Well . . . it’s that time of year when our mailbox fills with an abundance of holiday catalogues and the occasional holiday greeting.
There are only a smattering of Christmas cards in our mailbox. This is mostly due to the fact that we don’t do the card thing.
Not to throw shade at those stalwart souls spending hours hand scribing cheerful notes. It seems like a self perpetuating task which has been over-shadowed by technology.
Why, even those “our year” letter writers have been reducing text in favor of a photo spread.
First morning walk with snow
Regular posts on this blog will keep anyone interested current on all our adventures . . . though mostly fishing excursions . . . if there is any interest.
So we also choose to use this space to send out a holiday greetings and consider this our yearly Christmas card.
Beauty of snowfall in the forest … across the road from our houseAny walk is a good time
We hope you have enjoyed the past year as much as we have and are looking forward to the next one.
We wish you all good health, good food and great adventures.
Those mild fall days have been overtaken by a more winter-like chill. We are still enjoying mostly cloudless skies, but afternoons rarely warm above the low forties. Snow is inevitable.
“Just get your picture and open the door already … “
This week we wandered back down to the Lower Deschutes. Thinking that Thursday would be a good day to avoid crowds.
That turned out to be wrong. But we did have a great picnic lunch along the river and an excellent turkey day outing.
Cooking a whole turkey makes no sense for the two of us, so Friday we put a pork roast in the oven. This paired nicely with a smattering of sides.
After all, it’s really the side dishes we look forward to anyway.
Sherars Falls
Hope you all enjoyed the holiday , , , Now get ready for the blur of time that precedes Christmas. We anticipate more cold weather jaunts and eventually breaking out the snow shovels.
As the pandemic ebbs, mandates ease, and business attempts to crank back up to normal, we look back on some of the lessons learned . . . hopefully to be taken forward.
Clark in felt cave
It was discovered that napping is an excellent means of self-care. The best practitioners would be our cats. Besides the efficient distribution of hair to all corners of a house, cats are innately adapted to finding and filling small, quiet spaces. All around us are examples of the cat nap.
Matriarch Greta and kids …
Boo
Clark
Lewis
“think I’ll rest up a bit before lunch … “
Social distancing measures certainly aided in slowing the daily pace. Retirement also removed a lot of daily pressures associated with work. We completely understand how getting pulled out of the daily grind has given people a new prospective. There isn’t so much an unwillingness to work as the realization life has many more important aspects.
Nearly 16 years ago we took in a tiny black stray. Long story short, she was pregnant and we kept the entire litter. Over the years we have fostered, adopted and rescued 19 dogs and cats, most of whom have lived out their lives with us.
The nap is a natural component to quieting your life. Wading into a moving stream, watching the flight of a raptor, or picking up a good book are points of meditation. Napping may be less an indicator of old age and more the culmination of life lessons teaching us to take a moment.
Regardless of world events, this has been a very weird week. As I’m writing this Sunday morning, it’s 40 degrees and raining. However, just four days prior, it was minus 3 degrees with three inches of snow on the ground and the wind was howling.
Winter returns to Central Oregon
We’d just posted about the unusual spring-like weather, when an arctic cold front dropped onto Central Oregon. With it came freezing temps and snow. Mostly we just stayed home, sat by the fire, and caught up on our reading. So there’s nothing to post about, sorry.
Soup canning operation in full swing
We do want to share this image of chili getting canned as part of an ongoing winter canning project. We started making soups for Saturday dinner and that evolved into a canning project. Mostly . . . we wanted to get away from commercially canned soups that have shot up in price, have way too much salt, and are actually getting harder to find. Once you have the soup cooked it’s not that hard to load a few pints into the canner.
Over a steamy hot bowl of “Wendy’s Copycat Chili” we are planning next week’s adventures. There is rain forecast, but we’ve got some road trips mapped out. Enjoy your week!
Brown the ground beef over medium heat, drain off the fat.
Using a fork, crumble the cooked beef into pea size pieces (a potato masher works too)
In large pot, combine beef, plus all remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer over low heat.
Cook, stirring every 15 minutes, for 2-3 hours.
Canning
As the chili simmers, prep your pressure canner and warm 6* pint jars and lids
After cooking for 2 hours, ladle chili into jars, clean rims with vinegar, set lids and screw on canning rings finger tight. Place canner lid and vent steam for 10 minutes. Bring pressure to 10 psi and hold for 75 minutes. Allow to cool naturally, remove jars, and let sit for 12 to 24 hours.
* If you don't plan to have a meal from this recipe, you can get 7 pints from a batch.
Yeah, it didn’t stay around but it took the joy out of any adventure we might have planned. So, we stayed home and caught up on stuff.
