Visit from Cousin Ray

The first of my extended family has come to visit us! My cousin Ray (son of Brian -> brother of Jeff/Dad) decided to take a week vacation to visit a good friend of his in Portland, and he figured if he was going to travel all the way across the country from New Jersey, he better stop in to say hi to his favorite cousin. So he and his friend drove out to our little homestead for dinner. They arrived a little late to spend any significant time exploring the property or surrounding area, so I guess that means they'll have to come back. ;)

- Mike (& Corinne)

Garden Update: August

Okay, so it's been almost two months since my last post on the garden; it's time for a garden update.

We went bigger this year, mounding 14 beds and filling the allocated garden space. As with last year's garden, we've had mixed results so far.

Greens
Our plans included 3 beds of greens, including spinach, chard, and a number of different salad greens. But the greens were not to be. We planted late, and the temperature had already gotten pretty hot, so many of the seeds didn't germinate. The ones that did come up were decimated by the deer. We're still procrastinating on putting any permanent protection around the garden (read: fence) since the garden is right in front of the house. Long story short: no greens this year.

Tomatoes
The cherry tomatoes are just starting to ripen en masse, so with any luck pretty soon we'll be inundated with tomatoes. Despite the result last year, I decided to go for some larger heirloom tomatoes as well; they are growing well so far, and hopefully they'll have enough time to ripen before the season ends.

Zucchini
The single bed of zucchini has produced enough fruit to feed a small army, so we've tried to make as many different zucchini recipes as we could find: Zucchini Bread; Chicken & Zucchini Curry; Lasagna with Zucchini; Baked Stuffed Zucchini; Zucchini Chocolate Cake; Zucchini, Corn & Pepper Hash; Beef, Broccoli & Zucchini Stir Fry; Hoisin Zucchini; Potato, Pepper & Zucchini Hash; Zucchini Fritters, ... and yes, we really made all of those. And more.

Other Squash
The other 4 beds of squash are growing, albeit at a less prolific rate than the zucchini. The delicata squash is growing particularly slowly, so I'm guessing we won't get any fruit from it before frost arrives. Pumpkin looks good; we should be able to start using those soon. The "butternut" squash (photo on right) is a bit of a mystery. It sure doesn't look like any butternut we've seen. We bought a start from a local nursery, so I suspect the plant was mislabeled.

Radish, Onion, Carrot
This bed is looking pretty good - the radishes produced well, and the onions seem to be growing nicely. The deer apparently liked the radish tops, so those are gone; thankfully the radishes had already formed, so I don't think the lack of leaves has stunted its growth.

Beans
A whole bed of beans. No fruit yet, but the plants look pretty healthy.

Cucumber
The cucumber are getting big fast; figuring out how to use them all will likely be a problem. Cucumber and tomato salad sure is good, though.

Flowers
The north side of the garden has several rows of sunflowers; and many of the individual beds have marigolds planted on the ends. Both flowers were grown from seeds Corinne saved from last year.

- Mike (& Corinne)

Wild Huckleberry Picking

Yes, that's right all you East coast folks - the huckleberry is a real berry and not just the name of a cartoon character. The town of Bingen, WA even has a Huckleberry Festival each year celebrating and serving the fruit.

Huckleberries are a wild berry present in the forests all around Trout Lake. In fact, there is even a street sign when entering Trout Lake indicating the direction to "the" huckleberry fields. However, the most well known fields are apparently picked out pretty quickly, so the locals typically have their own "secret" spots deep in the woods, accessible only via forest roads.

Our neighbor Jack is one such local, and he recently invited us to go picking with he and his daughter Kya. So we hopped in his truck and head up a forest road into the woods. Within the span of just a few hours in the woods, Corinne and I managed to pick about 8 pounds of berries. The berries are difficult to grow commercially, so the ones available in the store are generally pretty expensive - the local farmstand sells them for $7/lb. The berries are a bit tart with a complex flavor; they make good pies and sauces, but are also great on cereal. Thanks, Jack!

- Mike (& Corinne)

Hosting the Massman Family Reunion!

As you can probably tell from this blog, we always have things going on, particularly in the summer. However, there was one event this year that stood out from the rest: The Massman Family Reunion. Hosted at our house. The reaction we get from people when we would tell them that we're hosting 30+ members of Corinne's mother's family at our house for 5 days was fairly consistent: wide eyes of disbelief. You're doing what?

Preparations
We spent quite a lot of time organizing and preparing for the event. In February we checked out the Trout Lake lodging options so that we could make recommendations first-hand. (We were NOT going to have 30+ people stay in our house for 5 days; we're not that crazy.) We put together a list of possible activities and made plans for a few group events, such as a White Salmon rafting trip. We hired a professional photographer to capture the event. We tried to get as many details nailed down ahead of time as possible so that when the event arrived, we could enjoy the weekend.

Lodging

Trout Lake has more lodging options that I would have expected, considering its size; the heavy summer tourism season must have something to do with that. But the summer books early. Thankfully there were still enough rooms at the Trout Lake Motel, Serenity's, and several other B&Bs to house everyone. We also had 1-2 campers parked in the yard over the course of the weekend, and a Port-A-John tucked away between the trees (to save our septic system!)

Activities

There is a lot to do in our area, and we knew better than to try to make a schedule of events to cover every day. Instead we organized a few key events throughout the weekend, and provided information on other local activities that people could do as they pleased. The scheduled events included a White Salmon rafting trip, a photo-shoot with a professional photographer, and an "all-hands" home-cooked dinner each night. People took good advantage of the outdoor opportunities, including horseback-riding, biking, and wine tasting, as well as croquet, horseshoes, bocci, and late night card games at home.


Food

While there are a plethora of places to stay while in Trout Lake, there is really only one restaurant. So Corinne decided that we should take a bold approach: cook all of the dinners in our kitchen. The two of us weren't about to do all of the meals ourselves, though, so each dinner was assigned 4 meal preparers and 2 cleaners. I thought it would be a bit of a challenge for everyone to come up with a meal that could feed 35 people but still be prepared and cooked in our normal-sized kitchen, but everything worked out perfectly. Over the 5 days we had fabulous meals: curried chicken and rice; spicy breaded fish sandwiches; baked meatballs; and pasta with peppers and onions. And on the days when you weren't cooking, all you did was show up and eat!

Photos

We hired professional photographer Michael Peterson for a few hours to take photos of the reunion. He took both posed portraits and lots of fun photos. Between Michael's professional shots and the photos from the cameras of the attendees, we ended up with about 3.5G of photos! Needless to say, we couldn't post them all here. A sampling of some of Michael's candids is below. We particularly liked the ones of us running through the neighbors field (thanks, Carl!) and the "kids" jumping off of our rail fence (which now needs a post replaced - oops).

But alas, soon the weekend was over and everyone was traveling home. After a trip to the dump and some cleaning, we returned to our normal lives. How boring.



- Mike (& Corinne)

Danger in the Country

The other day I was out working in the garden, and suddenly this bear jumped out and bit my hand! No, wait - I think it was two bears. I escaped only by wrestling one of them to the ground, while the other was so afraid of what I might do to him that he ran off in to the woods.

Yeah, nobody at work bought that one, either.

Truth is, I cut my hand on some sheet metal on the case of a computer. Not nearly as glamorous or exciting, now, is it? So on Sunday afternoon I drove 30 minutes to the local hospital where I got 5 stitches at the base of my middle finger, along with a tetanus shot for good measure.

Lesson: accidents happen when and where you least expect them.

- Mike (& Corinne)

Festivals Galore

Our favorite New England transplants now living in Portland came back to the Gorge these past two weekends. Last weekend we met Jamie, Torsten, Katja and Marta in Hood River on the Fruit Loop, a scenic drive through Hood River's farmlands. We stopped at a few different farms, including Hood River Lavender for pick-your-own lavender.

The following weekend was the Trout Lake Arts Festival, held literally right down the street from our house. So we enjoyed the arts festival then followed it with a relaxing summer BBQ at our place. A classic summer weekend.

 

- Mike (& Corinne)

Irrigation Irritation

Irrigation is both a blessing and a curse. Without irrigation, everything around us would turn brown and crispy (and highly flammable!) in the summer, since our area gets no rain from July through September. However, irrigation systems also need continual maintenance when things go wrong. Well, this year things went wrong for us.

It all starts last fall. We were still irrigating the garden well into October when the first frost arrived. This signaled the end of the garden, but we were still watering the lawn. So we (I) didn't turn off the irrigation and drain the system, preparing for winter. The next thing I knew, it was December, the ground was covered with snow, and the irrigation system hadn't been drained. Oops. I did open all of the valves during a brief warm spell in January, but I knew it was probably a bit too late to avoid any repercussions.

Irrigation pump
foot valve

Come spring, when we turned the system on there was no water pressure. So we walked the irrigation lines and discovered a valve that had cracked. One trip to the supply store later and the valve was replaced, but we still had very low pressure. More investigation uncovered two more repairs needed, including one involving PVC cement. After all of the obvious repairs were complete, when we turned the pump on we had some pressure, but it would only last for ~5 minutes before dropping enough that the underground Rainbird sprinklers in the yard would stop spinning.

We spent many hours trying to isolate the source of the problem. We drained our settling pond; we cleaned out the pump box, which was full of accumulated silt; we replaced a number of broken pressure gauges; we pulled out and inspected the mesh filters on the valves; we poured over the folders of irrigation info from the Clausens. No luck.

It was now late June/early July, and our desperation was intensifying as each day got hotter and the garden and yard languished under only occasional watering from sprinklers connected to the house. In a fit of either inspiration or despiration, Corinne decided that we needed to pull out and clean the mesh filters.

Bingo!

Even though the filters looked fine, each hole in the fine mesh had been clogged with small particles of silt. After the screens were cleaned with a brush, the lawn sprinklers worked fine. Everything worked fine. In the end, hours and hours of work went into a fix that took 20 minutes.

I think this is what they call a "learning experience". We understand much better how the whole system works, and I also have a better appreciation for the timeliness of preparing the system for winter. We do still have at least one problem to fix, though. There is a spot in the yard where water pools on the surface, which we imagine can only be caused by a leak underground. But that is a project for another day.

- Mike (& Corinne)

Windsurfing

Since our windsurfing lessons last August have we attempted to windsurf only once - and that time we didn't even end up going in the water since we had forgotten some critical equipment. This year wasn't looking much better, given that it is already July and we haven't been in yet!

"Intermediate" board

Thankfully our friends Kris and Amy motivated us to join them Saturday. (They had asked us to go earlier in the week, but we were still embroiled in trying to resolve our irrigation problems; more on that in another post.) When I asked Kris if he had ever been windsurfing before, his response was: "I don't even know what an uphaul is and have never worn a wetsuit." This should be fun.

True "Beginner" board

We only ended up with one set of gear between the four of us, and it turned out to be not quite beginner enough for our collective skill level. Beginner boards are wide, have a center fin, and will usually float no matter what you do; the board we had would float, but it wasn't terribly stable. ("Expert" boards don't even float - you have to be constantly moving across the water to even use them!) So we took turns struggling for probably an hour before an instructor from one of the local windsurfing shops took pity on us and gave us a set of beginner gear to borrow for a while. We still weren't very good, but at least it was more fun.

With any luck we'll be able to get out at least once more this summer. Summer is just so dang busy!

- Mike (& Corinne)

Clausen Memorial Potluck

Half of the incredible couple who built River Ford Farm has died. Victor Clausen was 83 when he passed away in February after several battles with his health. We were sad to hear the news, and we attended a moving ceremony in Vancouver, WA where he and Phyllis have lived for the past year. (We knew we had arrived at the right location when the sign said "Home for the Liberal Religious Spirit!")

Vic and Phyllis used to have a potluck at their place (now our place) in Trout Lake every July 4th, so we offered to Phyllis that we could host a potluck and memorial service, so that all of their Trout Lake friends would have an opportunity to celebrate Vic and show support for Phyllis. It would also give us a chance to meet more of our Trout Lake neighbors.

The whole community pitched in for the event. Our neighbors Dean and Rosie are the hosts of the annual Trout Lake Arts Festival, so they are well prepared for large events and brought their grill and an ample supply of gourmet sausages; Tom and Bonnie brought tables and chairs. The other 40 or so people brought all sorts of good food and stories about Vic and Phyllis.

One of the most amazing things for us to see were the early photos of our property. When they bought this land in the 1970s, it was just a flat piece of land with absolutely nothing on it. Everything that is here now - house, thousands of trees, out buildings, irrigation, etc - was put here by Vic and Phyllis, either by their planning or their direct laboring. Sometime in the near future we hope to spend some time with Phyllis and scan some of those photos for ourselves.

We've only known Vic and Phyllis for a year and a half, but they are an inspiration to us in many ways. We'll miss Vic.

- Mike (& Corinne)

First Garden Growth

The garden beds have been mounded with compost, and parts of the garden have now (finally) been planted. We opted to do only 2 wood frames - for the tomatoes - so the rest of the beds are just mounded soil and compost.

Priority planting was given to the tomatoes, since we bought them as starts and they should go into the ground as quickly as possible. We have a total of about 15 plants in the two beds, and each bed is surrounded by a wire fence to try to keep out the deer. The plants are predominantly cherry and plum sized tomatoes this year, since the larger tomatoes didn't have time to ripen last year.

After the ravaging from wildlife that the garden got last year, we decided to try grow more plants that are theoretically unattractive to deer, gophers and whoever else is around: onions, squash, radishes, herbs, etc. The onions (grown from sets rather than seeds) sprouted quickly, giving us some much needed encouragement that our garden could still be productive despite our late start.

The squashes include a bed each of butternut, zucchini, delicata, acorn, and sugar pumpkin. The zucchini (right) came out of the gate first. Cucumber, lettuce, swiss chard, spinach, and beans round out the plantings so far.

Grow, grow!

- Mike (& Corinne)

Wetland Restoration

As co-chairs of Insitu's Green Committee, Corinne and I are on the lookout for ways that Insitu can give back to the community in which we live. This weekend the Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute organized an event specifically for us.

A wetland in nearby Snowden was in need of some restoration. There's a long story behind this particular property, but the short version is that the previous owner was attempting to dry it out so that he could build on it - violating the Critical Areas Ordinance that is designed to protect areas just like this. A neighbor whose property includes part of this wetland went through hell and back trying to stop him, and eventually was able to buy the property and enlisted CGEI to help repair the damage.

A small group from Insitu (smaller than we would have liked) volunteered part of their Saturday to help plant new trees, fill in the gully that was used to drain the area, and pull thistle (2 pickup trucks full!) to help the wetland recover. We hope to return next year to see how it's doing.

- Mike (& Corinne)

Farmers in Training

When we bought this place, we also bought all of the farm equipment that the Clausens had accumulated. We figured that if they had a use for it that eventually we would, too. The biggest items are two tractors: a small Mitsubishi tractor (which helped us to repair the fence) and a large Massey Ferguson tractor which didn't start. So last November we sent the tractor in for servicing. Apparently a family (perhaps an extended family) of mice had moved in to the starter in the tractor and just had a big pee party. The repairman said he took pictures of it because he'd never seen anything so bad. And this is a guy who fixes tractors for a living! (I didn't think to ask him for the photos.) Anyway, long story short, we now have a big honkin' farm tractor that works.

Of course, we didn't have the slightest idea how to use it. So that's where Reidar comes in.

Corinne's Dad was a farmer and rancher back in Montana, so he's got oodles of experience with farm equipment. He also runs Superlon, a pipe manufacturing company in Tacoma, so he is around heavy equipment much bigger than our tractor every day! He came down for a weekend visit to give us our first (of many) lessons.

After a quick driving lesson, our first task was to bring in the extra equipment from the "boneyard". While a boneyard is usually a final resting place (aka graveyard), this boneyard was a place that Vic and Phyllis had stored some tractor attachments that they hadn't used in a while and didn't have room for in the shop. We recently cleared out some space in the shop, so we were ready to bring the equipment back under shelter. The items in the boneyard included a blade, a plow, and a snow blower.

We don't have plans for the plow, but other two implements already have tasks. The blade is a generally useful thing that we hope to use to flatten out the irrigation dirt piles. But the biggest potential win is the snow plow. For the last two years we have hired someone to plow our driveway in winter, but now we can (theoretically) do it ourselves. Time will tell how that goes.

One last funny story from this weekend. While I was driving the tractor back and forth between the boneyard and the shop, Corinne and Reidar were riding bikes following me. But on the last return trip to the shop, they didn't arrive back at the shop for a long time. It turns out that on this trip, there was a bit of an "incident". One of Reidar's shoes fell off while he was riding back, and in his attempt to recover, he drove the bike into a tree and tumbled off the bike into its waiting branches! No one was hurt, and the two of them had a good, long laugh. I wish I could have been there!

- Mike (& Corinne)

Compost. Lots of Compost.

A coworker of ours, Judith, is an avid gardener and has been here much longer than we have, so she has been a great source for local gardening information. She is the person who lead us to Columbia Gorge Organics as a source for compost. They take the leftovers from their local juicing operation (pulp, skins, etc.), combine it with some manure from other local farmers, and produce large rows of compost which they then sell for $80/ton. Yes, that's right: they sell per ton.

It's a haul-yourself operation, so one workday we drove the farm truck to work and I drove over to pick up some compost at lunchtime. They first weigh your vehicle empty, then use a front-loader to load you up and weigh you again. Well, here's the result: 2300lbs of compost at a cost of $80. Our truck turned out to be only a 3/4 ton truck, but thankfully there were no problems.

The majority of this compost will be used in the raised beds in the garden. Looks like we've got quite a bit of shoveling to do...

- Mike (& Corinne)

Spring == Piles

Spring is here, which means that there are lots of "spring cleaning" projects to do. What I have noticed, though, is that spring in the country is a time to create piles of... well, stuff.

Dirt
Our irrigation ditch had gradually filled with silt, and thus was not deep enough for the volume of water traveling through it. So we (actually, our neighbor who also shares this ditch) hired someone to dig it deeper.

But of course, that dirt has to go someplace... so half ended up in our yard, and half in our neighbor's. The blue tarp is there to kill the canary grass before we incorporate the dirt into our yard.

Orchard Slash
Our orchard pruning resulted in large piles of fruit wood. Initially we thought we'd be able to cut the majority of it up into kindling for the wood stove; but after several hours and little progress, we knew that these piles would be around at least until we had a chipper. (We haven't bought one yet.)

"Normal" Spring Cleaning
This is the kind of outdoor spring cleaning that most people do: pulling weeds and grass from flower beds, removing overgrown plants, etc. Donna came down for the weekend to help us out, and she really got into it. In the end, we decided to pull much of that ground cover out altogether and add it to our pile. The piles were then moved to a less visible pile hidden in the woods.

And just so you don't think that spring is nothing but piles of work:


- Mike (& Corinne)