Happy Halloween!!!

Quilted Mat

Here's a project I started this summer after I bought a jelly roll of bright batiks. I didn't really know what a jelly roll was. It's a bunch of small strips of fabric of a certain size rolled up and sold in a bundle. The fabrics aren't necessarily up my alley, but after lots of playing around, I came up with this baby floor mat/stroller blanket that used up the whole roll. I had to buy the red fabric for the back and the binding separately. I really love the way the turquoise quilting looks with the bright prints. I did all the quilting by hand since I only have a Featherweight sewing machine.

Now... who do I know with a baby that would appreciate my handiwork and doesn't mind the tropical look? It's pretty stain-friendly :)

Redwoods National/State Parks

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

We spent a 3-day weekend in the Redwoods north of Eureka. On the way we saw lots of grapes being hauled in and out of the vineyards in big buckets on trucks. We also saw some exciting forest fire-fighting action (CalFire planes and helicopters)!


From Elk Prairie (where we camped) in Prairie Creek Redwoods we hiked in a big loop through the big old trees to Fern Canyon, then along the beach (from which we could see another forest fire to the north and lots of seals and pelicans in the water), to Gold Bluffs Beach, back through the trees to camp. CLICK THIS to see the map. I guess the hike was about 12 or 15 miles. The redwoods are impossible to photograph since they're so big.... HUGE! and amazing! Here's a lichen-covered specimen that dripped on our tent loudly all night the first night. We moved to the open meadow for the second night.


The car camping was pretty luxurious; smores, fresh fruit, clean dry clothes, no heavy pack, woo hoo!



At Elk Prairie there are lots of chances to view the Roosevelt Elk, if you can spot them through the fog and the ferns. Zoom in on this shot to see a nice rack ;)

Hardly Strictly

We went to the free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate park yesterday. There were a lot of great acts in an amazing setting. We saw the Old 97's, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, and Gillian Welch, with a special treat, a few songs with Emmylou Harris! Even heard a few strains of Steve Martin on the Banjo through the trees. There were going to be some great shows on Sunday too, but SF is a bit of a drive for us. Despite the high winds and lots of pot smoke, we had a great time with Nate and Jude.

Back to Spicer!

This time with Scott's parents. Our favorite campsite was free again, even on Labor Day weekend! Nice weather as usual, and we saw a mama bear with her two cubs up a tree - very cute.

See how much the water level has dropped over the past few weeks?

Sierra Backpacking

Last week we did a point-to-point backpacking trip with 5 other guys through King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks for 6 or 7 days, mostly along the John Muir Trail. We entered from the east side at Kearsarge Pass (11,760') and headed south about 50 or 60 miles, exiting to the east at New Army Pass (about 12,300'). We had 2 "rest" days that involved side trips. The surroundings and scenery were awesome and of course the weather was great - gotta love California for that. No one got injured or altitude sickness and the black bear that wandered through our camp the first morning at about 5:30 seemed satisfied just to walk right through without stopping for a snack :) . Nate and Scott conquered Mt. Langley - a fourteener and most of Mt. Tyndall. The highest point for the rest of us was Forester Pass at 13,200'. Nate's dad Jerry caught 4 huge Golden Trout which made a tasty dinner one night. This was my longest backpacking trip with my heaviest ever pack (starting around 40 lbs.) and everything went great, for me and the whole group. It was an amazing trip! I'll try to make a link later to more photos, but here are just a few for now...

This is exactly what we ate for 6 days; subtract the graham crackers and half of the Crown (no space) but add some fried golden trout and cheese quesadillas, courtesy of the Bowens.

Kim and Tracy and half of Jerry at our first pass - Kearsarge, entrance to King's Canyon.

Me, Nate, and Scott at the top of Forester Pass, highest pass on the whole Pacific Crest Trail. That was the toughest day; packs still heavy and a steep, high-elevation climb followed by a REAL long descent.

On a side trip we found a little shangri-la. Kim and Nate are already plotting how to get back here . It's off the trail and no one was around but some fishies. I'm not telling where it is.

Crabtree Meadow: site of crazy early morning eastern European calisthenics and illegal trash-burning (booo!) with Mt. Whitney lit up in the background. Also home to many Marmots and their poo. Great nighttime star gazing here at this busy trail crossroads. Most people come through here with the goal of climbing Whitney. We were too cool for that this time.

Kim getting artistic with the photos at Crabtree Lakes. This is the lake that gave up its tasty trout for us. Thanks Jerry!! Look at that clear blue water!

Mmmmm...


Mt. Langley... looks like someone got here first, darned USGS!

A Motley Crew: Nate "Trash Pony," Bob the Bullet, Big Fish Jerry, Kim "Spoon Man," Tom "Booze Pony," Tracy "Fish Face," Scott "Gitch Pony," about to head back down from New Army Pass.

7 days without shampoo gives the hair natural body and shine :D

We DID it!

Adventures in Canning

This weekend I went to the farmer's market with Steph and found that the berries were the fruits du jour. I was hoping for peaches but most of them weren't ripe and I wanted to do my canning that day. I made four pints of blackberry-raspberry jam and four pints of strawberry jam. No seal failures! It turned out to be pretty easy, except you can see from the picture that the strawberry ones have some bubbles and I wasn't too even with the headspace. I had some extra strawberries, and then we got more in our CSA box on Tuesday, so today I made four more pints of strawberry jam. It's really easy, but how much jam can you eat in a year? I'll give some away, but I'll have to make sure I get my jars back. When the tomatoes start rolling in I think I'll try salsa. mmmm.