A full house is a warm one...

What a wonderful Christmas Holiday we had!!

Thank you all that came and shared.

The first day of the holiday I learned something new that I think everyone on the planet knew but me... Brian and I where at the check out line at the market finishing up the food shopping for our guests and I bemoaned the fact that I forgot to get mistletoe... so Brian said that's ok we'll just go find some on our place... I scoffed "where are you going to find mistletoe?" thinking it was some sort of exotic bush that grew in Hawaii or something... Brian looked at me and said you don't know where mistletoe comes from??? I was a little embarrassed as we where in line and the guys behind us was basically part of our conversation.. He said it grows in oak trees way up high and you shoot it down with a shot gun... I laughed thinking this was some snipe hunting joke and said something like " ah yeah right!" at which point the guy behind us in line chimed in and corroborated the story ... I thought now really this is crazy even this stranger is in on Brian’s scheme ... so on the drive home Brian began pointing out the mistletoe high up in the oak trees ... see there's another bunch he'd say proudly... so after unpacking our groceries Michael and Brian marched up the hill to the woods with shot guns over their shoulders to go find the wifey some mistletoe... I'm happy to report a big bunch of mistletoe got delivered to me about an hour later. We had lots of bunches around the house ...above the sink the doorways and even above our beds ... let's just say there was lots of holiday lovin' to go around : ) ...

The Holiday was full of great food and desserts..

The desserts where many... The first night was thanks to Ethine's wonderful Christmas cake she sent to Roisin that she shared with us,

Christmas eve was Josephs cheesecakes which where so good and quite rich!! and for christmas we enjoyed Marys plum pudding which got lit although that's hard to capture in film.....

I added homemade limoncello and a lemon pie to the mix : ) lemons courtesy of Joseph and Michael and California... : )

There where also lots of chocolates and nuts and other goodies including fruit that graced our table... the meals where wonderful and Michael and Haley generously donated all the meat ... ribs, brisket and the game hens we had on Christmas .. yummy!

Michael and I also teamed up and did it again the Christmas stolen with mom's recipe.. there was some throwing of flower but we still managed to make a pretty good stolen .. in fact it was all gone by the end of Christmas day so it must not have been too bad : )

For entertainment there was skeet shooting thanks to Michael followed by some target practice... Haley proved to be a crack shot as did Brian...

Joseph gettin' down with the skeet

we did take some nice walks and enjoyed visiting animals.

chasing dinner?... : )

We got a totally white Christmas with big fluffy snow falling all day on Christmas day... it was magical... there where games played after dinner a few nights. Mr Eoin had lots of toys from Santa including this train that appeared under the tree for Christmas morning.

and this was his gift to Santa’s reindeer.

We also enjoyed dinosaur races and taught Mr Eoin to be a bookie and take bets .. I sure Mary appreciated that.. : )

... other than that we generally just hung out and enjoyed each other...

Their where some quote-able quotes this year that Joseph recorded for us : )

Eoin... and Chris... "Eoin what's your favorite day of the week?..." Eoin "Christmas!"

Clare "we voted and we are NOT noshing in the kitchen all day"

Chi "I obviously didn't get a vote"

Matt "I'm not siding with him because it's Brian it's because he's right"

Joseph "and then I found 5 dollars"

I can’t wait for you to all come back next year it was a wonderful time with you all!!!

friends, family and shrooms

I'm a little slow on the posting as there has been much happenin' .. This post is due to the prompting of Chou chou... : )

The holidays are in full swing. We had a nice day trip a few weeks ago out Mushroom hunting with our friends Kurt Natalie and Alex and Kiley we had a guide who took us to some pretty stellar chanterelle sites and we all came home with a big arm full despite the rain and the snow both of which we saw the day we where hunting.... burrr.... so Brian made an yummy homemade pasta with a chanterelle - pork sauce that was pretty freggin nice !


Brians family came out last weekend for an early Christmas holiday visit and it was super nice and very laid back... the boys where super and Ty is hanging in very well considering raising three boys all under 3yrs! And Roisin thanks to Brian's groovy Gator got to finally get to see our whole place I think she loved it! The gator is pretty fun and also pretty darn useful with a dump bed and everything... I'll admit I was skeptical of at first as when Brian brought it home it didn't run and looked pretty darn rough.. but it was dirt cheep so I just thought well we'll see... I now think the gator is pretty darn handy!











My brother Joseph came out yesterday and we went out and cut down a big old tree for Christmas.. lights soon to come...






and then last night Our friends Tom and Anette and her son Felix (who made us a very good salad dressing) all came over to make limoncello ...


My Brothers Michael and Joseph collaborated to send us the required non-waxed, organic lemons and we managed to acquire some 180 proof alcohol (who's origin is top secrete) and with a good recipe and some expertise from Tom I think it will make a great Christmas drink!!




Phill the Pheasant is still sharing company with his wild friend .....

shameless k-9 spoilage

So Brian and I seem to have fallen into a stereotype very typical of gasp "folks with no kids"...

We have definitively crossed the line of enjoying our dog as a pet to completely and shamelessly spoiling her as one might with a child

We lavish her with attention take her, EVERYWHERE, and she whines to get pretty much anything we could have possibly "forgotten" to give her. We make excuses like we don't have a fence for not leaving her behind and allowing her to actually be "independent" from us. We also let her run pretty much anywhere she wants on our 70 acres and then more around our canyon if she choses... so we pretty much felt we had hit the spoiling pinnacle. But there was one last bastion of spoiling and I will implicate Porter here as she participated in this.

Due to the cold climate and a house that ranges from 43 and 55 degrees and a dog with very short hair we have now "acquired" not one, not two but three doggie jackets.


The first one is a fleece made in Oregon just for our "principessa" ...


The second acquisition is a waterproof "outdoor" jacket with reflective strips the works...


And the third is a fabulous gift from miss Porter that is ..get this embroidered with her name...
Clementine

and then there is her "other" name which is rightly principessa...

we didn't float away but our pigs almost did

I went our to the barn yesterday morning to find our little piggies standing on one last little island of dry in their pen.. this island of dry was thankfully where their food and water was.. the rest of their pen was about 10 inches deep in water!

So Brian and I spent the morning digging trenches and re-directing water... that is one way to get the pig pen cleaned!!! when the "things" that are in a pig pen mix with water it's makes a special kind of pig pen soup only a mother could love... it's was so bad it was kind of funny... but we got all the water out and gave them a nice new base of wood chips topped by wood shavings and then a nice big deep bead of straw their pen is nicer now than it was before the rain... they where pretty happy when I went out to check them this morning... ...

so the water at our place was a sight to behold when you live near the bottom of a canyon the water comes down and then it likes to fill up low spots like ones driveway and frontage road... so needless to say we weren't going anywhere yesterday...

to quote the UPS guy
"there seems to be a road developing under your river"

From my neighbor Monique

that's my mailbox across my road/river

and while most of the old clay tiles all over our place work many are broken and the water comes rushing out of these big sink holes where you didn't expect it .. makes life interesting... : ) this is what happened in the barn and filled the piggies pen... as well as got dangerously close to all my winter hay!! but all the animals are now warm and dry and our house is up on a hill so no worries there : ) all is good! and no wind damage and that's good too...
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This is a shot from one of Brian's co-workers Emily (thanks Emily)... If it's hard to tell what's going on Brian is in a bin full of our grapes "stomping them" I wish you could see in cause he's in his boxers : ) and that's a hi-pressure hose I'm holding... but of course I wouldn't...


This card (below) I had to post it's from my brother Joseph and made me laugh right out loud...
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in case you can't read it it says...
"adding to my misery no one here thinks I'm funny"
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stay warm and dry! cheers! Clare

romance is dead...

So I was recently was away from the farm on a trip when I spoke to my husband on the phone he told me he had just finished making my birthday gift..

Now for those of you who know Brian when he makes something, it's good.

I mean this is the man who can rewire a house, weld a chicken bus, build table for a dinner only hours before guests arrive and invent just about anything he puts his mind to.

So while "I made you something for your birthday" would make some women cringe it got me very excited : ) ... I said "really what did you make??? ... dramatic pause here... and Brian proudly announces "a shit shoveler for the chicken bus"... a second very long pause... clare "hummm ... for my birthday???" Brian "yes it's great your gonna love it" .... clare "hummm" ....


I will admit I have used the "shit shoveler" and yes it works beautifully, and is very functional, and of course fits the chicken boxes perfectly with nice long handles on both. There's a little scraper thing and then a custom sized little shovel as well... it makes keeping the poop out of the nesting boxes a snap and keeps our chickens and eggs super clean.

So this begs the question in this age of consumerism and the holidaze. What makes the perfect gift?

-something thoughtful
-something useful
-something unique
-something that will improve the quality of the receivers life
-something hand made with love

I'd say my gift does meet all these criteria... I know I'm a very luck y woman and my husband is one of a kind.. but a "SHIT SHOVELER!!??" really now how about flowers and a nice dinner out how about getting dressed up and going out on the town? I hate to be cliche but jewelry is always nice... sigh... I do love my husband and hell he is in the midst of refurbishing and old redwood tub we salvaged ... so I really can't complain (too much)... so here's to re-kindling some of our farm style romance when he get's that hot tub fired up!



till then love the one your with... c

non-farm painting post...

I posted a few weeks ago... musing perhaps I would post all painting instead of photos.. well that clearly didn't happen and really won't ... I'm really not sure what kind of delusional thought that was anyway... on a happy note Enotecca (in Sonoma) did sell a couple big paintings and they've demanded MORE ART ... and more art I've made.. hey what ever it takes to get me in the studio : ) so I'm sending them my produce paintings as well as these two newest ones.


May the brushes stay wet






(these paintings are 4' x 4' and 3' x 5' respectively)

More Horsin' around

This past weekend I went over and spent my Saturday with Duane of One Mile Shires... It was so fun and has added to my now expanding book of horses... sadly I didn't bring my trusty camera.. so I borrowed some shots from the net and Duanes web site... This is Duane and two of his beautiful Shires.

Duane spent all afternoon with me. First he took out his "tried and true" totally trained team of Sadie and Tucker , Sadie is an old soul and is quite lovely ...this is she in a show with duane

and Tucker was a willing partner. Duane took them out and did a turn on the tire (this time the tire had a tractor seat on it) and then handed me the lines and said " OK your turn" Now I've driven horses single but never double and not to mention the fact that Duanes horses are HUGE!! in human measurement... these two are 5’ 8” and 5 ‘ 9” at the shoulder so you can imagine where the head is... These horses make Chief look like a pony.

So after only a little bit of time I had gained a lot of confidence by driving This team. It was down right peaceful. I admitted to Duane at the end that I was a little nervous eps. given my last wreck when he handed me the lines... he told me after that fact that he could have stopped this team at any time with a voice command...

this is not the team I drove but they looked kind of like this (They where prettier of course: )

After that I rode on the manure spreader with Duane and Sadie and Tucker took us up to one of the big fields for some actual farm work, that was pretty darn neat. I'm learning so much from Duane just being around him helping to tack the horses (although I'm not much help yet) and watching him as he worked with his young colts as well as his "project" horse who well let's just say is HUGE and very upset with life as he was a rescue in a big way. I believe Duane can work with this horse not that I would attempt in a million years.. he is stunning and will be amazing if he can ever trust people again.

So all in all a great day working with horses in a safe environment. I'm keeping an open heart to how things will progress with me and horses. I know when the time is right I will probably get another horse. And we'll see how Mr. Chief fit's into Big Table farm for now he is feeling MUCH better and after so many vet visits he's doing a ton better and healing up VERY well the vet things a few more weeks in bandages and he should be nearly healed up.. he had no lameness or any signs of long term damage. So that's great news.

In the mean time spending time with lots of different horses I think is really a good thing and being present to the "process"and enjoying the "ride".

VOTE - YES on Measure 49 it's almost v-day

Katie has a great summery on her blog ... see
Election reveries

we can't let greed win over small farms!

I have noticed that all the farms close to town that want to keep the ability to sell out to sprawl have no on 49 signs and those out a little ways out all seem to have love Oregon? yes on 49 signs...hummm

I'm YES on 49 (and 50)... read for your self 49 will help protect open space and farms from development period.

Measure 49
MODIFIES MEASURE 37; CLARIFIES RIGHT TO BUILD HOMES; LIMITS LARGE DEVELOPMENTS; PROTECTS FARMS, FORESTS, GROUNDWATER.

Measure 50
AMENDS CONSTITUTION: DEDICATES FUNDS TO PROVIDE HEALTH CARE FOR CHILDREN, FUND TOBACCO PREVENTION, THROUGH INCREASED TOBACCO TAX.

to read more just the facts from the state!

Just a funny pic my brother sent : )

Thanks Michael!

hoping for mushrooms

Our Dear Friend Hope came out of Portland this past Friday to spend an afternoon and evening with us... let me just say it was just super to spend time with her and to relax! Thanks Hope.


We visited all the animals but with a focus on Edward as he is Hopes "favorite"animal on the farm rightly so he's quite wonderful

.

Hope getting mauled



Zen and the art of Lama Communing : )



Everyone is happy...

Then took a hike up to the woods which where very pretty and full of fall colors. I had gone to the woods a few weeks ago to look for mushrooms and found NOTHING nada not one single mushroom... I was very disappointed .. I told Hope I'm sure we wouldn't find a blessed thing but we could take a nice walk in the woods...

well call me a lier.. we found oodles of mushrooms...




the rain followed by the sunny days must be the perfect combo... now if we only knew what the heck we where looking at... but it was fun to just find them hiding. It gave me hope : ) that when we can get a mushroom forager out here to give us a some lessons at least I know there is bounty out there : ) ... so next step... find willing mushroomer. Ill keep you posted...




In the mean time thanks Hope for the super nice visit... : )