Kitchen Pass

Saturday I reluctantly let Plantboy go fishing. I say reluctantly because he went just a week or so ago, caught nothing, and it made a really long day for both of us. (When he salmon fishes, he gets up even earlier than I do! He and his buddy like to be at the donut shop 90 miles away, called the Sweet Shack, by 4 a.m.; then on the river, by five am. Plantboy calls it "pole position.") It had already been a long week, but as I reviewed all that we had done during that long week, it was mostly stuff that I had going in the evenings while Jeff managed kiddos. When I put it to myself in those terms, I realized I couldn't ask him to stay home. I'm so glad I didn't.

The first picture was taken just after sunrise on the Umpqua River. If you look carefully, you can see that the photo isn't actually black and white and that the sky is a really pale blue. It was just very interesting lighting.

He called throughout the day to update me on the fishing report. At around two o'clock he texted me the following words, "30 pounds." I didn't believe him. At all. The biggest one he has caught to this point is 15 pounds. Also, he never texts. (One more reason to love Plantboy.) I figured he knew that if he called he wouldn't be able to play it straight.

Boy was I wrong.

He brought home a cooler containing the following:

I don't think we'll be using the cooler any time again soon. The one one your left was at least 30 pounds, the one on the right was probably around 20. The limit is two per day, but I think he'll be going back. His buddy called from the river this afternoon (Sunday) saying that nobody was catching anything. I guess yesterday everyone was pulling them out of the river, but a few boats still stopped to watch Plantboy wrestle the monster. His friend thinks Plantboy is some kind of good luck charm.

I think so, but I admit to being biased.

Now comes the fun (gross-out) part. Here is the behemoth on a plank Jeff set up on the back deck between two sawhorses. We just do large fillets, not steaks, so he only has to skin and fillet them, not gut them.






Last night, about midnight, after he'd finished filleting and packaging Mr. Salmon and then disinfecting the house, he decided that to get rid of the carcasses he would bury them in the garden. Salmon makes awesome fertilizer (remember the Pilgrims with the fish in the corn?) and my Plantboy couldn't resist making full use of his catch. He said that it occurred to him, rather belatedly, that while he was digging his deepish hole in the back yard with his headlamp last night that somebody might think he was burying a body back there. And he was, sort of. A thirty pound carcass is nothing to scoff at.

Today I made the best summer dinner we have probably had yet this year. A huge portion of the stuff came from our own garden, besides the salmon Jeff caught. And next year? The decomposing body of Monster Salmon is going to give me the fattest, greenest peas around. I feel a song coming on . . . maybe from the Lion King?

Okay, okay, all this circle-of-life-stuff can get a bit overdone, but it really does make me so happy.

Here is our dinner, clockwise from top left. Mashed potatoes--yukon gold and red, all from our garden. Bruschetta that we slathered on homemade, day-old wheat French bread and whatever else got in the way. All of the bruschetta ingredients (except for oil and vinegar) came from our garden. Grilled asparagus with a squirt of lemon juice. Columbia River Salmon (this variety was ON SALE at Market of Choice this week for $13/pound. Plantboy has 20 pounds or more in the freezer for a $10 fishing license). Caprese salad with tomatoes and basil from our garden. Roasted red pepper, and though this one isn't from our garden I was just using it up because the garden ones are ready.



And for dessert? Peach sorbet from my new favorite blog, called, appropriately "Use Real Butter." Her food pictures are lovely and her recipes are all so fresh and delicious.

All in all, it has been a wonderful summer. We are in our last, winding down week now. I'm ready. The kids are ready. But I also feel like this has been a Thoreau summer. And what is that, you might ask? Well, let's ask HDT himself. He can put it so much better than I can:

I went to woods because I wanted to live deliberately
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life . . .
To put to rout all that was not life;
And not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Our lives might be small, and my own influence may not extend very far, but this summer I've made a great effort to live deliberately. We've created lovely, lasting memories that will carry us through life's winters. Autumn is in the air and in my heart today.

In the past 24 hours I have been forcefully reminded that when you are working with teenagers they don't actually need another friend. Most of them have plenty of those, of varying degrees of loyalty. What they more often need from the adults in their lives is a parent. A leader. teacher. A mentor.

Sometimes the most loving thing is holding them responsible for their behavior.

Just don't expect them to love you in return for a long, long time. . .

I Need A Break! Scratch That, I Really Don't

Today's thesis: Modern housewives have too much leisure time.

And maybe money.

Perhaps I should back up with a bit of an introduction. Several months ago I was meeting with my book group and I made the above statement in the context of reading a novel about women in an earlier, and in many ways simpler, time. Immediately, the group of sister argued the point, "Women are so busy, so active!" they insisted. Well, yes, women are busy. As busy as they have been in any time, and I didn't disagree with that. But I think we need to take a look at all that busy-ness.

If you are reading this post and have just had your fifth (or sixth or seventh . . . ) baby, and/or your family is out of work, I am obviously not writing this post with you in mind. As with most posts on my blog, I'm writing for me in an attempt to work out how I feel about things and provide a forum for ideas.

Women in my generation have re-introduced themselves to many of the homemaking arts. Such skills have regained much popularity in recent years; craftiness has become quite chic, in fact. The difference, however, with our grandmothers is still stark, for all that the skills are the same. Even my own mother sewed because making our clothes was still cheaper than buying them. Into the 80's, many clothes were still manufactured in the US. This is not the case any more, and even China has subcontracted labor to North Korea where labor is REALLY cheap. My friends who sew now, and some of them are amazingly talented in this area, mostly do it to decorate their homes, create quilts that aren't necessarily needed, and to make super cutesy one-of-a-kind dresses for their daughters.

Don't misunderstand. I mean no criticism of the talent itself. My point is simply that a skill that was once essential to survival is now kept alive because of extra time, and money, to pursue hobbies that we like. Cooking in some ways is the same. Convenience products and an over-abundance of restaurants (for any demographic), would potentially take me out of the kitchen if I wanted to be. Instead, I have learned to cook very well because I like to do it. I like nice, high quality ingredients, re-creating my favorite restaurant dishes and making my food look pretty. Is this necessary for getting everyone fed? No, of course not. In fact, my kids would probably be just as happy with a three-night rotation of chicken nuggets, chicken salad and tacos.

This week I've picked up crocheting again after a hiatus of some years. But I'm not making blankets essential for warmth (for myself or others), or necessary clothing or anything wonderful. I'm just making scarves. Because they are cute. Because I have the time.

I read because I have time. I've been to the pool four times in the last two weeks because I have time, and may go again tomorrow. I blog because I have time. I have ambitions to publish a novel. Because I have time.

My sister and I were talking some weeks ago (She sews to REdecorate her house, she runs because she likes to be a size 4. Because she has the time.) and she was saying how she had a friend who often talked about "needing a break" and how easy it was to fall into this trap. Now here comes that word entitlement again. Somehow, because we stay home with the kids and are doing this NOBLE WORK OF MOTHERHOOD we feel that this somehow entitles us to finding multiple ways to carve out time for ourselves.

Again, don't misunderstand. I think that especially for women with large families, such alone-time, me-time, break-time, whatever-you-want-to-call-it-time is important for a re-charge, but I know that I have to be careful in taking advantage of that. It isn't as though my husband gets a lot of downtime himself. He gets very little opportunity to pursue his dearest hobbies, or even ambitions, at work, and is expected to be 100% when he walks into the door at night.

Last weekend at Crater Lake, we got to talking about all the fun things we have done this year. And it is a lot. In fact, after our Disney vacation (mom's awesome Christmas gift to her whole family this year) in November, our family will have done 2 big and 3 smallish vacations this year. I also got a vacation on my own. When I add to that my sweet husband's gentle insistence that I find a friend to take off to Ashland for a weekend with, it has been a VERY good year. Probably more than I have earned. Certainly more than I deserve.

I'm just thinking I need to focus less on getting my next break and more on enjoying the time that I have with my kids. I need to focus more on the work that can be done instead of the work I can avoid.

At Crater Lake, I also realized that there were 500 pictures in my camera, most of which were never posted this year. I have awesome camera skills like that. So in case you think I'm making up the fact that we've had our share of fun in the last several months, here is the run down. Then, of course, feel free to soundly abuse me all you want in the comment section about "lazy" modern women.