A Visit to Portlandia

    I thought I'd write a little more about my recent visit to the Portland area.  I spent most of this past visit hanging out with my daughter Rachel and her sweet family. Portlandia is a really funny TV show that makes fun of the rather liberal inhabitants of Portland. There are a few aspects of Rachel's lifestyle that might make it into a Portlandia episode at some point. The fact that almost all of their backyard is one big vegetable garden and their city chickens are two possibilities. Although, I personally consider obsessive recycling and organic gardening to be pretty conservative behaviors. "Waste Not, Want Not" has been around a long time.  Besides, I'm not making fun of her vegetable yard as I am trying to convert a larger share of our yard into vegetable garden. If anything I'm a little envious.  I doubt that Linda will ever let me turn the entire yard into vegetable garden. Besides, we do need some yard for all of the grand children to roam.

   I was able to help set up some hoop houses for Chet and Rachel.  This involved using some metal electrical conduit as a framework and covering it with plastic. It makes a nice temporary greenhouse to extend the growing season in our cool wet maritime climate. Chet had helped me bend the ten foot lengths of conduit with a pipe bender some months earlier at my house. I managed to fit the bent conduit into our Saturn to transport it to Portland.  Rachel and Chet have two planting beds built into their patio that were there when they bought the house.  It just so happened that the concrete curbing that surrounds each planting bed had three holes on each side that were just the right size to accommodate the ends of the bent conduit.  All we had to do was to add a little twine to stabilize the structure and cover it with plastic. Chet improvised clamps to hold the plastic cover in place by cutting pieces of plastic water pipe and reshaping them a bit with the help of a propane torch. I thought that was pretty ingenious on his part.

One of the two hoop structures not yet covered.

Finished hoop house

   I also spent some time helping Rachel in her garden. We pruned grapes, black currants, and raspberries.  Then I assisted Rachel in digging up extra raspberry plants so I could take them home. I've let our raspberry patch fall by the wayside the past few years so it needs considerable renewal.  That is one of those full circle things as Rachel originally got her raspberry plants from me. This past week I was able to install the raspberries into their new home. I don't have them trellised yet, but I did get them surrounded by a cardboard mulch. I then covered the cardboard with wood chips left over from our cedar tree removal project. That should result in a relatively weed free and tidy raspberry patch.

Our new raspberry patch. It looked much nicer after I finished adding the mulch

   Rachel's garden has also inspired me to try something new this year. I noticed that her broccoli had not only survived the winter but had gone to seed like crazy. While broccoli has never been my favorite vegetable, I don't mind eating it once in a while.  One issue I've had with home-grown broccoli is the fact that it never seemed to produce enough to make it worthwhile.  After the initial harvest of one decent sized head, the broccoli produces lots of smaller shoots.  I have never managed to keep these secondary shoots harvested in a timely manner. The result is that the broccoli goes to seed. In the past I've viewed that as wasted garden space.  However, Linda recently purchased broccoli seeds for sprouting and that has changed my perspective on the broccoli going to seed. Maybe the side shoots going to seed could actually be a benefit.  A significant harvest of seeds could be used to produce fresh vegetables throughout the winter in the form of broccoli sprouts.

   There was one near tragedy associated with the trip to Portland.  Shortly after we had left Rachel's house en route to the hike, I received a call on my cell phone. It turned out to be some nice man driving a pickup truck who had seen my violin and ukulele fall off the top of our car. He happened to be just two cars behind me at that point so I pulled over and he returned to two errant instruments to my custody.  Sadly, the violin suffered a broken chin rest, but that is minor damage compared to what I expected to find. The ukulele escaped with no damage at all. If ukuleles have nine lives mine is now down to eight. I expressed my gratitude by mailing off some honey to the good Samaritan who saved my instruments.

    Another item I transported to Rachel was another sour dough starter.  Chet has taken official responsibility for the care and feeding of the starter.  He made my day when he left me a voice mail on Sunday to tell me how much he loved the sour dough pancake recipe.  

Family History Friday #2 - William P. Darrah

    I've been working on the Darrah line this past week.  William P. Darrah is my third great grandfather, the father of Arthelia Isabel Darrah, who was the mother of Lulu Frances Stoner, who was the mother of my grandmother, Linnia Sylvia Lee.

    According to a book, The History of Appanoose County, William P. Darrah moved from West Virginia to Appanoose County, Iowa in 1856, acquired a large tract of land in Walnut Township, and held all of the principle township offices. He lived there until his death in 1887. I've located his death record and learned that he died in Mystic, Iowa on December 18, 1887 of apoplexy.  He is buried in the Scheffer Cemetery near his first wife, Mary, who died August 2, 1863 at the age of 42, and his daughter, Mary J. V. Darrah, who died April 6, 1865 at the age of seven.

    I found William P. Darrah on the 1870 census with his second wife, four children from his first marriage, two children from his second marriage, and three step children.  It seems like he had a serious blended family experience. As I reviewed the information on the census I noticed that my second great grandmother, Arthelia Isabel Darrah, appeared to have been born the same year that her mother died.  I can relate to the difficulties of their circumstances as I compare them to our own losses.  A husband mourning for the loss of his wife,  while trying to help his children deal with their grief over the loss of their mother. Then a few years later he loses a child and experiences the challenges of a blended family.   I don't believe life has never been easy in any era. I'm very grateful for the understanding I have that these losses are temporary.

   I've not yet located William P. Darrah on the 1860 and 1850 census records. He should be in Appanoose county, Iowa in the 1860 census and in Monongalis County, Virginia in the 1850 census, However, I was able to locate a record of his marriage to Mary Varner on September 4, 1845 in Monongalia County, Virginia (now West Virginia). I spent several hours pouring over the 1850 census on Thursday night. I've found four Darrah families thus far (spelled Dorrah on the census) but not William P. Darrah. I also found three or four Varner families.  I guess I've caught the genealogy bug again as I stayed up until 1:30 am looking at the census records.

Oregon Trip

   I took a few days off this past week and drove down to the Portland area to visit family.  Its probably the last opportunity I'll have to do that until after the package bees are over. I started my bee classes in the store this week.  Combined with the Monday night classes for Snohomish County Extension I'm teaching bee classes three nights a week for the next month or so. At least I'm not doing the mason bee booth at the Seattle Flower and Garden Show this year and I have a full time employee at the store. I'm not feeling as much stress as past years.

    Linda wasn't able to come with me so I got to take my six year old granddaughter Britton as a travel companion. That is one of the great advantages of home schooling. More flexibility when it comes to family trips. Britton is quite talkative so we had a lot of interesting conversations. A little reminder to parents, no secret is safe when your young children spend time with other adults. We also made a lot more stops than I would normally make. Smaller bladders and smaller tummies need both emptying and filling more often.

    One particular stop was actually planned.  A good bee store friend had given me both a deer and an elk hide this past fall. The frozen hides had been occupying a significant portion of our limited freezer space since then.  This was the first opportunity I have had to drop the hides off at Centralia Fur and Hide to be tanned. I think Britton enjoyed the stop because they had a lot of interesting things in their little store.  They had tanned  raccoon, otter, fox, and skunk furs, along with rawhide drum kits and turtle shell rattles.  A large stuffed moose head dominated one wall and several raw hide canoes hung from the ceilings. Their main customer base are folks who are into Indian and mountain man stuff as a hobby. Their customer amenities left a little to be desired as their restroom was just a portapotty out back behind their building. Britton was a trooper though and didn't blanche at their primitive facilities. She noted that it didn't smell nearly as bad as she had expected. The skunk furs were actually reasonably priced in case any of my children think they have a little stinker who needs a skunk skin hat for Christmas this year. I definitely have no plans to  do a skunk fur as a home tanning project.

Enjoying a little rest break during our hike through the "Wildewood" with Britton, Lance, and Luna.

    While in Oregon we had a great time. Britton got to spend time with cousins and I got to spend some quality time with Rachel, Sarah, and grandkids.  Highlights of the trip included gardening with Rachel, Chloe Kang's birthday dinner, and a hike through Portland's famous "Wildewood".  Like all such trips it was over way too soon and we were headed back to Snohomish.

Not quite the right shade of blue. I think she would prefer baby blue.

I'd rather she have a really bright color for better visibility.

   On our way out of Portland we happened to drive past a Vespa dealership. I know Portland is a little different, but I still suspect that they only have one Vespa dealership.  It was quite serendipitous that I found it. I stopped to take a few pictures to show my sweetie. I'll definitely have to take Linda by there the next time we go to the Portland area. She wants a little Vespa so bad her teeth hurt.

Family History Friday #1 - John Crihfield

   I have accepted a challenge from my daughter Sarah to do a family history post every Friday. Since I am traveling down to Portland today I thought I should try to get that done before I left. Otherwise, it would be like breaking a new year's resolution on January 2nd. Besides, I think this is a really good idea and I hope to encourage other family members to take it up.  I have been trying to repent and get back into genealogy again. I'm currently taking the family history class in sunday school and am trying to get back up to speed with all of the changes that have taken place over the past five years.

    I decided to do my first Family History Friday post on John Crihfield, my fourth great grandfather. According to the 1850 Census for Lauderdale county, Tennessee, John Crihfield was born in Virginia in about 1806.  Lauderdale County borders on the Mississippi river in the general vicinity of Memphis. John Crihfield lived with his wife, Elizabeth,  and their five children, Effie (age 19), Mary M.(age 15), William H.(age 8),  John H.(age 6), and Elizabeth(age 3). The y were enumerated by the census taker on September 31, 1850. I'm not sure if that means they were all alive on that date or if that is just the date the census taker counted the family.  I don't have the cause of death or the exact date of death, but John Crihfield died some time after the 1850 census and prior to November 1, 1851, the date of the estate sale. Obviously, John Crihfield's death was a serious tragedy as he left behind a widow with at least three children still at home.

     Mary M. Crihfield (my third great grandmother) married James H Heiskill(my third great grandfather) on July 23, 1851 in Lauderdale County, Tennessee. Note that she was only 15 years old at the time of the 1850 Census so she was probably 16 when she married.

    Probate records may sound a bit dull, but they can provide an interesting window into the everyday lives of our ancestors. In this particular instance, there is a wonderful summary of the goods sold at the estate sale, subsequent to John Crihfield's death.  It appears that he was a somewhat prosperous farmer as the sale included 2 horses, one yoke of oxen, 18 cattle, fifty hogs, and three plows.  The carpentry tools sold included one lot of augers and chisels, a plane, a square, two compasses (I'm assuming carpentry compasses), a draw knife, and two frowes.  I am assuming they lived very close to the river as the sale also included 1/2 of a fishing boat, 1/2 of a canoe, 1/2 of a seine and rope, twenty catfish hooks, and a grab hook.  It appears that his son-in-law, James H Heiskill owned the other half of the fishing boat, canoe, and seine.  I doubt that the fishing was recreational. The river no doubt provided a significant contribution to their livelihood. Items that James Heiskill purchased at the estate sale included 2 jars (15 cents),1 draw knife (35 cents), 1 hatchet (50 cents), 1 raw hide (50 cents), and a barrel (10 cents).

Country Living Expo

  Linda and I had a fun day at the Country Living Expo on Saturday.  Linda seemed to enjoy her chain saw for girls and tomato classes. She seemed less enthused about the fly fishing class.  The prime rib lunch was absolutely heavenly. I've never seen such thick slices of prime rib. We both enjoyed browsing around the vender tables.  I met quite a few alumni of my bee classes and discovered an interesting group advocating butter and lard as being more healthy than most vegetable oil.

    I really enjoyed the Build a Cob Oven class. A cob oven is also known as an earthen oven and is generally built outdoors, often from locally gathered materials. I would really like to build one in our back yard. Maybe after I finish the cedar ceilings I'll have the time to build an outdoor bread oven. I think it would be a great preparedness project. Think of the fun pizza parties we could have.

    The class lasted two hours and was very "hands on".  Actually it was as much "feet on" as it was "hands on".  About a dozen people were willing to remove their shoes and socks in order to mix the sand and clay.  Instead, I volunteered to work on the sand form for the oven cavity.  The cob oven or earthen oven is usually built on a foundation that gives it a comfortable working height . Since the  class took place in the Stanwood High School wood shop our oven was obviously going to be moved. Consequently, we built it on a foundation of plywood. The base consisted of 12 fire brick. We built up the form for the oven interior using wet sand. When we had got it to the right height and width we covered the mold with newspaper. It was sort of like building a big smooth sand castle

The interior sand mold is formed on the firebrick base

Meanwhile, others work the sand-clay mixture with their feet.

The clay-sand mixture is added over the interior sand mold

   Soon after we had finished the mold for the oven interior, the clay sand mixture was ready to apply.  It was built up over the mold until there was a two inch layer of cob material.  Now it just needed to dry sufficiently for the door to be cut out and the sand removed from the interior cavity. I'm not sure how long that takes, but probably a little longer in our wet climate. The whole process of building the actual oven only took an hour and a half.  The oven I would like to build in the backyard is going to take longer to build.  First of all, I'll have to build a foundation to a height of at least two feet.  Secondly, I'd like my oven to be a bit bigger than the one we did in class.  It was only 22 inches in diameter and 14 inches high. Also I would like my oven to be shaped like a bee skip. I'm thinking the artistic aspect will probably add to the construction time.  The particular oven we made in class also lacked the additional insulating layer and exterior plaster. The insulating layer increases the ability of the oven to hold heat. I can see I'm going to have to read a book or two before I get serious about oven building. I'd hate to go to that much work and then be less than fully satisfied with the results.

The completed oven now needs to dry

Choir Concert

     Linda and I attended Britton's choir concert last night with the Tunnells.  It was a much bigger deal than I had expected as the program included a total of 27 broadway show tunes. The concert lasted almost two hours. One reason it was so long was the fact that there were actually about 5 separate choirs, plus some combined numbers. I tried taking photos but we were seated too far away for good pictures.  I did have a good view of Britton's enthusiastic little face singing her heart out.  I just wasn't able to convert that into a recognizable photo.  Some of the songs that Britton's Elementary Choir sang included "I've Got the Sun in the Morning" from Annie Get Your Gun and "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast.

    Several things impress me about Britton's singing.  First of all her face is very expressive and it is really easy to tell she is enjoying herself as she sings.  Also she has pretty good volume for one so small.  In a somewhat smaller group and with quieter accompanists I'm confident we would have been able to pick out her voice.

    In addition to the entertainment from the choir, we were also treated to John's and Lucy's company. They were both quite good considering the length of the concert. John's enthusiasm for the event led to some loud vocalization (he hasn't fully mastered the concept of the whisper)  and he was inspired to direct one choir number from his mother's lap. During the concert Linda took Lucy out to visit the ladies room. John became quite concerned about Grandma Linda's absence and decided he should lead a search party. I was finally able to dissuade him by telling him that they wouldn't let him into the girls' bathroom to look for her.

   I have to make this short as I'm leaving soon to drive with Linda to attend the Country Living Expo in Stanwood.  In addition to teaching two classes about mason bees I get to attend a class on building cob ovens, a free prime rib lunch, and quality time with my sweetie.  Life is good.

Hula Lessons

   Linda and I attended our first hula lesson Thursday evening.  We aren't taking the lessons, but a kind friend is giving hula lessons to a number of our grand daughters in preparation for our bi-annual cousin camp this coming July. Our friend, Ann Tom, grew up in Hawaii and started learning the hula when she was a very little girl.  It was very obvious that she knows her stuff when it comes to the hula. I was amazed at just how complex it is.  There are so many little things that all have to happen at the same time. Yet the hula dancer remains the epitome of grace.

Lucy and Natalie get in touch with their inner hula dancer

    I served as the accompanist for the first portion of the lesson.  Obviously, I am going to have to toughen up my fingers for cousin camp. After about ten minutes my finger tips were getting sore. On the positive side, I knew how to play the three chords Ann asked me to play.  I was able to strum along while she started the older girls on some hula basics.  I have a new song I need to learn so I can accompany the dancers. The song is called "Kananaka" and tells the story of girls collecting seaweed in the surf.  The version we are using is sung by Amy Gilliom on an album entitled "Pu'uhonua", for those who want to download the music.  Ann was very patient with the girls and I think they all had a great time. As Linda put it, "What girl doesn't want to learn the hula?"