Those Beavers!

Ok, reality check this morning. You know you in the south when.....we were driving down the bottom half of the road that we live on. On the bottom half there are a couple homes, huge horse pastures, and good flowing creek. At least it was a good flowing creek. As I said Brint and I were driving home and saw two Ford trucks on the side of the road where the creek "bridge" was. And there where two good ol' boys with their overalls on and their ol' farmin' hats. Just scratching away at their heads.

We did know one of the older men. It was an uncle of our neighbor Amy (who we do our jam with). His name is Glenn. Brint stopped the car (since he is the most nosey person ever), and asked what was going on. Glenn said "Beaver!". Pause, pause, pause. You could hear crickets chirping at this point. Brint says "well what's he doing?". Glenn said "Building a dam!" Pause, pause, pause....crickets STILL chirping! Brint says "What are you going to do?". Glenn said "Get em'!" Brint said "Are you going to shoot him?" Glenn said "Nope, where going to catch him and take him to the creek by those new houses. That will teach them!"

What he is talking about are new housing development on Dogwood Rd. They desimated a beautiful hill that was half trees, and half rolling horse pasture. IT IS AWFUL!!! Brint and I agreed with him, thought about helping (just kidding), but just took pictures of what was left of the "dam" in the creek.

Now on to GRAPES!!

On Labor Day weekend our friends Susie and Anna invited us over for a Labor Day Pool Party and cook out. It was soooo much fun! We got to talking with them about the over abundance of grapes. They told us if we picked them, gave them a couple of pints of grape jam, we could have the rest. Wooooo, Hoooo!!! Oh wait, we have to pick all those grapes....oh crud!!

So we came back the next day, with our neighbor and partner, Mark, in toe. And we picked under the arbour (while trying not to make the honey bees and bumble bees mad), and the Wall-O-Grapes! They had so many grapes. In fact the vines had grown up into the Redwood trees. We got out our signature orange Home Depot buckets, pruning shears, and a ladder (more on the ladder in a minute).





Oh my gosh, the best part of all this was just looking at the beauty of the grapes. They were SO plump, and SO purple. If you just stood there and took in the smells, it just reminded me of home, of being in Napa and Sonoma. Aaaahhh!



Ok, so on with the ladder story. As you saw in the pictures above these grapes were huge and amazing. Brint was able to grab a HUGE cluster of grapes. They were sooo pretty that I asked Anna to take a picture of us, while Brint holds the grapes. So I am standing on the bottom step as the "weight", yeah...thanks a lot. Brint is standing two steps above me. I am holding the coveted Home Depot buck to catch the grapes, and I turn my body to face the camera. Anna is getting ready to take the shot, as Brint says "Hurry, my feet are starting to hurt." Two seconds later Brint falls (full weight) ON TOP OF ME!!! All on my top left shoulder and left...uh...well...chestage are. I leaned forward because of his weight (I will be kind and not say how much), he bounced off my shoulder and you know what.

Then he bounced off my back and butt, only to land ever so softly onto the ground. Uh, OOOWWW~!!! Of course I was totally to blame because I "made him turn around", and I put the crushed grapes under his shoes that made him fall. Yes, and I really wanted to be the catcher of my heavy-pound husband onto my chest (which turned a lovely shade of black, green, and yellow). I had to laugh (other wise I would cry, and people were watching) because Susie and Anna were both watching, with mouths agape. And the funny thing to was Anna was standing there with the camera, and wasn't able to catch the Argall Acrobats at all. So instead, here is the peaceful and happy picture before the "incident".

All the while, Cleo, Anna and Susie's dog, gave a look of "What the heck was that!?!?".

We have since canned most of the grapes, sold some to the restaurant in Candler and will soon sell some to our personal customers. My back feels better, and my "other" wounds have healed....all this for the bounty of the grapes and yummy jelly! Thanks again Anna and Susie for letting us pick...love you guys!!!!!