We woke up to 28 degrees and foggy. Not cold compared to some parts of the country, but enough to make it brisk and combined with the fog, worthy of a couple pictures. Frozen moisture on spider webs are always amazing. I probably should have put away this sprinkler by now, a little late in […]
First snow of the year
It wasn’t much, but it was indeed snow falling today in the Willamette Valley. This fall has been very wet and warm, and while that is fairly typical for the northwest, we do prefer the temps to drop so at least it “feels” like winter. It sounds like the winter forecast is setting up for […]
Family Trip to South Beach State Park
We took a quick two-day family trip to South Beach state park just after Labor Day. We didn’t camp; Michael won’t camp at the beach. Too much sand. So we always stay in a yurt. We love them. Less packing and unpacking to do but you still have most of the fun “camping” stuff. This […]
Veggie Soup Mix (Pressure Canning)
Over some time, I’ve shown you how to make homemade chicken stock, and how to can chicken. Those two things are wonderful by themselves, but what if you could add Veggie Soup Mix to the package which would enable you to have a healthy meal on the table in 15 min? That is the sort of […]
The Trick to Picking a Perfect Pear
In a previous post, I mentioned that we picked 124 pounds of pears. When I grew up, we had a pear tree. We often picked the Bartlett pears when they were yellow because a yellow Bartlett pear is a ripe Bartlett pear. Right? WRONG! There is a trick to picking a perfect pear, and I’m going […]
Updates, Updates, Get Your Updates
It has been a very busy past few weeks. First I started by summer pruning some of the apple trees. Just a couple. Then we realized the pears needed to be picked. We picked all the Bartlett trees. One hundred forty-six pounds of pears. Since it was getting close to the end of August and […]
A Tale of Two Bucks
It’s breeding season here on the Banks of Salt Creek. It has been just over two years since I experienced my first breeding. I’m practically an old pro now. I watch to make sure it happens. I bring the girls back multiple times a day or two. I guess you could say I’m quite the […]
Home Canning Chicken
I have wanted to post about Home Canning Chicken since the blog began. However, because I didn’t take any good pictures this post will be more like a chat than a slide show. It is so simple that we really don’t need pictures….plus, pictures of chicken in boiling water are not very attractive. Canning is […]
How Does Our Garden Grow 2016 Edition
It is time for the annual “How Does Our Garden Grow” report for 2016 First of all, we are trying to “define” the garden area. One of the things we did this year was to move the boys columnar apple trees to either side of the entrance to the garden. We’ve had these trees for […]
Marionberry Ice Cream
Marionberry Ice Cream is one of our favorites. Just in case you don’t know, a marionberry is a cross between Chehalem and Olallie blackberries. Our own Oregon State University, in cooperation with the USDA-ARS breeding program, developed the berry back in the 1940’s-1950’s. The ice cream is a vanilla base that we mix the berries into […]
Silver Falls State Park Hike
Oregon sure is beautiful. We have to put up with a lot of rain, and summers that don’t warm up until two days ago, but it is beautiful. A perfect example is Silver Falls State Park and our LONG hike we did on Saturday of Fourth of July weekend. Having lived in Oregon most of […]
Milk Hen
Some people say that chickens are not smart; I have a Milk Hen that will prove those people wrong. It began with a spill of goat milk. I had accidentally spilled the strip cup milk one morning when one of our Austrolorp hens was in the milking room. She went over to inspect it, and […]