Christmas Cousins

The holidays are upon us and i find myself back at my childhood home, surrounded by family, a lovely local Christmas tree, plentiful food and plentiful critters. My mom's fur family consists of two geldings, 1 golden retriever and a handful of barn cats. We brought Pocket along with us to play with her cousins, but left behind her sister and my oldest pet: Holly the Christmas turtle.



I got Holly (who came with her name already in place, but seasonally appropriate) for Christmas the year before i went to college. (For those of you counting or guessing: i've had Holly for 12 years, eep!) She's travelled with me to my dorm room, to several apartments, to warm and sunny (and then cold and air conditioned) Texas and now up to Philomath. She loves the damp and temperate Willamette valley best, but she spent many years living down here in the dry of southern Oregon with her biggest fan, my daddy #2 while i was away at graduate school.



Holly loves Christmas! Something about the glittering lights and their warmth, mountains of presents to scale and ribbons to wear always gets her to show up out of the woodwork. This year, she's safely back at home, sitting on her heating pad under the couch. She might be missed by her unlikely sister, but honestly: probably not.



Pocket was raised with this odd pet ruling our roost, and has always been a careful housemate, occasionally helping us find her when she's lost. Which is is often. A 6 inch turtle who roams freely in your house is often hidden, often in a discarded garment on the floor.

Holly knows what good is, and a warm corgi by the space heater is definitely good.

Happy holidays to you and all your kin: furry, scaley or even covered in human skin!

- Miranda, Pocket, Holly and the Husband

Wild Edibles: Mushrooms

I got to go mushrooming with my husband last weekend, and we had a family blast. I found a patch of chanterelles, a huge porcini and Pocket even snuffed out a lovely frog after a long sprinting/frap session on the beach. We saw hundreds of mushrooms, most unknown to us and thus unpicked. We still admired seeing all the colors and shapes of the different types of mushroom, and we've enjoyed eating those we did bring home: all 6+ pounds of them!

Have you ever hunted for mushrooms?

Guest Post: Pocket Reflections

The hubs and I are off hunting mushrooms today! And, as i spent all of last night cooking down chicken stock and getting it ready to can when i get home today - i didn't get around to writing up a proper post. Pocket is thankfully always glad to provide some guest words, so she's taking over for the day. Welcome, Pocket!

First off, thanks mom for being such a great mommy and for feeding me that chicken heart last night and for letting me lick the chicken stock bowl and for getting me this awesome new bed and for feeding me that chicken heart last night. Secondly, i really like my new bed that gramma got me. It's really soft. It's even the same color as me, so i feel like i'm invisible and that's pretty cool. Thanks!

I'd also like to thank gramma for having such an awesome homestead. It just keeps going and going and going! And this last visit, it was covered with snow! SNOW! I love snow. You can eat it when you're on a long walk and get really really thirsty. Snow is great. Barooooooooo, snow is great. The sun there is really bright though. I always have a really hard time not blinking when you take photos of me. Sorry about that.

Here, this one is better. Aren't i pretty? I must be, because you tell me that like a thousand times a day.

Have i mentioned that i really like my new bed? i like it so much, i think i'll actually have to cut this article a little short. I'm really sorry about that mom, but you know how much i need my rest. I work really hard. Well, i guess i haven't been working too hard lately, unless you count all the CATCHING THE FRISBEE IN THE AIR that i've been doing at the PARK lately. Those are my favorite words, by the way. Frisbee. Park. You should say those words all the time. Anyway, i need some rest on my soft bed now. Love you, mommy.     -Pocket

The Dude Provides

For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you already know that my husband and I had a great weekend at the dinner table. Others of you who are out of the loop may remember that my husband has had a few attempted fishing trips that didn't pan out so well lately: well he finally came through for me. And with more than just fish!

Isn't the fur-baby cute, being all interested? No mushrooms for her, but plenty for us! Porcini and Chanterelle mushrooms straight out of the Oregon coastal forest. I've always liked mushrooms, but i've also always thought them rather bland, nice to add to chicken dishes but not overly full of their own flavor. Man was i ever wrong! These babies were sweet, firmly textured, magical bites of yum both when raw and cooked! I'll be treating you with the dinners i whipped together from this bounty for the next few days. I'm pretty sure (if you like mushrooms or salmon at all) that you'll be salivating with jealousy. ;)

The hubs didn't go without his fish fix, though. He was fishing with a buddy, so only brought home half his catch, but it was definitely more than enough! He was fishing in the tidewater, and a local seal eyed his catch as he pulled it in, but he was victorious and finally provided fresh salmon flesh to this family, woo hoo!   Did i mention how fresh mushrooms tasted way more delicious than 'other' mushrooms? Well, I can tell you that freshly caught salmon, right out of the briney sea is just about the most delicious thing a person can ever eat. I'm not even overly in love with salmon, generally - and only like it when it's been prepared by myself or my step dad (as a general rule). This fish was amazing. A. MAZE. ING. And it's still feeding us 3 days later.

Let's hear it for the fisherman! Finally!

Rough Country Living

Livin' in the country isn't all fun and games, even if you're a corgi. Sometimes there are sticks that should not be grabbed from dogs who do not want you to grab them....  and sometimes you get some nasty puncture wounds from said dog's teeth.

A quick antibiotic shot and some iodine later.... we hope our little Pocket will heal up fast. For now, just look at those pathetic 'ow, mommy: it hurts' eyes. It just makes ya wanna cry, doesn't it?

The discoloration is mostly the iodine, but the wound does look pretty nasty. Keep her in your prayers.

Ah, finally some rural living.

A friend of mine is spending a few weeks in Ireland, the lucky lady - and we're lucky enough to house sit for her in her 'cabin in the woods.' She has a tenant who cares for the wooly beasts, so we're living pretty footloose and fancy free, only needing to tend after some collies and canaries: all of which are very sweet.

Tessa the collie and Pocket the corgi: what a matched pair they are!

This weekend we'll be making apple cider with my friend's son, and i'm sure i'll be pouncing on her over 80 varieties (!) of apples in lots of other ways the next few weeks. I'll also be making lots of Nude Soap in her much roomier kitchen, and working on lots of fiber projects in the cozy house filled with spinning wheels and all the fiber i could dream to use. Just lounging in the cozy house is a vacation for us. We moved to Oregon for country living, not apartment dwelling with a view of McDonalds to wake up to! So, it's nice to have a chance to get a little taste of something closer to our dream.

Our first morning we took a nice hike down the lane and up to a local archery range. Me, Pocket and a whole passle of doggies took to the country roads and romped it up!

Rufus, Tessa and Damien lead the way for little Pocket. She's catching on to country life fast!

Trompsing about in the misty mist and my rain gear is a pretty swell way to start the day. Mid sixties and sprinkly feels pretty fine after the summer of 90-100 degrees and bone dry back in Austin. I'm sure i'll get tired of the rain after a while - but it's sure nice to feel like Fall during actual Fall!

Check out my Flickr stream for more photos and visual updates of our time in rural Philomath.

Salmon!

Holy cow, did we see some gorgeous fish this weekend!

And yes, i said "see" not "caught." Despite my husband being an avid bass fisherman back in Texas, and despite my having caught a ton of trout when i was a teenager, we apparently have no idea what we're doing nowadays when it comes to trout, rivers, lakes, salmon and not getting all our lures stuck to the bottom.

Yesterday, we took advantage of our first Sunday off together (not counting in California) since July and drove west on hwy 34 towards Waldport. I thought my husband had a plan. He thought he'd develop a plan en route. We ended up getting all the way to the coast (where we saw lots of seals swimming about with the fishermen) where we as-per-usual lusted after the boats and skiffs the lucky fishermen were cruising around on in the estuary. On top of the "when we get settled and magically have extra money" list is a used fishing boat and trailer with small motor.

Boat lusting aside, the banks in Waldport were a bit crowded, so we turned back to 34 to meander along the Alsea river and hope for a good spot to pull over, along a highway that says 'no parking on the shoulders.' We found a turnout, however! And as we were leaving, we found several others along the way, so we have scoped out and discovered some swell fishing and potentially gorgeous swimming in the Summer (I know, Texans- it's still Summer down THERE but it's definitely Fall here, right in time with the calender). We scrambled down a muddle, blackberry lined path and made our way to the pristine river, surrounded by light (to medium/heavy) rain and puffy low-cloud patches floating in the mature trees. I think my husband was in heaven: trees, mist, his dog and wife, fishing in Oregon. Can't get better than that!

Well, it could: we could have caught something or at least gotten nibbles! The only nibbles we got were from rocks and trees that stole our lures (i think we lost 5 or so, sheesh). But we were surrounded by fish! They were either mocking us or just rejoicing in the first rain of the season, but we saw some HUGE salmon throwing themselves into the air, diving like dolphins just out of our reach. We'd be re-tying a lure on, unable to cast and those persnickity fish would be thrashing around just beyond our noses. It was frustrating, yes but it was also wonderful to get to see the beautiful fish playing around in the water.

The husband indicating the size of the fish that just did acrobatics in front of him.

Not quite as good as eating them or getting our hands on 'em for a photo before releasing, but our first glimpse of wild Oregon salmon was pretty fantastic. On a side note, our corgi is pretty water proof, but a day in the rain was a bit much for her. Thinking we need to invest in some kind of rainwear for her. She certainly appreciated the down blanket snuggle times during the drive home.

Do you fish? Do you get as much joy from seeing the fish rise as you do from hooking them?

Travel Log: Cow Ponds

Pocket, the hubs and myself are FINALLY settling into our new town: Philomath, Oregon (near Corvallis). I've finally spent more than 2 days in a row in our new apartment, and i'm actually liking it. Not loving the cat-calling halfway house residents behind our back 'yard,' but am loving the bike paths, coastal mountain views, and potential proximity to the ocean and other fun activities. We've barely scratched the surface of 'to dos' here in our new town (the husband picked up a seasonal job at a local organic farm, thus limiting our days off together for cavorting about), but we well tromped my mother's stomping grounds down in the high desert before we left.

Merrill, Oregon is in the Klamath Basin: a land of potatoes, nutritious hay, beautiful horses, and long Summer days filled with sunshine. So much sunshine you can get quite hot, even on days that only reach 75. On these days, you need to find a cow pond. Especially when you're a corgi.

 Pocket loves to swim, boy howdy! I spent a little time crouched by the side of the pond and noticed some other little critters enjoying the seasonal pond. Tons of tadpoles! And a few swimming tree frogs. Cute, cute, cute!

My husband and I walked to this pond again a few days later and found some really mysterious, alien-like critters in with the tadpoles - and eating them! We had no idea what they were, and sadly got no photographs, but researched them on our return: water beetle larvae! We did see some big black beetles in the water, so it makes sense. I wish i had some photos to share, they were truly grotesque and fascinating. Google "water tiger" and tell me what you think: pretty scary!

We're missing having these lovely ponds to walk to, and really missing having boundless property to explore without leashes. Hopefully we'll make it to the Alsea river in the national forest soon to do some fishing and let the pooch run about tether-free. Though if you're in Philomath, you may see a little red and white corgi off leash in some local parks despite being 'against the rules.' She's pretty darned well behaved and just needs to run and catch that frisbee in the air!

Have you found any unique wildlife in a pond recently?

A Tired Corgi

Is a happy corgi.

Gotta love spending a Sunday at the river: playing in the sand and swimming til you're half dead. Especially when you're covered in fur.