The sun had yet to rise on the eastern horizon as I parked my pickup on the side of the highway. Getting out, I glanced out at the area ahead of me I was about to traverse in pursuit of the wild Elderberries ( Not Sumac Appleman hehehe)It was a lot higher and thicker up close I thought to myself as I reached and retrieved my bottle of deep woods off and began applying a good protective coat. Glancing back at the area I went ahead and sprayed up past my waist. Gathering my camera, walking stick and a large plastic garbage bag as it began to break day, I made my way through the underbrush and briers in the direction I had seen the blooms of the Elderberries several weeks past. Within 50-75 yards of my trek, I was soaking wet from the dew as well as the sweat that the hot humid morning was already leeching from me. Battling ahead, with about another 200 or so yards to go I was thinking to myself that I should have brought my bottle of repellent with me to apply another protective coat that I was sure the sweat and dew was washing away. I could already feel the insects crawling down my back. Or was that merely rivlets of sweat?
The latter I hoped as another one of those danged ole "gotcha" briers embedded itself deep in my arm.
For a 60 year old, overweight, smoker it was beginning to seem as if I would never get through this overgrown mess. But with well placed swings of my walking stick and a few choice words, I prevailed, and as I reached the first plant I had seen from the highway those weeks past my ole heart sank !! What few berries were left on the bushes were still green.
You damned fool, I muttered to myself, The birds have been busy heckling your damned ole plastic snakes while eating away at the Elderberries in your yard. What the hell made you think they would not even more eagerly be eating at the feast provided them out here in the wild. I stuffed my still empty trash bag in my back pocket, took a long swig of the now tepid bottle of water I had brought and headed back to my truck. Wet, hot but a wiser man I cranked my truck and kicked on the air as the sun slowly rose, a ball of fire through the towering pines from the area I had just left behind.
Maybe next year I will come back and put some bird netting over them or maybe I'll just plant a couple more trees in my Wineyard this fall !!!
The latter I hoped as another one of those danged ole "gotcha" briers embedded itself deep in my arm.
For a 60 year old, overweight, smoker it was beginning to seem as if I would never get through this overgrown mess. But with well placed swings of my walking stick and a few choice words, I prevailed, and as I reached the first plant I had seen from the highway those weeks past my ole heart sank !! What few berries were left on the bushes were still green.
You damned fool, I muttered to myself, The birds have been busy heckling your damned ole plastic snakes while eating away at the Elderberries in your yard. What the hell made you think they would not even more eagerly be eating at the feast provided them out here in the wild. I stuffed my still empty trash bag in my back pocket, took a long swig of the now tepid bottle of water I had brought and headed back to my truck. Wet, hot but a wiser man I cranked my truck and kicked on the air as the sun slowly rose, a ball of fire through the towering pines from the area I had just left behind.
Maybe next year I will come back and put some bird netting over them or maybe I'll just plant a couple more trees in my Wineyard this fall !!!
