Outy-outy

[azurelunatic]

Another phrase from childhood: when cleaning berries, swallowtayle and I would declare the bucket that the unripe berries, sticks, leaves, spiders, and so forth went into as "the outy-outy bucket".

Tonight I tossed the box spring that was recycled when I first got it. It's all smashed, stained, stepped-upon, and broken. It was making my bed-pile more shaky than necessary, so I hauled it out.

Maybe it can be useful to someone else. Maybe it can't.

Comments

[alphafenris.livejournal.com]

the bucket that the unripe berries, sticks, leaves, spiders, and so forth went into as "the outy-outy bucket"

*boggle*

She had a bucket . . . for spiders . . .

[azurelunatic]

Ever picked wild berries?

[alphafenris.livejournal.com]

Yes, but not often. They're aren't a lot of wild fruits in Hawaii, so my experience is limited to California. But I recall going through the pickings outside . . . where a bucket was not involved with dealings regarding unwanted passengers in the foodstuffs. Usually we had a swift application of a large blunt object.

[azurelunatic]

These were mostly little teeny-tiny Alaskan spiders that like to hang out on blueberries. Most of them were no larger than the head of a glass-headed quilting pin.

There were also inchworms. Quite a few inchworms. We used to give the outy-outy bucket contents to the chickens, who counted inchworms a delicacy.

[alphafenris.livejournal.com]

We used to give the outy-outy bucket contents to the chickens, who counted inchworms a delicacy.

Hokay. That 'splains things. I didn't even consider the possibility of chickens. I did know, however, that Alaska has one heck of a bounty when it comes to berries (I hear Alaskan preserves are a nifty cottage industry).

Now I've got the Horatio Hornblower story of tasty chickens stuck in my head.

[azurelunatic]

Plus, we were sorting them indoors at the general-purpose table, and before the days of the chickens, FatherSir would toss the unripe/overripe/squished blueberries in any part of the woods that he wanted to grow more blueberry shrubs in. It was more efficient to dump all twigs/leaves/worms/spiders/inedible berries in one outy-outy bucket, rather than sort some things to trash, other things to outy-outy bucket.

Chickens aren't a very typical household pet.