Bluets

We took these crazy animals blueberry picking at Underwood Farms in Somis.

The Martinez girls and the Reimer girls very seriously went about choosing the bluest, ripest, largest berries to fill their baskets.

Chachi, who abhors heat, worked very hard at whining and crying, and then he found a large stick, which made him feel a little bit better.

Madeline is carefully considering if a particular berry is worthy of her collection, while Chachi indiscriminately plucks berries from the bush and immediately eats them. If these farm folks were smart, they would have weighed him on the way in and on the way out. I'm sure he ate at least a pound.

Kylie's harvest.

Blueberry Patch Arte

From a distance, it appears as though three sweet, cheery girls are tripping carefree through the blueberry patch.

But, as you draw close, they are revealed as the much feared Blueberry Bush Gang. "You tryin' to mess with our berries?" they menacingly snarl as you run for your life!

"Take a piktchoh of me eeting one, mama."

She had a hard time making progress as, for every berry that made it into her basket, two made it into her mouth.

Every kid had her own style of hunting down the best blueberries. Ky liked to stay awhile and sample the goods, while Katie moved rapidly from row to row, scouting out the fullest bushes.

We finally caught up with Jen and Kim, who were blueberry picking machines. They picked 5 lbs. to our 1.5!

A VERY flushed Chachi is glad to be on his way out and is quite self-satisfied about sitting on the tractor bench and not on mama's lap.

He stood and shouted "DOG!" at this poor alpaca for several minutes.

Fiona and Katie, notorious members of the the Blueberry Bush Gang, hiding out under the hood of a truck.

The kidlets playing on the truck. Notice Fiona's hand creeping stealthily around to Chachi's neck.

Me and my dude, who was frankly rather bad that day. So cranky and demanding. I really wish Daddo would have been there, so I could have handed him off. He's even trying to squirm out of my hands in this picture. At least his shirt was cute.