Well we just went for a nice canoe ride in the Mayhaw Pond. The trees are beautiful and just covered with green leaves. The canoe rippled soundlessly through the black water. There are spots within the density of the trees where you can’t see out into the rest of the world. It feels like we’ve gone to some remote jungle. Nope, no water moccasins or alligators or lions or tigers or bears. There is a four-footed critter waiting for us to come into shore. Oh, that’s just one of the baby goats looking for another bottle.
And the conversation went something like this, “Oh, there are two berries on that branch and I see three over there. Oh yes, there is one on that branch.” So a pleasant ride in the Mayhaw pond, but sorry to say it looks like another sparse year for the Mayhaw crop. Maybe we can sell canoe rides this year.
We did get the rain and no one is complaining about that. All of our holding ponds that have not been full for several years are brimming with water. The sinkhole that fills from the bottom is just a few feet from the top now with beautiful blue water. The man-made pond in one of the pastures is full. It holds rain but doesn’t have a spring to feed it. That water is the color of the red clay that surrounds it. So all this we are thankful for, however, another year without Mayhaws.
We had a good crop in 2010 then fewer but still decent in 2011. Very sparse last year and now I expect nothing much this year. There are still frozen berries but the supply is dwindling fast. There will be a Mayhaw Festival anyway with our homemade Mayhaw Jelly and lots of new events and vendors, but we’ll have to wait and hope to see what 2014 brings. We need a normal cold winter and no late cold spells to go with all this nice rain.
We did get lots of beautiful photos. Click HERE or the image of Fred to go to see them.