Pickin' and Strippin'

I have to say that pickin' my own berries has become one of my favorite spring and summer activities.  To see where they come from and to hold those beautiful berries in your hand is pretty cool.  What I enjoy more though is watching the joy on my kiddos' faces when they pick a berry and eat it, letting the juice just run freely down their face.  Priceless!  We are so blessed to have several places where we can pick our own berries and let me tell you that the Hinkle family took FULL advantage of it.

The strawberry season was very short here because of the cold winter and wet spring.  The Hinkle house was very sad about this because we love strawberries and picked some amazing ones last year.  In true Hinkle fashion, we made do and I believe still fully enjoyed all that the red goodness had to offer...well at least Harrison did.  This was the first year that the boys really "helped" and "picked strawberries".  Mac followed me around and held the bucket.  Harrison happily ate the berries that we picked and put in the bucket.  I really should have weighed him before and then after we picked to be fair to Blann Berries.

Just when I was getting depressed about the number berries left to bake with, blueberry season started.  Boy oh boy do we have blueberries.  So, evidently blueberries and raspberries love cold and wet weather.  We so enjoyed spending time picking with Mamaw, Papaw and Aunt Tammy. The crop was great and I learned that I have a new love.  BLACK RASPBERRIES!  To say that I might be obsessed is an understatement. I ate an entire pint by myself in one sitting.  Yummy!

 

So my father-in-laws face is just priceless in this picture.  He LOVES to pick blueberries and to see the pure joy and simple, sweet happiness just makes my heart so full.

Now, I probably got your attention with the second word in the title of this blog, Strippin'.  Now that we are country, we really like to do country things.  Dirt, water and creeks are a big favorite among the Hinkle kiddos.  Jerry, my father-in-law, had parts of a field drainage ditch redug last month so we decided that we needed to explore and check out the work.  What I learned is that Mac has no interest in wet sand touching his toes.  He would have no part of it and was quite content playing in the sand with his trucks.  Emily and Harrison on the other hand loved it.  They ran, splashed and tried to catch dragonflies.  Harrison, I do believe, would have stayed in the water all day if I would have let him.  Poor boy got so dirty and wet that the only solution was to strip him down.  I tell people that that boy was born country.  Loves to be barefoot, outside in the dirt and with as little clothing on as possible. Love my little country boy!

Loves his trucks and the sand

Pretty country girl

Just a typical day in Harrison's world