Adventures in Cherry Picking

Cherry season is here!  This morning we drove to Harrisburg to Detering Orchards as they are open on Sundays and have u-pick cherries for $1.39 a pound.  We do u-pick stuff often but for the life of me I can never remember to bring a step ladder to pick cherries!  The low hanging fruit goes quickly and so I'm left starring up into a tree full of fruit that I can't reach.  One gal was on the roof of her car under a tree picking.  Another family had their snow/ice scraper out to hit branches. Others were smart and brought step ladders.  Nope.  Not us.

Cliff is pretty great as he is tall and can reach things that other can't.  He did a good job picking on his own as I slowly climbed a small tree and slowly grabbed a few handfuls of cherries.  I quickly realized that I needed to get down as I have never been a tree climber and I didn't need to start while picking cheap cherries.

I had the brilliant idea of getting on Cliff's shoulders to pick some choice fruit just out of our reach.  Let me just say that as an adult I have never gotten on top of someone's shoulders.   It's hard to do!  I was fairly positive that I was going to break Cliff (despite the fact that he can pretty much squat my weight at the gym).  I was very awkward and nervous.

I had one of those moments, awkwardly balancing on his shoulders, where I was reaffirmed that Cliff is undoubtedly the one for me.  As I'm trying to get him to move so that I can reach new fruit, he calming says "I prefer to respond to gee and haw."  Are you kidding me?  We are in the brink of disaster and you are being nerdy and trying to teach me about draft animal commands?  Holy cow.  I love you.  I had to keep myself from laughing as I was pretty sure I was going to crush him/fall to injury at any moment.  With this said, I was so impressed with our efforts that I had to take a photo to document this momentous occasion.

I continued to grab handfuls of cherries without looking to see if they were worth the effort.  With a sweaty fist full of cherries, I had a moment where I could see us filling out insurance paperwork about an incident.  I felt stupid when I had to say we had a spill while I was on his shoulders picking fruit.  With this, I asked to get down.  Now this is where I almost injured Cliff.  First I panicked and put my hands over his eyes/sunglasses.  Then I went for the hands.  I went wobbly. Thankfully,  I made it down alive and Cliff was injury free.

All in all we picked about 6.5 pounds of cherries. We got more rhubarb to make a cobbler tonight. We also got two enormous cabbages for $1.25 (buy one get one free!) so that we have backup when we pull our next batch of sauerkraut from the crock in 10 days.  It was a pretty successful trip.

When we got home we pitted the cherries with straws and chopsticks and now our hands are died red.  We have two full sheet pans in the freezer so I hope we have at least a gallon to put up for later in the year.  Fingers crossed!

Four Hours in Florence with Rudy

On Friday, Cliff and I got out of work early so we decided to load up the car and head west to the beach.  Rudy did such a great job on our outing last weekend that we didn't even think twice about the trip and a night of camping.  Well, maybe we should have.  

The road to Florence is a little bit windey.  It didn't take long for Rudy to start whining as he wasn't feeling the car.  I slowed down and took it easy and in 75 minutes we arrived on highway 101.  We headed to Honeyman State Park as we heard really great things about it from Cliff's Mema and Grandaddy (as I think they took their honeymoon there???).  We pulled up and quickly realized that the park is no joke.  The had a few spots left and we were quickly assigned to space 122.  There were so many cars, RVs, ATVs, and everything else under the moon parked in each of the site spots.  The campground was huge with 417 spots!!!  

Rudy continued to whine and bark the whole time.  When we pulled up to our spot Cliff and I didn't know if we should feel relieved or more stressed.  We got out, put up the tent, and started to cook dinner.  Rudy was so stressed out.  The car ride wasn't pleasant but now he didn't know what to do with all of the kids, bikes, squirrels, cars, etc.  It was not good.  So, Cliff and I made the un-fun decision to pack it all up and go home.  It reminded me of stories of parents who threaten kids on a car ride about "if you don't quite we will turn this car around and go straight back home!".  Well that was us.  But with a dog.  Not a kid.  In 15 minutes we were back at the ranger station putting in for our refund.  The line was pretty long and it was taking the ranger a while to process the refund.  I apologized to the lady behind me and she sweetly remarked "No problem.  I had little ones once too".  I smiled and didn't mention that we were leaving due to our dog not a child being fussy.  

We decided to not throw in the whole towel and instead we continued west until we hit sand.  Rudy had never been to the beach and I was really excited to see what he would do.  Well, was pretty excited to run like a mad man.  I mean, he loved it.  We brought the tennis ball chucker and he was happy.  

As we moved closer to the water, he was a little confused.  He tried to walk into the ocean and quickly remembered that he hates water.  From there on he stopped retrieving the tennis ball either because of the salt water or because of the sand. Either way we figured we should packet it up and head back home.  

So our four hours in Florence was actually more like an hour and a half in Florence and two and a half in the car.  

With this said, I think I should mention that Friday kicked off what is going to be a whole week of really hot weather.  High 80s and 90s.  With this said, with the heat inland this is what the beach looked like...on a Friday afternoon.  As you can see it was hopping.  There were three people in their bathing suites actually playing in the water (I've never seen that before!).  They are the three little dots to the left.  There were also a few sunbathers in bathing suits hanging out on towels.  They are the little dots to the right.  And there was an older guy with his dog walking on the beach.  They are the little dots in the middle.  Oh how I enjoy you Oregon coast. 

First Weekend of Summer

Cliff and I did a good job of making the first weekend of summer count.

On Friday work had an event to kick off the start of summer, Summer Solstice Dash & Bash.  It is a two part event: 5K to benefit Umpqua Bank's Snack Pack Program and a free concert with food and beer vendors and community booths.  To help drum up excitement, I did two live promo spots on our local news stations. I got to be on at 6:45am on KEZI and just a few short hours later I was on KVAL.  I kinda really like doing these types of things.  It scratches a performing itch that hasn't been tended to in a long while.   The event turned out really well.  More attendees than our first time around last summer.  The weather was beautiful.  Our sponsors were happy.  What more could we ask for?   

Yesterday, we got up bright and early as I went with a friend/co-worker, Jana, down to Roseburg to pick up her new dog from their humane society!  I really enjoy driving south as the landscape changes and you feel like you are going out on an adventure.  And we were.  She has been looking for a dog for quite a while and this week found a blood-hound that was a winner.  We picked up Sheldon (Chip's new name) and drove back.  It was really a different experience from picking Rudy up from the shelter a few years ago.  Sheldon didn't eat his own poop, he didn't take 30 minutes to get into the car, and he didn't seem terrified of the new people who were driving away with him.  Also Sheldon's teeth are in so much better condition that Rudy's were when we adopted him (both dogs adopted around 7 months).  All of this is really making me realize that Rudy didn't have it so great before we found him.  Perhaps his first few months set us up for some challenges that we are still dealing with to this day.  Hum.  Oh well.  Rudy is fantastic and we wouldn't have it any other way (although better leash skills by now would be pretty great).  No matter.  Sheldon and Rudy got to play in the yard.  Rudy is far, far faster that the 65 lb. pup but it didn't matter as Sheldon seemed to be having fun running behind and using his chasing bark.  It was great.  Rudy has a new friend. In fact, he seems to get a long better with Sheldon than any other dog.  It must be a hound thing. 


After the puppy excitement, we packed up the car to go camping with another friend/co-worker and her family*.   Kerry's family got a pop-up camper and wanted to do a test run.  Cliff and I have recently completed our backpacking supplies so we wanted to do a dry run too.  Well, in the end we decided to use our car camping supplies instead of the backpacking stuff as we wanted Rudy to come with us.  He has been doing really well recently about chilling out with us (not on leash) and being less crazy around kids.  So camping was the next challenge to tackle (we aren't going to count the cross-country move camping).  So we all drove up the McKenzie River to Delta Campground.  On the way up, we realized that Rudy gets car sick.  He whines, barks, and pants a whole lot in the car.  To be honest it can be really unpleasant, loud, and stressful.  Well this trip we finally put it together that he freaks out when there are windy roads, speed bumps, and sharp turns (that is why he starts to get upset as soon as he hears the turn signal go on).   I feel bad saying this but we always thought he was just being a jerk and getting overly excited about everything.  Nope.  He wasn't feeling well.  Thankfully, it was a pretty smooth trip as we could just cruse once we got out of town. 

We mocked Kerry and Todd before we left when they mentioned bug spray.  Cliff and I insisted that we have never been bothered by bugs here as we were use to Virginia mosquitos and in comparison Oregon has nothing to complain about.  Well, that is apparently a lie.  Our campground was on an arm of the McKenzie and there were so many mosquitoes   We started a fire at 5:00pm in the hopes of smoking them out.  I almost immediatly changed out of my tank top and shorts and into long pants and multiple layers of long sleved tops in order to keep them from attacking me.  But it was too late.  They got me.  They got us all.  Todd later told us that the highlands are bad for mosquitos due to all of the snow melt.  Apparently things are better in southern Oregon.  Note to self for the next camping expedition.

Last night was a whole lot of fun.  We hung out.  We ate a really great meal of salmon, salad, and potatoes.  We made smores and sipped Fireball by the fire.  What to know the best part?  Our dog was AMAZING! Honestly, we lived our dog owner dream last night.  He happily played at the site with the girls (he didn't bowl anyone over or get someone right in the face).  We didn't freak out and bark at every kid, bird, bug, motorcycle he heard.  He was so good that we trusted him off leash.  He stayed right by us and enjoyed hanging out under the picnic table.  Plus since he is an avid fire-loving dog, we didn't have to worry about him being stupid around the campfire.  It was great.  Once it got dark he got a bit stressed out as he is kind of a weanie and doesn't like the dark.  Also, he has a pretty strict internal clock that makes him want to sleep at 9:00pm.  He was already on the downslide when our camping neighbors rolled up around 10:00pm to set up camp.  As long as he sat with his back turned towards them, between Cliff and I he was ok.  As soon as he turned around to see them he would howl.  To keep it together he sat touching both of us with one of us always petting him.  Todd and Kerry commented that it was like we were dealing with a toddler past its bed time.  On top of this, around 11:00pm it started to sprinkle.  Rudy hates being wet.  He beelined towards the tent so we called it a night.  When we let him in he was incredibly happy to lay on his bed at the foot of our super luxe Coleman air mattress.  We knew with the rain that he was going to break the seal so we broke one of our rules: we let Rudy sleep on the bed between us.  Rudy was shocked.  That dog didn't move all night as he was warm, safe, comfortable, and cuddling with us.  He was awesome.

Good thing we didn't let him sleep at the foot of the bed and it rained all night long.  Cliff got a really bad allergy headache sometime around 1:00am and after taking painkillers left our toiletry bag too close to the tent lining.  He broke the seal.  When we woke in the morning all of our clothes were soaked but we were happily floating above the water on our air mattress.  Rudy was less than excited about the rain and looked very weary about having to go outside to go to the bathroom and start the day.  Can you sense the internal grumbling?

After eating breakfast in the new pop-up (which was super sweet), we loaded up the car and headed home.  I stopped at the general store to get jojo's (or taters for all of us east coasters) with ranch as they are a must when we travel up river. We spend the rest of the day napping, unpacking, and doing laundry.  We even made it to Olive Garden.

Overall I think we did a pretty great job kicking off the summer.  I have my fingers crossed that we can keep this up for a little while.

*Side note: Kerry was my original office soul mate.  A few months ago Kerry got a new job in one of our different departments and that is when Jana moved in.  So far, I've really lucked out with co-workers. 

Fits and Starts

So this last month or so has been really nutty.  Really nutty.  In fact, I'm not sure how time has flown by so quickly.  We have either been super busy or not doing anything at all.  No in between.  No sense of balance.  Just living it up or being up for nothing.

The push towards the summer really ramped up at both of our jobs.  Cliff's days got a lot longer and after work he frequently went to training to become an instructor for the Spencer Butte Challenge Course this summer.  On top of that he taught Saturday school, volunteered like mad at the climbing wall, and succeeded at keeping a nice workout schedule (lifting weight at the gym, running, and climbing).

The summer is really busy working in Parks and Rec.  I think this is true especially in Oregon as we have all of 12 (well maybe 10) guaranteed weeks of non-rainey weather all year so people make the most of their summers.  With this said, I start to get a little crazy this time of year. I work a lot of non-regular hours.  Plus I've been taking a Spanish class.  Additionally, up until last week, I had been swimming two to three times a week, doing stuff in the gym once a week, and I started jogging  again once a week.  I ran the Bark in the Park 5K and felt horribly slow but it was only a few seconds off my PR from last year.  Cliff and I set out to be healthier when we moved.  By gosh, it looks like we might be doing it.

 Along with all of this awesomeness of doing things comes the need to do absolutely nothing.  Seriously.  I have been napping a whole lot recently again.  I mostly blame it on my terrible allergies. I can't enjoy a sunny morning outside without ending up in a Benadryn coma for the rest of the beautiful afternoon.  There is a fair amount of sleeping going on.  While I sleep, Cliff does a lot of reading about things on the internet to decompress.  When we fall into our times of nothingness, nothing gets in our way of doing nothing.  No dish pile can get too high.  No laundry bag can get too full.  Nothing.  Which brings me to our brief dance with Netflix.

Arrested Development is one of the best shows ever made.  Hands down.  Cliff and I own all three seasons and watch them on a regular basis as it is nice to have something funny playing in the background of doing boring things like cleaning, rowing, or doing work at home.  So I think it might be an understatement to say that I was excited about the new season coming out on Netflix after so many years of being off the air.  To prepare for the event, Cliff and I downloaded our free month trial.  Kathy and Jill decided to come down for a viewing slumber party.  Think costumes, banners (like in the show), and an entirely themed menu that featured items eaten on the show (candy beans, frozen bananas, juice, Skip's Scrambles, ice cream sandwiches, club food, bangers, margaritas, etc.) .  It was glorious.  We moved the TV closer to our computer so that we could connect the two to stream the episodes on a full screen.  We did nothing but eat, drink, and eat some more for one whole day as we marathoned our way through the 15 new episodes.  Like I said, it was glorious.

But then all of the new episodes were watched.  Kathy and Jill had gone home.  It was just Cliff and I left with another two weeks of free Netflix and a whole lot of TV available to be watched. We causally decided to leave the TV in it's temporarily inconvenient spot so that we could check out a documentary or two.   This turned into three or eight more documentaries followed by binging on Dr. Who (don't even get me started on how much I love that show).  For those two weeks I substituted my allergy napping for being a couch zombie.

It was a sad yet wonderful night when I selected to cancel our free subscription.  I won't lie.  We were totally temped to pay the $8 and keep on going to finish Dr. Who and watch SciFi/documentaries/crappy TLC shows but we knew that we needed to stop.  Like I mentioned before, there are only 12 (actually 10) weeks of solid weather in Oregon and we weren't going to spend them inside in front of a TV ramshackley wired to our computer.  No sir.  We are going to live!

Otherwise, we have tired to make the most of our weekends.  I spent five hours yard saleing at a huge community garage sale (think over 150 houses) with co-workers a few weeks ago.  I learned how to haggle from a pro and came away with a mini Weber grill, air popper, two lawn chairs, four shirts, three glasses, an iphone case, a DVD of Anchorman, and a bag of fresh caramel kettle corn for only $16.  Victory.  We've also hit up Saturday Market, tried out a new hip coffee bar called The Barn Light, ran a 5K, made two new batches of sauerkraut, climbed, frolicked with Rudy, replanted the garden, BBQ'ed with friends,  processed 20-24 lbs of fresh strawberries, went to an Emerald's game, and found time to play cornhole (I'm terrible by the way) with our neighbors.  Oh and we finally managed to get all of our laundry taken care of.  Not a dirty piece of fabric in the entire house. 

The hope is that things are evening out.  I'm starting to hit my stride at work and am preparing for an exciting event season.  School is out and Cliff has a full time job for next year!  He is already working as a co-instructor for the Challenge Course and enjoying spending time with other outdoorsey cool folks.  Nice weather is here and we are enjoying out new lawn chairs and Weber grill. We are even planning on going camping this weekend with friends.  Summer is fabulous here.  We just need to figure out how to properly enjoy it.