Gifts from Oregon

Look at this beautiful personalized Critter Farm birthday card! Just wow!

About a week after my birthday, I received a package in the mail postmarked Oregon. It was from my blog friend Danni, Farmgirl dk of Critter Farm. She had mentioned via email that she would be sending me a little something in honor of my birthday. So I kept a watchful eye on my mailbox.

It arrived at exactly the right time. I was having a bad day, feeling tired and not having much of anything go well. Then this package arrived from Danni. It perked me right up. A friend reaching across the miles to wish me happiness. So wonderful to have friends like this.

So I opened the box to find this dried flower lying atop the packing paper:


Not sure what kind of flower it is, but I was pleased to have a bit of Oregon's nature sent to me. I am saving the seed head and will plant the seeds to grow Oregon flowers of my own. How cool.

Underneath the packing paper I found two colorfully wrapped gifts:

Such cute wrapping paper. I especially like the one with the farm animals


I loved the wrapping paper. I saved the one with the farm animals on it and have shown it to everyone who has come into my home since I received the gifts. It's so Critter Farm. Such attention to the details makes the gifts even more special.

So what was inside the pretty papers? Totally cool gifts, that's what!

Totally cool gifts!

A custom made card, soft & chewy gummi bears and a great book that Danni tells me is one of her favorites. The title is "Peace at Heart" by Barbara Drake. The author has a farm in Oregon and she wrote about her experiences there. I haven't read very much of it yet, as I seldom sit down long enough to read these days, but what I've read so far has really pulled me in. Once I start reading a chapter, I can't seem to put it down till I finish it.

These gifts were perfect. And they arrived with perfect timing. A hand of friendship reaching out to me across the miles making a positive difference in my life. Thank you for your gifts Danni. You made my day so much brighter.

The book will continue to brighten my days. The gummis, well, they were half gone mere minutes after I received them. They are no more. Poor little gummis. All gone now.


Yummi Gummis! So soft & chewy.

I am thankful that I have such good friends.


© Copyright 2010 Mountain Harvest Basket

Two, or Maybe Three, Celebrations!

Colorful Balloons decorated the House


Gifts Piled on the Coffee Table

No, not a birthday exactly, but a 1/2 birthday. My 48 1/2 birthday! (That would be 48.5 for you decimal nerdy friends of mine out there.) Yes, we crazy folks out here in the California foothills celebrate every chance we get, and that means celebrating 1/2 birthdays. So yesterday, February 19th, was my half birthday.

We had my half party at Jack's home, adorned as you can see above, with balloons that both men inflated with their manly hot air. No helium this time, but then helium doesn't last as long as air anyway. These beautiful ballooons went home with me and are presently filling my office with colorful cheer.

The guys gave me some nice gifts. Half birthdays are not supposed to be as elaborate in the gift area as full birthdays, but this year I received some very nice and very useful gifts from both guys.

Before we get to the gifts however, you need to see my favorite photo of the night below:

Cake, candles, gifts and curious kitty!

This is my view of the 1/2 chocolate cake (baked by Bob) just before I made my wish and blew out the candles. Notice Jack's cat, Lestat (named for his sharp teeth), in the background being very curious about all of the interesting things that appeared on "his" coffee table. I just love this photo!

So here are a few of the gifts I received for this year's half birthday:

Loaf Pans from Jack

I received 3 wonderful commercial grade loaf pans from Jack. These pans are heavy duty commercial grade metal pans that I will use in my bread baking hobby. I am excited to have them and can't wait to make some time to use them. Notice that I received 3 loaf pans. Just enough for our family of 3. One loaf of bread for each of us!

Cute Mini Cast Iron Skillet

Bob gifted me with this tiny cast iron skillet. I wanted it for a spoon rest or to use for melting butter. It's adorable, and is presently resting in the middle of my stovetop! I placed the wine glass beside it so you could tell how small it is.

A Pair of Excellent Candle/Fire Lighters

I received a pair of my favorite candle lighters. These babies are hard to find in the stores. They are wonderful because they fold up at an angle so that you can stick them inside a deep candle holder without burning yourself. They are great! I will use them all the time. Good for lighting the fire or the BBQ too. Thanks Bob.

I also received a great cast iron griddle/grill that fits my stove or BBQ really well, and a cast iron food press/weight for meats or sandwiches, but I didn't get photos of them. Bob got those for me, and I am so grateful because I had researched them for about 3 months before deciding which ones I wanted. He got me exactly the ones I liked. I will use them to cook magnificent things for us to eat!

Of course my favorite gifts of all are shown in the next two photos:

Jack

Bob

For this 1/2 birthday party, Bob made me a 1/2 chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting that you saw in the photo above, but here's a close up shot:

Chocolate 1/2 birthday cake~ or what's left of it

Jack made us his famous Picante Chicken with Rice dinner. It was so delicious that we didn't even take the time to get any photos of it. I provided a simple tossed green salad to round out the meal. We had some nice red wine, good food and good company. A very cozy family celebration. Just what I needed since I've been so stressed lately. Thanks Guys!

Now the title of this blog post says that there was more than one celebration to talk about. My half birthday is the first one.

The second celebration is that today marks my one year anniversary of this Mountain Harvest Basket blog! I started this blog one year ago on February 20, 2008. Hard to believe that time has flown by so fast, but it has. So just imagine in your heads the Happy Birthday Song...

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

Happy Blogiversary and Thank You to my Loyal Readers!!

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

I am so glad that I started this blog because I really enjoy writing about all of the crazy stuff that happens around here, and I have made such good friends through my blogging circle. Blogging has really helped to keep me happy and sane this past year. Thank you all. I love every one of you.

I will try to think of a fun way to celebrate this one year anniversary of MHB in the next few days. Perhaps I'll come up with some sort of fun give away or contest or something. We'll see how creative I can be.

OK, so that was celebration number 2. There's still one more to go.

The third milestone to celebrate is that this blog post is my number 101! Yes, I am one post late. I should have noticed that my last post was number 100, but I have been very busy lately, so I am choosing to acknowledge and celebrate blog post number 101 instead. Yay! Over 100 postings so far! Wow!

There you have it. Three celebrations in one post. Whew! I am tired now. I just can't party like I used to, I guess.

Love to you all. Thanks for being here and sharing my Mountain Harvest Basket with me.

© Copyright 2009 Mountain Harvest Basket

Harvest Dinner 2008

Harvest Dinner 2008

For the past decade or so, at least since my Mom passed away, Jack and I usually travel to the LA area to attend Thanksgiving dinner at the home of one his relatives, usually one of his sisters. This means that for several years I did not have the pleasure of preparing and hosting a big Thanksgiving dinner celebration in my own home with my family and friends. It also meant that I did not get to make the traditional foods for Thanksgiving the way my own family did or the foods that I had learned to make as a young woman when I was married (both long ago).

So a few years ago I started the tradition of having what I call our annual Harvest Dinner celebration in the comfort and relaxation of my own home, with my friends and family, with my traditional foods, served on my favorite plates, with my festive tablecloth, using my serving dishes, my decorations etc etc. In other words, Harvest Dinner is Thanksgiving my way.

Here is our Harvest Dinner invitation that we gave to our family and friends:

The 3 of us invite you to share in our annual Harvest Dinner. It’s our way of celebrating our abundance and to give thanks to the earth, our loved ones and our universe (spirit). Sort of like traditional Thanksgiving, but not on Thanksgiving Day.

I like to include a moment or two before we begin eating the feast of food to express our thankfulness for all of the abundance that we have. Some would call this moment of thanks a prayer or the traditonal grace that is said to give thanks for our meal, but I mean it to be much more than mere gratitude for the food. This moment of acknowledgement for our great abundance, is meant to bring into our consciousness how fortunate we are to have not only an abundance of food on our table, but also our great abundance in many other areas of lives. We have homes, health, safety, freedom, friends, family, and most of all we have love. So as we raised our wine glasses to toast a Happy Harvest, we thanked each other for being being here, Mother Earth for our abundant harvest, and Spirit for guiding us each day. Then we dug into the mounds of food on our plates.

Some years I have printed out this grace that I found in one of my Mom's books long ago, and we have made it a part of our Harvest Dinner thankfulness moment. I do not know who the author is:

This is a time for giving thanks
This is a time for remembrance

Let us remember our past and
Give thanks for what we have become

Let us be present in the present and
Give thanks for the here and now

Let us remember our future and
Give thanks for all that is to happen to us

Let us give thanks for the whole universe
Especially for our creation
And the life that is in us

Let us give thanks for that consummation of all things
Which Spirit is working out in us

May light and love surround us
And guide us to right action

I think it is a lovely, although lengthy sentiment.

Anyway, I wanted to share our most recent Harvest Dinner with you. We usually have it on a Sunday afternoon about two weeks before Thanksgiving. We had our 2008 dinner last Sunday, November 16th.

Here's the menu:

2008 Harvest Dinner Menu

Appetizers
Baby Carrots & Celery
Mixed Nuts
Olives
Goat Cheese & Crackers

Main Course
Free Range Turkey
Greek Stuffing
Bread Stuffing Casserole
Cornbread Pudding
Mashed Potatoes
Turkey Gravy
Pineapple-Orange Sweet Potatoes
Fresh Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce
Jellied Cranberry Sauce

Desserts
Apple Pie & Sugarless Apple Pie– both by Bob
Pecan Pie – by Jen
Pumpkin Pie – by Jack
Whipped Cream

I got lots of photos of the food, but absolutely none of us or our guests! We invited Bob's parents and a close friend of the family to make us 6 for dinner. Just the right amount of people to fit around my dining table.

So what follows here are the photos of our food feast with no pictures of any people or pets! Oh well, I guess I was totally focused on getting the food prepared and on the table for everyone.


Harvest Dinner Dining Table


That tablecloth was made by me 15 years ago for a Thanksgiving dinner I hosted in my little condo in Southern California, long before I moved to the mountains and my rural life. I still love the tablecloth and its rich colors.


Buffet Table set up in my kitchen


We served the food buffet style on a portable table set up in my kitchen. Everyone filled their own plate with whatever they desired from the buffet setup. I find this is the easiest way to serve the food because all of that food would never fit on my dining room table. This also eliminates the need for everyone passing heavy hot serving dishes around the table. It limits spillage and other dining "disasters".



The roasted turkey before being carved


I try to buy naturally raised hormone and antibiotic free turkeys when I cook turkey. I find that I like the way they taste better, and I feel better about buying a turkey that was raised without chemicals. This one was a Diestel Farms brand turkey. That's the brand I usually buy.

On our buffet table there was:


Roasted Turkey ~ light and dark meat





Pineapple Orange Fresh Sweet Potatoes



Bob's Famous Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes




Turkey Gravy ~ photo taken while gravy was cooking




My Mom's Greek Chestnut Stuffing



Cornbread Pudding ~ made this year by Jack



Bread Stuffing ~ Mrs. Cubbison's with my "doctoring up"



Fresh Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

Bob's parents brought some flaky dinner biscuits that were wonderful, but I failed to get a picture of them. Trust me, they were good.

And then after dinner we had pie! Errr...make that pies. Plural.

Jack's creamy Pumpkin Pie

Jack tried a new filling recipe this year that used real cream instead of evaporated milk. It was a richer pumpkin than I have had before.

Bob's Sugarless Apple on the left, and regular Apple on the right

Both apple pies were great. I couldn't even tell the difference between the sugarless and the one with sugar in it.


My Pecan Pie ~ tasted great even if the crust is ugly

Well, that's it for this year. The turkey and all the leftovers are long gone by the time I am writing this post. Maybe next year I'll get a photo or two of the people as well as the food!

Happy Harvest everyone! And Happy Thanksgiving!

© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket

Celebrations!

Yesterday I received my very first blog award from my friend Farmgirl DK of Critter Farm. She gave the "I ♥ Your Blog" award to a few of her blogging friends and highlighted their blogs in her post yesterday. I am honored and flattered to receive this award. She said such nice things about me and my Mountain Harvest Basket blog. I really enjoy her blog and read it faithfully. Her photos are wonderful!

I will need to think for awhile before I can figure out to whom I'd like to pass this award. There are so many deserving blogs that I enjoy reading.



Here's the award I received. I am especially flattered because it came from someone whom I admire in the blogging world and in life. Farmgirl DK, you rock!

Today is Farmgirl DK's half birthday, so here's the half birthday cake that I promised her but couldn't get to fit into the CD slot on my computer. I tried to FAX it to her, but that didn't work either. So she will have to settle for this virtual chocolate half cake. I made sure the candles glowed extra brightly just for her. At least it's low in calories this way.


Happy Half Birthday to You!
Happy Half Birthday to You!
Happy Half Birthday Dear Danni!
Happy Half Birthday to You!
And many moooooore...

© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket

Bob's Half Birthday!

Chocolate Half Birthday Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Yes, another half birthday. It's been a busy summer! This time it was Bob's half birthday yesterday, August 29th. You may remember my post about his leap day birthday 6 months ago.

We celebrated in the usual way for us, a cake ceremony, presents and dinner. Above you see the chocolate half cake, this time with chocolate cream cheese frosting. It was a dark and moist cake with creamy chocolate frosting that had a wonderful taste and consistency if I do say so myself. Bob kept asking me what my secret ingredient was. There is no secret. I'll never tell. I just followed the recipe. Notice the rainbow of beeswax candles adorning the cake. I like to use natural wax candles when I can. Beeswax are my favorite.


Pile o' Presents

There were half birthday presents from Jack and me. The artwork on the yellow envelope is my doing. Since Bob is now 64 1/2 (he maintains that he is only 16), I drew a stick figure of him walking down the road passing a sign that says "this way to medicare". Just for fun. I am not sure if he liked it or not, but he did say that the stick figure looked like him.


Bob thinks of a wish while waiting for my camera to function

Then came the flaming half cake, the singing and the wish making.


Blow Bob, blow...

Followed closely by the candles being extinguished by a big puff of air. Good job, Bob!


Opening Gobs of Gifts

Onward to opening the gifts. He received useful stuff like underwear, lemon pepper seasoning and gallon sized zip lock baggies. (It's only a half birthday after all)


Bob finally got his pickles!

In keeping with our family food gift theme, Bob received the surprise gift to match the zucchini Jack received on his recent half birthday and the dry salami that I received last week for my birthday. Bob finally got his hands on my homemade sweet pickles! Handle them gently Bob.


Dinner: Roasted Stuffed Bell Pepper, Steamed Zucchini & Garden Tomato Salad

Of course after all that singing and gift opening, we were very hungry for dinner. We had green and purple bell peppers stuffed with a mixture of rice and ground turkey meat accented with fresh garden herbs, steamed zucchini (gotta use up that zuke!) and fresh from the garden chopped red and golden tomatoes with fresh parsley and basil.

Oh, that was just the main course. We also had a first course of pureed zucchini soup! We actually had some appetizers during the gift opening consisting of cheddar cheese and crackers with some slices of that good dried salami you saw me open on my birthday. I promised to share it, and I did. So we ate a lot of food and stuffed ourselves. No room for cake?


Chocolate Cake with Rocky Road ice cream

We always can find room for chocolate cake. This time we have rocky road ice cream topping the cake. Sort of a chocolate wipe out dessert when eaten all together. It was good. Bob got to take the rest of the cake and ice cream home with him. Good thing too, I have gained weight this summer! I love my sweets. Just a little too much I think.

Jack enjoys his cake and ice cream! (his wine too)

Here is Jack indulging in the cake and ice cream. He provided a nice bottle of red zinfandel wine for our celebration which you can see in the photo.

This was not a posed shot. Bob was just really into the cake...

So another excuse to get together, eat too much and drink wine! After all the eating, we retired to the living room and watched a good movie on DVD. We even managed to stay awake through the whole thing!

Happy Half Birthday Bob!

© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket

Rainy Day BBQ

Foggy view from the deck

I promised you some photos from our rainy Memorial Day BBQ party at our neighbor's house here in the mountains. Above is the view from their deck looking into the woods.


Jack and Bob at the bar

It was very cold and damp out there on the deck. Luckily they had those patio heaters (see above photo) and a cute little wood fire pit thingie to keep us somewhat warm. (see below photo)


Fire pit thingie ~ producing profuse smoke

The location was beautiful if a bit cold and foggy. The food was pretty good. The wine was plentiful. Lots of people showed up.

Here's a bit of color I found in their front yard.


Yellow Yarrow

Hopefully next year will be more sunny. Weird weather we are having here right now. Very weird.

© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket

Everyday Comfort

My Jessie loves clean laundry...

My kitty Jessie is my best friend, my baby and my everyday joy. Her full name is Whispering Jessie, named after a John Denver song. She has been my companion and confidant for 15 1/2 years now and I hope she will be with me for many, many more. She understands me. She nurtures me. She worries about me when I am upset. She also seems to understand what I am saying to her, or maybe she just reads my mind. She is an amazing being. So beautiful and graceful even now as she grows older. So loving and trusting. I love her with all my heart. I don't know what my world would be without her, and I don't want to find out.


My sweet Jessie loves me.



© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket

Sad Day for Chickens and Mother Hen

Miner's Lettuce ~growing wild in the shady places


I am very sad to report that my brave little hen Barbara did not make it. She died in my arms this morning about 30 minutes after she received her fresh antibiotic injection. Although I did exactly as instructed by the vet and gave her the usual dosage, I believe that the medicine was too strong for her weak body and it was just too much for her. The older medicine may have been weaker and also less effective at fighting bacterial infections. This fresh stuff was just too strong for her. She may well have died anyway even if she hadn't received the drugs but I still feel very bad. I know I did everything I could to help her and to save her, but I still feel responsible for her death. She would have been 7 years old on April 6th.

Before I buried her, I made sure to show her body to the other two hens so that they would know what had happened to their friend. Just for a few moments, and from a little distance, just in case she had something contagious. I just wanted them to know where she was so that they wouldn't worry and wonder anymore. With the help of my partner Jack, I buried her near the chicken coop where there are other chickens buried from years past. I wrapped her lovingly in a special cloth, a remnant from my old childhood bedspread complete with fringe attached. I laid her softly deep in the hole we dug, gave her some miner's lettuce for the trip, and placed a piece of cardboard on top of her (to protect her) on which I had written my little eulogy for her. "Barbara Chicken, my brave little hen. You were a good layer and you will be missed by me and your sisters. We love you." That's actually only an excerpt from it. We filled in the grave with the soft earth and covered it with a plastic grid material weighted down by heavy rocks and things so that she would be safe from predators. We dug her grave about 2 feet deep, which is deep enough, but still I don't want to risk some predator coming by and disturbing my friend. I placed a couple of lavender flowers on top of her grave.

It has been quite some time since I have had sickness and death occur in my small flock, but I never get used to it. I need to make sure that my other two hens, Lucy and Red, are healthy and stay that way. Barbara's illness may indicate that I need to keep the hen house cleaner or add vitamins to their water or perhaps just keep a closer eye, and hand, on them to check for signs of illness. I don't often hold them and feel their bodies anymore. It's very difficult to tell that a chicken has gotten skinny merely by sight because their fluffy feathers hide their little bodies. You must hold them and feel them and maybe weigh them from time to time. Since they have been grown up hens I haven't done that very much, and they don't encourage me to do it either. They used to fly up on my lap and sit and visit with me when I would go out there and sit in my coop chair. As they got older they stopped wanting to do that as much. I guess I also stopped going out there to just sit and visit as much too.


Lavender on Barbara's grave

I am a very sad Mother Hen today. I have been mourning and crying over my lost friend. I know most folks wouldn't do that, but I can't help it. I never get used to someone being alive and conscious one moment and then still, silent and dead the next. I can't wrap my head around how the life force can just leave us like that. In an instant she is gone. It leaves me feeling scared and makes a hole in my heart.

Goodbye my Barbara Chicken. You were my brave little hen. I love you.

Mother Hen Jen


© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket

Small Towns Remember

Main Street

Last Sunday afternoon a friend of ours passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly. She was found lying peacefully outside in her yard. She was in apparent good health and excellent spirits. An optimistic and passionate soul who loved people, nature and the small town mountain community that we live in.

She and I were in our local yoga class together, and to attend class on Monday evening this week without her being there left a hole in the room and in our hearts. Our yoga instructor brought in candles and crystals and made a nice little temporary altar in her honor. The candles burned throughout the duration of the class. We laid out her yoga mat, blanket and blocks so that her spirit would be welcome to join us as if she were still with us in body. She was loved and will be missed by all who knew her.

It seems as though there have been quite a few people whom I have known here and who have passed on in the ten years that I have lived here in the mountains. I was thinking about that fact this morning as I awoke. Maybe it’s just that I am growing older and so are the people around me. Maybe I hang out with people much older than myself so that it is natural for me to witness more than the average amount of people passing in comparison to my own age group. Or maybe, and I think this is the real answer, I have been living in this small town now for over 10 years, and the number of people dying is about average in comparison to other places I have lived, but because I am in this smaller town, I personally know a higher percentage of the population than I did when I lived in a much bigger city.

I know more people and I know more about those people. Everyone here in this small community knows everybody else and what is going in their lives. Sometimes that can be annoying or inconvenient. Sometimes it can be very pleasant and comforting. The majority of folks around here, my acquaintances, my friends, the shopkeepers, my neighbors etc. are good people who care about their town and the people who live here. That knowledge brings me comfort. That spirit and good energy is one reason why I chose to live here.

Life will go on in our small town, now without our good friend, but her memory will stay with the people who live here and her spirit will live in their hearts. Her spirit will live in the trees, the rocks, the streams. My spring flowers and the sunshine that makes them bloom will reflect her great passion for life. We will miss you Cynthia. You are still our beautiful passionate butterfly.


© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket