Monthly Archives: November 2012

Playing Farmville

Posted on by

Somewhere on this blog I’m sure I have already confessed to being easily bored. It’s true, I like for life to be just a little interesting with fun things to do and new things to learn. Maybe that’s why I like spending weeks on the boat so much; exploring new places and having new adventures just suits me.

Just now we’re at a point in our lives where things are becoming bland. We are truly living life in the ‘beige’ just now.  One kid is grown, one kid is in college, we’ve both been in the same jobs since the Pleistocene.  We’ve lived in this house for almost 13 years and there aren’t any big projects left, only maintenance projects and everyone knows how BORING maintenance is. How many times can I paint molding before I go insane and start throwing things? How many weeds can I pull in a yard this big before I completely lose my mind, especially in the winter when it’s dark and wet constantly. (Are we SURE that Washington isn’t moving further north, say toward Alaska or, maybe the arctic region, or the cold void of space? Because it sure seems that way.)

Our Fran, who was the most beautiful dog to ever live, and who we still miss every day.

Furthermore, in the last year we’ve reduced the size of our family by 3 pets. We’ve lost one cat, adopted out another because she was lonely, and lost our beloved Australian Shepherd, Franny. We are down to one dog, Skippy the Aussie. I know we’re preparing to go cruising by downsizing, but this is ridiculous. I realized that during this phase of the preparations for a life yet to be lived, life is beginning to feel just a little empty. Since we don’t yet have the cruising boat, we needed a project, something to capture our interest and attention; something to entertain us and rip up all my carefully planned gardens. Something to spend money on.  And my sister had just the solution. Chickens.

Andrew loving on a chicken, age 7

Our son, Andrew has wanted chickens for years and I’ve always said ‘no’ because I didn’t want more animals to care for. When he was 12 I gave in partially by getting him a taxidermy chicken, complete with real feathers, for Christmas. It was more expensive than a real chicken. It had a straw nest. He loved it and it lived in his room until very recently, when I discovered mites eating the feathers and it had to go. Fortunately, Clucky lives on forever and ever at this Facebook page created by some of his friends back in high school. They came. They stole the chicken. They took it places and photographed it.

Clucky, being not amused.

Mike also wanted chickens but saw the wisdom in not bringing in more animals than we could handle. And at this point we certainly don’t want to adopt animals that are going to interfere with our cruising plans. So when my sister, Amy, and her husband found out they were moving down to Oregon for 18 months, it just made good sense that we would become foster parents to their 6 little hens while they were away. Perfect! We get to play with chickens, buy them little chicken clothes, keep their nails filed and painted,  and collect eggs. By the time they come back we should be that much further along with our cunning plan and the chickens can go home.

Let the entertainment begin! My idea was to turn the chickens loose in the garden during the winter while most of my perennials are dormant. Weeds never stop sprouting and growing up here so there is a nice crop just awaiting attention from the chickens’ sharp talons. It would be an excellent plan except for one thing. How, exactly, does one get chickens to go where one wants them? We have a yard that is 3/4 acre. I’ll pause in the writing while you try to imagine it. Go to the garden page of this site to give yourself an appropriate visual sense of what we’re dealing with here.

We have tried herding them with sticks and that resulted in a nice game of ‘here we go round the rhododendron bush’ as they deftly ducked under the branches and scattered in all directions. Anyone who says chickens are not smart has never tried to catch one.

A little red hen, ready to run.

Although I originally thought I would be the one to enjoy the chickens most, it’s Mike who has taken to them like a natural farmer. It’s in his blood since he used to raise calves when he was a boy. I, on the other hand, am more distant from my farming ancestors. The chickens actually like him better, too. They eat from his hand. They run from me, looking askance from a far corner of the coop as I offer them tasty morsels. They are not fooled. They know I want them to work for a living.

Mike has spent most of his spare time lately working on chicken projects: a timed light for their little coop, creating areas for storing their little chicken stuff, making portable fencing so we can keep them safely contained in the areas I want worked, making sure they have fresh straw, checking for eggs several times a day and reading about them in a myriad of books he found at the library. His next project is to build a portable coop, using an old garden wagon I was getting ready to give away on Craigslist. See how we shouldn’t be getting rid of stuff? He loves him some little chickens. It’s so cute. Today I received a text message from him during the work day: “Any eggs? Do you have a photo of the coop you can send me?” . Yes. My husband is talking chickens at work.

This photo was taken in the middle of the day. There still wasn’t enough light to get a good, sharp image. People who think they should move to Washington, please take careful note.

So we will be suburban farmers and collect yummy fresh eggs and watch cute birds tear the hell out of my garden for 18 months. Whatever survives wills stay. And they’ll have to stay in the coop come spring because I’m not going to have holes in my hostas weeds or no weeds. I have SOME standards. Andrew will have chickens to cuddle when he’s home, and Skippy will go ballistic knowing there are other animals in his yard and he’s not allowed to get to them. It’s not that I like chaos. Really! It’s just that life is suddenly a little more interesting just now.

Andrew cuddling a chicken, age 20.

 

Tour Along the Columbia River, or, How To Get OUT of the Rain

Posted on by

Thanksgiving has just been celebrated and I know that the main topic of conversation at everyone’s family table this year must surely have centered around the silence that has been the Little Cunning Plan blog lately. Fear not, thankful readers.  We have not yet drowned or gone insane, although there are days when we believe the end times must surely be nigh. High winds and heavy, pelting, disgusting never-ending rain are part and parcel of November in the not-so-pretty-anymore-is-it? Pacific Northwest.  Bring out the dawn simulators, treatment lights, and 5-HTP. Winter is descending. In a previous life I must have been a bear who killed some innocent tourist as it is my karma to be born human and NOT be allowed to hibernate during this most apocalyptic time.

But, nasty weather and fallen limbs aside, we’ve had some actual activity here that might be of interest. There was a trip down to Boardman, Oregon, on the Columbia River. Would I like to travel to the eastern side of the mountains, where there is no rain? Why, yes, thanks! I would! My sister and her family are moving there for 18 months so we took the long drive down to check it out. It didn’t take long to see the town, since it’s one of those towns where if you blink you’ve missed it.

Quite the cute little marina with mostly sailboats! There is a waiting list, of course.

However, they have a lovely marina park and hotel right on the river, complete with a heated outdoor pool and a really great outdoor hot tub. Just what the doctor ordered for this bone cold body. MMMM! The marina is worthy of note due to the price of the slips: $385 for a 35 foot boat. That’s per YEAR! That’s right. $385 per year. It’s killing me. Except that it’s too far from the salt water for me, and there is a waiting list. Still.,..

I liked the River Lodge and Grill in Boardman not only for its terrific pool and hot tub. The managers there must be quite nice people because they personally take care of a colony of feral cats on the property. Upon arrival, guests are greeted by Buddy, a friendly black cat who showed up at the property some years ago.

Buddy, official greeter at the Boardman River Lodge and Grill, who enjoys being petted.

About 6 other cats live in and around the work shed on the property. They are all feral, and some have been there longer than the 7 years these managers have been in residence. There were about 14 cats when they took over the property. They systematically live-trapped each one and had it spayed or neutered at their own expense. Over the years they have been able to find homes for many of them. They installed a cat door leading into the shed, and also a separate structure for the cats to get out of the weather. These cats are well cared for, even though they remain feral and will not approach people.

These cats are too skittish to pet.

Grey kitty will not be petted. He runs away.

Next time I am in Boardman, I will stay at the River Lodge and Grill again. The rooms are nice, the managers are cat lovers, and the hot tub calls my name, even from afar.

On the way home we crossed the river to the Washington side, traveling through the Columbia River Gorge, one of the most scenic areas in America. We stumbled upon this place of worship high on a rock overlooking a winery and the river. I stopped to invoke the will of the sun god. It didn’t work.

Channeling my inner pagan goddess, who is apparently too weak to capture the will of the sun god.

Actually this is a complete replica of Stone Henge, built as a monument to fallen soldiers in WWI. Apparently it’s quite popular, but I had never heard of it.

It’s wine country.

All the muted colors. All the grey.

Another exciting sighting: Big Horn Sheep. You have to look carefully as their camo is better than anything a hunter can wear. Only their white rumps give them away. We saw a herd of about 30 of these. It was my first time seeing them.

And if you look carefully…. aren’t they cool? I love them!

Stay tuned as there will be other news forthcoming, including chickens. Yep, chickens. That’s what’s known as a ‘teaser’, folks.

 

Stocking Up!

Posted on by

Caution: this post is not about sailing. It’s not even about boats except tangentially. This post deals with a subject dear to Steve Yoder’s heart: food. So far, I’ve avoided writing about food because there have been so many other things to write about. But since we’ve hit a lull in the actual ‘sailing’ department due to the usual weather (read: rain)  in the late fall in this part of the country,  my thoughts turn to how I’ve been filling my time and that’s how the title of this post was born.

Late fall is apple time around here and my neighbors have an apple tree that bore an amazing abundance of fruit this year. I also have a crab apple tree that has never seen a better year than this one. I could not let this nature’s bounty go to waste, so out came the canning supplies.

It’s a little bit of a shame to pick them because they look so pretty on the tree.

 My neighbor and I had made applesauce at her place the night before and in return for my help she gave me a huge box of apples from her tree, so I was in the mood for canning. At the end of the day, I had many jars of pretty fruit we can eat all through the season. I made Pickled Crabapples, Crabapple Jelly, Applesauce sweetened with stevia and spiced with Chinese Five Spice (which I discovered tastes AWESOME on apples) and my own invention of Crabapple Jalapeno butter. I’ve included some recipes for those who have bumper crops of apples or crabapples of their own.

Not bad for a day’s work.

In much of the reading I’ve done about voyaging, canning is one skill that comes up often, especially in books that are older. People eat food all over the world, so I don’t think sailing vagabonds still have to can their own food in preparation for a voyage. But there’s no reason I can’t put some of this stuff on Moonrise now. We use our boat as a little getaway whether we leave the dock or not. I like to keep it stocked with food that will keep a long time, even in the winter. That way if mother nature throws us a curve ball and we need to use the boat as a safe shelter (like if a tree is on our house) we are set to go.

Here are some recipes I used. Isn’t the interweb wonderful?

And here’s my latest creation, which is sort of like a recipe.
                                Melissa’s Crabapple Jalapeno Butter
 You make this with the pulp you have left from making the Crabapple Jelly. It just seems like a waste to throw all that crabby appley goodness away.
First, using the cutting blade on the food processor, process the pulp to a fine paste. Add a little apple juice or water to the pulp to make this easier. You will find that the food processor leaves the seeds intact, as well as the hard pieces found inside the apple core.  Next you want to remove these pieces. Process the pulp through a sieve. If, like me, you don’t have a sieve, you can use a hand held wire strainer. Using your fingers, just press the pulp through the strainer and use a spoon or spatula to scrape the sieved fruit off the bottom. It’s messy and fun and you’ll be left with what looks like baby food applesauce. That’s what you want.

This kind of strainer works just fine. Just use fingers to push the pulp through the strainer.

Add sugar to this, to taste. Add a little lemon juice as well, again, to taste.
Add chopped fresh jalapeno peppers. I use the food processor to chop mine, leaving some of the seeds for extra heat. How much you add depends on how hot you want it. We like peppers, so I added three large jalapenos to about 1.5 cups of pulp.
Now you want to cook this down until it’s thick. Make sure you have added enough liquid so that you will not burn the stuff. You should be able to stir it fairly easily but make it more like porridge than like soup. Cook it on medium heat until it’s about 220F, which should allow it to set up a bit. It’s not jelly so don’t worry too much about this. Just cook it down until you like how it looks and it will stand up to spreading on your choice of carbohydrate.
If you want to can this for the future, use the general guidelines for canning jelly.
I’m imagining this fruit butter served with sharp cheese, like a good sharp cheddar, and some decent crackers. Yum! Oh and wine. There should be wine. If I keep some of this on the boat, I’ll be ready for any social occasion!