Walnut Memories...

Did anyone else crack open black walnuts as a kid?  It was quite the ritual at our farm in Iowa. The black walnut tree grew over a driveway which cars, trucks, tractors, and wagons drove over every day. This way, the sticky black husk was worn off and pretty soon, the HARD AS A ROCK black walnut shell was exposed. When dried out, we would collect them in 5 gallon buckets. I remember many a rainy day sitting in the garage cracking them open with hammers with my dad :) Well, these are English Walnuts from the Thorson's farm at Greenbluff and I absolutely LOVE them! Easy to crack open with the heels of your hands.

Apple Lunar Delights!

Brought out the ancient apple peeler today. Still as good as new :)  Rocking and rolling to apple dumplings and sauce tonight, while peeking out occasionally at our gorgeous lunar eclipse!

Pulaskis and Trails

Today was National Trails Day and we swung Pulaskis! "The Pulaski" is a cool digging, axe-like tool named after Ed Pulaski of 1910 Big Burn fame. He was the forester who saved all sorts of crews and invented this wonderful implement.  Kids, seniors and every age in-between joined in digging up sod for a new 8 mile trail being built this fall around Fishtrap Lake.  Good people, not TOO much work, and a free lunch to boot in the dry dusty earth on on this gorgeous blustery day

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Oh The Great and Glorious Washington Apple!

Washington Apples. Oh the sound of those two words makes my daughter drool. That's why I shipped a big box of them back to her in Iowa today. My dear friend, Babs, her grandson Jackson, and I made our annual pilgrimage to Greenbluff Orchards to gather loads of them today. Oh, yum, yum, JOY! :)

Baby Doc Grows Up

Syd sent this photo today, saying she thought I would like it and I just laughed out loud! So proud of this aspiring little "baby doc" who is now all grown up. Did her first patient interview (as a student) today and loved it.

Decades of Hobby Passions

I once heard a really cool older woman say she started a new "hobby passion" every decade. In her 40's, it was running, in her 50's, it was biking, in her 60's it was golf, in her 70's it was swimming, etc. I rather like that idea! For us, our "Craigslist" Rans Screamer Tandem Recumbent is IT! We had a BLAST camping this week and hope to do some pretty l-o-n-g trips during this decade :)

A Whole Lot of Good Years...

Doddie and Bill Williams just celebrated their 95th birthdays last weekend. It was THE "Mother of all Potlucks" and friends, family, and loved ones came to show their love and support. Here Doddie and Bill pose with their "first friends" in Spokane, Donna and Tim Lewis. I figure there are about 350 collective years of really good living between these four. It just doesn't get better than that! :)

Now You See It, Now You Don't: Garden Glory :)

Oh it's been fun to spend more time in my garden this summer. And the beauty of an "annual" garden is that I can do EVERYTHING different if I want to next year. It will simply be jungle-like in a new way :)

FIRST EVER Tasty "Tofu"

I have purchased "tofu" numerous times over the last few decades and always, accidentally, let it rot in the refrigerator for lack of knowledge and expertise. Cooking a few meatless meals sounds like such a good idea, but I am pathetic, reluctant, and don't want to work that hard in my kitchen. Nonetheless,  I have decided on a kitchen adventure and actually marked 70 recipes in Mollie Katzen's (of Moosewood fame) new book called "The Heart of the Plate: Vegetarian Recipes for a New Generation." There had to be a good photo of the dish in the book for me to choose it :) It might take me the rest of my life to try them all but I am marking them off as I do. Tonight's was actually great!  "Wilted Spinach Salad with Crispy Smoked Tofu, Grilled Onion, HM Croutons, and Tomatoes"

Little Miss Lucy Meets the Chickens

What a wonderful morning with energetic little Lucy Simmons, her mom, Amy, dad, Paul, and dog, Chloe. We brunched and hiked, swung in the hammocks, hung out with the chickens, watched Chloe go nuts running all over 20 acres (and listened to teenage rooster Mr. Doodle just getting his "voice"). Made us smile all morning watching the love shared by these "kids"! :)

1886 and My Personal Logger

We had the forest service guy over to evaluate our place for fire danger. Found out lots of limbs and a few big old dudes need to come down because of crowding and/or disease. Though Vern complains about how much work there is ahead, he has a silly little gleam in his eye when he revs up the chainsaw. As for me, I count the rings of each downed tree and think of all the years it lived. The one below was 129 years old. Put on it's first ring of growth in 1886 back when Grover Cleveland, Apache leader Geronimo, and Sigmund Freud were around and the same year someone named Karl Benz patented the world's first automobile in Mannheim, Germany!

Our Pellet Stove Rite of Passage

It's a bittersweet time of year when the night air becomes too cool to crank the windows wide open at night. But oh such a difference it makes when we start up our 26 year old Earth Stove Traditions pellet stove. Since they no longer sell them or provide service, Vern had to learn how to keep it going - sometimes with soot, sweat, and swearing!  All eyes turn from the flowers on the deck to the fire inside...ahhhh.  I can still picture Spot watching 5 year old Sydney get dressed in the morning by the stove...(this one's for YOU, girl) :)

My Blackberry Fix :)

There is a squirrelly little almost hidden blackberry bush living in the ditch which I pass on my daily walk. I think I am the only one who know about it :) One must be brave as it is covered with tiny terrible prickly thorns but the sacrifice is worth it. For the past ten years, Moby and I would share the little handful each fall day...soooooooo delicious!

San Juans Last Day: Ancient Trees and Mango Fish Tacos

I am thankful for the ancient old trees on Jones Island that did not burn this year...and the Washington State Ferry System which is still a thrill to ride on for this old Iowa Farm Girl :) Those "Two for Tuesday Special" Mango Fish Tacos at the Island Cafe in Friday Harbor were a treat as we waited for our ferry to arrive. Until the next year...or maybe later on this fall, goodbye San Juan Islands

San Juans Day 10: Graceland Friends Forever

Left Jones Island and headed for Odlin Park on Lopez, about a 13 mile paddle. Stopped at the halfway point, Orcas Ferry Grocery and Deli for the MOST delicious crab panini's ever. Paddled on across the channel, loaded up the pickup and hit the ferry to Friday Harbor where we met up with longtime Graceland friends, Peter and Sallie Waite from Alabama, and their three kids, extended family and sweetest ever grandbaby, Millie. We were all in the same science classes at Graceland nearly 40 years ago. Gees!  Had a nice dinner in their great rental home and watched a pod of ORCAS swimming by off their deck - HOW sweet is that! Beautiful friends and lovely family. So good to reconnect after all these years.

San Juans Day 9: All About Shrimpin' :)

What a treat to meet the coolest family EVER who came into Jones harbor with two little tow-headed boys wild as monkeys on their homemade paddle board, along with their 3 year old sister and 10 year old cousin. The whole family was out for a day of shrimping and I learned all about it!  The short season starting on Mother's Day with as many as 500 boats working, cages dropped 300 feet where shrimp and prawns live near underwater cliffs, and the west side of Jones Island being the only place in the San Juan Islands open year round. And the harvest...my oh my.  Just look what Vern and I were treated to. Thanks to Emily Kuljis, her mom and whole family from Ferndale, Wa. What a memorable and AMAZING dinner tonight :)

San Juans Day 8: A Minor Inconvenience?!?!?!

So I get this bee sting above my knee and say to my husband, "Do we have anything in the first aid kit for a sting?" He says, "No, that's a minor inconvenience, I just have real emergency stuff." Now I am NOT one to post gross injuries online, but my knee swelled up like a FOOTBALL (smallish one anyway) and I kinda wish I would have taken a picture of it. After three days, we finally were at a store to get something.  Grrrrrr...At least he did make a killer fried fresh fish meal that night.

San Juans Day 7: The Nicest Napping Place

Wonderful paddle to the northern part of Orcas Island to the East Sound Saturday Market!  Ten miles each way, but we knew we would have a nice long wait for the tides and currents in-between, and also VERY good treats to tide us over. Plus, if Vern has a good book, he is perfectly content waiting :) I like taking a bit more time in town than he does when we are back in civilization, i.e., The Brown Bear Coffee Shop and Bakery (where they gave me my iced vanilla latte in a QUART jar - must have thought I needed a big one!?!), Katherine Taylor Chocolates, and of course the Saturday Market. Can you "I Spy Vern" in this photo?  It was quite a desirable place to take a nap or read a good book.

San Juans Day 6: Room with a View

What a lovely day to hang out on the island, exploring the places we love, and now, especially thankful for sunsets on the bluff that almost burned!  We see kayaks, sailboats, and yachts come and go into the two harbors and there is a college freshman adventure group camping this week as well in the center of the island. A few raccoons and small deer explore our site, rustling in the night, so all food has to be hung high in a tree. But I must say those inevitable bathroom visits in the middle of the night are met with such INCREDIBLE stars so you don't even mind going outside. It takes quite an effort to get to Jones Island so we meet lots of cool folks! :)

San Juans Day 5: Close Call on Jones Island...

So we had JUST settled in to our favorite campsite on Jones Island, on a gorgeous rock bluff with it's own private beach, surrounded by Madrona trees...ahhhh. The next morning, Vern and I were visiting with Ranger David Halpern, who comes once a day to collect fees. A visibly panicked elderly woman named Vivienne Hull, runs up to the three of us and yells "My husband Fritz spotted fire and smoke on the west side!" Thus began a couple tense hours...until the big boats from San Jun Island and the official fire fighters finally arrived to douse the 200 or so square foot burn. The fire had probably been smoldering all night after some idiot campers thought they would make a nice little fire out of sight of the trail during a BURN BAN. They probably also camped there, saving the whopping $12 reservation fee per night...go figure. The fire was VERY close to reaching some major fuel sources of trees and pine branches, and at first glance the ranger said we needed to evacuate the island. Selfishly, I am thinking: Oh no! We are planning to be there for the next six days! He then told Vern and I that by law, since we were not trained, he needed to tell us to leave the site. We both looked at him like he was crazy, and he said, Well, OK. He pointed at me and said you watch the fire and tamp out the little burns while Vern and I run get all the tools - will take us 10 minutes. Yikes. Then he made me promise to run if it starts going up a tree. I promised. Longest 10 min of my life and all I had was a big stick -ha! So I am watching these huge glowing embers in the roots of a big pine tree - much like a ticking bomb - and every time I tamp something, new little flames appear. So I'm feeling pretty helpless, practically holding my breath, pulling away anything in the way of the flames, and praying the wind does not pick up. I keep my eye on this particular flame and, like a horror movie, it finally starts creeping up a tree. I start yelling "It's going up a treeeeeeee!!!" Then, like two heros, Vern and the ranger appear with lots of tools :) The ranger wacks the flames off the tree with an axe, then we find dirt and throw shovelfuls over the flames until four fire-fighters arrived with water and backpacks. After another hour, two boats arrived from a nearby island with hoses and the area was drenched. So, thanks to Vivienne and Fritz Hull, who smelled smoke and sought it out, the fire did not consume the precious 180 acre Marine Reserve called Jones Island. Over the next six days, Vern and I walked around the island to visit the site each day, making sure no smoke remained, and watched the sunsets from that very point. Phew! SIDE NOTE: I fixed the kayak video from yesterday's blog so it now moves :)

San Juans Day 4: Sink the Barge, Oliver and Jones Island

Just re-posted this so the video works!! Nice send off at Odlin County Park on Lopez Island by the whole Webb family! Glad they did NOT play "Sink the Barge" as we left. This is a wonderful game we'd been playing the last couple of days of tossing a big piece of wood in the water and everyone throws rocks to try to hit it! We stopped at our friend Amy's waterfront home on the way to Jones Island. Her directions:  Look for two big docks with a yellow ring between them right across from Crane Island (haha!). We were met by Oliver (our sweet Golden Retriever buddy), then paddled to the best campsite on Jones Island about 13 miles away.

San Juans Day 3: Agate Rock and Classy Pit Toilets!?!

Launched the kayaks from a lovely boat dock on the west end of Lopez, near a vintage picnic table with an oil can flower vase and tiled top! Paddled clear around to Agate Beach and met up with all the Webb clan later that day. Terri and I braved the ICY water up to our chins to get to the big rock (along with the younger kids and teens!). What ARE those old ladies doing anyway?! :) Visited the classiest pit toilets in the San Juans with inspirational posters, a library, and carpeting inside. Sweet.

San Juans Day 2: Piano Gravestones, Burritos, Bikes, and Berries!

Wonderful start to the day with Dan and Terri's breakfast burritos. Then off on our bikes to Shark Reef on the other end of Lopez Island, the old Island Church graveyard, blackberry picking, and Holly B's Bakery in that order. Vern and I did OK on our tandem, though it is NOT meant to climb hills...rather race down them! Saw a fabulous grave marker with folks gathered around a piano singing their hearts out. I would have liked that person. :)

San Juans Day 1: Peach Pie and WA State Ferries

Thought I would "re-live" our latest 11 day adventure in Washington's San Juan Islands on this little blog :) Makes me pause and remember and smile - at least most of the time - exception was Day 5 when we helped put out a forest fire (!?!) THAT was disconcerting. So here we go on Day One: Loaded up the tandem bike and kayaks, drove 6 hours to Anacortes, WA, bought a little peach pie at The Pie Barn to eat at the ferry landing (and brought a big one with us for company), then caught the 5 pm Washington State Ferry to Lopez Island. At Spencer Spit State Park, we camped with Dan Webb and his family for a big reunion. Walked into camp and they handed us a beautiful huge plate of spaghetti. Ahhhhhh, the adventure begins!