Washington's Olympic Peninsula was a wonderful place to grow up, and although I now call the Willamette Valley of Oregon my home, I love heading north for trips to visit all of my favorite places with my children. On our trip in June we met up with my parents for a backpacking trip to Shi-Shi Beach out on the section of coastline that is part of the Olympic National Park. We used to do this hike ...
Backpacking the South Fork Hoh River, Mama Bear Style
I recall some chapter headings in Jean Craighead George's Book, My Side of the Mountain, to the effect of "In which I Capture and Tame a Falcon" and "In Which I Build my Shelter in a Tree." In keeping with that theme, the title of this chapter in my life's story would be something like "In Which I Take Three Children Backpacking By Myself in a Remote River Valley, Scare Off a Bear, Forge ...
Like a Bowl of Cherries
It's cherry season, and I am so thankful to be living in the middle of an orchard. Over the past couple of weeks, I have made a morning ritual of going out just after sunrise with my bucket and picking cherries for my breakfast and some to munch on during the day. I love fresh cherries so dearly, and am such an avid food gatherer that I have often imagined what ...
I Eat Bears for Breakfast: A Bear Bratwurst Recipe
Last year, some homesteader friends of mine who live out in the coast range gifted me with many pounds of frozen bear meat. It was so delicious, that it was very hard for me to ration it out. There were bear steaks, the bear ribs that went into a mouth watering Ethiopian dish at Thanksgiving, bear lard for pie crusts, and then there were some 20 pounds of random bits of bear meat. I had big ...
Brewing Perseverance
On my birthday this year, I decided to spend the day brewing beer with a friend. What we sought to create was not just any all-grain ale, mind you, but an ale as big and bold as the wild frontier. This was inspired by a life-changing ale experience this past Fall, when I happened upon Alaskan Brewing Company's anniversary ale by the name of Perseverance on tap at a local public ...
Summer Jam Sessions
Strawberry Scotch, Raspberry Lavender, and Cherry Cardamom Preserves. Jam sessions are such fun! ...
June Wildflowers
Out in the Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest last weekend, I found an abundance of wildflowers blooming everywhere I looked. Here are just a few that caught my fancy. This delicate, fiery Red Columbine (Aquilegia formosa) by the Coquille river was an exceptional beauty. I'm used to seeing the deep purple Iris tenax in the coast range on my excursions, but these were a lovely pale yellow ...
Me and My Banjo Down by the Riverside
What more is there to say? ...
‘Til the Chicken Comes Home
For the past nine months, something has been not quite right. I've become accustomed to waking up every morning with a feeling that something is missing, and my world is somehow not complete. It's as though I'm somehow not quite fulfilling my purpose in the greater scheme of things. Chickens have been missing in my life. I'm a chicken keeper. That's what I do. Even living on the permaculture ...
Night on Bald Knob
This weekend I piled my kids in the car and headed out for adventure. Our friends, Erin and Julia, had rented Bald Knob fire lookout tower and invited us to join them for an epic camping trip. Although my dreams in life of becoming a solitary forest ranger staffing remote lookout towers has not yet come to pass in life, I discovered about 10 years ago that the US Forest Service rents out their ...