one last look

Posted on September 28, 2021 by is there any more pie?

Yes, I am looking for arrowheads.

No, I did not find any. Which is sort of the way it goes. But it was good to be down at the beach for one last time before we pack up and leave tomorrow.

Leaving is always difficult. We shipped fabric and books home instead of hauling them around in suitcases. We have given away the food that we won’t eat and have taken all the garbage to the dump. The refrigerators are shiny clean and look remarkably organized. My last chore tomorrow morning will be to vacuum and then wash floors.

Packing wasn’t easy. Why is it that the older I get the less makeup I carry and the more medical supplies and medications I have to stuff into various ziplock bags? It is quite shocking. My under-the-seat rolling airplane bag has morphed into a mobile first aid station.

Our plan is to drive to Anaconda (Montana) tomorrow. It’s about 275 miles from here and will take us about 5 hours or so. For some odd reason Banjo Man was surfing Tripadvisor.com and discovered that Anaconda has a funky vintage motel, a highly rated pizza restaurant and a patisserie for morning breakfasts.

So nothing would do but we spend the night in Anaconda and sample its delights.

I will keep you posted as to how that goes. I’m a little skeptical, as I prefer the Best Western in Missoula with its next door MacKenzie River Pizza, home of the pear and balsamic flatbread.

But Banjo Man wanted an adventure, something different, a slo-mo road trip that would encourage whimsical stops along the way to Nebraska.

I have been left to wonder what exactly it is that we haven’t seen in 51 years of traveling the West.

I will let you know how this works out.

Posted in family, lake, road trip, travel | 2 Comments

end of summer, beginning of fall

Posted on September 25, 2021 by is there any more pie?

And so it ends for another year.

Will built a driftwood fire Wednesday night and we cozied up to the flames and enjoyed the evening. Thursday would be a busy day as the guys put away all the chairs and tables and kayaks and made many trips up and down the steps, up and down the hill, up and down the driveway.

A huge job was completed. But before all that work happened, the three of us sat on the beach and enjoyed the lake and the mountains and the warmth of the fire.

Yesterday Will, looking forward to grad school and to hearing some live music, flew back to Austin. The house is quiet this morning.

Too quiet.

We are so spoiled by having our grown children and our grandson here at the lake this summer. Oh, what a good time was had by all!

And I have the future Christmas card photo of all of us to prove it.

Posted in family, lake | 2 Comments

there is always more pie

Posted on September 24, 2021 by is there any more pie?

Wednesday was the day that Will and I headed to town for our annual Pie-Hut-And-Shopping afternoon.

First stop: Pie Hut. They offer a soup, salad and pie combo that is irresistible. Will had the peanut butter chocolate pie and I settled for a simpler chocolate cream.

Then it was on to the Antiques Marketplace for browsing. And Evans Brothers coffee for buying. And to Foster’s Crossing, another antiques store that’s good for roaming around.

While I finished cliimbing under a sewing cabinet to inspect it’s innards, I heard a southern accent as a man explained to the cashier, “I’m from Nashville. I love it here.”

Another man explained, “He’s a famous songwriter. He’s written hundreds of songs and a lot of hits.”

So I had to find out who it was, of course. The songwriter, a small, wiry man in his 60’s, was asking the woman behind the counter if she’d heard of the song, “I Love A Rainy Night.”

So I started singing the chorus. He laughed and came over to put his head against mine and sing the song with me.

Hilarious.

Who was he, you ask? Even Stevens, he said introducing himself. He wrote for Conway Twitty and George Jones and Clint Black. He and Eddie Rabbit wrote over 900 songs together as writing partners.

And yes, he’s moving to Idaho. To build a house on the lake.

I love pie and I love a rainy night.

Posted in books & music, family, food, just for fun, lake | 3 Comments

storing up for winter

Posted on September 22, 2021 by is there any more pie?

These are my acorns.

With the demise of brick-and-mortar fabric stores in New England–they are few and hard to find–I have been loving my trips to town to a real fabric store.

I am loading up.

And I have no fabric-shopping guilt. After finishing fourteen quilt tops and using yards and yards of fabric last winter and the winter before that, I am ready to make more quilts once the temperatures plummet. And I have room on my shelves for the new treasures.

Sewing keeps me sane. But you already know that.

Tomorrow I’m going back for one more bit of shopping at Selkirk Quilts. I plan to spend a lovely long hour or so imagining the possibilities in all the fabrics I see and touch.

Posted in lake, quilting, shopping | 2 Comments

bounty

Posted on September 21, 2021 by is there any more pie?

Dancing Mandolin Player has always been very generous with the fruit produced by her many pear, apple and plum trees.

Aren’t these beautiful?

I made two pear tarts and I also dried slivers of pears, a treat I used to put in the boys’ lunch boxes.

On Sunday I used the last of the pears to create a pear-walnut-gargonzola salad.

Here’s the link to the recipe:

Pear Salad with Creamy Walnut Vinaigrette

It seemed decadent to have a huge bowl of pears to play with, because I love pears almost as much as I love peaches.

The guys have taken plums up to the cabin for snacking. I wish I had time to can some, but the days are going by way too fast and I have all I can do to clean out freezers and refrigerators and closets and drawers and cupboards.

The rain has stopped and the sun is going to shine for the rest of the week, which will make packing up easier as the kayaks and chairs go back into storage and my little garden of pots will be readied for winter.

Will ate the last pepper in his eggs Monday morning, but I will grown more next summer now that I know I can.

The canning jars have been put away for another year and the canner will be loaned to a friend for her salsa-making next week.

Jars of peaches and apricots line the cupboards, applesauce is in the freezer and jam is ready for gift-giving.

I love this time of year.

 

Posted in family | 6 Comments

oktoberfest, 2021

Posted on September 20, 2021 by is there any more pie?
Banjo Man loves to volunteer to serve food at Oktoberfest.

Saturday was the most rain we’d had in one day since January 12. At least, that was what the Spokane weatherman said on his broadcast Saturday night.

We needed it. Desperately. But it certainly put a damper on the annual Memorial Community Center fundraiser, Oktoberfest. Still, we sold 100 bratwurst dinners (and oh, was that a tasty meal!) and who knows how many hot dog dinners.

The dining area looked beautiful, with gorgeous flowers, gourds and blue-diamond table runners. Tents and heaters aided sales of beer and wine and covered the DJ and his equipment. There was music, along with lots of conversations between neighbors who hadn’t seen each other in a while.

But did we need rain? Yes, we did. More than one glass of beer toasted the end of the drought and the end of the fire danger.

And no one went hungry.

Posted in food, friends, lake | 1 Comment

don’t ask why i bought this friday

Posted on September 19, 2021 by is there any more pie?

I will try to explain.

It was marked “$9.99” at the animal shelter thrift store. There was a sticker on the cover that said, “Tested”.

It was also unusual and shiny and pretty and I wanted to play with it.

This machine was also so heavy I couldn’t pick it up, so a hefty young man offered to carry it to the register for me and put it in a cart. I was then able to slide it from the cart to the back of the Highlander.

Where it remains three days later because for some unknown reason the men in my life are not interested in my new vintage machine. Go figure.

And why  it would be in a portable storage case I do not know, because there is no way this machine would ever be called “portable”.  I took it apart in the back of the car so I could examine underneath and takes some measurements.

Thanks to the internet I was able to research what kind of machine this is. “Made in Japan”, it was called a “Super Zigzag” DOM-B and is pure steel. After World War II, we sent US sewing machines to Japan so they could manufacture their own versions and build their economy. Which they did, often turning out machines that were actually better than the American machines. This is one of their “badged” versions. See the “Classic” label to the left of the biggest knob? Similar labels were put on the machines as Gimbels and Ford and all sorts of companies wanted their own label.

They are not highly collectible like vintage Singers and Whites and Brothers, but this is certainly worth more that $10.

I’ve been watching a Youtube video on how to mount a vintage machine in a vintage “drop down” sewing machine table. There’s lots of measuring involved and it is going to be a fun challenge to find just the right-sized table with the right hardware. Of course before that happens I intend to plug it in and see if it works.

Will and I are going to town Wednesday for our annual summer shopping trip to town.  We will eat lunch at the Pie Hut, hit a couple of vintage/antique stores and prowl through the stores downtown (hopefully finding great Christmas gifts).  Will likes to stop by Evans Brothers for some thank you gifts to Texas friends and I will check Walmart to see if my favorite mock turtlenecks are in stock yet.

I will bring a tape measure and check out every vintage sewing cabinet I see.  Just in case.

 

Posted in family, food, lake, quilting, secondhand stuff, shopping | 4 Comments

signs of the times

Posted on September 18, 2021 by is there any more pie?

Please be kind to those who showed up.

You’d think people would naturally be polite, especially in these times, but I guess not. I keep hearing horror stories about customers being mean to wait staff in local restaurants.

Here’s one sent by my sister-in-law in Kansas:

Fine vehicles and undertaking? This business covered it all.

Here is what I put on the oven last Thursday afternoon. And the guys did not turn the ovens on in time. (sigh)

Today is a rainy Saturday and everyone is very, very pleased about the rain. Fire danger has been lowered to “moderate” and, by the end of the weekend, could go lower.

Will is hoping to have a driftwood campfire on the beach before he leaves for Texas next week. I think the odds are good.

I am packing and cleaning and getting ready to head East with Banjo Man on the 29th. He is up at the cabin every day as he and Will finish up five months of construction and remodeling. Vada has been on site this past week and has engineered the installation of metal siding.

Banjo Man is thrilled. All the guys are.

Tonight is the annual Oktoberfest celebration at the Community Center. Banjo Man will be serving coleslaw, his favorite volunteer position. Wielding a serving spoon grants him the opportunity to meet and greet every single person at the event.

And that is a good thing.

Nebraska is playing Oklahoma right now. I can’t watch.

Posted in family, lake, television | Leave a comment

down at the marina

Posted on August 31, 2021 by is there any more pie?

We ate dinner down here at the nearby floating restaurant (known as “The Floater”) last weekend. The four of us strolled along the pier and gawked at the boats after wolfing down a wonderful meal. Shrimp, fettucini, steak, pork chops–oh, boy!

The smoke from distant and not-so-distant fires had disappeared, resulting in a welcome sunset over the mountains.

So we took pictures.

The guys!
Two weeks ago! Big difference, don’t you think?

Last night Banjo Man brought home a Pizza Hut “Tastemaker” special, which was a large three-topping pizza for–wait for it–$10!

It was delicious because (a) I didn’t make it myself and (b) because it was delicious.

Tonight we will have what I call a Freezer Pantry Dump Crock Pot Soup: shredded chicken, fresh chili peppers, green enchilada sauce, corn, onions and whatever else I can find to add to the pot. As we are now less than a month away from closing down the house, I am in “empty the freezer and eat everything inside of it” mode.

It’s always a challenge.

Posted in family, food, lake | 2 Comments

odds and ends at the end of august

Posted on August 30, 2021 by is there any more pie?
Excuse me while I put my feet up.

August has been BUSY.  Where did the month go?  I don’t know!  It started with another heat wave, smoke from western fires and worry over our own local fire.  We prayed for rain and didn’t get it until about 9 days ago.

Brother George was here for several weeks and a good time was had by all.

Progress on the outhouse.

Progress on the cabin.

Progress in the garden.

There was a trip to town to the Peach Man with Dancing Mandolin Player.  Breakfast at McDonald’s.   And a visit to the fair to see if DMP won a ribbon for her floral arrangement.  And…she did!

We are still waiting for days of rain.  Fire danger has gone from “Extreme” to “High”.  Temps are in the 70’s, so summer is officially over.  It was 48 this morning at 6:30.  

Oh, and I made applesauce!  I ended up buying a new old “appliance”, which brought back memories of making apple butter with my mother-in-law.  Check it out.

I had borrowed My French Friend Janou’s fancy food strainer complete with sixteen moving parts that were difficult–if not impossible–to assemble.  Clearly my brain and my patience could only operate the above three-piece apparatus.

Have you ever heard of a store called North Forty?  It has everything an Idaho woman needs, including pretty-colored buckets, rubber boots and canning supplies.  

Take a tour:  

I’ll probably be there again next week.

 

 

 

Posted in family, food, friends, lake, shopping | 4 Comments