Saturday, good morn'n..

[LizStreithorst]

That means that she's likely not in heat and for sure not fixing to kid.   Sorry, I don't know.  Keep a close eye on her.  The discharge is worrisome but sometimes a doe will have one heat out of season a month or two after kidding.

[wallace]

Ok. She was head-butting with the kids earlier... feeling alright I suppose, just very whiny.

[Mugwump]

Nice day. 78 and sunny, humid though.  I picked the raspberries, fed the fish and loafed a bit.  The Raspberries are not doing real good this year for some reason. Maybe we have had too much rain.  Did find a couple black raspberries so they are starting now.  That is good, I like the black ones better than the red ones anyway.  Looks like I will be spending a couple hours a day picking berries for the next couple weeks.

....our raspberries are doing great.....Jan's been picking bowls of them for the lasr week or so....the blackberries aren't doing great, we'd cut 'em back pretty good last fall.....

[LizStreithorst]

Blackberries fruit on second year growth.

[Mugwump]

Blackberries fruit on second year growth.

Our plant goes back to Jan's Mom, and her Mom.....a family thing....

[Ron Sower]

When I moved to Western Washington, I was amazed at the wild blackberries growing everywhere...the vines were huge and all over the place...everyone always complained about them...the berries would begin to ripen in July and continue so until the rains began again and then the fruits would mold on the vine....

...but they were the most delicious blackberries I've ever eaten...I'd pick the ones that had just turned dull on the surface and were soft....that's the prefect time for the best sweetness...

...I learned that these were Himalayan Blackberries...and when we live in Tacoma right next to a greenway area, they would grow and hang over the backyard fence into our yard...I trimmed them so that the berry laden vines were hanging on my side of the fence...worked well for me...!

Dan...are they the ones you have there?....

[wallace]

When I moved to Western Washington, I was amazed at the wild blackberries growing everywhere...the vines were huge and all over the place...everyone always complained about them...the berries would begin to ripen in July and continue so until the rains began again and then the fruits would mold on the vine....

...but they were the most delicious blackberries I've ever eaten...I'd pick the ones that had just turned dull on the surface and were soft....that's the prefect time for the best sweetness...

...I learned that these were Himalayan Blackberries...and when we live in Tacoma right next to a greenway area, they would grow and hang over the backyard fence into our yard...I trimmed them so that the berry laden vines were hanging on my side of the fence...worked well for me...!

Dan...are they the ones you have there?....

Well I don't know for sure, now that you mention these non-native ones. I always thought they were native.

Trailing types of blackberries grow on the western slopes of the Sierras and Cascade mountains, and westward to the Pacific Ocean. Rubus ursinus (synonym R. macropetalus) is the only blackberry native to the West Coast. It has slender trailing stems armed with flattened prickles, and is found abundantly on prairies, burns, clearings and dense woodlands from the coast to the mid-mountains and from British Columbia to Northern California and to Eastern Idaho. This native blackberry has been extensively used as a parent in breeding.

The Himalaya blackberry was introduced by Luther Burbank at the turn of the century. He thought it was from the Himalaya mountains in Asia. Later he learned it was actually R. procerus of Germany. This is the common blackberry in the Pacific Northwest and is found wherever humans disturbed the land. The Himalaya has become a well known weed, as well as a source of berries for pies and jams, however, it is not commercially grown.

http://www.oregon-berries.com/oregon-berries/berry-history/

I will snoop around online some more and see if I can find out.