Taking Advantage of a Beautiful Day Off

I woke up this cold, November day, and I couldn't believe my eyes: It was Sunny. It was not only sunny, but it was my day off too! A sunny day off in November!!! What a treat!!

 

Did I mention it was cold! There was snow like frost on the roof across the street!

After a cup of coffee, some delicious leftover Thanksgiving stuffing and eggs, off we went! Just Milli and me - we were on our way to the Olympic Peninsula. The goal was to hike. I put two destination on our agenda - we were gonna visit the Dungeness Spit and Railroad Bridge Park.

Since Chad and I moved up here, people have been telling us to visit the Dungeness Spit. Its the longest naturally occurring Spit in the US at 5 miles long. I read on one of the interpretive signs that the spit is actually growing around 19 inches a year. At the end of the five mile long hike, over rocks and drift wood and birds nests, there is a lighthouse.

There is the slightest white dot in between the two pointy foreground trees... thats the lighthouse...

 

I didn't actually walk the 10 mile round trip spit... we drove along the coast to see most of it. Luckily, I had read before we left that since the Spit is a wildlife refuge, dogs are not allowed to hike on it. I figured Milli and I would just pull over somewhere and have a walk - what I didn't expect was that JUST as you turn into the Dungeness Spit property, there is a hunting ground.... and along that hunting ground there is a trail - a DOG FRIENDLY trail! A beautiful trail that travels along the beach for most of it, and allows you glimpses of the spit and its surrounding campsites and what not. The trail actually takes you straight to the entrance to the Spit trail (where we had to turn around). It was the perfect 3 miles hike.

 The first half of the dog friendly trail - it was so pretty.

The second half... along the water with the spit in the background.

 

Once we got back to the car, Milli passed out, so I drove around, back to the Spit trail entrance. Leaving Milli in the car (which I think she was totally grateful for) I walked down to the beach/Spit. Just to warn you - there is a $4 entrance fee - totally honor system and the money covers four adults. Once I got down there, I realized I had no umph whatsoever to actually walk ANY distance on the Spit itself, but I took a few pictures and walked along the beach a bit. It was amazing. The wind was blowing, it was cold but not TOO cold, it was beautiful.

The beginning of the Spit. aka, as far as I walked down it...

After my little hike, we got back on the road and went to the Railroad Bridge Park. This place was cool. The park is centered around an old railroad bridge (duh) - that was built long ago to allow trains to cross the Dungeness River for a railway between Port Townsend and Port Angeles.

The park is small and it includes the Dungeness River Audubon Center, a small picnic area and a mile or so long trail. The old bridge is beautiful. The river below is even prettier. Luckily, the hike was short cause Milli and I were tired.

 Dungeness River

Milli and I finished the day up with a cup of coffee (for me, water for her) and a nice drive home.

Looks like the perfect end to a perfect day, to me :)

 

There wasn't a drip of rain. There was no traffic. Almost no people at either place. The day was wonderful. It was the perfect day off.

Smile! Chocolate

I saw this in the store today and I JUST HAD TO get it!!

 

P.S. If you LOVE sweet, sweet food (like I do) it's totally delicious!!

Pallet Garden: The Crop

Now that you know what a pallet garden is, you may want to know if it was successful. Well, success is defined by Google as: The accomplishment of an aim or purpose. And, now that the growing season is over, I TOTALLY feel like I can apply that to word to our pallet garden.

Oh. My. Goodness. Can I ever.  Let me start with what we planted.

Early in the year, Ashley and her son planted one of the gardens with cold crop vegetables. They planted: snow peas, broccoli, and cauliflower.  We were gonna plant some cabbage, but the dogs ate the babies before they got planted...

 These are the cold crop babies :)

After a month or so....

Peas galore!!! Ash even put up a little stick and twin trellis up for them! The broccoli also produced, but.... not in the typical grocery store fashion. I think she may have purchased a florette plant, cause that's about the size of the broccoli heads that came off it. They were sweet and delicious! Again, nothing like that store bought junk. The cauliflowers... those were duds... but hey! We'll take 2 out of 3!

Ok, so the garden was at that state at about mid-June. Our growing season here is a bit unpredictable, but I figured that was pretty close to the time we should plant out summer crops. So into the other garden went 3 bell pepper plants, a jalapeno plant (or two), and a tomatillo plant... that I grew at my house from a seed. At this time we also supplmented our garden space with a couple 5 gallon buckets with some holes drilled into the bottom for drainage (remember, we were on a budget!). In one bucket went a tomato plant and in the other another tomoatillo. We also threw in some leek and carrot seeds, just to see what would happen.

 

Second garden planted!! 

Well.... it happened to be a late season start.... and the plants (especially the peppers) looked all but dead... and then we forgot to water the tomatillo in the bucket... and I arrived one day to the top 8 inches of it hanging on its tiny trellis totally detached from the 4 inches of stem still in the dirt.... Ok... we weren't off to a good start....

But then something borderline miraculous happened - summer came! The next thing I knew, I was getting texts from Ash "you have baby peppers!!" and "the tomatillo is taking over the whole garden!!" She wasn't exaggerating... not in the least... here are a couple pictures she sent me:

 Baby peppers!

Huge tomatillo plant!!

All this in literally a month. As soon as it got warm the plants just exploded! So now, here we were, mid-September. I'd been letting them grow and get as big as possible before the freezing nights started... One evening it was warm and  t-shirt weather and the next I was walking around my house in a sweater and slippers. I figured it was time to pick... though I knew it was a bit too early for the plants... but either pick now, or loose the plants to the frost...

The day we picked with an almost 4-year-old in the picture for size reference :)

Here is what we got!

The harvest was insane!!! Eight pounds of tomatillos, 5 bell peppers, 2 tomatoes and a jalapeno (from a plant I thought had been smothered by the tomatillo and died!). It was amazing! I couldn't BELIEVE how prolific these plants were! So, as one could assume... we ate a lot of chile verde and green enchiladas....

So, that was what I thought was that.... but then... it started getting warm again. Like really warm. The nights were still cool, but not in the danger of freeze zone. Come to find out we were having an Indian summer. So, today, I decided to visit our little garden again and this is what I got:

That's right. That is another FIVE POUNDS of tomatillos, two bell peppers, two TINY jalapenos, a tomato and a skinny leek. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? 

This garden was the most fun thing ever. But the best part, was Ash's son excited about the veggies growing. He wanted nothing more than to show me the little tomatillo lanterns and that there was something inside them! or to pick snow peas and just eat them right off the vine. I wish I had gone over a bit more often and helped Ash with the tending of it - maybe caught the tomatillo before it took over and smothered everything else and weeded. But, it seemed to do just fine without us, just  being watered a couple times a week.

I attribute the awesome-ness of this garden to my construction skills and Ashley's green thumb. She attributes the success to her neighbor's soil that we used. I donno, and quite frankly, I don't care. This garden was a group effort and ended up being awesome in just about every way!

This was fun and I can't wait to do it again!

Pallet Garden: The Creation

This blog post has been a LONG time in the making. In fact, I've been thinking about THIS post since at least April - that's 6 months of waiting - six months of gathering pictures and pondering what exactly I should say - or should I say - how I would BRAG ABOUT HOW WONDERFUL THIS IDEA WAS!!!

I had been talking to my friend Ashley for sometime about putting in a garden at her house. She has a gorgeous acre of full sun property that was already the home to marionberries, apple trees, rhubarb and a huge fig tree. It seemed only natural to expand the selection!

Looking into the different typed of gardens we could put in - the raised bed - was our best option (see she has gophers and we needed to put a screen under the garden). Well, I don't know what research you've done on raised bed gardens but... I quickly realized they are EXPENSIVE! Ash and I are cheap, and this garden wasn't that big of a deal, so the project seemed to end before it began. but then it came to me one day, while working at CB's Nuts, when we received a pallet of product.

The Pallet Garden was created - in my head anyways.

I started collecting all the pretty pallets from CB's and Ashley and I quickly went to work staking out the perfect location (we ended up moving it.... but this was still how we staked it out).

Those are bricks we found on the side of the garage - they marked the edges.

Next step was carefully taking the pallets apart - the goal was to keep both the 2x4 supports and the nice top planks intact. Come to find out... this was much harder than we thought. Pallets are apparently put together with special, spiral nails - which make it almost impossible to remove them without damage. So, to compensate for strong nails, Ash and I employed strong boys - only took them two hours to tear apart two pallets.

We ended up with enough boards to make two 5x5 gardens, two planks high (about 10 inches). That means we had 4 center support boards and 16 planks. After that it was a simple cut and drill project!

 

Cut each center support beam into three pieces at the red lines. Discard the center piece.

 

 Then take those pieces and stand them up on end, skinny part down. Attach two boards onto the wide, fat ends (with the curves both pointing in) with three 2-inch wood screws. 

 When finished with that, attach two more boards onto the ends of both sides.

Once the garden is put together, its time to deal with the ground. Mark out where you want the garden on the ground, and start digging. Dig about a food down, for the entire area the garden will cover. Once finished, if you have moles, voles or gophers, lay down some chicken wire. Then just set your wood into the newly, dug hole. It should fit snugly. Then simply fill in the hole/garden with your garden soil. We used a combination of sifted soil removed with the hole digging, store bough compost and store bought garden soil starter (and to fill in the rest, we used some home-combined dirt from next door). The goal is to fill the garden to an inch from the top of the wood.

Green arrow: grass line. Black arrow: where the chicken wire goes. White arrow: how high to fill the garden with dirt after all assembled.

 

Awesome finished product!!!

Don't plant immediately, the dirt will settle and you may need to add more before planting. But I'll talk more about that in the next post.

So lets re-cap. Pallets: free. Labor: free. 1 box of 2-inch wood screws: $3.50. Purchased dirt: $20. So a 5x5 raised bed that would normally cost between $70-$200 (NOT including dirt), only cost us $23.50 and a little elbow grease! Plus, it was an awesome weekend project (well, one afternoon per garden).

Space Needle!

You've seen it a million times - the Seattle skyline, flashing across your TV screen. Tall buildings, piers along the waterfront, then the Space Needle. The only tall - and weird looking - structure on the northern end of the city.

Chad and I have been talking about visiting the Space Needle since we moved here, two years ago. It's iconic Seattle - its one of the things you just HAVE TO DO. So, finally, this past Tuesday, we did! We went up the Space Needle!

There really isn't much to say about it. After walking the 1.8 miles from the ferry to the needle, we paid for our tickets (though its not advertised, they do have a military rate of $2 off), walked over to the elevator, took a 41 second ride to the top and walked around the observation deck. It was a beautiful clear day - so clear that you could see Mt Rainier off in the distance! We did have a bit to eat from the snack bar - a delicious razor clam chowder in a bread bowl - cheap and delicious!

I highly recommend going on a clear day, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week. There was no line at all when we got there, but you can see the way the place is set up, they are used to having LONG, Disneyland like lines. Also, don't think you're gonna spend a whole day there - or even really an hour. Even with going out on the deck twice, enjoying the sun on a bench, having our soup, reading a few signs and taking a bunch of pictures - I think we were there for maybe 45 minutes. I could have stayed a bit longer but Chad had been bored for a while.

The arrow is pointing to Mt. Rainier :)

Upon returning home, I found out that if you are going up around lunch time, just go to the restaurant. As long as you eat a full meal there, it covers your entrance fee.

Its an iconic Seattle attraction for a reason. The Space Needle is just cool. Totally worth the trip.

Fish Park

Every morning on my way to work, I pass what looks like a small, run-down view point and parking lot. The place is called Fish Park - its right between Viking Way Poulsbo and Front Street Poulsbo at the point of Liberty Bay. It really doesn't look like much - but, what's that phrase... never judge a book by its cover... totally applies here.

Sometimes, Chad will take me to work on Saturday morning,s and on the days he does, we usually bring Milli with us. I've always known they go on walks after the drive, usually visiting Fish Park, but what I didn't know was anything about it.

Well, last night, I got my chance to see it for myself. I wanted to go pick blackberries. I had our usual spots in mind, Clear Creek, my friend Ashley's house, Island Lake - but Chad said we just HAD to go to Fish Park. I wasn't exactly excited to hear this... I wasn't even sure why we were going to go to the weird little parking lot for berries... I knew he had picked about 8 single blackberries, there the week before - but that wasn't exactly what I was looking for....

Well... again... I can admit it - I was wrong. Fish Park is SO MUCH MORE than a parking lot!! It is a beautiful, well-built, trail system. According to an interpretive sign (one of many) the park spans 20 acres and the trails were built mostly by volunteers and donations. 2/3 of the trail snakes through pretty dense non-pine forest, while the other third goes through a grassland and around a thick part of a creek/stream. I can't find any information about the water way....

While we were there we found TONS of blackberries, snowberries (poisonous), rose hips, apples and pears. We also saw a huge splash in the stream while standing on a lookout, we think it was a river otter or beaver - apparently both live there.

 Snowberries

And, did I mention the crazy wood salmon! It looks like its made of small pieces of drift wood. It's perched at the top of a hill - perfect photo opt.

Really - if you have a dog or are just looking for a nice stroll one evening - try out Fish Park in Poulsbo - its totally worth the trip.

Collins Campground

Let me just start this off with - Holy goodness Collins Campground is by far the coolest place in the world.

So, last weekend, Chad and I finally got the opportunity to go camping in Washington. The whole trip was a little haphazardly planned - so we hadn't made a reservation anywhere or had a specific plan in mind. Luckily, Chad had randomly been given that Friday off and with a little help from a friend, I had found a couple first-come-first-serve campsites.

We hit the jackpot. The first place Chad went, he got a spot (the last spot, the best spot). It was in the Collins Campground and it was at the joining of Collin's Creek and the Duckabush River. Literally, creek to the left and river at the front. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Duckabush River

Collins Creek 

Easy to get to, take the 101 south on the Olympic Peninsula to Duckabush River Road, drive about 5 miles and you're there. Once you get there, pick one of the 14 spots (just drive up to an empty one) and its $14 a night ($5 extra for each car over 2). Bring cash (small bills so you have exact change) or a check. There are two vault toilets - very well maintained - and a picnic table and fire pit with grill at each spot. Dogs are ok. The place totally clears out on Sunday morning, so if you can, do a mid-week trip and you'd have the whole place to yourself.

The river was COLD! Which didn't stop Chad and our friend from going in and submerging themselves! Didn't keep our friend's dogs out either (Milli however kept her sweet distance). I got in to about my thighs at one point... the current wasn't too strong along the shore, but it was too cold for me.

Another great feature was the waterfall. It wasn't at our camp, but about 2 miles drive farther up Duckabush River Road, then a mile hike. It was wonderful! The hike was nice, a bit of hill, but well maintained, huckleberries EVERYWHERE (Little Man K and I munched on those the whole way up)! The trail ends at Marhut Falls. A beautiful waterfall with a pool of calm-ish water at its base. The lookout point is high, about halfway down the falls, but you can walk down to the falls... or climb down.

I couldn't have begged for a better first camping spot in Washington. I would literally fly across the country to camp here each year! Enjoy!!

Olympic Game Farm

Last week Chad and I spent the most beautiful 5th of July together. We decided to fulfill a Washington-Long-Dream and go to the Olympic Game Farm.

Short story, it will be jumbled and partially wrong, but the Olympic Game Farm is a place where, back in the day, Disney stored, trained and filmed many of its animals and their scenes. Their most famous filming was the Grizzly Adams show. At some point they asked Disney to let them open to the public. There is a driving tour of the grounds, a walking tour and a barn tour. The driving tour is awesome cause they sell you loaves of bread and you can feed the animals who walk right up to your car!

It was great! We had so much fun. Feeding creatures wheat bread. Petting sheeps. Looking at four foot long fish.

 The bears were really smart. They would wave when you waved! Then when you threw the bread at them the were too lazy to bend down... so they would pick it up with their claw and bring it to their mouth.

This chicken came careening out of nowhere! to get a piece of bread!

It was all great fun until a llama tried to crawl into my window. Chad thought that was great, I thought otherwise.

It was a glorious, mellow day. I highly recommend it for people who are already planning on being in Sequim for the day. We had planned to spend a half a day there, but even after we looped part of the drive tour twice and took the barn tour (and petted the sheeps), we only used up 1.5 hours of our day.

So go! Have fun! Feed creatures! And watch out for the buffalo!

Celebrating with Local Flavor

Happy 4th of July!!

Chad and I are celebrating more than just our country's independence - we are celebrating summer's first day of wonderful weather and our newest porch-garden harvest: lavender.

Chad has been tending to our two lavender plants for over a year now. Last year, our first plant was just to small to produce and the other one wasn't given to us until after it bloomed. This year though, his patience was rewarded - the plants are blooming like crazy!

I tried to take an artsy photo... but the front flower WOULDN'T FOCUS!

 

To celebrate our 4th of July in typical American mid-twenties (bordering on late....) fashion, Chad and I decided to make ourselves a lavender cocktail. To do this we made a lavender simple syrup.

Lavender Simple Syrup

• 1 1/2 tbls fresh lavender flower buds
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup water

Put everything into a small pot. Heat to a boil, stirring till sugar dissolves, then remove from heat. Cover and let sit for one hour. Pour through a strainer, perfectly fits into a 1/2 pint mason jar, cover and keep in the refrigerator.

Wash the flower buds with water, if necessary before adding to the pot. It ends up being a delicious, very lavender-y but not soapy, sweet syrup. Now for the alcohol part:

Lavender Buzz

• 2 tbls lavender simple syrup
• 1 shot glass of vodka
• 1/2 cup club soda
• quick squeeze of lemon

Mix everything and serve with ice.

Yup, Chad bought me those flowers this week. He loves me!

 

This is not the first drink we've made up, but its definitely the most unique. It tastes like lavender smells, but not in an overpowering way. So, if you don't like the smell of lavender, then don't make this. We loved it on this warm 4th of July day!

Hope you enjoy!