Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The 2009 Crab Apple Harvest

Crab apple butter and jelly

It's mid July already, and for Eric and I along with the Maryland Sled Dog Adventures' sled dogs, it's time to do our annual harvest of crab apples from the big crab apple tree out front.

Sobo and the other sled dogs enjoy sitting under the crab apple tree

Eric harvesting the crab apples

Eric and his bucket of crab apples

For years, we did nothing with the crab apples that would fall from the big crab apple tree on the front of our property. One year, we decided that it might be fun to harvest the apples and make crab apple jelly and crab apple butter (a jam like spread).

Crab apples fill our prep sink in the kitchen

The finished product: crab apple rosemary jelly

This year we whipped up two batches of crab apple jelly from the juice and one batch of crab apple butter (made with the sieved crab apple pulp left over after extracting the juice). The first batch of jelly was Rosemary (also harvested fresh from our herb garden) crab apple jelly (a Martha Stewart recipe) while the second batch was plain crab apple jelly. The crab apple butter is flavored with cinnamon and nutmeg. Eric used some of the "halfies" (the jars that only end up half full) to make up a batch of crab apple butter pancakes for breakfast this morning. Delish!


Sobo says: Crab Apple Jelly is yummy!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Seattle, WA: The Sunshine State?!?!

Desolation Sound

As some of you know, Eric and I just returned from a business/fun trip in Seattle and its suburbs. The trip began as a pleasure trip with one week of cruising in Desolation Sound in British Columbia on my parents' Grand Banks 52, Kiawah. After landing at Sea Tac, we headed up to Bellingham where Kiawah is docked.

Bill's ride home? A seaplane at the dock at Kenmore

Flying the colors leaving Bellingham Bay

Great views of Mt. Baker

Cruising to Roche from the fly bridge

Eric on the fly bridge

We had great weather (highs in the 80s, lows in the 40-50s and no humidity) with rain on only two of the seven days.

The scenery in Desolation Sound was spectacular as usual

Clouds over the Mountains in Desolation Sound

While cruising, we visited Roche Harbor for the 4th of July, Secret Cove (on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia), Pender Harbor (also on the Sunshine Coast), Teneados Bay, Toba Wildernest Resort on Toba Inlet, and Prideux Haven. During our time at Roche Harbor, we enjoyed the company of my youngest sister, Leslie and her fiancee, Bill.

Five University of Michigan Alumnae (Mom, Dad, Leslie, Bill, and me) were aboard

Boats galore at Roche Harbor for the 4th

Leslie barbecuing at Roche Harbor

Obligatory engagement ring photo

Leslie and Bill: Fourth of July

Bill (nice hat) and Dad barbecuing (and drinking beer)

At Teneados Bay we swam at Lake Unwin and in Prideux Haven we cruised around in the tender and saw two deer swimming from one small island to the next (I didn't know deer swam!) and a bald eagle (one of many we saw during the trip). We also had porpoises come up and swim with the boat while underway and we saw many harbor seals both while anchored and under way.

Bringing the tender ashore at Teneados Bay

Hiking on shore


Dad and I at Teneados Bay (one of the rainy days)

The cascades at Teneados Bay

Hiking to the waterfall (not a canicross hike thankfully)

Waterfall at Toba Inlet

Eric and I at Toba Wildernest Resort

Mom, me and Dad at Toba Inlet

Mom looking surprisingly chipper after the hike

Clearing skies at Prideux Haven

The Kiawah at anchor at Prideux Haven

The tender is ready to go ashore

One of the many bald eagles we saw

After the week on the boat, we returned to stay a night at my parents house in Bellevue and to attend my younger sister, Jenny's, wedding shower at her house in Snoqualmie. After the wedding shower, we checked in for the American Veterinary Medical Association's annual Conference in Seattle which Eric was presenting some of his research and speaking at, returning to visit with my parents and sisters in the evenings in Issaquah and Bellevue including for my mother's 63rd birthday (Mom received a new Kohler kitchen faucet installed by Eric from us for her birthday).

We Simmonses are good at eating

The computer: A 21st Century Gathering Place

Leslie lighting candles (safety first, she dons protective glasses)

Clearly Mom was quite happy we did not put 63 candles on her cake

Mom's pink pearls (a birthday gift)

While in Seattle, I even got to run dogs (albeit not my own) and go dog scootering.

Flying back to Baltimore, we were happy to find that our sled dogs had been well cared for by our pet sitter, Christine (although they were quite happy to see us).

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Scootering in Maple Valley



Today, while vacationing in Seattle I met up with Daphne Lewis and Donna Morton from the Dogs Love to Run email list that I'm on. While we've conversed via email, we've never met in person.

Arriving at the trail head

Daphne and Donna were kind enough to invite me to go dog scootering with them. So after a brief mistake on my part (wrong McDonalds), I finally met up with Daphne, Donna and their pups. Shortly thereafter, we arrived at the trail. Now for those of you who don't run in the Pacific Northwest or have never visiting the PNW, this is a gorgeous part of the country. As some of you know, I was raised in Seattle and lived her for 18 years before leaving to go to college at the University of Michigan. I returned for another two years after graduating to get my law degree from UDub (that's slang for University of Washington). The trails were nothing short of gorgeous and there was a huge variety of trails to choose from with plenty of opportunities for gee, haw, on by training on various looping trails.


Donna with Brett and Donna with Ellie and Rogue

Starting out, I borrowed Donna's DSK (disc brake model) Diggler dog scooter and Donna's Alaskan Husky, Holly.

Holly and the Dog Scooter (note she is pointing the wrong direction down the trail)

Holly is an awesome little Alaskan Husky with a fair amount of hound in her judging by her appearance. She is mostly black with a little white and nice blue eyes. And she's very sweet.
She ran great as a lead (and only) dog with a wonderful understanding of gee, haw, and on by. In fact, every time we would go through an intersection with another trail, her little head would come up and she would clearly be asking, "Ok lady, so which way are we going here?" Holly's only short coming (which is also an asset in a way) is that she is incredibly busy (all the best sled dogs are) and she constantly wants to go. Constantly wanting to go, for Holly, translates to not a lot of desire to line out. Having a strong desire to stay in motion, Holly does lots of circling back when stopped. (Somehow, however, she manages to do it without getting tangled, though, which is nice). But with this eager to please little lady is a great all around sled dog.
Brett demonstrates line out

The DSK is a very nice dog scooter with disk brakes and a 20 inch back wheel. The foot board is wide enough to accommodate two (at least my two) feet placed side by side and once I figured out where to put my feet, it was quite a comfortable ride. It did take me about a half a mile to figure out how I wanted to place my feet. After I got the hang of balancing and became comfortable with the brakes and the handling abilities of the dog scooter, I LOVED this scooter. It was nicely balanced, handled very well and had plenty of braking power. I think I could probably run two of my hard charging Maryland Sled Dog Adventures Siberian Husky sled dogs on this scooter. This scooter is also tall enough to comfortably accommodate Eric's six foot height.

As we headed out, I had Alaskan Husky, Holly, hooked to Donna's Diggler DSK scooter. Daphne had Chinook (and all around Love Bug), Brett, on her Alpha Dawg dog scooter while Donna was bikejoring with her Chinook pup, Rogue, and her other female Chinook, Ellie. After about a mile out with several stops to water the dogs and take photos, we turned the dogs around (come haw) and headed back to the vehicles. Since the dogs had not run recently, it was warm and humid (mid 50s) and this was Rogue's first run, we wanted to keep the run short and positive. As we headed home we let the dogs run loose down to the creek and cool off (don't try this with the Maryland Sled Dog Adventures dogs; never off leash except when fenced our dogs would have been half way to Portland if we cut them loose to swim). After passing three Weimaraners out for a walk, we arrived back at the vehicles and the trail head. Approaching the trail head, I bravely decided to scooter down the steep hill that lead back to the trail head with Holly pulling like a little demon. As we headed down the steep hill, the DSK handled the rocks, ruts and exposed roots with nary a second thought.
Brett and Daphne

After a water break and rest back and the vehicles (plus of course a lot of talk of dogs since this is what dog drivers do when they get together), Daphne and I headed out for some biking and dog scootering with Brett while Donna headed off to a meeting. Hooking Brett to Daphne's Alpha Dawg (16 inch back wheel; also available with a 20 inch back wheel), I rode the dog scooter with Brett while Daphne road her bike. Heading back out the narrow gauge rail trail we had just run, we turned off on to a single track.


Scootering with Brett

At about a mile out, we paused to rest and give Brett some water, handing the camera off to Daphne, I (not so intelligently) decided this would be a good place to take some photos. I also, not so smartly, decided to hold on to the poly eth scooter line while Daphne headed down the trail. Not happy that Mom had ridden off and thinking he had been released to run when Daphne called out from down the trail that she was ready (Daphne's go word is "pull" but it's often proceeded with the word "ready) for the photo shoot to begin. (in Mushing Boot Camp parlance, "ready" along with words such as "ok" is a verbal tick; a word that is not the go word but that the dog driver inadvertently speaks each time he or she gives the "go" word. The dogs become accustomed to hearing this verbal tick and come to associate it with the command. Inadvertently using these verbal ticks in conversation can result in the dog(s) thinking it is time to head out down the trail). In any event, having not yet dropped the line, I was left with a small rope burn and a reminder of why I don't grab onto poly eth lines when they are moving. Ouch! In any event, we did get some good photos as we scootered
down the trail so the small rope burn was probably worth it.

Continuing down the single track, the Alpha Dawg handled the trail like a champ. Moving over the rocks and tree roots. Just as we approached our "gee" turn, Brett almost "on byed" a loose dog but I was two seconds too late with the "gee" command (not knowing where I was headed) so Brett decided a bit of socialization was in order. As soon as I gave the "gee" command, however, Brett made his gee turn and we came out on a nice wide dirt road in a lovely pine grove. As we rounded the corner into the pine grove, I think the temperature dropped by about 5 degrees. Heading down hill, we eventually reached Brett's favorite swimming hole. Cutting him loose, Brett (and Daphne) enjoyed a nice game of fetch with a giant stick as Daphne and I chatted. We also met a nice little Corgi and her dog friends out for a walk, a golden, and a boxer, all who stopped to swim in the nice little swimming hole right off the trail.


Brett retrieves his stick

Another dog out for a walk dropped by to swim

Brett cools off in his swimming hole

Brett swimming with his stick

Bringing the dogs back around, we headed back to the cars the way we had come with Brett maintaining a nice steady trot, despite the warming afternoon temps.

Both the DSK and the Alpha Dawg dog scooters handled great. Both easily passed over the ruts, rocks and roots littering the trails. Neither bogged down in the patches of deeper gravel that we went through. The Alpha Dawg handled a wash board rough section of trail (although I did feel as if I had double vision from the vibrations at one point). The only issue I had with either scooter is that because of their height from the ground and my short legs, both are a little harder to pedal than the rigs and dog sleds that I am used it. I thought the DSK was slightly harder to pedal than the Alpha Dawg and seemed a bit higher off the ground although Daphne thought that both were about the same height.

All told, I enjoyed dog scootering so much (and it's such a different feeling from bikejoring) that I think we will soon be investing in a dog scooter.