Hi All,

One of my favorite sayings is, "adventures are made, not had." So yesterday, I got Don involved in an early morning adventure, the one before the faultline fun. For the longest time I've wanted to possess cat-tails, however, when driving by an area that had some, it was quite difficult to go back and collect them. This week I noticed in the culvert behind my office, thousands of them growing and decided to seize the opportunity and collect some. Mind you its deep and is an area created to collect rain run off.

So I met a co-worker and took Don with me. She said, "you didn't tell me you were bringing a man with you. I thought it was just going to be us two." I said, "well, he's good for some things." So we got out our equipment including tying a rope to the back end of my vehicle so we could have a way to ease our way down into the culvert and help get back up if need be.

As it went, it wasn't a problem at all getting down and on my own I collected about 50 of them and my co-worker being very selective and only wanting the smaller ones, got around 70. Of course getting them is only a small part of the project. I put Don to work when we got home helping me get them tied up and hung out to dry on my deck. My deck now has the most unusual appearance. The upside down cat-tails look like strange wind chimes. Don says, "it looks like we're drying spears." My daughter said "what is that hanging on the deck?"

Okay, Okay, I know you want to hear about the faultline fun, so here goes. As yesterday was such a beautiful day Don and I went to our study area to collect blackberries. It was also a great day to get a look at the shutter ridges. With the grass being dried they were more pronouced than at any other time during the year. Also with the dry areas we were able to get into some locations on the plot that normally we could not access. I told him it was odd now, because as I walked around I knew immediately what types of rocks I was viewing, where a year ago, I had no idea. [see, I am learning]

We didn't collect tons of berries because both people and animals had been there recently, but there are a couple thousand left that need to ripen. Of course, the problem here was with Don, for every three he collected he ate two and kept telling me he was having a hard time finding enough to collect.

But thinking of next years harvest and also getting to the better parts of this years, I remembered to take along my nippers and cut away some of the old dead parts and so perhaps next years bounty will be fresher and new and make the collection process just a tad bit easier.

The next time we go, I'm taking tape with me. This is to put over Don's mouth, so he won't eat the berries and it will also keep him quiet. LOL Hopefully though on the next trip we can collect enough to make that 7-up cake I made last year. It was good eating in every single bite.

Petra [with Don co-posting on the sidelines]