Jellies and jigsaws

This morning after Mike took off to do some sampling on the ridge above his dredge, I got down to jelly making. Keep in mind I have one saucepan and one large pot so the logistics were challenging and when the jelly boiled over, I had sauce oozing over the stove top. Good thing it's a small space and cleans up quick! Here's the results of today's canning. Not bad for a newbie!

I got the laundry done and some cleaning in the rig and made a (strange) chili relleno dish for dinner that turned out to be jalapeno flavored cornbread. Won't be doin' that again!

My fellow camper finished her driftwood chair and I think it's very stylish. It goes together like a jigsaw puzzle from pieces she gathered on the beach. It's bolted together with heavy duty screws and the seat and foot rest are painted 2x6 pieces. She'll take it back home when she leaves and preserve it with a clear deck stain.




Oh, I got a lift to the laundry mat on the camp host's golf cart, that puppy really zooms along! All in a day at Happy Camp.

The passing of days

I can't believe it's late August. We've been here almost four months now. Today was breezy and overcast and much cooler. I sat outside in the gazebo and worked on my paid job. Later this afternoon I picked a bucket of red plums and white plums and tonight started making jelly with them. A fellow camper here explained how to do it. She's been making jams and jellies for years.
It's probably old hat for some of my readers, but it's all new to this city girl! After mashing and cooking the fruit, Mike helped me suspend it in cheesecloth so the juice could drain into a bowl. Tomorrow I'll pour off the juice, add the pectin and fix it up in jars.

My teacher is also artistic and was working on a driftwood bench she made from wood collected in Crescent City, on the coast. When she finishes it, I'll post a picture.

Monday this week I drove into Yreka to meet my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew for dinner on their way to Ashland to attend the Shakespeare festival. We had good food at the Black Bear Restaurant. I spent the night in Yreka so I could do some research at the Siskiyou Historical Society Museum. They have a wealth of material on the area going back to the late 1800's.

For lunch I drove into Ashland to visit with my sister some more (can't resist getting to see family) and after yummy food and ice cream, drove back to Happy Camp.

There was a small fire outside of Saied Valley with 3 or 4 helicopters overhead and lots of fire fighter vehicles traveling the road. It's a beautiful drive and I notice new spots each time.

Here's a shot of the mountains in the distance that I took on my way out on Monday.

Have you left your box lately?

Out on a morning walk, I noticed a man driving around in a large orange box with windows and horizontal legs that crabbed across the landscape cutting the grass and thought to myself, "that man spends his day in a big orange box, while I…." and then one of those newer SUVs drove by with the new squared off design, and the driver inside sporting a determined grimace as she rode off into her morning commute. And I thought that we all spend a lot of time in boxes.

We drive in our car box to our office box where we sit in front of our computer box and work our in-box. We drive home, maybe stopping at a store box, then on to our house box where we empty our mail box and sit and watch the TV box with food from the ice box. And in the end, we end up in a six foot box.

But the world isn't made of boxes. It's a flowing, undulating stream of irregular shapes and complicated living things as far as the eye can see.

Maybe it's time to do some out-of-the-box living.

[I wrote this a few years ago and since we've been living in a box for several months, I thought I'd share it!]