Miscellaneous

What have we been doing?    I would call it a lot of miscellaneous stuff.  I only have a few strawberries in my garden which means I buy a flat of strawberries from the pantry, slice them up and put them in my freezer for next winter.

My car had a safety recall so we had to drive to Couer d'Alene to get it fixed and have the oil changed.  Fortunately, that task was on the day that it poured rain here.  It was a downpour with lots of thunder and lightning along with some hail.

The next day was really nice so we drove back up Lightning Creek one more time to check for mushrooms.  It was a little steep to get to the bench for the hunt and pretty slippery in places, but I managed to hike up the mountain.  We only found four morels and have to declare this season is over.  There may have been some at higher elevation but that's too much for us. 

I did take some photos.  The burnt tree stumps are like sculptures to me. 

Our trip to CDA included a Costco run.  That meant I bought hotdogs for the 4th of July.  Since I now have to eat gluten-free I have really missed hamburger buns, hotdog buns and in bread in general.  I've looked at buying the GF buns sold in grocery stores.  I find the bread to be pretty tasteless and had sticker shock when I looked at the price for 4 hotdog buns, $7.69. 

I decided that I would attempt to bake my own.  I've never made hotdog or hamburger buns, but I have baked bread.   I made baking molds with aluminum foil and found a recipe.  Baking any kind of bread without gluten is a challenge.  There are hundreds of recipes online, but who knows which one really works.

There's not a nice round top on the buns, but maybe they will taste good?  I'll let you know tomorrow.

Lastly, I am getting ready for the gig at Trinity.  This will be the final season for our band, Running With Scissors.  I think the band has been playing for at least twelve years and the original members were Bruce Bishop, Tom Newbill and Tim Gunn.  I have only been with them for the last five.  It's been a lot of fun and is truly one of the nicest places to play music.   We play on Friday nights from 6:00-9:00.

Summer Solstice and the Harvest

Summer officially begins.  It was a bit more normal the last few days with the rainy weather, but really it has not been a normal spring.  My vegetable garden is several weeks ahead of schedule.  All due to our warm spring temperatures and lack of rain.  Yes, there will be sweet corn and my broccoli and cauliflower plants are huge.  It looks like it could be a great gardening year.

First squash blossom

Lady's Mantle

Butternut Squash

Salad Bowl Fixings

Let the broccoli harvest begin.

The bird songs were so lovely yesterday.  I wish you could have heard them.    Such a beautiful sound as I walked around the yard and garden to take these photos.

Every year there is at least one Robin's nest in the grape arbor.

It was time to thin the onion patch.

I love watching the garden grow, harvesting the vegetables and I don't even mind the weeding as long as the temperature isn't too high.  Welcome to summer!

Holy Morel!

Retired Mountain Man and son, David, drove up Lightning Creek for a day of fishing and mushroom hunting. 

If you have hunted mushrooms your whole life as we have, then you have always wished for finding the mother lode of mushrooms.  Spending a couple of hours in the woods searching for these beauties is such a fun way to spend your time.  It's similar to hunting for Easter eggs.   "Yes!  I found one!"  There was always the competition as to who would find the first mushroom of the season, who would find the biggest one and who would come home with the largest sack of the golden nuggets. 

On Friday all of the planets aligned and David and Retired Mountain Man found the biggest morels I have ever seen.  They spent the entire afternoon searching for them and you can see why.

We were usually happy if we found a couple of dozen morels and they were not even close to this size.

These were fresh since the last rain we had on Monday.

Yes, I have a lot of photos of them because this is a once in a lifetime find.

Here they are on the tray getting them ready to be dried.  Morels are one of the best tasting mushrooms to add to sauces.  Plus, they are fantastic as an appetizer, breaded and sauteed in a little butter.

They are very tasty when added to a burger or a steak.

I have been enjoying my lettuce and baby kale from my garden.  The mushrooms are also a great addition to a tossed salad.  I am spending my day happily drying them for use next winter.

Father's Day Weekend Adventures

We drove up Lightning Creek to the Wellington Bridge to have a picnic lunch.  Over the years we have camped at this spot many times.  During the summer of 1990 Retired Mountain Man and David spent 6 weeks camping here hunting for huckleberries, hiking and fishing.  I actually went with them and lasted a week.  I really wanted a hot shower and had enough of the mosquitoes and campfire smoke.  They would drive back home every few days to drop off the gallons of huckleberries they had picked.  Then they headed back to camp.

Get out the fried chicken and potato salad. 

A rock throwing contest began.  The goal is to hit the large boulder in the middle of the creek.

 

Bear Grass. One of my favorites.

We decided that we had to at least hike a bit in the burn to look for morels even though it was late in the season for them.

The hiking was pretty steep but that didn't bother our grandson who was all over the mountainside.

There's nothing better than a kid who is covered with dirt and soot.  He's had a really good time.

Success!

We ended up with a nice bunch of morels.

On our way to pick up the newspapers.  It's part of our daily routine.

I planted these along our driveway a few years back.

 Some early morning photos of the garden and flowers.

There will be lots of cherry tomatoes.  Maybe some ripe ones by the 4th of July.