Huckleberry Picking

Yesterday we went huckleberry picking. This year is a bumper year for berries. The berries we found were so big and plentiful. As we were driving along the forest service road, Ellie commented on what she thought was a good spot to look for berries. She was right.....there were tons in the area. We picked for about 2 hours and got about a gallon of berries. Owen ate pretty much all he picked and Ellie ate a ton as well, but managed to contribute a few to the big bucket to take home. Grace also enjoyed her first huckleberries. She loved eating them and was even able to pick some on her own.

Grace

Ellie picking

Owen found a nice log to sit and pick from.

More picking...

Big, Plump, Plentiful Huckleberries

Ellie after eating quite a few :)

Owen wanted a picture of himself eating a berry.

On our way home we spotted two firefighting helicopters. We pulled over and watched as they collected water from a small pond and made trip after trip to dump it on a nearby fire and refill.

Watching the first helicopter

This helicopter sucked the water up into a tank from the short hose attached to its underside.

Taking off after filling up

Here you can see both helicopters coming in for water

This helicopter had a bucket attached to its underside. It filled up quick because all it had to do was dip the bucket in the pond.

Taking off with a full bucket.

 These buckets obviously do not hold much water. They were coming back every 5 minutes so the fire must have been close.

After we got home we washed up all our berries.

We found one giant one.

It was decided that Grace got to be the one to eat it. She snapped it right up :)