Those baskets that we got from picking strawberries are going to come in so handy for picking blueberries! We usually use a variety of bowls or a large plastic strainer that need to be either held in one hand while trying to pull down branches and pick berries with the other, or set on the ground for the greedy chickens and turkeys that are always swarming our feet like little sharks to pilfer from every time we move more than a foot from it. These baskets are light weight, have a handle that can be strung over an arm, and are woven plastic so the warm berries can breath rather than mold if they are left over night. The only thing that could make them better is if they had shoulder straps like they use at real berry farms. Even better, we have 3 of them so each of us can have our own!
Also of note, our little water barrel/ garden came alive today. For years I had an old wooden half barrel on the corner of the house to prevent a giant rut where the water came off of the roof the hardest. Sadly, when I moved we had to empty it to bring it with us which apparently caused the boards to dry out and come loose. It never held water again and eventually rotted away. My brother somehow became the owner of a GIANT heavy duty plastic flower pot. It is at least hip high to me, and I'm almost 5'10". It was in perfect shape other than the very spotty coat of black spray paint that someone had splattered across half of it. It didn't have drainage holes in it, so every time it rained it filled completely full of water. I immediately envisioned a water garden. My brother collects things that he may be able to use someday (it must run in the family) and he really didn't want to part with it. Reluctantly, he gifted it to me with the promise that I would get Keegan some fish to put in it. I easily agreed since in order to have anything around here with standing water in it you either have to have something in it to eat mosquito larvae or put poison in it. I don't do poison.
I bought some lovely green spray paint that adheres well to plastic and Keegan did a fantastic job of painting it. I figured it would be just the job for him. Artistic and creative, with a bit of a destructive feel to it. He dug out the elephant ear plant that I planted under the rain spout in January, and moved it out enough to put the planter on the other side of it. We added some fish tank rocks and sea shells that I had been saving to give the fish a bit of texture in the bottom. Finally, he leveled it well and filled it. After all of his hard work, today we took Keegan to get some fish. We got 20 Comet Goldfish. They are the little fish that they give away at the fair when you play that game where you throw the ping pong balls at a tiny bowl of water for like $5 a shot. Those things are tough little fish. My mom was telling me earlier today that she read that they can live over 20 years if properly cared for. I have had some live at least 5 years to be over 6 inches long. They sell them for like $0.20 at the pet store as feeder fish for small snakes and such. These ones will be put to work to earn their keep, but will hopefully live a long and productive life. Like all of the animals here. I am going to buy some kind of floating aquatic plants very soon to help provide them a bit of shade and to help oxygenate the water. I will use the water out of the barrel to water and provide nutrients (supplied by the fish waste and algae) to the nearby plants, which will be replenished by the rain from the roof. The roof is metal so there will be no harmful chemicals from it harbored in the water. I hope it will be a perfect system. Regardless, seeing the pretty little fish swimming around makes me smile. 
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