Boats & Goats

Sometimes life just brings you the strangest sights, don't you think? I had to go clean my MILs windows yesterday, she lives right on the Columbia. She sees these ships go by more often that she sees cars, and although I'm only a few miles from her, it amazes me to see these ships go by from all over the world! Isn't this one just huge?? It feels like it's right in your lap watching them go by.
The road's are being repaved out near our home, and the traffic gets held up lately, for longer than I sometimes want to wait. So, I needing to get the PO before it closed, I decided to take the dike road, so I wouldn't be held up in traffic. I'm driving a little ways, and although I'm alone, I just had to laugh at my "plan" to not be held up. Ahead of me in the road, coming at me, are a mass of goats. I'm not talking 20 goats, I'm talking I'VE NEVER SEEN SO MANY GOATS IN MY LIFE! Here I am on a dike road, the slough on one side, no room to turn around, and goats are coming at me. Finally, I can make out that thee are actually humans among them and a dog. Although I've grown up around farmer-type people, I've never met a goat-herd guy before! Well, I just stayed there, had my camera with me, and started taking pictures. They kept getting closer and closer, until they were all around me. We once had a goat that jumped on my car, and I started thinking I could get mauled by these goats. They were all around me. It was something odd, something that I will never probably experience again, but God is so good to let me enjoy the oddest things, don't you think? When they finally were herded down the bank, I got out and took another picture, and asked the goatherd, "How many are there?" He didn't speak much English I could tell, but he said "One thousand, five hundred". Have you ever been close to 1500 goats at one time?

Blueberry-ing

Yum, don't you just love the taste of fresh blueberries? The kids and I, my eldest daughter and her kids, and some friends, all went out to the blueberry field today and picked gallons of berries!! Of course, we had a discussion on whether they should have weighed us first, but this place is so cool, they don't even stay outside to wait for you! They have a scale, a money box, and a sign, all based on the good old honor system! Who does that anymore??
We were talking about how many berries each of us had eaten. Some people eat one at a time, others, ahem..eat all they pick, and my philosophy on blueberries is.. When you're standing there in the field, the birds are chirping the sun is pleasantly shining, and the berries are big and wonderful, the berries should only be eaten by the HANDFUL! Eating one or two here and there is ok for frozen, or even for when you've gotten back home with your buckets, but definitely in the field, they should only be eaten a gob at a time.
Not to get off the subject, but blueberries eaten one at a time in the field, would be like...ok, one of my other favorite things in the whole work...Roake's footlong hotdogs! We've driven to Milwaukee to get a Roake's dog. Would a person ever drive from Clatskanie to Portland to get a regular hot dog??? NO WAY! I would so love to have that recipe Roake's uses for their coney sauce. It's one of those tradition type things. My oldest kids grandmother ate at Roakes when she was a teenager! She is now in her 70s! Then I learned about them, and of course, my kids love them. They would be on their list of favorite foods in the top 10! So, it's like generational thing!
People have gotten teary telling me how important my Finnish Cardamom bread is to their family's holiday tradition, and I can believe it based on how much I sell them LOL! Why does food do that to people?? I think it's kinda Biblical, the fellowship people have around food, you know?
So, anyway, the blueberries! They are going into the freezer, at least this batch. I told one of my twin sons that he needs to pick 365 cups of blueberries, since he likes to eat a cupful every night right out of the freezer! But, we'll be back out for more in just a few days. First, I have to clean Grandmas windows tomorrow, then Friday, it's bake all day for a craft fair at the Clatskanie Bluegrass Festival. Then, back to get more blueberries!

Recent Finds

I was thrilled to get these couple tables, found them in an old house of a Finnish family. Can't decide, do I want to keep, or do I want to sell, you know how that goes! The size of the cream table is really wonderful, and I love the taller-ness of it! That's a corner shelf on top of it that I'm going to do something with.
The wood stained on has some neat design, too. It does have a glass top on it, but I'm going to take that off. It does have some character. I think the wire one once had a handle on it, like a buggy, but it looks fine like it is.
I'm still pouting about the bicycle I missed, but here my 3-wheeler. And I think I may still get another to replace the Schwinn I'm pouting about.

Anyone Need a Scale????

My MIL is needing/wanting to sell her scale, I believe it was a candy scale. It was licensed with USDA until a few years ago, when they sold their feed store. This thing is huge, heavy, and neat!!! No way will I try selling it on the internet, I watched my BIL lift it and it about killed him, so it's not shipping feasible. I wouldn't mind inheriting it, but where would I put it? Anyway, if you are in Oregon or Southwest Washington, it would be accesible w/o shipping. Take a look!

A Day With Faye!!

We were expecting to have a couple friends coming, so we thought we'd have a light lunch, then we were going to some other friends' to take a look at all their primitives. That didn't work out, so, you know, we called the kids in and had veggie pizza, fresh-off-the-tree cherries, a few chips, and raspberry lemonade. Yum, that was good.
We didn't want to pass up the visit with Faye, that we were taking our friends to experience (and Faye's house is an experience), so Kristin and I dished up some lunch to take to Faye,and went on ahead for a wonderful visit. She let us take some pictures while we were there. She has the most wonderful ideas, and she is very generous to let us gawk! Thank you Faye, for your hospitality!!
But, I digress! On our way to Faye's, out here in the country, we passed a couple kids with a lemonade stand. So, of course, we had to support the local shopkeepers!! OK, I think it was more like kook-aid or something, but oh well, I try to support lemonade stands.