Of course, we live in West-by-God-Virginia where mountain goat commandos go to train.  Our new location is significantly more hilly than previous years so picking in our new secret spot has been interesting and a little prickly.  I have to wear soccer cleats so I don’t slide down the hill through the briers.  I really wish I was more successful at that.  Anyhow, because of the danger (yes, the hills are steep enough that it is dangerous), the kids are not picking this year.  They mostly run around and look for new spots for me to scale.  I think they have grown up a good bunch though.  They still fight like mountain goat commandos and mountain lions, but not while we are working on berries…and that’s worth a big hee-haw from me!

so much for focus...

Aside from the hills being interesting, our new spot is farther into the woods and we have been assaulted by a few ticks this year.  Ticks suck.  I think I hate ticks and roaches more than about anything…not sure why because bugs in general don’t offend me, but I am personally offended when I see either of my nemeses.  Alas, I shall push on in pursuit of the berry.  The blackberry pie calls to me…I must heed its call!

Time to go picking...

Emily went on down to the West Virginia Parkways Authority and bought our transponder.  Basically we just had to load a $20 credit on our device (which required a $5 refundable deposit).  The device hangs on the windshield behind the mirror and is out of sight.  Now get this, it took Emily mere minutes to fill out the paperwork (at a government agency) and walk out of the building with our very own you-can-use-the-empty-lane-on-the-toll-roads transponder.  Instead of the typical $2 per stop, with the E-Z Pass system, the toll is only $1.30…so on our trip, we saved$4.20 which almost covered my recommended daily allowance of Mountain Dew for the trip down.

Do you ever feel that special happy feeling down in your belly when you get to do something cool that puts you in front of other cars, saves you some money and speeds you on to the beach faster than normal?  Yeah, me too.  We took pictures of cars around us and the empty lanes each time we came upon a toll booth…I was like a kid in a toll booth shop!

Boats always anchor near the lawn to hear the music

but they have to dodge the gigantic coal barges that pass by...

One of the views from our seats...the WV Capitol

It rained in the morning so we didn’t even think of attending many of the events, but by the early evening, all was clear so we packed up our lawn chairs and headed to Kanawha City (the part of the city where the University is located).  We tend to sit towards the back of the group as our kids need room to fully appreciate the event.  Many people with kids hang out there and it usually works out pretty well.

The Symphony chose a “Wizard of Oz” theme for their performances and played many numbers that were in or referenced the movie.  It was pretty cool aside from the fact that there were quiet parts of several songs which were inaudible from the back.  As my father-in-law says in reference to the violins, “they need to do more sawing and less plucking.”  If they added one more row of speakers, I bet we could hear the plucking too!

The WV Symphony...we were waaay back

The Capitol was beautiful at night though I think they need to check on it...it seems to be leaning a bit

Anyhow, most of the performance was cool except for the pockets of white trash who decided to break out their boxes of wine and drink out of plastic dixie cups.  Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with box wine, but many of the folks put on airs of culture and high living.  As you might guess, they were as tacky and ridiculous as can be.  In my mind, I am thinking, “this ain’t high living…you fools are ignoring the music, drinking wine from a box and sitting on the wet grass in heels.  By the way, nice big wet spot on your butt…bring a chair next year.”    Folks came decked out in their Sunday best and did their very best to go on and on about their lives and generally make it hard to hear the music and even harder to ignore their inanity.

Ok, sorry…that all sounds like I didn’t have fun…I definitely did have fun.  We played some and we ate good ice cream and had a great time all together.  The WV Symphony is awesome and a great thing for the state.  The show always finishes with fireworks and that show was the highlight for most people there (based on the cheers).  It was a pretty cool show…a river barge floats into place on the river adjacent to the University’s lawn and we all get to see the show up close…

(Maybe the fireworks were my favorite part too…)

I suppose it looked a lot different (duh) but uncertainty was no doubt a part of their lives as well…especially after losing whomever was buried under that mound.  I guess it’s a part of life and all but I am not sure I am exactly delighted with the craziness that seems to be going on now with Jamaica and North Korea and and BP oil and Greece and the economy in general.  I’ll tell you one thing, I am certain that the time we spent climbing the Mound was time well spent.  I guess the uncertainty that the original builders must have felt and which caused them to build such a monument gave me a sense of certainty in the love I have for my family and the simple times we share together.

Fun with tilt shift from atop the Mound!

We filled 7 ice cream buckets to overflowing and weighed in.  All told, we had about 32 pounds of berries!  The best part is that the kids even helped pick!  We jumped in the car hoping to get home before Isaac ate every last strawberry.  Though he made a run at eating 32#, we did make it home with a few berries.  All four of us started making jam though the kids were tired after a batch each.  They wanted to take a jar to their teachers that they had made.

Emily and I continued on into the night making jar after jar of jam.  Isaac in particular like strawberry jam so the 43 half-pints we made may last us the year (and may not).  We still have somewhere around 8 pounds of berries to go…not sure if that will be jam or something else yet.  We have a fair bit of cleanup yet to do.  Of course, it is impossible to make jam without making stuff sticky and our floor is sticky indeed.  I have mopped it several times but my socks still leave little fuzzy footprints when I walk in the kitchen.

And by the way, when you make strawberry jam, make sure you use a huge pot to boil your mixture.  We forgot since last time and we boiled a pot of sticky strawberry syrup over the edge of the sauce pan we had and onto the hot burner on our (wretched) glass-topped stove.  You guessed it…it caramelized and tried to burst into flame.  We never saw fire, but our house was full of smoke before I could get the mess cleaned up…so, word to the wise, use a huge pot to boil the mix!  Luckily we had a better pot so subsequent batches were fine!

It was fun to clean up too!

We met the “finder” and some family/friends and the kids were super friendly and excited to check out how the whole “catch-a-swarm” thing goes down.  Isaac and I showed them the hive box and our equipment and talked with them about all sorts of questions they had.  We finally decided we better get busy before rain or dark made it tougher.  I held the branch and Isaac cut it and we had ourselves the first swarm of the weekend.

Sunday afternoon, I got a call from Charleston’s metro 911 service.  They reported a swarm of bees near the United Bank building in downtown Charleston.  Charleston is WV’s largest city so we have all sorts of business, medical and legal buildings here including several high-rise buildings.  Anyhow, the United building is a pretty large white building in the center of the city.  I drove around once looking for a swarm hanging from a tree in the courtyard or someplace more “typical” for a swarm of bees.  Finally I found them on a barrier in front of the building.  It really wasn’t much of a swarm by the time I got there.  I figure the real swarm had probably moved on and the remaining bees were ones that had been out scouting for a new home.  Anyhow, there were enough bees that I had to remove them so no one would come upon them and get hurt (or act stupid).

I parked around the side of the bank adjacent to the swarm.  As I was hauling my equipment out, it occurred to me that I may end up meeting the swat team.  ”A bald-headed guy wearing a camo shirt carrying a ladder and a mysterious white box has been spotted walking down Virginia street…all units respond!” went through my mind given the recent stuff happening in New York City.  Anyhow, I donned my suit and moved the bees from the pole to my hive box and headed home as quickly as I could.

As swarm weekends go, I think this was a pretty good one and we had a good time catching them…nothing beats catching a swarm, especially when we have an audience!

More swarms…

In other news, we had a bit of an adventure with the little orange kitten this weekend…I think you will enjoy!

By itself, their presence wasn’t great for Charleston or WV, but Charleston’s response showed the greatness of the city and its people.  I suppose 200-300 people came out to tell the haters to go home.  Most folks didn’t hate back, they just asked them to go home.  I think a lot of people in the city sort of bonded together and that is always good for community.

I wonder if they paid the licensing fees to the WVU for using their symbol

I know this is hateful, but it was my favorite sign

I initially participated in a flashmob (that was announced to the media so was less flash-like) to say something like, “you can hate, but we aren’t about that…we’re gonna dance”.  Charleston’s Covenant House, a community action group that helps disadvantaged folks, started the flash mob idea.  At every protest (and there are many) the flashmobbers are going to do the dance (video below).  Some say that we played into their plan of more attention, but I think they are drawing attention to themselves and the media is going to cover that anyhow.  As long as they cover it, these people won’t go away.  So, we decided to try to steal some of their media coverage and we did…and we strengthened community a bit more.

Unbelievable, bringing their kids...

Anyhow, after the flashmob, a ton of people headed to the front side of the capitol and basically tried to surround and hide the Westboro people.  People from here brought signs and posters and flags to hold in front of the hate signs.  People came out in numbers to surround the protesters and their message and, in a non-violent (and mostly non-hateful) way, told them they aren’t wanted here.

Pretty cool video capturing the flashmob as well as the other protesting – some good and a little rougher:

I was proud of Charleston and WV.  While Westboro people spewed hate and exploited their kids, we came together in unity and had a great time showing that diversity is great and fun and to be celebrated!

Isaac attends a pretty small school.  Their team sets up their shooting range  in the cafeteria, which, of course, is pretty small.  Apparently they can only shoot at a distance of 10 meters.  Isaac practices a lot and has become a really great shot at that distance.  He just seems to have an eye for it.

As a little side-step, it sort of cracks me up that there is a school sponsored “weapons in the classroom” program state-wide.  Anyhow, Archery in the Schools is a fantastic program and lets a lot of kids participate in a sport who otherwise may not be able.  The Civic Center in Charleston was packed this weekend with kids from all over the state.  These kids were a great bunch but most were not your typical jock.  Many came in camo and boots and looked like they were ready to go out in the field immediately after the competition.

Isaac’s school shot in the first group.  Each archer got a practice round of 5 arrows at 10 meters followed by 3 volleys of 5 arrows each which were scored.  After the 10 meter shoot, the students shot the same way from 15 meters.  Click this link to see a video of Isaac shooting.  He is target #2.  I love the sound of all the arrows hitting the targets!

Isaac shot his 10 meter round and did absolutely fantastic.  Remember I mentioned that they could only shoot from 10 meters at his school?  Well it showed in the 15 meter competition.  At the 15 meter range, I suppose Isaac got only half what he got at 10 meters.  He was pretty disappointed.  His grandparents just bought him one of the competition bows so I suspect we have a good bit of shooting ahead of us this summer…at 15 meters.

And who says they don’t teach the metric system in schools…

How the garden area normally looks

We’ve had a bunch of snow this year in WV and it is melting.  Showshoe Mountain in WV actually had more snow this year than they had at Vail, CO.  Snowshoe had 227 inches while Vail had 223.  So, couple the melt with a good bit of rain and we’ve got flooding around Charleston and elsewhere in WV.

Note the fence and white birdhouse posts

The same view...you can barely see the white posts

There's the fence

We live on top of a hill in Charleston so we don’t really have any any danger from flooding at our house.  Our garden, the one I have been itching to get into, is at Emily’s grandparents’ house which is near the river and a creek that drains one of the big nearby hollers.  It is currently under about 5 feet of water.  Nearby houses have significant amounts of water in them and many folks have been forced to leave their homes.  Even with the flooding, the Corps of Engineers report that flood control dams prevented the water from coming even higher (check out the pictures.  We were planning to have Abigail’s birthday party at the South Charleston Rec Center pool…which is now under water).

It’s hard to complain when I consider that our family is safe and our house is intact.  Nonetheless, I am still bummed that the garden is under water and my garlic that was planted last fall is undoubtedly ruined.  I suppose I will have a chance to work in he garden soon enough.  First order of business will be hauling off the trash that washed in.  We’ll have to find a compromise with the ducks and fish we have seen in our garden and consider a new place to plant our garlic this coming Fall.