The Scoop On Poop

This is a great article by Enumclaw’s own garden guru and author Marianne Binetti.

Now is a great time to get the scoop on poop
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Sunday Stills Challenge: Food

Christmas shaped scones best enjoyed with blueberry jam from our own blueberries.

Scones courtesy of Paddock Boy and the Little Cowboy.

Ride With Friends, Old and New

Took a short jaunt back to my old neighborhood yesterday. We rode trails up in Taylor Mountain Regional Park. I used to live less than 5 miles from those trails and for quite a few years rode them daily with Ariel. Ah the memories! Things have really changed up there in the last 12 years or so. The area was owed by Manke Lumber Company and recently was purchased by King County. Since then, lots of work has been done to maintain old trails and reroute poorly placed ones to accommodate salmon-bearing streams. I love riding in that area pretty much any time of year. The terrain is varied and occasionally there might be a bear or cougar sighting! Berries are abundant in July!

This ride was with a couple of my close girlfriends and my good friends Alayne and her husband Matt and three new folks I hadn’t met or ridden with before. We all had a great time and I look forward to riding with each of them again in the future.

Forgive the Buena ears in the photos as I only have pictures of everyone else so far. If I get some from the others, I will add them to this post later.

Here is one group photo from my good friend C’s camera; Buena and I are third from the left. Buena has Old Macs boots on, in case you were wondering why her front feet look so large in comparison!

Goat Update

It’s been a few weeks since we brought Pepper and Ginger home. And it’s been at least a week since I have posted any pictures or video. What they say is true about goats not liking the rain. They have been staying in their dry stall and only venturing out into the pen occasionally between showers. It has been a few days since they got their ration of blackberry cuttings, too. It was dry enough for me to cut them a nice big wheelbarrow load this morning. And they are really enjoying their scritching sessions with people now. They both can be rather insistent about it actually! Ginger isn’t too sure about me putting a camera right up in her face, but Pepper could care less!

Their coats are starting to feel nice and soft, especially Pepper. I have added a little bit of black oil sunflower seed to their diet to help with the itchy skin. If that doesn’t do the trick then I will start adding a touch of corn oil in a few weeks. Their body condition has improved, but they still don’t have as much muscle as I would like. Time to start working on the halter-breaking and going for walks. We also need to expand their paddock area so they have more room to move, or goat-proof a small pasture area for turnout during the day.

New Toy

I killed our digital camera. We replaced it yesterday and will send the original one out for repairs. Here are some shots from today with the new one.

One Last Experiment

I wasn’t able to track down any blackberries or huckleberries this past weekend, much to my dismay. I missed them by about a month probably. It’s just too hot over in Mason county to get any decent berries in mid-August. The search was “fruitful” none-the-less!

I came back from my very short walk with a very large amount of Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium and Mahonia nervosa) berries! A rather large bucketful in fact. And de-stemming Oregon grape berries is so much easier than currants! I had it done, with the help of one of my aunts, in less than an hour! I haven’t weighed the berries, but a one gallon zipper bag is full and sitting in the freezer awaiting it’s destined recipe(s).

While out on my search for berries I always find myself admiring how unspoiled certain areas on the forested hillsides are. The Oregon grape bushes were thriving Under the shade of the Douglas fir, madrona, shore pine and western hemlock, as well as the salal and many other plants. One that frequently catches my eye over in that area is a shrub that has bright orange fruits this time of year. At other times it has adorable flowers. And the leaves are distinctive. The last time I identified it I didn’t lock it very well into my memory. This time I will as it will be posted here for all of you to see, as well as for me to refer back to in the future!

Smith’s Fairy Bells/Lanterns (Disporum smithii (Hook.) or Prosartes menziesii) supposedly do have an edible fruit, but I have deiced that I am not going to sample it until I have a large quantity in front of me at one time. Each bush doesn’t produce much fruit so far as I can tell. I do hope to get some growing here in the treed area of our yard. It reminds me of native low-growing plant trillium that we have here in the Pacific northwest. My very wilted specimen:

Winding Down

The berry season is starting to wind down around here sort of. Our blueberry bush is loaded and the Himalayan blackberries are just now starting to ripen up. However, I got skunked on Sunday looking for huckleberries or blackberries up in the mountains.

We were at a pretty heavily used area for a mountain bike race and there had been a Backcountry Horsemen prize ride the weekend before that. No berries to be found in the camp area. Plus, my son wanted to ride in the kids’ race so we couldn’t stray far from the start/finish line. He got second in his division. :)

Last night I made a batch of blueberry syrup (with berry bits) from the berries that Paddock Boy and the little man picked. There are still more berries, but most will probably be frozen to use in muffins and pancakes through the winter.

I think my canning may be close to wrapping up. Only blackberries and huckleberries would spur me back into action. And I soooo want some blackberries!

We’re heading to The Cabin this weekend and maybe I can find blackberries over there, but usually they are well done and gone by now. I’ll be looking pretty hard, though!

Mystery Berry Game

It’s my first blog contest! OK, I haven’t come up with a prize, but maybe the prize should be a sample pack of my syrups, jams and jellies that I have been making. Here are some pictures of the batch of jelly I made tonight, from berries picked here on our place.

I will only give a few clues about the kind of berries they might be. You can look at the pictures as your first clue and then know that this is a “native” species found in the Pacific Northwest.

Another hint, which I don’t know how helpful it will be, is that a few cedar waxwings tried to land in the bush while I was picking and I scared them away when I stood up. They hung out in a nearby birch tree the rest of the time I was picking.

This batch is slightly bitter. I have sweetened it with some 100% apple juice. And there is no recipe, at least not one that I could find on Google or anywhere else on the internet. There may or may not be clues in my links to other sites, blogs and stores. Anything is fair game. < Very Big Evil Grin! >

If anyone guesses the berry type and has a clue as to a good recipe to use these berries in, I have at least one more bush of them I can pick. Otherwise I leave them to the waxwings and other birds, since that it the reason we planted the bushes in the first place.

Leave your guess in comments and any correct guesses will be winners. I have plenty of jams and jellies to give away! :)

And here are some pictures of Buena, Buster, Shadow and Ernie from this afternoon to keep my posts kind of back on the horse topic. It was pushing 90°F today and is supposed to be warmer tomorrow!

I’ll keep this game open for at least a week, or until someone guesses what the berry is.

Well that was fast!

But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised with all the smart ladies that put up their guesses. Cathi and Brenda, horse owners in the Puget Sound area, both correctly guessed twinberry. Here is some information:

Lonicera involucrata

Twinberry Honeysuckle

Las Pilitas Nursery

Lonicera involucrata

The Flavors of Home

So there you have it! Not particularly tasty, but the result is as black as night and if we don’t eat it, we can put it out for the birds to eat in the spring. I am guessing that Bullock’s orioles and other berry-eating birds will like it.

Buh! Buh! Buh! Buh! Blueberry Jam!

Tasty, tasty blueberry jam. Combination of our blueberries and some from my parents’ house. Not quite as good as the blackberry syrup, but still yummy! My son got to show Gramma how the KitchenAid juicing attachment works and “poops.” Since it helps to grind up the skins and he wanted to show Gramma, we gave her a little demonstration. I used the skins and seeds that would normally be thrown out to make jam instead of jelly. Those skins are also what gives the jam its great dark color, too. This was a full sugar batch, so those diet conscious folks (the grandpas and a few others) will need to be careful!

We’re pretty close to being ready for the class on Wednesday. It’s not too late to sign up if you are interested in coming. Amazing how much work we got done outside ripping out weeds, mowing and such. I much prefer that outside work to housework inside!

Surprise Strawberry Jam

What do you do with a huge bowl of leftover strawberries from a birthday party? Why, you send them home with me and I whip out a quick batch of no sugar added strawberry jam. Of course!

That batch of blueberry jam or syrup is on tap for tomorrow! And I have tentative plans to go huckleberry or blackberry picking next weekend with my sister-in-law.

Did Someone Say Beach Ride?

Some girlfriends and I have decided we need to reconnect and do a beach ride and camping trip in September. It’s been a while since we’ve all gotten together as a group. We’re all pretty close and all have similar good horsemanship goals and ride together in clinics as much as time and budgets allow. We’re pretty lucky in that respect. Not a lot of folks have quality people to ride with and support each other. And our tastes and backgrounds and ages differ quite a bit, as well as our skill-levels. Makes for amusing e-mail and campfire conversations! We’ve only been conversing in e-mail, so now it’s time for that campfire gathering!

Riding at the beach can beach great and it can be awful. Just like anything, it’s all what you make of it. I will give a few stories here, and share some pictures.

Ariel at the Beach

I was pretty lucky to have taken Ariel to the beach on two separate occasions.

The first trip I took to the beach was to Westport/Grayland, WA the first weekend in September of 2001. That year I had met a gal at a Ray Hunt clinic that I audited and she had graciously offered us a place to camp near Westport. My surfing husband and I took her up on that. It was shortly after we were married and we were making a dual trip of it; he was surfing in the early morning and late afternoon while I rode during middle of the day. We basically took turns napping in the camper.

That year, little known to us, a Washington State Parks employee was visiting the very same beach parking area that we parked at. He happened to take a picture of Ariel tied to our trailer and our dog Dune snoozing nearby. He later painted a watercolor picture from that photo. I stumbled on the original photo in a web banner on the WSP web site section on trails.

I e-mailed the webmaster for the site asking about the origin of the photo and that’s when I found out that the webmaster himself had taken the picture. He told me about the painting and pointed me to his web site showing the painting. I offered to buy a print from the painting, and much to my surprise he said he wanted to give me the painting, for free. Needless to say I was shocked and honored. The painting now graces one of the walls in our living room. A much-cherished memory of our time with Ariel, and Dune who passed away within a year of that trip, even though he didn’t make it into the painting.

This was one of Mark’s very early works and I just checked in on his web site recently and he certainly as come a long way artistically and technically from then!

In 2004, before we got Buena, our family took a trip down to the Oregon coast to a great campground at Nehalem Bay State Park south of Cannon Beach. I wish we had a nice state park like that here in Washington that had horse facilities. It almost makes me want to move to Oregon. Seriously! The corrals were great, the spaces were awesome to pull in with rigs and you can’t beat a hot shower after a good day of riding at the beach! Reservations are accepted, and most importantly recommended as the place is booked almost a year in advance for horse camping.

That year, we made a 4-day trip of it. Traveling across state lines meant having correct health papers, just in case. And there was no sense in going that far for just one or two days. I recruited a couple of good friends (from the group previously mentioned) to join my hubby, son, our dog, Ariel and myself.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and got settled into our camp site. Here is Ariel in one of the corrals:

Once the other gals arrived and we all grabbed some dinner we saddled up for an evening beach ride right at sunset. It was one of the more interesting rides I had that weekend. Ariel was barefoot and there was a bizarre occurrence in the sand there at Nehalem. It was squeaky! I kid you not! The dry sand made the most bizarre, and quite loud, squeaking sound as the horses made their way on the dune trail out to the wide open beach. The wet packed sand closer to the surf wasn’t noisy, but that really dry stuff was. Ariel was a bit “up,” as she usually always was, but it wasn’t long before the group of us was making some seriously speedy tracks on the beach. Occasionally we’d move towards the water, but at sunset and with the dark quickly overtaking daylight, we didn’t want to get into any trouble. As it was, we rode until past dark and couldn’t find the exact trail between the dunes back to camp. We made it without issue, but we made note better throughout the rest of the weekend where the trail access points were to and from camp.

We had a great weekend. We rode two or three times a day. We spent great time around the camp fire eating yummy food a sipping wonderful beverages. We had good weather for the most part, after all it is the Pacific NorthWEsT coast. And coming home, I sort of took the truck, camper and horse trailer through the pick-up window at Wendy’s in Longview/Kelso...the manager was not happy, but his employees were laughing hilariously!

Here are some great pictures from that trip:

And here are some additional shots of Paddock Boy getting a ride in on one of my friend’s horses:

Buena at the Beach

In June of 2005, a larger group of the previously mentioned girlfriends took a trip to Westport/Grayland beach., the same area that I had visited with Ariel. We had decided not to camp, but make a day trip out of it. Looking back, it was a fun trip, but that trip convinced me that day trips aren’t the best thing to do when you live three plus hours from the coast.

Coming from various parts of western Washington, we all arrived at the parking area pretty much around 10 a.m. We were blessed with sunshine and moderate temperatures, the fog and low clouds just burning off as we readied ourselves to ride.

We make our way out to the beach. Many horses hadn’t been to the ocean, and probably a few hadn’t been on sand or in such a wide open area. Many of us took our time heading for the water. Eventually I managed to get Buena into some small tide pools and we did a lot of serpentines. In my early days of finding horsemanship, I would have drilled into the ground with one-rein stops, but I have since found that forward and serpentines is much better. Keep in mind, I maybe had 30 rides on Buena. I only had started her under saddle back in October 2004 and also had only ridden in one of Buck’s foundation classes in the November clinic here in this area. I had been riding, but Buena was (and still is) very green. I probably was sneaking rides more often than not, but I was having fun and that ultimately is what the journey is all about since I don’t ride for a living!

Back to the tide pools. The tide was going out that morning and there were plenty of tide pools and sand bars to be had. Miles and miles of them and a few hundred feet from the hide tide mark out to the surf. Our groups was pretty spread out. Some horses doing better than others, but everyone staying safe and having fun. At one point I was pretty removed from everyone. The nearest folks were probably a quarter of a mile behind me and working on keeping their horses mentally with them. Buena and I started going into bigger and deeper tide pools. We were doing pretty well...until we weren’t. Doh!

We entered into a large tide pool at the shallow end and as we worked our way towards the deeper end it got quite deep. We were up to Buena’s belly. Not a problem, that is until Buena decided she wanted to jump up to the top of the sand bar on our right. Normally, an unexpected jump isn’t a problem, but when I had my reins way too long and a foot goes through...well, I think you can see what is coming. I complicated matters by pulling on that right rein while she was lunging in the deep sand and water. The result? We went down. I came out of the saddle, complete submerged in the deep salty tide pool. Buena struggled a couple of times to get to her feet. She managed to get up and jump on top of that sand bar. I unlooped my lead from her leg and proceded to do groundwork and lead-bys and drive her in and out of the tide pool until she was okay about it. Eventually I got her to stand in the deep part of the tide pool and I remounted, very colt and wet, from the sand bar. We rode in and out and around the tide pool for a few minutes. No big deal. But the look on Buena’s face was priceless. She definitely did not like cold salt water and sand in her ears any more than I did. And she was completely submerged when she was down and flailing initially.

By the time I had gotten myself out of the tide pool and started the ground work a few friends had caught up with me. No one saw the fall and until they got up close, they didn’t even know we had taken a swim. They just thought I had gotten off to do groundwork. Once remounted, a friend helped me empty my boots of most of the water and we proceeded to catch up with everyone else. This is only 45 minutes or so into our ride!

My friends were so accommodating that we all headed back to the trailers to try and get me some dry clothes and also let my saddle dry out a bit. I managed to scrounge up dry clothes and put the wet ones in a spot to dry out in the back of my truck.

On our way back out to the beach about 45 minutes later I realize that my 60 foot rope that I had for a good 8 years was missing. The keeper on my saddle broke. And I also realized that one of my silver bracelets I had been wearing also was gone. Paddock Boy had given me the silver barbed wire cuff bracelet as a gift. I was bummed about both. I separated off from the group and beat tracks out to the area I thought we had been in to look for the items. Much to my dismay, the tide was coming in and it had rapidly overtaking most all of the tide pools. *sigh*

The rest of the day was uneventful and quite fun. We took turns doing all kinds of things and also challenging each other to races. This stretch of beach is pretty much uninterrupted for about 20 miles. Lots of room and much less crowded than the very popular Ocean Shores area on the north side of Grays Harbor.

Late that afternoon we went back to the trailers completely exhausted. To compound matters, the all sat our bums down in our camp chairs in the sun and rehashed our stories and sipped a cold beer. A decision was finally made, for those who stayed that late, that we should grab a bite of Mexican food for dinner in Aberdeen. It was pretty close to 6 p.m. at this point. By the time we all got to Aberdeen and then at dinner, it was around 9 p.m. We had two to four hours, depending on where we lived before we got home. Uh oh. It was one of the longest drives ever. And my eyes were heavy from being exhausted, and satisfied, by the events of the day. Once I hit the urban lights of Olympia I managed to catch a second wind. I pulled into the driveway that night at 12:30. I got Buena settled back in with Ariel and then went inside and collapsed into bed. I don’t recall if I showered, but I must have as the salt in my hair was crusty!

The next day was spent cleaning my take and my new chaps from all the salt and sand they had absorbed during our swim.

Wow. This turned into quite the book! I have been back to the beach with Buena since that day, but I will save that for another post and another day.

Jelly-making Post Script – I made a batch of currant syrup the other night. Last night, I whipped out a batch of blackberry syrup from the measly cup and a half of juice I extracted from the berries from my parents’ house. I must say, I really love those wild blackberries. I need to get me some more! Just licking the spoon and the pan while cleaning up...I was in blackberry heaven! I need to get me some more of those little black berries!!!

More Information on Berries

Some folks are probably wondering “What is with all of the berry and jelly posts lately?” Let’s just say I get on a bit of an OCD streak sometimes. Lately it’s been berries and jelly. I love this time of year because it reminds me of being a kid and eating berries for hours on end in my parents’ back yard and throughout the neighborhood. Of course at the time I sort of loathed berry picking, too. It was one of the jobs my brother and I had to do for Mom. Cherries (sour pie and Royal Ann), raspberries, blueberries and wild blackberries. In June, right after school was out for the summer, we would go to one of the many local strawberry farms and pick flat after flat.

If you are local to the Puget Sound area, I found this great article the other night while looking for information on where the best wild berry picking areas are around here. Not much detail, but good general guidelines. Wild, wonderful Northwest berries, July 9, 2003, Seattle Times.

In a past post I mentioned a few things in comments that some of you might have missed. I’ll recap here. Huckleberry jam/jelly is on my list of things to try. Just need to finish up the currant and other berries in the fridge before I start going huckleberries and wild (NOT Himalayan) blackberry picking. I would like to try both red huckleberries and evergreen/mountain huckleberries. Taylor Mountain Forest has a good selection of creeping blackberries and the red huckleberries. I think you have to be up pretty high to find the mountain ones. Luckily I am close to the mountains here and also visit the Olympic Peninsula frequently. I despise Himalayan blackberries and that is what most people around here think of as “wild.”

I would like to find some berry picking spots that are closer to me than Taylor Mountain so any southeast King County folks that know of some good places off of SR410, please let me know. I promise not to give away any secret spot information to the rest of the world! Mostly I am interested in the creeping blackberries right now. I may try for mountain huckleberry in mid to late August.

One of our blueberry bushes protected by netting and reflective tape, and guarded by Buena in the pasture.

No Sugar Added!

The other day I made a batch of “no sugar added” red raspberry jelly from berries I picked at my parents’ place. Tonight I made a batch of red currant jelly, also “no sugar added” from part of the last of the currants that I finally finished picking. I have about 2 cups of juice left and it may go into a combination jelly of currant, blueberry and creeping blackberry. Or I will make red currant syrup instead. My son is asking for a batch of blueberry jelly, but the husband, aka Paddock Boy, likes his blueberries whole in pancakes all winter. I don’t know if I can sneak enough berries away from the stash he wants to put in the freezer or not. I refuse to buy blueberries at the store or Tracy’s Roadside Produce since we have access to our own bushes, but I will keep Tracy in business with other purchases. The Washington corn from Wapato has been spectacular lately!

Mmm, Rrred Rrraspberry

I just finished licking the pot of the batch of red raspberry jelly. Tasty! Better than the raspberry jam in Fisher Fair Scones—little to no seeds!

I think more red raspberry will be on the agenda soon. Heading over to my parents and they have quite a few bushes that need picking. Plus we have a few berries here to pick here, now that we can get to the bushes. The hubby took the tractor and removed a fairly decent sized area of the nasty invasive blackberry bushes.

Also on the jam/jelly making agenda is blueberry. Our bushes are starting to pump out some big fat berries and the birds have been thwarted by netting and reflective tape. I think the blueberry batch will happen this weekend.

So far I haven’t run out of jars to fill. Still have a few unopened boxes in storage and then there are the old jars that need to be washed and reused. Only need new lids for those as I am pretty sure I have plenty of rings. May have to see what Mom has when I am over there tomorrow afternoon, too. She’s who I got a majority of these jars from in the first place; long ago crafting projects that have since been left behind.

Jelly Batch #3

A repeat of red currant. This time I only had to process it once! I didn’t strain the juice this go around, so there is the occasional seed and quite a bit of pulp. Not as clear looking, but just as tasty! Strange that the yield wasn’t the full 12 jars, but oh well!

Next up: Red raspberry. Not sure if I am going to get “creative” like I did with the golden raspberry ginger. I have ’til the evening to decide.

Oh, and there are still a few more currants to be picked.

And blueberries. Maybe I’ll try a triple berry jam! I picked up Ball Blue Book of Preserving at Tracy’s Roadside Produce today when my son helped pick out the half flat of red raspberries. Guess I have some reading to do!

Jelly Batch #2

My son and I stopped at Tracy’s Roadside Produce on Tuesday. I needed to drop off my second batch of herb bundles to sell. Yes, I am really farming! Sold 3 bundles last week. Took in 5 more on Tuesday.

Little Man said wanted some berries. We had a choice between blackberries, tayberries, and golden raspberries. He picked the golden raspberries.

In reading some blogs the other day I stumbled on the Crunchy Chicken Cooks blog where she mentions a great recipe for Triple Orgasm Strawberry Jam. I decided to play with tweaking a raspberry jam/jelly recipe this time around.

My end product...Golden Raspberry Ginger Jelly. And I must say, that I am very happy with the resulting taste. The color, however, isn’t the most appetizing. Probably comes from the fact that I didn’t cook the jelly right after squeezing the juice and refrigerated it overnight in the stainless steel pot. Or maybe the ginger juice made the raspberry juice turn brown. Oh well. Next time I will try it differently.

Oh, and this is where my rosemary and other herbs currently reside. Most are in pots in front of the barn, and most are planted in composted horse manure!

Jelly Anyone?

Batch number one of my currant jelly is done!

BUMMER! Only one of my twelve jars is properly sealed and it looks like my jelly hasn’t set quite well enough either. I’ll remake and reprocess this batch tonight I guess.

As for it being so clear...I have learned that you don’t squeeze the juice through the cloth; in this case a flour sack towel. Let gravity do its thing. Squeezing it makes the fruit juice cloudy and results in a more jam-like looking jelly.

My helper likes the way the KitchenAid juicer attachment “poops” out the seeds, skins and excess pulp. ;)