Spring Rain & Cookie Baking

Volunteer Forget Me Nots

It was a long weekend here trying to get things working and ready for the spring planting.  Every year there is new issues to deal with with the sprinkler system.  I don't think there has ever been a year where some parts don't have to be replaced and this year was no exception.  Fortunately most of the system runs along the fences so there is no digging involved.  That is with the exception of the run that has to cross the driveway and lo and behold it decided to break this year so this year digging was involved with the repairs.  So on Saturday we got the line dug up and repaired.  All is well right?  Well....I put in a new digital sprinkler controller last spring and (you guessed it) it decided to wig out and isn't working.  It's one of those dicey things where it's on then it's not then it's on again.  Of course it's a week or so off of warranty.  The one it replaced lasted 15 years....To say the next cliche that comes to mind would smack too much of turning into my mother so I will let you fill in that blank!

Today it's raining.  I'm glad as my legs are protesting after my digging grass out of the garden rows yesterday.  I was trying to hurry so I could get my lettuce seeds planted as this round of wet cool weather moved in for the week.  It rained so hard that I lost my satellite dish for TV so what does one do then?  Why bake of course!  So today I decided to bake one of my favorite cookies - Scottish Oatmeal Shortbread Cookies.  Easy, rich and oh so good with a hot cuppa tea as the rain pours down.

Scottish Oatmeal Shortbread Cookies

1 cup butter (no substitutes)             1/2 c. dark brown sugar - firmly packed
1 tsp. vanilla extract                           1/2 tsp. maple extract
1/2 tsp salt                                            1 3/4 c. unbleached flour
3/4 c. old fashioned oats                    3/4 c. finely chopped walnuts
course sanding sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray  2, 8-inch round cake pans with no stick spray (I use Pam).

Cream together the butter, sugar, salt and extracts.  Add the flour, oats and nuts.  Divide dough in half and press evenly into the two pans.  Score the dough into 8 wedges for breaking after it is baked.  Sprinkle with course sanding sugar and lightly press into the dough.  Bake 25 - 30 minutes until lightly browned.

Cool in pan for 10 min.  Remove carefully to keep from breaking.  Cool completely.  Gently break along scored lines.  Store in an air tight container.

Homestead Anniversary

Thirty two years ago, I quit my job at City Hall in South Lake Tahoe and we moved to Northeastern Washington State.  My new husband was a city boy from Great Neck NY and I had never lived anywhere but in the mountains.  We had been married only 4 months.  We gave up playing music in a rock band on weekends and job security during the Regan recession and headed out with very little money, a contract on an 8 acre tract of forested land with no amenities and set out to build a homestead life.  A little over three weeks after we arrived, Mt. St.Helens erupted and we went from a world of green to living in what felt like a grade B black and white science fiction movie! 

A little help from friends and family

We began by cutting and peeling the logs to build our home.  Every time a tree hit the ground, ash would billow.  It was crazy.  We were living in a tiny 11 x 14 ft  log cabin that my Dad had built before my mom was able to retire and they got their home.  No indoor plumbing.  If you wanted hot water for a shower, you had to burn a fire in the wood cook stove that had pipes that ran through it to heat the hot water tank - even if it was 90 degrees outside.  I had an old six hole wood cook stove on blocks in the yard that had a water jacket and I did all my canning outside - fighting hordes of yellow jackets.

It took almost two years to get  the house to a point where it was able to move into.  By the time we moved in on Christmas Eve we had our first child just learning to walk.  The upstairs wasn't finished yet.  There were no cabinets in the kitchen - just an old metal sink unit and an even older electric stove.  Our only heat was an old Radium wood parlor stove.  Still had no indoor amenities.  It was heaven.  With our waterbed in the living room, our daughters crib and a couple of dressers we were finally able to unpack our stereo and have music again!  It was like waking up in a music store after two years of everything packed away.

We were the original recyclers.  The house was built with the logs we'd cut, peeled, dried, and turned to keep from warping and barn wood that we got from tearing a barn down that was going to be torched in a farmers field.  Now they would have made us tear it down due to restrictions on using used lumber.  I feel so fortunate that we built when we did.

What the house looks like today

What an adventure it's been!  We had a son and 3 years later,  Larry died in 1989 in a traffic accident.  Life moves on.... other relationships, more children, but the homestead lives on and continues to grow.  Gardens, livestock a couple more acres added to the original 8.  It's a grand life!  I couldn't let another April pass without honoring the spirit of this place and my journey here.

Ghosts of Summers Past

All of a sudden spring has sprung in spades!  Our temps have gone from chilly to nearly 80 and now we are heading back down into thunder storms and more normal temps.

For the past two days I have been taking care of all the lush plants that you can see in last years fall picture of my garden that I never got cleaned up last fall due to a very late canning season.  And of course I have to admit that by the end of the season I really don't care if it gets cleaned up or not!  Until...(you guessed it) Spring!!!

Then it's marathon sessions of pine cone picking, needle raking, and dead grass plucking all with the hope that the surprisingly warm temps don't jump start my perennials before I can get the afore mentioned debris off of them.

I think in retrospect, perhaps the fall clean-up is maybe the better idea in the face of all of this - however, we will talk about it again in November....In the meantime I am walking a little bent as doing "downward facing dog" for many hours at a time has taken it's toll on this not yet broken in body - it does take a few weeks until I work out all the kinks.  I think I'm glad it's going to rain and I have an excuse to sit and spin....Oh yeah - Happy Spring everyone!! (or Better late than never???)

Sewing for Tradition

For the past three weeks or so, I have been working on a Christening gown for my niece's new little girl.  I so love doing traditional white work.  I think I must have been Edwardian in my last life as I have such a draw to that type of clothing.

This particular gown had it's issues in that my embroidery machine was having density issues with the designs.  My theory is that it was the solar flairs messing with the magnetics of the computer.  What ever the reason, I ended up having to totally change my original plan and completely embroider the skirt a second time.  Eventually I got all the issues worked out and the gown finally came together.  I also made a slip with lacy trim and ruffle and a bonnet with embroidery on the brim.  I was in such a hurry to get to the shower yesterday that I forgot to photograph either one of them!  There is nothing like sewing with a deadline...

Sleeve detail

The picture on the right shows the sleeve details before I put the sleeve into the dress. It's so difficult to photograph the white on white details.

Skirt lace detail

Rather than gather the sleeves into the lace beading sleeve band, I put in tiny tucks.  The beading lace with the ribbon allows the sleeve to be able to be adjusted to the size of the child.  I do not like elastic on wee ones.

This picture shows more of the detail in the embroidery and lace insertion in the skirt.  The tucks on the bodice are in groups of three signifying the holy trinity - very traditional in a Christening gown.




I have made the gowns for all the girls in the family and some for family friends as well - for all those I love who still honor those family traditions.  I like the idea that those gowns will be kept and passed on like the ceremony they represent.

I respect every persons path to God what ever it may be.  It doesn't matter to me whether I believe the same way or not.  To me, faith is sacred whatever path it chooses to take.  So on this Easter Sunday, I pass on the love of my hands, my time, and my energy and by doing so, honor the sacred in everyone and wish blessings on the new ones.  Those innocent ones that still remember what God looks like.  Happy Easter everyone.  May this springtime ritual enlighten your spirit as the world begins it's new growth of the season.

Baking Nut Bread

The wind has been howling and we have had a deluxe mixed bag of weather to greet us today.  Dark skies, rain, sleet, snow and now a peek of sunshine - the first we have had in a week or more.  I think today is the epitome of April fool's and the joke is definitely on us!  So in order to chase the cold away, I decided to bake a nice nut bread.  Let's face it - there is nothing like carbs to comfort and warm the spirit on such a blustery day. 

When the sun broke through I ran outside to capture the blue sky that lingered for only a few moments before being swallowed up again.  As I came in the front door -breathless from fighting the wind, the smell of the cooling bread assailed my nose and whisked me back to grade school.  Although I  Risk dating myself - when we were kids, the lunch ladies actually cooked us real food in the cafeteria for lunch.  The hallways would smell of baking cinnamon rolls, or pizza made from scratch or taco filling simmering.  Funny how smells can be the catalyst of time travel.  It wasn't the greatest cuisine in the world but it was real food unlike the swill they feed today's children.  I can hear the trays clacking, and the monitor checking the tray before you could dump it's remains and head out to recess.  The salad actually contained leaf lettuce and we used to surmise that some of that lettuce wasn't lettuce at all but aspen tree leaves that they'd somehow managed to sneak into the salad to stretch the budget!  Kids!  But at least we had imagination!  Including how to avoid said "aspen leaf salad" by covertly hiding it in the empty milk carton so we could get past the tray monitor and go outside.  So, despite the weather, it's been a nice trip to Tahoe Valley Elementary School circa 1967 or so.  Here is the recipe so you can do your own time travel.  I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I did.

Nut Bread

Pre-heat oven 350 degrees
Prepare a 12 cup Bundt pan or 2, 9 inch loaf pans by spraying with non-stick cooking spray

1 cup sour milk (1 cup milk with 1 Tbsp vinegar)
4 eggs - slightly beaten
1/2 cup canola oil                                       1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
1/2 cup oat flour (make your own by whirling rolled oats in a blender or food processor)
1/4 cup flax seed meal                               1 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar                                   3 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
3 tsp. baking powder                                2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Combine all dry ingredients and nuts in large mixing bowl.  Add the milk, oil, and eggs.  Mix by hand until well blended making sure there are no dry spots.  Spoon into prepared pan.  Bake 50 - 55 min for tube pan and 40 - 50 min for loaf pans.  Bread is done when a wooden skewer comes out clean.  If top looks like it's getting too brown, you can cover with foil for last 10 min. of baking.  Cool in pan for 10 min.  Then remove from pan and cover with towel until cool.  Enjoy!

Plum Crazy

March had turned out to be a crazy month even for the Pacific Northwest.  This is soon to be the wettest March on record.  For anyone who is familiar with the book "The Illustrated Man"  there is a story about a man who lives on a planet where it always rains.  It rains so much that they have these special pods to take shelter from the constant onslaught of rain.  When the weather gets like this, dark and wet day after day, I think of that story and wonder what it would be like if it never stopped....  Of course, this isn't some distant planet and sooner or later it will stop and the grass will finally pop out and everything will look green again.  In the meantime, it's enough to drive this light starved lady crazy.  But as you know, there is always a silver lining and I have to admit all this moisture is a good thing to make up for our lack of snow in the valleys this winter.  I think about the folks in Colorado, battling unseasonable dry winds and wildfires.  All of a sudden, all this moisture doesn't seem quite so bad.  However, I'd love to be able to package some of it up and send it out, special delivery for the folks who need it so badly.

To pacify myself, I have been spinning some hand painted superwash Merino that I dyed last fall.  This is the last of the superwash that I had dyed - ready to spin into sock yarn.  I love watching the different plum colors flow through my fingers.  But the real happy surprise is how it looks when I finally get it plied into it's final yarn.  How the colors twist into something else is always such a wonderful adventure.

Now - if that elusive sun would just come and visit - a few hours would be appreciated.  Just long enough to slog to the barn and feed without getting soaked to the skin and long enough to haul the pots in from the shed so I can get them washed and ready to start seeds this weekend. But at this writing, the rain is a steady stream pelting the roof making me want to cocoon into my chair with a down throw and a nice book.  But this gal has sewing deadlines to meet so it will have to wait for later.  In the meantime....it's driving me plum crazy!!

Try A Little Kindness

The past couple of days have been a lesson in frustration.  I have been trying to embroider on my embroidery machine and it's been doing all kinds of strange things.  Perhaps it's the magnetics from the solar flares that we've been having this week or maybe it just needs to go in for a good cleaning.  Whatever the reason for it's hijinks the end result was a lot of stress which is something I could do without.  In the end, I had to change what I had planned to something the machine would cooperate with.  By the close of the day, the muscles in my back were tight and screaming at me and I was downright pissy.  Not at all the energy I want to put into my project.  So today I am not going anywhere near the sewing room.

Today, I am going to be kind to myself and have a day of hopefully stress free tasks.   I think most of us are kind to others but not very kind to ourselves.  For some reason we think we have to be hard on ourselves in order to be the best we can be.  Perhaps it's our Puritan roots coming home to roost but that kind of criticism is over rated.  So I think I will indulge myself today by reading my Facebook friend, Richard Twillman's new book on my Kindle - Another Voyage - A Different Dream.  I could use a different voyage than the one I've been on the last couple of days....

In thinking about Kindness this morning, I remembered something that happened to a friend of my daughters when they were going to the Art Institute in Seattle several years ago.  She was a struggling student - a young woman struggling with her sense of self and her place in the world.  Every morning as she was walking to school, there was a homeless man sitting in the same spot.  Every morning he would smile at her and say "Good morning Beautiful" and she would smile back.  When she had enough money she would buy him a coffee and he would always have something uplifting to say. One morning on her way to school, she saw two Police officers where her friend always sat and they were roughly handling his body - you see, he had died in the night.  The girl rushed up to them with tears on her face and protested the rough handling of her friend.  The police officer said "What does it matter to you - he was just some homeless guy!"  and she said to him, "He was a person.  He was a nice person, he deserves better than this!"  but the officer shooed her away telling her to move on.  Kindness Costs Nothing But Love  Anyone can choose kindness.  Anyone can choose to make a difference.  Anyone at all.

            Good Morning Beautiful - Have a wonderful Day!!