Friday Night Challenge at Scrap101

The Friday Night Challenge for June 29 was to do a layout using brown and green. I had this paper in my stash and it was perfect. It felt so good to be able to finally get a layout done. I've had scrapper's block for almost 7 months. I have a page goal of 365 layouts for 2007. It's the end of June and I have 5 layouts done. I better get scrapping!!!!!!!!!

Our 34th Anniversary

Pacific Ocean just south of Bandon, Oregon
Self portrait of the two of us!!!!!!

Rich and I are celebrating our 34th Anniversary this week. Rich is on vacation this week. We have been having so much fun. We decided to do day trips instead of taking off somewhere for the whole week.

We went to the coast Tuesday morning and decided to stay overnight. Misty was not happy that we didn't come home Tuesday night. We stopped at Walk-thru Safari that is located south of Bandon, Oregon. We spent 4 hours roaming thru the safari and looking at all the different animals. We got to hold a 7 week old Red Fox and a 12 week old Desert Lynx. They were so cute.

After leaving the safari we traveled south to Gold Beach. We started going to Gold Beach right after we were married. We loved going there as it was a sleepy little fishing village. We love to stay at the Oregon Trail Lodge. It was built in 1921. The rates are terrific and the rooms are beautiful. For a room with 2 queen size beds for the night with taxes was $44.

We checked in to the motel and rested for a while. We decided to go down to our favorite beach. It seems that since last year Mother Nature decided to change the course of the small creek near the beach. Instead of flowing out to the ocean.............it flows thru the whole beach area. Impossible to cross as it is about 30 feet across and fairly deep. So we decided to go to our next favorite beach and do some beachcombing. Yeah right!!!!!!!!!! They built a new information center and parking lot. We were able to walk down to the beach. To our horror...........they built condos on part of the beach. To say the least..........we were thoroughly disappointed. Our sleepy little village is fast becoming a thing of the past. What next a Wal-Mart?

We had dinner at Dairy Queen and then spent the rest of the evening trying to hear news about the Angora Fire in South Lake Tahoe. We have several friends who live in that area. We were finally able to get a hold of Ted and see if he was okay and how close the fire was to him. He said it was at the west side of SLT. He stepped out his front door and said that he could see the flames about 30 feet above the treeline. The fire was about 3 miles from where he lived. We told him to let us know if he had to evacuate. His parents and sister lives in Carson City, NV so he would go there if he had to evacuate.

Rich and I had already decided that our sleepy little fishing village was being to modernized for us. Rich returned the key to our room to the office. He told the owners that we had enjoyed our stay and would see them again the next time we came to Gold Beach. Rich was informed that the motel was being torn down by November and CONDOs were going to replace it. We were heartbroken.

After leaving the motel we headed down to the Jetty at the mouth of the Rogue River. We love to visit the Jetty Cats. The Jetty Cats are a small community of little houses for the stray cats of the area. Volunteers take care of the cats.........they take them to the vet and have them spayed or neutered. They feed and water them daily. If possible they find adoptive parents for the cats. Whew!!!!!!!!!!! Our Jetty Cats were still there!

The cats love to play and hide in the rocks of the jetty. We could only see 4 cats. Only one would come close to us. She was so sweet. She reminded us a lot of our kitten, Misty. We wanted to bring her home..........but we didn't think Misty would like that very much. We played with the kitten and feed her. They have a donation box for the cats expenses. We always try to leave a little something to help out.

We started getting hungry to we took off north toward Bandon. We had breakfast at the Minute Cafe in Old Town Bandon. It was really good food at a reasonable price. After breakfast we walked thru the tourist traps. Rich bought a tie-dyed T-shirt and incense at one of the small shops. We stopped at CranberrySweets.........a yummy candy shop with lots of samples.

We enjoyed our trip! We were disappointed in the developments in Gold Beach. Other than visiting with the Jetty Cats we have no desires to go back.

Cherries, Cherries and Cherries

!0 pounds of cherries (we had 3 of these boxes full of cherries.)
This is 21 pints of the 42 pints we canned of cherries.
7 pints of Cherry Jam.........Yum Yum!!!!!!!!!!!!

Canning Season

It's canning time again at our home. We went Saturday morning to a friend's house and picked 30 pounds of sweet cherries. As you can see Misty decided that the little red balls were playtoys. The top box I had already emptied........so she reached into the bottom box and pulled out a couple of cherries. She had fun rolling them on top of the freezer . Then she decided to get a cherry out of a bucket that Rich had set on the floor. She rolled it all over the kitchen and hall floors. Rich and I laughed and laughed at her antics with the cherries.

I canned 42 pints of cherries in a light syrup on Saturday and Sunday. This morning I made 7 pints of cherry jam. Will upload photos of finished products later.

Rich and I bought 23 pounds of apricots to can this afternoon. We are planning on canning them Wednesday. Since Misty gets us up at 4am even if it's vacation time we should have time to get them canned before I go to Ladie's Bible Study at 1pm. We will finish them up when I get back and make at least 1 batch of jam.

Pita Bread

I love pita bread so I decided to try and make it. They turned out really good for my first attempt. They are just a little thicker than ones I have bought. I made tuna salad sandwiches out of them. I loved them...........but Rich wasn't too impressed. He thought they were too chewy.