Monday, December 16, 2019
A bit of soul baring
For the first time in a REALLY long time I listened to Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I now know why it's taken me so long. The memories of the December night before Dave left that he took us to one of their concerts in Portland came flooding back. I look back now and know that he was 'making memories' but at the time we didn't know that. I will always regret how I treated that night. I was more interested in the possible snow storm that might move in and my attention was distracted that night. I still wouldn't have really enjoyed it because their concerts are LOUD and I was at a point where that just made it not so enjoyable. However, that's no reason to brush someone off, especially your husband, when it became obvious he'd done it to try and please us, and in hindsight, make memories. It's brought home tonight that I need to pay attention how I treat people. For all I know that brush off could have sealed the deal, so to speak, of the path he'd decided on. I don't want those 'what if's'. It quite frankly hurts to have that what if. It makes my heart hurt to know that I just caused more hurt to someone who, in hindsight, was clearly hurting. It may very well not have changed anything but I didn't treat him properly that night. That was the last time that I really listened to that band until tonight. Guess it was time. The 27th of this month we will start year 10 of him being missing. Life goes on but really the memories haven't faded and there are nights like tonight that I really, really miss him. Now that all being said, I KNOW there's a purpose to all that has happened. I know that my Father is in control and for that I am extremely grateful but tonight I'm just missing Dave.
Sunday, November 24, 2019
New grandson!! And start of a change of diet journey
Erika had her baby boy 11/15. She did awesome with the delivery and even better, this time there were no blood/platelet transfusions needed!! He is a cutie! Both Christina and I were able to make it over for the delivery. It was wonderful to spend time with both my girls!! The weather at the coast was perfect when I visited Christina's field. She's in the north coast area. Then I was able to spend a couple of days with Erika and Jameson. 💖
Also, I visited a doctor to go over test results for food issues. I'm completely off Banana's, Dairy, Gluten/Wheat, Garlic, Rice, Kidney Beans and Eggs. This is going to be very interesting. It's a good thing that I tend to cook from scratch anyway but it takes the package gluten free meals off the table since almost all of them contain dairy. And I LOVE cooking with garlic but that one was off the charts bad. She's thinking that might get a bit better as we get things into line. Also, test show my liver is very unhappy, most likely because those things I've listed are things that cause inflammation in my body. An interesting note is that she is thinking this also may be why my ears ring. They've had ringing in them for years and years but it'd sure be nice if that was resolved!! So today I went to Fred Meyer after gospel meeting and found some vegan mayo that taste pretty good. Mayonnaise has egg in it so I can't use what I have. Also found some egg substitute that's made from chia seed and garbanzo beans and nutritional yeast that can be sprinkled on things in place of cheese. Then there's a replacement for feta cheese that actually is pretty good. That's as far as I got today. Sure am bummed about the garlic though! :(
It's also amazing what eggs are in... Imitation crab has soy and eggs! Guess I'll have to use real crab! ;)
Also, I visited a doctor to go over test results for food issues. I'm completely off Banana's, Dairy, Gluten/Wheat, Garlic, Rice, Kidney Beans and Eggs. This is going to be very interesting. It's a good thing that I tend to cook from scratch anyway but it takes the package gluten free meals off the table since almost all of them contain dairy. And I LOVE cooking with garlic but that one was off the charts bad. She's thinking that might get a bit better as we get things into line. Also, test show my liver is very unhappy, most likely because those things I've listed are things that cause inflammation in my body. An interesting note is that she is thinking this also may be why my ears ring. They've had ringing in them for years and years but it'd sure be nice if that was resolved!! So today I went to Fred Meyer after gospel meeting and found some vegan mayo that taste pretty good. Mayonnaise has egg in it so I can't use what I have. Also found some egg substitute that's made from chia seed and garbanzo beans and nutritional yeast that can be sprinkled on things in place of cheese. Then there's a replacement for feta cheese that actually is pretty good. That's as far as I got today. Sure am bummed about the garlic though! :(
It's also amazing what eggs are in... Imitation crab has soy and eggs! Guess I'll have to use real crab! ;)
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Wonderful Summer/Fall LOTS of pictures :)
We'll see if this post takes! Lost the last two!
It was a pretty awesome summer. The garden did wonderful! Next year I plan on expanding it so that I can plant more of a variety. At least all of the basics got in this year! Corn, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash (summer and winter) and peppers for the warm season vegetables. The spring ones produced well and some are actually still going!! The leeks, broccoli, carrots, kale and swiss chard made it through the hard freeze (17*) that we had a couple of weeks ago. Lots of tomatoes were canned into salsa and pizza sauce and plain canned tomatoes with basil that was from the garden as well. Also got in a few batches of bread and butter cucumbers as well (found out lemon cucumbers work just fine for this!)! It was so much fun to be able to can again! I haven't canned since I left home in Grants Pass. Might have been able to in Gresham but there was absolutely no place to store them if I did so things just got froze there. The salsa has peppers from the garden in it as well; some even have zucchini in them! Next year I'm planning on growing onions (part of the expansion); garlic is planted so hopefully that will do well, and then that will be used as well in the homemade salsa. Have lots of flowers/herbs as well. For herbs I have sage, parsely, thyme, chives, oregano, lemon verbena, lavender and rosemary. I've dried some of the thyme, oregano, lemon verbena and rosemary. I've got basil as well that got dug up and brought in before the freeze. I'm planning on potting it and seeing if I can grow it through the winter! I haven't tried that before. The lemon verbena started dying off after the first light freeze so I cut it down some and dried the leaves for tea. It makes some VERY yummy tea!! For flowers some would be considered herbs but I just leave them as flowers. Maybe one day I'll do something with them. Those would be the catmint and the agastache (hyssop). I got a bunch of different kinds of agastache. One smells exactly like black liquorice then another has more of a minty smell. I love the mint smelling ones sooo much! And the pollinators love them too! I only saw one bumble bee this year and it was on the agastache. But there were a ton of different kinds of bees and pollinators. The Painted Lady butterflies LOVE the chive blooms!! There was also lots of praying mantis, tons of ladybugs, lots of dragonflies and even saw a lacewing on a flower plant near the end of the growing season. I'm hoping they all show up again next year!!! Over all I had very little issues with bugs as a result! There were some aphids but they seem to stick to the mustard plants and lettuce. Which reminds me.... the mustard seeds that I put in my bread and butter pickles were homegrown! Got to say that it's a lot of work to get the seeds separated cleanly! Bits and pieces of the pod like to fall in so needed to get them out. Flower wise there's a couple of different kinds of salvia, petunia's, delphiniums, sweet williams, russian sage, bee balm, yarrow, cleome, a couple of different kinds of coreopsis, some hens and chicks and some iris's. I also planted a lilac. My experience is it'll take at least a couple of years of growing roots before it really takes off and starts flowering. Over all most flowers are perennials so should come back next year. Also have strawberries!!! I'm hoping they produce next year. I did get some from a friend this last week. Planted them and covered them with straw hoping that they'll get rooted before winter really sets in! If they don't make at least I tried! They were going to be thrown out if I didn't try and do something with them.
The end of July I went camping with Erika and her family. We went up out of Joseph. It was a gorgeous area!! So peaceful and quiet. And NO cell service! We went to the Joseph rodeo on Friday and then the Joseph parade on Saturday. It was good to have time with the girls! Pictures below! Then the end of August/first couple of weeks of September I was in western Oregon. Got the weekend of Boring II convention and a couple of days after that in Portland area. Tuesday was actually a work day! Saw several clients and a couple of colleagues (CPA's that I've worked with). It was good touch base with everyone. One of the CPA's I've known since 1994! Think I drove close to 150 miles that day! Left the house I was staying at 9:30 am and didn't get back until 9 pm! Did end the day at Erika's for about an hour and a half so that was good!!! Wednesday afternoon went to the coast and spent the night at a couple of dear friends and then Thursday saw an old friend from college, Gordon S. . Was so good to see him and his mom! They took me to Pacific City so that I could actually see the ocean before heading back inland that day. If you're on the coast seeing the ocean is a requirement! Had dinner with Aunt Pat and then headed down to Grants Pass for the night. Then headed over to Klamath Falls Friday and saw family there. My dad is holding steady. The place he is in is awesome. Every place has it's issues but this one does a good job overall. They allow him to take the bus and I think that's part (or most) of why he's okay with being in the foster care home. He spends a lot of time sitting outside in his chair reading, watching the birds and people watching. Monday morning I headed to Fields. Work has a ranch down there so I decided it'd be good to visit and see what was down there! It was a lot of fun. Although to begin with we had to 'flush' with water buckets because their well wasn't working! So there was no running water Monday and part of Tuesday. They did have lots of big bottled water containers though so we got through! Thursday I left there and headed home. Went south to Nevada and then up to Twin Falls. So took a brand new route home! Lots and lots of empty land that went on and on and on. It was actually kind of nice! :) I don't think I'll do the two weeks again though because I missed a major production time for the garden. Probably will do a week in Portland and a week in Klamath at different times.
I'll find out October 28th if Pippy will make it or not. He's been fighting infection since June. I thought for sure I was losing him back then but if the infection isn't gone this time I'll end up having the vet put him down. He'll start eating okay but within a week or two of being off antibiotics he'll stop eating as well. He has a bladder infection that just won't go away. I've got he's been on antibiotics and prednisone. The antibiotics finished Friday and prednisone finishes this week. They're hoping the prednisone will allow the antibiotics to be effective. He's been through 5 or 6 rounds of them since June. They're guess if this doesn't work is that something else is causing the bladder infection and at 16 he's just too old to really have anything done so it'll be better to let him go. I'm hoping it'll be okay though. I don't want to lose both cats in the same year!!!!
It was a pretty awesome summer. The garden did wonderful! Next year I plan on expanding it so that I can plant more of a variety. At least all of the basics got in this year! Corn, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash (summer and winter) and peppers for the warm season vegetables. The spring ones produced well and some are actually still going!! The leeks, broccoli, carrots, kale and swiss chard made it through the hard freeze (17*) that we had a couple of weeks ago. Lots of tomatoes were canned into salsa and pizza sauce and plain canned tomatoes with basil that was from the garden as well. Also got in a few batches of bread and butter cucumbers as well (found out lemon cucumbers work just fine for this!)! It was so much fun to be able to can again! I haven't canned since I left home in Grants Pass. Might have been able to in Gresham but there was absolutely no place to store them if I did so things just got froze there. The salsa has peppers from the garden in it as well; some even have zucchini in them! Next year I'm planning on growing onions (part of the expansion); garlic is planted so hopefully that will do well, and then that will be used as well in the homemade salsa. Have lots of flowers/herbs as well. For herbs I have sage, parsely, thyme, chives, oregano, lemon verbena, lavender and rosemary. I've dried some of the thyme, oregano, lemon verbena and rosemary. I've got basil as well that got dug up and brought in before the freeze. I'm planning on potting it and seeing if I can grow it through the winter! I haven't tried that before. The lemon verbena started dying off after the first light freeze so I cut it down some and dried the leaves for tea. It makes some VERY yummy tea!! For flowers some would be considered herbs but I just leave them as flowers. Maybe one day I'll do something with them. Those would be the catmint and the agastache (hyssop). I got a bunch of different kinds of agastache. One smells exactly like black liquorice then another has more of a minty smell. I love the mint smelling ones sooo much! And the pollinators love them too! I only saw one bumble bee this year and it was on the agastache. But there were a ton of different kinds of bees and pollinators. The Painted Lady butterflies LOVE the chive blooms!! There was also lots of praying mantis, tons of ladybugs, lots of dragonflies and even saw a lacewing on a flower plant near the end of the growing season. I'm hoping they all show up again next year!!! Over all I had very little issues with bugs as a result! There were some aphids but they seem to stick to the mustard plants and lettuce. Which reminds me.... the mustard seeds that I put in my bread and butter pickles were homegrown! Got to say that it's a lot of work to get the seeds separated cleanly! Bits and pieces of the pod like to fall in so needed to get them out. Flower wise there's a couple of different kinds of salvia, petunia's, delphiniums, sweet williams, russian sage, bee balm, yarrow, cleome, a couple of different kinds of coreopsis, some hens and chicks and some iris's. I also planted a lilac. My experience is it'll take at least a couple of years of growing roots before it really takes off and starts flowering. Over all most flowers are perennials so should come back next year. Also have strawberries!!! I'm hoping they produce next year. I did get some from a friend this last week. Planted them and covered them with straw hoping that they'll get rooted before winter really sets in! If they don't make at least I tried! They were going to be thrown out if I didn't try and do something with them.
The end of July I went camping with Erika and her family. We went up out of Joseph. It was a gorgeous area!! So peaceful and quiet. And NO cell service! We went to the Joseph rodeo on Friday and then the Joseph parade on Saturday. It was good to have time with the girls! Pictures below! Then the end of August/first couple of weeks of September I was in western Oregon. Got the weekend of Boring II convention and a couple of days after that in Portland area. Tuesday was actually a work day! Saw several clients and a couple of colleagues (CPA's that I've worked with). It was good touch base with everyone. One of the CPA's I've known since 1994! Think I drove close to 150 miles that day! Left the house I was staying at 9:30 am and didn't get back until 9 pm! Did end the day at Erika's for about an hour and a half so that was good!!! Wednesday afternoon went to the coast and spent the night at a couple of dear friends and then Thursday saw an old friend from college, Gordon S. . Was so good to see him and his mom! They took me to Pacific City so that I could actually see the ocean before heading back inland that day. If you're on the coast seeing the ocean is a requirement! Had dinner with Aunt Pat and then headed down to Grants Pass for the night. Then headed over to Klamath Falls Friday and saw family there. My dad is holding steady. The place he is in is awesome. Every place has it's issues but this one does a good job overall. They allow him to take the bus and I think that's part (or most) of why he's okay with being in the foster care home. He spends a lot of time sitting outside in his chair reading, watching the birds and people watching. Monday morning I headed to Fields. Work has a ranch down there so I decided it'd be good to visit and see what was down there! It was a lot of fun. Although to begin with we had to 'flush' with water buckets because their well wasn't working! So there was no running water Monday and part of Tuesday. They did have lots of big bottled water containers though so we got through! Thursday I left there and headed home. Went south to Nevada and then up to Twin Falls. So took a brand new route home! Lots and lots of empty land that went on and on and on. It was actually kind of nice! :) I don't think I'll do the two weeks again though because I missed a major production time for the garden. Probably will do a week in Portland and a week in Klamath at different times.
I'll find out October 28th if Pippy will make it or not. He's been fighting infection since June. I thought for sure I was losing him back then but if the infection isn't gone this time I'll end up having the vet put him down. He'll start eating okay but within a week or two of being off antibiotics he'll stop eating as well. He has a bladder infection that just won't go away. I've got he's been on antibiotics and prednisone. The antibiotics finished Friday and prednisone finishes this week. They're hoping the prednisone will allow the antibiotics to be effective. He's been through 5 or 6 rounds of them since June. They're guess if this doesn't work is that something else is causing the bladder infection and at 16 he's just too old to really have anything done so it'll be better to let him go. I'm hoping it'll be okay though. I don't want to lose both cats in the same year!!!!
One of many dragonflies I saw this summer
Gooseberry bush that was given me!
Garden in first part of July
Black eyed susan with kale in front of it
My 'sunflower' patch
Teagan did her own hair! Our camping 'tent'! :)
The pond at the camping site
Nick and Erika's pups
A damselfly next to the pond
Classic! Fishing pole, tackle box, and pups-Teagan coming back from fishing.
Playing card games!
Ice cream and girls being silly!
Baby bump! Erika and Nick
Rodeo
Wallowa Lake- this picture doesn't do it justice!!
Parting shot of the pond Sunday morning before heading to meeting and home.
Garden in August
One of the praying mantis!
Swiss chard, zucchini, beans and broccoli
White acorn squash
Sunrise!
Some of my carrots! So excited to be able to grow carrots! Sandy soil works awesome!
'Spring' garden in August still doing good!
Russian Sage
When first planted... see down below for progress!
One of many ladybugs!
Mustard seed
More or less cleaned up...
Agastache
Homegrown mustard seed!
Banana peppers did awesome this year!!
Cleome- love this flower!!!
Pippy 💓💝
Zucchini relish
Bread and butter pickles
Marzano Roma's were a tad loaded this year!
Canned beans
Corn from the farm
All processed!!
More zucchini relish/bread and butter pickles
Hummingbird moth
Garden the end of August, just before my trip
Headed to Portland!
Columbia River
A bit more of a baby bump!
Scarlet and Teagan playing on the trampoline
Garabadi
Pacific City
Dad
Memories!
Pelicans on the river heading to Fields
Heading to Fields
Kittens!
Pueblo Mountain
Baling hay
Cutting alfalfa hay
Antelope enjoying the hay that's been cut
Peaceful!
Alvord desert- pretty interesting area!
Old stage coach stop!
Free range cattle
I think he/she saw me. :)
Panorama of part of the ranch
Moon
Morning I headed out
Headed home!
Pick after I got home
The flower bed almost fully grown
Finch enjoying the sunflowers
This is why I let the flowers stay when they volunteered.
Lemon Verbena and bumble bee on the agastache
Bumble bee
Strawberry plants
Salsa!!
Garlic bed dug out
Pumpkins!
Salvia- this one is really hardy!!
Yarrow
Cleome and Agastache
First freeze coming... time to pull garden! Pulled Sept 27th :(
Cool shot of a praying mantis
Final pick. Lots and lots of tomatoes!! Managed to get 95% of them processed!
More tomatoes
Final pick of peppers, zucchini, cucumbers
Squash haul
Found so many ladybugs while pulling the garden!
Garden is pulled!!
Verde Salsa and more red salsa
Corn chowder- so yummy with fresh garden vegetables
Neighbor cat enjoying my catmint
Friday (Oct 11th) morning ended up getting down to 17*!
Preparing for the hard freeze
Preparing for the hard freeze- These all survived!!
Trying to beat the freeze! Harvesting potatoes
Harvesting potatoes
First snow fall- just a skiff
The day after this field was harvested...
Canned tomatoes with basil
Canned tomatoes and pizza sauce
My shed... It should be done soon!!
Yesterday morning sunrise (Oct 20th)
And it's snowing... Got sunshine, rain, snow, thunderstorms, wind and hail all in the same day yesterday.
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