Therapy Day...18deg.

Yesterday was a therapy day for me…No I didn’t have water therapy or acupuncture, but I played in the dough, most of the day…It was an extra big batch of dough, so I let the Bosch mixer do the kneading and then about every hour I did stretches and folds, over and over…I have learned to trust my sourdough starter, so added no yeast…The more stretches and folds, the lighter and puffier my dough became.  

About noon, I decided to make pizza for dinner…The small ball of dough stretched nicely into a misshapen crust (that’s okay, pizza doesn’t have to be round)…I covered the crust with heavy cream and dotted it with roasted tomatoes, then put it aside to rest, while I sautéed chunks of sausage and chicken thighs…This was a two-sided pizza, one for Herb and one for me…Then I diced olives, onions, red pepper and sliced artichoke hearts and grated cheese…It is up to you to decide where I put what.

As I was doing the pizza, I continued to stretch and fold the dough, before finally shaping into loaves, some in pans, others in free form…Also made a few buns for sandwiches or burgers…Working with the dough is my therapy…Hugs To All…OWAV:)

The smell was heavenly. 

Busy days...26deg.

I am still struggling with posting in “blogger.com.”…But am learning to navigate “notes” and get the font big enough to read, get a photo posted along with the blog and come up with something half way interesting to write about.

Yesterday was our first day back to water therapy, after the 2 week Oregon freeze…My mornings are free (WT starts at 12:30) so I try to get as much done as possible and have food prepped or in the crockpot, then I can put dinner on the table quickly when I get home…(between 2&3 is our dinner hour).

My day went something like this…Breakfast is over before 9am and I’m dressed…I made my first batch of fondant (for mint chocolates), poured it to cool on the marble slab and while it was cooling, I peeled, cooked and mashed a pot of potatoes so I can freeze them for meals another day…I scoop 1/2 cup serving on a cookie sheet, flatten with the masher, and freeze…After frozen they are bagged for individual servings and put back in the freezer. (The reason I do this is Herb loves mashed potatoes). It takes no time at all to heat in microwave or in a frying pan..

Potato patties. 

Now the fondant is cool, so I stir, fold and stretch until it sets up, I bag it for later…I put sausages and sauerkraut in the crockpot, change clothes and am ready for the pool…Back home at 2:30, sausages/sauerkraut is ready, I heat mashed potatoes to add for our dinner. (I didn’t freeze all of the potatoes.)

Now it is the next day, fondant is still waiting for me this morning…I will add flavoring and refrigerate…

I’ve been feeding the sourdough and today is bread making day…Hugs To All…OWAV:)

Christmas Spirit...28 deg.

For many years we have celebrated “Holidays” anytime that we were together…Much of the celebrating took place in the kitchen and on the deck, where we tried new recipes, cooked our favorites from years gone by, laughed, played cards, concocted new beverages, toasted each other, and were thankful to be together…Many years we celebrated Christmas in the summer and when the actual day rolled around, I was happy to put up a little fake tree, (that Herb made), and not have the mess of needles, wrapping paper and yes, less  stuff to put away.

Snowmen made by my dear friend, Jane Williams,

given to us, many years ago. 

This year seems different, maybe because of COVID, maybe because of losing Mona, maybe because reality hit as to how old we really are and maybe we should celebrate and be thankful for this year…Maybe that’s why yesterday I found myself upstairs going through boxes of Christmas decorations and hauling “stuff” downstairs…Not even sure why I chose the things I did, except they brought back memories of people, other christmases, made me smile and when we turn on the switch, it all lights up the front porch…I will probably feel less “joyful”, in January 2021, when I’m hauling all this stuff back upstairs or we get another wind storm and it ends up in the neighbors yard…Hugs To All…OWAV:) 

So many jobs, so little time.

 

Chocolates are the first thing on my list for December, but Chex Mix is easier…Last week I made a double batch and have it saved in gallon ziplocks, stored in the cellar…This week, what started to be a weekly bathroom cleaning, turned into a two day marathon…Everything sparkles in there now and it has smells of bleach, lysol and vinegar…Not sure if that’s a good combination.

My mind is in a quandary as what to do next…I’ve been thinking about putting up Christmas lights on the front porch, thinking about more cleaning, kitchen or laundry room, then I go back to chocolate…We got notice that we can do water Therapy, starting tomorrow…I have to plan my day better now or I end up wasting precious hours…One job at a time and take time to breath and stay hydrated…Hugs To All…OWAV:)

December on Barton Heights

 Back to regular blog posts, with occasional family memories thrown in.

We’ve had about a week of cold, sunny days here in Wallowa County, these are the winter days we live for and enjoy…After our early November storm with nasty winds, snow and then rain, our windows were plastered with dirt and grime…Not wanting to have that ruin our beautiful view, for the rest of the winter, I got out the window washing sponges, sponge mop with long handle, a big squeegee and concentrated cleaner and went to work.

I worked in shirt sleeves, temp was about 40º in the sun and I worked fast…I certainly wasn’t cold…Years ago I hated washing windows and especially our big picture windows and sliding glass doors…I tried all of the hints at the time, using different mixtures, drying with paper towel and newspaper, they always came out streaked and I was totally exhausted…On our only cross country trip in 1995, we stopped at many of the large rest areas and at each one, a man would be standing on scaffolding, washing the endless windows...He had a bucket of sudzy water, a sponge applicator and a big squeegee, no paper towels, no newspaper…I wondered, can I do that?

When we got home from that trip, I went shopping and found good squeegees, a sponge floor mop and concentrated window washing liquid…Now with Herbs help, we can wash the windows in record time…They won’t pass inspection of a professional window washer but  they are clean enough and only have streaks when the sun hits just right...Hugs to all.  OWAV:) 

Sisters.

  First of all I want to thank everyone for reading, liking, loving and commenting on my memories of Mona…It is hard being 600 miles away, so this is my way of sharing my thoughts and love with Mona’s family and friends…Remember that these are “my memories” and might not be how someone else remembers it, but that is okay…

The more memories the After Mona and Jerry were married, we only saw each other at a funeral, wedding, or maybe a family reunion…Herb and I left the McCall area and moved to Utah…Mona and Jerry moved to Washington…They moved to California, we moved to Oregon…Finally our kids were all grown and had flown the nest…They had settled in Utah and we made Oregon our permanent home…

Mona and Jerry were doing some traveling and called one day with an invite to join them in Cancun for a weeks vacation…They were great tour guides…That gave us the traveling bug and two years later found us back in Cancun with them and our kids joined us as well…We invited them to join us in Arizona, where “we” made the arrangements to see a musical and take in some baseball games at spring training…When we were not out seeing the sights, we could be found in the pool or sun bathing or playing cards…We visited each other homes, in Utah we spent time at their Park City condo, connected with other relatives and friends…When they came to Joseph, we gave them a quiet place to relax and unwind from their busy schedule, with an excursion on our local train and the gondola at Wallowa Lake…An Alaskan Cruise was our last trip together…We decided that Barton Heights (our home in Joseph, OR.) was the best place to be and Mona and Jerry would come here to sit in the peace and quiet, play cards and if it was September, Mona and I made an apple pie every day, (apples from our tree)…Food was often at the center of our visits and the canned peaches they brought from their trees, lined our cellar shelves.

We were down to seeing each other once a year…They came here for the peace and quiet and we didn’t have to fight the traffic at their house…Mona and Jerry counted on my blog to keep in touch…If I wanted to hear their voices, I would just miss a few days of writing and Mona would be on the phone calling, “Della, are you sick?” “No, Mona, not sick, just taking a break.”…Then we would visit on the phone.

Mona called in July of 2019, “Della, can we come to Joseph, over the 24th, Jerry and I need a break, he is tired and I’m getting confused a lot.?” “Of course,” was my reply...My thoughts immediately went to dementia, no please no…Then I busied myself with menus for their visit…I had a bag of frozen apples, enough for one pie and they were easy to cook for so, we could mostly visit and rest…As Jerry hugged me that day, his eyes filled with tears and he said, “She is not doing very good, I had to bring her, it might be the last time, you two need some time together.”

We had a bitter/sweet visit, our niece Sue, came for an afternoon and we visited, reminisced, laughed a lot…The weather was good, cooler than Salt Lake City, which was good and we spent every day on the deck…Mona and I talked about our childhood, our parents, life on the farm and how much we were loved…Also we talked about the trips we took together and thankful we had those days…It was a hard goodbye, neither of us wanted it to end...Sending Love to the Park Family.

New home, different life...

 Lake Fork, Idaho, 500 miles away was our destination...It was December 1st 1950...We left Porterville, late afternoon in a rainstorm that soon turned to snow...Our "caravan" included a touring car, a pickup truck, loaded with furniture and two large cattle trucks, one with horses and the other with farm machinery...We drove until midnight that first day, stayed in Burley, Idaho at a motel and arrived in Lake Fork the following evening, after dark, in a blinding snowstorm...We drove 3 miles on an unplowed dirt road to our new home, with only fence posts to guide us and some how managed to stay on the road.

Lake Fork was not a city, just a grocery store that housed the post office, a bar, church, grange hall and a quonset hut for community gatherings...McCall was a small town 6 miles away...McCall/Valley County was known as snow country, with hard winters, and a place where people from Boise had summer homes along the shores of Payette Lake...Our new farm, had a three bedroom farm house, with running water, but no bathroom, only an outhouse...A big barn to store hay, and a place for milk cows...200 acres of farm land and 300 acres of timber...A wood shed stood near the house as wood was our only heat, as well as for the cook stove.

December 1st, the snow was already deep and we soon learned that trips to town were only for necessities...Our road was seldom plowed and always snow covered...We had a team of horses and a bob sled and many times that was our transportation to school...I'm not sure what our parents were thinking when they made this move in the middle of winter...Summers were short and farm work is never ending, planting and harvesting and storing for winter...We had horses, cows, sheep, and chickens to care for...Mona loved riding horses and herding the cattle on horseback all summer.

Mona and I were enrolled in a one room school house, "Wood Grove," that was about 2 miles from our house...We joined 10 other students in varying grades 1 thru 8, and a lady teacher...Mona was the only 8th grader...This was quite a switch from our classrooms in Utah with 20 kids to a class...Mona finished out the year and looked forward to high school...She fit in well at Donnelly/McCall High school, making an immediate friend with "China McBride" for the rest of her school days...China grew up in McCall and guided Mona through the ropes and included her with the other kids...Socially Mona blossomed but school work was a struggle for her...From 1st grade on she struggled with reading , so of course struggled in all classes...I think in this day and age, she would have been tagged as dyslectic, and might get more help...Back then, kids were labeled as slow or dumb and weren't worth extra time to help them...Mona made it through the next four years, with help from classmates and a couple of understanding teachers, that could tell that this hard working girl was anything but dumb...Her grades were passing and it was a proud day for her and our parents when she was awarded a diploma...Both of our parents had left school with only an eighth grade education...They wanted more for their children.

Mona was happy to be out of school, was engaged to Bob, who was in the Navy...She worked with Daddy that summer on the farm and into the winter, before getting a job cleaning motels rooms in McCall...She lived at home and was saving money for when they got married...In the meantime, another Navy guy, Jerry (son of the motel owner) came home on leave and was attracted to the girl he saw cleaning rooms at his fathers motel...He ignored the diamond on her left hand and asked her to go to a movie, after turning  him down several times and he wouldn't take no for an answer, she finally said yes, thinking that one date and then he would leave her alone...Fate intervened and two weeks later she wrote a "Dear John letter" to Bob, enclosed the diamond and Mona and Jerry stood before the Justice of the Peace, in the living room of the "farm house in lake Fork," exchanged gold bands and became Man and Wife on May 6, 1956...Everyone was in shock!!!...Hugs and Love to the Park Family...OWAV:)

Lake Fork Farm house

Snow Banks 

Newly Married with Parents

True Love

Lasted all these years.