Celebrating the Fourth

The Hubs and I celebrated the 4th of July in true American fashion, I think. They're weren't fireworks or hot dogs (for me anyway), but I wouldn't have changed a thing.

We're still in the throws of what is being called "Stormpacalypse 2012", on Twitter at least. There's still no electric at my house and an empty fridge and freezer. However, we have gracious friends and family that have offered up their homes for us a place to cool down, do laundry and cook. Speaking of cooking, I spent all day on Monday cooking meat that had thawed in my deep freezer. I would have broken my heart to throw it out since it was the "good stuff" from Monroe Farm Market mostly. We also had some deer burger and deer roasts from the Hubs's kills last fall. I did throw out a lot of what was in the fridge because it wasn't even cold. But luckily, I had put off going grocery shopping, so there wasn't much in there to begin with.

Even though our week has been seriously disrrupted because of the power outage, we did exactly what we would have done yesterday if we'd had power. We went "jeepin", picked blackberries and visited with my in-laws.

We didn't pick berries that long, maybe an hour or so total, but we got about 4 gallons! We have a great spot with huge berries that you could spend all day and pretty much get as many berries as you would like. The Hubs and I both really enjoy picking them, even though it's hot, the blackberry vines are covered in briars and the bugs were terrible. Today I am paying for it with tiny burs still buried in my fingers. Still, it was worth it. I am planning on canning some of these whole. I tried that last year, and it really worked out well. I'll freeze some for cobbler-making, too. I may make a small batch of jam, but I still have some from last year, so maybe not.



Cobbler on the vine...



Of course, the jeepin was awesome. We don't get the chance to take our jeep out in the mud nearly enough. We need to do this more often.

The scenery in Clay County is devastatingly beautiful. Even with quite a bit of damage from the derecho. My in laws don't have electricity either and probably won't for a while. Extended family and a number of friends had congregated between my in laws home and my husband's uncle, who lives next door--mostly to share in the amenities of a generator that was able to power a couple refridgerators and several fans. But, the atmosphere was festive and everyone was pitching in to make a celebration for the 4th of July. Hamburgers and hot dogs were grilled, kids were playing in the yard and we all seemed to be brought together by our collective misery without electric in the heat. The icing on the cake at my in-laws is the pool. It's not huge, but it's enough to keep everyone cooled off in the heat. And boy, did it feel good after berry pickin in the heat all day.