Author Archives: Melissa

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!

 

Another Cheap Trick – A Pretty Cool Boat Seat

Posted on by

I can’t take any credit for this cool trick. When Mike and I went to Vancouver a couple of weeks ago to look at boats, we looked at a 1971 Nautor Swan 40. I’ve added a boat review for that boat here. While that didn’t turn out to be the boat for us, I noticed the owner of this boat had a very cleverly done seat on the foredeck, close to the mast. I tucked this idea away for future reference and to share with readers.

It even has matching canvas, which totally makes sense considering how nicely kept this boat is.

He showed me that the seat could be placed on any winch, as the connector was basically the same as a winch handle.  I can totally see how useful this trick is! Sometimes you just want to sit on deck in a proper seat rather than on the deck itself. And this can be removed and stored away when you don’t need it. Wish I could have thought of it myself, but thanks, Swan owner, for this excellent trick. I hope you sell your beautiful boat soon.

Seems straight forward enough, which is how all the best ideas seem to work.