Blackberries, Dirt Bike Crash and Apricots

Thursday July 27, 2023 Guerneville CA.

Wild blackberries

Barry picked blackberries this morning before we went on a dirt bike ride up in the hills.

He picked quite a few of them. They are just starting to ripen up.

A neighbor lady of his bakes pies for him and her too, of course. There’s not much better than a wild blackberry pie. This is for you, Judith. :O) She loves these berries.

Forest ride

After he was finished picking berries and licking his wounds from the nasty thorns, we hopped on our bikes and rode up into the hills riding all around.

Trail cam

Eventually we stopped at this spring for a drink of water and so I could check the trail cam by the base of the tree on the left. Nothing was on the cam.

Trimming branches

We rode around some more, doing some more trimming of branches on the trails. Since I got so tired out yesterday doing the trail trimming I suggested we just do a little at a time, each time we go out for a ride, so as not to get so beat.

The bike crashed

Everything was going good until my bikes back tire walked out on me and the bike went down. I wasn’t going very fast. The back tire just went side ways on me in this spot. The dirt up here has been drying out a lot so the dirt roads are a bit slippery in spots. I didn’t fall very hard. I fell mostly on my right knee and I thought my jeans should have had a tear in them at the knee, but they didn’t. Never the less, my knee cap had some blood and a couple bits of skin torn out of it and my right elbow was a bit bloody from the little rocks on the road. Ouch.

Part of the problem, besides the dirt road being real dry is the bike’s back tire is a bit worn out. I got the bike picked back up and caught up with Berry and we rode some more, before heading for home.

First aid

Barry took off for his home with his blackberries and I went in and checked out my knee. I don’t usually put band aids on, but I did put one on to keep the blood from sticking to my jeans. It really wasn’t too bad.

Need a tire

I need to figure out what kind of new dirt bike tire I need. They have so many different types, it’s hard to pick one out.

Apricots

I have about four apricot trees that are fairly new so they don’t produce much fruit yet.

But I saw about a half dozen cots up in this tree so I got a chair to stand on and picked a couple of them before the birds get them first.

Nice size and very tasty.

Mulberry tree

Then I went over to the mulberry tree to see about them. They are mostly red so far and need to ripen up, turning black. I did find a few black ones to eat.

Blueberry patch work

Just before dark, I got the pruners out and went into my blueberry patch to cut out all the raspberry vines that had come up in the blueberry patch as they tend to take over, if I don’t cut them out periodically.

I didn’t think I’d get all the raspberry vines cut before my back said to quite, but I did, just barely.

Nice day.