Weekend in Capital Hill

Since our friends Tara and Jason have been officially granted River Ford Farm frequent visitors club status, we thought it only fair that we visit them in Seattle. Corinne has so many family in Seattle that we really have to make a concerted effort to spend time with friends... so we didn't tell her family we were coming. Actually, some of them will probably find out from this post that we were there. ;)

We're all big foodies, so we knew food would play a prominent role in this trip. We arrived on Friday afternoon, and the first place we went was Armandino's Salumi. We just made it there on time, with only 15 minutes to spare before they closed; we also managed to buy them out of all the cured meats they had left! Yum.

Over the next two days, we gorged ourselves, eating in and eating out. The outdoor stops included some real winners. Tilth Restaurant, one of the only Oregon Tilth certified restaurants in the country, was definitely a highlight. They serve all of their dishes in either a "large" plate or "small" plate version, and the small plate is just about half the size and price of the big one. Go figure!

They also introduced us to my new favorite coffee shop: Victrola Coffee on Capital Hill in Seattle. The key: they make their own whipped cream for their mochas.

Another stop was the The Original Pancake House in Ballard (which actually isn't the original one).

We didn't eat the whole time, though; we spent a good amount of time exploring some of Seattle's incredible parks, including Volunteer Park and Discovery Park. While on the beach at Discovery park, we even saw an old sailing boat where all of the crew were wearing red hats.

Tara and Jason won't be living in Seattle much longer (boo-hoo!), but we sure are glad that they were here at all! Here's to visiting you at your next destination!



- Mike (& Corinne)

Last Day of Snowboarding

Well, it looks like our snowboarding season is ending. We still have 3x left on our 10x times pass, and Mt Hood Meadows will be open for at least another 2-3 weeks, but with all of the travel and company we have scheduled for the next month+, I just don't see us being able to make it up to the mountain again. So sad.

The weather was pretty warm for this last visit, and the mountains were covered in "spring snow". Snow in the spring is softer and wetter, due to higher temperatures and more sunlight. Spring snow is fun for us (as beginners) because it runs a bit slower, is pretty forgiving to mistakes, and is soft to land on. We've both gotten quite a bit better this year, so that last bit isn't as important as it used to be. But every little bit helps. ;)

We leave this season with documented evidence of our snowboarding. First, Corinne taking a practice run down the mountain:


Now, a 1st-person perspective, with me holding the camera next to my face:


- Mike (& Corinne)

199/201 = 99.0%

Quick update on our forestation efforts: Two trees missing. 199 left.

- Corinne (& Mike)

Cheese-Making 101

As a "thank you" for letting him turn our garage, followed by our Great Room, into his own personal painting studio, Leif sent us to a cheese making class in Portland. This hands-on class was offered by In Good Taste, a chef's store in the Pearl District in Portland.

The class was hands-on and had a great ratio of teachers to students: there were 13 people taking the class, and including the instructors, kitchen staff, there were at least 5 people attending to us over the course of the ~3 hours. They split the students into 4 groups, and each group made ricotta, mascarpone, and mozzarella cheese. At the end of the evening, the staff had prepared a meal consisting of some of the cheese we had made plus roasted asparagus, poached pears stuffed with mascarpone and dates, and bruschetta. If anyone is looking for cooking classes, we highly recommend In Good Taste!

Overall, soft cheese making is fairly easy; the key is to watch the temperature of the liquid. And if you can find it, use whole milk labeled pasteurized, NOT ultra-pasteurized or UHT (ultra-high temperature), as the ultra-pasteurization process kills some of the flavor. The instructors all recommended getting comfortable making soft cheeses before moving on to try hard cheeses, which use basically the same process as soft cheeses but require more finesse.

We're pretty excited about being able to make our own mozzarella in particular. When summer comes, we'll be harvesting tomatoes and basil from our garden and combining it with our homemade mozzarella and bread for some of the best bruschetta around. We may never leave home!

- Mike (& Corinne)

Another Northwest Convert

It seems more and more people are discovering that the Pacific Northwest is the best place to live. The latest are our friends Jamie & Torsten, who have decided to move to Portland from their current residence in the Boston area. We had dinner in Portland with them on their last trip, and this time they took a break from their house hunting to bring their two daughters to our place for dinner.

While on a walk around the property, the elder daughter - Katja - became enthralled with the deer skull that we found on our property earlier this year. She proceeded to carry the skull around in front of her by the antlers, occasionally making growling sounds and shaking the skull.

But by far the funniest story involves our walk along the river. Both Katja and Marta seem to be at a stage where they enjoy throwing things into the river and watching them float downstream. (Actually, I think I'm at that stage, too... but I digress.) We explained that this river (the White Salmon) flows into the Columbia River, which then flows into the Pacific Ocean. And since they were going to the Oregon Coast later in their trip, they might actually be able to retrieve some of the things she threw into the river. Katja became very excited and decided to throw a small Ponderosa branch into the river to see if she could find it on the beach.

Fast forward to the next day, when Torsten surreptitiously drops a small Ponderosa branch (gathered on our property) on to the beach, followed by a screaming Katja: "I found it!" Kids are so fun (and gullible.)



Somehow we managed to not take any photos of Jamie and Torsten. But since they'll be a lot closer very soon, I'm sure we can make that up on their next trip.

- Mike (& Corinne)

An Orchard Makeover

One item that's been on our "to-do" list since we moved into this place is to prune our orchard. Pruning the trees has a number of benefits, including: improving the structural strength of the trees; improving fruit production on mature trees; and keeping the branches closer to the ground so that they are easier to pick.

As with many things on our property, we don't have a clue how to go about pruning fruit trees. Thankfully, our neighbor Pat coordinated hiring a few workers from the Mt Adams Orchard to do some pruning for a few of us in the neighborhood.

They didn't speak much English, but Pat was there to provide translation. Apparently, one of the first things they said when they arrived was: "Boy, these trees are ugly." They probably hadn't been pruned in 3-4 years, and I guess it really showed. Of course, we didn't know what they were supposed to look like, so they looked fine to us.

Once we agreed on a price, they got right to work. The two of them worked diligently for a total of about 8 hours to get our trees into shape. Hopefully we'll notice a difference! And if anybody needs some fruit tree brush, we now have several substantial piles of it.

Now if we can only keep the coddling moths off of the apples...

We'll now leave you of some great spring photographs Corinne took of our orchard blossoms (plus one of the rhubarb patch).



- Mike (& Corinne)

Easter in Seattle

Easter seemed to sneak up on us this year. We offered to host another family gathering at our place (in another attempt to limit how many trips away from home we take!), but nobody went for it, so we ended up in Seattle for the holiday.

We spent most of Saturday with Reidar and family, seeing the latest improvements and expansions to Superlon, his pipe company in Tacoma; enjoying lunch on the water; and spending some time with him on his boat (in the slip).

Sunday was food day, with Taryn leading the way. We had this incredible grilled lamb with an Indian rub and yogurt sauce, grilled asparagus with prosciutto, roasted potatoes, and a 4-layer cake with lemon curd and mascarpone cheese.

Let's just say that we didn't complain when there were leftovers that we had to take home with us.

- Mike (& Corinne)

Water Weekend

Spring is here, and that means our list of things to do is getting bigger even faster than it was before. For example, Saturday morning we were involved in a "ditch cleaning".

Let me spend a few minutes here talking about "ditches". When we talk about "ditches" in Trout Lake - or in any agricultural area - we are talking about irrigation ditches. An irrigation ditch is essentially a man-made ditch for water to travel, with the purpose of bringing water near or through pieces of land that need irrigation. The "headgate" supplies water to the ditch, either via gravity or a pump; the water then flows downhill through the ditch, being split into multiple channels along the way; individuals divert water from the ditch, again via gravity or a pump, to provide water to their property; at the end of the ditch the water flows back into a natural waterway (stream, river, etc.)

Trout Lake has 6 different, non-intersecting ditches. Each ditch is managed by a ditch company, and each property along the ditch has shares in the ditch. The shares allow each person to use a certain volume of water per year (though the amount used is typically on the honor system). This photo shows our pump, and how we use boards to raise the water level high enough so the pump can pull the water out of the ditch. (This section of ditch is actually our "diversion" and not in the main ditch; it is "diverted" from the main ditch to serve our property and the property directly south of us before ending back in a stream.) It's more complicated than that, but you probably don't care.

There's a lot to know about ditches, and we are certainly no experts. But the point of all of this (and why I brought it up in this particular post) is that every spring you have to clean out the entire length of ditch to remove anything that may block the flow of water: trees that have grown in; branches or logs that may have fallen in; boards that people may have put into the main ditch to raise the level; and beaver dams that inevitably show up every year. Since we're on two ditches, that means two ditch cleanings per year. This Saturday was the first this year, and we bought rubber waders to make it easier. I'll spare you the trauma that we endured in last year's cleaning (everyone else left after ~3 hours and didn't tell us, so we worked for 7), but the cleaning this year lasted only about 2 hours and went pretty smoothly, even though we were 2 of only 4 people who showed up.

We were happy that the cleaning only took two hours, because Donna came down from Seattle to visit the same weekend. While we were out cleaning ditches, she had brunch at Skamania Lodge with some old friends, then we all (including Leif) spent the rest of the day relaxing.

It turned out that irrigation water was not the only water-related activity this weekend, either. Saturday afternoon we lost all running water in our house. This lasted for a couple hours, then the water returned. Shortly thereafter, the water stopped again, then returned again. While we have our own well on our property, it has been capped and inactive since the Glacier Springs Water Association (aka Trout Lake "city water") extended their coverage area to include our property. We called around to our neighbors Tom and Bonnie to see if they were affected, since we share a supply line with them and they would likely be more familiar with the system that we would anyway. It turned out that a nearby underground supply line had been cracked; the combination of wet soil and heavy farm machinery caused compaction that drove a rock into the pipe. The entire south section of the water system had to be shut down until the pipe could be replaced. Thankfully, it only took them until dusk to complete the work, and water was permanently restored.

We spent the remainder of the weekend alternating between the kitchen and the yard. Corinne learned to make the family creme puff recipe, and I was very thankful.

- Mike (& Corinne)

200/201 = 99.5%

I checked on the trees. We lost one. I'm guessing that a gopher was responsible as there is no evidence that the tree ever existed. There is just a blank square of scalped earth with no tree.

I watched a gopher eat a flower last year. The flower kept getting shorter and then just disappeared into the earth. I felt like I was viewing a time-lapsed video sped up and played backwards.

Corinne (& Mike)

Elk on Camera

I guess we didn't have to wait until next year to get some elk photos after all... we ran across the herd again on our drive home from work, and we happened to have a camera in the back seat. So we turned around and drove back to the spot along the road where they were eating. They seemed pretty content to continue lounging in the small clearing by the side of the road, until of course we stopped the car to take photos. At that point, most ran back into the woods, with one left behind as a lookout.

The photos aren't terribly good; we were trying to do take photos quickly, and the light apparently was dimmer than we thought. But at least we have proof!

- Mike (& Corinne)

Planting 201 Ponderosas

A week ago we spent 7 hours over two days preparing part of meadow for our first tree-planting experiment. Now the trees have arrived, and the next step was to put them into the ground.
The weather was perfect for planting - perfect for the trees, that is. The temperature was in the 50s, but most importantly, it was overcast and drizzling all afternoon. The roots on young tree seedlings can dry out very quickly if exposed to sun, heat or dry air, and this day was lacking in all three.

The seedlings we bought were probably 2 years old. Ordered from a local nursery, our trees were stored in a cold storage trailer in Bingen until we were ready to plant. So Corinne drove in to town, picked up the trees, and we were on our way.

There's no magic to planting trees: make a hole deep enough so that there is enough room for the roots without bending them; place the tree in the hole so that the right amount of the stem is exposed (you can usually see where the original soil line was); then fill the hole back up and move on to the next tree.

We borrowed yet another tool from our friends at Underwood Conservation District: a hoedad. A cross between a pick axes and a hoe, the hoedad is specifically designed to make deep, narrow holes in which to quickly plant seedlings. Unfortunately, the only hoedad that UCD had to loan us was a bit short for our task, so each hole took 4-5 swings before the hole was suitably sized.

I would make the hole, then Corinne would follow behind me to plant the tree and replace the soil. We didn't get started until ~4pm on Saturday, and we just managed to finish planting all 201 trees before we lost light, at about 7:30pm. It works out to about 1 minute per tree, which I think is pretty good for our first attempt. (Of course, that doesn't include the site preparation time, which actually took longer.)

Summary:
Site preparation: 7 hours
Planting: 3.5 hours
Total trees planted: 201
Total area planted: ~1/2 acre
Total cost: $86

So far, so good: after 24 hours in the ground, we have 100% survival rate. Between gophers, deer, elk and other assorted wildlife, we'll see how long that lasts.

- Mike (& Corinne)

Presidential Foods

In spite of all of our forestry activities, we did take a few minutes to celebrate the fact that I've lived another year. Birthdays are nothing if not an excuse to eat whatever food you want. So now that I have celebrated my Presidential birthday, I give you a rundown of this year's celebratory foods:

• Home-ground beef chuck hamburgers, with par-cooked bacon ground into the meat, grilled over charcoal. (Leif gets the credit for the bacon-in-the-meat idea)
  
• Chocolate sunken "lava" cakes w/bitter orange ice cream
  
• Chocolate chip cookies (simple but still the best!)
  
• Baked, breaded lemon-caper chicken
  
• Banana cake w/chocolate sour cream frosting

Corinne made all of the desserts, and they were all quite delicious. We also had a small gathering at The Logs where we played pool (I was beaten by a 9-year old!) and enjoyed all things fried. A good time was had by all.

- Mike (& Corinne)

200 Scalps, 1 Dead Deer

Our entire property is under a "Forest Stewardship Plan". Our management plan has a 10 year outlook and delineates the things we plan to do during that 10 years to maintain and improve our forest land. We agree that the ultimate goal of managing our forest is commercial timber harvest; in return, the county taxes our property at the lowest available tax rate, with the idea being that they'll make their money back with excise taxes on the timber when it is sold.

When we purchased the property last January, we were required to submit a management plan to the county. So we took the plan that the Clausens had last written, did some routine updating (average tree diameters and ages, etc.), and submitted this plan. (Read the full story in this post.) And the county promptly rejected it.

Huh? This was a plan that was perfectly acceptable when the Clausens submitted it, and nothing significant in the plan had changed. So what was different? Their objection: not enough of our property was forested.

From Washington RCW 84.33.035:

"Forest land" is synonymous with "designated forest land" and means any parcel of land that is twenty or more acres or multiple parcels of land that are contiguous and total twenty or more acres that is or are devoted primarily to growing and harvesting timber. Designated forest land means the land only and does not include a residential homesite. The term includes land used for incidental uses that are compatible with the growing and harvesting of timber but no more than ten percent of the land may be used for such incidental uses. It also includes the land on which appurtenances necessary for the production, preparation, or sale of the timber products exist in conjunction with land producing these products.

This law hasn't changed recently, so it appears that the only difference between our submission and the Clausens is enforcement of that law. Anyway, the long story short is that we have three years to plant our southern meadow in trees or decide to take that portion of the property out of our management plan (and pay the associated back taxes on it.)

This year we decided to do an experiment in forestry. The biggest cost is not in the trees, it's definitely in the labor. For this first year, we decided that we would do all of the preparation and planting ourselves. So we ordered a small number of Ponderosa Pine seedlings - 200, to be exact - from our friends at the Underwood Conservation District, at a total cost of $80. We borrowed a few of their tools and headed out into our meadow to do some site preparation. Grasses are one of the biggest enemies of young trees; grasses can drink all of the water that falls on an area before that water can get to the tree roots. So the key pre-planting step is to "scalp" the grass off of the ground around the area where you plan to plant a seedling. Then repeat 199 more times.

The weather was great for working outside, so we took our time. We opted for a "pseudo-random" planting of about 8-12 feet spacing, rather than more of the exacting rows in which our current trees are planted. In all, it took us about 5 hours over 2 days to scalp the grass from 200 circles, including the time we spent relaxing on the ground. Estimating that each scalped section is a 2.5' square, we scalped over 1200 sq ft of ground. We plan to pick up and plant the trees next weekend.

We'll now leave you with some shots of the remains of a deer. We first encountered this skeleton last November when it was considerably more "fresh" (i.e. not yet entirely a skeleton), but he has since been picked clean. Many of the other bones - leg, vertebrae - are still in the field as well.

- Mike (& Corinne)

Deer! No, Elk - Lots of Elk!

Watching out for animals on our drive back and forth from home is a requirement. There is no question in my mind that the wildlife outnumber the people; we are definitely in their territory and not the other way around. With deer being the most frequently sighted along the road, I was not surprised when I heard:

Deer!

shouted from the passenger seat last evening. But it was quickly followed by:

No, Elk - lots of Elk!

It's quite interesting watching the wildlife change with the seasons. During the winter all of the animals shift down in elevation; the deer which would normally hang out at our house (in our garden) migrate down the mountain towards the river, in order to find some ground not covered in snow. So the elk, of course, move down into our area.

While we've seen elk before, in the past they have been off in the distance, or covered by the dark of night; this time they were right in front of our car, crossing the road. Let me tell you: they are some big animals, at somewhere between 500-700 pounds. (For a reminder of what they can do, see our Mending Fences post.)

Anyway, back to the story. As we approached the crossing herd, the animals that had already crossed the road quickly continued into the woods, and the ones that hadn't yet crossed TURNED AROUND and went back into the woods. And that's the moment that I knew elk were significantly smarter than deer.

Now that the warm weather is returning, that may be our last elk sighting as they move back up Mt Adams to the colder weather. One of these days we'll have our camera with us and at the ready when we spot them. Maybe next year.

- Mike (& Corinne)

Preparing for Spring

Spring has spring, or at least that's what it feels like this weekend. The temperatures climbed into the 60s this week, and most of the snow surrounding the house has melted. While we're excited for spring to arrive - as long as we still have the option to drive to Mt Hood for some snowboarding! - the snow is no longer around to cover up the multitude of tasks spring has waiting for us.

The first glaring task: raking leaves. We kinda got a bit lazy last fall, and so we never did rake the leaves from any of the areas around the house. Now that the snow has melted, this was the perfect opportunity to clean up before the grass is stunted. We only managed to get about a third finished in the three or so hours before we exhausted ourselves, but it's a good start. The leaves we did clean up went straight into the garden; some will be matted down along the paths between the beds, and others will be turned in a few weeks before planting.

All I can say is: thank goodness most of our trees are evergreens.

It's nice to be able to spend time outside after winter, to smell the scents of the new season and enjoy the cool breezes and warm sun. It's a transition period, with plenty of signs of the seasons past and what is to come.

To the left, the lone hazelnut tree in our orchard holds on to its catkins produced in the fall; it doesn't have a mate, so unfortunately doesn't produce any nuts.

And on the right, the first signs of the bulbs we planted begin to poke through soil and open their petals. We originally though this was a cluster of muscari (grape hyacinth), but now that it has opened more it looks like something else.

- Mike (& Corinne)

The Fiddle Concert

On a recent trip to my local coffee shop (actually, my "preferred Mid-Columbia Washington-side coffee shop", since there are of course many in this area), I noticed a flyer on the wall for a "fiddle workshop and concert" in Hood River. As soon as I read the information, I knew who the organizer was: Denise, our superstar realtor and local business-woman. She not only runs her own realtor business, but she also publishes Gorge Living magazine and runs the Oak Street Hotel, a small boutique hotel in Hood River. A few years ago, her son started taking fiddle lessons, so Denise took up fiddle as well. (Astute readers may even remember that we got a performance in our own home.) They've been attending workshops and traveling to concerts ever since, and we were sure that this was her doing.

We don't get many fiddle concerts in Hood River, and since we enjoy fiddle more than your average person we figured we had to go. April Verch plays in the Ottawa Valley fiddle style, which I'm sure you're all familiar with. Yeah, we didn't know Ottawa was in a valley, either. She and her 3 piece band put on a great show, and it was a fun night out. Anybody who plays fiddle like that, and can also step dance, and then can top it all off by doing BOTH at the same time, is okay in our book.

- Mike (& Corinne)

Down Comes the Tree

Alas, after gracing our great room for the last three months, our Christmas tree was dismantled this weekend. We held out for as long as we could, but we couldn't deny the inevitable any longer. The tree wasn't taking water anymore, but the final straw was when one of the strings of lights on the tree stopped working last weekend. You know your tree has been up too long when a brand new string of lights burns out before you take the tree down. Either that, or the lights were cheap. (Probably the latter.) And yes, we still turned the lights on.

Since he happened to be visiting, Leif gave us a hand with the disassembly. We decided to cut off the lower (wider) branches before taking it out of the room, to make it easier to navigate down the hall and out the front door. When the tree was freshly cut, it was very pliable and easy to manage. Now, however, we were worried about leaving a trail of needles and branches leading all the way out the door.

By the time we got the tree out the door, it was getting late, it was raining, and we were getting tired. So we left the tree in pieces on our front steps. It would be another week before we were home during daylight hours to finish the job. And while the tree may now be gone, it is not forgotten; we'll get to enjoy it again next winter when it helps to heat our house.

- Mike (& Corinne)

More Snow! More Snowboarding!

Boy, what a difference a week can make! It had been getting pretty warm around here recently, and we were beginning to worry that our snowboarding season would be cut short. Thankfully, over the last week Mother Nature cooperated and provided us with a plethora of snow, both on the mountain and at home. The snow depth at the base of Mt Hood Meadows has gone from 6' to 11' in the past week. Not too shabby!

I guess we're getting more confident on the mountain now, too; this is the second week in a row in which we not only packed and carried our lunch on our back, but we also brought our camera up and weren't constantly worried about crushing it.

- Mike (& Corinne)

Oysters on the Half-pipe

Tara and Jason, who are now officially members of our "Frequent Visitors Club", were down from Seattle visiting this weekend. And as always, we had a great time with them.

This trip revolved around two activities: cooking/eating, and snowboarding/skiing. We even managed to combine the two by picnicking on salami sandwiches halfway down the mountain! I don't think I've ever had them taste better than right in the middle of a day of snowboarding. The weather was perfectly clear on the mountain, as you can see. From above the tree-line, you could see for miles, including nice views of Mt Jefferson and the Three Sisters to the South. The warmth also softened the snow, which makes it a bit slower (good for all of us beginners!)

One of the reasons we keep allowing Tara and Jason to come back is that they always bring such great food with them. This time, they brought wine, French cheese, and raw oysters. Tara is such an oyster fan that for her birthday, Jason gave her the gift of her own personal oyster shucker. We took advantage of those skills ourselves and had oysters on the half-shell as a key component of our brunch. Corinne also made a batch of Cardamom Rolls, a slight modification of our beloved Cinnamon Rolls recipe. It turns out that we made so many dishes with some of Jason's favorite ingredients - cardamom, ricotta, Dutch babies - that Tara accused Corinne of trying to steal him from her!



A word of warning: if you look closely at Jason's left hand, you can see what can happen to a careless oyster shucker. Don't say we didn't warn you.

- Mike (& Corinne)