12. The sun
Most berry picking occurs in the summer, when it’s hot and the sun beats down on you. Not super annoying, but it can get hot.
11. Reaching for a berry and bumping the branch with your hand so that the berry is constantly out of reach.
Aargh! Annoying, but not critically so.
10. Flying insects
Flies, bugs, mosquitos, bees—woe unto you if a black fly decides that you are its primary target for the next two hours.
9. Reaching for a berry and having it fall down out of reach as soon as you touch it.
Oh, man! That was the perfect berry!
8. Soggy feet
Blueberry bushes, in particular, like to grow in damp areas. Stand around one too long and eventually your shoes and socks will become saturated.
7. Unwanted guests, part 1
Nothing is so startling when berry picking as looking down into your bucket and seeing a big bug or spider crawling around, looking for a way out. A way out up the side of the bucket and on to you.
6. Scratching up arms and legs on thorns
Blackberry and raspberry bushes are not friendly. And if you really want to get at that clump of the biggest berries ever, you’re gonna hafta take a serious expedition into pricker territory.
5. Plucking a berry and watching 5 more fall off
That of course means that they were perfectly ripe and you lost them all. Arrgh!
4. Staining your favorite shirt
Choose your wardrobe carefully. Berry stains do NOT come out.
3. Unwanted guests, part 2
You’re casually harvesting berries when you pick a berry and get a bug, spider, or (ew!) slug with it, right on your fingers! YUCK!
2. Spilling berries on the ground
The ground around berry bushes is not even, and if it’s overgrown (which it certainly will be), various things to slip on or trip over lie waiting for your errant foot placement. In a painful instant, there goes the literal fruits of your labors, scattered. What do you do? You salvage what you can and continue to pick, realizing that you now have to pick even longer to fill your bucket.
1. Spilling Berries in muddy water
Now you just have to start all over again. Siggghhhh…
So is it still worth it?
Absolutely.
Unless either of the next two things happen.
0. Getting attacked by a bear
Okay, this probably doesn’t ever happen, and it’s really more of a life-threatening situation than just an annoyance.
-1. Dying from eating poison berries
Don’t do this.
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