Early morning color....

Apple cider, bumper stickers, & Oregon real estate

Took apples to a friend's place yesterday to make apple cider.

After the juice comes out, these "apple cakes" are what's left.

Sid and Rob

Didn't take long to get all these jars of cider.

So darned good.

_____

I have never had a bumper sticker on a vehicle before.

But couldn't resist these.

Replica of original Tom McCall for Gov bumper sticker
Oregon will celebrate McCall's 100th birthday next year.

Tom McCall made headlines in the late '60s when he said, 

"Come to Oregon to visit, but please don't stay."

Well, times have changed in Oregon.

The economy has gone south. 

Homebuilding has tanked.

You can buy a home for hardly anything.

For example, below are two homes on a prime piece of real estate,

not too far from where we live.

Perhaps a good investment.

Kind of like a duplex,

 live in one, and rent the other out.

Bet you could pick them up for a trifle.

Look closely.  

Can you see the imaginative graphic design?

Bullet holes, moss, and a welcoming sign that says

"Uncle F$%ker's House"
________
With that, I think this post is finished :)

Rain is grace...

John Updike wrote:  Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth.

We have had almost 9 inches of grace in the past 24 hours.

Tough by Nature

A month or so ago, I went with my friend, Mary, to an art exhibit in Eugene on the U of O campus.

Tough By Nature

Lynda Lanker is a photographer, artist and story teller.

The farm and ranch women in her pieces are beautiful. 

Strong, gutsy, incredible attitude.

Hats, ropes, guns, horses, and ranch dogs.

One rancher carrying a calf through a barn door.

Committed to the land

and a way of life.

Tough by Nature Poster

My friend, Mary, who lives in the city, loved this exhibit just as much as I did.
We went through the exhibit first without speaking to each other.
Just looking at the women and reading their stories.
We went through a second time.
 This time talking with each other about what we loved about each portrait.
What made us laugh.  What stood out.

The 49 women featured in the exhibit are down to earth, a little timeworn.
Nothing real romantic about it,
Mostly a lot of hard work.

"When you live on a ranch, you don't have to worry about 'going to work' cause you get up surrounded by it...
Laundry is not high on my list of priorities.
You do that when you run out of clothes."
Mary Caldwell (born 1932)

"I love that tremendously intimate relationship with creation,
that day-to-day knowing the meadowlark song better than anything."
Sarah Shields (born 1968)

Tough by Nature
A celebration of western ranch and farm women.

I just saw that the exhibit will be at the Oregon Historical Society the first of the year.
I will go see it again.

Click here for a short Oregon Public Broadcasting piece on Tough by Nature.

Cauliflower Mushroom...

Third year in a row that we have found a cauliflower mushroom.  This one probably weighed 30 pounds.  We brought back half of it.  We are talking one mushroom!

Didn't have my camera with me when we found it, but you can see the size of it in these pictures.  Yes, the mushroom cooking in the frying pans and in the bowls is just part of what we brought home, and ONLY one mushroom.

Cauliflower Mushroom

It gets saute'd and then goes in the freezer for future use. 

Yum!

Yukk!

Lest you all think that everything is always perfect here in Moores Valley, it isn't.

I just burned shit out of the quince that I was cooking for quince paste...now an icky, gooey, crusted on, charcoaly gloppy mess.

AND I went out to pick the cabbage (our first time planting cabbage).
Most of it was slimy gross with bugs, worms, etc.
Difficult to look at, let alone touch, or eat.  So much for that.

Be thankful that there are no pictures to go with this post!

Home from a few days in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in southwest Washington.  

We rented a small forest cabin.  

Didn't see any other people the entire time we were there.  

In spite of the rain, we managed to get a hike in every day.  

We hiked the Dry Creek Trail on Wednesday.  

 So much light and so much color.  

The yellow from the big leafed maples was like sunshine in the midst of a downpour.

River view from the Dry Creek Trail in the Gifford Pinchot

Nurse log on the Dry Creek Trail

The big leaves from the maple trees covering the trail.  

Halloween Day Hike

It is difficult to portray the autumn beauty of this area, the quiet and the solitude.  

Yup, we may have to forego indoor plumbing and electricity, but the pay off is huge.  

Of course, not for everyone, but for me it is renewing and humbling.  

Something about old growth cedar and ancient fir trees.... 

in a forest removed from the everyday cacophony of the world... 

that touches my soul.

Thank you, Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot.

“Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.”
― Theodore Roosevelt  (from goodreads quotes)