It's Always Something Major. Appliances, That Is

Oh! Yeah! Back at the beginning of the we had a bit of a kerfuffle with the kitchen-related major appliances. First, we lost function in one of the burners on the electric range that came with the house. The large, front one of course. We didn't replace it with the kitchen remodel I did last year, because Eric really wants to switch to a gas range, but there is no gas or propane here, so that means getting a tank, trenching, putting a hole in the foundation, etc. So you know, reallllly expensive. It seems counter productive to replace it with an electric one with the plan to hopefully go gas (well, dual-fuel, actually) in a few years.

That burner with the espresso maker on it, right there? Yeah, that one. 

Within a few days we noticed that the GIANT chest freezer in the mudroom that came with the place failed. CUSS! We got to it before much has really thawed, but when we were going to put stuff in the small freezer in the new "extra" fridge - also in the mudroom - we realized it stopped working, because it just got too cold for too long in the mudroom. Even though that fridge is "garage ready," apparently that is just for garages located in places that don't get below freezing for very long. Or for heated garages, because people who can put money into heating their garages throughout the winter usually wants a utility-grade, small, plain-white fridge? Sigh.

Meat and frequently used things went into the kitchen freezer which is also getting used for "daily" stuff like making ice and freezing "cubes" of canned dog food for Delia's dinner. What?

After The Big Thaw, the mudroom fridge's freezerr got some produce and more rarely used things. And yes, we buy butter at Cost and freeze it. So what? Like we're ever going to NOT use butter? Nonsense.

Well, the new fridge was still under warranty so I was hoping to get someone out to get it going and while they were here - with the manufacturer paying for the service all - they could look at the others. HOWEVER, the authorized dealers, whose numbers I got from the manufacturer, either don't come down here from Missoula for that particular manufacturer's warranty work (doesn't pay enough) OR don't come up our road when there's been 3' of snow recently.

Not very classy, but throwing away perfectly good food isn't classy at all.

I think the road is ready for us to get a service call, but I am not. I got really sick with a flu while on the DPMS World Tour (of the Pacific Northwest) and the house is a bit of a wreck post trip, etc. Maybe next week if the road stays clear? I have a feeling that the chest freezer is done and I have hope that a cockamamie plan* I have hatched will keep the new fridge going during the sub-freezing temps going forward. I'll run it by the repair guy when he's here. Meanwhile, the melting means that the ice-chests-buried-in-snow-on-the-deck-solution ended and we lost some garden and store-bought veg. Grrrr.

*If this plan works, you know I will boast about share it here!

Dr. Potter's Medicine Show

Even though February 2017 seems far in the future, the release of Dr. Potter's Medicine Show really is not far off at all. ACK! I spent November on two major projects: preparing the house for our moms to spend Thanksgiving weekend with us again this year and preparing for a *Dr. Potter's Medicine Show (DPMS) photo shoot!

One of the many thing neither of us knew when Eric started this literary journey is that new authors and/or non-famous individuals are required to do a lot of their own promotion. Eric has had great support from his agency and publisher - but you know I had to get my crafty hands all messed up in this, too. So I had the idea to do a cosplay-ish photo shoot with Eric as Dr. Potter! We just happen to have a generous and enthusiastic neighbor, Bob, who has a small Old West town in his backyard AND who spent his career as a professional photographer. Not only did he agree to let us use his town, he agreed to make the photos, lent us some props and costumes, gave lots of helpful and insightful suggestions, and just helped take it to the next level. Well, more like a couple-three levels up the chain! Our dear neighbor Carla, also contributed costumes!

A daguerreotype-ified shot by Randi.

We also recruited several other neighbors & friends to be "townsfolk" and they came out on a December Sunday to stand around outside in the Montana weather wearing what they dug out of their closets and what others brought. We. Are. Damn. Lucky.

A sepia shot.

Bob shot in both color and sepia. Because we knew we would ultimately use the photos in non-full-color, we were able to cobble together simple costumes for all our volunteers more easily: color coordination be damned. Eric's friend, Randi, was able to make the color photos look like daguerreotypes, too!

We knew we weren't likely to use color images as-is, but we thought it was a good idea to have them. Either way we did not consider color-coordination when dressing. Ahem.

Then afterwards we invited the whole "town" up to our place for a warm lunch and cool beverages. Not everyone could make it, but we nearly finished it all anyway.

I got to make and design **lots of cool stuff for this, too! But I will post about those things separately. Probably. (see below)

*Well, I spent the first week of December finishing up preparing for the photo shoot, too. Also, tidying up the house after our moms' visit and decorating for the holidays. I also dyed my roots. [wink] This is why no one got a holiday card this year... no time to make them, didn't send any.

**I'll just give you a list preview... because I know you're dying to know. I made Eric's suit and vest, customized the store-bought crate, designed and applied the Sagwa labels to the bottles, designed and painted the banner, & made some bonnets.

ADDENDUM: I'll add links to the various projects as I post them. I am nothing if not accommodating... about showing off my crafts, that is.

Chock-a-saw Sagwa Tonic Bottles
Promotional Banner

Hard as Hell Being Green Anymore

Remember how excited I was about having closer options for more recycling? Well, that's dead now.

Obviously I can take it to their facility in Hamilton, but I so rarely have any reason to go that way - it would be wasteful to make a special trip. So, I'll probably mostly be taking it into Missoula, but I have to verify where that place takes, because I'm not sure it's the exact same selection.

You might also remember that a couple other recycling options were killed earlier this year, too. Damn it, what a drag. 

Not THAT Easy Being Green

Remember how excited I was about the expanding recycling opportunities around here?

From Target in Missoula where I could take the glass.

From the locally owned grocery where we could take numbers 1 and 2 plastics. Perhaps it's blurry because I was shaking with sorrow or maybe because of the downpour. 

Yeah.

When I was at grocery a young man from the volunteer organization that runs the recycling program was there collecting, so I was able to ask, "Whyyyyyyyyyy?" It turns out that they have to send their plastics to southern California and with oil costs so low right now, it's cheaper to make new plastic. The non-profit, volunteer-run organization is currently having to pay to recycle the plastics. They can't do that and maintain other services. When I told him about the glass recycling at Target being discontinued, the said they were surprised it lasted this long. With the local glass recycling, even one wrong item in the whole giant dumpster and the whole batch is considered contaminated. Of course, we can't trust the citizenry to not put cardboard or paper or caps or freakin' dirty - or even clean -diapers in the glass recycling which is a whole 67 feet from a more-conveniently located garbage can and likely about 15 feet from their vehicle if they drove or rode one.

The good news is that I was told that they are working diligently to get the plastic recycling back, but my hopes are not high for the glass. I hope I'm horribly, wonderfully wrong.

The Fifth Season

And then suddenly smoke season came to the Bitterroot.

Despite the man-made structures in the foreground, the view from the supermarket parking lot in Stevensville is pretty spectacular even with the smoke.

From what we hear, a few small, contained fires caused this. It makes for some beautiful sunrises and sunsets, though. So far, it doesn't really smell all that smokey outside, but I guess clothesline season is over for now.

Keeping Busy

Not a lot of posts lately for two reasons. First, house guest season has started (!) and when we're enjoying our guests we're doing just that, not taking tons of photos or thinking up ways to make those visits into posts. Visiting us is a little bit of getting away from it all (or so we like to think), so we don't think our loved ones should feel like they'll be blogged about and upon. Second, I have been preparing to participate with a couple of neighbor-friends in the first annual Bitterroot 50-mile Garage Sale! I have been going through all the boxes, cupboards, closets, drawers, and bins.  Between myself and the others, we have made good use of the 15' x 20' storage unit we rented in the valley. WOO!  

You don't have to be able to make out the words, just look at that picture for Saturday (4th from the left). It's only supposed to be 3 degrees hotter than Friday, but for some reason those 3 degrees make a BIG difference in the thumbnail representation of the day. Oof.

This morning we'll set up a pop-up tent in front to give us another 10' x 10' and hopefully sell the heck out of all our crap stuff! There has been A LOT of advertising and marketing for this and we are told people are coming from out of state to shop the 200 (!) vendors with crap wares for sale!  It's going to be a long, hot couple of days, but it should be fun and will hopefully replace some of our unused crap things with more useful cash to put towards other summer projects. It's just a nice feeling that our crap belongings that we don't use or need anymore might have another life with someone who will use or does need them.

If I have the time and inclination, I will try to get pictures of our sale site. WOO!

In the meantime, we attended E's employer's Employee Picnic and ran into an old friend. BIGFOOT FOREVER!

And while I was making trips to and from the house and the truck with boxes and materials for the sale, I spotted this super downy feather stuck to a weed underneath where a couple of pairs of swallows are nesting. They must be getting close to fledging! Or something!

 

In less bright sunlight, the feather was more of a dove grey color. Er, swallow chick grey.

After I took a few photos, I picked up the feather for a closer look and noticed this wee fellow on the quill. This creature (cricket? grasshopper?) was at most 1/4" long.  Neat!

Speaking of yellow-brown wildlife, this toad gave me quite a start a couple of weeks ago when I was draining the water out of the woodpile tarp. I suppose he'd been eating the mosquito larvae that I was concerned about. I wonder if it's this same toad I saw last year over by the hose bib on the house? It's about twice the size of that one.

Funky Cheese Madonna or How I Used a Candy Mould to Shape Cheese... Like a Boss

What the heck?

Many years ago when Eric and I went on our very first overnight trip together we spent three weeks traveling around the Czech Republic in a rented Skoda Fabia. (yup)

Neato thing: I never noticed the reflection of a human man walking hand-in-hand with a bear cub in Eric's sunglasses before this filter was applied.  Why the filter? Ask the self-proclaimed poopy face (right).  

Of course this economy model didn't have a way to plug an iPod into the stereo, so we listened to Czech radio stations and of course there were the occasional English-language pop songs played... over and over.  Like radio stations do with pop songs. There was one that really sounded like the chorus (and title) had to be "Funky Cheese Madonna."  We learned on one of our last days in country that it was actually something like "she thinks that she's Madonna" ("She's Madonna" by Robbie Williams).

Sooooooooo, I decided to try to make a Funky Cheese Madonna for Eric for Valentine's Day.  Now what?  Well, I found a Virgin Mary chocolate mould on Ebay (like ya' do) and ordered that up in, like, October or November.  What can I say, I'm a planner.  Or prefer to be, anyway.

Then I set about to find Eric's favorite cheese, Cambozola, in Missoula or the Bitterroot.  Not so easy. This is a cheese you can get at Fred Meyer in our old neighborhood in Portland, but Toto, we're not in Portland anymore.  So every different grocery or super market I was in I would stalk the cheese section to no avail. Then I remembered that there was a wine/cheese type shop in downtown Missoula that we'd been recommended for wine.  So I looked them up on the magical interwebz, found their website and emailed their "contact us" address asking if they carried it and if not, is it something I could order.  Well, lo and behold, they replied on a weekend night! And yes they had Cambazola!  WOO!  So I went the pre-Valentine's Day Monday morning after hand therapy and bought two wedges.

I packed them in a brown paper bag and hid them in the back of the "extra" fridge in the top shelf shadows.  Then on the pre-Valentine's Day Thursday, I brought them out in the morning to warm/soften.  After they were what I thought was soft enough, I got out the mold, washed & dried it, and set about packing that funky cheese into Madonna. As it were.

I was able to get both moulds filled with one wedge with just a little extra. For the most part I removed the rind, but there's a little in there for flavor and for lack of interest in fussing with it too-too much.

When they were filled, I double checked for voids on what would be the top surface, filled any I could, then wiped most of the smeared cheese off the non-Madonna part of the mould.  Then I covered that with parchment paper, put the whole thing in a freezer bag and hid it in the crisper in the "extra" fridge.

I let it chill for many hours... like 24-ish... then I was able to pop/coax them out onto a serving stand (a wooden sushi server in this case) and re-refrigerate them until gift giving time. I am sure just a few hours would have been enough, but that didn't work for my secretive schedule.

I am so pleased with how they turned out!  First, that they turned out at all and second that they look like slightly crumbly and mossy old marble.  I had to include a shot that better shows the relief, just because.

Speaking of planning, sometime in early 2014 I was shown this material and I knew I had to make Eric boxer shorts out of it for Valentine's Day.  And luckily, I had reorganized the office/studio in November so one of the moms could stay in there over Thanksgiving weekend. I found the material and remembered/realized why I had it.

  This was also a nice backup should the Funky Cheese Madonna fail.

I'll Trade You.

We were invited to a Harvest/Barter Party and boy, was it cool!  Not only were there lots of interesting and friendly people to visit with, but it was a beautiful day on a great piece of property in the valley.  "What's a barter party?" you ask?  I'd never heard of this either, but I am sure glad that I have now.  Basically, everyone brings things we have grown, harvested, caught, canned, baked, frozen, or made that we might have more of than we need or want and then we all barter for what others have brought.  Also it was potluck.

At first I was stymied about what to bring. Eric suggested baking up some sweet treats, but it seemed like maybe longer-lasting things like canned good or freezable foods were more on-target.  We didn't have that.  Then I floated dog treats by him and he agreed that was a good idea.  Something a little different and when I last made them to share with his coworkers many raves were issued.

The tags say "BACON BONES & BATS For DOGS" with ingredients listed on the bag in case of food allergies.

I tend to overdo rather than under-do if given enough time to over think and so I became less convinced that dog treats were enough.  This is despite the invitation saying that any amount is more than welcome.  So with a just few days to spare, I said to myself, "Eff it, I'm making gin" and went out early the next morning to pick up supplies.

A 1.75 ml bottle of vodka yielded <4.5 pints of gin once "processed."

Plus, I got to use some new stamps I picked up recently to make labels!  One of the few requirements is that all barter items are clearly labeled with what it is and who brought it, so I was required to make labels.

On the day of the party I reread the invitation and worried we weren't bringing enough.  It's our first time, we don't want to look stingy, right? RIGHT!?  Annnnnd since, my friend Tiffany at Fizzy Party, had just sent me a fun "scare package" full of Halloween crafty stuff, I decided to whip out a few handmade Halloween cards (stationary was on the list of popular items from previous years).  I didn't take pictures of all four unique cards as I was feeling pressed for time, but here's how I presented them on the table.  All four were bartered in exchange for a one-pound bag of hand-raked, fresh cranberries that another guest had picked up on a trip to Wisconsin.

Of course, I had planned to take a few photos of the tables laden with produce, home-canned and homemade goods, but we were having too much fun visiting, enjoying the weather and views, and paying attention so we could learn how it worked for me to hassle with photos. Sometimes you give up documenting the moments to actually live them.  You'll just have to imagine an large, clean, brightly lit garage/shop with 3 or more tables and some sawhorses with boards on top stretched down the middle, all covered with colorfully table clothes and loaded up with great things.  There were fresh, dried, and canned fruits and veg, frozen meats, knitted and sewn things, various forms of alcohol, baked goods, handmade cards (in addition to mine), glass art, seeds, bulbs, and roots.  I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, too.  It worked like this: the host and hostess started by introducing themselves and describing what they had to barter and then we just went around the tables, kind of in order.  We were reminded that it was okay to say "no thank you" if you just didn't want something and encouraged to not get our feelings hurt in such cases.  Last rule: once you've bartered an item, remove it from the table. Then we were set loose to barter!  For us, the first three pints of gin went quickly, then there was a bit of a lull.  Next the dog treats started going and then I traded the cards for the cranberries.  Just when I was thinking we'd go home with gin, I was approached about the last jar.  Then the last of the dog treats found homes in quick order and we were done.  Prior to beginning, Eric and I discussed items we were interested in and then both bartered around.  Eric started us a little pile on the edge of the building, as did everyone else.  Our little pile got kind of big!

Anyone who makes anything knows how much fun it is to share and how great it feels when someone appreciates what you've made, perhaps especially if they make things, too, and know the time, thought, skill, talent, etc. that can go into making. That was the most fun,but it still was really fun to come home with all these great things made and grown by others.

The oldest person we traded with was Mabel, aged 90, 91, or 93 depending on who's telling.  She wanted some gin and we wanted her to have it, so we have maybe more heirloom tomatoes than we need, but we'll find a way to use them.  The youngest person was a fellow who mumbled his name into his companion's knees and who I would guess was about 4 years old.  He wanted dog treats and had made chili kits containing herbs, spices, a couple-few finds of beans, and a recipe card hand decorated with colored markers.

If the hosts do this again next year, I hope we're invited. I'm already socking away ideas of things to take.  I bet I know quite a few people who like this idea and I hope some friends back in Oregon and beyond will organize something like it.

Who wants dog hair?  We have more than enough.

What I Did This Summer by Bigfoot

WHAT I DID THIS SUMMER

by Bigfoot

     My summer activities fall into two categories: 1) checking out some local things in the Bitterroot Valley and Missoula and 2) traveling to and from and staying in Bend, Oregon.  

     One thing I got to do this summer in the Bitterroot Valley was check out some local breweries' tasting rooms which I hadn't been able to go to before.  One interesting thing about alcohol laws in Montana as compared to Oregon is that in Montana a business serving alcohol does not have to serve food.  This is especially case in tasting rooms which have a 3-drink limit.  It also means that dogs can work there and that you're welcome to bring your own food from home or from a local restaurant.

Here I am at Blacksmith Brewing in Stevensville.  The brewery is housed in an old smithy that then became an industrial laundry.  

Lolo Peak Brewing is newly opened in Lolo and claims to be adding a kitchen this autumn.  The beer is okay and the atmosphere it really good.

     Another thing I got to do this summer was go to the Paul McCartney concert in Missoula!  It was held at the University of Montana's football stadium and was supposedly the largest music event ever held in Montana with 25,000 in attendance.  Whoa.  Missoula's population is under 70,000 and the "Missoula Metropolitan Area" has less than 112,000 people, so 25,000 is a big chunk!  Of course, people traveled from out of the area to attend and rumor has it that hotels were booked up before the tickets even went on sale.  I stayed with friends in Florence, so I didn't have to sleep rough just because I got my ticket at the last minute.

I had a pretty good seat, too.  Not up front, but plenty close and with access to a VIP box with food and beverages... all for FREE!

Seeing a Beatle perform was not the only non-beer excitement I got up to, I also got to see the tail end of the 102nd Annual Creamery Picnic Parade in Stevensville complete with Shriners in fezzes driving wee cars.  

We lucked into the end of the parade route when we walked from our car to the Stevensville Library book sale.  Never miss a library book sale if you can help it.

     While traveling to and from Bend, Oregon, I tried to get there as fast as possible, but made sure to stop at some of the more interesting rest stops and sites for necessary breaks, especially places I didn't visit last time I was spending time in Bend.  Ahem.  

Overlooking the Columbia River from the Oregon side, on I-84 somewhere between the I-82 and US-97 interchanges.

There is a very windy rest stop near Sprague Lake in Central Washington along Interstate-90.  This particular trip was very moody weather-wise.

I  kept meaning to stop at the Mountain Identifier on US-97, but would either say "next time" or not notice it coming up and zoom by.  On my last trip, I ended up having to take US-197 in order to meet an old pal in The Dalles for breakfast and was disappointed in myself for having put off this opportunity.  What a nice surprise that US-197 has its own Mountain Identifier!

The view from these spots is great for seeing the mountains, at least a half-dozen of them.  This view is sort of southwest-facing, but the Mountain Identifier does nearly 180 degrees of identification of Mountains.

     I was so busy in Bend, Oregon that I didn't get to do much site-seeing or attend to much that was photogenic.  There was a lovely view from the job site, however, and I would frequently eat lunch while taking it in.  Verizon ate the photo of that.

On my last trip my colleague forgot to pack her work shoes, so we had go get her some.  Of course, even on Saturday our workday starts well before shops open so we did what we could wearing sandals, then drove over to the mall.  We got there several minutes before they opened and walked around.  We came around a corner to this beast and I had her get a shot of me with it.  Pretty impressive for a mall Mexican restaurant.

El Rancho Grande was not open for business at 9:55a on Saturday.

Another interesting thing on my last trip was that my colleague had a wedding reception to attend in Portland, so we took a couple of days off to do that and so she could see some more of her friends and family.  Days off are not something we did really, so even driving 3 hours each way was worth it.  First thing she did was meet her friend at Ikea.

She was very excited to get in there and pick up some things like wooden hangers, shadow box frames for her foreign  toothpaste collection, and some other odds and ends.

     After that she ran some work-related errands and hung out with her mom on the Westside.  That night, though, she drove back into SE Portland to meet some great friends at another great friend's restaurant, Taqueria Nueve.  All her friends were very welcoming and didn't mind that I tagged along, but I tried to just sort of blend into the background and let her catch up.

Everyone raved about the food, as she knew they would and the staff did a great job of accommodating a party of an unknown number of  people showing up at various times.  The drinks were also delicious and thanks to Dale's permanent status as the Designated Driver, my colleague was able to partake of a few margaritas.  Thanks to her mother, she was able to retrieve Khan the next morning.

   Again, I held back while she caught up with some her long(est)-time friends and "newer" friends, too, but I could not resist getting one photo to document my time there.  Of course the happy couple had a professional photographer there to document their special time and we all couldn't resist getting all meta about it.

My colleague was wearing a dress so she didn't lay on the ground like the pro who is not naked despite what it looks like.  If only there had been another photographer stander behind her to capture the whole moment to take the meta to another level.

   Now that I'll be spending the autumn and winter in the Bitterroot, I hope to get out a bit more to the local sites.  There are more breweries here and in Missoula to visit, after all.

Getting Political

There's a house right across from the post office with a fence on which they post political signs.  With mid-terms coming up it's all about the local stuff.  And in our small town located in a valley of small towns that means that some of those signs are painted on plywood using hardware store stencils. 

 And look a "Tara"!

I will add two more bits of information:
1. The candidates with "homemade" signs in this photo also have fancy, professional signs in other places around and at least a couple of the candidates with fancy, professional signs in this photo have "homemade" signs elsewhere.

2. The day after I took this photo another sign was added to the fence. It appears to have been printed with an ink jet printer and covered with plastic of some sort, but not covered well enough to keep the ink from running around the bottom edge.

In conclusion, I really like this. It makes me happy.

Driving

I wonder if I'll stop getting carded now that my license photo is slightly less unflattering?

Since I finally got a haircut and can achieve a non-hobo look when desired, I finally went ahead and got my Montana State Driver License.  Well, I don't actually have the license proper, but I have a temporary, paper licence and holes punched into my Oregon license that spell out "VOID."

Yup, I'm an organ donor. I hope everyone considers being an organ donor, too, annnnnnd then does something to make it so.

What I really wanted to show everyone was these cool maps they have behind the counter at the Stevensville branch of the DMV.  The top one is labeled "Out of State Transfers from 3/23/2009 to 6/17/2013" and if FULL of pins, one from each person who has moved here and gotten there new license at the Stevensville office. There is supposed to be one for Eric in the heap of pins stuck into Portland.

The bottom maps is labeled "Out of State Transfers since 6/17/2013" and I got to watch a red pin go into Portland for me.