Pickle Palooza

Work is full of adventure. New things. Crazy ideas at times. Some days it's the same old, same old. But some days it's the adventure, new things and crazy ideas. That was today. Earlier in the summer one of the participants I work with had been talking with one of my co-workers about the mediocre garden in our courtyard and the cucumbers that were growing in specific. They then started talking about making pickles. This idea was brought to me and I ran with it. We got our Kitchen Coordinator on board and multiple other staff. So...today, on pickle making day we turned 25 pounds, yes 25 pounds of cucumbers into 37 jars of pickles-in-progress as I call them as they've got to sit a few days before eating. When this idea first came to me, a pickle making newbie, I shook my head no because I invisioned hot water baths and canning being required. Little did I know that there are refrigerator pickle recipes, crock pickle recipes, etc. We opted for refrigerator pickles using a recipe adapted a bit from this one. We had a great turn out of staff and volunteers to support this event (nearly 20 if not 20 of them and this is a challenge in my building) and we had probably as many participants. There was magic in the room. People we happy, stories were being told, experiences shared both from early lives and current day. It was wonderful and warmed my heart and gave me a bit of a push to get through the challenges I've been slogging through at work. I am grateful.

Cucumbers in a box. I counted them all and did a guessing game with the staff and whoever guessed the closest will get a jar of pickles. There were 158! And, a deserving person won the jar o'pickles.

 Post washing and starting to slice into spears.

 We assembly-lined our project...one table cutting, one table putting dill in the jars, one putting garlic in, and two tables stuffing jars! There was one particular participant who was SO pro at stuffing....I was impressed. After the stuffing they went to the brine King and he filled the jars and then others lidded them.

 When all was cut and stuffed and brined we had lots of soon-to-be pickles and very happy campers.

 Wall o'pickles.

**Update as of 9/3/14. We cracked open a couple of jars and my, of my....what an amazing pickle we made. We were pros. So, next year we are doubling our efforts and having participants in the weeks before design labels for the jars. Selling or at least using them for some sort of marketing event might be in our future. It was that successful and it was requested that we do it again! Life is good.

"Wanderlust is a strong desire for or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world." ~Wikipedia

I have the most serious case of "I need to go somewhere." Anywhere. My little adventure with Cindy to Oneonta Gorge helped a bit last weekend. I suppose having a summer cold, which resulted in also loosing my voice (laryngitis episode #2 for the year-go me) and me banishing myself (mostly) to my apartment for sleep and to avoid speaking and to recouperate so I can speak at the job that requires me to speak have given me a bit more of an itch-and it also gave me the time to research more places to go. So, to add to my wanderlust itch I share with you some of my favorite pictures/quotes about traveling, adventure, all things travel.

Ah, where would you go if you could go anywhere, tomorrow?!

Kitty on a diet

Who ever thought that this would be a greeting they got in their email inbox? About the cat? Yes, the cat.

 
Well, I did. Today at 1:02pm to be exact. Mind you, this email was supposed to arrive in my inbox a week ago. I had Ezme at the vet for our annual "kitty has a sinus infection" appointment. Because she is sensitive like that. She has narrow sinus passages and when she gets allergies (exactly one week before mine start bothering me every year) she always develops a sinus infection. Without fail. Ugh. Then we always make the expensive and long (1+ hr) trip to the vet for the antibiotics as that is all that tackles it. Every time we've gone the last couple of years the focus becomes her weight. Do you remember this post about me buying a scale (which I've always opposed having in my home) just to weigh her so I wouldn't have to take her into the hour away vet office every other week for a weigh in? Well, we are back at it. Ezme gained another pound. She's a hefty 20 pounds of cuddly kitty, but Dr is worried about diabetes. I am too, but in all the weight loss attempts we have failed. Really, I have failed. We did kitty calisthenics. She eventually refused. We tried new low cal/low carb/high protein food. She liked it but didn't loose weight. We cut back on food and she started eating things she should not ever eat (it is a TMI situation so I'm leaving it at that) and I refused to let that happen so we have finally caved and agreed to try a prescription diet food and OMG I am not looking forward to the drive to the vets office every month to get it. We may have to problem solve that situation.

So, the lovely, cute, cuddly and gracious cat that is now on a diet: (this picture is the best of the worst that I could find because most of the pictures I have of her you can't tell how big she is-it was taken at Christmas after most of the family left and she was recovering).

 This picture was just taken back in May.

She looks big, but not as big as she is (in my biased opinion). It's interesting in an ironic way that she is now on a diet because when I first adopted her the same vet wanted her to gain weight because she was underweight....oy. I find that I am actually very sensitive to this, I don't know why. Am I transferring my thoughts and feelings about weight onto her? I don't think so, because I am not super sensitive about my weight. What I think the case is is that I feel like a bad kitty mommy and judged as that since she is overweight-which is something completely in my control and I just have failed at what needed to be done in regards to her weight. But, life is life and we are now on the cat weight loss bandwagon. Wish us luck. Oh, and I'm digging out that scale for weigh-ins again...for the cat. Not for me.

Slot Canyon: A slot canyon is a narrow canyon, formed by the wear of water rushing through rock. A slot canyon is significantly deeper than it is wide.

Several weeks ago I got a text from my friend Cindy, who moved to Idaho early in the year and she asked if I would want to see her while she was in Portland this weekend. My response: "OF COURSE...." just like that. I miss not having her close, but have been privileged enough to see her twice since her move. She got to my home yesterday afternoon and at 4:15pm (yes-late afternoon/early evening) we decided to ignore our original plans to walk/picnic at Steigerwald (in WA on the Columbia River) and go to the Columbia River Gorge (OR side) and hike at Oneonta Gorge, a hike we've wanted to do together for a while. This is the first slot canyon hike I've ever done and I am itching to do more...more....more.

Here I am...en route.

Cindy!

This was the mouth of the gorge....we knew we'd be hiking in the creekbed, which equates to hiking through water.

Lots of downed trees....

And the mother of all log jams to scramble over....

The craziness we saw was amazing. Things people do. Cindy kept saying it felt like we were in Darwin's Waiting Room. She speaks truth.

Ahh...over the log jam...almost.

Looking back at the log jam.

So pretty....so, so pretty. Pictures don't even do this amazing place justice.

Clear water and creekbed.

Up to my knees (and just above) during a lot of the hike/wade.

We decided to stop here. Or, more accurately, I decided to stop here, just in front of Cindy. This is the place where people started swimming through the water as it was just as easy to do that as it was to walk through it since it was chin high. I wasn't ready to get that wet, that late with the amount of not-wet-appropriate things I had with me. We decided we'd be fully prepared next time.

I can't get over how beautiful this place is.

Successful scramble back over the log jam to get out.

After our lovely hike we ventured back into Portland and decided to do dinner at Caldera. One of our favorite Portland summer places. They've got an outdoor seating area to die for. We thought we'd have a long wait, but there were hardly any other people there. Score. What a lovely adventure and time with a dear friend. So glad we were able to have these experiences, Cindy! Thanks for your time and friendship. Until next time!