NOTE: This chapter has accompanying photos (including a recipe!) posted on Tumblr, under the user name kindly-whisper-tolkien and the tag fleetwood.
July 11
Well, the water heater stopped working, and that has added a new layer of complication to washing the dishes. We still wash them in the bucket outside, to save having to drive over to empty the gray water tank every day - but we usually fill up the bucket with the hot running water in the trailer and carry it outside. Now, though, we have to heat the water up on the stove, and that really makes it too hot in there! We use up a bit of propane doing that, too; but really, what choice do we have?
But anyway... on a lighter note, we went out picking blackberries today! Gimli went, as well (surprisingly), but he freaked out when a dragonfly buzzed near his ear (unsurprisingly). He ran into the blackberry bush in his fright and got a little scratched up by the thorns, started screaming at some spiders in the leaves, then sat down on the grass and put the berry-bucket over his head, refusing to come out until we said it was time to leave.
So, we gave up the blackberrying and went instead to the "Lodge" they have here. It is a game-house, really. We played pool (Thorin is really good at it!), and pingpong (I won that one!), and air hockey (we were both bad at that one). Fíli and Kíli challenged each other at the pool table, and since Kíli lost two games out of three, he has to clean the litter box for the next week! Even Frodo had fun chasing the pingpong balls around on the floor, and Gimli outdid everyone at darts!
Later on I made bramble jelly out of the blackberries we did manage to gather! So the day ended pretty well, after all, despite Gimli's scratches!