Big Post

I don't seem to update as often as I'd like to which means I end up with gigantic photo dumps. With that, I'll start with the oldest information/photos and move forward chronologically if I can help myself. Firstly, Joel and I went camping a couple weeks ago. We went up to Umpqua Hot Springs near Crater Lake for the weekend and it was very refreshing. On our way up there we stopped along the Rogue River and walked down to the water.

There was a magnificent wasp nest.

This was our campsite.

We got to put our tent right next to the river and by the end of the afternoon all the other campers in the campground had left and we had the place to ourselves. The afternoon that we got there we went up to the famous Crater Lake which -- to my disappointment -- was not made by a gigantic meteor but rather from a volcano exploding and leaving a gaping cavern that filled with water and turned into a lake. I like the idea of a meteor better.

Recently we've had some pretty good meals with farm produce, last night was a delicious one that I didn't photograph but we had a major grill night with Carli and her boyfriend Jason where we had grilled zucchini (farm), hot links, corn on the cob and a farm tomato caprese, with grilled peaches for dessert. Plain grilled peaches are fantastic: cut peaches in half, brush with olive oil and grill. Done. So delicious, I highly recommend it! A couple nights previous to this we had Carli and Clara over for dinner and we made zucchini fritters from here: that we topped with smoked salmon, a poached egg and créme freche. Like so:

Our garden is doing well with tomatoes, green beans and kale.

The farm is also producing well. I finally took some yesterday when Carli and I went out to do some harvesting.

A while ago Kelley and I went to Sauvie Island Farms to pick beans and berries and flowers.

We picked about 5 pounds of green beans then while at our farm co-op I picked about 10 more pounds of green beans. So I pickled them! Yum, they'll be Zydeco beans. It turns out that in New Orleans many places will serve bloody mary's with pickled beans (or specifically Zydeco bean pickles). I forgot to take photos of all the canned beans but regardless of documented evidence, I canned about 12 quarts of beans, wow!

And that is about it. In regards to odds and ends, here is a photo of Orson looking rather dapper, and a moth, fantastic looking!

As far as moving is concerned, we have about 25 days left in Portland then we will be moving out and heading to Ohio to help Joel's parents on their new house and then from there we'll be temporarily moving to Baltimore while we try to figure things out with Philly. Or we'll just stay in Baltimore? Who knows.