Roadrunner wrote:
Sory folks, I don't shot people..see you tomorrow...have a good one...Jim
Just thought of something, a pic of my podnah and a related story...
When You Leave Two Old Men Unattended
The phone rings,
Whatcha doin?
Not much.
Be there in 15 minutes
That was my podnah.
He came by and we jumped in my truck and we headed out. My wife was at the mall and his was sleeping,
Good, we got the whole afternoon to ourselves.
We had pretty much wasted three blueberry patches and although we had a couple more hidden away, we are always on the lookout for new places, keeping our good ones as backups. Yesterday we saw a fellow picking, so we went into the woods and skirted him, and went picking. On our way out we saw fresh prints on the sandy road and consequently found where he quit the road and went into the bush. We followed his trail until we saw him, then turned around and headed back. Today we went there, knocked off the remaining berries and headed back to the truck. We each had a bucket full, thats why we took off. Anyway good pickers usually have a slew of buckets in their truck or whatever, and we each had five or six. Found some deer tracks and also a virgin blackberry patch nearby.
My podnah saw a woman with two kids walking along the roadside, each had a bucket and it was surprising to see them out there on foot, so he drove slowly further on down the road and watched them in his mirror and finally they turned off the road and into a field. That was all he needed.
This field was once a hay field which belonged to a fair sized farm but the farm was sold off and divided up. Well someone bought it, made a huge garden and sold his produce out of a cottage at the end of the field. He also planted blueberries and later on he quit gardening and the place went up for sale again, but André and I would pick those berries. We used to snare rabbits out there until it became illegal. We didnt stop because of the illegality, but because there were no more rabbits. Nobody knew about the berries and wed pick and pick.
Then a city guy bought up the lands and while the ink was drying on the contract, he went out and every hundred feet put up No Trespassing signs. He then mowed the field clean and kept it mowed, which blew the blueberry patch for the time being. We watched him, not trusting city people who move to the country and he would show up on Friday evenings and leave late Sunday afternoons. He would dress like a farmer and all, probably watched Green Acres back in the day and hed be a weekend farmer. Thats all right with me. He never spoke to anyone, giving the impression that he trusted no one and if we passed by on foot hed stare at us as though he owned the road too.
That woman went right into that spot in the field, which had not been mowed this year. The next day we parked away and came back under cover of the roadside brush and filled our buckets. The lady must have been a friend or family of the owner because she picked clean
city people do that you know. We take the nice berries and leave those pinhead sized ones alone. We mutually agreed that it was a one-shot deal
pick fast and leave, do not return this season.
When you are out on a back road doing whatever and a car drives slowly by and the driver waves, youd better find something else to do because he is scouting. One of our tricks is to carry a plastic bag and when one drives by, we make out that were collecting empties from the roadside ditches. Hes satisfied and drives on, and after he has gone a piece we whip out our buckets or chainsaws continue our project for the day.
This has been a season which will be remembered for years to come. Blueberries all over the place, and huge too. I like to keep those that are say, ½ 1 in diameter as they seem to be the juiciest. Anything bigger, say like 2 3 in diameter are drier and those three inchers have a tendency to be empty in the middle, like they grew too fast. However if you peel those big ones, as the pulp is much softer than the skin, and you add some maple syrup or a shot of Porto, they make a terrific jam. I also tried making jam one time using the smaller ones and I added some chipotle, but the end result was not what I had expected. Apparently blueberries and capiscums do not do well together.
There is something else about unattended old guys. They always will wind up with something to talk about, to bring home or just to mentally mark the place for future reference. This one time not too long ago we were out back of here and came across some fresh cut wood, all in four foot lengths and just laying around. From experience we knew that the telephone company will cut when working a line. The thing is that they cut, they chip up the branches and leave the good wood for the owner. In this case, we knew that the owner was a fellow who owned half the area there and we knew that the wood would rot there, so we filled the truck up. In 10 minutes, the truck was filled and we were gone.
After dumping the wood in our woodlot, we casually drove home looking for all the world like two old men wasting their time driving around in a pickup.
This story is included in a book I am writing entitled ''Second Cup Morning Meanderings''