Our Mornin' Cuppa

Sunday started early!We really wanted to take the boat out this weekend, but the Friday night unexpected trip to the beach combined with all of our summer and household chores meant time was at a premium. I had homework to do, there was garden responsibilities to take care of, and other regular weekend stuff.

I told Chris we should go out early Sunday morning and have our morning coffee on the lake. We could then hang out for a couple hours and be back by lunchtime with plenty of time left in the day to take care of business.

So we did!

It was gorgeous.

Calm.

Peaceful.

An amazing way to start our Sunday and get out on the lake for a few hours.

We went to Emigrant Lake in Ashland, which means we can be on the water in 30 minutes. We left at 8 and were home by just after noon.

I spent most of the afternoon on homework and house pickup, while Chris made some beef jerkey, grilled a whole chicken, did laundry and puttered around with his own stuff.

Beef jerky, poblano peppers fresh from the garden and roated whole chicken.

And that, my friends, was Sunday!

My friend Christy has expressed an interest in hearing more about the garden, how we got started, stuff we have changed and learned over the last three years, etc. I have started reposting early garden themed links on my Blurb  Column Facebook and Twitter pages. You can check them out there as I post them, often with a tidbit or comment about the content,  or use the "labels"feature on the right side of the screen and click on "garden." This will take you to all of the posts (most recent first) that I have tagged with the garden label.

More to come soon on that front!

Have a great Monday!

My Feet Are Beat!

I'll spare you a picture of my dirty feet... :-) That is one way I always KNOW it is summer..my feet get filthy! I hate wearing shoes in the summer. My feet get sweaty and hot. So I spend the majority of my time bare foot.

This is great, except on days like today where I was on my feet A LOT.

Rewind to yesterday: Chris got a trouble call for a broken elevator at the beach. I had time in my schedule so we made a trip of it and I went with him. We stayed on the beach in Brookings. Here is the view from our room:

Brookings is the very southern part of the Oregon coast. It is often called the banana belt of the southern coast because all around it can be socked in and cold, but it is often beautiful in Brookings. Last night was no exception. A bit breezy, as is typical for the Oregon coast, but absolutely gorgeous!

I hung out in our room on the balcony while Chris fixed the elevator. I decided to have a little wine while I waited.

I love these little single serve wines! I take them camping, to the beach, and they are great for when I just want a little wine and I don't want to open a whole bottle at home. Plus, they are great for taking another type of beverage along somewhere. When we went camping I used a couple of the empties I had saved to bring along some Bacardi, rather than bringing my whole big bottle.

It was a bit breezy on the beach for me, so for dinner we decided to head to the Wild and Scenic Chetco River.

It was really gorgeous.

I had pre-prepped (at home) some burgers and brought some garden fresh potatoes with us, so we grilled that up on our little hibachi, had a bit more wine and relaxed at the rivers edge. We hung out until the sun started to dip behind the hills.

We came home this morning and got busy on getting lots of stuff done around here. The typical chores, picking up the house, loading and unloading the dishwasher...blah blah. We went and ran some errands, too. I got a few new pairs of flats on sale at Payless shoes.

Back at home there was more chores and whatnot, including meal planning, grocery list making and garden maintenance. We decided we had enough cucumbers to make another batch of pickles, so that became our project for th evening.

We made pickles last weekend, too, but someone (me) failed to properly read the directions for one the bread n butter pickles so they had about twice as much salt as necessary. Yeah. Gross.

We made 12 pints tonight and have our fingers crossed that we didn't mess anything up!

Do you prefer sweet or dill pickles? I like both. I just love pickles!

While the pickles were in process, we made dinner, which was amazing. Pasta and some sauteed fresh garden veggies (green beans, tomatoes, red onion, red pepper, zucchini, and seasonings) topped with a bit of olive oil and feta. Amazingly good.

Anyway, all that time on my feet and they are beat! I am ready to sit and relax for the night. We have another busy day planned for tomorrow and it starts early!

I will be back to recap our camping trip a couple weekends ago and a handful of other stuff that has been happening. Mostly school!

Target Groceries

Hello!

I am still alive. The last time I posted was July 7th! I have no idea how that much time goes by between posts. I feel like I post all the time. Anyway, things have been very good and (obvi) quite busy! I will do a little recap of what we have been up to, but this post is going to be short and sweet. Well, maybe not sweet, but short anyway.

Our local Target recently underwent a renovation so they could install a "grocery" section.

I received this ad in the mail last week.

My question: How necessary was it *really* for Target to add a "grocery" section that includes nothing but junk food?

Do people *really* need more places to buy corn-products disguised as food? (Don't know what I'm talking about? Read Michael Pollan's The Ominovore's Dilemma or watch "King Corn").

What is Target advertising?

Well, so far as I can tell the only actual food item listed in their ad is eggs.

The remaining items? Frozen corn and mixed veggies (maybe food, but still corn!), Oscar Mayer Lunchables, Coke, Frosted Flakes, Pop-Tart's, Lean Cuisine, Ball Park Beef Franks, Frozen Pizza, T.G.I. Friday's frozen snack item (wth?), Market Pantry frozen chicken breasts (fed with corn, I'm sure), and Archer Farms Sockeye Salmon fillet. Okay, that one claims to be "all-natural" and "wild-caught" so it might be a legitimate food item, too.

But look at the photos in the ad:

They are photo advertising fresh foods, fruits and vegetables, but they are SELLING crap! I'm sure they have some fruits and veggies in the store, don't get me wrong.

Here is my point: Target already had aisles filled with junk food, snacks, treats, candy, cereals, etc. Yes, it is a good thing if more people buy fruits and veggies because they happen to be at Target, but is that what they are sending coupons for? NO.

I will stick with visiting my local suppliers as much as possible for my groceries, and growing my own. Thanks anyway Target.

Saturday Snippets

Hello Friends!

I hope you all survived the holiday with your fingers and toes intact, along with your eyebrows! We had a quiet evening at home and did I tell you that our neighbors brought us over food??? OMG...amazing!

Our neighbors are of Pacific Island descent, and we have seriously only spoken to them once before. They live down on the corner of our culdesac, and out of the blue they brought us down this amazing plate of grilled chicken, beef, potato salad, fried rice and white rice. We are such pigs. We ate every last little bit! So delicious and SO nice!! I will be taking them some of the bounty from my garden a little later this summer when I am swimming in tomatoes from my 11 tomato plants! (I am crazy).

So, you know how Roxie has a boyfriend?

This is Asland. Asland is my neighbors cat. He likes to come hang out and play with Roxie and Roxie like to go over and play with Asland. Apparently Asland has become quite comfortable with us because this is a picture of him on my counter. Ahem. The  look on his face just kills me...he's all: "what? like I don't belong here. Psh."

Well, in addition to Roxie's boyfriend we have another addition to our menagerie of stray cats that like to hang out. I don't think s/he is really a stray, but s/he like to come over and hang out, get pets and loves and just chill. At first s/he was really skittish, but apparently s/he has gotten over that now.

 Hanging out with me while I do homework on the back patio...

 Came in the house and made him/herself comfortable...

Hanging out with me on the beach/in the garden...(see Roxie hiding in the garlic??) Roxie is so jealous...

Oh, and this is pretty funny, too...

Listen to that purr and meow! So funny.

What else have we been up to? Well... let's see...

We've been hanging out on the beach...

 Drinking some yummy (cheap!) wine...

 Stealing Borrowing roses from the neighbors... (smelled so good!)

 Taking pictures of frogs on the beach (under the sand!)...

Baking a peach-blueberry cobbler for the holiday...

Oh! And I bought myself some pretties for my birthday!!  LOVE THEM!!

Have a great Saturday night!

Happy Independence Day!

I am a huge history buff, so one would think that Independence Day would be a favorite holiday.

Uhm...

Not so much.

I actually would rank this holiday as one of my least favorites.

You see, I am not a big fan of fireworks in general, especially because I tend to be an early to bed kind of girl, but also because they are pretty dangerous.

I know, some people love them. LOVE THEM! I know. I get it.

But, as a teenager we (us and the neighborhood kids) accidentally burned our barn and chickens down due to fireworks. It wasn't fun and it wasn't a neato thing to have to deal with, either in the middle of the night with huge flames shooting into the sky, or later as we had to clean up dead chickens. Yah. So that is one reason fireworks are not my thing.

Another reason is because I worked in the insurance world for 15 years and I have had more than one client call and report damage, injury or a significant house fire from fireworks. It really just isn't worth it to me.

Plus every year I read about some asshole who uses firecrackers or fireworks to harass, injure or kill animals, like cats. That just isn't cool. My Roxie is in the house sleeping safely, even though she would rather be outside tonight.

Plus, in the part of the world I live in now (Southern Oregon) it is typically quite dry and fireworks create a huge fire hazard that could spread rapidly and cause millions in damages to property, livestock and homes. That just seems totally unnecessary for a little bit of piccolo pete.

Also, it seems to me that fireworks just aren't what they used to be. When I was a kid they did more than "emit showers of sparks."

Anyway, today is not my favorite holiday, but I know people love it. So all I will say is just be careful! Have fun, but don't be stupid! Don't let your pets out. Keep a hose handy. And if your fireworks don't blow up don't go look at them or touch them! That is how people lose fingers or burn their faces. If you have kids make sure they have a SOBER supervisor! And please: don't drink and drive tonight.

I don't want to read about any of you in the news tomorrow.

Enjoy your yummy barbeque, your cherry pie and your fireworks...but be safe!

Happy Independence Day America!

Non-GMO Labeling Evangelist Team

Hey all! I hope your Monday was bearable. I had a good day with a good amount of homework accomplished. That is my main priority in life these days! I also got 25 minutes of abs on the stability ball in. Yay me!

I want to talk about food. I really like food. But I don't really like what is in our food. Or rather what has been engineered into our food. I read a lot of books about our food system (including the book I reviewed a couple weeks ago in my Friday Five post: Stuffed and Starved) and watch a lot of documentaries about food, and read newspapers articles about our food system and on and on.

When I saw a message on Twitter today about joining a group of bloggers to help support and promote the GMO Labeling law in California by teaming up and using our online presence to spread the word I decided I had to join in. No, I don't live in California, but some of my readers do. And I'm sure many of my readers know people who live in California, and maybe they will want to forward some of this information to them. And, perhaps even more importantly, this is eventually going to be a national and not just a state issue. The more information that can be shared with people across the world, the more we can each make individual choices to impact change. That is what this video is all about.

This is 11 year old Birke Baehr giving a talk at a TedTalks Next Generation event. Birke knows more about the food system than most adults. Please take 5 short minutes to a) be amazed at this 11 year old (homeschooled no less!) and his public speaking ability and b) to seriously consider his message.

I will be posting additional videos and information about the labeling law over the next several weeks and months. You can follow along on Twitter with the hash tag #CARighttoKnow and #LabelGMOs . There is also a Facebook page located at , http://www.facebook.com/carighttoknow.

Here are some previous posts I have made about the food system and eating locally.

Locavore

Eating Local 2

Petroleum Food - Eat Local 3

Eat Local 4

It's All About The Corn - Eat Local 5

At The Market - Eat Local 6

Do you eat local? Do you know what GMO means? Do you know why you should?



Courage

~Mary Anne Radmacher What are you afraid of? Success? Failure? Mediocrity? Fabulousness? This is one of my favorite quotes, and I think of it often when I am feeling stuck due to fear of the unknown. "It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." ~Alan Cohen  

What is more important to you? For me, I choose to release the familiar and the seemingly secure, to draw up my courage and to face the adventurous and new. For I realize that by allowing the fear to control me, the unknown to decide my fate, I give my power away. By stepping out of my comfort zone and into the uknown I retain my power and I can use it to find my success. Tonight, as you head to sleep, remind yourself that your courage is the little voice inside you telling you to try again tomorrow and that when you do you have decided that something else is more important than your fear. Own your courage and create your life experience.