Park Sierra comes to Camp Cascadia

Our friends Wally and Verna came for an overnight stay. They have never been to our little piece of heaven before and they wanted to see for themselves the reason we come here every summer. And they, indeed, agreed that this is a great place to spend the summers away from the Central California heat!

Full-timing RVers since 1994, Wally and Verna enjoy this lifestyle too!

Their fifth-wheel is 30' long and rigs that size can be a bit tricky getting into our property. But Wally had no problems at all being the experienced driver he is.

Ken giving Wally the "thumbs up" in his clearance of the culvert and the trees as they leave this morning.


Life is good!

Time Flies

When you're having fun. And that's what we did with Jackie and Rick's visit . . . just had fun. It was a quick three days and we had a wonderful visit. Thanks for coming!

They have a 4-Wheel camper similar to ours . . . they are such handy campers the way they pop right up so you can stand up in them.

Rick spent a long time making sure those surf boards were secure for the ride home.

All packed and ready to go!

Sisters and friends forever!


Life is good!

Fresh Caught Kokanee for Dinner

Rick and Ken had their alarm clocks set for 4:30 this morning so they could leave early enough to be on the lake by 6:30 sharp. And they were home by noon with big smiles on their faces. Jackie met them as they drove in and immediately opened up the ice chest containing nine beautiful Kokanee, which is a land-locked Sockeye Salmon. I was close by with the camera, of course.

They spent a good part of yesterday preparing the boat since it's been three years since it's been used.

 Cleaning the fish.

 Two happy fishermen—they had a good time fishing and brought home dinner plus a few for the freezer!

Five minutes on each side is all it took.

We all enjoyed a tasty dinner of Kokanee, Caesar Salad, Quinoa, and fresh string beans. After dinner we enjoyed sitting around the campfire and relaxing after a full day.

Life is good!

Fun with Family

Yesterday Jackie and Rick arrived for a summer visit, and it's always great to see them up in this neck of the woods.They arrived just in time for happy hour.

We started with a bottle of champagne we had chilling in the fridge waiting for their arrival.

They were pretty beat after a seven-hour drive from Brookings.

We've missed them dearly, having not seen them in over a year.

They brought with them some delicious smoked salmon.

Pitifully Paltry Pickin's

Jackie and I went next door to find some blackberries to make a cobbler for dinner tonight, and this is what we found. 

 We came home with just enough berries to make a nice cobbler in the dutch oven!



Life is good!

Thursdays in Cascadia

Thursday is the day of the week we save to "go to town" —meaning we've made a list of errands to run from laundry to grocery shopping to whatever we need to do that week. Today was laundry day and from there we had lots of errands, one of which I will share with you here.

Grandpa's Farm (that's what we call it although the sign now reads Grandpa's Fresh Market) is between Lebanon and Albany and the fruits and vegetables they produce on this family-owned farm are out of this world. Last week we had the most delicious peaches we've ever tasted, and the blueberries were so flavorful it was almost like eating candy they were so sweet. And speaking of sweet . . . their corn, picked every morning, is to die for! It reminds us of the corn we used to pick and roast in a big campfire when we worked at a camp on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin nearly forty-seven years ago.

Farm workers are constantly delivering fresh-picked produce to replace that which has been sold inside the market.

Just look at these gorgeous blushing peaches.
And they are picked ready to eat right off the tree.

The tractor delivering this corn just left as we were pulling up.
Now that's gotta be almost as fresh as if we'd picked it ourselves!

Here I am picking out my favorite foursome!
Last week's were kinda puny . . . these are nice and big.

One of the things we miss most with the RV lifestyle is that we don't have a home garden . . . just our herbs we carry with us as we travel. Having these fresh tomatoes available to us is almost the same as having our own garden.

I had to quickly pass by this display of delicious freshly-baked
cherry pies and other goodies.

Here are the huge sweet-as-candy blueberries!

There was a sign as we walked in warning us that this was the last day for cherries, so we made sure a box of these sweet morsels ended up in our basket.

Grandpa's Farm is a bit of a drive for us (about 30 miles) if that's the only errand heading that way . . . but we enjoy the fresh produce and seem to always end up there.

Life is good!

Father's Day in August

Father's Day rolled around and Ken received a "Happy Father's Day call" from our first-born. She was quite apologetic about Ken not receiving a gift from her. She was so excited that she had given the gift a lot of thought, had purchased it on-line, had it gift wrapped, and arranged for a Saturday delivery . . . the Saturday before Father's Day . . . June 20. However, the delivery address was such that SHE received it at her mid-west home on the Saturday before Father's Day.

Needless to say she was easily forgiven and Ken looked forward to the future delivery . . . and today was that day. A message was left on the phone to me letting me know to expect the delivery today and warning me I would not see much of my husband in the next few days. Funny thing is . . . since June we have talked to several people who have read the series, are presently reading the books, and have expressed their love for this can't-put-it-down reading adventure.

Thanks S and M for a great gift. I'll let you know when I see your dad once again.

The trilogy, by Stieg Larsson, consists of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. See ya' later Ken!

Life is Good!

A Win-Win Situation

A few summers back we found this "trailer" that we thought would be a great idea to haul wood for projects in the wood shop. The problem with it turned out to be a very heavy trailer to manipulate onto the property to store, plus I personally thought it was an eyesore! We decided to get rid of it since we only used it a couple of times. Last summer we talked about it with our friend, Dave, telling him that we were going to try to sell it on Craig's List. His ears perked up and he, himself, expressed an interest in it. In the same conversation he mentioned an old shop stove he was going to get rid of because a friend of his was giving him a new one. After chatting more with Dave we agreed to make a trade . . . this trailer for his shop stove (which he felt will be much safer to use than the one we currently and had asked him to install in Ken's shop). So this is definitely a win-win situation.

Dave had a day off from the mill today . . . perfect time to come get the trailer.

He's a great handyman, able to do just about anything we need help with around here, in addition to becoming a good friend.

He'll be able to put this trailer to better use than we have.

On its way to a new home.

Life is good!

Summer Reading

When I'm in our California home-base I seem to not make time for reading . . . too many other things distract me from reading a good book. So I've been collecting some books that have been recommended to me from others, such as my sister Patty recommended "Younger Next Year for Women" which must mean I better start exercising on a more regular basis if I don't want to get feeling older. And I think "90 Minutes in Heaven" was another recommended by Patty . . . I guess we'll all die some day and it'd be nice to read about heaven from somebody who supposedly experienced it for an hour and a half.

Or "In Defense of Food" recommended by my sister Jackie who is the healthiest in the family. She also recommended "Eat Pray Love" which I've started and am not enjoying it enough to think I may finish although Jackie says "keep going, it gets better." Oh, I just remembered one that Jackie also recommended and that is "Sex Lives of Cannibals" that is due any day now from Amazon.com.

My granddaughter is loving reading "Gulliver's Travels" this summer so I thought I'd read it along with her since I've never read this classic!

I did finish "The Help" recommended by my daughter Jen, and loved it. "Say Good-Bye to Illness" was recommended by my NAET doctor, and I've had "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan (a favorite preacher) for years and really do intend to read it someday.

Better get started . . . however I do have a couple of quilts I want to get working on, and some tole painting I'd like to catch up on . . . and what about the year's batch of pesto and the plum jam I'd like to put up . . . hmmmmmm.

Life is good!