The longest day of the year is an excellent time to soak up the sunshine while camping out beside a lake, and the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway between Bend and Willamette Pass offers some of the finest lake camping I have yet to discover. With 14 Alpine lakes offering a range of camping options from boat-in sites, unimproved Forest Service camping, campgrounds and a couple of lodges, there is ...
Give Me the Banjo
"Give me the banjo...When you want genuine music -- music that will come right home to you like a bad quarter, suffuse your system like strychnine whisky, go right through you like Brandreth's pills, ramify your whole constitution like the measles, and break out on your hide like the pin-feather pimples on a picked goose, -- when you want all this, just ...
The Birds of Fern Ridge Wetlands
My latest needlefelted wall hanging; The Birds of Fern Ridge Wetlands. It looks like a perfect day for a peaceful canoe ride through the wetlands with the water fowl for company. Here in the southern Willamette Valley, Fern Ridge Reservoir is such a large body of water that it attracts numerous species of birds to stop and spend some time on their migratory travels. Geese, ducks, swans, great blue ...
The Three Sisters
Here stand The Three Sisters on a sunny spring day. Having grown up at the feet of the Olympic Mountains, I am still getting to know the Central Oregon Cascades as my home range. I was curious about the story behind the three sisters, so I did a little research. European settlers in the area gave them the names Faith (North Sister), Hope (Middle Sister), and Charity (South Sister), but their ...
A Secret Spot
This past weekend, I had the good fortune of being shown a secret spot. I am going to share a few photos here, not because I want to brag and taunt everyone with it, but because I want to fully encourage you to go out and find a secret spot of your own! Why keep it a secret, you might ask? Because it is great fun visiting a place where you are very sure few others have visited, it's a way to ...
A Recipe for Strawberry Jam and Life
A Mountain Hearth Recipe for Strawberry Jam and Life Ingredients: A local Farm Friends and People You Love 4 cups fresh picked strawberries 3/4 to 2 cups sugar 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice 3/4 cup water 3 tsp Pomona's Pectin 4+ tsp Pomona's calcium water (comes with pectin) Step 1: Do It Yourself! Strawberry jam, and most things in life are sweeter when you ...
Backcountry Sunset
With the arrival of fair weather camping season, I was inspired to felt a wool wall hanging of the perfect campsite. This tent is pitched on ridge with a front row view of the sunset over the mountain peaks and foothills, with a crackling campfire to enjoy dinner around. It looks like a good time to me! You can find it up in my Etsy shop ...
Dude Returns. Birds Beware.
During our sunny Memorial Day weekend, the kids did their annual rebuilding of Dude the Scarecrow with our friend Isaac who was visiting from Portland. With a dapper "new" set of overalls and straw hat, there was a lot of good material to work with this time. Stuffing the scarecrow with straw is always a good time. The kids like to make him very fat and then adjust the stuffing around once ...
A Poultry Family Portrait
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In Memory of Paul Bunyan
We said goodbye to our old Brahma rooster, Paul Bunyan this weekend. He was the best rooster I've ever had, always gentle with people and respectful to the hens. He was my farm sidekick through thick and thin, following along with me through some big life transitions and three moves over the last few years. He started the mornings off with his crowing from my homestead in Elmira to the cottage at ...