This week, we enjoyed a brief visit from our niece, Rachel, who has been in Ireland for several months.  She headed back yesterday, and made it safely.  We will miss her (again) but are so happy she gets this opportunity.  She is on a YWAM (Youth With a Mission) base in Ireland, doing an Arts and Media track.  During her time there, she did many things including training, traveling to SE Asia with her group and, among other things, helped make a video for a donut shop, and did a peace walk along the border of Ireland.  The walk was over 200 miles long.  It was very interesting to hear of her adventures.  I don’t even begin to pretend to know all the things she did–our time was too short.  But, we did have a lovely family barbecue in her honor.  It was so much nicer to eat here at our house, vs. a restaurant.  There was so much more time to talk.  Rob barbecued both chicken and steak.  People brought things to share.  Yum!

One of my orchids bloomed.  The bloom is small, but beautiful.  I have another one that looks like it may bloom in time, as well.

Patsy made a bouquet to liven up our outdoor living area for the barbecue.  Our flowers are blooming well in the flowerbeds and the garden is growing madly.  We have tried to trim off the spent blooms to keep the blossoms coming.  We are also watering frequently because it’s been pretty warm.  Thankfully, we have a well for watering, so it doesn’t cost much.

I have cooked many things this week.  I made lasagna, chicken soup, tacos, barbecued chicken and steak, and lots and lots of salad.  I froze a lasagna for later, and also individual servings of both the lasagna and soup for both Rob and I next week.  We had lasagna one day, and tacos another day, then had the leftovers of both today after church.    I cut up a cauliflower and a lot of carrots to make it easy to cook them at mealtime.  I am thinking I will do that more in the fall when I’m working a lot into the evenings because it made it so easy.  I made the sauce for the lasagna from home-canned tomato products, frozen hamburger and a bunch of Swiss Chard I picked from the garden.  I had Patsy make apple crisp from some home-canned apple pie filling.  I am still working on using the remaining items that I have in my canning cupboard.

Rob is taking the camper to help with high school camp, starting on Thursday.  I will be home because Patsy goes to camp tomorrow and returns Friday.  So, I want him to have a couple of small things frozen in the camper that he can just warm up if it’s not convenient for him to go over for the evening meal on any evening.  He has to park about 2-3 blocks away from the group, because that’s where the camper can be hooked up with electricity, water and sewer.  This is adventure camp, and the kids will be rafting, rock climbing, and more.  He will be transporting them to the top of the rafting course, and picking them up at the bottom and things like that.  He will also be helping in the kitchen as needed.  He will NOT be suffering in his air-conditioned camper or in his own camper bed, at night, as the teens will be camping in a school field in tents.  In fact, he is taking his fishing pole, and hopes to fish a bit while taking the kids their lunches, etc., or after he drops them off, or when he picks them up…….or all of the above;)

The garden is producing a lot of lettuce and we are trying to eat it most days.  We have used both of the zucchini the bushes have produced.  There are lots of little ones forming, but I am having some pollination issues, so some are not growing.  We are getting a little broccoli every few days.  The snow peas are done now, and I pulled the bushes.  I have a small baggie of snow peas still in the fridge, and there is another short row that is blooming so I won’t be out for long.  The green beans are making little beans–it will only be a few days now until I eat some.  I will also can a lot soon. The 3 tiny tomatoes were eaten with tacos today.  I was able to plant more seeds in all of the blank spots that opened up when I pulled out the peas and bolting lettuce.  I figure that anything that can get ripe in 8 weeks will be ready in mid-September.

I’ve been able to take the opportunity this week to get a few things done that were hanging over my head.  I am now done grading and scoring all of the home-shool work from the past year.  I turn the grades in on Tuesday, and the girls will take a test.  Then, I will be able to get busy planning next year’s work.  I’ve done a lot of yard work and weeding in the garden.  We mowed the lawn. (It was a group effort.  Patsy and I took turns pushing the lawn mower on the easy parts and dumping clippings, Rob moved things out of the way, and did the tricky parts). I used the clippings to mulch the blackberries and one area in the flowerbed.  I’ve done a bit of organizing and sorting in the house, although there is much more I had hoped to do.  I may get a little more done this week, but since Jake is coming back from his family vacation tomorrow so I’ll be back to work, and the green beans are going to need to be canned before long, I will do what I can do.  I plan to take a small area each day and see if I can get it organized.  The garage is next on my list.  It’s become a dumping ground again and the food shelves have been stirred into disarray by hungry bears (I’m sure that’s who did it!)

We did quite a few more things this week, like visit Harnet, celebrate the 4th, and enjoy the garden.  How did your week go?

 

What do you do after a couple of weeks like I’ve had lately?  You head for the beach–that’s what!!  You don’t even go shopping.  You just throw a bunch of food that you have on hand into the camper, along with some clothes, and you drive away–right out of the heat wave and into the cool, marine air.

You go fishing in a lake that is in the campground.  You catch 0 fish.  Patsy and Rob do quite well.

You go crabbing off a bridge for hours and hours.

Thanks to a kind man who drove by, and offered  old clams and clam guts from his freezer that he was cleaning, and a little luck, you catch 2 keepers (males over a certain length) when most others on the bridge are not getting any.

You watch elk wander through the town when you are driving around.  You sit and stare at boats coming into the mouth of the Columbia River from the Pacific Ocean, and, you sleep and sleep and sleep–9 hours one night, a 2 hour nap, and……

Then—1/2 way through the week—THE BOY arrives!  Nap time is over:)

Uncle Rob takes him fishing. “How long do we have to sit here until we get the fish to get on our pole?”

“Not long, if Uncle has anything to do with it!”  The little bass was not big enough to keep, but it was super fun for Jake to catch.  Then he was done.  He went to draw with Patsy.

Sidewalk chalk is fun and frugal, and safe parts of parking lots are a wonderful place to create.

We were at Ft. Steven’s State Park, which is at the upper, left-hand tip of Oregon.  There are a lot of things to do there.  Camping is an economical way for us to get away.  We use our park pass, which we have because we have adopted children from the State of Oregon.  We only have to pay the reservation fee ($6) and gas.  This campground was farther away than sometimes, but we had hoped to clam.  We didn’t get to, but we still had a blast.  The clams were suffering from a kind of toxicity, so no one could dig for them at this time.

There is always food in the camper–I organized the food last spring, and I had stuffed a bit more into the cupboards a couple of weeks ago because I knew we were going to be so busy right before we went this time.  I added some garden produce and frozen items, bought a few items down at the coast, and fed the kids McDonald’s food at times.  We never go through a drive-through in the camper, however, so often pack food for the journey, or drive between meal times.  Sometimes, we can park near a restaurant, but usually we pack food on travel days.

Our fishing and crabbing equipment has been gathered over the years.  We were able to buy another crab trap at the rummage sale, so that was nice.  Rob picks up extra fishing poles and reels at yard sales, or on sale at Bi-Mart or wherever (rarely), and usually gets fishing tackle and bait for birthdays and Father’s Day.  The only thing we had to buy for fishing this week was 1 carton of worms.  We bought some chicken (cheap–88c/lb drumsticks) for crab bait and used the clams from the nice freezer-cleaning man who drove by.

Ja’Ana was busy.  She stayed with her cousin, Alissa, and both girls were junior counsellors at a day camp all week.  Lovana is still working at her job, so she was unavailable.  Patsy was the only child for the first half of the week, and then Jake’s daddy brought him down for the second half of the week.  His family doesn’t usually camp or engage in the same outdoor activities we do, and so our goal was to give him some experiences he does not usually get.  We succeeded.

We went to Battery Russell and  Ft. Stevens itself, which included a military museum. A lot of the historic area had information about WWII, as that was a time when they were really geared up and ready to go in this area.  After the Pearl Harbor attack, there was a real danger that the Japanese would attach the coast, and in fact, there was one time when they did shell a part of the coastline.

We did not do any of the Lewis and Clark activities this trip, although the area is loaded with historic sites.  The famous explorers spent their winter near that area when they were on their epic trip, so there are many things to see.  I’ve been to them before, but they never get boring to me.

We cooked over the fire once or twice and used the stove we got at the rummage sale a couple of times.  The camper is very adequate for cooking, and it got us away from the mosquitoes.  The meals were very simple.  We were not in the mood for elaborate cooking projects this trip.

We were able to use the same old sand toys we’ve had for years.  I added a few digging tools, bought at the Dollar Tree for a total of…..you guessed it…$1.  The historic places were free with the tag that said we were camping at the state park.    Rob took the vacuum sealer and froze the 5 (total) fish.  We ate the crab.

We tried out the propane stove we got at the rummage sale.  It works great!  We used it for frying potatoes and for cooking the crab. I think we paid around $5 or $10–not sure–we got quite a few items, and the prices have blurred together in my mind.   It has been used, but is still in great condition.  Rob is going to set it up in the outdoor room/enclosed porch at our house and I’m going to can on it, since there is only a flat-topped stove at this house and that is not recommended for canning on.

During the evenings, we watched C.D.’s., the kids built Legos, and read books.  We listened to Audio Books on the drives.  A lot of the materials were from the library. Both kids are working toward summer reading prizes.

The kids scattered old pancakes for the seagulls.  We drove out to a place where we could see the boats going in and out of the mouth of the Columbia River.  It was very interesting.  We drove across the bridge between Astoria and Washington state.  It is about 4 miles long and very fun to go across.

I cleaned the outdoor kitchen and did my usual cleaning in the camper at the end of the trip.  I prefer to clean it while it is hooked up to water and sewer, not when I get home.

On Friday morning, we packed it up very early and came home.  Jake was going on vacation with his family, so needed to be back and I had quite a bit to do Friday afternoon.  Rob needed to go up to the camp and get Ja’Ana that evening.

On Saturday, we did a little shopping at Grocery Outlet, I cleaned in the house, worked on laundry and worked in the garden.  I weeded and picked things.  I harvested my first zucchini and my first 2 cherry tomatoes.  They are the Sungold variety and I love them!  I also got lots of lettuce and already ate a salad from it.  I got quite a few raspberries and about a cup of blueberries and a little broccoli.  I harvested quite a few snow peas–a big bag.  I also cut some cilantro. Rob picked a few cherries at my sister’s farm when he went up there on an errand.  My brother-in-law,  Jake’s dad, texted us that he had accidentally forgotten his fruit for their trip on the counter, and asked us to go get it and eat it.  So, now we have some little oranges, a few apples, and some bananas that Rob immediately froze for smoothies.  We are definitely going to get our fruits and veggies this week!  I love this time of year with the garden starting to produce, and fruits growing ripe one by one.  Yum!

It was a week full of simple pleasures, lots of rest, and many fun experiences.  It’s always fun to share something you love with someone you love.  Jake got lots of new experiences and had a ball, as did the rest of us.  And, like always, it did not cost us an arm and a leg.

 

 

 

 

I made 3 batches of jam this week.  One was peach, from some frozen peaches I wanted to use up.  We were out of peach jam, and that is Rob’s favorite, so I just made it when I made the other kinds.

The second kind was strawberry.  Rob bought me a flat of strawberries and I was also able to throw a small handful in the jam from our bushes.

The third kind was berry-rhubarb.  I used the remaining strawberries, rhubarb and about 1 cup of raspberries from our bushes.  It is great.  We got that recipe from the internet ( I just added raspberries to use them and get enough mashed berries), but it’s pretty typical–4 cups berries, 4 cups rhubarb, sugar, and 1 box Sure-Jell pectin.  It turned out really tasty, and I was glad to use those raspberries, rhubarb and every berry from the flat of berries.  I am hoping that as the new strawberry bushes grow throughout the summer, I will get some to freeze by the end of the summer.  It’s easy to put even a small handful in a carton and add to it as berries ripen.

We enjoyed the company of the nieces and nephew for 4 days and nights while their parents went to an out-of-town wedding.  We went to a park, drove the big girls around to activities they were signed up for or wanted to attend, and spent hours helping with a huge rummage sale at the church.  We had many more frugal, fun activities planned, but ran out of time.

The rummage sale occupied much of our time during the last few days.  Items were collected over the past few weeks by the youth pastor and his various crews, including Ja’Ana and Alissa.  Those 2 spent all day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday helping out.  We were more limited in our time, as we had the younger ones to care for, but did spend significant time each day helping out.  The weather cooperated.  It was sunny, which was far better than rainy.  In fact, it almost went overboard:) Every day was warmer and warmer, and by Saturday, the weather was actually super hot (around 100), which made the last day and clean-up a bit difficult.  There were so many donated items that the gym was full of tables, and an area about as large was full in the parking lot.  So, as you can imagine, there were thousands of items to sort, price, set out, and much to clean up in the end.  Then there were the workers (mostly teens) to feed, direct and keep hydrated. Thankfully, it was well organized and there were many adult leaders who were helping out in various ways.   There were cases of water which we constantly pressed on the kids.  One day, Rob went down to Taco Bell during the afternoon hours and grabbed a whole box of the $1 (super Happy Hour sale) slushies and handed them out.  We sure didn’t want any teens or adults getting sick from the heat.  By Saturday night, I’ll admit, I was pretty tired!  But, those teens!  There was a group that stayed until the bitter end yesterday afternoon, and they decided to go swimming.  So, they rounded up a place to go, and cooled off for a couple of hours.  Got to love that energy:)

The kids have been earning money in various ways so they can go to Mexico on a mission trip in August.  This was a big project, and I haven’t heard the final word on how much money they earned at this sale, but at last count, it was over $6,000.  I’m excited to hear the final count!

In the meanwhile, the garden continues to grow nicely.  Rob did get in there and till one morning, and we put up a little trellis for the pole beans to climb.  Half of these are Purple-podded pole beans and the other half are Blue Lake.  Pole beans will produce until frost, which will mean we will have fresh beans for a long time and I won’t have to can as many.

We’ve been eating lettuce frequently and I picked a gallon of snow peas.  I harvested a little broccoli and made broccoli soup.  There have been a few raspberries each day.

Throughout the busy, busy week, we were able to pack picnics and cook at home.  I used my Instant Pot to make spaghetti sauce from scratch one busy night and we ate that and the soup several times.  We also had sandwiches frequently.  By Saturday night, Rob grabbed a little Chinese food for me, and Taco Bell for the others.  I was too tired to cook. I was even too tired to cut the crust off of Michaela’s peanut butter sandwich.  I cut it into quarters and I told her she had to bite out the middle and get rid of the crust herself.  (You have to understand autism to understand that that is a big deal to her–but I was proud of her–she went with the flow)  We got back to our house around 10, and I then slept like a rock and am now cheerful and ready for a new day!  It was a good week.