Gasp!
I'm the mother of a high-schooler. Part of me keeps thinking "how the heck did this happen?"
The snarky/romantic side keeps answering "well, a man and a woman got together..."
This plays in my head over and over.
When Chirp chirp was just a babe, people, older ladies in particular, would constantly advise to enjoy it now, it goes by so fast. I'm a freak of nature, or something, because it hasn't felt fast at all. It just feels odd that now I'm one of those people who has high school kids--and I'm not sure how I reached this point. Wasn't there supposed to be a manual handed out or something? Shouldn't there have been an official letter in the mail? "Hey Lady--your daughter's going into the high-school!"
I don't know. I just have this discomfited feeling.
Chirp-chirp, on the other hand, is rockin' her new status and making me proud. Changes aren't her strong point, but you'd never know it to see how she's handling it all. I am SO proud of her!
This past week, I've made three fail foods. The first was zucchini frit-foo-young. That's when you try to make zucchini fritters for a crowd, but omit the flour from the mix. The second was creme bruleaky. That's creme brulee that doesn't set up, but it's your aunt's birthday and everyone at the table is dying to see what incredible treat you've made for dessert. The third fail food was coconut ice crud. That's where you take a lovely recipe for coconut ice cream and forget to put the sugar in. That was for Grandma's 89th birthday, a mere three days after the creme bruleaky incident. With the same crowd. I tired to hand over my baking crown, but no one would take it. Maybe that has to do with the crusty smears of ravioli stuffing gone awry decorating it?
Grouse season has started. This means that turkeys can be viewed at every turn in the road, but the grouse are invisible. This shouldn't be confused with turkey season, when grouse fly up from under your feet with every other step you take and turkeys don't seem to exist. Turkey season does start here in a couple of weeks, at which point I'm sure we'll see lots of something else. Of course, I don't hunt for anything else, so I'm looking forward to it!
We did see a badger the other day. Thankfully, the badger saw us and decided it was easier to melt back into the trees than to stake a claim on his territory. Also saw a couple of snakes that day engaged in a little bow-chicka-bow-bow. But no grouse, of course.
Today I'm attempting this month's Daring Bakers challenge. Hopefully my streak of bad performance in the kitchen is over and I'll meet with success. Of course, it's such a yummy challenge that I won't mind repeating it over. And over.
Neither will the resident high-schooler! (Gasp!)
Showing posts with label hunting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hunting. Show all posts
Friday, September 9, 2011
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Weekend recap
This past weekend was by far one of the most productive weekends we've had around here for awhile.
Saturday morning started out cold and dreary, with me staring at the bathroom floor. Not only were we STILL not going to Crater Lake (boring old family, anyway!) but the bathroom floor didn't get repainted this summer and now it was cold and wintry and I'd have to stare at this stupid old not-very-well painted floor for another whole winter because I was too lazy to do it this summer and it's all just stupid anyhow, isn't it, and my toes are starting to look kinda old.
Then I had some coffee and the sun came out and the forecast said it would get into the low 80's. Boo-yah!
This weekend I cleaned and repainted the bathroom floor, Mr. Boom repainted the house trim I accidentally stripped off, then not-so-accidentally finished stripping a week ago. We repainted the swinging bench on the back porch, and I even (finally!) got around to finishing up the paint job on the front porch columns, a job started (I kid you not) about six years ago.
Oh, and I also opened the beehive to check on the health of my favorite little hymenopteras, and give them a little bit of a menthol mixture proclaimed to be the best at preventing bees from getting mites or dying off in other mysterious ways. Also, we managed to mow the lawn and till some straw into a garden bed that needs some serious help with its vegetative content.
Sunday morning I woke up ridiculously early and persuaded Mr. Boom to get out of bed to go hunting. And guess what?!! We (he) finally brought home a grouse for supper! In case you're keeping count, we're up to grouse-6 and humans-1. I also found a rather nice cep which was served up as the best little side dish to the best little grouse breast and leg ever. Yummy!
Oh, and doughnuts. We also made more doughnuts on Sunday. Yum. Oh, and twice-baked potatoes. Mr. Boom makes a killer twice-baked. We had those for dessert a few hours after our grouse entree.
Yes, a great weekend here. The touch-up work on the front porch continues, but the weather is holding up for now, and is expected to stay nice for the rest of the week. I think we'll get it finished and I won't be fretting it over the winter through.
I love fall!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Musings from the middle of the night
I've been leading a very uninteresting life lately.
Per doctor's orders, I'm laying off using my right hand as much as possible. The splint was removed last Friday, just in time for the weekend, and just in time to leap into doing all the things that hadn't been getting done while I was laid up. Obviously, my right hand was jealous of the way my left hand and I were beginning to get along so well, because the first thing my right hand did on Saturday morning was cut my left hand rather severely with my newly sharpened Global chef knife while lopping off beet tops.
Ooouuuch.
Chirp-chirp starts eighth grade on Wednesday. She and her classmates are the top dawgs on campus this year. She's sad that she only has one friend in one class only this year. Hopefully her lunch period will jive with more of her friends' schedules. Better yet, maybe she'll add to her circle of close friends. They're a good bunch of kids, but it's always good to branch out, I think.
Today was the opening day of grouse season. Mr. Boom took the day off, and after my almost-daily doctor appointment, we headed to the hills. Grouse are abundant around here, and dumb as heck. But maybe they're not quite dumb enough, as we didn't see a single one today! We did find an enormous round of wood we managed to hoist into the back of the car and bring home. Mr. Boom wants to make an outdoor table from it.
The most exciting part of the day was toward the end. We'd given up on grouse and decided to follow another road that leads to a nice patch of boletes from which we've harvested some great fungi in years past. We drove quite a distance down the road, only to have it suddenly end in a quasi-parking area. Beyond the turn-around area the road had been decommissioned. "Well, okay" we thought. This isn't a bad thing. We can still hike in to the spot, and maybe there will be fewer people looking for mushrooms.
As we were getting out of the car, a gi-freaking-normous elk crossed the path in front of us. I scrambled to find Mr. Boom's camera (mine died and has yet to be replaced) but couldn't find it before the elk passed. A moment later, though, a second and even larger elk appeared in the same spot. This guy was at least a 6x6 (meaning six branches on each antler). He too paused and gazed at us, then moved on into the thick trees on either side of the decommissioned road/path. We were quite breathless, and looking at each other in amazement when a third gi-freaking-normous elk appeared. Again the pause, the gaze, and the eerily silent passage into the trees.
We eventually got ourselves together and started down the path. Just as the car was out of visual range, and just past where the elk had crossed the path, we heard the cougar. The very loud and angry cougar. The cougar that yoyled and yelped and screamed. The cougar that was between us and the car. After it quieted down and our pulses were back in the normal range again, we decided to continue on. Neither one of us really wanted to get closer to the source of that sound, even though the safety of the car was on the other side.
We had walked a few hundred yards further when the rumbling started. Mr. Boom's advice of "GET BEHIND A TREE" sounded good, so I did. The sound of a hundred bison (or maybe just three large elk?) stampeding toward us grew louder, but then veered away.
Our best guess is that a cougar had a relatively fresh kill still near the original road. The elk, which were removing themselves from our presence, must have then entered her presence and pissed her off. The elk eventually took off and were looping back around to the decommissioned road ahead of us when they heard or smelled us, at which point we didn't hear or see them again.
We continued on to where the mushrooms used to grow, only to find it all logged out. Instead of Ponderosa Pines and boletes, there were a few scraggly tamaracks and pile after pile after pile of slash.
No grouse, no fungi, no pics of wild animals. Just a big round of wood. Still, it was nice to get off the couch and get out of the house. Just don't tell the doctor. Also, I'm not really typing this, because that would also be against doctor's orders. Time to tape the hand back up and behave, I guess.
BORING!
Per doctor's orders, I'm laying off using my right hand as much as possible. The splint was removed last Friday, just in time for the weekend, and just in time to leap into doing all the things that hadn't been getting done while I was laid up. Obviously, my right hand was jealous of the way my left hand and I were beginning to get along so well, because the first thing my right hand did on Saturday morning was cut my left hand rather severely with my newly sharpened Global chef knife while lopping off beet tops.
Ooouuuch.
Chirp-chirp starts eighth grade on Wednesday. She and her classmates are the top dawgs on campus this year. She's sad that she only has one friend in one class only this year. Hopefully her lunch period will jive with more of her friends' schedules. Better yet, maybe she'll add to her circle of close friends. They're a good bunch of kids, but it's always good to branch out, I think.
Today was the opening day of grouse season. Mr. Boom took the day off, and after my almost-daily doctor appointment, we headed to the hills. Grouse are abundant around here, and dumb as heck. But maybe they're not quite dumb enough, as we didn't see a single one today! We did find an enormous round of wood we managed to hoist into the back of the car and bring home. Mr. Boom wants to make an outdoor table from it.
The most exciting part of the day was toward the end. We'd given up on grouse and decided to follow another road that leads to a nice patch of boletes from which we've harvested some great fungi in years past. We drove quite a distance down the road, only to have it suddenly end in a quasi-parking area. Beyond the turn-around area the road had been decommissioned. "Well, okay" we thought. This isn't a bad thing. We can still hike in to the spot, and maybe there will be fewer people looking for mushrooms.
As we were getting out of the car, a gi-freaking-normous elk crossed the path in front of us. I scrambled to find Mr. Boom's camera (mine died and has yet to be replaced) but couldn't find it before the elk passed. A moment later, though, a second and even larger elk appeared in the same spot. This guy was at least a 6x6 (meaning six branches on each antler). He too paused and gazed at us, then moved on into the thick trees on either side of the decommissioned road/path. We were quite breathless, and looking at each other in amazement when a third gi-freaking-normous elk appeared. Again the pause, the gaze, and the eerily silent passage into the trees.
We eventually got ourselves together and started down the path. Just as the car was out of visual range, and just past where the elk had crossed the path, we heard the cougar. The very loud and angry cougar. The cougar that yoyled and yelped and screamed. The cougar that was between us and the car. After it quieted down and our pulses were back in the normal range again, we decided to continue on. Neither one of us really wanted to get closer to the source of that sound, even though the safety of the car was on the other side.
We had walked a few hundred yards further when the rumbling started. Mr. Boom's advice of "GET BEHIND A TREE" sounded good, so I did. The sound of a hundred bison (or maybe just three large elk?) stampeding toward us grew louder, but then veered away.
Our best guess is that a cougar had a relatively fresh kill still near the original road. The elk, which were removing themselves from our presence, must have then entered her presence and pissed her off. The elk eventually took off and were looping back around to the decommissioned road ahead of us when they heard or smelled us, at which point we didn't hear or see them again.
We continued on to where the mushrooms used to grow, only to find it all logged out. Instead of Ponderosa Pines and boletes, there were a few scraggly tamaracks and pile after pile after pile of slash.
No grouse, no fungi, no pics of wild animals. Just a big round of wood. Still, it was nice to get off the couch and get out of the house. Just don't tell the doctor. Also, I'm not really typing this, because that would also be against doctor's orders. Time to tape the hand back up and behave, I guess.
BORING!
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