Friendly Reminder

Yep, I am now aware that winter is on its way. Old man winter has sent a few friendly reminders of this fact our way over the past week. Monday was our first snow in the lower elevation. It started sleeting in early morning and within an hour of that it was snowing. We had about a half inch that stuck for a few hours and then the sun came out in the afternoon and wa-la, all the snow was gone. It was nice to have a bit of a warm-up and see the sun. Yesterday was gorgeous...sunshine galore, but still cool. Then, I checked the weather last night and we were first, under a winter storm warning, which was quickly downgraded to a winter weather advisory. When I woke up at 7am, there was already an inch or so of snow on the ground and it is now after noon and still snowing. I can tell its not sticking as well and the temperature has risen slightly, but it is supposed to snow off and on for the next few days. I doubt it will stay very long, but again, I think it is just a reminder of what is yet to come. I went outside in my sassy new snow boots (pics coming soon), a t-shirt, sweatshirt, light jacket, and toboggan, and I was actually a bit too warm. It is not near as cold as most people would think. The temp has been staying around the freezing mark and little above.

It was so beautiful, still, and quiet this morning. The horses were huddled in their stalls waiting to be fed and wondering what was going on. The dogs LOVE the snow, especially Kenai. He was made for it. Molly likes it too, but she has a much harder time smelling her way to her ball when there is snow on the ground. I captured some funny shots of them all going crazy in the snow this morning

Ewan was begging to be let out for his usual morning romp, so I let him...thinking he would freak out at the snow and want right back in the house. Well, he ventured off the porch and down by the river for an hour or so, but as soon as I went out to call him, he came running!...stopping every two or three strides once on the porch to shake the snow off his paws, like cats do when they get their feet wet. It was too funny. Ewan has also been taking advantage of the gas heater in the living room...he has figured out that it is warm there and has claimed the area right in front of the stove as his new napping place.

More to come soon...

Ewan napping in the best spot in the house.

Pre-snow view of the river just up the road from the house (in yesterday's sunshine).

View of the mountains to the east of Republic, taken leaving Republic (the furthest ones are dusted with snow)

Snow from first thing this morning.

Outside this morning with the dogs

Snow on the pine needles

Ranger finally coming out of the stall to eat...notice how he graciously knocked the door off (from Monday)...always into trouble :)

Ranger in the snow

Molly in the snow

Playing fetch in the snow

Doggy paw print

Pic of the roundpen...the snow was curling around the railing...weird but neat.

Weird snow formation on the roundpen

Snow curling all the way around railing

The Wildlife and Other Things in Nature

I have already mentioned the abundant wildlife that make themselves at home in the front pasture and around the house. Well, I wanted to share a neat video I captured just this week of the white tail deer who eat all the bad apples we throw out. We have a herd of about 30 that come up in the evenings to graze in the front yard and just outside the fence. They are becoming more docile every day and literally run to and then fight over the apples right in front of us. I also got some great photos of the geese circling at dusk, the moon over the mountains, sunset behind the river, and a couple of other pretty shots of the local scenery. We are truly living in the nature enthusiast's paradise.

Our First Visitors

We were so excited when we learned that David's parents would be coming up for a week to visit. I love having company and it was nice to show off our new home, WA, to our loved ones. We explored the area, did some shopping, and celebrated David's birthday. We had a grand time and I can't wait for them to come back OR for some other friends or family to visit...hint, hint!

David's mom and I made our favorite family dish, chicken curry with rice and all the toppings...fried plantains, roasted peanuts, shredded coconut, mango chutney, and raisins. Well, she did most of the hard work, I assisted where needed. It is the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. It is so good, that as a rule, I eat it for breakfast the next day...it is even better after sitting in the fridge overnight. I also baked David a triple chocolate cake with chocolate icing and served it with vanilla ice cream topped with hot fudge. It was a fabulous meal and a great week.

The Beemer

Another bonus about living in WA vs. TX is the weather. Now, I know some of you are thinking...but it gets COLDER there. Well, yes, but when the weather is nice here, it is NICE. We can actually ride the motorcycle in the summer, early fall, and late spring, whereas, in TX we could ride it on occasion, when it wasn't freezing in the winter or HOT in the fall, spring and summer! C'mon...you know what I'm talking about.

Our first ride here in WA was, I have to admit, way better than any ride we ever took in TX!!! We rode for almost 3 hours and even though we had to end the ride when I got stung by a wasp, I would still take it over any TX ride. The weather was perfect and the scenery was to die for. There really is something about exploring the outdoors on the back of a bike. You are out IN it. We went up to the top of Vulcan Mountain and saw the entire valley from Curlew to Malo. It was spectacular. We drove around Curlew Lake and explored some of the dirt county roads too. That is one thing I love about the bike. You can go on and off road at will. It was AWESOME. Though most days now are getting too cold to ride, with windchill, I can't wait until we can ride again. We could always get winter gear, but I think that will have to wait until next year. I think the debate about selling the bike is no more.

Around the House

There is so much to see and enjoy just around the house, not necessarily in the house, but outside on the property. We have access to 20 acres on the Kettle River with only one property between us and the Canadian border. And it has great views of the mountains in Canada...out across the pasture, where Canadian Geese and white tail deer roam daily. The deer come down from the mountainside across the county road and graze in the pasture each morning and evening before heading down to the river to drink. The geese are usually in the field before the deer in the early morning and after them in the evening. They circle the pasture and then land accompanied by their loud honking and wings beating in thunderous unison....it is almost deafening but beautiful, nonetheless. We have enjoyed watching the wildlife so much. I especially love hearing the deer crossing the river at dusk while I sit on the back deck. If you look closely, you can see them crossing through the silvery water. I love nature and being out in it. This place is like heaven to us...makes me wonder what the real place is going to be like!

We also had the chance to ride the horses for the first time since our arrival. It was a perfect day, sunny and cool, but not too chilly....no jackets required. Can't wait to explore the area on horseback. Guess I better get with it on little Bailey so she can go too. So much to see and do, can't wait to see what the next few months holds in store. :)

I have a great video of the white tail deer here...they are not very skiddish. We can throw apples at them in the pasture and a couple of the does will RUN to eat them. Stay tuned.

Canadian Geese in the front pasture

The Canadian scenery from our front porch

Gorgeous sunset...almost a little bit of alpinglow.

Our first ride in WA

Canning and Baking, Baking and Canning

Fall is the time for canning. Canning supplies are flying off the shelves and women (mainly women, though I am sure there are some men out there somewhere) are hidden away indoors canning and preserving everything in sight from apples and peaches to tomatoes and jerky. Preserving includes canning, dehydrating, and freezing. If you decide to, you can get really creative with what and how you preserve food to be put up for the winter. Almost everyone in this neck of the woods we now call home has an amazing garden. It is commonplace to see people growing all their own fruits and veggies including corn, squash, tomatoes, beans, lettuce, broccoli, raspberries, strawberries, apples, pears, peaches, plums, blackberries, cantaloupe...you name, around here, people can grow it AND can it!

After my canning lesson, I got all my supplies, started picking apples, and set out to do my own canning. For my first attempt, I decided just to preserve the apples (fruit with syrup), so I could use them for almost anything at a later date. This "recipe" proved to be more difficult than it appeared, mainly because it called for so many POUNDS of apples instead of cups, etc. and it didn't state if those pounds were whole apples or cored and peeled apples. I figured since it didn't specifically state peeled and cored apples, that I should bet on whole apples. I got out the scales and weighed everything, and still ended up with an immense amount of apples. I had to use the canning pot just to boil them the recommended time before beginning the canning and processing....you can imagine how hard it was to bring all those apples to a boiling point and then keep them there for only 5 minutes. It was a challenge to say the least. Once they were boiled, I got my heated jars and began filling them with the apples and syrup. They packed down quite a bit and I had to keep adding more apples and syrup to each jar, all the time worrying the jars were getting too cool. Then, I ended up needing more jars than the recipe called for...apparently, in spite of what the Ball Blue Book of Canning says, it is not an exact science. So, I had to get a couple more jars out and fill those, still worried the others I already filled were cooling too much. Anyhow, I managed to get all the jars filled with apples and syrup, wiped clean, lids put on, and ready for the canner. I was so thankful that my mother-in-law was there for my first canning attempt...she was a huge help and gave me some great ideas to iron out some of the wrinkles we ran into. We finally managed to get the jars into the canner and processed....I have already used several for pies and they were excellent. The jars sealed in a snap once out of the canner. What a learning experience!

Since that first day of canning, my friend K and I have made all sorts of stuff...apple butter, tart applesauce, sweet applesauce, apple preserves, more canned apples, and apple pies. All have turned out nicely and we still have more apples to put away. I also want to try to make some salsa before winter. As for the stuff we made with our lovely "canning teacher", D, I have tried some of the peach salsa on chicken and rice AND on a delicious blue cheese burger....both were AWESOME!! I like having the time to get a little creative with our meals and use fresh, homemade ingredients...although David would probably say I still rely on canned and frozen stuff more than I use the fresh stuff. :) Hope you like apples for Christmas!

Apples going in to boil

Filling jars for processing

Filling and packing jars

Cleaning jars and putting seals and rims on before processing

Putting apple jars in canner to process

The finished product...yummy apples for anything you want to make!

Making apple butter

Apple butter cooking

Apple butter

My first homemade apple pie...apple cranberry pie to be exact. YUMMY!

Food Adventures

Not having a job has left me with a lot of free time. And since life is just different here, going at a slower pace and being more reminiscent of days past, I have taken on some new "hobbies"....gardening, canning, and cooking. I am not sure the hobby is the right word, it is really more like I have learned some new skills. Within a couple of weeks of moving into the new rental house, I had the opportunity to meet a couple of lovely local ladies who, I learned, were into gardening and growing their own fruits and veggies AND canning. Since our house has a nice garden with apples, plums, pears, tomatoes, squash, peppers, and blackberries that I needed to do something with, I took one of the ladies up on her offer to teach me the basics of canning. So, on a nice Sunday afternoon, with my friend K in tow, we headed to Curlew for our course in canning 101. We learned how to use a boiling water canner and prepare our jars, lids, and food for the canning process. That day we made peach salsa, stewed tomatoes, BBQ sauce, and zucchini salsa. It was such a treat. I managed to snap a few pics of our yummi-ness filled jars before, during, and after the canning process.

The finished products

Zucchini salsa jars starting their processing in the boiling water canner

Zucchini salsa prior to processing

Now for an introduction to my garden...

Apples, not sure if they are Granny Smith or Golden Delicious yet, but I have 3 trees LOADED

Plums (apparently they do not turn purple), have to research what variety they might be, but the tree is full!

Delicious cherry tomatoes and large yellow tomatoes

My first real Washington apple, eaten in Washington

My daily haul...yellow squash, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, and peppers

Our first real meal in the house...fresh veggies from the garden, black beans, and green enchiladas. YUMMY!

More Fall Pics...

Thursday, we got up up early and hit the road with coffee in hand to check out some of the more remote fall foliage. It was a gorgeous day, a little foggy, but the sun was trying hard to break through the clouds. Our first nice view of the Tamaracks, was on the road leaving our house looking west. The sun was hitting the mountainside just right and illuminated the golden trees perfectly.


We decided to head west out of Danville where David took me on a road I had not yet explored. We got some nice shots of the Kettle River looking back east along with the Tamaracks on the mountainsides and along the river's banks.



Since we had some time to kill before the sun would completely burn off the early morning cloud cover, we drove on to Curlew and then west toward Chesaw. The trees lining the Kettle west of Curlew were gorgeous. David had already decided to take me on a Forest Service road over the mountains to Chesaw instead of going the paved route...a decision we would relish later in the morning. We turned off the highway and began following the wagon train of hunting rigs through the thick, gloomy forest. The further we drove the brighter our surroundings became as we drove out of the cloud bank and higher up on the mountain. Finally, as we neared the top, we saw an amazing sight...The Kettle River valley leading to Curlew was below us under the clouds, but the distant mountain tops shone in the sun along with thousands of brilliantly-colored Tamaracks all around us. It was breathtaking.




We headed further west and started down the mountain toward Chesaw. As we crossed over the mountain, we could see amazing views of the mountains in Canada, the mountains above Oroville and Chesaw, and on the furthest horizon, the snow-capped North Cascades. The morning was beautiful, cool, and crisp. And the air smelled super sweet and fresh after the hard freeze of the night before.




After going through Chesaw, we turned back onto the pavement and headed back over the mountains to grab lunch in Republic. On the way, we drove by a series of small lakes alongside the road and had to stop to take pictures at one lake...the water was as smooth and still as glass, reflecting perfectly the yellow Tamaracks above its waters on the mountainside. A stunning, perfect mirror image was created by nature.




On Friday we went to Colville to run a few errands. It was still rainy and cold and we knew we might run into a little snow or ice on the pass, but we were prepared and had our chains on hand. Right as we came up on the pass, the trees went from being just yellow and green to being flocked with a dusting of snow. So pretty.