September Weekend...48º

For the past five years Herb and I have volunteered at "Hells Canyon Mule Days"...We started helping out just when needed, someone didn't show for a shift, and we were flexible...We strengthened old friendships and made new ones...We ate our share of hamburgers, hot dogs, pie and ice cream...What started out as a few hours soon became a near full-time commitment for 4 days...We did every thing from cleaning restrooms, hauling garbage, selling t-shirts and tickets to helping prepare food for the BBQ and giving directions to the activities of the mules in the arena..Set up--take down, inventory became routine...We will keep the fond memories and others will fade into oblivion as we move on to other endeavors...Did we miss mule days this year?..Not really...I can only describe it as relief...No cold early hours setting up canopies, no cleaning bathrooms while our own went begging, no frustration dealing with people of all ilks...Those years were fun for a change but a quiet weekend on Barton Heights this year was much to our liking...No we didn't spend the weekend lounging about but instead, we roasted tomatoes, made jam, hauled and scattered wood chips preparing gardens for winters...I made a batch of bread and started more sauerkraut while Herb worked on the winters wood, did laundry and we ate simple home cooked meals...Now it is Monday, the sun is rising, Indian summer is upon us...Hugs To All...OWAV:)



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Broken Record...47º

Lovely Roma's

Taking the chance that my readers won't care if I sound like a broken record, once again I will expound on roasting and freezing tomatoes instead of canning them...USDA wants you to add acid (vinegar or lemon juice) to tomatoes, increase the processing time or even pressure cook them...I want to be safe but I also prefer that my tomatoes taste like tomatoes not lemons or vinegar...A favorite when I was growing up was a bowl of tomatoes fresh from the jar with a slice of Mom's homemade bread and butter.
Step l - I'm using romas but any tomato will work they will just have more juice...Wash tomatoes, then core slice in half and place in a cookie sheet, skin side down.

Sliced Roma's

Step 2- Drizzle with a good quality oil, sprinkle with fresh garlic, basil (dried will also work) and coarse salt...Three of these sheets will fit in my oven, each sheet holds about 4# of tomatoes...I set the oven on 200º and roast for 3 to 5 hours depending on the tomatoes and how dry you want them...

Ready for the oven.

If I am in the house I will switch the pans around in the oven periodically but if I'm outside working in the garden they roast fine all on their own...I do have a convection oven.

Tomatoes done roasting

Step 3 - First thing I do is slurp a couple of these tasty morsel, using my fingers, right into my mouth, then I toast a slice of homemade sourdough bread, slide a couple more onto the bread and see if they still taste like I remembered from a year ago...AAAhhhh that concentrated sweet tomato with a burst of garlicky goodness and just a hint of sour from the bread...Are you salivating YET?

Tomatoes ready for the freezer

Step 4 - If there are any tomatoes left on the tray after cooling :)... I slide them into ziplock sandwich bags...The tomatoes concentrate down to less than half of what they were in the raw state...I squish the bags, pushing out all of the air possible, then to double bag these I put 4 of these bags into a gallon ziplock for their final storage in the freezer...They are flat and stack nicely, they are simple to take one or more bags at a time for soups, sauces or casseroles...Of course for a large family you can use a larger bag to start with and I do recommend double bagging them...Happy tomato roasting...Hugs to All...OWAV:)

Cooler....53º

Breeze, rain, humidity and sunshine all in one day...Enough cucumbers in the patch to make one more quart of "hot garlic dills...The cabbage was crying for attention, so I spent time in the garden harvesting cabbage to share and make more sauerkraut...It was a good project between rain storms...Becky arrived as the sun came out to dig starts for her garden...We "tackled" the day lilies, me with the shovel and her the digging fork...Bags full of starts littered the lawn enough for her and her neighbor and others for members of the garden club or anyone that wants them...Day lilies love to multiply and spread and need to be thinned every few years...Becky and I had a good visit...Herb had spent the morning hauling wood chips for me and helping our neighbor clean out her irrigation ditch...Both of us ready for a rest and food we cleaned the fridge of the leftovers and treated ourselves to hot fudge sundaes for dessert.

Talked via "facetime" with Rusty in Savannah, Georgia where he is working for LTW and enjoying fresh seafood that one can only get in the south...Text with our girls in Portland, Cienna almost recovered from a cold and sore throat while Bobi is in the worst stage of hers and most miserable!..I'm thinking it should be getting better today or a trip to the doctor is due...Ci is back to the first week of school and has already had two water polo games...Busy days...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Thinking...58º

Melodious sounds, chimes in the distance, wind across my face from an open window...My mind fights through the fog of sleep as I drift in and out...The room goes from dark to light followed by the crack of thunder, then the pounding rain, it is the wee hours of the morning...I'm awake now luxuriating in the warm bed, the smell of rain, the breeze, the rumble in the distance...Please, return to sleep...My mind has other issues, thoughts creep in like the pesky fly that now flits around my face, hands and computer screen...I swat, I threaten with death but it remains, just like the niggling thoughts running through my mind...I let them surface, bubble, push them down, they return, just like the fly.

A friend of mine I think, was born kind, that kindness was nurtured, she was taught to think of others before herself...Over the years happiness has come her way because she finds contentment within, not always looking for others to bring her joy...People seek her out because she is grounded, approachable, gentle in nature...Sometimes, maybe, they ask to much of her...Can she share her ease of life, let them borrow the quick smile that comes to her face, "please bring me joy as well," they say.

Asking too much of a person brings out a different side...Irritation, a frown as she balks at their self-absorption...Her mind wonders, "Why do you think only of yourself?"...Is it too late for them to learn that happiness comes from within?..Being happy in the place you are and not looking for a place or person to make you happy...Happiness will come to you, when, you bring joy to others.

Shades of pink lighten the eastern sky, dawn breaks on Barton Heights...Smile at a stranger today, I'll bet they smile back...Hugs to All...OWAV:)

Crazy Canning Gene...58º

Is it the Mormon background or the great depression of the 30's?..Why does our family have a compulsion to can or jar or freeze everything in site...I'll start with my Grandmother who raised 10 children in the Salt Lake Valley in the late 1900's and had almost every kind of fruit and vegetables available to her...Her parents came across the plains pushing a handcart...They were a hardy lot and suffered through the blazing sun and harsh winters...They learned fast that the more food you put away before winter set in the better your chance of living through the winter...My Mom and Dad started life on the harsh Wyoming plains, living in a log shack, 4 little kids and another one on the way...It was the middle of the great depression...Dad worked for food, they salted hams and bacons and Mom canned vegetables, fruits and meat...She continued this style of life all of her 96 years...On our table growing up we always had fresh fruit and vegetables but not much, most of it went in the jars to get us through the long winters.

Yesterday on facebook one of my nieces posted-"One month's worth of dinners ready for the freezer"Photo included...Her sister posted "Awesome. Crazy what we do with a day off! Relax and read? Naw.... We cook! I canned peaches, made jalapeño poppers and prepped dinners for the rest of the week!" The reply came back.."Way to go Sis. ...we must be nuts"  I jumped in with a comment-"Being nuts runs in the family, I made 25 jars of jam, 2 qts of currant juice (for jelly) and canned 8 pints of garbanzo beans."....Another sister chimed in with "This summer I've made 70 pints of salsa, 25 pickled jalapenos, beets and beet pesto in the freezer, and roasted peppers in freezer too...it's almost time for tamales...Someone else chimed in with, lets have an exchange...And so it goes, we can, we freeze, we store it away...Never know what the winter will bring...Hugs to All...OWAV:)

Plum Tree...67º

We planted the Santa Rosa plum tree many years ago, it makes wonderful jams and jellies...Yesterday since our apple trees have no fruit this year (frosted) I decided to try a plum pie or tart...It turned out a little runny but beautiful and it was quite tart...We ate it warm with ice cream on top.

Santa Rosa Plums

Plum Tart

Today I must make the rest of the plums into Jam and take care of the black currants...I think juice for jelly is best for them as last year I made currant jam and was not impressed...It is overcast here today but very warm, thunder showers are predicted...Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Black Currants 

Full Day of Music...57º

The promise of a relaxing afternoon got me moving on Saturday morning...I declined going to yard sales with Pat and instead scavenged the cucumber patch and came up with enough cucumbers to fill a quart...Two heads of cabbage had started to crack and one zucchini grew into a monster overnight...Zucchini went into the fridge and cabbages were cleaned, one grated for sauerkraut and cole slaw and the other put away to share...I started a batch of hamburger/sandwich buns for our dinner of BLT's...Jars were sterilizing in the oven...By noon 7 pints full of sauerkraut sat in the back room waiting for their magic to start working, 1 quart of dills cooled on the counter...A dozen buns almost ready for the oven...Cole Slaw made, Tomatoes sliced, bacon ready to cook...We ate our dinner at 2pm and by 3:30 I joined the crowd of people, found a little patch of shade and set up my chair to enjoy the music at Juniper Jam.

Pat and Brian joined me about 4:30..."Opie" was playing at FULL volume and we were wishing for earplugs...Brian spotted a bigger spot of shade farther away from the loud speakers, we moved quickly before others got the same idea...The afternoon and evening passed quickly as we visited, sipped our drinks and people watched...Friends stopped by to visit and some stayed for the evening...I arrived home about 9:30 after 6 hours of musical entertainment, most of it good...My favorite band was "Wiley and the Wild West"...Where else but in Wallowa County can you get 8+  hours of non stop music for the bargain price of $12/15 a ticket...I'm already looking forward to next year...Time to get moving plums and currants are waiting for me...Hugs To All...OWAV:)