MEMORABLE DATES

We all experience memorable events in our lives – happy or sad – and when those are coupled with holidays, the dates stick with us. For instance, just one year ago on Halloween, my sister Harriet suddenly passed away as she went about her day (here). I know I’m not the only one remembering that today. But though I’ll never forget that Harriet passed away on Halloween, life goes on and I won’t be forever sad. After all, Grandma and Grandpa Portfors were married on Halloween in 1906, and I happily call that date to mind any time I need it, even though it was way before my time and they’ve both been gone for years. For that matter, my Dobson grandparents were married on Christmas Day in 1891.

Grandpa Portfors passed away on Christmas Eve, 1971. Yes, that was a memorable Christmas indeed. My mother took it hard even though Grandpa had been in ill health for years. It was just that she gave her all in preparing for Christmas but was totally unprepared for his passing. All that is associated with Christmas in my mind, but when Christmas comes this year, I’ll focus on the matter at hand and won’t even think about that year when Grandpa died. I never do.

I feel the same way about my dad’s passing. I will always remember that he left the day after Thanksgiving in 1987, but I don’t remember the specific date without checking records. And my mother passed in March – the 7^th? – a date that is otherwise meaningless to me, and I never think about it. In a world that seems to love recurring annual celebrations, not every date needs to be indelibly set in memory and re-lived. Thank goodness! KW

[The scan is a place card on which "Francis" is written in my mother's hand. (Francis was familiarly known as "Porkie.") On the back is written: "20th wedding anniversary -- Mom and Pop, 10-31-26; chicken at Oud's." Evidently a celebratory dinner was served at the John Oud home in honor of C. O. and Nina Portfors, my grandparents, who married on Halloween in 1906. The owl appears to be a sticker. Back in the day, place cards were frequently used to assign one's place at the table.]

MORE ELDERBERRY JELLY

Looking west across the north field

Even as I write, I’m eating tasty sweet elderberry jelly on crackers. Wish you were here.

"Motley Crew"

I made three batches of jelly on Wednesday using MCP pectin -- 3 cups elderberry juice, ¼ cup lemon juice, and 4 ½ cups sugar. Taking MCP’s word for it, the result was 15 cups of jelly. I had to finagle in order to put together enough jars, and they stand a motley crew of various shapes and sizes. I was short jars and regular rings, so I “robbed Peter to pay Paul,” removing rings from jars already sealed. I also scraped open jars of jelly in the fridge into non-jelly jars. There’s no reason not to buy more jars and rings. I just failed to realize I would make so much jelly.

I was tired as I made that third batch of jelly. Mistakes will happen when one is tired, but nothing bad happened with the jelly. The trouble happened as I made an Impossible Pumpkin Pie for dessert. When it came time to add the spices, I decided to empty several small containers of pumpkin pie spice. As I measured the spice, I noticed one container was lighter than the others but thought nothing of it, assuming it was just my homemade blend.

Toward Little Canyon from under the maple

As the pie was baking, I gathered two small zucchini from my garden and set about making my favorite zucchini mélange. That’s when I discovered I had inadvertently used up the allspice in the pumpkin pie. A little allspice goes a long way, so the pumpkin pie is spicy but not ruined. And as for the zucchini mélange, which calls for a small amount of allspice, I substituted cinnamon and it was different but good.

The Family Home in 1959 -- not so pretty now

As we left town on Tuesday, I called the roll of necessary items: phones, laptop, iPad, iPod, glasses, camera, etc. I never would have thought to say, “dog food,” but we had walked off without it even though it was packed and ready. This kind of thing will happen, let me tell you. We had just enough dog food on hand to feed Bess and Nell Tuesday night, so Mike went to Orofino Wednesday afternoon to buy some. As he left the yard, I realized he wasn’t driving to town. He was riding the 4-wheeler. I could just see the headline in the Clearwater Tribune: “Warnock cited for riding 4-wheeler through town.” However, he returned in good time, saying that he stayed off the main drag and no one gave him a second look. He had ridden through my old neighborhood (Brown Avenue) where he encountered swarms of blue aphids, and I was reminded of how thick they were there back in the day. I guess some things never change. But other things do change. He said that the old family home as well as the neighborhood in general is looking really rundown. I know this is true, so I seldom go there, preferring to remember it as it was.

And as evening approached, we torched the slash pile above the lane. It was hard to start and Mike admitted it didn’t have enough small stuff to ignite. He said he wished Hallie were there to get it going. “Find some twigs,” he said; “that’s what Hallie did.” So I picked up twigs and pieces of light bark, and the bonfire was soon burning merrily. 

 

It’s good that we burned when we did. It rained lightly at bedtime and when we got up, it was foggy. KW

"What are you thinking?"

So, we developed a plan. We would go to the farm “for a few days” on Wednesday. Mike and Ken went hunting Tuesday morning (Oct. 24), but when Mike returned, he said, “I’ll finish my chores and let’s go to the farm this afternoon. We’ll come back on Thursday.” I could tell by the aura of energy surrounding Mike that he had already made up his mind, but it constituted a major adjustment for me. I was just starting a machine embroidery project, so I took a deep breath, quietly laid the hooped fabric aside, and turned off the machine. Under the press of time, I knew I shouldn’t even begin that intricate design. I don’t work well under pressure or when distracted. And after all, I did want to go to the farm. I need to make elderberry jelly for the P.E.O. silent auction.

As we faced each other over lunch, I delved more deeply into future plans. “Are you and Ken going to hunt on the weekend?”

“Ken and I don’t hunt on the weekends,” Mike replied. “Why do you ask?” Hmmm. Odd that I hadn’t noticed they weren’t hunting on the weekends, but it makes sense. That’s when everyone else hunts.

“I just want to know what you’re thinking,” I said.

Well, it turns out that Mike and Ken plan to hunt again on Friday. Okay, so now I know – maybe. It’s always subject to change. It’s the flexibility of life in retirement.

What a beautiful trip up the Clearwater River with the autumn reds and yellows – mostly yellows – glowing in the sun. What a difference a week makes! Even our plain old maple in the front yard is cooperating to reflect the sun's rays.

But – we did experience one surprise as we moved down the road to our lane. Just at the point where we burned the slash during Elderberry Fest, one of the burned trees had broken and fallen across the road, apparently in a windstorm. Mike wasted no time taking care of it, so the dogs and I joined him there. Bess doesn't like the chainsaw, so she pleaded with me to move on from this troublesome spot. Eventually she resigned herself to returning to the house by herself. But Nellie said, “Hmmm, the chainsaw isn’t as loud as it used to be,” and she took the opportunity to explore the area.

So, now we have even more pine firewood, but it’s free and easy to get, and it works fairly well in the little stove. KW

WHERE TO NEXT?

We were so focused on visits from our children – Hallie’s for Elderberry Fest (Oct. 13-15) and then Yancey’s for two whirlwind days of bird-hunting (Oct. 20-21) with Mike – that we are now at a loss as to how to move on. For two weeks our activities were more or less structured, and now we have letdown.

Actually, this bothers Mike more than it does me. I want to sew and play with my new embroidery machine, the Brother PE770, and I could still feel Yancey's good-by hug (Sunday, Oct. 22) as I quickly began converting the guest room back into a sewing studio, congratulating myself on the excellent job of reorganization.

 

But Mike said yesterday he had no plans for the coming week, and how do we cope when we’re at loose ends? Why, we go geocaching, of course. And so, as a late afternoon activity, we walked the beautiful campus of Lewis Clark State College and picked up four geocaches. I found the first as Mike was just ready to give up. He found the other three.

Saturday night Yancey treated us to dinner at Bojack’s in Lewiston. We were skeptical of going there, but he reminded us that his first job was washing dishes at Bojack’s. Since we can offer little that’s nostalgic of life 35 years ago, we decided to give it a try. “I am so happy to be here,” Yancey exclaimed, messaging his brother Murray, who also washed dishes there, that he was at Bojack’s. I think we agreed that the food was acceptable but not exceptional, which is the way Mike and I feel about most restaurant meals. It was just being there that was important.

Well, the schedule is already filling up. Stay tuned . . . 

ELDERBERRY FEST -- PART 3 (AUTUMN ENCHANTMENT)

The farmhouse at dusk

A westerly view from the corner of the grove

West from the lane

Burning slash pile above lane

Fire -- bright and hot

ELDERBERRY FEST 2017 -- PART 2

Autumn at the farmhouse

We weren’t ready to make elderberry jelly until Sunday morning. As you’ll recall from the pre-event post, on Wednesday Mike and I picked elderberries from a very sincere bush, and I processed the juice. I also processed juice from country apples. Apple juice tames the flavor of elderberries.

Little Canyon

For several years, Hallie and Nick have used Pomona’s pectin rather than the more common grocery-store brands because it calls for less sugar, allows for adjustments, and is perhaps a softer set. With Pomona’s, you can make any amount of jelly you wish – from a small batch to larger ones, whereas other brands insist on a set recipe. So, I decided to give Pomona’s a try.

A northern view

Hallie and I started with a double batch in order to make quick work of this process. (If I’d been thinking, I would have suggested experimenting with a half batch.) I can’t recall the amount of juice, but we used the maximum amount of sugar suggested for elderberry jelly, which was only four cups. Hallie said we could taste and make adjustments before before ladling into jars. However, we forgot. I have one word for that batch – BLEAH! But Hallie thought Nick might like it. “There’s a point at which the sugar overwhelms the taste of the berries,” she pointed out. Yes, but we weren’t nearly there.

Long evening shadows

So, we had enough juice to make another batch. This time I added the recommended amount of sugar plus an extra cup. We remembered to taste and decided it was fine.

Sunday was a beautiful day, and in the afternoon, Hallie decided she really wanted to pick elderberries as part of the experience. And since Nick couldn’t come this year, she thought it would be a nice idea to take juice home with her. It was late in the day and I had misgivings. I could see that we / she would be working into the night, and these days I seldom work on my feet in the evening hours. But – Hallie was determined, and so at 4:00 p.m. we went off to pick elderberries. I took her to the sincere bush, and she was impressed that it was indeed loaded with clumps of plump little elderberries. It was just a matter of pulling them into reach – easier said than done – and then snapping the clump off the bush. And they were ready to snap, too. Mike also came and the three of us picked lots of berries.

Evening sun

And yes, Hallie was indeed working into the night while I sat with my feet up. But – she’s been my daughter all these years and knows about how far I go.

More evening sun

At breakfast Monday morning, we had toast and jelly with our scrambled eggs and agreed that the second (sweeter) batch of jelly does have a nice spreadable set. And before Hallie left to return to Seattle, we divided the jars of jelly and the jars of juice. I hope to make more elderberry jelly before the P.E.O. silent auction in November. Sisters are already requesting it,  and I'm thinking I might make a really sweet batch with the old-fashioned pectin. After all, my reputation is at stake. KW