Jammin'

Yesterday our neighbor Ray came by and guided us through his world famous Blackjack jam recipe. The secret ingredient is Jack Daniels and we have yet to get a complaint from any of our taste testers!

The chefs:




We managed to make 12 jars of Blackjack. Me and the final product:


Labeled and ready for the pantry:


The Blackjack was so much fun that after that we headed to a friend's house to pick transparent plums. We hauled home 2 kitty litter buckets full of plums - Thanks Luke:



We added a little Captain Morgan's and have deemed it Plum Smuggler. Delicious! We picked more blackberries tonight and hopefully there will be even more Blackjack in our future.

Fruits of Summer

The cobbler was a huge success!

Here is a shot of the ton of blackberries we picked yesterday. Some of these went into the cobbler, the rest are being made into jam today. Our neighbor Ray is an expert jam maker and has invited us over to take part in making blueberry and blackberry jams. His secret ingredient is bourbon so Nick is super excited.



In case you need an EASY cobbler recipe, mine (courtesy of my mom and Southern Living) is pretty good:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place 4C. blackberries in pan and sprinkle with 1T. lemon juice. Combine 1 egg, 1 C. sugar and 1 C. all purpose flour in bowl and mix until resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle over fruit. Drizzle 6 T. melted butter over topping. Bake 375 for 35 mins. or until lightly browned and bubbly. Let set for 10 mins. Then my extra secret - serve topped with vanilla ice cream.

We have been putting our Seal-A-Meal to the test lately! Here is a snapshot of our downstairs freezer where we are squirreling away our beans, berries and fish to get us through the winter.



The fish are courtesy of the London Boys and their recent ocean fishing trip off the Washington coast.

The view from the boat EARLY that morning:


The Fishermen:


Salmon fresh from the water:


Rockfish (Sea Bass) just on the boat:


They are predicting a drop in temps end of this week and winter will be here before we know it!

The Launch

Nick has been bugging for me a long time that I do not have a "hobby". As if chasing after all our animals, him and maintaining a living space in the wilderness does not qualify as a hobby! So...I have decided to start this blog. I remember when I was younger I really enjoyed writing and I hope that maybe this will be an outlet to re-ignite that passion while keeping up with friends and family along the way.

This blog will really just be the ramblings of our life in Brightwood OR as we enjoy our home and attempt to establish a somewhat sustainable life here in the beautiful North West.

Meet the actors:



Our Pygora kids - Reba (black one) and Loretta (white one). I realize I don't have any pics of their mama (Dolly) on this computer but promise to post her (and Luke the cat) soon.



Reba - the one with the pipes. Just like her namesake!



Some of the flock. We have 9 chickens total - Jersey Giants, New Hampshire Reds and Aracaunas.



Chickenhawk one of our Araucanas.



Cheeky Charlie one of the Aracauna ring leaders. Our favorite bird!



The boys: Mack, Truck and Scraps.



The farmers all dolled up for a friend's wedding a few weeks ago. The bride rode to the aisle in the Mustang - Awesome!

Gotta go pick some blackberries to whip up a cobbler for a friend's birthday!