Sunday, May 22, 2016

Wreck of the Hesperus...er...the Peter Iredale and Rhubarb Cobbler

 (Remember, you can click on any of these pictures to make them bigger so you can see them better.)

A couple weeks ago, my husband & grown kids and I camped at Ft Stevens in Oregon for 4 days.  It is the first time we've been camping all together in a couple of years.

The wreck of the Peter Iredale rests on the beach there.  If you Google it, you can find pictures of when it was newly washed ashore in 1906.
 The weather was stunning and the ocean was calm.  Camping on the coast of Washington state in May is often a cold and rainy affair.  Our weather has been unseasonably warm and dry and we enjoyed it to the fullest.

Now we're back to our usual chilly and damp sort of late Spring days, waiting for the sunshine to reappear!
 It's not that I take lousy pictures.  I really do look like this.  Photogenic, I am not.  I am, however...honest...ordinary....real....and I like to think I'm pretty nice.  Most of the time.

We didn't do anything extraordinary, but we walked a bit and the kids rode the bike trails.  I'm pretty much a homebody and the third night was just a bit too long of a stay away from the farm for me, so I was glad to get on the road and head back. 
 This is down in our valley, near the creek.  It's a dirt road to get down there, accessible by vehicle only when the weather is dry.  It's a nice walk down, but uphill all the way back.

We had a hot dog roast in that campfire ring during one of those nice weather days recently.

So far this month, we've been vendors at a two-day craft fair and just a few days later camped in the next state for 4 days.  We had another vendor space for our annual Spring Festival at our local grange (for which I baked 18 loaves of bread and my daughter baked 18 pies) and then we spent 5 hours sitting at yet ANOTHER
vendor space (Farmer's Market).  That one was outside under a canopy and the weather cooperated NOT!  It was rainy, cold and windy!  Took me hours to finally thaw out!


 I am totally tired and ready for time at the farm.  The weeds have taken over the garden and with the dampness that's set in, the strawberries that were beginning to ripen are going moldy.  I picked a few and tossed the spoiled ones to the chickens.  I cubed up the leftover bread from our vending events and dried it in my dehydrator for future cooking efforts.  Now that I've got the dehydrator out and running, I think I'll start picking some herbs and renew my stash - sage & oregano for sure.

The Spring rush on the farm is slowing down a bit.  We just weaned Pinky the calf today and now we're down to once-a-day milking!  A great relief for the hands.  We're still bottle-feeding the last two kids for another couple of weeks.

I've been totally frustrated with my computers.  Both of them are older, reconditioned creatures.  Both of them downloaded Windows 10 WITHOUT MY CONSENT and now my craft room computer is STUCK on the download and awaiting....well, someone to come and figure it out.  My laptop now seems like a stranger with its new operating system and I can't get it to cooperate very well with my camera.  I feel like an old dog trying to learn a new trick!

One should always console oneself with dessert, so I picked Rhubarb and made this lovely cobbler.
I got the recipe from the Pioneer Woman (Ree Drummond) and you can find it here:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/rhubarb-cobbler/
With a dollop of whipped cream on top and a steaming cup of coffee alongside, well, you could practically conquer the world.  Or maybe even Windows 10.