Signs, signs everywhere are signs

While we were in Wilder, Idaho,  Ray gave Bruce some slabs of wood from his burn pile.  The wood is very thick and has beautiful knots and tons of personality.  The first thing Bruce built was a bench.  He used fence poles for the legs.  Several coats of varnish gave this bench a durable satin finish.  The bench is beautiful and fits right in the kitchen nook.   

The next project was a sign for our place in Apache Junction.  Everyone hangs a sign on the front of their place so people can remember their names and know where they are from.  Last winter Kimmie made us a great sign but Bruce thought it was a little small for the park model.  And he had all that great wood to work with.  I did the lettering and used a stencil for the trees and bears. 

After a few days of debate Bruce decided he needed a Palm Router to carve his letters.  Amazon delivered the goods in two days flat!  Thanks Kimmie and Colby for letting us use your Prime! 

The Palm Router is amazing - it took Bruce half the usual time carving out all of his letters as well as a couple of trees and the two bears. 

After he carved the letters I convinced him to burn the wood for an extra rustic touch. 

 This is our new sign with 6 coats of varnish on it.  I think it's super cool and can't wait to hang it down at the Desert Holiday RV Resort. 

Just to be funny Bruce also made this sign to hang by the front door.... this is a copy of the sign hanging at the First/Last Chance Tavern in Ellensburg.  Of course, there is no side door!  I think that sign at the tavern has been hanging since the 70's - still funny today.  Lots of grown-up hippies in Arizona! 

Good eats! Updated, Hot Damn!!!

I've been in the baking mood for a while.  First up was Apple Pie Bars using the apple pie filling I made last year.  

The bars turned out sort of boring so I decorated them with cookie frosting.  This cookie frosting was the neatest stuff I've used in  along time.  The frosting comes in a bottle like Elmer's glue and you warm it in the microwave for a bit and squirt it on.  Fun stuff for sure!  

Bruce was in charge of clam patties.  He did them on the patio so the house wouldn't smell like clams.  It was a little cold so he wore his long johns and hat.  What a guy!

Super tasty - this is a recipe Marc gave us and I think it's the best way to eat razor clams, honestly!  No rubbery necks and great crunch.  

Today I made my Mom's Banana cake recipe.

So very good and easy to do.  I love that you use sour milk and over-ripe banana's!

Update.....the best part about fall is that the sunrise is a little later!  At 7:15 this was my sunrise.

 Continuing on my mission to use what's in the freezer i pulled out the two bags of cranberries I bought last year and looked on line for a recipe.  I love cranberry sauce on a turkey sandwich but hate to open a whole can just for me.

 I found a great recipe that called for only the ingredients I had in my pantry.

 Bring to a boil and simmer

 until all the cranberries are mush... add the secret ingredient.

 Six small containers of cranberry sauce.  Hot Damn!  this stuff is good.  Too bad it's only 9:30, I can't wait for lunchtime.  Turkey, cream cheese and cranberry sauce on sourdough.

 I also made peanut butter cookies the other day.  Bruce ate a full dozen within minutes so I hid the other dozen in the freezer!

Long over due visit with friends

Looking north this morning we saw ominous dark clouds with the promise of rain.  So we headed over the pass to visit our friend Ray in Carnation about 75 miles away.  We put the address into the Garmin and headed west... Ms. Garmin took us on a round-about trip lasting 3 hours.  We did finally find Ray's place.

Ray lives on a beautiful piece of land with amazing trees that were showing their fall colors.  The yard looked like a painting with all of the beautiful leaves, every fall color you could imagine.

Bruce, Ray and Raymond talked hunting for a few hours.  As we were headed back home I got the guys to pose for a photo.

We had to time our journey home earlier than usual because the road work on Snoqualmie Pass is still on going. The road crews close the pass at 5:30 each evening for rock blasting. The road home was also a detour because of a bridge repair, so we didn't really know where we were going again!  As we followed the detour signs and headed to the freeway we were stopped by a medic unit with flashing lights.  We sat for a few minutes before Bruce got out and checked what was ahead.

Because of the rain a huge fir tree had uprooted and crashed onto the road.  The fire department and police were cleaning and trimming the tree.  We were delayed about 20 minutes, causing us to scoot right along to make it over the pass before it was closed.

The rain was falling really hard as we headed back over the pass.  At times it was hard to see the signs because of the road spray.  I know why it is so green on the west side of the state, plenty of water!

We stopped in Cle Elum for dinner before continuing on home.  As we approached the Kittitas Valley the sky cleared and we enjoyed the dry pavement.  Such a great visit with good friends!  

Fall Trimming

You can take the logger out of the woods, but you can't take the chain saw away from him!

While Bruce was working on his chain saw art I saw the opportunity to have the over grown trees in our backyard trimmed.

The willow by the patio has grown out of control.  The birds love it but it's time for a trim.

The ornamental pear and the aspen are also out of control.

This flowering plum is looking ratty too!  So Bruce went to work with his clippers and chain saw.  I held the stick pointing to the branches and helped with the limbs.

I also did some dead heading on my marigolds and found this beautiful little frog.  I love how his stripe goes right through his eye.  I'm sure he was enjoying the little bugs on my flowers.

The flowering plum is manageable once more.

The ornamental pear looks good.

In another couple of weeks the willow will look good too. It was good to cut off all the sucker branches on the trunk of the tree.

For an experiment I stuck a bunch of the willow branches into pots with wet potting soil.  Maybe they will grow and we can plant them next spring.  

Trip to the Ranch

 

Bruce borrowed Rick's key to the Ranch today so we could take a drive up to see some of the damage from this past summers wildfire.  Opening the gate is a trick all by itself - first there is a steel gate with a latch you must open and close.  A few feet away there is a second heavy duty gate on the hillside you must unlock through the inside of a steel box swing open and drive through locking it behind you. 

While Bruce took care of the gates I took this first shot of the fall colors. 

 
 A shot of the hill side -

Zoomed in you can see all the lichen turning green along with the fall oranges and reds. 

 Mt. Rainier was even peeking out.

After we drove just a little way, we started to see all of the burned trees. 

 The fire was so hot it turned most of the material into ash.  It reminds me of Mt. St. Helens after the eruption.  There are giant craters where tree roots burned underground leaving tunnels of empty space.

This Corelle plate survived the fire - the backside was black. 

What amazed me about the burned out area was the new life peeking through.  Almost everywhere we looked there were signs of new growth popping up. 

 We did see lots of deer on the way up into the canyon (inside farmers fences) and a few cows up in the hills.  This girl has marvelous markings and wonderful horns.  I think she was the Boss Cow because everyone else hid behind her when we stopped to take her picture. 

 We stopped by one of the cabins that burned to the ground - so sad.  Nothing left but a pit full of burned appliances.  There were some horses hanging out.  Check out this hairdo!  It was an amazing Mohawk - looked like someone did it special for the fair! 

 Bruce brought out his saw a couple of times to move limbs from the road so we could drive by without scratching the jeep. 

Speaking of the jeep - I mentioned to Bruce the yellow jeep has never received a name..... He piped up Old Yeller, that's his name.  I didn't even know the jeep was a boy!!!