Posts by Liz

Getting ready to roll

After a weekend that felt more like mid-July, than mid-May, we are now feeling like mid-April …wonderfully cool 50 degree temperatures and lovely, gentle, “turn everything green” rain. The stuff that should be green mostly is, but things dry out so fast and the mountain snow pack is a bit light and everyone hopes for a good fire season as in no fires so the spring rains are good. We typically get very little rain in July and August.

As I’ve written previously, probably ad nauseum, Memorial Day weekend is most often cold and rainy, no matter how far away from the real Memorial Day we celebrate it. And it usually snows, if not flurries, at least snow in the mountains.

Ho….this year looks to be a bit different. The forecast is for warm (70’s) and sunny with just the slightest chance of a shower.

And below, my route to California – it looks really good all the way excepting the heat in CA where the A/C will get a workout.

The above for any interested, is courtesy of Weather.com Gold subscription. I pay $19.95 per year for this screen as well as the ability to completely customize all screens and remove all ads and extraneous stuff I don’t want to see. But it is the ability to look at weather for 10 cities that makes it worth it to me. I travel by rv any time of the year and have used this to see my route forecast. It has worked very well for me and is more efficient than manually looking at several cities as I move along. As a one woman show, I am all about efficiency :) !

The plan is to leave Friday morning and pedal to the metal on interstates after St. Regis. I hope to arrive Vacaville, CA (southwest of Sacramento) on Sunday afternoon and will park there 2 nights at what looks to be a lovely and hopefully shady, vineyard RV park. It will be a rest up and prepare for the last 100 miles of urban jungle driving. I have reservations in Pacifica, south of San Francisco, for a week. The rv park there is basically a parking lot for rvs – very narrow spots. It is on the ocean and across from a BART station (Bay Area Rapid Transit) AND there is a woman who does dog walking and checking in the park so Karl and Bob will be checked on and hopefully Karl will agree to a midday walk-about…Mama’s boy will not always go with just anyone… I hope we’ll have a chance to meet the woman and have her take Karl for a spin with my encouragement which usually works.

The details of getting house and yard ready to leave have come along nicely. I managed to purchase the same water timer that neighbors Mike and Nancy did so they will be able to adjust mine easily if needed.

A last service appointment to check a few rv items has been completed and all is loaded except for the usual last minute things like me, pets, computers and frig food.

The only somewhat sad thing is that the lilacs and lilies of the valley are close but not close enough. I’ll miss them blooming. Maybe next year. I might pick a few sprigs to take with and see if they’ll bloom along the way.

We’re getting ready to roll.

8 years ago

Eight years ago today, Karl came home to be my dog. He was 7 weeks and a few days old, 14 pounds, a white strip down the middle of his forehead, one ear up and one down.

I lost my previous dog, Zack, a part-Karelian Bear Dog, to lymphoma when he was 6 years old. I was heartbroken and spent those first days looking at pictures of Karelians and of Zack and trying to ease the pain of the loss. I found a litter of Karelian pups in Choteau, MT. They were 5 weeks old. I called the owner and explained that I thought it was too soon to get another dog, but that I just wanted to see the pups. They were so nice and understood and I went – with photos of Zack and my beloved tuxedo cat Gus – to Choteau.

The owners patiently looked at my photos and listened to my Zack stories and then took me to see the pups. We sat on the ground outside the chicken coop where the pups were housed. Karelians, even the pups, are not gregarious and will take their time and decide about people. One, by one, the pups came to investigate me. The largest of the pups, a nearly totally black male crawled in my lap. I looked in his eyes and asked if he wanted to come live with me and be my dog. He fell asleep in my arms. I left a deposit and Gus and I returned in 2 weeks to get our new boy.

I had a Suburban at the time and it had a front bench seat that accomodated a large dog kennel sideways. I had soft towells and the teddy bear that Gus and I had slept with and then sent to be with Karl for the two weeks with the idea that he would know us from our scent. I don’t know if that helped, but he loved that bear! I put the towells and bear in the kennel with Karl. As we pulled away, he put his nose in the air and howled. Gus looked at me with a look that said: “What have you done?”.

I kept up a conversation, we stopped several times to walk outside and then in West Glacier, I stopped for a burger and crawled in the back of the Suburban, let Karl out and we bonded over beef.

As puppies do, he was either going full speed or dead asleep. He liked his crate or under a table or bed for sleeping – he has always been a “den” dog. It is the closet in this house.

He was the typical little brother, working hard to be a bud with his cat brother.

His other ear stood up…

His sense of humor grew…

Karl’s paper name is Kharlampii which is Russian for “Joy Shines”. Karelian Bear Dogs were bred in Finland from the Russian Laika so I looked for a Russian or Finnish name that fit that big, black pup. Kharlampii – Joy Shines, shortened to Karl, was perfect. Karl has lived up to his name. His joy shines every day.

Eight years ago today, Karl brought joy back to my house.

Rhubarb Coffee Cake

You start with this…

This link for the recipe: Smitten Kitchen’s Rhubarb Coffee Cake. I made a gluten free version using Pamela’s Ultimate Bread and Baking mix. I also used all of the rhubarb pictured, a bit over 2 cups – the recipe calls for 1/2 pound. I had about 3/4 cup of rhubarb earlier in the week, added some pie cherries and made this recipe. I thought it needed more fruit and less sugar – the crumb topping is very sweet. I decreased the sugar in the rhubarb and the topping and only used 2/3 of the topping.

I added a few chocolate chips to about a third of the cake also. These are Ghiradelli 60% cocoa – BIG chips and GOOD chocolate!

The cake bakes for 45-55 minutes, but the gluten free combo seemed to need a bit longer – 15 minutes longer at my house. Then it has to completely cool… **

So Karl and I went for a walk.

The sun was already high in the sky at 7:30 a.m., but a few rays were lighting up the peaks. And it was warm enough (for me :)! ) to walk in shorts.

The cake was cool when we got back and this piece was enjoyed with a last cup of coffee…on the Front Porch!

**this recipe tastes best the 2nd day. If I was making it for others, I would make it the night before. Last batch leftover I warmed slightly and topped with a bit of fresh whipped cream. And the chocolate chips were great!

More than you wanted to know about lupins and my life

Lupin or Lupine, that is the question… I googled lupin to make sure that my spelling was ok and found that while Lupine is the typical North American spelling, Lupin is the original. Lupins were so named after the latin for wolf, as it was originally thought that they “wolfed” the soil of nutrients. As it happens, it is the reverse. Lupins add nitrogen back to the soil, enriching it for other growing things. Additionally, they are a larval food, hence Fuzzy and many of his brethren that were all over the lupins…

Now, to the my life part of the post… I have had a business trip to San Francisco area pending since November. It is now to happen but there is no room at the inn for Karl, ( K9 Kamp) – it is full and it is full for several weeks.

I really wanted to do this trip by RV. There is some indication that more than one meeting might be necessary. My original thought was to go and park near and be available for awhile. Yippy-Skippy, that is what is going to happen. Wild Thing and all of her crew are cleared for take-off and will depart late next week bound for South San Francisco. All of this getting ready for the meeting, getting ready to go, getting the house ready to leave…it takes time. Posts might be skimpy or missed.

But once we hit the road things should be fun. New places to see and share photos of. Adventures to be had, all shared at From the Front Porch. Karl, Bob and I are going to Californ-i-a!

See, more than you wanted to know about lupins and my life.

Fuzzy lupin

Photo taken at Wayfarer’s Park 5/14/2009. Wildflowers, bushes, grass – at the park, by the lake, they are about a week ahead of those by my home. The lupins will be blooming this weekend at the park.

You can see drops of water on “Fuzzy” as well as in the lupins. It rained off and on all day. As Karl and I walked the upper loop at the park, late this afternoon, I could see the rain coming across the lake. A dark wall of cloud and rain moved towards us and the first drops hit just as we got back to the parking lot.

The wind blew, the rain came in torrents and a bit of it tried to be sleet. We arrived home in a lull and Karl did not hesitate getting out of the Jeep and into the house.

We had several soaking rains this week. Good news as next week is supposed to be 70 and a record breaking 85 on Monday. Fuzzy ought to be nice and dry this weekend.