Treblehook

While I find most Barley Wine to be unpalatable until the second one is down, This Treblehook a limited release from Redhook was absolutely delicious. Sweet, spicy and at 10.1% perhaps just a little bit dangerous.

Christmas Past
Just like Christmas
Christmas song
Cold White Christmas

In an attempt to improve my hunter / gatherer status I decided I should at least attempt to collect some of my own food...

This is one of three Red Rock Crab I collected.
We ate them for dinner. They were Delicious. Some people doubted my success rate and bought there own. Theirs cost too much.

This is some Squid Chris and I gathered as well. Two ladies, one Korean and one Japanese, helped us, giving good advice and talking us thru the process. Ladies, Thank you.

Squid are strange and beautiful. They are translucent when they come out of the water and flash all sorts of crazy colors.

Sometimes the wacko has to have a little fun...

Squiddin'

So, while I was in Bremerton I thought I should go jigging for squid.

Look at me! I'm jigging.


While I was Jigging, It started to snow...
Holy crap it is cold.

I was quite suprised when I caught not one but two Crabs. This is a nice shot of one of them scampering back over the edge of the pier. I guess they see the jig and think "hey, thats looks tasty... " and then thay won't let go. Sadly, both had to go back in the water.
Oh yeah, I didn't catch any Squid. I guess I will try again tomorrow.

Kat

Bumped into my friend Kat the other day... I haven't seen her in years.

It was nice to have a chance to catch up.

Trip Planning

So, I find thinking of a trip to the coast again. I find I really miss the ocean. Standing in the surf. The sound. The smell. The sand. So with a minimum of planing this is my tentative schedule. Digging Razor Clams, going Squiding, shucking Oysters and Clamming you know, the sort of thing I enjoy doing so much. It is a pity Shrimp and Crab are closed but thems the breaks. It will probably be death by seafood anyway or at least I am hoping... I leave wednesday.

Snow

Woke up to snow this morning... I guess it is actually the second snow of the season. but the first time I had to shovel the walk.

Last Night

The sky was amazing. Such a dramatic break in the clouds after a dreary rainy day.

Wood

Look. I got some free Cherry wood for the smoker!


Oh. And some Apricot too!

Leaves round 2

Didn't I just deal with a bunch of leaves a couple weeks ago? Well I guess I am destined for another round or two yet since the trees are only about half empty...

Favorite time of year

Finally,
the air is crisp
but not cold
The trees,
appearing
and disappearing
from the fog that rolled in
march across the hills
like disoriented soldiers
all red, yellow and gold
as
the morning light
paints everything
like an impressionist
in muted tones.

Bugs...

You know there is a lot of bugs when they obscure the green grass...

I have officially Identified my first wild mushrooms

Shaggy Mane and Poison Pie to be exact. I dont feel comfortable enough yet with my Identifying skills to actually consider eating any but the Shaggy Manes are supposed to be "low risk" and delicious so I am a little tempted. Poison Pie of course causes gastrointestinal distress so I wont be going there.

1 - 5 lb. 23 inches

The experience of moments

a memory

of boxed red wine
Curry
and those cookies
heavy with Ginger and Molasses

of hours
spent talking
in your car
or
In stillness
sitting
quiet
Silent.
Except for the
Delicate sound
Of your slow
Measured
breathing

beautiful

but still I have
no memory of you
Not like it was
there is no
like it was

Hiking

I thought I should show some pictures to put the other hiking pictures in context...

Hiking thru the woods.

Breaking thru the trees and a view of our first goal. We will follow thr ridgeline till we can access the saddle.

I just love the large outcrops of granite.

Looking south you can see the bowl beneath Gunsight and Hunt Lake where Chris and I camped the last time.

Looking north off the ridge line another pristine view.

Chris cresting the saddle.

From the top of Roothans lower peak, here is a view to the north of Lionhead and Roman nose etc.

A look at Chimney Rock and our third destination, the spine that runs out to it. We will access the spine thru the notch in the right side of the picture.

But first a little relaxation in this throne made of granite slabs.

Destination #2 the higher peak of Roothan.

The view down from Roothans true summit. Found a geocache. signed it.

Now we decend into the bowl behind and begin to work our way around to our access point as we head for destination #3.

Chris working his way around the bowl.

Our path / no path.

The trail gets a little trickier and you reach the point where climbing is required. Just a little further on is where I was climbing in the earlier picture.

We have ascended the spine and have a wonderful view of Chimney rock.

Here is a shot of Chris as he gets ready to descend.

The big relax before our final descent. Some fruit/nut mix and some water can really do the trick.

Welcome Gnolie!

Magnolia Joy Thrasher

On Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 5:44 PM
Miranda and David were blessed with a healthy baby girl.
Weight: 6 pounds, 10 ounces Length: 19.6 inches

I stole this picture of me from Chris!!

Some times you have to go up the mountain.

A little suffering can show you immense beauty.

Ever feel like you're on top of the world?

Ohio

Well, my friend Heather is Moving back to Ohio tomorrow. Family and all you know. No more, Red wine, Seaweed candy, Thai food, Pho' or long hikes thru the local trails. Give Ohio hell Allah. You will be missed.

Foraging

Lately I have been thinking about how much I enjoy things like picking huckleberries and digging clams. I have also put a certain amount of thought into mushrooming. I seem to have come to this conclusion... I think I find foraging appealing. Harvesting natural/wild plants, berries and animals (fishing, clamming etc.) for food. Maybe it comes from an earlier harder time when to survive you had to do this. Maybe I am just tired of paying for overpriced "Groceries". I do like farmers markets. I am going to try and find a book on edible plants of the Northwest. Hopefully there will be some eastside plants not just westside...

Caterpillar do

This guy had a amazing hair do... look at those 4 white tufts. One end had a long thin brown "tail" and the other end had two long thin brown "ears". I don't really know which end was which but very stylish none the less...

Tetanus

So, I was helping Dad and Mike clean up the wood scrap from the recent deck building experience. Since we were recycling the wood I was the in process of pulling off all the metal brackets and hangers. Suddenly, I found the feeling of a length of rusty metal entering my flesh... with all the joy, wonder and verbal eloquence that generaly follows in the footsteps with events of this nature.
Heather just happened to call and invited me for a hike. When I told her I was going to get a shot, being the smart-ass that she is, she said " Well? You don't walk with your jaw.". :)
Then I got the pleasure of sitting in the emergency room for the overpriced Tetanus shot. I got to soak my foot. Nice. No towels so I had to use a washcloth to dry it off. The Dr. that gave me the shot put the bandaid about 1/4 inch above where she actually gave me the shot... I found this rather humorous. I will spare you the photo and just say it really isn't that bad.
Afterwards, Dad took me out for dinner at a nice Chinese place.
My foot hurts, my shoulder is tender but I should live to wound myself another day. I mean if I don't do it who the hell will?

Doug

Shot a picture of Doug today. I thought it turned out pretty nice.

At least nicer than the shot Chris got of his arm...

Boxwood Bonsai?

A short while ago, Mike pulled some Boxwood out of his yard and was just going to throw them out. He was kind enough to offer them to me and I figured what the heck, they have excellent trunks and if they don't make it at least I tried. They both recieved a drastic leaf pruning as well as root pruning. I guess I thought that since they were already under stress from being pulled out of the ground I may as well just go for it. So far one has browned back a little. I think to balance a smaller root ball. (I tried to prune root and leaf equally) Both have gone back into the ground. This one however has started to bud back. This means I should be able to effectively reduce the final size of the plant. I will try to post occasional updates. If I continue to have success.

Mount Spokane

After perhaps too much red wine the night before, Heather (resting here with Smalls and Nugget) and I hiked Mt. Spokane. We went at 9am and left at 4pm. We had a nice picnic lunch on top at Vista house some Huckleberries in the middle and later that night had an excellent Vietnamese dinner. While we were on the mountain we heard a powerful story of the Spokane people told by Barry Moses from the Spokane tribe then he sang an amazing blessing and prayer accompanied only by a rattle. After that, the Venerable Geshe Thupten Phelgye gave a blessing and said prayers as well. What a beautiful / wonderful day.

So I decided to go spend a little time at Priest Lake in Northern Idaho...

This is a nice view of part of the Selkirk Crest while fishing with Dad.

I figured I had to stop and look at the shoe tree.

You know, every time I go to Huff Lake I ask myself the same question..
I guess I should explain myself a little better. Huff Lake is a Peat Bog. It is filled with rare plants and crazy stuff like that. "Here the earth Quakes. " See where the Peat sits on the ground via muck it is called a Hummock. Part of the lake is like this but the majority is a floating mat of Peat about a foot to a foot and half thick. This is the part that jiggles. As some of you know they have found mummies in European Peat Bogs. When I am here looking at this serene peaceful lake I just cant help but say "I wonder if anybodies in there".

No trip to Priest would be complete without a trip to Granite Falls

and yes, I did climb it.

This would be the Rosevelt Grove of Ancient Cedars.
Such a serene place to sit.
Such a beautiful place to breath.

When I am here I can feel the earth and myself vibrate.,

Do you ever just want to follow the stream just to see where it goes?

I find I like rocks. Big powerful towering rocks.

Sometimes it seems that to get to where you want, you have to carry the canoe instead of just floating down the damn river... I mean this is the short walk to lake Muskegon. Gotta carry the Canoe. Gotta try to outfish my brother. The target? Cutthroat Trout. The gear? Lures with only single barbless hooks no bait allowed.

Pristine Lake Muskegon. Worth every minute taken to get here.

At the end of a beautiful day what could be better than having a campfire? Well, only one thing. that is letting the hypnotic flames burn down to a dull glow, laying on the sand and stare at the stars, I can see the Milky Way and Mars. Listening to the sound of the waves on the beach. Smelling the smoke from the campfire. Alone in the darkness. Such a pure and beautiful night!