That’s us! Day two at Handfield, we are just chillin’. Did a lot of reading this morning and drank a lot of coffee just enjoying the quiet and beautiful surroundings.
After lunch, time to explore some more. Off we went in Mr. Dinghy – heading toward the cherry trees. The difference today…I made a cherry picker. A cup with a half top and a “V” slit in it on a 12 foot PVC pipe. This way we can get to the cherries that no one else can pick and thus not worry about taking more than we should. Well, it not only worked, but we found several more trees of different varieties. All had very ripe cherries many feet off the ground. Not reachable by normal human beings, thus no worries from our perspective about leaving some for others.
And, each tree we found had different varieties of cherry. As the first explorers in this region (sic) we have now created new Latin names for these varieties. Cherrimas Mostredest, Cherrimas Lightredest and Cherrimas Palest Redimos. OK, so we’ll wait for the names of our new discoveries to be recorded into the biological books. In the meantime, we are eating them as fast as we can. About a gallon worth. Delicious! We also found some blackberry like things that were excellent, but not enough to gather, and bring samples. We just ate them. We are tempted to stay here until the end of cherry season, but go on we must!
I think a bear had the same idea as us. Even though we were on a little island about 50 yards off the main shore, I found some bear – looking scat. It had a very light crust, but was still very soft underneath suggesting maybe less than 12 hours of so old? In any case, we kept a keen eye out for Mr. Bear. I think since he didn’t have a cherry picking contraption (TM, circle c, copyright Bob Johnson/Ann Adams) that he was after the huge number of blueberries on the island. OK, we’ll keep the cherries and give the bear the blueberries. Symbiosis!
And…double bonus for today…three legal crabs in the crab trap. Wow, did we eat well today!
We’re moving tomorrow toward Shoal Harbor. Weather and other things permitting, we’ll cross fingers and troll a bit for salmon.
Stay tuned.
Unlimited cherries, abundant crab, and laying around taking it easy. Good thing you’re moving from the island. If you stay there much longer you’re going to exceed maximum takeoff weight. 🙂
I’m sure when you get back the Johnson Fruit Picker will be a great seller on Amazon. Loved the cherry variety names, but I’m guessing they already have boring, official designations.
Being from northern Minnesota, land of yummy blueberries, I can attest to the fact that they are a bear fav.
I think the cherry picker will be a great seller! Just add heirloom to the front of all the different cherries/berries! Sounds simply delicious!! xo
Finally got internet to find you! More cherries, mmmm. We’ll know to look next time. We had a lovely sail south, no more whales though. Happy adventures. We’ll be following the blog.