Blackberries!!!!!

One of the benefits to living in Northern California is blackberry season.  In late August and early September there is an abundance of berries to be had...you only have to pick them.  It seems only fair, we do have an abundance of blackberry briar to contend with for the rest of the year. The stuff grows everywhere, whether you want it or not.

Yesterday we went in search of the bounty.  Our plan was to pick enough for a pie, and if we got lucky we would try for enough to make jam as well. Once we found our target location (that is a secret) we split up and began picking. It seems like this year is a late season, as there are still a lot of berries on the vine that are not ripened yet.  It also seems like a lot of people beat us to the "pick".  We managed to get a decent haul, about 5 quarts of fresh berries between the 3 of us.

The problem with berry picking is it is slightly addicting. It is hard to stop picking once you have started, and once you get home and have processed them...you want more. Of the berries we picked yesterday we had enough for a batch of jam, pie, and 2 bags of frozen berries for pies later this winter. I am already planning my next foray....if I can talk the friends into it maybe we will go this afternoon.

Spay and Neuter Your Pets, People!

Two weeks ago I spent my weekend catching cats.  It was not a relaxing, nor peaceful weekend. I was up in the early hours, heading down the hill in order to set the traps and bait them. I spent hours walking back and forth retrieving traps with cute fluffy and scared kittens, and extremely pissed of adult cats, and resetting new traps. On the first day I caught 2 adults for spaying, and vaccinating. I caught 6 kittens for (hopefully) taming, fostering and placing into homes. The second morning I caught 1 more adult, who subsequently was neutered, and vaccinated. It took me 2 more days of trapping to catch the last straggling kitten.

How did I come to spend my precious 2 days off doing this, you ask?  Well, my office has feral cats that my coworker has been feeding over the years. She loves these cats, and was worried hurting or scaring them.  So, when this latest batch of kittens popped up I finally convinced her to let me catch them for spay and neutering. After contacting the Humboldt Spay and Neuter Network to make arrangements for the cages, and coordinate pickups I had my plan.  For $35 per cat we would get a spay or neuter, rabies and distemper vaccination and deflea/deworming.  Each kitten would go to a foster home to try and get them used to human contact so they could get fostered.

It was an emotionally draining weekend. I felt bad for stressing out the adults, and scaring the babies.  I know, pragmatically, that it was the right thing, the best thing for the cats...but it still kind of sucked. Overall, it went pretty easy. The last kitten caused me a bit of angst when I thought about it all alone, without his brothers and sisters, so you can imagine my elation when I caught him and reunited him with his siblings.

I am done trapping now, and saw my contact for the cages the day she brought the adults back to be released. She brought 2 of the kittens so I could see them. She said they are all getting used to people and handling, including the last little guy. This makes me very happy.