JULY 2014 Yellowstone & a cable knit sweater

BLAST FROM THE PAST-WYOMING, JULY 2014

The pictures are all out of order somewhat. Lost my patience trying to straighten it out. I think you can figure out which statements go with certain pics ;)

So I never finished posting pics from my summer in Wyoming. I didn’t keep my journal either so I’m going to have to rely on my memory.

Happy 4^th of July!

One of my favorite road trips there was through Sheridan and Ten Sleep. That trip had some spectacular scenery. I loved the fact that Wyoming had information signs everywhere you drove identifying the geology.

Ten Sleep Brewery’s location was phenomenal!!! While in there I actually met a man who was from Humboldt and had moved to Wyoming. Small world.  I also got a comment from one of the brewers: “You came all the way from California?!?”  Ha Ha Ha !!! 

Another awesome trip was driving over Bear Tooth Pass. Spectacular.  Of course I headed to Red Lodge Ales in Montana at the end of the drive.

This is my favorite picture of the whole summer. It was taken on Sylvan Pass J The buffalo would walk up the road in herds and singly and cause traffic jams.

I think this is a juvenile Red Naped Sapsucker. Not positive.

This is how far I’d come along with the cableknit/fisherman sweater back in July of 2014.

Trillium Falls

The back of the cable knit Fisherman sweater is done!!! Happy Happy Joy Joy. (hahaha!!! Remember that?) Instead of binding off the last row I knit the last row and then put it on a holder. The idea is to start knitting the neck collar by picking up stitches that are on a needle so it looks and feels smoother. I think I’m going to let this sit for a bit while I pick up another unfinished knitting project. Or maybe I’ll start knitting the sleeves and finish those before I begin the sweater front.

  We hiked the Trillium Falls trail in Redwood NP this week. Funny stuff. The trail starts on an old logging road. We stayed on the logging road where there is a dedicated grove just before the bend and where a spur starts. We continued on and around the bend on the wide open road. Pretty soon Craigan starts saying “I don’t think this is the trail” Me: “No, I think this is right. It’s just over grown. They probably didn’t have trail maintenance funding” 

I was wrong, we turned around when the “trail” ended in a tangle of salmon berry. I was so insistent that this was the trail I bushwacked for a few more yards before I had to give in to the fact we were not on the trail. 

We back tracked and found a “Trillium falls trail” sign hidden by growth. So we took the “trail”. That too was super over grown. We popped out of the woods onto the well-maintained current Trillium Falls trail. Hahaha!!! I have to admit that I really enjoyed the old logging road.  We had a good time in that beautiful forest.

 Driftwood Beach

 

The chipper shredder is finally fixed. Now we can start chipping up the pruned apple tree limbs. This past Fall a hurricane named JD came through and pruned some of the limbs from the apple trees. We started the chipping process; it’s a good hard workout.

I attempted to make salmonberry syrup today. I failed because I didn’t reduce it enough. I will probably go back and cook it down more at a later date. 

The salmonberries measured out to about 5 cups plus 1 cup of blackberries. This was all put into a pot with some water and simmered for 15 minutes. This was mashed up and then poured into a sieve over a bowl. I used the back of a soup ladle to push the mash against the strainer to extract as much juice as possible. I also rinsed the mash to get as much juice sugars as possible. All the collected juice was poured back into the pot, I ended up with 4 1/3 c juice, along with 1 ¼ c sugar and 2T lemon juice. This juice was boiled until reduced to desired thickness. 

Yesterday I rescued a rose bush. It had been on top of an old growth burnt out goose pen that had fallen. The slab of redwood was pulled to the ground and so was the rose bush and a few huckleberry starts. The huckleberry has been replanted in pots and the rose bushes will be treated and hopefully root. We shall see!

Ok so I let the rose clippings die. There is still some rose growing on the top of the burnt out stump and along the fence line.

Fisherman Sweater

I finally picked up my cable knit sweater project again last month. It sat untouched for about 2 years. Every time I’d look at the pattern I saw Chinese characters. I was too impatient with the pattern so I made the decision to put it down until I really missed it. Now the back is almost done and the front is half done. I knit the bottom portion in the round to avoid seaming as much as possible. There will be no avoiding seaming the sleeves to the body. My spatial reasoning cannot come up with a way to knit the sleeves in the round, as this is a raglan style, and start by picking up stitches in the armholes. Does that make sense? This was also my first cable knit project and it’s turning out beautifully. I have made quite a few mistakes and so love it even more. 

We went berry picking the other day and picked about 8 cups of salmon berries.  I haven’t decided what to do with them. Jam? Jelly? Syrup? Mix with other fruit or berries? Smoothy? Pretty soon the thimble berries will be ready.

So last year we attempted making cider. Ahem, let us just say I am so proud that we got through the whole process and have a fermented beverage from apples. It has a very distinct taste. I am drinking it one glass at a time. I refuse to throw it down the sink just because it’s different. Craigan won’t touch it. Since I won’t toss it I have to drink it so I can free up the storage bottles & growlers for this coming falls crop of apples.