Arbor Spring 2012

Posted on March 29, 2012 by mike

We had added 3 rows and 2 beds to the backyard and have been gardening for a few seasons now. The backyard had these decorative cedars flanking the steps up to the garden. We didn’t care for them. Pictured below in the snow from January 2012.

We had a bit of snow that stuck around for a few days causing the city to completely shut down. Fun. Jasper enjoyed playing in the snow and would run around in circles diving for perceived threats just below the surface.

Fun times!

Back to the cedars. We didn’t care for them and they didn’t serve any purpose other that to be groomed into cubes and hide the occasional napping cat. We wanted to grow grapes which do well in the PNW and decided to build an arbor for them. What better place for an arbor than over the steps?

We cut down them down, dug up their roots, refilled the holes with soil, tamped it down, measured for the arbor post holes, and dug holes for the arbor posts. We were talked into buying some copper paint wood preservative for the 3′ of the cedar 4×4’s that would be in cement. This stuff is suppose to prevent rot, we’ll see. We painted a few coats on as we would like this thing to last as long as possible and the dude at the lumber yard said… Back to work. We dug out the post holes and measured everything again and set the 4x4s in place

Jasper inspects a post hole

Fits!

Both posts in!

We got everything nice and level after some fussing about. Once it was, we nailed in some support members and poured the cement. You can see a bit of the copper paint on the posts above the cement [pic above]. We let the cement set up and began construction on the arbor top. We cut and sealed all the remaining pieces of cedar with several coats of wood sealer/preservative and left them to dry in the sun.

Drying the pieces

Once the pieces were dry, we put the rest of the arbor together. We used cedar throughout and it came together rather nicely. We were very pleased with our choice. We had purchased an Einset & Glenora plant and once the arbor was complete, we quickly dug them new homes at the arbor’s base. The Einset looked like it was going to produce fruit, but the insects harvested the premature grapes before we realized we had an insect problem. We’ll see how they preform this season.

Finished!

Bud on the vine

bear cam pics!

Posted on December 14, 2009 by mike

Hooray! We got our cameras out of the woods. We hiked back in the last weekend in September and the beautiful shades of gray brought a constant stream of rain to keep us nice and wet. We didn’t think (read prepare) we would encounter heavier rains and subsequently wore our trail runners… Wet muddy feet kept us moving and changing our socks frequently. We hiked in to a sweet spot we camped at last time near Birch Mountain. We came in late and made some tasty food by headlamp light.

We’re still dehydrating tomato’s and cilantro for bean and chip bowls. This trip we experimented with instant mashed potato’s with freeze dried peas and corn (mmm). Likewise, we had an amazing pasta bowl. We make a broth with dehydrated tomato, roasted red pepper, garlic, and basil. This with some olive oil, salt, and Parmesan cheese this was fantastic and a new favorite.

We allotted time to summit Birch Mountain this trip and were glad we did. It was a nice walk up its flank and on the way we crossed a massive saddle chuck full of Western Larches! These look like yer evergreens, but change their color to gorgeous shades of amber and gold in the fall. It was very nice to see. We made it up the summit to an old fire look-out and met with high winds and heavy sleet. We descended quickly back to the saddle.

We hiked on and retrieved camera #1 and made camp. Preparing for more rain we rigged a sil-nylon mini tarp we bring so we could cook in the tent. This worked out great and we had lots of ventilation for the stove, which was mostly outside.

We had yummy angel hair pasta this night and were pleasantly surprised with the foil bubble wrap insulation we made into pot and bowl cozy’s. It worked well at keeping our meals hot.

Our final day we moved quick as we anticipated more weather. We had a dry breakfast and some coffee then went looking for camera #2. We had high hopes for #2 as we felt it was in a better location for wildlife. The hopes were a result of the data on camera #1 showing that it had only captured 170 some-odd shots as its batteries had died after 2 days.

Camera #2 delivered the goods. 700 plus shots!

Most of them were deer in cute poses. A lot of them were just of our target tree blowing in the wind.

I think the camera must have made a noise as the deer tended to be looking at the camera in numerous shots which only added to the cute factor.

As so, “I’m ready for my close up Ruehlen’s.”

Then, the money shot. Bear cub! We got very excited. Was it a grizzly? Who knew? We didn’t study zoology. We saved the shots to a flash drive and raced home to ask google. It turns out to be a black bear as any bearophile will tell ya, “look at dem ears!” Black bears have small round ears (just like this cub’s) and grizzly’s have tall prominent ears.

This picture had us mostly convinced that we had a grizzly as their name comes from the grizzled hair on their backs. This cub was only molting its coat. Then we caught a glimpse of the deadliest creature you’ll ever encounter in the wild…

The human. With their possessions strapped to their backs they head into the woods in search of recreation and tasty berries to munch upon. If you ever see one be careful, say hello, and wave your hand from side to side. If you’re lucky they will wave back back and share some good tales with you.

Many marmots reside in the North Cascades. This trip we saw a dozen of them. They just hang out on the rocks and watch. I get the feeling that after we pass they get busy creating a scene out of a Beatrix Potter illustration.

Cheers!

M&N

Hiking the North Cascades

Posted on July 24, 2009 by mike

Well, Nevada and I love to get out and take long walks in the mountains. So we’ve began volunteering with Conservation Northwest to help them with their wildlife monitoring project. We were part of a team that was to plant two remote cameras in an undisclosed location to track grizzly bears, wolverines, and wolf packs to name a few. The main focus of the project we are working on is the grizzly bear population in Washington (presently less than 20), but they are tracking all the critters in the Northern Cascades. Our other team member was unable to plant the cameras that we were then going to retrieve this September. Wanting to fulfill our obligation we went out to place the cameras this past weekend (17.7.9). I was a little apprehensive as was Nevada because we were packing lure scents. The fish oil was no biggie, but having a few ounces of bear attractant in my backpack had me worried. We rationalized that other volunteers and hunters do this all the time and we’ve heard no horror stories (yet). Furthermore, we had the lures in multiple ziplock baggies and then placed them in an ‘odor-proof’ bag that we usually we keep our food and other stinky (toothpaste, lip balm, etc…) items in and promptly strung these up a tree once we made camp Friday night.

We retreated into the tent to escape the mosquito invasion and began to hear noises outside. We figured it was one of the many marmots we’d seen on the hike in, but it was a small group of deer. They had come to feed in the tasty green alpine meadow we were camping in. Whilst they were eating one got a rather serious look on its face as if it was concentrating, it then arched its back a bit, lifted its tail as it let out a big’ol fart! We erupted in laughter and scared them off, but their meal was more important and they quickly returned. It seemed they are used to us hairless apes and did not mind our presence in the middle of their salad bar.

On Saturday we had examined our maps and chose two locations around undisclosed peak and undisclosed drainage to place the cameras. We set off to undisclosed pass and followed a soft shoulder up the drainage. Nevada spotted an animal trail and we followed it until it came to a drop down to the creek. We decided this would be a good spot and planted camera #1

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I then doused the ‘target tree’ with bear attractant and Nevada diligently collected data (Ruehlen’s love data).

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We then broke for lunch and ate some amazing basil, tomato, and soft cheese sandwiches on crusty bread. Amazing lunches are a perk of short trips. We washed those back with some ice cold spring water, reluctantly put back on our socks & shoes, and headed out. From the undisclosed pass Nevada found another trail (a rather nice intrinsic of hers) it was not on either of our maps from ’86 or ’98. We thought it might lead to one of the two peaks we were between, but it just seemed to hug the 6000′ contour and meander through the forest. Nevada spotted another (!) animal trail, I must be looking at the mountains and clouds too much while she enjoys looking at the flowers. Regardless, we followed it a ways and found a nice location and set up camera #2.

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We then scented the target tree and although the musky bear lure smelled very attractive it did not taste so good… Job done.

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We planted two cameras and will return in September to retrieve them before my graduate classes begin. We’re looking forward to getting them back to see what critters we captured on film. We’ll post those later. We hiked back and made camp near the gassy meadow, but closer to a ridge and away from the bugs. Exhausted, we ate and hit the down. Nevada was hearing noises similar yet different to the deer eating in the meadow. We awoke to find that the chipmunks had satisfied their sodium fix by eating the straps and grips on my polls! Ugg. I was able to make new non-adjustable (and a few grams lighter) straps. I plan on emailing Leki to see if they’ll send me some replacements as the type I have are not offered for sale. odd?

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We saw numerous grouse in this area a couple of years ago, but had not seen any this trip. As we were discussing this we came across a momma ruffed grouse and her kiddos feeding on the forest floor. How many babies do you see?

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Cheers! M&N

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Pizza!

Posted on July 8, 2009 by mike

So, I feel that Peter Reinhart has the final word on bread recipes. I fell in love with baking when Orion handed me down a copy of the Tassajara Bread Book. Then one year Nevada gave me Crust & Crumb (Reinhart). The recipe I have made and experimented with the most is his Pizza Dough I. This is possibly the best pizza dough that I and many others profess they’ve ever tasted. This pie is so flavorful and has such a beautiful crumb. Some (Orion and Christopher), recently pressed me for information on this recipe and I swear my success comes from the ceramic stone. O’s using a granite tile and I believe Christopher is also, although I may be mistaken and he might be using an unglazed tile (I dunno). Regardless, here’s how Peter and I do it.

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The dough. It’s been retarding in the fridge for a few days which really develops the flavors. Likewise, it is made from a starter that had been aging for a day. I like the gallon zipbags as the dough does not dry and you can burp the gas easily enough.

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This dough is very wet and sticky. The recipe makes enough for about 3 pies. I remove a third and roll it in a pile of flour and let it rest for a while (20′ to an hour).

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Rested and ready.

with-oil

Then, I stretch it out by hand and, for lack of technical term, flap it out as you would sand out of your towel at the beach. It is then placed on parchment paper and drizzled with olive oil.

then-sauce-cheese-and-herbs

Next, the sauce, herbs, toppings, and cheese go on.

oven

I preheat the oven to 550° (its max). I plan on doing a cleaning cycle (800°!) for the preheat, but I am a lil’bit scared to try this. I cook on a generic 1/4” stone. The remnants of past stones, a jelly roll pan, and a mini cast iron pan line the oven floor as well. I have cracked a few stones with wet dough recipes.

The result, yummy pie. I love this recipe. I also have Reinhart’s American Pie, but still default to the recipe from Crust &Crumb.

tastier frogs

mike and nevada’s blog thing !

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Arbor Spring 2012

bear cam pics!

Hiking the North Cascades

Pizza!