Food, Feathers and Fun!

Tonight I was able to take part in a dinner hosted by Christina Orchid who ran a very well know restaurant on Orcas Island for nearly 30 years. The restaurant was called "Christina's" and it was still in business when we moved to the island but she has sold it and now holds demo cooking classes at her farm. I went with a group from Doe Bay and we sat at a long table and observed while Christina taught us how to make various dishes, not hands on, but still interesting and enjoyable. We had lovage soup (it's like celery but more herby tasting), vegetable stuffed eggplant with greens, black eyed peas and drizzled with a chutney-like sauce. For dessert she mad an angel food cake (which seemed so simple as long as you can get the egg whites whipped!) with rhubarb sauce and rosemary infused lemon ice cream all made during the demo. I don't have any pictures, but trust me it was yummy and I definitely ate for two!

I think the belly has had a growth spurt in the last week. No new belly shots though. I am 16 weeks and 3 days along and I have been very hungry and extra thirsty. We get a tart cherry juice by the case and I LOVE it! It has a lot of antioxidants too. I am eating more fish lately to keep up the protein intake and lots of greens from vitamins and minerals (and besides I love kale, collards and spinach!) We are going to start our own garden plot very soon. It is so important to us to grow at least some of our own food.

We had a sad day the other day when one of our chickens was killed in the night. The coop door was accidentally left open overnight by those who care for them and a raccoon got in. This chicken was getting over an illness and was not yet roosting up high with the rest of them which made her an easy target. She was unnamed when we brought her from Indralaya and the Doe Bay garden crew had named her Beyonce. We are now down to 7 chickens.

Here's a picture of Ruby from a year ago, she is very much alive and thriving!

Another shot of some of the chickens... I realized I never updated the blog on the subject of chickens after I posted their arrival! They are now 2 years old, but these pics are from last summer.


I recently revisited Indralaya (to get my mail and say hello!) and the new (returned) managers asked to take my picture to post on the Indralaya blog that they started. Here is the link to check it out:

http://thisweekatindralaya.blogspot.com/

I would like to share a few more pictures now that are from my trip to California this winter.

River and I with the positive results of the pregnancy test! We found out while visiting our friends in Morro Bay who have a baby that was 9 months old when we were there, so they bestowed hand-me-down gifts such as the lovely baby wrap carrier that River is wearing here!

Here we are celebrating our
12 year wedding anniversary!
This was days before we found out I was pregnant! We were at a quaint Inn right on Morro Bay where they lend you bicycles for the day!

Here I am at Disneyland in front of Thunder Mountain. Always been one of my favorites! We had a great day full of fun and time spent with family. It was both River and Thomas Jay's first visit! Here's River standing near a dolphin topiary at It's a Small World.

Thomas Jay turned 3 years old while we were visiting which was the reason behind the Disneyland trip. Here he is enjoying his birthday dessert at the Rainforest Cafe. He is such a handsome boy!

I'll leave you now with this awesome picture of Minke birdwatching. He actually just likes to sit in my lap and watch the cursor move around the screen! Today he did catch a shrew though, so he is becoming a hunter. He is the best cat ever!

Baby's Heartbeat!

My Baby's Heartbeat! It was so exciting to hear the quick, little, rhythmic beats! Of course I knew I was pregnant but now it is so much more real! Here's the video I took while my midwife Cynthia used the "Doppler" on my belly. It was taken almost 2 weeks ago. We will have the ultrasound in another 3 weeks. So stay tuned for more baby news!



We finally had a sunny spring day that was a bit warm! Tomorrow is looking to be even warmer with a big ol' high of 57 degrees! Never thought that the high 50's would feel warm to me, but it does. I sat in the sun today for a bit and soaked it in.

I'll leave you for now with this photo of me taken yesterday (yes, those are Christmas PJs). My belly grows by the day, little by little. I am 4 months along now! 16 weeks! Lately I have been craving artichoke hearts... yum.

April showers bring May flowers!

Spring is starting to bloom around here! We are really feeling anxious to start to feel the warmth of the sun and see more light green leaves on the trees! At least I do live where there are evergreen trees such a firs and hemlock and they do brighten the winter landscape so I am thankful for that. The midwife did say however that I am a little low on my Vitamin D levels (lack of sun, of course!)

I will visit my midwife, Cynthia Jaffe, again this Tuesday and this time I will get to hear the baby's heartbeat! I will see if it is possible to video it and post it on the blog here. The ultrasound is 5 weeks away and I can't wait to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl! Seems so crazy that they can tell at that stage since they are still so small. Right now my baby is said to be the size of a peach. I haven't felt any movements yet but the normal time frame for that is 16-20 weeks. Can't wait to feel those "butterfly flutters"! I have 2 friends on the island who are pregnant with a similar due date. It is nice to have pregnant friends and I was afraid I wouldn't since I live on an island. It will be cool to trade stories and experiences with each other.

I hope that this blog will help me stay more connected to all of you that I don't get to see very often and that the pictures and videos will help soften the distance. Here is a photo of me along Cascade Creek in the state park where we took a walk the day before yesterday. We saw a lot of amphibian eggs in a small pond and some very small fresh water crustaceans, kind of like shrimp or sand fleas that swim. The frogs have been very active in the ponds near our house and I enjoy leaving the window open a bit to hear their night sounds.

Thursday nights are open mic night at Doe Bay and this week River went up there twice with two different ensembles! For his first act he was able to just be the front man because there were 2 other guitar players, a drummer and a bass player. They did Doors covers and River pulled off a great Jim Morrison! The next time he went up and played guitar and did a couple of his own songs and a improvised blues song with a backing band. Here are some shots from that memorable night!

He's my Superstar! XOX

New Excitment in our lives!

A new chapter in our lives is about to begin! In many ways it has already begun! River and I are going to have a baby! Can you believe it? We found out while on vacation in California in early February which was great because I was so thrilled to be able to share the news with my friends and family in person! What a celebration we had at the ranch with a fine evening meal and a great time the next day when my mom, Dan and Thomas Jay came up to visit. A time when some awesome memories were made!

I am now 14 weeks along and my belly is growing little by little. The picture above is from when I was 11 weeks. The next one was taken tonight, at 14 weeks.

I had an incredible 1st trimester. No morning sickness or nausea at all! I've been eating really well and still getting plenty of exercise. River and I took walks in the state park on our two days off. I get breathy quicker than I used to and usually want a nap when I come home! Getting into nature has been essential though since I just went to full time at work.
It's starting to get really exciting thinking about being a part of Doe Bay for the summer. It's a happening spot and I love that I get to live and work here. We are very happy here. This link will take you to a Doe Bay Fest video that is really well made: http://vimeo.com/21494959 It's a 3 day music fest in August (I will be in my 8th month!) Hope you enjoy the video!

Indralaya's baby chick homecoming!

April 3rd, 2009 we had a box full of baby chicks arrive! 25 of the Black Star variety, all females, so we will have a nice flock of egg layers! It has been a lot of fun and excitement since having these little chickies around! They grow so much every day and change little by little. They are now two weeks old and in one more week they will move outside to the new chicken coop. We are using an old tool shed and sectioned it off to make half of it a coop. The nesting boxes were built this last weekend at Indralaya's Easter work party. We put in three but may need more. I have heard that the chickens often take to one box and just rotate who is using it to lay their egg. They only use it to lay an egg. They sleep on roosting poles, all the birds lined up in a row! Well, there are several levels of roosts so they can choose the height they like best. Right now they have a roosting pole, made from a pruned limb from the apple trees. We plan to use these for the coop but bigger sized limbs because their feet will be bigger then! So go ahead and take a look at the video I made! I will update you soon on their progress and hopefully post a new video because they have changed significantly since this video was made!

Bread Baking with Sourdough!

     Ever since October, I have been the proud mother to a sourdough starter! It isn’t very cute, but it is very alive and bubbly. It takes proper care to thrive and develop its complex nature. Daily maintenance requires either using a bit of the starter to make bread or dumping some of it down the drain (that always makes me a little sad), or you could give some to a friend. You need to feed it equal parts of flour and water. I give mine a bit of rye flour and the rest, white. I do this once a day in the morning and by evening it is frothy and ready to be made into bread dough.
     It is a lengthy process in some ways, to make sourdough, but it is so worth it! It takes 18 hours after you have mixed the ingredients in the evening as I mentioned before, until you are ready for the next step. It has all become very routine for me however and it works out really well with my situation of living and working from home. So I thought I’d explain how it all comes together.
     For the multigrain seeded sourdough I have been making, I use 2 ½ cups white flour, ½ c. whole wheat flour, and ¼ c. rye flour. I try to use all organic ingredients when possible. I also add in whole grains such as quinoa and millet, two staples in a vegetarian’s diet, which are good to help create complete proteins. Then there are the seeds. I use ¼ c. pumpkin seeds, ¼ c. sunflower seeds, 2 Tbl. Sesame seeds, and 2 tsp. poppy seeds. A little salt and some starter, water and a couple Tbl. of yogurt, make the dough complete. I mix it until it is combined completely then cover the mixing bowl with a shower cap (it works perfectly!) Set it in a warmish place and let it be until 18 hours later. If I mix it at 9 pm I start step 2 at 3pm the next day.
     At that time I move the dough from the mixing bowl to a proofing basket, which is made of rattan and sprayed with oil and dusted with sesame and poppy seeds. Sadly the raccoons stole this basket the other night. I gently scrape it into this basket then cover it again with the shower cap for another hour and a half. I have a ceramic device called a La Cloche that is used to bake the bread inside. After one hour I start heating the oven to the max of 500 degrees. When heated I put the dough into a small metal pan to give it shape and into the La Cloche it goes. Baking takes a half hour, then I take the top cover off and cook at 475 degrees for another 15 minutes or so.
     The hardest part is waiting for it to cool before slicing into it. I need to read up on why this is important but the guy who taught me, sourdough Bob, said so, so I guess I will believe him. When you do slice into it though, it is heaven! Sometimes I put some of our homemade apple butter on it. Sometimes it’s sunflower butter, just butter, or nothing on it at all is good too! Pure yummy bread!

Skiing at Mt. Baker

What a glorious day we had at skiing at Mt. Baker on Friday! The sun was shining on us all day long and it was a nice temperature, around 33 degrees. As you can see in this photo, I was only wearing simple knitted gloves, my heavy duty ones are attached to my ski pants. I did end up using them on the last run of the day though. 

We headed off the island Thursday night on the last boat. Got into Bellingham at 10:30 pm and made our way to the Nightlight lounge for some 80's music and inspired dancing! The group was mostly young, but the dance floor was soon packed with people dancing and singing along to "Livin' on a Prayer" and "Wake me up before you GoGo". Silly, but fun none the less.

The next morning we tried our best to get an early start and get to the ski mountain! We had a little over an hour of a drive to get there and arrived at about 9:30 am. The lifts had already been running for an hour by the time we were fitted for skis and ready to roll. I was a little upset to loose an hour, but there was no one to blame except myself! But there was no time to be upset, it was a beautiful day! River and I had skied here once last year so I was looking forward to learning the lay of the mountain a little more this time. 

Those first few rides up the chair lift were incredible. The scenery is really breathtaking anywhere you are there, but particularly when you are up above it all riding on the chairs. Skiing down through it then is a whole other thrill! What a feeling it is! I soaked it in as best I could, knowing that it was a one day event for me, not a full week of skiing like we used to do as a family when I was a kid. That made it even more special, just knowing that it was only for one day. 

I thought I skied quite well, considering it's become a once a year event for me. Kind of like riding a bike I guess. I did fall once however, on the hardest run of the day. River went down that run as well which ended up being a black diamond though it said it was intermediate. He did fine, though he was challenged, as was I, but he wanted to go do it again! So we did and that's when I fell. I got up laughing though. It was no big fall. 

The lift were open till 3:45 and we got in every last run we could. I was a bit exhausted at the end of the day, but I still would have gone again the next day if I had the time and money! Someday I'd love to live near a place were I could have a season pass and ski many times in a season, ah to dream! So, after a great Thai meal and a little nap back at the hotel in Bellingham, we got dressed up and went out dancing again! Hey, we are so isolated on our island, that when we do get out we like to make the most of it! And it is a form of exercise that is quite enjoyable! 

Saturday we ran around shopping for personal items and things for Indralaya before hitting the 3 pm ferry back to Orcas. Right now it costs $42 to take a car (round trip) on the boat. That may be the weekend rate though. Prices are going up everywhere, but Mt. Baker still has an excellent lift ticket price of $35! Well, I guess that about wraps it up! I hope you will tune in again to Shandra's blog spot to see what else I am up to from time to time! 

Many happy spring time wishes to you! ~Shandra