I have not been too good about keeping this blog up, but it did not help when the last time I tried to log in the blog sponsor, evidently Google, was telling me that I needed to log in under a Google account, but if I wanted I could log in as I have in the past. Wrong! But tonight the blog sponsor must have relented and allowed me to log into my account. So I bring you pictures of our trip to Newberg go visit grandkids and return M. M had a Boy Scout day camp for the week that he had really been looking forward to. By Wednesday the poor kid had come down with a hard case of the stomach flu. When we left that morning he was Z'ed out on the sofa and missed camp.

We went to the berry patch and picked berries with S and the kids. U-pick berries are $.99 a pound--all types. I concentrated on blueberries. We ended up buying $30 worth of blackberries and raspberries. Really good stuff. J made some blackberry and raspberry Barbecue sauces.

The boys like to play with their friends in the neighborhood park which is only half a block away from their house. You can see G on the play set with some of his pals. He has lots of pals and is a very socialable fellow in the neighborhood. I see that S has not added to her blog in quite awhile, but I can attest to the fact that she has her hands full with a ten year old boy, an almost five year old boy, an almost two year old boy, and a three month old little girl. Dad helps, but during the day it is pretty interesting in the old neighborhood.

I have been sick for a few weeks with some kind of cold or another. The Doc in the Box gave me a round of antibiotics and a couple kinds of cough meds. He said it has been a particularly nasty species running around in the town. In our small burg they don't test for swine flu or any other nasties because it would mean writing reports and there is no time or staff for that falder rah. So who knows what I have had. I know it has stuck around for a few weeks and I still don't have my energy back. Heck, I have been taking naps in the afternoon. Geez!

Anyway I have been out huckleberrying last Thursday and Friday. I have two really good places, but I am going to let the berries ripen for a week before going out again at the end of this coming week.

The first two pictures show huckleberries. The temps have been in the high 90's but I have been picking at about 5000 feet. So the temps were probably more like about 85 where I picked, but huckleberries like to grow in the full sun so that was where I picked. The first day I finally was driven out by the mosqitos and the second day there were lots of flies. I finally stopped when I ran out of ripe berries and then scouted out the second spot. The second patch is alongside a road, so that might be picked out by the end of the week. The first spot is about a hundred yard walk up an old overgrown log skid trail. I doubt that anybody finds it and it is a really good patch. My mushroom hunting buddy and I found this patch while hunting mushrooms this spring. Berries in southern Idaho are quite a bit smaller than berries in northern Idaho so it takes a lot of picking. When all was said and done, I cleaned and put into containers about three quarts worth. J made a huckleberry coffee cake that is really good. I don't eat berries when I am picking because they make me thirsty. we have been eating huckleberries with breakfast. Really a nice way to have cereal.

Time to go,

Papa Coyote