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Blackberry picking

In early August I start to get antsy- where are the blackberries? Shouldn't they be ripe by now? Shouldn't I be picking them and freezing them on a cookie sheet to save for the long cold rainy winter ahead? And then around the end of August they start to ripen, as always, and I think "Oh, yeah. It's always as the kids head back to school that we go blackberry picking." But the next summer I will get anxious again too early. 
They are here now! We took the kids to the mountains of blackberry bushes right along our street and picked only the biggest sweetest berries- leaving millions to ripen for our next harvest. Around here everyone has a love/hate relationship with the blackberries. They are mean- as far as plants go. The thorns are big and super sharp- picking your own blackberries is not a task to attempt lightly. 
Here's Caitlin, armed with her clippers, ready to remove dangerous branches blocking us from the delicious berries. I always assume, and please don't tell me if I'm wrong, that since blackberries are considered a nuisance from a landscaping point of view that no one will mind if I hack away at these plants. They are kind of on our property. Ok, they really aren't on our property but it's possibly our home owner's associations property AND I am doing a good deed, right? (Again, please- I don't really want an answer to that.) 
After an hour or so of giant spiders and sharp thorns, we have a huge amount of blackberries. Already I have three gallon sized ziploc bags in my freezer but I am feeling the need to pick more- before they disappear.
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