I found an article in the paper that I wanted to share. I'm sure most of you will wonder why I posted this... I mostly wanted to get it saved somewhere, but also, to shed a little (humorous) light on what its like to live here.
The column is called "Beach Slapped" and the author is Barton Grover Howe. Look him up. Better yet, here is his link: http://bartongroverhowe.com/
I love that all his writing is good, clean humor. His recent piece on Disneyland through the eyes of his daughter brought tears of laughter to my eyes.
Anyways, I hope I am not violating some major copyright law or anything, but here is the column:
"Theres no beach like home"
When I was growing up in Colorado, my favorite thing to do was go on vacation somewhere with a beach. Now that I live on the beach, my favorite thing to do is go on vacation somewhere else with a beach.
To some people, that makes no sense - people that don't live on the coast of Oregon. Because if you live here, you know there's a sad reality to saying "I live on the coast" - it comes with an asterick, one that reads something like: "*Where it rains all the time, the wind can cleanse your intestines and random objects are waiting to kill you when you least expect it."
I knew this when I moved here, of course. Even Stevie Wonder could read the many signs about town reminding you this is a great place to die, so don't enjoy it too much. Rogue waves, riptides, tumbling logs, being garroted by a kite string: This is what you came for?
Of course, these days you're as likely to get whacked by a sneaker coming out of a wave as a sneaker wave. Whether it's littering idiots or Japanese debris, the summer of 2012 presents all sorts of opportunities to get whacked. Yes, you may feel placated that the giant dock from Misawa didn't kill anyone coming ashore in Newport. But remember this: The last time a giant Japanese thing came out of a radiation fallout zone, it was months before Tokyo got the crap stomped out of it.
Perhaps that's why, when I booked my latest vacation, I looked to get as geographically far from the coast of Oregon as I could without having to leave the country or perch my butt near a volcano. (I don't have a current passport, and Macadamia nuts taste funny).
Cocoa Beach, Fla., now there's a beach. Famous from it's hey-days of astronauts both fake and real, and genies and Jeannies both fake yet bikini-ed, it's miles and miles of white sand beach, with the occasional pier and Tiki bar to break up the marvelous monotony.
Is it perfect? No, the wind blows when a hurricane passes through, and there are animals in the water waiting to nibble on your parts, as my wife painfully discovered. But nowhere do you get the sense that one false step will bring about your death or demise, save getting drunk, falling off the pier, and landing on a shark.
And even if there is something potentially fatal waiting in the wings - or under it (I saw a Great Blue Heron leave a deposit that I swear could dent a roof) -at least the locals don't spend all their time scaring the crap out of you. Truly, if Lincoln County folks ran Disney World, it would start with Mickey announcing that Space Mountain will send most fat and pregnant people to the hospital.
And yet.
As I walk the beach with my REI stroller, I noticed people were looking at me like I was a freak. And when they were done, they all had to slog back to their cars in the $5 a day parking lot so they could beat the traffic back to Faceless Suburban City No.213. Forget horrible ways to die, that's a horrible way to live. And a reminder that come what may on the Oregon coast, and you know it will, the best beach in the world is the one five minutes out my door.
It's nice to be home."
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
The Magic is in the Hole
My little sister Josie came to visit for a few days. Unfortunately, we were unable to take any time off work. It was the weekend but we managed to only work minimal overtime so that was nice to have extra time to spend with her.
We took walks on the beach...
practiced our "special" faces:
watched movies, drank wine, and had a great time! Josie cut and colored my hair also. I LOVE it! Thanks sis!
The dogs loved having their Aunt Josie visiting. Every night we came home to various sleeping arrangements on the couch:
(we really do have a spare bed, our couch is just SUPER comfortable)
We had to stop by Voodoo doughnut on our way back to the airport!
Love you Josie!
We took walks on the beach...
practiced our "special" faces:
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| Good lord Skott's tongue looks HUGE |
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| being silly |
The dogs loved having their Aunt Josie visiting. Every night we came home to various sleeping arrangements on the couch:
We had to stop by Voodoo doughnut on our way back to the airport!
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| We had to purchase one of their unique coffee mugs! |
I'm so glad my sister came to visit! I hated to see it end. Of course, we had to entertain ourselves while we waited in line at the airport:
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| "Crazy Eye" |
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Crazy week
I am still in shock that it is a full week into August. Seriously, where is summer going?
Last week was busy, but satisfying.
We have been trying to exercise walk at least 3 days a week in addition to walking to the stores whenever possible. The summer traffic has been absolutely wretched here in town so we try and walk. Luckily, the grocery store, outlet mall, and BiMart are all within a mile of us.
We pass by this gorgeous hydrangea every day on our way to the beach:
Skott's latest creation:
the picture angle is somewhat funky but he has been making various window mobiles using driftwood, beach stones, and sea glass. He makes all the copper rings as well. I will have to get photos of the others, they are beautiful.
We tried our hand at re-creating a recipe from our favorite pub in Newport. Skott made the spicy buffalo-style chicken and I made the fresh "blue cheese" dressing. I am NOT a fan of blue cheese dressing (the thought of eating moldy cheese just kills me) so I modified the recipe. It turned out amazing and it was very low cal and healthy. Here is the original recipe, with my modifications in red in parantheses):
Low Fat Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (I used the very last hunk of goat cheese we had from Dad and Sherry's farm. Any strong/sharp cheese should work well)
6oz fat free Greek yogurt (I used just regular low fat yogurt)
1 Tbsp light mayo (I used fat free sour cream instead)
1 Tbsp lemon juice (I was out, so I used lime juice but I think it would have been better with lemon)
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1/8 tsp garlic powder (I used a lot more than that!)
salt and pepper to taste
In a small bowl, mash the blue cheese and yogurt together with a fork. Stir in mayo, lemon, vinegar, and garlic until well blended. Salt and pepper to taste. I also added fresh chives from the garden because it needed some "color".
This recipe makes about 1 cup. It was so yummy to dip our chicken bites in! My only complaint was the next day it seperated and by the third day, it was pretty "runny". So I would suggest only making as much as you can eat in one or two meals.
We also made homemade tortillas for the first time using corn flour, water, and salt. I loved how they tasted and enjoyed the fact that they didn't have ANY lard in them at all. It was a little hard to press them out evenly so we just ordered a tortilla press on amazon, I'll have to blog next time we make them with the press.
Last night I made cookie dough flavored hummus. It was SO GOOD! I want to play with the recipe a little more before I share it.... who knew garbanzo beans + apple sauce + splenda + vanilla + quick oats + a few other minor ingredients = the healthiest cookie dough you will ever eat !?!?!
I got to (briefly) see my sister Amy, Tim, Ellie, and Dereck on Friday. They were headed to Tim's family reunion about an hour from here. They stopped in Newport for groceries so I went down and hung out with them at Walmart :) haha I wanted to go see them again the next day but we ended up working mass overtime all weekend :(
Izzy's been having it rough lately. Her meds aren't working and I haven't decided if I want to try and switch over to another one (it's a pretty complicated process, not to mention extrememly expensive with lots of testing and monitoring). She is losing hair again and most of the skin on her body is calcified. Poor little girl. When she's not panting or sleeping, she still bounds around the house and terrorizes the backyard. We took the dogs to the beach yesterday. They lasted about 20 minutes, which is about 15 minutes longer than I thought they would :)
We also went crabbing yesterday. We got there at 7am, about 3 1/2 hours before low tide. Everyone says crabbing is best at low tide but the last two times we have had phenomenal luck crabbing as the tide is going out. We each put out a trap and on the first pull, Skott got 3 keepers. My first three pulls came back empty so I switched over to the other side of Skott. We ended up with 9 crabs by 10:45! We decided to call it an early day since we had plenty of crab. Here is a photo of the biggest one: If you look, you can see the marking for Oregon. The crabs have to be atleast 5 3/4" wide right below their horns. I think this one was plenty big enough:)
Last week was busy, but satisfying.
We have been trying to exercise walk at least 3 days a week in addition to walking to the stores whenever possible. The summer traffic has been absolutely wretched here in town so we try and walk. Luckily, the grocery store, outlet mall, and BiMart are all within a mile of us.
We pass by this gorgeous hydrangea every day on our way to the beach:
Skott's latest creation:
 |
| driftwood, beach rocks, and sea glass |
We tried our hand at re-creating a recipe from our favorite pub in Newport. Skott made the spicy buffalo-style chicken and I made the fresh "blue cheese" dressing. I am NOT a fan of blue cheese dressing (the thought of eating moldy cheese just kills me) so I modified the recipe. It turned out amazing and it was very low cal and healthy. Here is the original recipe, with my modifications in red in parantheses):
Low Fat Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (I used the very last hunk of goat cheese we had from Dad and Sherry's farm. Any strong/sharp cheese should work well)
6oz fat free Greek yogurt (I used just regular low fat yogurt)
1 Tbsp light mayo (I used fat free sour cream instead)
1 Tbsp lemon juice (I was out, so I used lime juice but I think it would have been better with lemon)
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1/8 tsp garlic powder (I used a lot more than that!)
salt and pepper to taste
In a small bowl, mash the blue cheese and yogurt together with a fork. Stir in mayo, lemon, vinegar, and garlic until well blended. Salt and pepper to taste. I also added fresh chives from the garden because it needed some "color".
This recipe makes about 1 cup. It was so yummy to dip our chicken bites in! My only complaint was the next day it seperated and by the third day, it was pretty "runny". So I would suggest only making as much as you can eat in one or two meals.
We also made homemade tortillas for the first time using corn flour, water, and salt. I loved how they tasted and enjoyed the fact that they didn't have ANY lard in them at all. It was a little hard to press them out evenly so we just ordered a tortilla press on amazon, I'll have to blog next time we make them with the press.
Last night I made cookie dough flavored hummus. It was SO GOOD! I want to play with the recipe a little more before I share it.... who knew garbanzo beans + apple sauce + splenda + vanilla + quick oats + a few other minor ingredients = the healthiest cookie dough you will ever eat !?!?!
I got to (briefly) see my sister Amy, Tim, Ellie, and Dereck on Friday. They were headed to Tim's family reunion about an hour from here. They stopped in Newport for groceries so I went down and hung out with them at Walmart :) haha I wanted to go see them again the next day but we ended up working mass overtime all weekend :(
Izzy's been having it rough lately. Her meds aren't working and I haven't decided if I want to try and switch over to another one (it's a pretty complicated process, not to mention extrememly expensive with lots of testing and monitoring). She is losing hair again and most of the skin on her body is calcified. Poor little girl. When she's not panting or sleeping, she still bounds around the house and terrorizes the backyard. We took the dogs to the beach yesterday. They lasted about 20 minutes, which is about 15 minutes longer than I thought they would :)
 |
| I tell Izzy she is a "hot mess". T-shirt to protect open wounds and booties to keep her from bloodying her feet in the sand. |
 |
| Fucie was pooped after his "walk" |
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Silver Spoons! Knives! Forks!
Skott saw this idea and suprised me with some awesome plant markers for my herb garden:
He bought some tools on ebay to "punch" the letters into the silver. I love them! Thanks babe!
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| Lemon Basil |
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| Love Love Love Lavender |
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| Oregano |
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| Chives |
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| Mmmmmm Lavender |
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Making laundry soap
I am pretty picky when it comes to my laundry soap. I have tried every brand out there. Since moving to Oregon, I have continued to struggle with finding one I like. I finally got brave and took the plunge and decided to make my own.
Oh my
If I had only known YEARS ago how EASY and CHEAP this is!
I decided to go the liquid route, since I wasn't sure how the water here did with powdered detergent, and also because we wear a lot of dark clothes and wash in cold water most of the time.
I found the ingredients I needed at Winco but I have seen them at Walmart, Ace Hardware, etc. -they are not hard to find.
The recipe:
bring to a boil on the stove 4 cups water
(while waiting for water to boil, use a cheese grater and grate one bar of soap of your choice. I use Yardley because I LOVE their lavender soap and they are also a more natural company. The less chemicals, the better).
*note: make sure you are holding your cheese grater the correct direction! The first time I made soap I couldn't figure out why it was taking me so long to grate the soap.... until my dear husband kindly pointed out I wasn't grating against the sharp edge! haaha
So normally, if you start the water to boil, then start grating, you should have the bar grated by the time the water reaches a boil.
Reduce the heat a little and slowly add the soap shavings. Be prepared, the first bit you drop in will cause a lot of boiling and froth, but it quickly settles down.
Stir with a plastic spoon and continue to add the shavings until all dissolved.
Once completely dissolved, turn off heat and remove.
(I do the next step in the tub)
Using a five gallon bucket, add in 3 gallons of hot/warm water.
You should only have to measure the first time you make soap, then make a mark on the outside of your bucket where 3 gallons is.
Add to the warm/hot water in your five gallon bucket:
1 cup washing soda
1/2 cup Borax
Stir until dissolved, then add your pan of dissolved soap.
Mix together, put the lid on and let it sit for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, mix again, breaking up all the chunks and solids.
I kept an old detergent bottle and using a funnel, pour from the big bucket into the bottle.
The soap will gel so be sure to shake it before use (if storing it in old detergent bottle) or stir (if storing in bucket).
I use about 1 cup per load, depending on stain and odors.
I can't even begin to calculate the cost, as the Yardley is around $1 per bar and I paid $3.88 for Borax and $3.17 for washing soda, both of which are going to last for many, many, many batches. I noticed last time I was at Winco they carried Felsnaptha bar soap so next time I am going to get one and melt it down for a concentrated stain remover.
Here is a great page I found with several different "recipes", both powdered and liquid. And I love the extensive FAQ at the end of the article. A must read if you are even remotely interested in making your own laundry soap and saving money.
http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/
The first batch I made lasted about 6 weeks (I probably do an average of 4-5 loads of laundry per week). I have been very happy with the results. It even gets the yucky cigarette smoke out of our uniforms. And total time from start to finish was about 15 minutes :)
Oh my
If I had only known YEARS ago how EASY and CHEAP this is!
I decided to go the liquid route, since I wasn't sure how the water here did with powdered detergent, and also because we wear a lot of dark clothes and wash in cold water most of the time.
I found the ingredients I needed at Winco but I have seen them at Walmart, Ace Hardware, etc. -they are not hard to find.
The recipe:
bring to a boil on the stove 4 cups water
(while waiting for water to boil, use a cheese grater and grate one bar of soap of your choice. I use Yardley because I LOVE their lavender soap and they are also a more natural company. The less chemicals, the better).
*note: make sure you are holding your cheese grater the correct direction! The first time I made soap I couldn't figure out why it was taking me so long to grate the soap.... until my dear husband kindly pointed out I wasn't grating against the sharp edge! haaha
So normally, if you start the water to boil, then start grating, you should have the bar grated by the time the water reaches a boil.
Reduce the heat a little and slowly add the soap shavings. Be prepared, the first bit you drop in will cause a lot of boiling and froth, but it quickly settles down.
Stir with a plastic spoon and continue to add the shavings until all dissolved.
Once completely dissolved, turn off heat and remove.
(I do the next step in the tub)
Using a five gallon bucket, add in 3 gallons of hot/warm water.
You should only have to measure the first time you make soap, then make a mark on the outside of your bucket where 3 gallons is.
Add to the warm/hot water in your five gallon bucket:
1 cup washing soda
1/2 cup Borax
Stir until dissolved, then add your pan of dissolved soap.
Mix together, put the lid on and let it sit for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, mix again, breaking up all the chunks and solids.
I kept an old detergent bottle and using a funnel, pour from the big bucket into the bottle.
The soap will gel so be sure to shake it before use (if storing it in old detergent bottle) or stir (if storing in bucket).
I use about 1 cup per load, depending on stain and odors.
I can't even begin to calculate the cost, as the Yardley is around $1 per bar and I paid $3.88 for Borax and $3.17 for washing soda, both of which are going to last for many, many, many batches. I noticed last time I was at Winco they carried Felsnaptha bar soap so next time I am going to get one and melt it down for a concentrated stain remover.
Here is a great page I found with several different "recipes", both powdered and liquid. And I love the extensive FAQ at the end of the article. A must read if you are even remotely interested in making your own laundry soap and saving money.
http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/
The first batch I made lasted about 6 weeks (I probably do an average of 4-5 loads of laundry per week). I have been very happy with the results. It even gets the yucky cigarette smoke out of our uniforms. And total time from start to finish was about 15 minutes :)
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