Mules Days 2012 Joseph Oregon...50º

We are in the midst of Mule Days, here in Wallowa County....Herb dedicates most of 5 days each year to this cause...Picking up trash, putting up canopies and signs and whatever else needs to be done...I do less hours, working in the souvenir and ticket booths, cleaning bathrooms and this year helping with the Saturday night BBQ...Over the years we have volunteered for different things, Air Life of Oregon, Eagle Cap Excursion Train plus other things with different organizations...We don't do  as much as other "career" volunteers and I think except for the occasional few hours at an event that we might do in the future this will be the end of volunteering for me...Can't speak for Herb!..Am I getting old or just tired, maybe both...I just know that I will be very thankful when Sunday night arrives this year....Hugs to All....OWAV:)

Salsa...52º

Today is the day for salsa making, that is if the jalapeño and bell peppers arrive at the farmers market this afternoon or if they don't I will go to Safeway and see what I can find along with fresh cilantro, then we will add all this to the ripening Roma's, homegrown garlic and onions, after they are chopped...Simmered to blend the flavors, then ladled into jars and sealed before it ends up on the cellar shelves...Mule Days, where Herb and I volunteer, starts tomorrow and chores at home will have to wait.

Yesterday I had two things on my list...First was to turn the treasurers books over to the new treasurer of sorority...A simple act I thought, until arriving at Community Bank where "Betty" was waiting for me and Kate said "So you called and the paperwork is in place to make this change?" "UH no, we just want to change names on the account for the new treasurer to write and sign the checks," said I, thinking how difficult can that be?..I won't go into the entire story but the change didn't happen...Our card hasn't been updated since 2008 and we have to have signed papers from 3 people (one has moved away) to remove them from the card before we can add someone else to the card...GGGGRRRRRRR!

Second on my list was to buy chickens on sale at Joseph foods...They started stocking Ranger chickens about a year ago and have them on sale periodically...To me they have a better taste and firmer meat than Foster Farms chickens...I quit buying "Southern raised chickens years ago"....Herb and I made a quick trip to Joseph Foods to buy these chickens because they sell out fast...Home with 5 of them I proceed to wash, cut up and package them for the freezer...Herb helps with the packaging and soon I'm cleaning up the sink and cutting boards and the job is done until the next time they go on sale and we can stock up again...Hugs to All...OWAV:)

Janie's Haven...48º

An old cabin, meandering river, grape arbor, 1/2 acre of vegetable gardens, fruit trees, blackberry vines,  rimrocks and rattlesnakes...It can be called many things such as Janie's Haven, Heaven or Retreat, a special place where Janie goes to relax, work, write and refuel her batteries to continue her busy life on Prairie Creek...A life filled with family, friends, animals, hard work and play...Friends are also invited to share this special spot and yesterday our Write Group drove down, down, down the curvy road into the Imnaha Canyon to the little cabin...We started by walking through the community gardens full of zucchini, cucumbers, corn, ripening tomatoes, squashes, pumpkins and melons...Then our attention turned to the blackberry bushes, we picked a few before the sun chased us onto the grapevine covered front porch where we read and critiqued our stories...Janie served her special iced coffee and before long our grumbling stomachs signaled time for lunch...Our potluck lunch of corn of the cob, coleslaw, zucchini casseroles and lemon bread filled our tummies...We wished for a quick nap, but instead loaded our cars and drove back to Joseph and the reality of our own busy lives.

Back in Joseph, where Herb kept the home fires burning (so to speak) I was greeted with the news that our shower door had been installed...The shower is now complete, the yard sale shower curtain gone forever, replaced with a glass door, that is so clear you can hardly tell it is there.

Shower door

News from Bobi about Cienna's first day in high school, slightly traumatic going into a new school with 200 students after going to K- 8 in the same comfortable school building...Cienna's saying she is not quite sure of this new experience of high school.

Do I really want to do this?

Rusty is back in Bend after a camping weekend at Fishers in Mitchell...Now he has to finish his building before returning to Joseph in a few weeks.

Late afternoon with blackberries sitting on the counter, apples on our tree, I put flour and butter in the cuisinart and soon had pie crust in the making, apples peeled and sliced, blackberries rinsed and by 8pm the pie, was cool enough to scoop into bowls, cover with ice cream and enjoy before bedtime...Hugs to All....OWAV:)

Blackberry for me /Apple for Herb

Labor Day....46º

As we celebrated Labor Day I wondered how it started and what it was all about so I googled and this was just one of the sites I found...So you can read this one or choose your own.

Herb and I started off Labor Day with a breakfast of corn fritters or corn cakes as he called them, way back when we were first married...Just one of many things that I've added to my diet over the years...His Mom made corn cakes by adding corn, grated off the cob, to pancake batter and served them with fresh made applesauce and/or maple syrup...Our kids grew up thinking that everyone ate corn cakes and looked forward to having them, mostly in the fall, (fresh corn and apples)...We ate them for breakfast or dinner depending on how desperate I was for something quick and filling to start the day or even on a Sunday afternoon when we arrived home from a boating or camping trip...We've used many toppings over the years but my favorite remains as with other pancakes--peanut butter topped with homemade berry jam/syrup and a side of bacon.

Corn Cakes without the toppings

The 50# of Roma tomatoes were still residing in the back room and now looked like they were ripe enough for me to start the roasting process...I sorted out the ripest ones, washed, cored and arranged on cookie sheets...Added a generous sprinkle of chopped fresh garlic, basil, sea salt and drizzle of olive oil, and popped them into the oven..For the next 7 hours our house smelled like an Italian Restaurant and I couldn't wait for the first batch to finish roasting so I could have a sample...Our neighbor Marsha came knocking at the door to "borrow" some dill weed and said, "What is that wonderful smell?" We then traded ideas of roasting tomatoes and all the other canning stuff we are doing now...The tomatoes were almost done when I got a call that cukes had been picked at the Magic Garden and they were mine...Herb and I made a quick trip to pick them up, then back home we filled a gallon jar for more sweets and a quart jar of more dills...I love this time of year!..Hugs to All...OWAV:)

Tomatoes ready to roast

...44º

Cool nights find Herb and I looking for a heavier shirt both in and out of the house, also a small quilt morning and evenings...It was warm enough midday that I spent time on the deck making garlic braids for special friends...Now I have more garlic to clean before it is time to plant and dry the remainder for winter...We haven't had a frost yet but the cool nights keep the garden from producing...Soon the potato vines will start to die back and then it will be time to plant next years garlic crop.

We dined on slow cooked pork ribs, finished off on the BBQ, with fresh green beans, tomatoes, corn and cucumbers...I love the summer meals, easy to prepare and wonderful to eat...I feel like royalty with meals like this, no special sauces or fancy names just fresh food from the garden, add a little butter and salt.

Sun is up, looks like another glorious day in Wallowa County and I have tomatoes ready to roast....Hugs to All...OWAV:)

Holiday Weekend...42º

Holidays don't matter much to Herb and I unless our kids are coming home...For us Labor Day weekend is just that...Yesterday we harvested cucumbers and Jostaberries from the garden...Made 5 jars of dills and 7 jars of yummy jam, along with watering (still no rain in sight)...Had dinner of stuffed bell peppers, corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers...Also took time out to sit on the deck before we delivered zucchini to Becky and John and stayed for a short visit....Hugs to All...OWAV:)

Our own Cukes

Jostaberries

Yard Sale Bust...46º

Makes me wonder what drives people to have a yard sale...Are they lonely? Do they think it will make them a few easy bucks? Did they just clean out one closet and the stuff is too good to take to Soroptomists?  They advertise in the paper, make itty bitty signs, find a building, set up tables or erect a canopy in a grain field, in the middle of nowhere and put it all out there!!! Occasionally everything is clean, marked and well displayed but usually it has been drug up from the basement or down from the attic intact with dirt and cobwebs from many years...Sometimes it is just one table, other times the entire neighborhood or town bands together for a community yard sale, garage sale or estate sale or living estate sale, all believing the trite but true saying "One persons junk is another persons treasure".

NOW I also wonder what drives people to go to yard sales?..First there are the "Dealers", they come early or the night before, circling like vultures ready for the first bite...They grab the best deals and make a quick get away...I quit yard saling for several years just because of the "greedy dealers"...Next come the ebay people, dealers as well, they also are early but spend more time digging deep into the boxes looking for buried treasures...Then the ordinary yard salers of which I am one are just looking for the occasional bargain...Over the years I've drug home my share of junk such as bed frames and other "yard art" but I've also come home with my share of bargains such as the oak coffee table, oak ice box and mission oak chair that grace our living room...Also a rare find of a Bosch bread mixer with wheat grinder included for a ridiculously low price and other bargains as well...I was disappointed in the yard sales on Friday, Pat and I spent several hours perusing one after the other, her driving, me in the co-pilot seat...Both of us came home with one small item, had fun in the process but decided afterwards that a better option would have been to visit Arrowhead Chocolates sipping our favorite mocha's.

I started sourdough bread before leaving the house yesterday morning, came home to dough that was not rising, set it out in the sun, think it got a little toooooo warm, so it turned into a soft, sticky dough that I somehow managed to get into the bread pans, partially raised and later on baked...It is not my usual batch of bread but should make good toast (maybe door stops) at least until the sourdough starter gets built up again and I can do another batch...Times a wasting, I must get busy....Hugs to All... OWAV:)

Black Eyed Susans