Summer Food Items of Note

 This is a rather dark photo, but it is a summer morning breakfast. Cornmeal griddle cakes batter, with fresh blueberries to add...along with coffee of course. Delightful!

  And then my mother-in-law came to visit, and we made raspberry freezer jam together. A tasty treat in the winter months. 

When we were over at her house visiting, she showed us she can still make a delicious potato salad at age 95. Wow!

And finally a summer dinner. It is a taco salad, made a little differently, with each fresh ingredient separated and then mixed all together at the end. It's pretty this way, don't you think? Adding a few fresh grapes for dessert, we had a wonderful meal. 
(Each of these photos shows up better if you click to enlarge them)

A New Way of Looking at Things

A while ago, I was reading on one of my favorite blogs (Susan Branch, Millie) about using old fashioned liquid bleach on linens. I decided then and there to try it out. I remembered my mother using it, and then ironing the damp fabrics. It was a trial and error for me.

I first collected all the vintage doilies, and linens I have all around the house. This is NOT by any stretch all of them!

I then ordered the bleach from Amazon. They still make the same old stuff....who knew?

Next I washed all the linens and line dried them to get out the yellowed/rust spots and make them smell sooo good! There is nothing like UV rays for whitening and brightening. Then I brought them all in and slowly soaked them in a mix of 1 part water to 2-3 parts starch. Back out to the line to dry again. I tried bringing them in damp to iron, but it didn't really work, so I let them dry again. Only this time they were STIFF.

But the ironing was easier and they came out lovely, slightly stiff, crisp and white, and they stay that way! Now ironing is not my favorite domestic chore, but somehow ironing vintage tablecloths, aprons, clothes, doilies and runners is more fun and rewarding.

Here are a few, line dried, and waiting for the iron.

I am now in the process of cleaning the linen closet, putting some out for display, and the rest nestled in their closet.

 It feels like Grandma's house around here, but I don't care because I LOVE vintage linens. (But it was a lot of work!) A rewarding household project, completed.

A Walking Miracle!

 As you probably already know, John and I had a pretty amazing adventure/nightmare last week. Our friend that feels like family, Jerry Thomas went missing a week ago last Wednesday while picking huckleberries with a friend. He was camping up by Parish Lake on the west side of the top of the Cascade Mountains in Linn County.

For the next three days there were search and rescue teams from 10 counties, sheriff's department officials, a heat-seeking helicopter from the Oregon National Guard, horses, Linn County Posse, scent dogs and their handlers, ATV teams, and the best tracker in the United States, combing the area and searching daylight hours.

Every day we would get up and rendevoux with team leaders and they would depart on their duties. Most of these people were volunteers, trained in search and rescue techniques. There was also a wonderful chaplain, again a volunteer, attached to the Linn County sherrif's office. 

The forest is not like on our eastern side of the mountains, but thick, brushy and filled with old growth timber and lots of fallen logs. It made for very difficult searching.

Jerry and Mary were camping for a few days with friends Don & Linda Wright, and Don and Jerry were huckleberry picking when Jerry wandered off in search of the best berries. It wouldn't and didn't take long to get turned around in the heavy terrain of the area. This is a photo of the Wrights trailer and ours, with the insurance man, Linda Wright, Mary and her sister Judy. The first 2 days the forest service would not let us search on foot, but only in vehicles on all the roads and logging spurs we could find. On Friday most of our gang decided they had enough of that, and set off on foot searching. (They were careful to stay together).

Saturday morning, after 3 days and 3 nights in the forest, Jerry walked out here. He had slept by or under logs, had collected thunder storm water in his hat, and eaten berries that he had or found. He is one tough cookie! When he woke up that day he just knew he would find a road, and he did...a logging spur. He walked it down here to a trail head at Daly Lake.

Looks pretty peaceful doesn't it? But it wasn't peaceful for all of us looking and searching for him. He found a guy with his camper there and Jerry asked him to take him to his campsite. 

What a stir it made when they pulled up together in the midst of about 100 searchers! The guy driving said he felt like he set foot in the middle of a hornets nest. Jerry just kind of looked around and wondered why all the people were out there in the middle of the forest. 

When I took this photo he looked up and said don't take it, I haven't combed my hair!! We all had a very tearful, joyous, riotous reunion.

Later he sat and told us about his adventure. He refused the ambulance and no one saw a need for it. He was not injured in any way, not even any scratches. His glasses were broken, his hearing aids dead as well as his cell phone, but he is the old time kind of rancher, hunter, cowboy who knows how to survive in the forest. And he has a great protector in his Heavenly Father.

Here are some of the friends and family that were there to welcome Jerry back and celebrate together this walking miracle.

 I have never been so glad to see anyone in my life! Even a little thinner, a little weaker, and a little grayer. So glad he's home.