and drain the berries and freeze them on cookie sheets then bag them in gallon size freezer bags. Clyda makes cobblers or when we have plenty she makes jam and syrup. Most of this we give away as gifts. Everyone likes something home made.