Grab a bucket.

For those of you in the Norman area, the blackberries are in, and right on schedule!  Apparently a good year for crane flies, butterflies, and moths means a good year for berries as well.  By my estimation, the season will be over by next Saturday or so, but the good news is that the weather is forecast to be mild for the coming week.  Last year the crop quickly dehydrated on the vine.

The four of us picked enough in a few hours for a decent cobbler.  I am hoping to pick enough in the evenings this coming week to make some jelly.

I am sure that I don't need to remind you that poison ivy enjoys the same habitat as the blackberries, but there it is. 

Oven is preheated.  Back to cobblerization.

My First Flint and Steel Fire.

It's all in the the char-cloth, folks.

I had many things fall into place today:  A pile of embers from a burning brush pile, a tin-box, an old tee-shirt, twine, and an old C clamp from my Pap Mays.  After making the cloth, I fashioned a "tinder-taco" out of birch-bark, twine fibers, and oak leaves.

My first attempt ended in failure for 2 reasons:  The tinder was not packed tight enough, and I skimped on the char-cloth.  After about 3 minutes of hyperventilating I had had enough.  The second try I packed the taco much tighter, and used 5 pieces of the cloth. 

After about 5 smacks on the flint, I saw small orange rings appear on the cloth.  Several lung-fulls later the whole mass of char-cloth was bright orange, and thick with smoke was billowing out.  Seconds later, a bright yellow flame popped out.  \

I did it a second time to make sure that it wasn't a fluke.

I can cross this one off my list.