Blueberries!

We went blueberry picking this past weekend in Canby, OR. The name of the orchard escapes me, but they allowed small children, which apparently is a hard thing to find. I can understand why, since Little ate his weight in blueberries, but come on, not allowing little kids? 

Anyway, we were directed to the Elliott bushes, since they're in peak season right now, but found that the berries were entirely too tart for anything but baking. Right next to the Elliott berries though were the Brigetta, which are probably the sweetest blueberries I've ever tasted. They didn't have an abundance of berries, but there were more than enough to fill our buckets (and snack as we picked).

Little happily helped hold the bucket, and picked quite a few for himself on the low hanging branches. Blueberries are great for picking because they're airy, don't have thorns, and grow berries high and low, so anyone can find as many as they need at eye or waist level. I don't think we realized just how many berries filled up each small plastic bucket and we spent about 2 hours picking with slow progress on filling them up. At one point, Little wandered off in the raspberries  and was found staring blankly at two old ladies that were clucking about his orange dinosaur shirt. They were very nice and waited there with him until his frantic mom was able to scoop him up and relocate him amongst the blueberries again.

We ended up with three buckets filled about 1/2-3/4 full, totaling about 18 pounds of berries. The fourth bucket was for Little, so he would stop poaching from our stash. He thought it was pretty cool that he got a "big one" all to himself. We were all hungry and stopped by Burgerville on the way home for their seasonal blackberry smoothies and a snack. 

We got back home, plopped the berries on the counter and wondered how the heck we were going to fit them all in the refrigerator. We pulled out all of the berry containers that we'd be saving for recycling and started stacking pints and pints of berries on the shelves. Last night, M made a blueberry kuchen, which was fantastic, and tonight we're going to take a stab at low-sugar blueberry jam (since the berries are so sweet on their own). The rest will be frozen for use in the winter when we're aching for a blueberry pie or crumble. 

I love that summer is finally in full swing and we're getting to enjoy the bounty. 

Pork!

We were fortunate to find a great house, but even more lucky to move to a block with awesome neighbors who love food. Our latest adventure is with a professional size smoker that our neighbor received to review (he's a food writer who specializes in mixology). The smoker is big enough to comfortably fit about 60lbs of pork shoulder and the challenge was taken seriously -- three neighbors, three rubs, and three 20lb packages of pork shoulder. 

Each of us were in charge of making our own rub. We chose a chili chocolate concoction which was basically sugar, salt, onion and garlic powder, Chili 9000 from Penzey's, black pepper, chipotle powder, and some dark dutch processed coco. J set the alarm clock for 5:30am and the smoking began across the street promptly at 6am. We finished up about 6pm and all sampled the fare. It is fantastic. And now, a peek at deliciousness:

J applying the rub.

Ready for the refrigerator.

Removing the pork from the smoker after about 12 hours.

And this is what 60lbs of deliciousness looks like.

Strawberry Jam

As part of our CSA in June, we got nine pints of incredibly ripe and delicious strawberries. Since there was no way that four of us could consume that many in a day or two, J and I decided to do our first canning project in the new house. We brought back a few Weck (pronounced veck) jars from our Santa Cruz trip and I picked up another case at a great little store in Sellwood, called Portland Homestead Supply Co. The jars are great for several reasons: they're good looking, all of the parts (including the gasket) are reusable, and there's not one trace of BPA or other plastics that are present on the disposable metal canning lids. The Germans have been using them since the turn of the 20th century, so that's a pretty good track record in my book. 

We initially we planned to do the canning process in just an evening, but then read the directions and found that it was a bit more involved than we thought. So, while watching a few episodes of one of our favorite shows, Archer, we stemmed and chopped strawberries and combined them with lemons and about equal parts sugar to sit overnight and macerate. Because strawberries do not have much pectin, they need some help to jell into jam, so the lemon rinds and seeds were reserved to cook with the mixture. 

The next night, we set out to make the jam and can it. You bring the berries up to a light boil and simmer for about 30 minutes until they reach 221º (the jell point) all while ladling off the copious amounts of foam that rises from the lemons, berries, and sugar rolling around. Apparently getting rid of the foam makes for a nice clear jam in the end. As the temperature got up to the 200ºs, I had J run out to the garage and get a work glove to protect my fingers from the steam. Yes, next time I will invest in a candy thermometer that just clips to the edge. 

After the jam made it to temperature, we took it off the stove and ladled the delicious mixture into our sterilized and prepped Weck jars. J's mom has a great canner that we used to process them in a hot water bath for 10 minutes, until they'd reached safe temperature. And here is the finished product, about 12 cute little jars of perfectly delicious strawberry jam.

Back Yard Progress

It seems like we just planted the beds in our back yard, but after looking back at our weekend extravaganza in June, I realized that we've made a lot of progress in just a month. It's a completely new space that is so much more inviting than what what originally there:

East facing - Left: June 4th, 2012   Right: July 9, 2012

West facing - Left: June 4th, 2012    Right: July 9, 2012

Tomato plant progress - Left: June 4th, 2012     Right: July 9, 2012

The Great Flood of 2012

So the weekend before last (May 26th) Portland got an epic amount of rain in just a few minutes. I think it was record-breaking (ever) rain amounts for May and we got to experience it first-hand. Thunder, lightning, and seriously the most rain I've seen since our summers in DC. We watched it fall with bated breath, as our gutters shot out water like a fire hose and the street flooded with water. I'm not exaggerating when I say flood. 

The water quickly rose up over our bumper and stood still in the street long after the rain clouds passed. Emergency crews came out to assess the situation (thinking that they'd just unclog the storm drains) and scratched their heads when it wasn't debris causing the massive water build up. It receded by the morning, but our car had already been flooded. It was shocking, really. 

We moved the car into the driveway after the rain stopped, but it was too late. We had about 3 inches of water in our passenger side that wouldn't drain. J and I baled out as much water as we could, but given it was a Saturday night on a holiday weekend, all we could do was pull it in the garage, open the windows, and hope that the insurance claims adjuster was working on Monday. As we were soaking up the flood water our neighbor, Jim, pulled out his kayak to assess the damage. Beech was flooded for a couple of blocks, due to the deluge and the cistern's inability to drain with any speed. Welcome to the neighborhood!

On Tuesday, things with the insurance company were settled and we had our car towed to the body shop, since we drove it in bumper-deep water and were uncertain if water had gotten in places where it shouldn't be. Little was intrigued with the tow truck at first, but then it made our car go "upside down," which was quite distressing. He talked about it all day -- amazing how kids this young retain so much. 


We got the car back yesterday. Not only is it dried out, but its cleaner than it's ever been (since we've owned it). They detailed the thing inside and out. I commented to J after I pulled up in front that he left finger prints on the exterior trim. Seriously. It's that clean. The guy at the detail shop joked with me that the car might have a funny smell for a day or two, but assured me that it was just "the absence of smell". I assured him that I have no idea what that could even mean, given that I live with an almost two-year-old boy.

Super de-ionizers sucked out all of the funk we left (even before the flood) and magic elves picked out the Lara bar from the rear seats and the crumbs from the sick shift. It was like Christmas. I felt like if I were a hipper lady, I would have driven around with our windows down, blasting out the latest tunes that the young and beautiful listen to these days. 

Instead, I still rolled down the windows (on my way from Fred Meyer) while listening to political commentary on the Wisconsin recall elections while grasping a mini Snickers bar in my hand. As I pulled into the driveway, I could feel Robert Siegel giving me a tender nod as I tucked that Snickers mini bar wrapper in my purse instead of the map holder on the driver side door. 


Welcome back Mazda Protege 5. We promise to have your alignment checked and that ganky fog light changed out very soon.
 

Front Yard Progress

Today we spent all of our time in the front yard digging, turning beds, moving rocks and dirt, and planting all of the 20+ perennials that we purchased to fill in the pretty blank canvass that was our yard. I'm sad that I wasn't better about taking "before" photos of our pruning and progress from when we first moved in, but I've tried to do a better job of documenting our progress. So here goes, just over one month of progress on the front yard:

March 14th, 2012, taken after our home inspection

June 3, 2012, taken before massive planting today

June 3, 2012, after planting a massive amount of perennials

Yard Work & Man Card

The weather was glorious last weekend, so we spent a lot of time in our yard. As we've found out from several sources, the house was a rental for a few years before we bought it, which explains the quickly landscaped back yard and the overgrown shrubs in the front yard. Our camellia, pieris, and vine maple were overgrown and puff-ball-like from several seasons of non-pruning (or pruning with a not-so-delicate hand with the hedge trimmer). 

J and I got out our tools, and equipped with pruning shears, a hack saw, and a bucket, we plucked and chopped away the dead limbs, and got rid of a lot of stuff that should have been cut back years ago. It's hard doing all of that work and still have your shrubs look wanting, but we realize that this is a process that could take years of care to correct. I'm okay with that, because they already look so much better. The bushy thing on the right side of the photo is our vine maple in the process of being trimmed up a bit. We also had a few volunteers here and there, one of which happened to be a tree growing nearly into our fence.  As you can see, J ripped out the tree with his bare hands and rightfully earned his "man card" for the weekend.

Little was thoroughly impressed with the feat of strength and despite his cast, proceeded to walk around the yard trying to lift things 10 times his size while saying "heeeaaavy" "heeeeavvvy" and grunting. The testosterone was palpable that Saturday afternoon. The green waste can was filled to the brim and we were all dirty and incredibly tired. 

I also tackled the side yard next to our driveway, which warrants an entire post to itself. It seems like it was just a trash pile for the various residents both recent and past. I turned up lots of glass, some bike parts, a bit of clothing, and two separate layers of landscaping plastic. I guess whenever things got too shitty, they just covered it in plastic and a bit of dirt to cultivate some moss and dandelions.

Next up? A lawnmower!

Home Repairs: Bathroom Tile

While my parents were in town, I put them to work. Dad installed a cable jack upstairs for our modem, changed out a dimmer switch that I hated, and read for hours and hours with Little while he convalesced from his slide accident. 

I swear some days the renovations to this house are held together merely with chewing gum -- a sort of booby trap that the previous owners rigged to get them through inspections, but would spring as soon as we used the appliances/plumbing/electricity in any meaningful way.

Anyway, whoever reworked the bathroom upstairs installed the shower liner (which is not my favorite, but hey, it works) without putting some sort of water proof material surrounding it -- no hardback board, no caulk, no tile, just drywall up against the shower head and top of shower liner. Brilliant. Since the liner is just 6 feet tall, we found out just a day or two after living in the house that the fine sprays and splashes would do some major damage to the surrounding drywall. After the first use, the outer layer of the drywall was starting to peel. 

I consulted with my tiling expert (mom) who assured me it would be a simple weekend project. We set out to get the supplies, and as planned, put her right to work. We found the tiles at a local place called the Rebuilding Center, which ended up costing $10 for the whole stack (about 200 tiles). If you're not familiar with the cost of ceramic tile, that was a fantastic deal (practically free). I failed to take "before" photos of our ugly shower, so you'll just have to trust me on this one. My mom got right to work putting up the tiles while I ran around trying to keep up with Little and actually get some work done. It took her about a day to put the tile up on the wall (there were quite a few little cuts to fit into the sloped ceiling). We ran out of time, so she left the grouting up to me (although with a guilty conscience, since I'd never done it before). 

After watching her do the basic motions, and reading the back of the grouting tub, I got to work. It took a couple of hours, I think, and the grout was complete. Not a terribly complex task, but draining nonetheless. I can't imagine doing a much larger space, but I guess if the work didn't involve reaching over my head for hours at a time, it wouldn't be nearly as bad. The shower actually looks pretty respectable now and we can rest assured that we won't be doing any further damage to the walls. The next step will be to find a more suitable shower head (one that actually enables you to adjust the settings) and we'll be set. 

A more spendy project down the road would be to actually replace the shower doors with more attractive frameless glass, but there are so many more projects around the house that take priority, like insulating the attic, adding soffit vents, extending the gas line to the kitchen so we can get rid of our sucky electric range, and oh yeah, paying the mortgage. 

I'm not complaining though, the house is fantastic in spite of its former owners, and I'm looking forward to a summer full of projects, both inside and out.  

Cost: About $100 with tile, grout, the menagerie of tools needed to apply adhesive, grout, and cut the tiles.
Time: About 2 1/2 days of working hours to place tile, grout, and caulk the seams. And another week of curing. Pretty simple and cheap compared to hiring a professional.

Home Repairs: Refrigerator Edition

We closed on the house two weeks ago to the day. It hardly seems possible, but we did. Moving with a toddler proved to be more hectic than I could have ever imagined. Thankfully, the weather was nice and we had a group of great friends to help us last weekend. 

It became clear that while our house was in great condition, there were a lot of little things that needed to be taken care of right away. One of the first repairs on the list was the refrigerator. While it functions well enough (although not my choice of style), the freezer was having some major problems that we learned about upon moving in. The freezer door is equipped with an ice and water dispenser that was somehow broken and causing the freezer to fill up with frost. When I looked into it further, I realized that the little flap that is supposed to stay closed until you press the lever for ice was not closing properly, thus letting warm air creep into the door and frost over. Not only was it frosting up the freezer, whenever we would hit the lever for the ice, it would just back up in the door and create a melty ice dam at the opening. It was a mess.

The only solution, I thought, was to take apart the door from the inside (with about a billion bolts). However, I decided to Google the problem and found awesome YouTube videos on how to repair GE refrigerators. I soon learned that it is easy to fix the gizmos on the ice dispensers by simply prying off the front digital panel and unhooking some wires (after you unplug the refrigerator of course). 

Thanks to the videos online, I quickly learned that it was not the flap that needed replacing, but the solenoid (whatever that is). I'm still not entirely sure how this little device makes the door flap open, but I guess that doesn't matter as long as it fixed our frost problem. After pulling out the panel, taking out a few tiny rusty screws, I had reached the problem -- the dastardly solenoid that had given up all hope of opening our ice dispenser flap. Now looking at this photo, it has become clear to me that my next project as a home owner should be to get a damn haircut. Geez.

For reference, this is a solenoid. The one on the left is the replacement and the one on the right is the sad sad pile of rusted-out metal that stood between me and my crushed ice water. I'm not exactly sure the kind of neglect it takes for a part that's buried behind two layers of plastic and barely encounters fresh air to completely corrode, but there you have it. I hooked up the new wires, screwed the panel shut, and the freezer and ice dispenser seem to be back in working order. 

Cost: $41 for the new solenoid

Time: About 15 minutes of my time. Home ownership feels good this week.

Homeowners

We signed a ream of papers last night and basically the transaction is complete on our end. As soon as the paperwork goes through and the sale is recorded we get the keys (which probably won't happen until tomorrow). I have to say, the process was very anticlimactic. Even though we handed over a giant check and signed our lives away until 2042, it was hard to drive back to our apartment and celebrate. 

That is, until we all sat down after dinner to watch Doc Martin, one of our go-to TV shows at the moment, and had to pause the show to listen to the band playing down the street at full volume. On a Tuesday. We rolled our eyes and laughed, vowing that Friday will be our last night in this apartment.

We will have our house tomorrow and there's still so much to do!

Delays

It seems as though our lender got bogged down with work at the end of last week and failed to send our loan documents to escrow today. As a result, we did not sign and there's a pretty good chance that we won't close on Wednesday. Funny, when I get bogged down with work, I stay late at the office -- and my work never has hundreds of thousands of dollars hanging in the balance. 

I know, one day is not a big deal, but that doesn't mean that I'm not pissed and bummed and pissed again. 

Thanks, Monday. You sucked big time.

Photo Emergencies

For about three weeks, my Nikon camera battery has been MIA. I just assumed it was misplaced or stashed in a special spot (that I'd certainly never forget). I assured myself that I'd find it once we started packing and organizing, but I really did it this time. I'm pretty sure it's lost for good. So, last week, I ordered a new battery charger online and it arrived yesterday afternoon. 

As a result of the charger being gone, I haven't taken as many photos as I usually would, hoping to extend the battery's life for real photo "emergencies." The battery finally gave out when I was taking a video of J and Little playing "forts." I'm sad I missed out, it was really cute, but I know there will be many more opportunities, as Miles loves nothing more than playing forts. 

Well, except for eating Pirate's Booty for breakfast, sans pants, while watching soccer with his dad. Last weekend, we were having a rough morning -- Little woke up way too early, was hungry and cranky, but refused to eat anything. He also decided that his pants had to go. Who am I to judge? So, J found a soccer game on TV and a happy morning was born. Little ate his weight in Pirate's Booty and went on to enjoy a more healthy breakfast. A true photo emergency if I've ever seen one.

Eight More Days

Only eight more days until we close on the house! Yay! 

I couldn't be more ready. An encounter this weekend with the maintenance staff at our current building confirmed that I am no longer suited for apartment life. Well, more accurately, I am no longer suited for living in a building that is run by condescending lazy a-holes. I know I will curse home repairs later, but right now I can't think of anything more satisfying than to actually fix something that's broken on my own damn schedule and to my own level of satisfaction. I will get to be that condescending lazy jerk-wad with myself and that will be outstanding.

Anyway, the packing. It's coming along. We now have a nice large pile of boxes in the corner of our living room. It's hard to tell by just looking around the apartment, but we've actually made a good bit of progress. Our closet is cleaned out, the kitchen is about two-thirds packed away, and a good deal of our shoes and clothes are in boxes. Miles has not lost any of his toys yet, but I think they'll be next on the chopping block this coming weekend. That's when we go into pioneer mode, living with just the bare essentials and gearing up for April 14th's big move to the east side. Thursday and Friday after we close will be busy with packing and coordinating small moves with fragile stuff like our art, dishes, and refrigerator items. We are also lining up repair people to come in and do minor things that the sellers (another set of a-holes that I will be happy to rid from my day-to-day existence) declined to fix, like the leaky sink and garage roof.

Until then, I'm trying to concentrate on work, so I don't have any surprises and can fully devote the end of next week to settling in. I have a lecture coming up on April 18th and there is lots to do before then! Busy busy week ahead!

Packing Progress on Flanders Street

We spent last weekend packing our books and breaking down bookcases. By Sunday I was pretty tired and a little sore, but it was great to make such great progress. We have a few more book boxes to pack toward the end, but for the most part, they're ready to go.  As you can see, packing with a toddler makes for all kinds of spectacular chaos. All of those things that you normally keep out of reach on nice tall bookcases begin to spread around the house on any horizontal surface more than three feet high.

I also started packing up the kitchen, which is probably about half-way finished. We'll leave the necessities until the very last few days, but everything else will get wrapped, taped, and shoved in the corner of our living room where the Billy bookcases used to live. Little still has all of his toys at his disposal, but just give me a few days and some of those will start to get boxed up as well. He'll have to live like a pioneer baby with just a stick and a ball of string to occupy his time. Not that he really cares about his toys anyway, with screwdrivers, hammers, rolls of packing tape, and cardboard boxes at his disposal. 

He's taken to "decorating" our boxes as we pack. He calls it "art" and "painting". I call it graffiti. At least it keeps him from smashing all of the dishes on the floor. It gives him much pride to examine his masterpiece. He holds up his marker with a giant grin and says "did it! YAY!" I think the moving process is a little exciting for him, but also confusing. He walks around the apartment and says "house?" And I confirm that we are moving to that house we went to see several times and then he says "Matt?" (our real estate agent). I then explain that, yes, Matt will sometimes come to visit. And he nods and says "yep," as if he has it all figured out. It's amazing how much he understands at only 19-months (or at least he's really good at pretending). 


Only 21 more days until we close on the house. I can't wait.

Things I Will Not Miss (Portland Edition) #1: Blitz Bar

More specifically, Blitz Bar and their goddamn party bus that parks below our dining room window. I don't have anything against Blitz Bar, except for the fact that they opened a new location right next to our apartment -- only a few paces from our bedrooms. It changed the block, and not in a good way. We decided in December that we needed to get the heck out of here before its warm enough to open the windows (and before the drunken hoards take over the sidewalk for the summer season). God, I sound like a cranky old man (as I shake my fist out the window). 


The fact of the matter is that we've outgrown our space here on Flanders Street and we've also outgrown our neighborhood. So, we're trading in Blitz Bar and Pizza Schmitza's horrendous karaoke Thursdays for a Whole Foods and public library branch. And while we're definitely trading up, there are some things that we're going to lose. There are a lot of things about NW that I will miss a lot.

One More Move

Hopefully this will be the last one for a while. Our last move in Portland was just a few blocks down the road and we didn't have a ton of stuff. Now we have an entire basement storage unit full of baby stuff, twice as much furniture, and oh yeah, a 19-month-old who squeals with delight at the sight of boxes. 

Packing for this move should be interesting. We can't just start piling things up to the ceiling, because Mr. Little is a climber. It's going to be a careful game of rearranging, staging, and storing our stuff until we close on April 11th. Eek! That's just three and a half weeks away. Finding space to put boxes has been tricky, which is why we put Little to work disassembling a few bookcases. He's been very "helpful" as we start the packing process. It's pretty amazing to see him learn to use a screwdriver, but it takes about three times as long to get the job done.

I ordered our first round of boxes and will pick them up today. This weekend we are going to start packing up our books. They'll get boxed and stacked in the new empty space we've created. Prioritizing the things we'll need in the next three weeks will be key. And I assume there will be one last frenzied push as the end date nears to get things organized and move-ready. We will also have to make a little extra time to do some of our favorite things in the neighborhood before we leave. Of course, we're only moving across town, so it's not like we will never venture into NW again. But I imagine we will find new favorite spots in the new neighborhood and will see a lot less of the place that we have called home for the last four years.


Exciting (and hectic) times ahead!

More Space

In just under a month (provided all goes as planned) we will be homeowners! It's been a grueling two months of looking, and bidding, and hoping. Everyone keeps saying that it's a buyer's market, well, clearly they've not tried to buy a house recently in Portland. Inventory is super low, which makes the market a frenzied feeding fest on any decent house that pops up on the market in the close-in areas. This is the third house we bid on, and by far, the best. I can't wait to call it home.
 

Busy Busy Brasilliant. What is She Doing?

Brasilliant delegating.

Brasilliant celebrating.

Brasilliant roasting.

Brasilliant's baby toddler toasting.

Brasilliant playgrouping.

Brasilliant smooching.

If I were trying to replicate the Busy Animal books in earnest, I'd have a photo of me sleeping (and or looking a little bit dead). But I don't. So, smooches will just have to do.