Pioneer Trek

Allan and I had the great privelege of being Pa and Ma to a family of young people for Silverdale Stake's very structured Youth Conference last week in south eastern Washington. We hiked with handcarts and camped outside (no tents) in period clothing for 4 days, with our "children" doing virtually all the packing, pushing/pulling, cooking, etc. There were a total of 150 youth, 75 hiking adults, and a multitude of support staff (medical, admin, food committee, and security). Many thanks to Blaine Wilson Photography for pictures.

Ignorance is bliss!

"And merrily on our way we'll go, until we reach the valley-o."

You can't imagine the blazing temperatures from the photos, but it was really hot, especially for us weather wimps. Deodorant wasn't on the list of allowed items!

"Listen up, everybody!" Our Trail Boss,  Jeff.

Hiking on day 1 until 12:40 AM. Theme of the trek: All is Well. We went 11 miles that day.

Resting in the midday heat.

Approaching Zion we were blessed with live music. Above, our family of 3 boys, 3 girls, and an auntie. Hot, filthy, thirsty, and ready to be done, we could see an oasis of grass and trees ahead. 

This was a great experience. Our family was fabulous, with no complaining and excellent cooperation. Would I do it again? Definitely!

How the Garden Grows

No photo of the veggies yet, the morning light wasn't cooperative.

Above: Grape plant in its second year, propagated by Aunt Geraldine in Yakima and shared with us last year. We have a total of 4 grapes thriving and one, well, we'll see next year. Below: One of 6 kiwis I salvaged from the local demonstration garden as twigs on the garbage heap. They are doing well.

Herb barrel in front of the house, containing parsley, oregano, sage, rosemary, thyme, chives, garlic chives, and one of my hopeful bay tree twigs.

Six inch bay tree (laurus nobilis). There is nothing like starting one for yourself and seeing results!

A pretty yellow rose in the bed by the front door. The fragrance is heavenly.

Update

So much going on!

Silas has graduated from drug court. Everyone is happy about that. He has more freedom, and is clean and sober. The drug court program was successful, the people were effective teachers, mentors,and  butt-kickers, and my son is a very different person from the one who was arrested over a year ago.

My vegetable garden is coming along swimmingly. Since we are having so much rain this season, this is a fitting description. I am eating lettuce, kale, spinach, freshly pulled garlic, and various herbs regularly. The backyard is being transformed, but oh, so slowly. I am building the planter out and up and I have baby grape and kiwi plants growing. The combined medicinal herb garden and flower beds are being created slowly but surely. I have a very short retaining wall going up, and am sheet mulching to build up the soil. This is a rather slow process, since I am using our very own compost and other on sight mulching matter. Go ahead, use your imagination!

My Master Gardening (MG) education is moving right along. Classes are completed, and I continue with my many volunteer hours. I have worked at the Silverdale Farmers Market, answered questions at the WSU Extension Office, worked at the MG plant sale, and plan to start work at my local demonstration garden (Anna Smith) this week. I have met some wonderful people through this, and look forward to every opportunity to work at the various locations.

Allan and I get to be a Pa and Ma next month at our stake's Pioneer Trek. For those who don't know, this is a very short re-enactment of a handcart migration. For training purposes we had a mini-trek with all the other mas and pas this past weekend. We dressed in pioneer clothing (and lots of it!), joined our assigned "family" members, packed our supplies on a 3'x5' handcart, and hiked. We were supposed to hike in the mountains, but the weather was snowy there and we lucked out and got to do it on a farm on Bainbridge Island. It poured much of our time. My feet have never had to perform their function so wet and muddy. We slept out under tarps, which was a first for me. I was wet all over and all of my things got wet in the handcart--this was not good. But it was only for one night, we slept (and I use that term very loosely) in a comfortable pasture, and now I have personal handcart stories to tell my "children" on our trek in the summer. Which will take place in a hot, dusty location.

My ESL volunteering continues on. My student, Pok, isn't as motivated as some, and she doesn't get to practice her English much. I am trying to shake up our lessons a bit and brought her here to my home last week so she could know where and how I live. She came alive, asking questions and looking around; it was funny. She is working on sight reading, and is nearly done memorizing the most commonly used 500 words in our language.

The work I do in the nursery is still fun. Last week 2-year-old S. looked up at 2 of us adults who were chatting. She softly asked a question, but was so quiet I had to have her repeat herself twice. I finally heard her ask if Sister Muffins would help her, and I cracked up. Sister Uffens went and worked with her at the little doll house. Our nursery is losing one little girl, a real character, because her family is moving. We had a new little boy this past Sunday, which is great, since we have only had one boy all year so far. Hurray for new people moving in!

Life is good. Great things are happening. Our wants and needs are being met, and the Lord has been very good to us. Changes are coming, but that is not unusual. What is happening with you?

Census Update

Okay. This has happened twice. We have gone out for Chinese food, and got to the fortune cookie stage. Here was mine, this last time: "Real fortune is being heard. U.S. Census."

Then my real fortune was on the other side. (It's irrelevant.)

Okay, I am all for the census and everything, and have enjoyed searching through census records from the past. I have found wonderful and interesting things about people, even my own people all over the country. In fact, when it comes to the 1930 Census, I have a cool story.

My great grandparents lived in New York City at the time. I searched the records and found my great grandmother and her children who were at home, but no great grandfather. That was weird to me. Then later I found the whole family, including both Frederick and Agnes, the parents, and their youngest children living in Los Angeles. The father had gone ahead, and the mother and children joined him later (they had sailed through the Panama Canal, and on the boat my grandma Jessie and her sister had entertained passengers with their soft-shoe). I talked to Allan about this, and his reaction was, "They skewed the data!"

But, I digress. I find the marketing for this year's census strange. Chinese fortune cookies with an ad for the census is over the top for me, especially since I have already filled my form out and mailed it away. What do you think??

Chinese Food

I went out for Chinese food yesterday with my friend Gayle, and it was fun. I ate too much egg fu yung, and it was yummy. I got to bring a little home to enjoy for breakfast this morning, and it was good as a leftover, too.

Guess what, though? The server boxed it up, placed it in a paper bag, and put that bag in a PLASTIC BAG. THAT I DIDN'T NOTICE UNTIL I GOT HOME. Oh, my first plastic shopping bag of the year. Darn it!

This makes me more determined than ever to pay attention to the things I bring home. I would have done fine with just the paper bag, or even the nice little Chinese box without any bag. What a waste, and how irritating.

How about all of you? How are your goals for the new year going?

1. I Brought the Book Back 2. Bay Leaves

On its due date. I just sucked it up and did it. It was a cool, blustery day, but I decided to have a nice time, and I simply gave the book back on the day it was due and that I agreed to when it was checked out. End of story; thanks for the comments.

Something fun happened on the way back to the ferry, though. I had 25 minutes before the ferry was to leave, so when I spotted a sign for a small nursery around a corner I hurried over there, hoping to find a little something to commemorate my trip.

What I hoped to find was a small bay tree (Laurus nobilis). I had seen one about 15 years ago at a nursery that no longer exists at Pike Place Market. I still kick myself for not buying it--it was a small house plant and I have looked for one ever since.

I asked the nursery man out back if he had such a thing, but he didn't. He said he had a huge bay tree even farther out back that he would cut me a few branches from. He said he strips off the nicest leaves and rinses them, pats them dry, and freezes them. I declined, but he pressed me. "I have the clippers right here, let me just go cut you some." I couldn't help but change my mind, and I finished my walk to the ferry the proud owner of 3 small branches full of bay leaves. They smelled really good.

When I got home I stripped the leaves from their branches, discarded the blemished ones, and put them in the freezer. [I used one tonight in our soup, it was the best ever.] Then I had an idea. What if I could make little bay trees like the one at Pike Place out of the branches?? I am having great luck propagating some kiwis, grapes, and red twig dogwood from branches, why not this?

So now, all over the yard, sort of, I have mini bay hopefuls popping out of the ground. All this fun as a result of returning my library book on time!

Thank you desertorganics.com for the photo.

Moral Dilemma!

I don't watch much television these days, but I do tune in to Private Practice weekly online, and fold my laundry while I watch and listen. This show is a spinoff of Gray's Anatomy, which I don't watch. The plot lines are sometimes ridiculous, and I have been known to lose patience with them, especially the interpersonal relationships of the regulars on the show. The thing that keeps me watching is that on each episode there is a singular moral dilemma. (It's a medical show with heavy emphasis on women's health and fetuses.) I love seeing how the writers and actors approach the problems and work them out. It keeps me coming back week after week.

Now, this next part may not SEEM to be related to my semi-addiction to Private Practice, but keep reading, and you'll see how it is. Here goes: I have been diligent about staying on top of my library checkouts and due dates. I haven't had an overdue book since January, and I am feeling totally happy and proud of myself for keeping my bargain with myself to not have any overdue books. I just looked up my goals for this year, and technically my goal was to not have any library fines. And I don't. But I will have an overdue book if I don't do something drastic; I won't have a fine, however.

All right, now I will digress. I heard an NPR report about a book called "Grow Your Own Drugs," by James Wong. Wong had a series in Great Britain about using herbs from your backyard to make folk remedies to help with all sorts of health and other issues. Now he has a book out with many recipes and information on herbs and healing. The book came out last year. It sounded wonderful, and I totally wanted to read it. I am in the habit of checking a book out of the library before purchasing it, so that I am able to make sure it's something I need to own and that's worth my money. In this case, it's not a book I may buy used, since it's new, and I knew I would want to look at it before I could make a decision. I went to the local library's website, but the book wasn't even ordered. Sheesh! Then I went to the website for the library system in the county where I used to live, one library of which I visited often when Silas and I had our Wednesday visits when he lived with his dad. My card is still active there, and it's legal for me to have one. It's within walking distance of the Edmonds ferry. Lo and behold, they had a copy in their system! I put it on hold, and waited for it to turn up at the Edmonds library.

Thankfully, my son Zach lives not far from that branch, and said he would pick up the book if I needed him to do so. On the last day before the book was to go back on the shelves, Zach went over to the library to check it out for me. Unfortunately, the power was out when he got to the library. Fortunately, the librarian was happy to take down my number and allowed Zach to take out the book. (He said, "I felt like a pot-head, needing to take out a book called Grow Your Own Drugs!")

Zach brought the book over to me the following week, and it was beautiful and informative. It is a book I would like to own, and I probably will, before too long. It is due tomorrow, and I haven't had the time to make any of the recipes, even though I am coming down with a cold. Keep reading for the moral dilemma.

The library system from which I (er, Zach) borrowed the book has a fabulous policy with regard to overdue books. They don't have fines! If you have an overdue book they put a hold on your card after a couple weeks, and if you don't bring the book back they make you pay for it before you can check out books again. Or simply bring it back. Isn't that a great policy??

My book is due tomorrow, and I am not sure I will be able to get it back to the library. It takes a ride to Kingston (40 minutes), parking, a ferry trip to Edmonds, (30 minutes), a walk up the hill (20 minutes), a walk down the hill (20 minutes), ferry back (30 minutes), ride home (40 minutes), and any wait time for ferry, along with weather considerations. And parking fee and ferry fee. That's a lot. Or I could wait until Zach comes for a visit and he can drop it off when he gets back to his side of the water. This will probably be in the next couple weeks. Remember, there's actually no penalty for returning the book late.

So, here's the dilemma. Am I bound by my personal goal and integrity to return the book on time?? Or, since I can't renew it because someone else is waiting for it, am I bound to return it and get it back to the library for that other person to check it out? (Note: It's the only copy in the system.) (Another note: You all can guess that I am often waiting for someone to return a book so that I can check it out. And I get really irritated when people keep their books past their due dates. This is actually happening with a book I am waiting for. I hope that person pays their whopping fine!)

Feedback welcome and appreciated. Though I think I have actually made my decision.