Baking!
5:26 PM - Posted by Unknown - 0 comments

Today Steve is under the weather and so I decided to pass the time baking. I found this recipe for biscuits. I didn't follow it exactly, though. I don't have nor will i buy Hungarian paprika and i used lime instead of lemon because I didn't have any. They came out great! i made 9 biscuits but I ate one before I took the pictures.  Also, I don't have a roller so I just patted them out into biscuits.




Here is the sourdough starter.. will post later on how that bread turns out.












Here are the loaves I baked.. with this recipe

Above is before, and below is after.



4:40 PM - Posted by Unknown - 0 comments

Florence!

Here is our first picture of Florence. I took this from the balcony of the hotel we lived in for a week while we found a house to rent. After looking for a solid week, we finally found this house! Here are 2 videos steve took!

Then we spent time piddling around the area. We discovered Heceta Beach where we now love to go agate hunting.
that's the lighthouse at Heceta
there's a seal down there
We went WAY up a road and found a cool little trail and let the dogs swim some
Next is a stream of pictures from our little adventure on the other side of the Heceta Beach park. We walked around in our waders looking for crawdads. We didn't find any but we had fun and got some pretty pictures


4:16 PM - Posted by Unknown - 0 comments

OUR TRIP TO THE WEST COAST... WRAPPING IT UP!!!

Our time in Cali!

We got to Kim and Jack's! The very next day we went to the SF Giants game. Kelly and Joel came to the game too! I even bought a Brian Wilson jersey! I got a kid's version because it was half the price of the adult and it fits loosely just fine.


We got into SF and we had the hardest time finding a parking spot, but Jack is a great driver and has more patience than I do for the city. We found a spot and parked and walked to the stadium. We snagged this picture as we walked. The city is really pretty.

The game was so much fun. I loved the time we spent with Kim and Jack. While in Lakeport, we ate great pizza and took the dogs to the creek. By the time we got to Kim and Jack's we were so exhausted I think we slept one of the days away. Petey got sick our 2nd night there and so i cleaned and cleaned the bedroom carpet. Kim was kind enough to give both of us raindrop treatments which were amazing.

So we left Lakeport and headed to Fortuna, Ca to see Josh. We got there and petey immediately made himself at home. Steve and Josh worked on the boat for a long while and I rested and threw the ball for the dogs.  The next day we went fishing!!! My first time off-shore fishing on the west coast.
It was very different. First you don't go nearly as far out to sea. You can still see the shore! And the fish are just different. Josh took this picture of us! You can see the coastline behind us.
Here are fish: lingcod and rockfish. The blueish ones are lingcod and the red are vermillion rockfish. The meat is blue until you cook it - then it turns white.


Here's Joel with the catch!

We spent the next evening with Kelly and went out to eat and then the next night Kelly and I dyed each other's hair and ate pizza! Their boy Ryker and our boys got a long just fine! Now we just need to find time at the same time to go camping!





Interrupting west coast blog to post this
6:12 PM - Posted by Unknown - 2 comments

Interrupting west coast blog to post this....


Today we went up the river to catch crawfish. It was Steve, me, the pups, our friend Tyler, his dog (Shepherd) Lady aka Ladybug and Josh McGowan and his 2 boys and their mastiff, Creatos. We had to wait for the water to warm up because it was still way cold and the crawfish were hiding. After a while the guys went with masks and snorkels looking in the deep areas of the river and the two McGowan boys and I went on a little adventure - we found 2. That's not bad considering the guys found like 9 after swimming in the deep sections for a good bit of time.

The dogs all got along amazingly well. Lady had a had time with everything - she cried and cried about walking on the slippery rocks, about Tyler being 2 ft too far from her.. basically everything. Petey did the Petey thing and swim the entire time.

After a few hours, the McGowans left and we took the one net and Tyler had on a mask and the 3 of us and the dogs headed down the river a bit and moved rock and went into the deep more to find as many as we could. After many slips, nips, and listening to the weirdest cries we've ever heard come out of a dog (Lady still) we got about 5 lbs of crawfish.

This is the view of the river... 


and this is the view of the bucket after we had to put all the crawfish BACK in because Handsome has discovered he loves crawfish. He knocked the bucket over trying to get at them.

This was our 2nd trip up the river to go for crawfish. The first time, more of Steve and Tyler's co-workers and their families were with us.. and more dogs! You can hardly beat the scenery! Tomorrow I will get back to posting about the trip and our first little bit in Florence!


9:44 PM - Posted by Unknown - 0 comments

OUR TRIP WEST CONT...


LAST LEG - TO CALI AND THEN OREGON!!!!

We drove separately across Nevada - good gracious was that the worst part of the trip.. No wait, the worst part was Petey have diarrhea in Nan's garage every night and then again 3 minutes into the car ride to Cali. That was a nightmare. I waited the entire trip across Nevada for him to poo in the car again. Talk about tense!!!! Here are some pics of the Loneliest Highway in the USA:



She was staring at the windmills. She really did watch them the entire time we were in the valley. That harness on her was the only thing that kept her from going nutso in the hotel rooms. Once you locked it on her - she would freeze, playing opossum. So funny to watch, but I know it tortured her. She gained weight like a housewife who does nothing but eat Bon-Bons.

Finally we made it Momma Kim and Papa Jacks. The next day we went to the SF Giants baseball game!!!!


I finally got to see my long lost "wifey" again... This is kelly. One of my true best friends. She's in Eureka for now.

After the game we went to a restaurant, and Mom made friends with a lady in the bathroom - I saw she does this everywhere she goes! :) We played with the horses some while in Cali, but Petey's stomach was still iffy and so was mine so we took it easy. Mom gave us both raindrop treatments which helped greatly. It was just a ton of fun to take ALL the dogs (5 total) to the creek and get them swimming. After Lakeport we went to Fortuna and to Eureka. The last little bit of our adventure will be posted tomorrow because we are tired! Good night.

Atkinsons


9:26 PM - Posted by Unknown - 0 comments

OUR TRIP WEST CONT...

UTAH'S 2ND LEG

Once we were done in Northern Utah, we stopped in Salt Lake and saw the Zengers: all the littles and my god are they not little anymore!!!! But they are still so incredibly gorgeous.
Then off to Nan's in southern Utah.
Just kidding, but these cows are on the back road to Nan's and are on the shortest way to get wife coffee every morning

While at Nan's, Nan and I talked about gardening - her's is AMAZING! I got recipes from her so I can cook for Steve, though I have yet to use the recipes.








We went 4wheeling in hills with Uncle Ken. Below is a quick montage of that trip













HA! That was a long stinking montage!!! The trip was insanely long. And yes there was still snow on the hills. It was a ton of fun for hours and hours!!!!!