Sunday morning, momma made a nice raspberry cream cheese spread for bagels that was perfectly blended to embrace the flavor of the raspberry, yet not too sweet as to overwhelm the cream cheese, a culinary combo surprisingly harder to properly proportion than one might suspect… Bravo! ~

For Sunday dinner, we enjoyed organic carrots, green beans, and delicious tiny new potatoes, also from Saturday Market farmers. For dessert, I crafted a quick parfait of cherry yogurt, dark choco nibs, and crushed cashews that was quite decadent… Yesterday, mom left in the early morning. It was a great visit and I’m excited for her upcoming adventure in Korea. She’ll be enjoying a little more time in the midwest before the big flight.

For me, turns out my weekend berry adventures was only just the beginning, as later yesterday afternoon, a friend made a quick surprise visit, conveniently just in time for dinner, where I’d used a few handfuls of berries mashed through a strainer and reduced, to burst a flavor explosion into another of Ray’s BeerBQ sauced creations… Blueberry Moon Pork Chops.

And also last night, well before the berries had a chance to go bad, I turned the rest of the flat into a double batch of freezer jam, yielding 2 pints and 6 half-pints, all sweetened with brown sugar and honey. I was a little nervous the pectin wasn’t going to set well because it was rather runny going into the jars, and if had been the case, no worries, perfect for a tasty froyo topping, but alas this morning, the jam had gelled, and is perhaps perfect, as good as it gets.

So after my morning french press of coffee and toasted spelt bread with jam, I knocked out a half-hour of chores. While feeding Burp some grain, I spotted several ripe brambles of blackberries on the other side of the pasture. So I re-used one of the berry cartons, and picked my first pint of fresh blackies that grow abundantly all over the property, and are just now starting to ripen. There are gazillions more that should ripen over the next few weeks.

Open to any ideas and suggestions for more BeerBQ berry recipes… =)

Beyond mountains, more mountains…

Had a great long afternoon at a perfect swimming hole on Fall Creek… We were about to leave, but saw a few trout, so fished for an hour or so. Caught one nice native rainbow. Caught a nice Ninkasi IPA too…

Wyatt enjoys the front pasture full of grass, and huge trees…

This was a great restaurant, took about 20 minutes to climb the trail up the cliff, overlooking the South China Sea.

The dogs have been excited that their big-big-big brother, Wyatt Burp, is at the homestead, maybe a little too excited… This morning they were ready and waiting to go for a walk with Wyatt. They were all ears, and liked the sound of the word Burp

My soul bro Wyatt Burp checks out his new home and snorts a hello to the neighbors’ horses… So I set up a small 20×20 run off his stall on the side of the barn with an electric fence. While Wyatt was smart enough to stay away from it after one shock, I’ve taken three good zaps now, one while holding on to the metal gate… I’m happy he’s there though, and I’m sure this will be a much better place for him. Dogs are excited to have him around too. Of course, when Boom was trying to give Wyatt kisses, he caught a shock on the tail, and went yelping away. Baba had it the worst though, she took a Wyatt love-tap to the head. She’ll know now to stay away from the business end of a horse. ~

Here’s a phone pic of the swimming hole at the new place, only a couple hundred yards from the front door… Sitting on a folding chair, my feet in the river, the dogs aren’t the only ones loving it.

Drift Boat Fishing for Smallies on the Umpqua River

My friend Phil was visiting from Phoenix, and we decided to take a drift boat trip on the Umpqua River with a guide from the Big K Ranch. We easily caught 100 smallmouth bass between the two of us. It was fun, but all the fish were pretty darn small.

Trout Fishing on the McKenzie River

Took a trip to the coast last Saturday, dogs had fun playing on the beach. Drove down to Elkton, scouted out some fishing spots on the Umpqua River, then kept going to Dean Creek Elk Viewing, over to Winchester Bay, north to Dunes (where photo was taken) and then back to Eugene from Florence. Very nice daytrip, beauty weather…

Three Big Spring Kings… Not a bad catch for the day, plus reeled in a nice-sized high-finner that we cut away and some little ones. Also about a dozen shad for crab bait. Many thanks to Steve, Tyler, and Chris for an outstanding fishing trip.

Just caught my first Oregon King Salmon, fishing on the Willamette River, near Portland…

Late afternoon 41° and 52° double rainbow over Lorane, as seen from front yard… This is six photos stitched together, and still I couldn’t get the whole thing, you can just see the second rainbow in the top corners… Funny thing about rainbows,if you change your position even slightly, you’re actually seeing a whole different rainbow. Two people standing even only a few feet apart will not see the same thing.

Fantastic way to start off Easter Weekend, with a mess o’ trout on the McKenzie River…

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My boss got this book for all the people in the office for a holiday gift… Although I do think the 177-question online assessment that goes along with the book could be a much stronger design to provide better validity, I still think it’s a very interesting idea, and effective personal and professional development tool.

As you may know, the Clifton StrengthsFinder measures the presence of talent in 34 categories called “themes.” These themes were determined by Gallup as those that most consistently predict outstanding performance. The greater the presence of a theme of talent within a person, the more likely that person is to spontaneously exhibit those talents in day-to-day behaviors.Focusing on naturally powerful talents helps people use them as the foundation of strengths and enjoy personal, academic, and career success through consistent, near-perfect performance.

Below are my top five themes of talent, ranked in the order revealed by my responses to the Clifton StrengthsFinder:

How well do you think these themes describe me?

Activator
People who are especially talented in the Activator theme can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. They are often impatient.

Command
People who are especially talented in the Command theme have presence. They can take control of a situation and make decisions.

Focus
People who are especially talented in the Focus theme can take a direction, follow through, and make the corrections necessary to stay on track. They prioritize, then act.

Self-Assurance
People who are especially talented in the Self-Assurance theme feel confident in their ability to manage their own lives. They possess an inner compass that gives them confidence that their decisions are right.

Strategic
People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

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For more information, check out www.strengthsfinder.com

1) After burning nearly a half-billion dollars of cash crop, Tijuana is now officially 100% stoned, and everybody is taking the week off work…

2) It’s true, you sure need a lot of Mexican weed to get high…

3) We’re going green, boys, Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em…

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Yes, that’s 134 tons of mi amiga maria, a whopping total of 268,000 pounds of grass, an unfathomable 4,288,000 oscars of Mexicanos arboles verdes…

If it was decent grade Mexican bales of pressed buds, the street price might run $80/oz. So that’s at least $350 million worth of a cash crop up blazed up. Somebody made money off that deal… and a lot more potential profits burned.