Stephanie says

I built this timber dynasty from sheer will, parlaying a small inheritance and a driving thirst for timber land into the purchase of that first parcel of virgin forest.   We logged Bear Creek Mountain by hand, a man on either side of a standing tree, muscling the teeth of a crosscut-saw blade back and forth through the bark, then pith, then heartwood, out the other side, until the weight of the tree above the widening cut broke free with a mighty crack, and the tree toppled.   Timber.     Ernie was the ancestor. Ernie Whipple.   He came here with a vision and a bankroll and enough drive to amass 20,000 acres of forest land.   Old growth timber.   It was all virgin timber then.   He acquired a rock quarry, later a lumber mill.   He backed into a blade at that mill, severing his left arm just below the elbow. There was no one about so he fashioned a tourniquet with his belt, holding one end in his mouth and cinching the buckle end ...

Yep, it's official.  Had cake and ice cream in celebration yesterday after learning the secret handshake.  (Just kidding about the handshake.)      I learned a lot and have very optimistic hopes for this seasons vegetables and flowers.   It was hard work and a lot of fun with a great group of fellow garden enthusiasts.  Now comes the practical experience answering questions on the phone Plant Hot-line. Questions anyone?

Billie Reynolds had the neighboring place to our Sitkum home, just off the Coos Bay Wagon Trail road.   I was intrigued with her fascinating stories and exotic tales about her early life.   This was so long ago I don’t recall if she actually told me her stories, or if I overheard adult conversations, (my dad always said I had the hearing of a bat.) Her parents divorced in the mid 1920s – seemingly sharing custody.   Her father lived in Portland OR and her mother in Billings Montana – so when they switched-off, they’d put Billie on the train from around age three onward, in the care of the conductor for the entire journey. Just Billie. She remembered being well cared for by the train staff, and these solo trips seemed quite unremarkable to her in the telling.   She moved to San Francisco after high school, during the Depression, and had a job as a money courier,transporting cash from her employer’s place of business to the bank.   The money was packed in...

I happened across the app before a trip to Baja. It promised a fast track through US Customs and had great reviews so I downloaded it prior to leaving. It was easy to install on my phone, very systematic.  There was only one issue.  I was startled when all of a sudden a woman appeared on my screen - first impression she was of a certain age - and I realized she was me when she gave a little "ackkk" the exact moment I did.  Damn I look old.  That's right, I am old (by some standards anyway...) I booked all my flight information on my phone so on the return flight I completed the standard US Customs Declaration questions (and didn't complete the paper form handed out on the flight!) from my seat while the plane taxied into San Francisco.  Pushed "Submit" and I was done. Quite a line had queued when I reached Customs.  An airline employee was walking alongside the queue asking "Mobile Passport?" and I was on my way, the only one,   whisked ...

After loading up grocery shopping at Eugene’s Grocery Outlet, I had to search for pantry space.   Everything is overflowing, from the freezers to the dry goods storage.   Maybe it’s subconscious preparation for a weather emergency or the Cascadian Fault Line quaking us the big one.   Even with that in mind, it’s absurd to keep buying food, because everything in the freezers would require cooking or rot.   But that store had so many new organic products I just couldn’t resist. I hereby vow not to buy anything else until I’ve cooked up what’s here.   The exception being some hypothetical missing ingredient desperately needed for a recipe on the menu and in the works. In an inspired moment I came up with a totally new recipe:   Chicken, gnocchi, and marinated artichokes.   I typed those ingredients into a search engine, and guess what?   It was not an original thought.   Okay, new to me works.   I’ll name this after it come...

I so love this PBS show.   I get this warm, fuzzy feeling watching Chef Vivian Howard with general manager (and husband) Ben Knight make their North Carolina restaurant a success.  This show is a testament to the localvore movement but goes beyond local ingredients - creative cooking interspersed with a glimpse of family life with small children, and the occasional side-trip to Vivian’s league of Southern ladies who cook in the old ways.   They are earnest and charming and eager to share their knowledge.   Delightful.     And a source of inspiration to Vivian.   She goes back to the restaurant and tweaks the recipes into another level of delicious.  This is the third season and I so enjoy watching.   I don’t have occasion to cook much these days and I miss it. The daily grind of working in a restaurant is brutally hard labor, (okay, I’ve never worked in one, but can imagine.)  A wonderful spirit of creativity and camarade...

I'm studying botany; the terminology jostles my memory from Botany 101 some 40 years ago as I fondly invoke the words:  dicot, monocot, stigma, stamen, anther, xylem.  Oh dweeb indeed.  I'm enrolled in a Master Gardener program, all day each and every Tuesday for the next 13 weeks.  Sustainable gardening is the focus.  I envision a riot of vegetables and a profusion of flowers in my garden this season.  I actually imagine that every season but this is the one that will succeed! Oregon State Extension Service provides this training as one of many educational services, for example: 4H, Food Preservation, Animal Husbandry, Trees and Woodlands.   Take this link to visit OSU Extension website  My grandfather, Elmer O Post graduated from Oregon Ag, College ( for a bit about him, click this link) in 1917 and the OAC Extension was already going strong providing education to improve rural life. Along the way, OAC became Oregon State University and OS...