on to something new

hot springs.

2012-01-14T18:02:00.000-08:00

i headed to breitenbush hot springs with 3 other friends from parks & rec this week... it was a january birthday celebration getaway! (elvira's birthday is on the 4th and mine this weekend) elvira and i drove up early to do a hike in the mountains near the resort before checking in, and kelly and her baby, aldo, and autumn and her baby, eman, drove in a separate car.

it was a great getaway... i got some good time with friends from parks who i haven't seen much lately, and lots of baby time! i love baby time. plus it was relaxing to hang out in the hot springs under the billion stars in the meadow and also take the babies in to the soaking pools the next day.

we tried to go on our hike, but the bridges were washed out in two directions, so we didn't get very far. we explored a little by the river and then stopped and ate lunch and relaxed for a while...
we made it across one bridge, but when we got to the other, it was impassable.
the ice on everything was beautiful. then we found this cool piece of bark that had been chewed by beetles. the eggs are laid under the bark when it's still on the tree, and then when the larvae hatch, they literally chew their way through the bark, getting larger and making bigger and bigger trails. when they are adults they chew through the wood and climb out! very cool.
after hiking and lounging in the frosty sun, we headed to breitenbush! we checked out our cabin and the lodge and all the buildings.
here's our little cabin...
we had to haul our stuff in little carts because you have to park in the parking lot and the rest is walking trails.

here's one of the sets of soaking tubs... we actually liked the other ones better. they were out in an open meadow. we went there after dark and the stars were amazing! the tubs are all mixed with cold water to make them different temperatures. we chose the medium tubs usually. the ones in the meadow were really natural looking, built into the earth with rocks and cool wood pieces as railings.
the whole resort is on a river, so we also explored down there...
and of course, there was plenty of time to hang out with the babies!!!! aldo and eman were born on the same day - and they are 11 months right now. it's just a few weeks until their 1st birthday! and they are cute, cute, cute!
here's aldo!
he and elvira did some yoga.
and here's eman!
aldo was really into clapping so teacher chrissy led some singing with the group!
here's autumn and eman.
eman is a waver and hand shaker!
aldo is super observant of everything around him. but in this moment he was chewing on an orange peel, which turned out not to taste so good. cutie-patooties!
it was a super fun couple days, and i would totally go back!

the little tree. (final installation)

2012-01-04T20:34:00.000-08:00

well, i left portland for 10 days to visit family in the midwest, but i left before i could collect all the ornaments. so i spent the last few days trying to track them down so they could at least get a little time on the tree.

here's the last few i received... (the tree is getting dry and probably needs to get dragged into the back yard soon. i have friends here in portland who save their tree and then burn it on the summer solstice. i like that idea, and i have plenty of room to let a tree hang around for 6 months, so if you made an ornament for the tree, consider yourself invited to the summer solstice christmas tree bonfire!!!)

lily & isabelle dropped off four ornaments yesterday... they had a wide selection. they also got a tour of my house and were enthralled by all the collected art. (not mine... belongs to the owners but it's still pretty cool.)

when i returned from the midwest, mina had left this for me. i am pretty sure she and her mom made it!!! it's a little hand sewn morton ornament! sooooo cute!
this one i tracked down on sunday from isaac. he had been trying to give it to me for 2 weeks and we finally connected!

and these two were dropped off just today! owen & della were here and each hung one on the tree, but i'm not sure who painted what! but they are both super colorful and glittery.

and so it ends, this christmas season, as it does every year...
it feels like we were just in the car fighting over how ridiculously early the christmas music starts around here. and then it always flies by...

so long little tree of 2011. i LOVED you, and you were well loved.
i also LOVE this idea, and will be doing it again next year!
happy new year everyone!

new years.

2012-01-01T21:51:00.000-08:00

it was a nice day here today... so to celebrate the new year, morton and i went on a 2 hour adventure near my house. we walked down a 1/2 mile or so to the springwater corridor trail and spent a long time wandering and exploring along johnson creek.

i get really into the "beautiful dead-ness" of this time of year. i love finding little signs of life and edgy beauty mixed in with the dried weeds, grey skies and fallen leaves.

christmas 2011.

2012-01-01T21:33:00.000-08:00

i have very few pictures from christmas this year...
but we did make a stop in chicago, and almost my whole family plus my aunt & uncle were all together for one night to give my grandma some christmas presents.

here's our whole crew... missing my brother pete.
my mom and here brother & sister in law with my grandma...
my three crazy nephews...

she was in good spirits, and i think she knew who we all were! she loved her presents, and it was really nice to just sit back and watch her open 4 or 5 little boxes of love from various people in the family.

my grandma always wears the best shoes & socks. she loves printed socks, and you never know what they might be. and she's worn these same style of flats her whole life... i wonder how many times they've come in and out of style in her 98 years.

on our christmas night, she wore these...
the rest of my excitement in the midwest took place in iron river... but i took no pictures! not one. i guess i just soaked it in rather than documented it this year!

the little tree.

2011-12-20T22:52:00.000-08:00

some more additions... and i keep hearing about others that i need to track down! yesterday i got two in the mail from gus & otto!

and otto also sent along this set of christmas loops, which i love...

last night i was up in NE for dinner, and also picked up an ornament from cormac... i told him he could either make me a "cornament" or an "ornamac".

he made me an ornamac. and then of course, there's a couple that i have fashioned as well... i make the wire stars every year... i did it for years at camp, and then each year with my kids at brooklyn preschool. the last 3 years i have also done them at our church advent craft day. and i never tire of them. they are simple and fun. and wire goes a LONG way.

i'm still waiting for ornaments from acacia, isaac, lily & isabelle... i'll have to get them when i return from the midwest!

my little tree is happier than it's ever been....

the little tree.

2011-12-18T09:00:00.001-08:00

the little tree continues to gain heart and soul, as 3 families stopped by yesterday to hang ornaments on the tree!

this paper ornament was made by violette.... she's a creative little mind - always has been since she was 4 years old! her older sister's ornament is the bacon & eggs, and they all stopped by to hang them up themselves!
gundersen's stopped by too, and not only dropped off an ornament, but also christmas cards & a little painted tomten as well. thanks elsa & linnea (and kerry!) for donning the little tree AND my christmas card collection! linnea made the snowman and the tomten is below, made by their mom at the Scandinavian Fair.

and then the thomas's stopped by too... they brought some very cute star garland, which kate and i put around the tree. and jackson & samantha each brought two ornaments - a star & a bell. and then samantha saw my guitar, and requested some impromptu singing, so in honor of christmas we sang a song called "River", "Where oh where has my little dog gone?" and then with some prodding to sing an actual holiday song, we talked samantha into picking "Frosty the Snowman".
these are jackson's ornaments...

and these are samantha's!

thanks everyone! the little tree is feeling well loved!
but it's not too late to get your child's ornament on the tree.... get crafting!

the little tree.

2011-12-17T12:24:00.000-08:00

this little guy is guarding our little tree. it is valuable now... full of love and character!

and!
ornaments keep trickling in... so we'll post a few more today. plus i know there's at least 4 or 5 getting dropped off today, so you'll probably see more tomorrow!

here's one i made with colin & ciara, but it was so full of glitter glue i left it behind at their house. they wouldn't have it, though, and promptly delivered it back to me!
here's more from milla & emmy.... i was delivered a whole little tupperware of wreaths, bells and cones. very cute. so far, they get the prize for quantity.

and here's a little felted star from bett! so cute!
like i said, people have already contacted me about stopping over at 3, 4 and 5 today, so there's more to come! and i got an email that there are two headed this way from connecticut! way to go gus and otto!

send them along if you want! there's always space for more!

the little tree.

2011-12-14T23:44:00.001-08:00

i haven't had a place where i could have my own christmas tree in over 5 years... but this year i could pull it off.

i was so excited to be in sandy, oregon a couple weeks ago and have a chance to stop at a u-cut tree farm and pick one out. it's so cute... just about as tall as me and the perfect shape. not too perfect, just perfect enough.

but on the way home i realized i had nothing to put on my little tree. no lights. no ornaments. no garland. nothing.

my boss was great, and drove me immediately to her house where i picked out lights from a box of leftovers from her daughter's wedding. so then it was colored and adorable, but with no character.

i was over at a friend's house to babysit and mentioned that my tree had no ornaments, and the boy i was babysitting immediately went to his tree and pulled off one of many he had made a couple days before.

that got me thinking... i wonder if there are other kids who would want to don teacher chrissy's tree...???? i sent an email, and sure enough, people responded immediately.

here's how we're doing so far...

this is from kaz... he gave the original ornament. i especially like the bulging red eyes. (so did he)

one from colin and ciara! i babysat for them last night and we all sat and made ornaments together for an hour and a half!this one is izzy's... she was exhibiting last weekend at crafty wonderland... an amazing portland craft bazaar.
this was was from milla... more to come from her... she and her sister gave me more tonight that i left at their house. i'll get them tomorrow!
one from lucy! thanks lucy! i like all the festive exclamation points!
here's one chosen by emmy... more to come from her as well when i get the ones i forgot.
the whole kraus family gave me oodles of IKEA ornaments they weren't using anymore. oddly enough, i went to IKEA last week specifically to get these type of straw ornaments, and we found nary a one. and then delia says, "i have this whole box of them you can have... we were going to donate them. i'll donate them to YOU!" weird how the world works sometimes.
another kraus ornament!
emmy made me this one at crafty wonderland!

and guess what? i LOVE making ornaments too. when i was babysitting last night we had an ornament extravaganza! i made a few myself and think they're pretty cute!and i know there's at least 6 or 8 more to come! as they arrive i will add them to the blog!!!

and if your child is jealous and wants to fashion an ornament for teacher chrissy's tree.... go to it! let me know when it's done and we can find a time to drop it off! i'm in town through dec 20th!

the nursery.

2011-12-09T13:47:00.000-08:00

every year we do a wreath making fundraiser for the environmental ed program at parks & rec, and we get our trimmings to decorate the wreaths from a nursery in sandy, oregon.

i always volunteer to get the trimmings, partly because i learn alot about the trees that we are trimming, and about trimming trees itself, but also, because every year there is inevitably one day we travel there that the nursery is an opportunity for some prime nature photography.

our second day there this year was no exception.
couldn't help but share my excitement about cold oregon mornings in december....

Tack så mycket.

2011-11-08T20:14:00.000-08:00

thank you for eggs and coffee.
thank you for face wash from costco.
thank you for wine and chili cheese sauce.
thank you for morning phone calls.
thank you for airline miles to travel at christmas.
thank you for yarn.
thank you for home-made applesauce.
thank you for going out for lunch.
thank you for muffins. for sweet rolls. for gluten free bread mixes.
thank you for last minute dinners.
thank you for emails.
thank you for loaning movies. books. vanilla. baking soda.
thank you for your children.
thank you for bridge loops. for hill runs. for being the rabbits.
thank you for rides to knitting. to target. to the beach. to early morning runs.
thank you for knitting in my living room.
thank you for riding the swings in my yard.
thank you for pictures for morton. and old dolls. and bones.
thank you for legos.
thank you for cd's of new music.
thank you for babies to play with.
thank you for creative ways to teach nature topics.
thank you for amazing pictures.
thank you for memories. for laughter. for silence.
thank you for school pictures. for cards. for postcards.
thank you for who you are.
thank you that you have not changed.
thank you for letting me become more of myself each day.
thank you for bringing me up with an open mind, a willing heart, a sensitive nature, and active feet.
thank you for this great and heavy afghan of love.

thank
you
for
teaching
me
how
to
give
love.

i've got a dog, his name is Morton...

2011-10-28T21:56:00.001-07:00

i don't have kids, so i don't get to throw birthday parties. and i LOVE birthday parties.
morton has never had a big birthday party, so i decided this year to throw him a huge one.
he turned 11 on october 19th, and i invited over 40 prior students (who know morton from having him come to school during pets month) and their families to morton's 11th birthday bash.

there were almost 65 of us - moms, dads & children of all ages. we took over the yard, the swings, the patios and the decks to spend two hours honoring a dog.

yep. completely insane. totally bit off more than i could chew. and it was well worth it.

first of all, morton sent out invites - postcards with his picture on it. then i sent an email to the families letting them know about some very cheap and easy options if kids were determined to bring him "presents". morton got many dog bones from a local pet shop, a new bandana, numerous stuffed animals to tear apart, bacon, various dog treats, a toy, a stick, and MANY hand-drawn pictures and cards from the kids. one family brought apples for the owner, which i thought was pretty awesome.

two of the kids were keen on baking something for morton, so i gave them the task of making his cake. basically a dog treat fratata cooked with a lot of grease so it would come right out of the pan. i put a candle in it, and i'm pretty sure morton knew it was for him. he guarded it like a hawk, watching carefully every time someone came close to the cake table.

knowing that 30 children cannot all do well taking turns on 2 swings and one random rolling cart toy, i also had things for them to do. there was bead necklaces to make, morton paper bag puppets to put together, a campfire to visit, a treehouse to climb into, and a game for kids to try and catch a piece of popcorn better than morton. don't worry, the bar was low. morton can't catch a piece of popcorn to save his life.

after 90 minutes of time for kids to do what they wanted, i pulled out the guitar, and we sang a dog song and of course, the Morton Song. then we sang happy birthday to morton and got to eat that fratata, but not before dragging it around in the dirt and wood chips, which was appalling to many of the children. there were of course cupcakes for everyone else, made by not only me but 3 super awesome friends in the neighborhood who maybe recognized the ridiculousness of making 7 dozen cupcakes.

morton was exhausted when everyone went home, and slept soundly with a belly full of popcorn, fratata, treats, spilled pretzels and goldfish, and one cupcake that he stole right out of the hands of an unsuspecting 2 year old. there were big tears and morton walked away snickering i know it. it's his best trick... stealing from babies.

now the yard is quiet and the beads put away. the gifts are open and all the scraps from the morton puppets are recycled. the swings are still and the tree house is aching for some action. the cupcakes have been devoured and the extra bags of pretzels sit in my pantry waiting to make another showing. but morton.... silly old morton and his ever changing legacy live on.

beach weekend...

2011-10-23T20:38:00.000-07:00

a mellow couple days away.

a much-needed weekend away with friends in lincoln city, with not much to do but comb the beach for random shells and hermit crabs, knit, drink wine, cook meals, play board games, and eat top notch fish tacos.

we even went for a run on the beach this morning, which by the way, is super exhausting if you never run on the beach.

this fall has had super highs and super lows.
it's good to know that some things are constant. like friends. and laughter. and the ocean waves.
here's some of the group... forgot to get a group shot this time...

sadly, oil bubbles in the rocks, although it was as beautiful as it was grotesque.
alive or dead? you decide.
i was really into collecting rocks in all colors of the rainbow. i ended up with a full spectrum.
maybe i was really into color overall this trip... this little growth was amazing. like fire on stone.
we hunted for a long time for things in the tide pools, and my favorite was this little hermit crab who was super speedy every time we picked him up and moved him to the edge of his pool. he would scurry as fast as he could down the sandy wall to the bottom. he was so cute.

thanks, friends.

popcorn coffee.

2011-07-17T17:03:00.000-07:00

did you know you can roast your own coffee in an air popper?
it's true. my friend rebecka went to a class on it a few months ago, and i was telling carol about it last week (larry and carol are the owners of the house i live in and they are here right now for a month or so) and she was intrigued. so i asked rebecka to come over and show carol how it's done. at the last minute i also called my friend kate, who has been interested in learning how to do it as well, so the four of us had a little coffee roasting demo ala rebecka.

she came very prepared... it was like sitting through a class that was both interesting and hands on.

there were even handouts for the students...okay, here's what you need... a popcorn air popper, two metal strainers and a box with the side cut out for the stuff that comes off the beans when they first start roasting.

we talked about beans quite a bit and their physical and chemical properties, which sounds a bit dorky, but really, when you understand how the beans are made up, then you can understand how to roast them better. the first thing to do is hunt for any small rocks that may have made it into the bag of green coffee beans. coffee is still picked by people... and no coffee grinder wants to try to grind up a rock that made it in the coffee pickers basket accidentally.

no rocks, so here we go. rebecka showed how much to put in and how to get them going in a circular motion using the air in the popper.

and the timing begins.
yep. timing. roasting is not only an art form, but a science. once the beans start heating there's chaff that comes off, and there's an amount of time that passes before you hear the "first crack" of the beans. i can't remember exactly what creates that first crack, but i know it's the first of two cracks. each is subtle and sounds a little different from the other, but it's important to know when the first crack is heard and the second crack is heard.

rebecka meticulously keeps track of all this information in a lab book so she can replicate the blends and roasts she likes the best. impressive for a basement operation.
okay, there's time to chat as the coffee roasts, but not much. all in all i think the whole process was about 8 or 9 minutes. and coffee roasting is a multi-sensory activity. as time passes the beans sound different, look different and smell different. i love the first smell of the beans... it's like caramel or something. then after the second crack (which sounds more like a crackle) it starts to smell like coffee.

okay, there's our beans that are just about done, but as soon as you cut power to the popper you have to start cooling them fast. rebecka does this using two metal strainers and pours them from one to the other to get lots of air inbetween them and cool them down. once mostly cooled, we set them on a marble slate stone to cool in a single layer.
happy coffee!!!
and happy friends who woke up to grind and drink the freshest coffee ever! seriously, it was probably the most fragrant coffee grinding smell the next morning that i had ever smelled. yummmmm. carol and i sure enjoyed our cups, and kate told me later she and greg enjoyed theirs as well. they also commented on how good it smelled when they ground it.

gotta love DIY portlanders.

marathons.

2011-07-17T16:34:00.001-07:00

my brother pete came to visit a couple weeks ago. he signed up for the vancouver USA marathon in vancouver, washington, and he of course spent the week with me to see what all the excitement was about in portland!

the marathon was on a sunday, and i found him a few times along the way, and then jumped in and finished it with him from the 18 or 19 mile mark. he finished in 4:30... incredible. i just can't imagine running that many miles.

the next night i had a little bbq and invited some friends from the neighborhood.

i had to work most of the days he was here, so he explored mt hood, the gorge and downtown portland on his own. but i did get one day off, so we drove to manzanita to stay for the night. the next morning we got up and drove from manzanita to astoria and home, stopping at a few fun places along the way. we got to do a little tide pooling at hug point and did a little wading at cannon beach. by the time we got to astoria, it was later in the day, so we walked around the town some and then grabbed a snack at a microbrewery. i definitely want to go back to astoria and see more of it.

we got to manzanita about 9pm... just had time to walk down to the grayness of the beach before the sun went down. maybe you have to live here to appreciate the fog and socked in beauty of this rugged coastline. maybe not. i have no idea. i love summer days like this at the coast.
the next day was nicer, though, with blue skies. i love those days too!
we stopped at hug point since the tides were low so pete could find some cool tide pool creatures. we found a lot of sea anemones and a few sea stars.

i love hug point because there's the cool cave in the rocks and the little waterfall the flows down to the ocean from the mountains.
here's the view from inside the cave. i just liked how this picture turned out. it's enigmatic.

and then we stopped at cannon beach and it was warm enough to walk in the water. so we did. including morton.
pete hunted around hug point and then cannon beach for more sea stars, and there were quite a few.

thanks pete for coming to visit!!!

the special day.

2011-07-17T15:08:00.000-07:00

my good friends kate and greg have a son who was in my preschool class 2 years ago. so for jackson's birthday, i gave him an afternoon with teacher chrissy doing kitchen science. i presented him with a bag of glue, liquid starch, corn starch, borax, vinegar and baking soda, and the recipes for oobleck, gak, flubber and a volcanic eruption.

he kept calling it his "special day", which i thought was awesome. when he arrived he handed me a card that said, "CHRISSY. TAKE YOU FOR MY SPECIAL DAY. LOVE JACKSON." to which i promptly replied, "well, jackson, we haven't had the day yet. what if it doesn't end up to be special?" he thought about that for a few seconds and then said, "no, i think it will be special."

and so it was.

we started by collecting things around the yard to make a volcano. one of the things we grabbed was a tall metal outdoor end table from the back porch. we built our volcano up as tall as we could and then i gave him the ingredients for the eruption. we cut the bottom off a plastic cup and filled it with baking soda. then he dropped lots of food coloring into a jar of vinegar without spilling a drop, which was impressive for a 6 year old. then the eruptions began. and if you know 6 year olds, the eruptions continued until we ran out of vinegar, which turned out to be the limiting factor.
next up was oobleck. corn starch and water... and man, this stuff kept us occupied for a long time. we were especially excited about punching it. if you punched it fast, you just made little knuckle marks in the top which disappeared immediately. but if you punched in slow motion, your fist went right through it... good times.

next was gak. jackson chose to make the gak green, with about 1/4 bottle of coloring. whoa. gak is the right word. messy and slimy. we quickly packaged that one up to be played with at home outside. and probably played with naked since its bright green color promised to ruin everything it touched.

last came the flubber... which jackson chose to make pink with blue glitter. love that about jackson.
and we were interrupted not long after we started on the flubber by mina, whose grandparents own the house. she was in jackson's class the same year, and she and her dad were coming to test out the zipline. well... how can flubber possibly compete with that? so we ziplined for a while until jackson's dad and sister showed up, so then everyone was ziplining and having a grand old time.

here's jackson heading up and going down.
and here's his sister samantha...
and here's mina, although she was pretty hesitant! since this day i don't think she's gone down the whole way again.
eventually we combined the flubber and bagged it up to be played with later.
happy 6th birthday jackson! cheers to our special day!

and then the lorax came back with more gripes.

2011-06-05T21:36:00.001-07:00

round corn chips should actually be oval. when eating round ones i have the urge to put the whole thing in my mouth at once, but then the edges rub against the corners of my mouth and salt makes them feel cruddy. ovals... they would fit perfectly.

and who designed gallon bottles of windshield washer fluid? my tank holds about 4/5 of a gallon, and then i have this dumb leftover amount that i have to throw in the trunk of my car so it can roll around for the next 4 months until i actually run out. but then i only have this tiny amount in my tank, and it runs out sooner. and then i have nothing, so i have to go buy another gallon.

and i think a pencil should about 1/4 eraser and only 3/4 wood and lead. whoever invented the pencil was being way too optimistic about the number of mistakes i might make.

on the contrary, whoever decided pens should now only be filled about 1/3 of the way up with ink was way too pessimistic about how long i would want to write with the pen. i mean come on, the tube that holds the ink is as long as the pen. fill that sucker up. yes, pen-inventor, i will buy fewer pens, but i will like you more.

lastly, toothpaste used to come in a metal tube when i was younger. now they are plastic. the metal was awesome because you could squeeze as you go and it just stayed squeezed and folded over. plastic doesn't have the same properties and every time you use it you have to re-squeeze. seems redundant and unnecessary.

lilacs.

2011-05-05T22:29:00.001-07:00

True order of events tonight...

I am walking morton and i pass a lilac tree. It smells so good that i walk into the yard to smell it.

In my head i say, "i wish i had an olfactory phone. I would take a picture of this lilac bush and then email it to myself so i could smell it later."

I consider stealing a flower bunch but relent.

I get home and realize i still haven't mailed the packages i was supposed to mail so i rush off to the post office near my house.

But i'm just a half hour too late and it's closed.

I turn to leave the post office but realize i can't turn left onto powell blvd so i turn the other way to jog over a couple blocks.

At the corner i come to roya and jason's house, and i see roya out along the sidewalk so i pull over to say hi. She walks over holding a branch of lilac flowers in a jar of water and says, "do you like lilac flowers?"

My room is now filled with the lovely smell of fresh lilac.Some days i am amazed by serendipity.

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bikes, breakfast, and bonus holes.

2011-05-01T16:09:00.000-07:00

today's plan: bike to st johns and eat at the john street cafe, then bike to pier park and play disc golf.

good plan. a beautiful day for it too!!!
i met jason & elvira at their house, then we biked to tori's.
we biked along willamette blvd, which is fun because i don't live there and never get to see the city from that angle. it was a beautiful (albeit crisp) morning!

breakfast was super yummy! i had a bacon, avocado, mozzarella and bleu cheese omlet. and since i couldn't eat the bread, i got orange slices, which was super refreshing for some reason.

then it was off to pier park... just another 10 minute ride or so.
we played a full round of disc golf.
jason and tori had some serious drives.
elvira and i were worn out by hole 12 because we did twice as much walking to chase our discs all over the forest.

here we are arriving at the park and getting our bikes locked up.

see how we started in coats and gloves??? it finally warmed up around noon and we started peeling off layers.
here's tori's power drive pull.
and here's jason before he adopted his "from-the-back" overhand technique, which actually had so much hang time in the air we decided that if he could get it level it would go twice as far.
and then elvira and i with our earnest attempts. sometimes our discs went where we wanted them to...

and here's me attempting to finish the "bonus hole".... tori claims there is actually a 19th hole at the park, called the bonus hole. elvira and i think it's really just the practice basket near the start. we played it out anyway. well, jason and i gave up but i think tori played it out.

we all just thought the term bonus hole was comical.
and of course, we found some cute purple flowers in the field and saw many birds along the way. we saw juncos, a red-tailed hawk and some other hawk being attacked by a crow on our ride. plus we heard a ton of other birds in the course as we walked around.
and then on our ride home we could see all the mountains! Hood, Helens and Adams.
Very cool....
a good day, but i think i may have gotten some sun.

Eric Whitacre: A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong | Video on TED.com

2011-04-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

when i was working with teenagers in minnesota, i got a chance to see them do all sorts of things that teenagers do. i watched many soccer and basketball games, cheered a many track and tennis meets, and attended many, many choir, jazz, orchestra, and band concerts.

one of the guys i knew was part of a pretty prestigious acapella choir, and every concert i saw contained a piece composed by eric whitacre.
he is an intriguing modern classical composer who's music is beautiful and dark and mysterious. i get chills every time i hear an eric whitacre piece performed.

so when i saw this video about what he's doing currently using the internet, i was astonished.
it's a pretty cool story...
and the song sleep that is performed by the virtual choir is one of my favorites. it's an incredible piece.
the 14 minute video might sound long, but it's so worth it. check it out.

Eric Whitacre: A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong | Video on TED.com

decided.

2011-04-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

life is about decisions, right?
i mean, we wake up day after day and have to choose between this thing and that thing, the first thing and the next, and our paths change based on every tiny decision we make.

our lives are at our fingertips, for better or worse, and we both reap and relish in the consequences of all these day to day decisions.

i've been battling a head/chest/lung cold for 2 weeks now, and at the same time i've been training for a half marathon. in the last 14 days, i have found that these two situations do not mix well. every day i am torn -- "do i run? or not run?" "do i rest and risk falling behind on the miles and the training schedule? or do i run anyway and risk the consequences of running my body into the ground, only to be MORE sick later? (pun intended)

because i am 80% idiot and only 20% give-up-and-let-go, i usually lean toward the latter -- run anyway and risk the consequences. i have all these personal theories about running with a cold. things like... it loosens the phlegm. it gets blood pumping harder and clears the sinuses. or my personal favorite: if i run long enough, i will throw my body into a fake fever and whatever bug or virus is ailing me will die, plain and simple.

halfway through this stupid cold & flu venture, i felt a bit better, and decided i WOULD tackle the 9.5 mile hill run last sunday morning with my faithful training crew. i felt okay. the coughing had subsided, and i decided i would run with GU and water and i would push through. and i did. the run felt good. and i finished strong.

all was well... until monday night. i deteriorated once again, but this time the cough getting deeper and more "juicy" as they say, clearly i had rattled most of the fluid in my body loose and it was currently running down my throat into my lungs. can't breathe. can't hear. can't smell. can't taste. can't. stop. coughing. monday night. sick. tuesday. miserable. tuesday night. still miserable. hacking. phlegm. headache. seeing stars from so much coughing. wednesday. same. thursday. same. friday. same. bigger headache. friday night... i make the mistake of thinking i will sample a new variety of ice cream i bought for a clothes exchange party, but i started to regret that decision when i coughed so intensely 10 minutes later that i threw up the entire bowl into a frothy mess in bed.

but saturday was the long run. 10.5 miles. and i hadn't run all week because i was sick.

logic says the following: you are stupid to run over 10 miles after basically sleeping half the week and doing no activity whatsoever. but i am not logical, i am well... wait, i AM logical, just not in THAT way.

MY logic said "if you don't run today, you'll be trying to fit in this random 10 mile run on your own and then how will you have the energy to run even more miles later?" i didn't want to be playing catch up. plus i woke up saturday able to breathe for the first time all week. i decided the best way to celebrate this small milestone was to breathe heavily for 2 hours.

six of us ran on saturday morning. we started out strong. nope. i'm already exaggerating. i started out behind everyone within 2 minutes. breathing was a struggle... yes, i could breathe, but my lungs were heavy. i felt like i was breathing underwater. my friends kept looking behind inquisitively every few minutes to see if i was keeping up. i was, but not because it felt okay, because that's what i do. i decide to keep going.

i knew i was basically screwed from the get-go. once i start something, i want to finish, regardless of the consequences and the costs. i knew running over 10 miles on my already worn down, dehydrated body would hurt, but i had taken the first step. there was no turning back.

and so it was.
1 mile in. i stop to pee. not because i have to, but because i keep coughing and i feel like i have the urge to pee. 2 miles in. already feeling tired. already feeling taxed. already sweating.
3 miles in. very sweaty. i'm so hot. my face is burning. my whole body feels like it's burning up.
4 miles in. exhausted. thirsty. small sips of water. but all i can really think about is how i want to find a water fountain and spray my whole face with cold water. i'm so hot i can hardly think about anything else. i ask my nurse friend if this is bad. "yes," she says. "it's not good."

at this point we hit the 1 possible spot where i could turn off and do a shorter 8.5 mile loop instead of the 10.5 mile one. as we got to this point my friends waited, and asked, "keep going? or do you want to do the shorter loop?" and all i could do was motion forward. keep going. keep going.
just keep swimming. just keep swimming.

at the 5 mile point we passed a table set up handing out water and orange slices for runners doing an MS run the same day. "can i have this even though i'm not doing the MS run?" i ask. they looked at me. i think i may have looked dead, judging by their eyes and response. "yes, please help yourself." one orange slice down and a half cup of water in my mouth and a half cup of water on my face.

and we ran on.
we ran over the bridge. past the halfway point. getting sluggish. everyone's running ahead. i can still see their heads bobbing in the crowd about 1/2 mile up among all the runners and walkers on the bike/run path. i eat my 2nd GU and take a bit more water. everything hurts.
6 miles. my friend delia is staying back with me. she's trying to help me get my mind off running by talking about random things. it's interesting, except i can't answer.
6.5 miles.
and then, the decision. i am at the point where i could just run home. it would be about 14 blocks east. i could just end this. quit. save my sanity and my already extremely-low energy deficit from getting worse.

and i keep running.
7 miles.
7.5 miles. finally, i turn to my friend and say, "i have to tie my shoe, and then i will walk for a bit." and so i stop. tie. step. step. step. step.

i have 2 miles to go. and i begin to think. in those slow steps at the 7.5 mile mark i reflect on my run, my day, my life.
what is it about running that i love? it's not the end as much as it is getting there. i love that running takes work. endurance. discipline. pain. and a little bit of insanity at times. i love how deep we have to dig certain days to get to the end. i love it, and then i hate it too. which makes me love it more in the end.

running, like life, is about showing up. it's about continuing. it's about staying the course. it's about committing to the task. it's about living with pain.
really, for most runners, the struggle IS the goal.
and sometimes, the struggle is having to reset.

in those slow steps i took for about 1/8 mile, i reset. i reset my goal. i reset my pace. i reset my mind.
what is real right now? what is realistic? what is accomplishable?
and with those thoughts heavy on my mind, i lightened my step. i slowed my pace. i decreased my stride. and i focused ahead. small goals. that sign post. that crooked tree. that person with the red hat coming toward me way down the trail.

i would pass one small goal and immediate make another. then i would reasonably deduce some mathematics. worst case scenario... i'm running 12 minute miles... 2 more miles means 24 or 25 minutes. a small portion of the full day. forget the previous 90 minutes. forget the previous 7.5 miles. forget the pain. the exhaustion. the thirst. the headache. the loss of everyone i started out with. now this is mine. this is MY thing. this is MY struggle. 25 minutes left to be inside the experience. 25 minutes left to be in the process of succeeding.
new goal. new sign. new crooked tree. new red hat coming towards me.
1/2 mile closer.
new goal. new sign. new crooked tree. new red hat.
1/2 mile closer.
new goal.
new sign.
1/2 mile closer.
new crooked tree.
new red hat.

i can see angela looking for me at the end of the path. she throws up her hands in a victory sign.
i throw my hands up too.
i am wobbling. i am stumbling. i feel delirious. i am struggling.
mouth is thirsty.
feet are pounding.
knees are crushing.
it is decided.

moments in time - part five.

2011-03-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

just
so
hard
to
get
a
picture
where
everyone
is
looking
at
the
camera
at
the
same
time.

just
so

a moment in time - part four.

2011-03-30T22:03:00.000-07:00

otto: "mom, how do i make a milkshake?"
brita: "what do you think is in a milkshake?"
otto: "milk, ice cream, and chips."
gus: "I WANT TO MAKE A MILKSHAKE TOO."
brita: "okay, i will help you make a milkshake."

step one: order frozen yogurt.
step two: add milk. step three: add chips (brita thought he was talking about chocolate chips. i was sitting next to him and could clearly see he was referring to the BBQ chips on the table.)

step four: eat milkshake.
hmmm. deciding...still deciding.
"IT'S GOOD!"

a moment in time - part three.

2011-03-30T22:02:00.000-07:00

that's alotta strawberry...
we were obsessed with how huge this strawberry was... and how strange of a shape.
and when i say we, i mean the adults in the room.
these boys were equally impressed.

otto: gus, do you want some strawberry?
gus: yes.

otto breaks it in half, hands a section to gus, and then they both wanted photos with the strawberry...

a moment in time - part two.

2011-03-30T21:51:00.000-07:00

gluten free cake...

i have been gluten free since august, and even though it's often a pain in the butt, i won't go back because i feel so much better than i used to. i'm actually living a normal life with a normal stomach. it's awesome.

brita is awesome too, because she had already gotten a bunch of gluten free stuff before i arrived so i could have pizza, sandwiches, toast, and crackers & cheese when everyone else was having them.

but she also bought a gluten free chocolate cake mix, which i was pretty excited about. i love cake. and since being gluten free, the cake situation has gotten pretty grim. and even though gluten free cakes are rarely as tempestuous as the real deal, i have grown fond of them because it's a treat.

these guys were excited about the idea of cake...

but later i showed gus this picture and asked why he was making that sour face.
"i didn't like that cake chrissy" was the answer i got.

wash it down, gus, wash it down.
good news. you get to have real cake...

a moment in time - part one.

2011-03-30T21:48:00.000-07:00

why uncles are cool...

when you walk into their bedroom and see the linoleum block prints on the windowsill and ask to make a print, the uncle will let you. he will pull out the only ink he has left... and he will let you choose which likeness you will print.
ghandi was a hit.
he will help you roll out the ink on the glass and won't even sweat as the red starts to travel all over the floor because you really are trying to be so careful.

then he will help you make the print.
then he will not worry when you want to make 8 more.

because uncles are cool.
well, this uncle is anyway.

things i love.

2011-03-30T21:15:00.000-07:00

in life, it's hard sometimes to articulate the love we have for people.
i spent my spring break out east... with friends... because i needed my gotberg fix.
gus is 2 and half or so.
otto just turned 4, (although he told me that he pretty much feels like a 3 year old, it's just that he looks like he's 4.)
i have know both brita and gary for a long time...
and brita's family is there too.
it's nice to have people in the world where no matter when you show up, showing up always feels like coming home.

i heart new york!

2011-03-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

brita and i were talking last friday about new york city, and i mentioned to her that i had never been. "really?" she asked.

then later that day she came to me and said, "what would you think about going to new york city for the day tomorrow??? i mean, you're this close, and you've never been..."

so we made plans! thankfully gary was cool with hanging out with the boys all day long, because we left about 8am and didn't get back until almost 1am. but it was awesome! i was so excited all day because you hear about everything in new york, and it was great to actually experience it all for myself!

we packed a ton into our almost-nine hour day in NYC.
we drove to new haven, CT and took the commuter train in to grand central station. what a way to start! that place is like... well, like GRAND CENTRAL STATION!

here's brita with her train ticket! we had a great ride. we couldn't remember the last time we were able to sit and talk to each other, uninterrupted and uninhibited by a 3-hour time zone difference in many years... i felt pretty cool that she gave up her day with the family to take me on an adventure. we started at st patrick's cathedral. is it weird i was taking pictures of people praying? ehh, oh well. it was beautiful. so so so many candles burning for prayers for loved ones.

then we headed to rockafeller plaza.

WOO HOO 30 ROCK!!!then of course we headed to times square. i know at new years there's like a million people in the square, and it was hard to imagine. i mean, it's big and busy, but wow, that would be serious lack of personal space. look hard in this picture and you can see the green 2011 ball that was dropped at midnight!
i was taken aback at how vertical the city is.. i mean, i knew this was true, but to be there in it, it's just super intense. everything just goes up and up and up, as far as the eye can see.

we inquired about getting seats at an off-broadway matinee for half price (would have been about $50, really cheap for a show.) brita and i talked to this nice guy in a winter coat wearing a tutu about all the options. (she's there in the red hat). we hemmed and hawed, but then decided to hit the museum of modern art instead. both options sounded super fun, and we just had to pick one or the other because of time.

my favorite part of MOMA... this guy. i LOVED his art.

and a little fun at the NBC store...
here's me with... can you guess who? oh... sun's in the way.
okay, i'll shade the sun for him...
oh this is completely silly. and we are taking a lot of pictures as many people walk into the NBC store...
but i'll just pick him up and move him and get the picture i want...
ironically, i don't even really like matt lauer. oh well. good times.
i do LOVE this guy though...
i'm talking about spongebob, not that weirdo elmo guy.
then we were on to central park. we were able to walk around there as the sun was starting to set, and the skyline was all around us...
the pond...
carriages...
then we decided to take the subway down to ground zero...
but... NYC subway system... way harder to navigate than portland and chicago - the two we know well. we could not figure out how to get going the right direction on the train, and there were so many trains...

we were confused.

but we finally made it...
and we checked out ground zero, but there's so much construction going on because they are building the reflecting pools and memorial museum and stuff we could only see it through the fence. it was hard to figure out where to see it best, and it was getting late, so we gave up on trying to see the statue of liberty to save some time.

liberty, i'm coming for you next time.
we checked out wall street instead. but since neither of us really cared that much, we hopped the subway back to grand central station, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then got on the 9:07 train back to new haven.

what a day! but an awesome and adventurous one!
thanks brita lou.

type II fun.

2011-03-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

there's things you do with people that are super fun as you're doing them... there's laughter and silliness and hilarity and everyone has a blast. fun like this is classified as type I fun. it's fun right in the moment and stays that way.

but many things in life end up being type II fun... meaning they are super intense experiences shared by people, and often contain moments of ridiculous and horrible feelings or they wear you down so badly that all who are involved end up being totally bonded by the experience.

today i ran the 2011 portland shamrock shuffle... the 15K race (9.3 miles). the first mile is through downtown portland, and then the next 3 or 4 are uphill, climbing steadily into the west hills of portland by OHSU.

i thought i was going to die.
oh yeah, i forgot to mention it's march in portland, which means raining the entire time and about 47 degrees.

i finally got through the uphill portion and started on the downhill, and immediately realized i had to pee, so i stopped at the only two portapotties i had seen for the last 2 miles. it took 10 minutes to wait in the line, and by the time i was getting going again my muscles were tight and i was dripping wet and freezing. it took me from mile 6 to 7 to warm back up.

then, somewhere between mile 8 and mile 9... i had some bizarre out-of-body experience. now don't confuse this with "runner's high"... which is more like an "ooh-i'm-having-such-an-amazing-run-i'm-completely-outside-myself" experience. no this was more like "ooooh-i'm-in-so-much-pain-and-desperation-my-brain-must-shut-down-for-a-minute-to allow-for-the-body-to-continue". it was like i only had calories and wakefulness left to run one part of my body, and my body chose to move muscles, not brain waves.

i remember looking around and suddenly thinking, "wow, everyone here is running" and then i looked down at my own feet and panicked thinking, "OH MY GOSH, MY LEGS ARE RUNNING."

i'm pretty sure i have now endured complete exhaustion.

then my shoelace came untied, and i refused to stop to tie it, so instead i had the next 15 people i ran past toward the finish tell me, "HEY! your shoe's untied," most of them yelling because they were listening to ipods.

the only response i could think of or get out of my mouth was "F I N I S H L I N E".
what a mental case.

but you know what??? today i've told this story about 4 times and each time i am more and more fond of it. the race sucked, but of course, in true type II fun, IT WAS AWESOME. and i would totally sign up to put myself through that hell another time.

humans are weird.

which came first?

2011-02-13T21:16:00.001-08:00

if you bring a chicken to school, it might just nest and lay an egg.
really?
yep.

triple falls.

2011-02-13T20:49:00.000-08:00

today i did a hike in the columbia gorge - triple falls - one i think i have done partially before, but not the whole thing.

there's three falls... horsetail falls,which is right by the road as you start hiking, then ponytail falls a bit up the trail, and then triple falls is another hike up the gorge. the triple falls section is fairly steep, but we made it! it was beautiful up there... going up one section is oneota gorge, which is this narrow gorge that heads up to ponytail falls from the road. apparently in the summer you can hike right up along the water because it's low and still, and the walls are right there all around you. that sounds like another trip is in order for this summer! in the fuzzy background of this picture you can see the narrow chasm.

there's actually waterfalls all over the place, especially this time of year as the snow melt is pretty active. when we hiked in the view wasn't too bad so we got a good view of the washington side of the gorge... but on the way out it was raining and starting to get dusky, so no good views on the way down.

and of course i couldn't pass up some nature photography!
it was an awesome hike, and a great day to do it!

at the races.

2011-02-06T22:04:00.000-08:00

i got a call last weekend to join my friend rebecka on a spontaneous trip to portland meadows to see the horse races... i'd never been before, but it sounded like something i wanted to check out. i actually don't even like horses, but i like when people win and lose, so off we went.

catch that mountain in the background??? it was a great day... cool but not raining with sunbreaks and great visibility.

at first we just watched races while the other friends we were with did all the bidding. but then we wanted to give it a try. bids can be from 2 bucks to whatever you want. we figured... hey, whatever, it's 2 bucks.
okay, these guys think THEY have the winning bid.
but this girl thinks differently.
turns out, they were right. i was wrong.

but then i went and tried again, and this time poured over all the stats and numbers and history of the horses in the race. i had a good feeling about a horse named GITTERDONEGOTTERDID, so i went with it. i bought a $2 bet for that horse to win. and although it was close, my horse came in 2nd, so i didn't win anything.

BUT!
then, they immediately told everyone to hold their tickets because there was some issue with the jockeys. and we waited and waited, and finally, about 10 minutes later, they disqualified the 1st and 3rd place horses, which made mine move to 1st place and I WON! my bet checked in about 8:1, so i made $15 on a $2 bet! woo hoo! pretty exciting stuff.

i tried a couple more times with the winnings, but eventually we decided food and drinks were a better bet, though, and i gave up on betting on horses and took the money to the food counter.

but THIS GUY was the coolest ever. actually, he wasn't "cool" per se at all, he was rather dorky, but i loved him. every time the bidding closed he came out to play the trumpet. i got some pictures of him in his full jockey trumpeteer garb, and then i got a picture with him!!!!

woo hoo!
yay for the races!

space camp.

2011-01-28T20:04:00.000-08:00

i don't normally post pictures of my class at school, but with these i can't resist.

HOW TO GO TO SPACE CAMP:

learn about the solar system.
set up a bunch of tents and tape a lot of white paper to the floor to make it more like the moon.
bring sleeping bags and pillows to make it more like camp.
choose tents to play in.

bring gear to make the day much more fun.
make your hair full of static because you are crazy inside the tents.
look cute in paper hats with foil.
make space princess crowns.
set up camp.
again, look cute in space helmets made at school.

make sure your teacher is a purple alien from pluto or jupiter. read about the moon.

hoard, and then finally share, marshmallow space rocks to eat.

pose for a group picture.
can you believe over 90% of the class looked at the camera??????

snow camping in drawings.

2011-01-28T19:40:00.000-08:00

snow camping recap, preschool style.
i needed a way to show the preschoolers about my trip. here's where it went.

so here we go.

packing the backpack.
kids were very, very concerned how all these things would end up fitting in a backpack. but then again, i was too. notice the little bag of food near the bowl and spoon and fork. i only mentioned pasta and drew pasta when i talked about food, and afterwards, one girl came up to me and said with a very serious voice, "teacher chrissy, all you ate was pasta? that's not good. you should eat more vegetables." i reassured her that we backpacked in many, many good vegetables. (we really did.)

the destination.
one child commented, "why only 3 trees?"
well, there were more than 3 trees, i explained, but then i told them how the whole area had been burned many years ago so all the tall trees were just really tall burned stumps.
this information rocked their worlds.

hiking in. (i.e. elvira hiking in with a sled)
"teacher chrissy, you put your beds in sleds???" (for some reason this was really funny.)

the toilet.
no, i didn't tell them about the toilet outright, they, OF COURSE, asked where we peed and pooped. i think they were imagining a toilet shaped castle of snow. it was obviously a pit with a little snow next to it to put on top of the pooh.they begged me to draw the pee and poop, but i refused.

the snow cave.
i was not surprised to see the play at preschool revolve around snow caves all last week. many, many children were on expeditions and taking out huge evil polar bears that were coming to destroy their snow cave fun.

snow.

2011-01-20T22:03:00.001-08:00

a few friends from portland and i did a snow camping trip to the wallowa mountains last weekend. i was both excited and nervous... but after a few choice purchases (down coat, down booties, warm hat, sleeping bag liner) i decided that i could pull it together, stay warm and have a good time! after school on thursday, i drove home to grab my stuff and then got over to jason & elvira's house around 2:30. jason was the master packer... it was a huge tetris game, as we had backpacks, food and equipment for 6 people, plus four of us in the car. it was a tight fit!
luckily the rocket box held lots of stuff... and yes, you see sleds in there... we hauled in a lot of stuff on the sleds.
lots of food. i carried in gluten free noodles & bagels for myself...
but look, sad news. i found this HUGE gross onion. and it wasn't the only one.
will the trunk close? barely.

iand we're off! it was about a 6-7 hour drive, with stops for food and gas and bathroom breaks.
we stopped to eat at a little mexican place. the guys there let elvira wear the sombrero!

we did as much packing as we could the night we got in, but it was hard because you can only do so much until it's really time to go.
we got up early the next day and made a good breakfast. and look! there's those dumb onions again. but alas, i have the coolest friends, who cooked all onions and garlic separately and kept all the gluten-free food also onion-free! they are the coolest.

it was a half hour drive or so up the mountains to the parking lot where we could park the car. then we had to pack the car and unpack the car all over again at the trail head. we each got our backpack ready, plus the two sleds hauling food, tents, tarps & cookware.

SO MUCH STUFF!

jason's ready to go...
and then finally, we are all ready.
from left to right: jason, elvira, me, tori, and dave.
dave's girlfriend jean had to work, so dave skied in with us with his pack and then skied back out, and back in the next day with jean. he's a machine!

elvira was totally insane. she hauled the sled in the whole way... uphill, at 6,000 ft, for over 4 hours until we decided to stop and camp. hard core. i heart her.

hiking in... the snowfall was beautiful!

we stopped for breaks along the way, obviously. this was mostly because it was a really tough hike. tori, elvira and i were on snowshoes, and breaking trail through powder. we hiked at over 6,000 ft the whole way, mostly uphill, and often traversing slopes at a crazy angle that killed your ankles and hips.

there was one point when we were all pretty exhausted.... total calorie & water deficit. every step took a huge effort. then eventually we found a little clearing and stopped for lunch, which helped perk us up.

we had planned on hiking in 9 miles or so, but it took us almost 5 hours to get 4.5 miles, so we decided to stop and make camp at that point knowing we would soon run out of daylight.

yay! we made it to our final spot!!!
so as we headed into the area we decided to camp, tori & elvira fell into some pretty intense tree wells. there was at least 4 or 5 feet of snow pack, and it never packs as solid around the bases of trees and fallen logs. so if you step too close to the tree wells, you can go in at a pretty awkward angle. it took two of us to get them back on their feet.

we spent the whole rest of the day setting up camp. tori & elvira packed down a place to put up our megamid tent, while jason and i built a kitchen area and set up a tarp so we had a shield from the snow/rain/sun or whatever we needed.

the first night we had to do some cooking on the ground, but by the 2nd day our kitchen area had walls, windbreaks, counters, couches for lounging and a lot of space for backpacks & cookware.

hanging out in the kitchen!
we melted and boiled snow for our cooking and drinking water... which means we basically melted snow constantly. jason was the cook master and he and elvira made most of our amazing meals. we built a pretty sweet stove with a couple snowshoes and a metal grating piece. jason hauled in some huge pots and gallon jugs of fuel!
the 2nd day was my birthday! it was a super fun day... although i think i shoveled about 1000 shovels of snow. i piled up snow into walls around the kitchen area. i reinforced the outside wall areas and built them up to make two cool couches. we used our ridge rests as cushions so we were never sitting or leaning right on the snow.

then, elvira, tori and i starting piling up snow to build a snowcave. the megamid tent was sufficient, but not ideal for the three of us. i was sort of cold at the beginning of the night, and our breath condensed and froze, and then started to remelt the next morning, dripping onto our sleeping bags. not cool.

so first we packed down the area for the snow cave... creating a walking trench which became part of the walls. then we piled snow... for about 6 hours. it took forever, but we kept working.

then we stuck all the poles and skis we could grab into the walls to mark off the 18 inch walls. as you dig it out, you dig until you find the ends of the poles, and then you know to stop digging.

our 2nd night sleeping in the snow cave was definitely warmer, but here's the craziest part. apparently, not long after we went to bed it started to rain. and it rained the whole night. but because the cave walls are so insulating and quiet, we never heard the rain. in fact, i had no idea there was any rain until elvira got up and then came back to the snow cave and told us to pack up because we were leaving! it was too rainy to stay dry or warm for another night.

which was really sad for jason, who had planned to do some telemark skiing that day. it was too sticky and rainy to get a good ski run in, so he never got to do it.
so we hiked out in a rainy, rainy fog. this landscape really shows the forest fire that ripped through the area in 1989. all the tall snags left are burned remnants, and all the healthy trees are just 20 or so years old. it was really cool, but also interesting to see the contrast.

i was so cold and wet when we got done snowshoeing out of the mountains that i ran into the warming hut and ripped off most of my clothes to put on something dry and warm. i have never felt so cold. it was alarming!

then we headed back to dave's girlfriend jean's house for the night. we had to dry as much as we could so there was stuff everywhere!
jason took the night off from cooking and tori & elvira made the pasta dinner.
the next day we packed up and drove back to portland, but we took our time, stopping at a few places just for fun.
left to right: jean, dave, tori, chrissy, jason, elvira
another tetris game.
i spent most of the trip writing all my christmas (january) cards and knitting a hat. i finished both projects!

and the cards got mailed from some fun spots throughout oregon.
we stopped for some coffee and elvira got really excited about the portland audubon society finding some bohemian waxwings in a tree.
and we went in this classic 100 year old general store. they seriously had one of everything you could think of.
then we got coffee at the blue banana... and it was a really cool place. there was a half car in the wall as a seating area, and we thought it was hilarious. jason named tori, elvira and i the three musketeers because we all work at parks & rec and we were bonkers half the time, staying up late and goofing around in the tent instead of sleeping.

and outside there was a cute little outhouse.
we also stopped at the mill store in pendleton and looked at all the beautiful but expensive blankets. i could never afford one of those... but! i hunted through the remnant bin and found some great wool for super cheap. i got three huge pieces for my friend kate who was taking care of morton. i knew she'd be PUMPED for the wool, even though i had no idea how she would use it! she was, of course. :)
yay for snow camping in the wallowa mountains! a good time was had by all!

christmas 2010, part two: the UP

2010-12-29T21:36:00.001-08:00

in the UP it was just my mom and i, and it was pretty quiet. and i enjoyed the lack of activity and responsibility. i ran on the tread mill each day and then watched movies and cooking shows and storage unit auctions and worked on knitting projects.

i finished this bag for my mom just in time for christmas eve. we got a little snow, so there was a little driveway clearing one morning. my mom is hard core. she snowblows the whole driveway. i helped do some shoveling as she got towards the end of the blowing.
then on christmas eve we headed over to my cousin's house. i grew up with their family, and my cousin christy and her husband were there with their kids. after reading the christmas story, there was a song and then a play, which of course went way beyond the attention span of a 7 and 4 1/2 year old, so joseph and mary got sort of crazy.
trevor was the angel visiting joseph and mary in his glowing christmas light costume. (you can maybe see why this play when into a downward spiral.)
but we did get a few good pictures of the kids...
and one of their family.
but unfortunately... none of my cousins wendy & bruce and my mother and i.
oh well.
next christmas i guess!

christmas 2010, part one: chicago

2010-12-29T21:14:00.000-08:00

part one of my trip to the midwest for christmas started in chicago. two of my brothers, my mom and i all decided to meet to have a little christmas celebration with my grandma, who is 97.

but you can't go to chicago in december without going downtown, and so we ventured out on saturday with my nephew and his wife to see some classic chicago icons.

no trip to chicago is complete without gorging yourself on garrett's popcorn. haven't had it? sorry about YOUR luck.
and then of course a visit to field's to see the tree inside and the windows outside. it's actually a macy's now, but it will always be field's in my head.

and next, the bean. haven't been? hmmmm.... it's so cool. and then of course some couples photos by the bean. this is eric and melissa. they were married in august.
and this is my brother pete and his girlfriend sheri.

and here's the larson clan...
aren't we cute? it was cold.
and then we traveled to northbrook on sunday to take my grandma to lunch at ihop (her choice).
then we did a little christmas exchange as a family.

then my mom and i said goodbye to everyone and headed up north, to the UP.

spy kids.

2010-12-29T20:49:00.000-08:00

this post is way past due, but here it is anyway...

i helped kaspar celebrate his 7th birthday in early december... his birthday was actually while i was out of town over thanksgiving, but the party didn't happen for a week or two.

this was because it was a spy party, and needed all hands on deck. there were... oh gosh, i don't know... maybe almost 20 kids there. mostly 6 and 7 year old boys, with a couple exceptions (like the sisters).

there were 4 or 5 adults there, and we were all given the assignment of being spy leaders. the night started with a powerpoint presentation on the big screen tv, where anna explained this intricate plot about a man who had a twin who drank some serum and became evil and started stealing precious crystals all over the world. our mission: to find the crystals and then bring down the evil twin.

we succeeded, but not without a practice spy run around the block in the dark, ducking away from passing headlights and passersby into nearby bushes and behind parked cars. then there were clues to figure out and crystals hidden all over the house that we had to retrieve. plus we had pizza to eat to stay energized and of course, cake to celebrate with at the end. did i mention it was a rock guitar cake???? VERY COOL.

all in all, it was actually one of the best birthday parties i've helped with... and super fun to hang out with a bunch of eager 7 year old boys. they came dressed in black clothes with spy gear and swords.

good times.
and how did that kid get to be 7? that's the real head-knocker.

crafting.

2010-12-07T21:13:00.000-08:00

i took a last minute trip to the coast last saturday and sunday for "crafting weekend" with some friends from the preschool. we all had projects we were working on for christmas presents, and needed some time away to focus on them. my friend erin's inlaws have a beach house where we stayed just a 5 minute walk from the beach.

and then we arrived and realized the weather was awesome to boot!

seriously, two magnificent days at the coast, which hardly happens. it wasn't raining, or too cold, or too windy. it was beautiful.

we took a walk down the 174 stairs to the beach and realized it was not only low tide, but a minus tide - like minus 3' - so we got in some amazing tide pooling. we saw so many fun sea stars, anemones and little water bugs & fish. it was so much fun. we putzed around there for well over an hour as the sun started to sink into the horizon. at that point i was obsessed with the shadows and got crazy with the photography! how could i not?

plus morton is always good for taking pictures of. how is he SO cute???

all in all, it was a great last minute way to spend a couple days. i loved getting away and having time to spend with friends. and my knitting projects are coming along..................... bonus.

home.

2010-11-26T09:11:00.000-08:00

those of us who spent time at covenant point... months, seasons, years... know that it has been many things, but the one thing it has always been is home.

many of us came home this week... to sit in chuck's office, to use the computers & the printers, to cook egg dish and cut fruit and bake bread, to walk from the dining hall to cedar, to look at the lake through the windows with a cup of coffee in a brown mug, to talk to jane and joel and nathan and all the frasier family, to sing in the tab, to look at pictures, to pause, to listen, to feel scared, to cry.

we needed to be home. we needed each other. we needed to go through this all together.

it was bittersweet to feel the pain of chuck's loss while at the same time getting to reconnect with some of my dearest friends and meet so many new additions to the covenant point family. it's hard to describe the irony... the mixture of feelings we all had from moment to moment.

now we have parted. we are headed back to our own separate lives to move forward... not to move on, but instead to move differently.

charlotte mecher
kendra's little mayze

cooking our last "chuck brunch" at 6:30am on the morning of the funeral for everyone staying at camp.

hannah & fabio's little ian
erik with little emmett
so good to especially see hannah, who i haven't seen for years...

me-stu.
barbara & nathan's (getting very big!) sanne
i'm holding little ivy jane
oh man, these two... two of my FAVORITES!
joe!!!!!
as we walked into the celebration time at camp, jackson turned to courtney and said, "mommy, can i ring the bell???" and courtney looked at me, and i said, "yes, jackson, i think that's the perfect thing to do right now..." so we did.
all the people we could find who cooked with chuck at some point!

without.

2010-11-19T23:05:00.000-08:00

this is the rule of chuck: no matter where you are, what you are doing, or what time it is, if you are doing something you shouldn't be doing, chuck will show up.

don't test the rule, you will be proven wrong.
i have proof.

the day i jumped off a moving pontoon boat to "banzai" into hagerman lake, hitting the awning of the boat with my head mid-jump and physically knocking it off both its posts on one side, who happens to walk out on to the deck with an iced tea just as we pulled back up to the dock? yep, it was chuck.

when i lit off a bottle rocket the opposite way down into the bottle in the middle of the kitchen at 11pm one night while standing around with a bunch of staff, who happened to come up the stairs from the pantry just after the explosion echoed through the vast, empty space of the dining hall? yep. it was chuck. just checking on something in the office before going home.

the night i sped off to the island in the bayliner, who did i find crossing the waterfront towards the staff building just after parking the boat with utter care & silence and walking nonchalantly back to my cabin? yep, you guessed it, chuck.

the rule of chuck never failed. just when you thought you were about to get away with something, chuck would show up. we used to joke that he was omniscient. omnipresent. that he was something just below God. or possibly the same. one day, while on the raft catching some sun, chuck was hollering to me from the waterfront while walking toward the edge of the shore. i remember turning to the other people on the raft and saying, "i was thinking that chuck was just going to keep talking to me while stepping out on to the water and walk all the way out here. and you know, it wouldn't have shocked me. i would have just said, 'yeah, i thought so.' "

he was super human. anyone who worked there knew it. he did the job of three people every day... on any given day he was a cook, housekeeper, administrator, maintenance guy, mechanic, trail groomer, supervisor, and that was all before i was out of bed in the morning. he always showed up and did what needed to be done, and then probably something that someone else had forgotten.

he piled his things into enormous heaps and laid them on tables, in corners, on the floor. it was chaos to me, but if i ever walked in to his office and said, "chuck, do you know how many people came to camp in 1989? who was the program director? was there a winter ski program?" he would say, "mmmm, let me get back to you." twenty minutes later he would pop a few papers on my desk as he walked by to get hot water for tea. no big deal. everything was organized, just not in my way.

he hated when food wasn't served on time. he got irritated when boys on the 7th grade basketball team were ball hogs and the coaches didn't address it. he loved his dogs almost more than life itself, making sure there were always some baked eggs hiding in the fridge. he always seemed like he was not listening to complaints about slow computers and lack of good phones and broken overhead projectors, but he was. he was just devising a way to not only fix the problem, but do it in a more cost effective, more logical, and more beneficial way than you were asking. if you had patience to just wait for chuck to figure it out, things would end up far better than you could have ever hoped or imagined.

it's hard for me to even stop and try to fixate on one image of chuck. he was just so many things... my mind keeps sweeping from one vision to the next, from one memory to another, all in a fluid series of mental photographs that i associate with camp. i am listening to him talk on the phone. i see him rolling pizza dough. i hear him coming up from the pantry. i smell the exhaust on his clothes from the snowmobile. i see his bike leaning against the wall by the steps. all these things are chuck, and they are alive. they have taken on their own entity, welling up over and over again every time my mind drifts.

on the day i left camp to move to duluth, i wanted to spend time with just chuck, and i wanted it to just be mundane. i wanted it to feel like just another day. so i woke up early, got ready and walked into his office with a cup of coffee just before 7. i plopped down on the old orange chair and he looked at me. "what do you think will come of all this?" he said. i was quiet for a minute and finally said, "i don't know, chuck, i'm just excited to see where life goes... you taught me that, you know. you taught me to do the work and give it your best shot, and then sit back to see where you end up." and we talked about the ski boat and the hot cocoa machine and the back 40. we talked about all the things that you talk about at camp and don't really remember.

and then life marched on taking us all with it.

and since that day, everything has stayed the same, and everything has changed. with each return to camp, the same was true. everything had changed, and everything was just the same. and today, i am caught in the place that exists outside of time and space. they are different, and yet, i am connected differently than i ever have been before. things are neither real, nor imagined. they are not gone, but they aren't within reach either. i can close my eyes and time stands still. we are all there again. we are all reaching toward the vivid space surrounding a man who shaped us into playful children, into thoughtful adults, into spiritual people. we are together. we are alive. and we are all more than we once were. thank you, chuck, for giving us the space and the purpose to become something even more.

thanks.

2010-11-07T20:31:00.000-08:00

recap of today's children's story from church:
(it's our stewardship drive, so the concept of stewardship was the goal...)

pastor: this is the month of thanksgiving. what sort of things are you thankful for?
(pause)
(silence)
pastor: come on, nothing? what are you thankful for?
2 year old: health!
(?? okay)
4 year old: food
8 year old: friends
6 year old: family
2 year old: macaroni!
pastor: yes, well, i guess we can be thankful for macaroni too
7 year old: shelter!
3 year old: toys!
2 year old: health!
pastor: yep, we are still thankful for our health.
2 year old: i have macaroni at my house...
(pause)
pastor: i'm sure you do. anything else?
6 year old: oxygen!
pastor: well, okay, we should all be thankful for oxygen. anything else?
(pause)
pastor: what sorts of things did God make?
8 year old: trees!
6 year old: stars!
2 year old: i have macaroni
pastor: and how do we say thanks to God?
5 year old: we say thanks
pastor: but how? what ways do we show we are thankful?
5 year old: pray?
6 year old: smile?
pastor: how else do we show our thanks when we're at church? you guys might do this in your sunday school classes...
(pause)
(silence)
(pause, pastor walks over to the pulpit to get the offering baskets as a prop)
pastor: what do we use these for?
2 year old: for money! for money! for money!

ahh, yes. for health and trees, oxygen, stars and macaroni, God, we offer you our smiles, our prayers, and our money.
actually, it's not that far off...
brought to you by the 2 year old mind.
love it.

the skeletons are out tonight...

2010-11-06T18:06:00.000-07:00

happy halloween!!!
i spent halloween night as i have every year in portland -- with the czuks, trick or treating around the NE portland neighborhood.

this year was definitely the first year where all 3 kids were just totally laid back and thrilled to collect as much candy as possible. there was very little crying and whining about scary things, and they motored along, bumping into friends from school and generally having a really good time. then we all got home so they could pour out their pumpkins FULL of candy and eat as much as possible before being told to get ready for bed.

and that's just about how i remember it... :)

acacia went as tinkerbell.

kaspar was some ninja character i hadn't heard of...
and eliana was daphne from scooby do.
and they carved pumpkins... with help from tim, the artistic one. i would never venture a pumpkin quite this intricate. give me some fangs, cross eyes, and a triangle nose and i'm all good.

happy halloween!

2010-10-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

the SKELetons are OUT tonight
they MARCH about the STREET
with BONEy bodies, BONEy heads
and BONEy hands and FEET
BONEy boney BONEy bones
with NOTHing inbeTWEEN
UP and down and ALL around
they MARCH on halloWEEN!!!

eaten.

2010-10-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

today at school, one of the boys was having snack next to me, and he turned to his friend and said, "i'm glad i'm not an apple slice... i'd always be getting eaten."

well, i had to agree.
rarely does an apple escape consumption.

"you know why i wouldn't want to be an apple???" i responded. "because people would make cider out of me and i'd just be squiiiiiiiiiiiiished flat. that would be even worse than being eaten..."

my boss at parks & rec invited us all over to her house on sunday to make cider. she and her husband have a cider press that they put together 30 years ago... so we gave it a try! luckily the cider pressing coincided nicely with my preschool apple orchard field trip so i bought a whole box of apples to bring over. we filled up a smalled sized kids swimming pool with apples more than once, and we ended up pressing about 12 or 13 gallons of cider.

first we had to get everything set up and organized...
and of course visit the two goats in the back yard.

here's annie with the pressing bin. i'm sure it has a real name, but we don't care what it is, right?
here's astrid giving the crank a try...
and yoko, elvira and meghan trying to unclog the apple hopper.
it takes a lot of people's muscles to make so many gallons of cider. we switched around alot. here's john and dave taking a turn.
and a stenson action shot...
and each time you get done cranking the chopper to chop the apples into tiny pieces, then you have to move the little bin over and press it. it's hard work to press... levers are your best friend.
and then you filter it one more time...
and split it up into different containers.
and it IS portland, so we have to have a potluck. here's elvira, dina and tori eating some din din.

and jason was the lucky apple skin depositor.

thanks sue & john!!! let's do it again next year!

juice of the gods, part IV

2010-10-21T21:53:00.000-07:00

the pinot noir grape harvest this year has been dicey... the starlings have attacked the crops, the cool summer prevented the grapes from forming good sugar, and the late rainy season going well into june & july kept the fruit from having much chance to grow. i hadn't heard anything about the grape harvest this year, and then suddenly, i got a text on sunday that grapes were a go on monday afternoon. czuks pulled their kids out of school early and joe headed out with them. missy had cancelled piano lessons (one of them eliana!) so she was heading out at 2:30.

the only problem was me! i was scheduled to be at a school field trip to hood river (90 minutes east of portland -- about 2 and a half hours from dundee where we pick the grapes). so i left early at 9am for the field trip to pick apples and hang out with my class at an orchard, and made it home about 2:35. missy stopped at my house to pick me up to drive to dundee about 20 minutes later, and so our grape harvest was last minute, but still amazing and beautiful like it has been all four years!
our traditional "all girls" picture... that's anna, myself, and missy.
we tried to get a photo of all the kids, but wow. too hard to organize. so we went with superhero poses instead... kaspar was obsessed with playing fetch with one of the dogs. he's got a good arm and the dog was relentless, and so it carried on for a while...

birch, acacia and eliana were down in the hazelnut grove gleaning stray nuts off the ground that the machines missed.
eliana is great with little riddley... he's getting so big too! she was helping him get on the tractor and pulling him in the wagon. it's pretty cute to see her take on some new roles, helping the little ones. she's so good with him.

the grapes!!! i think there were about 20 buckets this year.

anna's parents were in town for the harvest this year, so they were very interested in the whole process. we opened up some bottles of 2007, which was the first year we harvested, and joe brought home brew. anna had made soup and there was bread and cheese and sandwiches for the kids. we hung out well into the evening as the sun was setting and drove back to portland after 8pm. it was a long day, but a great day!

tuckwilla vinyard is celebrating their 20th year this year!
cheers tuckwilla!
until next year...

Fútbol

2010-10-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

i got a call from anna last week, letting me know that kaspar had a soccer game on saturday. and for once in my life, i was not busy on a saturday morning, so i joined them to watch.

unfortunately, the day before i tweeked my back, so i was barely able to walk to my car and drive the 10 minutes to the game, but i did it. they had a chair all ready for me, so i planted myself and cheered kaspar and his teammates on in their 3 on 3 game. kaspar did great! he's a great little soccer player.

he'll be 7 in a month or so!
i can't believe it.

one of the boys on the team was celebrating his birthday, so there were cupcakes. i snapped this quick picture of eliana because she was so into her treat. pretty cute. eliana's really into learning the piano. she takes lessons from a friend of ours...

wow! they have all gotten so big!

coggy the clock.

2010-08-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

happy birthday acacia!

2010-07-31T16:33:00.000-07:00

anna asked me to come over last thursday and help with acacia's 5th birthday party... because there were 14 kids coming! she had games & treasure hunts & pizza making & face painting & all ready for the afternoon, but it was still a busy place! the kids were cute, and oddly enough, i knew three of them through my programs at parks & rec. my world seems to get smaller and smaller each year i am here in portland.

acacia had a blast!
and of course, anna had made a hilarious cake by request. this year, a zhu zhu pet cake.
man, i hate those things.

if you don't know what a zhu zhu pet is, just keep it that way.
if your child owns one, i'm so sorry.

happy birthday acacia!!! it's been so fun to celebrate birthdays 2-5 with you!

the lake.

2010-07-27T21:37:00.001-07:00

i used to spend hours every day on the lake, but out here in oregon, lakes aren't so common. people visit the rivers & the ocean.

but last weekend our church did an all-church gathering at a lake in the coastal mountains, and it ended up being a super hot day in the city, so a perfect day to travel to the lake!

unfortunately, everyone in portland was traveling west toward the coastal range & the beach, so the traffic was ridiculous, but i made it, and had a great day with some church friends at fishhawk lake near mist, oregon.

i borrowed an ice cream maker from work so i could make some ice cream! although we were impatient, so it was not as hard as it could have been!

so fun!
it's a tradition now!
can't wait till next time.

rice balls.

2010-07-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

i was invited over to a former student's house a couple weeks ago to make japanese rice balls. i loved it so much at school that i was invited to come and do it again!

we had sticky rice and rice ball forms... and also avacado & cucumber & some yummy herb seasoning that i can't pronounce. we pressed the rice into the molds and added layers of fun stuff... plus added sprinkles of herbs & seaweed to the outside & tops.

then we plated them up and had them along with salad & miso soup. the soup was soooo good!
did you know you can punch seaweed with a paper punch??? hilarious!

mmmmmm. thanks mina & roya!

inch by inch.

2010-07-27T20:35:00.000-07:00

we've begun to harvest our garden! each sunday afternoon i go and pick up my shares... this past sunday i actually went and helped do the harvest and dividing for the families because there was so much to pick and organize. it was about 90 degrees & blazing sun, and i spent over an hour picking bush beans. that was intense, but i left the garden with a ton of veggies!

these pictures are actually from last week... things are even taller now!

i got a zucchini this week in my share, and there's more squash & zucchini to come.
our tomatoes are growing like crazy up our trellis system. people have been stopping by to tie them up and make them go where we want them to go.

the squash took off all of a sudden. this week they were even bigger... almost a foot taller!
i got so many peas & beans in my share this week i've been eating them galore! mmmmmm nothing like fresh, raw garden peas & beans in your lunch.
the potatoes have flowers now, and i've been told the they are ready when they flower and then fall over... i don't know much about potatoes, so i'm eager to see this whole cage thing work.
ha! i spied a green tomato! and there's even more now...
cucumbers...
and look! my carrots!
this week i got my very own carrots in my share. the ones that i tilled the ground for & planted & weeded & thinned... today i ate one. very, very satisfying.
and beets! i got a huge bunch of beets this week and last week so guess what? more roasted root veggies!!! it's my new favorite thing...
and look... my little basil plant is doing just fine tucked in-between the tomatoes. the little guy is much happier. i can tell :)

lavender's blue, dilly dilly.

2010-07-14T22:54:00.000-07:00

elvira and i decided to throw the dice last weekend and check out something totally random... so we drove to battleground, washington for a lavender festival at scented acres lavender farm. there was a bluegrass band, a few booths selling soaps, yarn, lavender ice cream & cookies & lemonade, and a little gift shop full of lavender items.
but the real treat: LAVENDER!
i got a few great pictures, but my favorite part was making a lavender wand with some stems of lavender and ribbon. it wasn't hard, but did take a lot of patience and focus, and it was a bit tricky to weave the ribbon around while keeping it tight enough to all stay together. but i finished and i love my lavender wand! when i walk by it in my room i give it a little shake and the lavender smells come out of it! botanical magic. genius.

(side note: get a look at that thumb nail!!! for those of you who know and care, my 6 month cuticle restoration project worked! my thumb nails are just about as normal as everyone else's. i wore bandaids forever to keep myself from biting and picking at the cuticles... and it has paid off. after 15 years, no more crumpled thumbs. it's bittersweet.)

and did you know there's culinary lavender??? you can make cookies, ice cream, lemonade, scones... the list goes on and on. in fact, i had no idea how many different kinds of lavender there are. this is culinary lavender drying...

tomatoes!

2010-07-14T22:37:00.000-07:00

check out this growth in one week:we have a zucchini!
and i decided to transplant my little basil plant, which wasn't doing so well in the pot at my house.

and now, my newest obsession...
tomato plants.

i helped at the garden on a day when one of the families was building the trellis system for the tomatoes. the weather was so great, that the tomatoes totally took off, and the stems got huge. it was time to get them propped up. but who knew there was so much to learn about tomatoes??? (well, i'm sure many people know all this, but i didn't.)

so we have 3 huge beds of tomato plants... probably 25 plants or so, each promising to yield a ton of tomatoes. we have all different varieties... cherry tomatoes, italian tomatoes, etc. but there are two basic types of tomatoes: determinant and indeterminant. the determinant varieties produce their fruit at the end of the stems, so they aren't pruned. they are bushy and big, and you just try to prop them up as best you can. but indeterminant types, in our garden designated by an orange piece of yarn, will just keep growing, so you can prune and direct them along trellises and wire to try to yield as much fruit as possible.

on these types, you also snap off the axial side shoots.... as you can see here, there's a main shoot going up, and one side shoot going off to the right. but the little guy in the middle will grow into another stem if you let it go, and since you can direct this variety to keep growing along a trellis system, you snap off the 3rd side shoot so it can put it's energy into the other two.
this is will helping run the wire for the trellis.
and his dad brad building the trellises.
and susan and i worked on tying up the plants. it was crazy, actually, because i tied them up one weekend, and then we had our hot weather and the plant were watered well with our buried soaker hoses, and when i came back the next week, i was able to redirect the plants to grow upward and outward even more! i untied most of the ties from the first week, and then got the plants moved up on the trellis system.

i am obsessed with the tomatoes... i love making them spread out on the wires so they can get the most air and sun.

inch by inch.

2010-07-14T22:22:00.000-07:00

we finally had some nice, dry, hot weather here in portland, and now that the garden watering system is set up and the waterers organized, the garden is growing like crazy!

my latest big job (yes, another couple hours of pure, hard labor...) was clearing out the corner of the garden. i pulled a bunch of english ivy & blackberries, both invasives, and in the process found a bunch of random toys & sticks that could make great firewood. my new mantra is that we should have a campfire at the garden and burn those sticks and make s'mores.

the beds are full of life! and this week we got our first real shares...here's the peas... we got a bunch of those in our 2nd week of shares too! mmmm... i'm still eating them every day.
the potatoes are just about at their fill capacity. once they start to make flowers, we stop filling them with dirt, and then they start to create the potatoes. so hopefully it worked and there's many, many potatoes hiding in those cages of dirt.
look at my carrots!!! they are just a few weeks from ready! we replanted the bed that was harvested for our shares the first week, and we'll see if they come up. it was a pretty hot week.
the beans really grew a lot during the warm week. now they have flowers too, so we'll have beans galore very soon.

beets beet beets!
and hey, for those wondering... i ended up doing a whole batch of roasted root vegetables this week... roasted in the oven for an hour with olive oil, garlic, onion, salt & pepper. they are AMAZING. and i even like the beets!

i should be getting more beets soon when they harvest this very full bed, so i can try another beet recipe then!

inch by inch.

2010-06-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

garden update!!!

i had a chance to get a few pictures before doing some work at the garden this weekend. the tomatoes went crazy this week with the sunny, hot weather. and all that deep root watering is doing them well!

and our little squash plants are finally taking off. now they look like squash plants. they seriously grew many inches this week. i was shocked.
and look! PEAS! apparently this weekend some people will be getting peas in their harvest shares! i hope it's me! but if not, mine will come later. i heart garden peas.
and the romaine lettuce was ready for harvest. we each got a head for ourselves. i had some of mine on a sandwich yesterday and some in a salad today.
and the kale is almost ready too.
and these are my little carrot babies that i planted. now they have been thinned and are getting high! i'm so proud of my little carrots.
and our cucumbers are getting a little more growth as well.
these carrots are just about ready to harvest. they are the earlier planting and are all starting to pop out of the ground. i can't wait!
oh the beets. i really need to learn how to eat them. i don't even know if i like them! i got two this weekend, but so far i haven't had time to do anything with the two little guys.
and our beans are huge! i couldn't believe how big the leaves got. and to combat the bean-eater, someone built a scarecrow. she's quite lovely, don't you think?
actually, the whole time i was working at the garden i kept catching this little gal out of the corner of my eye, and she scared the crap out of me every time. i worked in fear for 3 hours that someone was sneaking up on me.
okay, so the real work... see that instruction about digging? there was no one at the garden when i got there, and i had no idea what needed to be done that hadn't already been done, so i was happy to see a note about digging a pit. i can DO that.

and i did. i dug the most amazing square pit... a foot deep and about 4' x 4'. i had to loosen up packed clay soil and hack at huge hawthorne roots with a big pick axe. then i had to sort out the roots and sticks and get the dirt ready to dump into the two beds we've been taking dirt from to fill up the potato cages.

i was so sore and sweaty... and completely exhausted after a seriously insane massacre of dirt and roots! but my pit was awesome.

again... so proud. nothing like a little hard labor.

midsummer's day.

2010-06-28T21:34:00.000-07:00

i was at bob's red mill on saturday morning (three of us biked there for breakfast, shopping & dave's killer day-old bread), enjoying the extremely amazing bulk section when i got a call from a friend who had an extra ticket to the Scandinavian midsummer's festival. so i took her up on it...

and i LOVED IT.

there was a band from Norway playing music. plus a fiddle band when they started the midsummer's pole parade.
and there was these burly guys fighting in suits of armor. insane. it was like 80 degrees, so they couldn't have felt very cool.
then the ceremony to raise the midsummer's pole started... a bunch of dressed up Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish adults and children paraded in with the bands. the little girl in the picture with the flowers in her hair is going to be in my preschool class next year. i had her older sister this year.

in comes the pole!
and it's hoisted up... as we cheered hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!
and then we did 5 or 6 traditional swedish or norwegian dances. i couldn't tell the difference, nothing was in english.

here's linnea and i... she was in my preschool class this past year.
gotta love the IKEA booth... they had cookie and swedish fish samples. mmmmmm.
and then just before we left the little vassa swedish girls started their dancing... very cute.

a great last-minute addition to a great day!

inch by inch.

2010-06-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

the garden is growing!!! our cold and wet weather was slowing it down, but not any more! we have all sorts of stuff coming up.

i love pea plants! the flowers are so simple and elegant, and the tendrils do such crazy stuff. it's like a pea plant is curiosity personified. exquisite.

i'm also learning some things...
did you know that if you put the potato plants in cages, and keep adding dirt, that they keep growing more and more potatoes under the ground?

i'm also learning about watering. i learned that tomato plants do best when they are watered deep in the ground... if they are watered from above, then the surface stays wet, and their root systems tend to grow more shallowly. but if you water them deep in the ground, with a soaker type hose, buried 6-8 inches down, the water stays deeper, and the surface stays dryer. and the tomato plants are trained to grow deep root systems, which makes for better tomatoes.

huh. who knew? we also put soaker hoses along our squash plants, because watering from above makes them more susceptible to mold. didn't know that either. my carrots are growing!!! in fact, they are ready to be thinned... another little tidbit i learned. new gardeners are often to timid about thinning plants and tossing perfectly good plants to the side because it feels sad. (which it does) but when they are thinned out, they have more room to grow and you get a better yield. that one makes sense to me, but it is hard to toss out perfectly good carrot plants.

and we have strawberries now too... i think these were transplants from one of the garden families.
and our squash FINALLY came up. we planted it and then thought they all died. well, some may have... but finally a few started poking up. i haven't been there this week to see how much they have grown now that it's been warmer.
we also have spinich and lettuce. one lettuce bed was harvested last week, and one is ready again! yay for fresh lettuce!

woo hoo! a cucumber! i helped plant these a few weeks ago too, and in just 10 or so days they were popping up.

the beans are growing up nicely, but unfortunately something is munching holes.
boo to the muncher!!!

i'm not really a fan of beets, but my friends swear by them, and it seems i will be having a whole slough of them coming to me soon. anyone got good beet recipes? what do i do with a beet? besides dye clothing?although that's cool too...

i have some hours to put in this weekend... so more pictures to come!