A small dilemma

Yep, it's been cold....

cold enough to make this cute little metal bird that adorns my birdbath look like there is a walrus in his genetic background. He was just too adorable to resist.

Back to the knitting. I was able to get some practice in yesterday but I'm having a bit of dilemma with it. Basically, with all the crochet orders I've been doing I've only had time to knit in the evening and for only maybe an hour. When I am next able to pick it up I haven't gotten very far so I rip it out, cast on and knit again. Yep, I start all over. But this time I was getting pretty comfortable with things. Tension was decent and I loved the yarn I was working with (Lamb's Pride). I got this far

 

and then took a break to have dinner with some wonderful friends. Five hours later and I was back at it. Now it looks like this

and I really can't decide if I should rip it out or continue on. I don't think it looks half shabby for a newbie knitter but then again right now it's all about the practice and each time I rip out I get to practice casting on. Hmmm. Anyone out there with wise words of wisdom of what I should do?

Preparing for Cinnamon Roll Burnout

Was able to get a few things done today that I had been putting off, finishing a crochet hat order was among them. Felt so great to be done, now I no longer feel any guilt when I pick up the knitting needles to practice my knit stitch. But before I could pick up those needles, even before I actually finished the hat I needed to get a handle on something else, give a little practice run to something that I needed to perfect again.
Yep it's that time of year again. The time when I become tired of cinnamon rolls. Who would have thought that could even be possible. (I've never asked a Cinnabon employee but I'm sure it's possible somewhere in their universe.)
The end of January it is my job as a member of this family to make a minimum of four batches of cinnamon rolls and upwards of 6 batches.
See, every January the small family business conducts the annual spawning of the trout fish that we raise. In order to get this done Mt. Hood Community College has students in a fisheries class come to The Ranch and do all of the spawning of the fish for us as part of their educational process, a working field trip of sorts.
Students. Students of every age. Students and instructors that stand outside, some with waders on, and net fish out of a cold pond to spawn. There is a lot of water involved and sometimes the weather conditions of the day are really less than ideal. That is where we come in. After arrival and before they are sent out in the cold wet conditions they are served hot beverages or milk and warm cinnamon rolls. Someone needs to make those rolls. For years my mother in law was the cinnamon roll maker in the family. She slaved over batch after batch of those puppies. All made from scratch. Several years back, when she took over running the main operation I took over the duties of making the cinnamon rolls and...I cheat. Oh do I cheat. Huge bowls of bread dough were kneaded by my mother in law's hands. Hours of mixing and kneading and rolling and rising and baking. Me? Ok, it's a minor cheat but it saves me a lot of time. I use my KitchenAid mixer. And although this is much more efficient and helps immensely I still feel like a cheater. But I digress.
The last few times I've made cinnamon rolls I've felt they are anything but stellar. I still got compliments but I just felt that they weren't quite up to a level that I deemed a great quality. And the batches that I made within the last few months...flops (which my dad confirmed, and I consider him a good judge in the baked goods department). I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. And really it doesn't matter. I think I have it figured out, but I've also switched up recipes. And I can say at this point I'm so glad that I did. (Over kneading btw, that's what the problem was...oh and adding too much flour.)

Kept my eyes on the prize with this one and wasn't disappointed at all. No frosting, just a gooey caramel like coating on the bottom of the pan. Let's just say after delivering some to my parents (to get my dads approval) and the three of us diving in there's not much left. These are Fran's Cinnamon Rolls and they are so good.
Tomorrow's blog post: How To Dust Off Your Treadmill

My Hump Day

Production. I have tried to be productive. In my round about, stall until your eyes twitch, put off until whatever you've put off grows another life form on it's back kind of way. I'm slowly making progress on some crochet orders that I need to have in the mail by this Friday and I've picked my way slowly through my practice knitting. The knit stitch, that is all thank you very much. I've learned from past experience that if I don't learn knitting step by baby step and learn each thing precisely I'm bound to give up within a few days. Tonight's schedule, more practice of the knit stitch. This I shall conquer!

Over the weekend we were able to go for those walks that we had been longing to get out and take. Wow, the fresh air was so...well refreshing in a word. It was great to be outside for an extended period of time doing something other than chores. The first walk was on Saturday and it involved me being lead to within 25 feet of a very large bull elk. (By large I mean a 4-5 point, which my husband likes to point out that since he wasn't witness it must have been a spike.) Now that was breath-taking! We'd seen sign that there were some hanging around on the property, and I'd come across one last year while riding the quad with my son and nephew but this was something else entirely. Husband and son had fallen  back, trimming branches on the trail while the dog and I moved on. She caught a scent and I started following her, talking to her and encouraging her tracking (which isn't what I normally do too much but I just had a feeling) and sure enough the next thing I know an bull elk stands up in the trees, whirls around and runs off through the woods. Spectacular! Why no photo you say? Of course it's one of the times that I just couldn't be bothered to bring my camera. Figures.

A busy week that feels like it's creeping by. I could have sworn when I got up this morning that today is Thursday. What? What's that you say? It's Wednesday? Hump Day? Nooo, it can't be. Can you tell I'm ready for this week to end? I really am not sure why either. Just looking forward to the weekend I suppose.

Our weather warmed up and we had an unseasonably warm spell the last few days. In the low 50's and pouring rain. Now? Well, right now our son is out playing in the snow by yard and porch light while I make dinner and we wait for his dad to get home. Nice! Woke up to it being 50 degrees this morning to it hovering around 33 this afternoon. I love it. Don't get it nearly enough nor long enough.

Dinner, well nothing exciting to see here folks, move along. But dessert? Well, to redeem myself over a dinner that fails miserably in the spectacular department I decided that a little taste of summer was in order. You know, to celebrate the snow falling. Peach Crisp. Mmmm it smells so incredible in here right now. The other option would have been blackberry pie, let's just say I'm hoping for another snow fall soon.

(As a side note this is the worst dessert photo ever in the history of photo's. But, I know that the first bite will console me and by the time I'm done licking my plate washing this dish I won't even be able to recall why I took the photo in the first place.)

Resolutions

That's it! I'm back. I miss writing and even though I didn't do much with this blog I'm back to give it another go. An honest to goodness shot at being something incredible, and if not that then at least an outlet for myself.

January is my month to learn knitting. Granted, I'm sure it will take a lot longer than one month to learn it all but I'm determined to knit everyday (even if it's only 2 stitches!) and get the basics down by January's end. I practiced the long tail cast on last night. Baby steps.

The weather is cold but dry and crisp. Perfect for walks and hikes. Hoping to get out there and really hit some trails, get the blood pumping through these veins! Went out and walked The Ranch with the family the last two days and missed being out there today; but alas town called and took up most of the daylight hours. Hopefully the dog and I'll make it out to the trails tomorrow.

This post is weak but I am determined. If I waited until I had just the right thing to say or the best shot photograph to post it wouldn't get done, as history of this blog is testament. So hang on, I'm sure there will be some bumps, but sit back and enjoy the ride!

How much wood could a Wood Chuck chuck...

Clink clank clunk goes the dryer.

I'm trying to catch up on my laundry after two days of slacking in that department. Although I must give myself the benefit of the doubt there and blame the fact that we spent our weekend falling, pulling & piling logs for our firewood. A bit hard to do any laundry while your not home.

Banning taught me last weekend how to run the wench on our tractor and how to set a choker. It worked out exceptionally well for both of us. He could be busy in one area falling trees and removing the limbs while I was pulling the logs to a small landing site and piling them up to be cut and split into firewood later. I'm not sure how many women would feel this way, but it makes me feel useful that I can help my man with the wood. I used to hate sitting there watching him cut and split the wood so I could load it and stack it. We now have a wood splitter that his parents are good enough to share with us. I'm able to do so much more then stand there, now I can split the wood while he cuts and the whole process moves much quicker. Now that I can pull the longs with the tractor it moves even faster. Thank goodness he still trusts me enough to run that tractor! (But that's a story for another time for those who don't know it already lol.)

We almost literally dragged ourselves into the house last night. Our little guy is camping with my parents so we decided to make a full day of the firewood work. We cut, pulled and piled up those logs until it was dark enough that it really wasn't safe to do so then called it a night, it was almost 8 p.m. by this point. I knew we'd been working hard (getting up and down off the tractor to set and unset a choker is a pretty repetitive job) and Banning's face was covered in dirt. Well hello, he was the one tramping around the woods falling trees and delimbing them so I really wasn't surprised to see how filthy with dust he was. But I was surprised when I looked in the bathroom mirror and realized I was just as dirt riddled as him! Whew, that shower felt soooo good. And so did the bed that we crawled into last night.

No rest for the weary, he's at work today and I'm catching up on laundry and house work...we'll be back out cutting wood and getting gritty again next weekend, it's a necessary evil at our house.

Tangy cranberry goodness!

Today I've fished out the last of my frozen cranberries and canned cranberry sauce! Yum yum. My husband will eat this out of the jar like it's some kind of dessert, and he's not too far off in my opinion!

We are fortunate to live only a few hours away from the Washington coast. Some years back I found out that Ocean Spray owns cranberry bogs down there! That was it, I was on it! A friend and I took a road trip and ended up here: Cranberry Museum What a wonderful little place. Take yourself on a self guided walking tour during the month of October and you'll be able to watch the cranberry harvest. The gift shop is full of all sorts of goodies from cranberry soap, cranberry cookbooks, cranberry vine wreaths and low and behold fresh cranberries to purchase...by the pound!! I dove in and brought home a box!! It was a big box!! But the wonderful thing about cranberries is that they keep in the freezer...a long time! This worked out wonderful for me, I could make homemade cranberry sauce at my leisure!

We've made it a bi-annual trip (well almost, haven't been back in approx 3 yrs) but am going to set aside time this year to make that road trip happen again!

So, today I pulled the last few bags of those berries out and canned them up.

Cooking them down

a bit wrinkled from being frozen but that doesn't affect the taste at all

ready to add the lids and process

so nice when the water boils right away!

the end result...love the sound of lids 'popping'!!

I also have a recipe that I've made a few times in the fall. My husband has taken it to work and shared it with 'the guys' and they all make requests for it lol. It's a orange/cranberry bread and it's fabulous. You can find the recipe here: Taste of Home - Orange Cranberry Bread let me know if you try it!! Oh, and I highly recommend using a food processor to chop the cranberries if you have one.

Recollections...

I'm not sure what it is about this time of year but it makes me nostalgic for some reason. Maybe it's the harvesting of the garden and canning that my parents used to do. The crisp mornings, last of the sleeping in before the dreaded start of the school year. Yet, there was also much anticipation in that too. Our middle school used to post a class list on the front doors a week or two before school started and we'd eagerly ride down there with our parents and see who our teacher was and which of our friends we'd be having class with. Or once we entered high school and suffered the anxiety of waiting for the mailman to bring the envelope that held our class schedule. Ugh, talk about misery! I miss those days looking back on them now.

There are many things I miss from my childhood. Including the days of walking barefoot in the garden, hiding in the rows of the tall corn and digging my toes into the cool rich soil. Pulling carrots out to munch on after just a quick rinse of the garden hose....those carrots had the sweetest flavor!

Mom spent hours in the kitchen cutting and canning pears and peaches for the winter months. When the season was over the shelf in the cold dank cellar would be filled with the goodness of those fruits.

My mother in laws garden went crazy this year! Last year it was such a big disappointment that we were both so discouraged, but at the same time very determined that it would do better this year! Well, this spring I severely pulled muscles in my neck and was not able to help her plant or weed for most of the summer. Now it's rich and ready for the picking and I'm feeling guilty each time I receive the wonderful fresh vegetables that she labored over. But she's such a sharing person and I'm grateful for that to no end. AND I have vowed not to injure myself next spring and help her plant another bumper crop!

So on these mornings, while I'm sipping my coffee and planning a day of preserving fruits & veggies for my family I'm also counting down the days until my son starts his first year of full days at school. Then I smile as I remember a childhood that wasn't always easy but provided me with happy memories that I'm able to share with him.

Salsa 2009