Terry's Potato Chips

When I was very small, probably a year old or 2, we lived next door to a potato chip delivery guy.
It will sound kind of crazy, I know, but I actually do remember some things about that. I remember a truck, a driveway, and really nice people.
And I remember these buckets.

Terry knew about makin' potato chips.

Party time with the "Party-Pak".

I remember seeing the yellow of the bucket and in my baby mind I was very fond of it.
The bucket was made of heavy card stock-like paper, and it probably had some kind of waxy layer on it to prevent the oil from ruining the bucket. It had a metal ring around the top, which kept the round bucket shape, and I know it had a lid, but I don't remember what it looked like. I want to say it had two  thumb notches and it was made of the same cardboard-ish type material.

My mom always raved about how good these chips were because we got them when they were so fresh. We moved to our home when I was 2, so we no longer had those fresh buckets of chips. But for years we ate Terry's potato chips. Probably until we moved out of the area.  And that yellow bucket, which was saved from one of those gifts from our neighbor, was used as a yarn basket for just as many years.

During my recent move I came across the bucket in my mom's stuff. It was creased and crunched. The  metal ring around the top was bent and no matter what I did I couldn't reshape it. The inside was full of yarn scraps and an old rusty looking hoop for embroidering. This thing had moved from Tenn. to Washington, and at least five times once it got here. No wonder there were so many creases and crunches in that thing.

I wasn't sure I could part with it, but we are bursting at the seams. I decided to take a picture of it and hold the memory that way. I gave it to Chuck to throw away the other day. Part of me regrets it, but it really had to go.

Huckleberry Heaven

Our property is full of vegetation. The forests here are thick with undergrowth, and in some places on our land it's so thick you can't walk through it.

Salal and huckleberry bushes are all around us, and I think they are beautiful. I use stems of each in my bouquets.

But, I anxiously waited for the huckleberries to ripen. I have some fond memories of gathering huckleberries with my mom a couple of years before she died. We went out across the county line and found some untouched land with lots of bushes. We filled up our buckets and went home determined to make some huckleberry jelly. It is so delicious.

We had recently bought some for a high price, and decided we could just as easily make our own. When we began to pick the small stems off, rinse the berries, and clean them over and over again, we realized why the jelly was so expensive.

Our plans for giving large jars of huckleberry jelly to everyone for Christmas were reduced to very small, treasured jars for everyone.

Knowing what I was up against, I set out to pick a basket full of huckleberries one day last week.

It had been a very busy day, and I needed to just get outside in the peace and quiet of the forest. I used up my time picking, and knew there was no way I'd have time to make jelly once I got those berries cleaned.

I went to a different plan, and decided to use them in pancake batter for the morning.

I can't even begin to describe how delicious they were. Fresh huckleberry pancakes with maple syrup and scrambled eggs. Oh my goodness. And I'm really not a food person.

Oh, yeah.

Art, seafood and love

It was a date night last Friday. We were looking forward to it all week, and it was a busy one.
That day was so busy I didn't even have time to change my clothes before going out. We picked Sean up at school and dropped him off with his dad, and we were off to...
What to do? Where to go? Where to eat? Hmmm.
A few months back Chuck won a yearly pass to the art museum, and we hadn't even used it yet. Our date began early enough to visit the museum for about 45 mins. before it closed.

It was great. I hadn't been there in a few years. Unbelievable, but true.
Our favorite was the Virna Haffer exhibit. That link is to the Tacoma Art Museum page, but if you Google her a lot of information will come up, including recent articles written about her. She spent the early part of her life right here in our community, living in the anarchist colony of Home. A photographer visited the community and her curiosity was peaked. She decided to become a professional photographer. What an amazing artist. The volume of her work, the subjects, it was all so impressive. I loved it! We plan to go back before it ends on Nov. 6.

Our choice for dinner was Anthony's at Pt. Defiance. Dinner was delicious and we had such a great time just talking about our future, and plans for our home and our lives. I had fettuccine with shrimp, and we got the four course special. Shrimp cocktail as appetizer, salad, main course, and chocolate mouse for dessert.

View from our table at Anthony's,  Pt. Defiance. 

Who will lead us?

Quilts hand stitched by the ladies at the Washington Corrections
Center for Women in Purdy.

Beautiful quilts were draped over every pew in the church on Sunday. Each piece of fabric cut, stitched and knotted for the comfort of someone suffering. Maybe from a chronic illness, such as cancer. Maybe from the pain of a marriage or relationship that has turned from love to physical violence.

Each quilt was touched by someone sitting nearby and we all prayed over them.

Our church has a group of dedicated ladies who meet each week to quilt. They have made many quilts over the years, and on Sunday their work was on display.

But the largest section of the sanctuary, the middle row, had pews draped with three and four quilts each. These quilts were created and stitched and donated to be given away to others who are in need --by the ladies serving time in the women's prison that is situated not very far from our church.
And our pastor said, "Interesting, who will lead us."

Shroomin'

We found a lot of these Chanterelles in the brush.

Since I've been living in the Pacific Northwest I've had a lot of experiences that I wouldn't otherwise.
I've definitely eaten a lot more seafood than I ever have before, I've seen a lot of plays and visited top-notch museums.

We are an eclectic family. We love the outdoors, living so close to nature and harvesting food we grow ourselves, but we also like the city and all it has to offer.

I've been waiting for mushroom season. I have a wonderful recipe for mushroom pie that I wanted to make using fresh mushrooms. There are a lot of them here. We have guided tours led by the parks department on identifying edible mushrooms. I've never participated in that program, but would if I could work it into my schedule.

But I found out I don't have to, because Chuck knows about mushroom hunting. (I sometimes wonder when I'll find his cape with the big S on it. He knows how to do so many things.) Mushroom season is finally here.

Last week we went mushroom hunting one afternoon when Sean got home from school. Chuck took us to the property he owns in the middle of our town that is vacant and undeveloped. Chanterelle mushrooms grow here, mostly in overgrown wooded areas. We spent a little bit of time at the property and harvested a bag full. But the recipe calls for eight cups of mushrooms, so Chuck went out on our property here at the house and gathered another large bag full.
His tip is to cut them at the base, not pull them. He has been going back to the same spots for years, and each year he finds them there.

Sean took his pocket knife and enjoyed crawling under the
brush to look for the prized mushrooms. 

Another one!

We ended up giving those away because we had too many meetings and our schedules were too full to be able to cook at home and actually be here to eat it. Sad, but we ended up going out to a restaurant to eat that night because there was just not enough time before the next meeting.

There is another edible mushroom that grows on our property that we'll harvest for this pie. I plan to get out and hunt for them this week, and I'll make the pie next week. This week is another busy one.

Caution: power tools in use

Last weekend after we celebrated Lilly's birthday, we harvested our pumpkins from the garden pumpkin patch and each got to work carving our Jack-O-Lanterns.
I've carved a pumpkin, I think, every year since sometime in the early 90s. It has been a family tradition. And if we could, we always got at least two and made sure one was elongated so we could carve the ghosty face on one and give it a large round mouth, and the other was the regular squat or round pumpkin, which was the one with a spooky sharp-toothed mean face.

This is the first time I've ever watched our own pumpkins grow in a patch. We all four had our own pumpkin to carve.

We started by opening the top and digging in to get the pulp and seeds out. Chuck likes to roast the seeds, and I had never done that. We separated the seeds for later.

Chuck cut off the tops and we saved the seeds for roasting. 

I came inside to dig around in the gadget drawer in the kitchen to see if I could find something to use for shaving the rind of the pumpkin, and fine detailed carving. When I went back out I saw that Chuck had retrieved his drill and bits. (There really is a difference between men and women.)

Sean quickly got to work. He loved using the drill.

He drilled his pumpkin full of large holes and he was finished. I cautiously asked if he could tell me about his pumpkin, trying not to be critical or say, "What IS it?"
"Oh, it's a spider," he said, "See all the eyes." Well, yes, of course!

Chuck created a goofy, grinning, yet disturbing face on his.

Lilly wanted one that looked something like a tattoo.

I just drew whatever came to me, and it is unlike any I've ever carved.

When it got dark we lit the candles inside them to see what they would look like. Mine and Sean's didn't show up so well in the picture, but they do look cool in person.

Green and growing things

I loved this little Hallmark Jack-O-Lantern. I'll probably
pot this plant into a different one after Halloween. I think
this is actually a candy dish. 

I love to grow things, so a month or so ago when I found house plants for 50 cents at the thrift store I just couldn't walk away. The poor things were potted in solid mud. I bought all of them, and I think there were about six pots. Some large, some small, some dying, some hanging on to life.

Once I got them here I realized I didn't have enough pots for them. Back to the thrift store and Goodwill I went searching for just the right sized pots. I found quite a few, but I also found some Halloween and fall decorations that could work as pots.

This is another Goodwill find.

This one just cracks me up. It was the perfect
plant to put in this pot, too.

Some of the pots were too crowded, so I separated the plants. Some of them had no root system, so those I put in water. I ended up with about 12 or 13 plants. I filled the pots with healthy potting soil, watered them, and let them sit outside for some sunshine.
Chuck asked where I planned on putting them. Some I brought in and fashioned a plant shelf upstairs in our office area. For the time being I just left a lot of them in the pots outside because the weather was still warm enough.

And then I read Meag's class newsletter (Sean's teacher) and she asked if anyone had extra house plants they would like to donate to the classroom to make it more cozy. I gave quite a few. I also gave her the ones I had in water so the kids could see how long it takes for them to develop roots.

There are a couple more that I kept and have in our office. They've already grown so much! I love having plants all over the house.

This one has doubled in size in just a month sitting
on the window sill of our office.

Cake. It was my birthday

Last week we celebrated my birthday. It was a great day. I taught Godly Play in the morning, and as usual had a great morning with the children. Chuck met me for the late service, and then we went to pick up a few things at the local grocery store, where I also picked out a cake.
I'm supposed to be getting in touch with a local artisan to maybe get a pair of custom made boots. If it works out I think they'll look awesome. I'm starting to wonder if it would work. They would be made of felted alpaca wool. If I get them I'll definitely post a pic.

The cake I chose was a chocolate tuxedo cake. Very yummy.

I'm always thinking of more photo opps after the fact. I didn't get a picture of myself that day. Should have.  We need more cameras in this family so we can get other perspectives.
Sean loves to take pictures, and he does have a camera. He rarely remembers it, though.

I'm a photog loser

Yesterday was the annual Farm Tour in our neck of the woods, and we invited Sean's teacher Meag to join us. She is such a great person. We totally clicked the first time we met. I mentioned it to her last year, after the fact, and she seemed really interested.

It was gray and rainy all day. She wore some beautiful wellies, and it made me wish for my old pair. I haven't replaced them yet, but she inspired me to start searching.

So the title of this post is photog loser, and it's because I failed to charge my camera battery ahead of time, and even though there was a little bit of battery power I failed.  (That's a long sentence, but I'm still sick and I don't have the energy to clean it up.) I took only one picture myself. Sean  grabbed the camera and got a few shots at the Fiber Arts Festival. He loves attending that event. We've been to it every year.

Chuck took us to a farm closest to our house first, and we got some good information about grapes, elderberry bushes/trees, and greenhouses. We also learned a bit about bee keeping, because the lady there is our local bee lady. Almost all of her bees have died, but she is hoping to save one hive.

From there we went to the Lavender Farm. We bought a couple of starts, and I bought a fresh bundle of lavender and a sachet. With any luck we'll have beautiful lavender next year.

We made our way to the Fiber Arts Festival and ended the tour there. There were so many things to see. Sean found a nice knitted wool beanie that he just couldn't live without. I saw a lot of things I'd love to have, but they weren't in my price range.

After our tour we came home and picked huckleberries in the back yard for Meag to take home. She stayed for dinner, and Chuck made a beautiful seafood feast of salmon, crab, and geoduck. All local, all gifts, or harvested ourselves. It was delicious.

It was a full day of fun!