Oregon State Parks had a celebration commemorating the first park that was donated, 100 years ago. Rob was asked to barbecue for the event. I was asked to hand food out.
It rained. That was not really a surprise. We do live in Oregon:). There was another couple, the park hosts, who helped at our station, as well.
The organizer made it easy, and had him do hot dogs. We served them with chips and packages of condiments in a little paper boat. There were also Oregon State Park birthday cupcakes in our area, and a huge cake and more cupcakes in another area. She got all the supplies and had the park rangers put up tarps and tables and all we had to do was show up and deal with the food.
I got to walk around a little and enjoyed the classic car show. They had various booths set up all around the park. One was recreation through the ages and had a mini frisbee golf course, croquet, and nerf sports set up. I wasn’t there when children were actually playing on the games, but I’m sure they had a blast between rain showers.
There were speeches, a birthday song for Oregon, a huge cake, and they even found several descendants of the lady who donated this first state park in 1922 and had them take part in the ceremonies. I did not listen to those speeches, as I was at the hot dog station, but Patsy did and said they were nice.
Rob and I had a lot of fun. We have benefitted so much from the Oregon State Parks through the years and it felt good to be able to give back a little. I talked to some people I have never met before, went to a state park I had never visited, and found out about another place I’d like to visit that isn’t too far from home. They gave us a pin and a picnic blanket as a thank-you gift.
I cooked basic foods this week, and focused on using up any leftover party food.
I just finished making a huge batch of refried beans. They are in old cottage cheese cartons, cooling on the counter so I can freeze them. I’ve had to buy a few cans lately. Although they are not expensive, making them is even less expensive, and we love all the peppers and onions I add in. I’m also still working on the 50 pound bag of pinto beans Rob got at the beginning of Covid. At that point, there were shortages, and it was 50 pounds, or nothing, and he took the big bag. It was only about $22, if I remember correctly, and that’s a lot of chili and refried beans! I’m doing chili next.
Rob worked in the greenhouse. It’s really getting funny. Now that the word is out that he enjoys growing dahlias, he continues to be given dahlias, dahlias and more dahlias. He planted another bag full someone gave him. We have many, many plants in the back of the garden, the side of the shop, the front of the house, and anywhere else we could fit some in. It is going to be gorgeous around here in a few months.
He started me some head lettuce, which was promptly chewed off by bugs or slugs, so he started some more. There is a succession planting of cabbage and broccoli growing in there, as well. I worked several hours weeding and hoeing in the garden until it started raining again and became too muddy. I re-planted a couple of things that didn’t come up.
I have been very pleased with the germination of Rob’s home-saved seeds. This is something he has only been doing for the past 2-3 years, and he knows he is still learning. All of our pole beans, both Blue Lake and Purple/Violet Podded have come up very well from saved seeds. We still buy seeds–lots and lots of seeds, but it’s so nice to be able to cut that down whenever we can. It’s also a skill he enjoys learning.
We were given a pickup load of chopped, split wood. We are very excited to have it and will be stacking it up in the back for next winter’s fires. There will be more to come, and that’s exciting, as well.
My lettuce planted in the garden had the same issue of being chewed off, so I started some in pots, but they’ve yet to come up. This is the first year I’ve tried to do more succession planting of lettuce, so we’ll see. It’s getting very dry here. What a blessing to get the gifted firewood. My husband also bought 50# of pintos recently. I love the idea of making refried beans with some!
I love to put whatever frozen peppers from last summer’s garden into the crockpot, along with some onion. The refried beans end up slightly spicy, if I add some jalapeños to the mix. We love them that way. My onions are in very sad shape, so Rob dried most of them, and I’m frantically using up the sad and sorry ones that are still left! They want to grow. This was a good way to use several.
Hi Becky,
..that’s a good idea to re-use the containers…and the refried beans made in a batch is a good idea too…
~Have a lovely day!
You, too! I have a couple of boxes with emptied cartons in them. When I send food to people, I start there, before getting into my purchased Dollar Store containers. I freeze things in them, and send home leftovers from family parties. Very handy to have around!
Please send some of your rain down to us, here in so. Calif.! We need it!
Sounds like the rain didn’t spoil the State Parks party. : )
I wish I could! Although I think there would have been more people on a sunny day, there were plenty that turned up. There were even groups of bike riders that came through. People here are pretty used to rain.
Hi Becky,
…that looks like a really fun event…I like a little bit of rain on a camping trip…snuggling inside the tent just listening to the patter on the tent…and I like the idea of batch cooking refried beans…I need to do that…
~Have a lovely day!
We just like our refried beans so well, compared to the ones in the can. For one thing, I make them thinner–mine cannot hold the can shape on their own:)
We’ve had a bit of rain here in Colorado; last summer it rained the whole time of our camping trip! Yikes–that was cut short. Becky, how long do dried beans last? Are you having to cook them lo!nger now?
I was super late getting my greens in–I hope they do okay. But the green beans and squash are okay. My 19 yer old decided to plant a bunch of beets and lettuce, and hers are actually coming up well. I’m glad she’s getting the gardening bug– 🙂
These dried beans are only a couple of years old, so I’m having no trouble with them. I do know that if I keep them for a long, long time, such as 10 years, they do get hard and tough. Then, I need to soak them for a long time (a couple of days) and cook for a long time with lots of water. I’ve had some that are hard to soften before, but never had any that zi couldn’t soften with time and patience.