Day 47 - The Rooster's Alive!

Ah - all is well in our household!  Daddy is home!  While daddy fixed supper and entertained baby Grant; Clark and I went out to pick black raspberries.  Clark is a great little berry picker.  I went out to check on the chickens.  Clark deciding his hands weren't holding enough - went in to get a bowl from dad.  Much better!  

Back to the chickens.  The rooster I thought was caught last night - survived!  All I have to say is after losing that many feathers, coming out of it seemingly unscathed and showing back up to the coop the next day that guy deserves to rule the hen house.  I think I need to incubate some of his eggs.  Yesterday, I called him a prize rooster.  Yes, he has never won a "prize" but I think the title fits him - now, more than ever.  He won't end up in a stew pot anyway.  

Coming back from the chicken house I found Clark sitting on the grass smack dab in the middle of the back yard just chowing down on berries.  When he saw me he told me he needed the blanket we use to sit on outside.  So, I went to get it for him and he ate his whole bowl full while watching the cats play.  Plus, he still ate supper including more berries I picked!

Grant likes to play with the berries.  I couldn't capture a great photo - the one above was as close as I could get.  However, he kept sticking the berries on the end of his finger making a little finger hat.  This kept him entertained for quite some time.

While the boys played with dad after supper I went out and picked the next round of ripe berries (there were still plenty even after Clark's supper bowl).  I picked about 2 quarts.  Rinsed them, dried them with paper towels and put them on cookie sheets in the freezer.  Tomorrow we should have a gallon bag full of black raspberries in the freezer.  There are still a lot of red ones yet to ripen.  I would say good eats for winter but somehow I doubt they will last that long!

In an update to yesterday's blog I processed another 12 pounds of cherries - yielded 7 pints of canned cherries.  I had not quite enough for another quart so I decided to test the dehydrator I bought last weekend.  It worked great - only took half a day and I had nice dried cherries.  However, only about a 1/4 cup worth.  I may need to pick more cherries and dry them to utilize in holiday baking.