Coastal Range Mushroom Harvesting

Last Sunday we got up early (about 6:30...which is early for us on the weekends!) and headed out towards the Oregon Coast Range to do some mushroom hunting. We were specifically headed out to find Chanterelles which we successfully harvested in the same area last fall. We were a little concerned that we were too early this year (last year I think we went around the 2nd weekend in October) but fortunately we found them again and made it home with a great haul - 10 LBS of Chanterelles! I won't tell you exactly where we found them (a good lil' mushroom hunter never does!) but I will tell you that we had to get up to about 2500' before we started harvesting. You want to get up high and then you'll find them near dead trees or piles of twigs tucked into the moss.

Thor and I have had mushrooms for dinner 4 nights in a row now. They are quite delicious sauteed up in a little butter (okay - a LOT of butter), some Marsala and a little salt & pepper.

This map gives you an idea of the area I mean when I say the Oregon Coast Range.

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Thor with one of our harvested bags of Chanterelles on the trail (happy dogs Laea & Annie in the background....unfortunately they are not as helpful as truffle pigs...more like mushroom crushers!)

A close up of the second bag of our haul. It did take quite a while for us to clean them all! Next year we will be more careful about brushing them off while we're picking them.

Hood River Double Cross #1

On Saturday Abby, Michelle & I drove out to Hood River to race at the Hood River Double Cross. It was Abby & I's first 'real' cyclocross race with barriers, run ups and deep sand & gravel. Overall I would say I had a pretty good time....although it was all I could do to stagger up the run up with my bike by the end of the 5th lap. Abby continued to ride like a little mutant on her single speed and ended up 2nd place over all in the Women's B field. I took my camera with me, but completely forgot to take pictures. Fortunately someone made a video short of the race on Saturday - it only has footage of some of the men's races, but it will give you an idea of what the crazy downhill with 180 degree turn at the bottom looked like.

Red Sauce Italian Style

On Tuesday night I finally had enough time to get outside and harvest my roma tomatoes. My plan was to make spaghetti sauce to freeze and use this winter. My tomato bushes had a TON of tomatoes on them (or so I thought....they cook down more than I expected them too!) Here's a shot of my Roma bushes that are planted in my raised bed on the west side of the house. Next year I think I am going to move them to the planter on the south side of the house because I don't think they received enough sunlight/heat in their current location.




Here are the ingredients I started with -- all from my garden! Patty pan squash, roma tomatoes & onions. I was also planning on adding green peppers & some celery to my sauce, but about the time I was picking tomatoes my friend Stacy showed up and was absolutely horrified at the idea of tainting my sauce with peppers, squash & celery. Since Stacy is a bonafide italiana with sauce-cooking relatives across the Atlantic I thought it best to listen to her and stick to the basics: tomatoes, garlic, onions, olive oil, basil, salt & pepper.









First step was peeling the tomatoes - this was easier than I thought it would be -- just blanch until the skin cracks and then slip the fleshy part out. Voila!












My helpful sous chef, Stacy, and her trusty vizsla side-kick, Gus.










I sauteed the onions in a little bacon fat & olive oil - then added the garlic. Once these were getting aromatic I added the tomatoes that I had blended up and set the whole mess on low to simmer for about 2 hours and cook down. At the very end I added about a 1/2 cup of chopped fresh basil from our garden -- and that was it! It did not make as much sauce as I had hoped...maybe about 4 cups....but it was a fun process and very tasty. Perhaps I will plant more romas next year so I can prepare sauce to last an entire winter!

The finished simple red sauce!

Early Morning Pheasant Hunt

Thor & Joe headed out to Sauvie Island this morning for a little pre-work pheasant hunting. The season opened on Monday, but there will still plenty of birds out there today and both Thor & Joe limited out. I am already looking forward to dinner tonight!

Berry picking, biking, Footbal Watching - A Weekend at home, finally!

Friday after work Thor and I took off with Annie & Laea out to 1000 Acres to do some blackberry picking. The dogs wore themselves out chasing the ball while Thor & I picked until it was dark - we got two large containers of blackberries -- enough for me to make 12 half-pint jars of jam on Saturday. Yum! We're all set for the winter.

Saturday Thor went to brunch with some friends while I went to a Cyclocross clinic with my friend Abby. In the afternoon we ran around and did some errands before heading over to our friend's Deb & Jeb's house for a bbq.

Sunday I went to my first cross race (except it wasn't really a true cross race because there weren't any barriers), but it was on the dirt roads and Abby and I both raced our single speed San Jose's for the first time. Abby won - and I got second. Thor surprised me and came out to watch the race with his friend Joe - Here are a few pics that Thor took of me towards the end of our 6 lap race:

Me when I see Thor on the course for the first time - big smile!

At the end of the race going towards the finish line. I was pooped!

I spent the rest of Sunday puttering around in the garden - I pulled out the bean & pea plants that were dying and mixed in some more compost in preparation for the garlic I am going to plant soon. Thor went over to Ethan's house to watch the Broncos vs. Chargers game and was in high-spirits all evening due to the Broncos win by-1 pt. over the Chargers at the end of the game. We finished off the weekend with a pizza on the grill - delicious! It was nice to finally be at home for a weekend.

Smith Rock Weekend

Last weekend we went to the Smith Rock area with our friends Sean, Megan, Sarah, Becky & Josh. We camped at Skull Hollow Campground which is a free area only about 10 miles away from the Smith Rock State Park. We all got in late on Friday night, set up camp and sat around the campfire for a couple hours drinking beer and chatting. On Saturday we got up and went on a mountain bike ride from camp to ride part of the Gray Butte Trail. Somewhere North of Gray Butte itself we turned and headed East back down into our campground -- overall about a 9 mile loop -- perfect for a half day ride!

A view from camp - we headed up a dirt road that ran straight up between the two humps in the photo.

Thor & I in a self portrait at the high point of our ride (hence why we're both so red in the face. Phew!)

All the members of our group with their bikes. Shortly after this I hit a deep, sandy section of the trail going too fast and crunched my face and shoulder into the bank. grumble. I am still icing my shoulder after that little spill. Hmph.


After we got back from our bike ride we had a leisurely lunch of tacos (made by Megan) and then we packed up our gear to head over to the climbing area for the afternoon. We spent the afternoon on the Phoenix Wall -- Josh & Thor put up routes for the rest of us to climb - it was great.

Thor leading a 5.10a - this was a great route with a real crux-y section about 2/3 of the way up - challenging without being too frustrating or scary.

Josh leading a 5.10a on the Phoenix Wall. I sat on the same slab for about 15 minutes when I climbed that route earlier this spring.









Here's Becky scaling the 5.10a that Thor put up.

Sarah & Megan whipped up some delicious sausage sandwiches on Saturday night -- with a side of corn, potato & jalapeno hash. YUM!










Becky & I really aren't as crazy as we look in this picture - we're just excited to be wearing identical outfits in camp. We're like the ladies that show up to the Oscars in the same dress. Just like that.


On Sunday we got up and packed up the car and headed back towards Mt. Hood to do some more riding. We decided as a group that we didn't want to be out riding all day so we went and gave the 8-mile Trail (I think....or it was 15-mile....or maybe Knebel Ridge...) - anyways it was a LOT of fun, and I even found my first uphill mtn. bike trail that I wasn't totally wheezing on the whole time. After biking we headed back towards Portland with a brief stop in Parkdale to eat at the Elliot Glacier Public House. The views of Hood were fantastic - I'm bummed I didn't grab my camera for a picture.


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'Hernie' the Hedgehog

Here's the hedgehog I finished for Nick Nardecchia last week. You'll have to ask Stacy about the name -- she christened him Hernie when she was over at my house last week -- it fits him well. I put Hernie through the dryer to try and super shrink him -- it worked really well, but he's still about twice as large as Nick!

I made this guy following FiberTrends' pattern for Huggable Hedgehogs (#228x). The main body is out of Lamb's Pride worsted weight yarn in the color 'Dynamic Blue'. The fuzzy part is a Crystal Palace Yarn, 'SPLASH', in color #9406 (one of the freebie yarns from the Knitting with the Blazers event that some of you went to with me last year).

Late July Blooms

This post is very late. I recently put most of these spent blooms into the yard waste -- that's how late I am posting these pictures! These flowers were all blooming around the last week of July and into the first week of August.

One of the many dahlia varieties in our yard.

More dahlias - these are on the west side of the house under the lilac tree.

Another dahlia - this is on the most humongous dahlia plant I have ever seen. It is currently planted right smack in the middle of our raised veggie bed, but the tallest dahlia stalks are over 6 feet!

Our hydrangea - it deepened in color towards the middle of the summer and was a bright bush of vibrant purples & blues.

A couple shots of our hostas in our front yard. I never realized that hostas produced a bloom!

A lily.

I am not sure what these are called - but they are in our front yard next to my artichoke.

Another front yard lily variety.

These are Liatris - we have these up in the front yard and down in our park strip.

Black-Eyed Susan....I think? They're in our front yard.

Here's a series of shots of our Orange Trumpet Vine. We thought it was a wisteria for awhile until it bloomed orange! The vine winds around our fence and over the top of our gate that connects the front yard to the side yard on the west side of the house.

A close up of the orange blossom on the Trumpet Vine.

This fuschia lives in a pot in the back yard underneath our Cherry tree.

Another dahlia!

My Finish @ Maxon Road Race

Here is the video of the Cat 4 Women's finish on Saturday in the Maxon Road Race leg of the Eugene Celebration Stage Race. It's probably hard to tell who I am -- but I'm the 4th rider across the line (finished 6th overall...there were two women ahead of our 'chase' group that finished about 50 seconds ahead of us).

Tuna Fishing - Labor Day

While I was slogging away on my bike on Labor Day Thor was occupied much more pleasantly fishing for tuna off the Oregon coast. He and his friends Joe & Eric left from the Port of Garibaldi early on Monday morning for a full day of open sea fishing. They ended up catching 26 tuna so it was a great day! We're freezing the top loin in fillets and Eric & Joe are canning the bottom loin so we can enjoy it all winter. Yum!

Here are the pictures that Joe took during their day out on the water.