The ups and downs of our Saturday

Of course I finally got back to our secret patch and picked about 5 more pounds of blackberries. Bill was super sweet and made sure we left in the morning to TRY to beat the bugs since we were out of spray. The kids really just wanted to come along thinking they could sneak us into making time for the playground but there were lots of those underground wasp/bee nest all over that area the other day when we went so hubby told them that this was my day and we were going to do what mommy wants. He pokes fun at me with my berry picking obsession and made the comment to Panda who asked if we had enough yet, "Get use to it now, your mom could have a 5 gallon bucket full of these things and it would never be enough"... I responded "thats right, I would find a use for every single berry in that bucket which would just lead me to need more so I could make more stuff or freeze them". He is such a wonderful and giving husband. I could not ask for a better man to share my life with. He braves the brambles and bugs just so I can have a fix for my berry obsession... I love him. He so loves me...... Off the subject but a here's a little insight tidbit- When I met hubby- who was so not my type, I was trying to hook him up with a friend I brought here with me from Florida. He did not have the light hair blue eyes surfer body that I was always attracted/going after. It is amazing how you go out trying to find a soul mate but let the outside interfere with what you should be looking at which is inside. One day (like 2 months after I moved to Ohio) he came knocking on my cousins door (which he never comes over there but he for some unknown reason felt he would stop by) which I answered the door but was blinded by that wonderful first look into his hairless face that made me not recognize him. It was in that second my heart started pounding, my stomach got butterflies, and I actually experienced the beginning of that infamous love at first sight- I had no idea was happening to me. He of course was clueless and thought I was being weird and rude because i did not open the screen door to let him in and then once he let himself in I hung on his every word, laughed at his every funny, and soaked him with my attentiveness like a silly school girl with a crush. Again- He was clueless. So the word got out that I was interested in him and he finally agreed to take me out to his buddy's annual Harvest field Bonfire. October is a sort of sacred month to us. Our first date, our first kiss, it is also the month I become pregnant with Panda a year later, He proposed to me in that month a year after her birth, then in 2001 we married in that month. We have a deep love for the fall scenery that Mother Nature bestows upon us and every year when we see the leaves changing it connects us back to our begining and rekindles those butterflies in the sto

mach and sends my heart pounding when I look up at him in his eyes and he whispers "i love you stinky"....

On a different note, I received loads (2 truck loads to be exact), of cattle fencing. I still have 1 pickup truck load left to fetch. There is a man who raises exotic animals that was changing out his fencing -which is a very durable thick gauge but rusty or just old- and I thought I should stop to ask if he minded I take the old stuff off his hands. He was so nice he said I could have it all. I now have enough to fence in my entire property and still have some for separate pens. He let Panda harvest beautiful peacock feathers from under their roosting trees- he said they shed their feathers in July. I of course asked if he would be up for some Blackberry coffee cake if i brought it to him today. He said "of course! My grandmother use to make us pies and treats from all the berries we picked as a child, I have not had any in a long time." So when I go back today, i will take a few pics to show you his camel named henry and his uncountable uncatchable peacocks-there were even a few babies that were no bigger than a 2 month old chicken. Now I just need to find some free fence posts. Look what else I got free this weekend! Thats right! More bonfire wood! (hey ladies- can you use this pine in a wood burning heat stove for inside the house?) It is from the neighbor's yard. I asked the tree guys if they were going leave it or take it and the guys said I can have it. I told them just put it over the fence line so Hubby has it out of the way when He mows and starts cutting it up. 2 piles of pine! A total of 4 trees that were from 80ft to 100 some feet tall!