Wild Blackberries & a Future Farmer

Andy's Papa Gene, Evan's great-grandfather, is one of Evan's favorite people. He's told his papa that he wants to be a farmer like him. So, Papa Gene sectioned off a pretty good-size chunk of his garden to be Evan's garden, and Evan helped him plant lots of vegetables out there, and goes over there periodically when things are ready to be picked. His MeMaw and Papa even humor him by buying things from him, like squash for $1.00 and beans and things like that. Evan feels like a serious farmer selling produce over there. Well, at our house the back yard drops off in a pretty steep cliff. Technically, the cliff is on a Georgia Power easement, which means that our property line goes half way through the easement, and Georgia Power has the right to do whatever they need to do to get to their power lines, including tearing down a fence if we happened to put one out there. So, we've never fenced off the cliff, but just let the edge of it grow up really high so if anyone were to get too close and fall off, they would be caught by tons of thick, wild shrubbery. This year, we happened to have tons of wild blackberries show up in all that shrubbery, which Andy's grandparents just love, so I went out and picked about a half gallon of blackberries to give to them since they've done so much with Evan in the garden and we're reaping the benefits of lots of fresh, home grown vegetables. I went as far as I could stand in the thorns without falling off the cliff and cutting myself up too bad on all the thorns that come with blackberry bushes, although I did spend a little time picking thorns out of my hands, and even the back of my neck from leaning in a little too far at one point. Andy's grandparents were thrilled at the blackberries, but when Papa Gene heard that there were a TON more that I couldn't get to, he asked if he could come over and give it a try. So, this morning he showed up bright and early, and he and Evan went out in the mess to get as many blackberries as they could. I love seeing them together. Here they are heading out to the edge of the yard. (Of course Daisy has to tag along and be right in the middle of everything!) Here they are heavy into berry picking! And, here they are interrupting their berry picking to pose for me!