We went blueberry picking the other night with Kendall's parents. We found a nice spot with lots of little blueberry bushes about 45 minutes out of town.
For those of you from the Midwest, you might not know that blueberry-picking here is quite different from Michigan. I remember the first summer I visited the North. We were walking through the bush and Twila was commenting on all the blueberries. I quietly looked around and never let on that I did not see one blueberry bush in sight! Of course, I was looking for Michigan blueberry bushes, which are 6 feet tall. The bushes up here barely reach 12 inches. But they are plentiful and wild and free.
So, back to my story… So we went out to look for blueberries Sunday evening before the big hunt on Monday. (My wonderful mother-in-law is hard core when it comes to blueberry-picking, so we needed to prepare the night before.) We, of course, took 4-wheelers out with us to scout for berries. So some people (I'll let you guess which gender) took the 4-wheelers and the boys and drove around looking for good spots to pick. The others of us walked around and started picking. As I picked I got very involved in what I was doing. I would pick one area and then raise my head just enough to see another clump of bushes a few feet away and move over there. I was aware of sounds around me, but had to remind myself to look up from time to time. (I know, you're thinking that a bear cub is going to come up behind me and start trying to steal my blueberries.) That didn't happen, but as I picked I was thinking about Blueberries for Sal. First of all, I heard the kaplink, kaplank, kaplunk of the blueberries in my bucket. Then, I was aware of the fact that bears like blueberries too and they hang out in good blueberry spots. And I realized how involved I got in picking and how it would be easy to keep your eyes on the ground as you moved around, just listening for the sound of a child with you. So every once in awhile I made myself stand up and look around, just to make sure that a bear and I were not going to surprise each other.
By the way, to raise my awareness of bears even more, Kendall came back from scouting and told us that he had seen a mama bear and 2 cubs. A bear by itself is one thing, but to come across a cub with a protective mama is a different matter. So when we returned Monday morning for the real hunt I was extra aware (but not terribly afraid) of the probable nearness of bears.
After a couple hours Twila, Leonard and I had picked several gallons. (You may notice that there is a name missing from that list. The other person was very busy "scouting" for blueberries on the 4-wheeler.) I was proud just to get about half of what speedy Mom got. We came home and stayed up until late cleaning blueberries and chatting.
The next morning was the big event. Mom, Kendra and I took the boys back to the same general area. The boys and I lasted until noon, then we headed home. But in that small amount of time I did get to hear whining about "I'm hungry." (In the middle of lots of blueberries and raspberries!) And for some reason the already-picked berries in my bucket were so much more appetizing to Evan than the berries still on the bushes. Twila and Kendra were out there all day long. They were rather pooped by the time they got back that evening. But they did get lots of blueberries- enough to last them the whole year.
And (not sure if I'm disappointed or relieved) no bears were spotted on the day of the big blueberry hunt.
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