Summertime is magical to me. The greenage, the sunshine and heat, the smell of hay in the humidity, the thunderstorms all come together and seem to wake my spirit up, this year in particular.
I’ve finally been getting into the woods again, as seen in previous in my blog. What doesn’t seem like a big deal to most is a huge to me. I grew up exploring the woods. My grandpa would take me with him and I can remember being so small that he would climb up a hill and then wait for me to crawl up after him because I couldn’t climb them yet.

For me, going into the woods evokes the same cleansed feeling some people get from church. The physical exertion, the sweat, the beauty when you stop and look around, it calls to my bones and calms me. I always find the most interesting things to share with my girls on my trips, too. It’s fun to see their eyes light up and their interest rise.

With summer now in full swing, the berries are coming on. It’s a bumper crop year for raspberries with all the rain, heat, and humidity we’ve had here. Look at all these!

Those are milk jugs, gallon and half-gallon pitchers, and a four quart cooking pot. All from one trip my mom and I made on one area of our berry route. Crazy, huh?

But man, it comes at a price!

But if you want the good stuff, you’ve got to make sacrifices.

With the wedding just three short months away, money is of course a concern. Even a low-key like ours is expensive, and I’m worried that we won’t be able to have the wedding we really want.

So I decided to own a small, seasonal business selling blackberries to try to offset the costs of the wedding. We’re calling it BackForty Berries, and hopefully it’s received well. I’m so excited about it, but nervous as well. I just keep telling myself that I really don’t have anything to lose by trying.

So here’s hoping, once again!