Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Sandpoint Travels

Today neighbor X forced me into her car and took me to the local Dufort Mall. If you're from Cocolalla or Sagle you know what I mean...actually, it's the local dump that has a donation station where people place used items that aren't total trash. My neighbor donated some items, and trash, then we took off to Sandpoint.













In Sandpoint we decided to visit a local eatery and bar (2)...yes, we drink. We went to the new restaurant called Oishii which has decor that combines mob stuff and fish...very odd..so we had some sake with an assortment of sashimi...it was great, but not filling...so...on the way out we see an even newer bar attached to this place called (blank) ah, I think the sake has taken hold by now...called "Spar". So we go upstairs. The music is playing and as soon as the bartender sees us he turns it off...what the heck? Oh, I get it, he thinks because were not a "21" crowd we can't handle the music, great..I'm the "Mame" generation. We look around, ask a few questions, neighbor X checks out the seating and decides it's not too comfy....we leave. Here's a few pictures of Oishii.












































Next stop is the Tam-O-Shanter bar...ah, what can I say. It's a local hang out and has been there a long time...We did make friends with this 83 year old lady, Lucille, who was about the only friendly person in the place. She told us about her garden, work and life's travels, she said she really liked a beer now and then even if it wasn't good for her. We took her name and number and she told us to drive by and check out her garden, so we did. Pretty impressive for someone her age to be gardening as much as she does! Here's a picture of her garden.














Then off to the local Farmers Market. We were so happy to see fresh tomatoes. We taste tested a few local cheeses which were surprisingly good. Lots of huckleberries for sale, $30.00 a gal which is cheap. We made our purchases and then off to Yokes grocery store and back home.

Sorry butt ....this is not art















Ok, a few years back the city of Sandpoint placed this wood sculpture, aka piece of art, in the front of the court house in downtown... Much controversy later it's still there,ugh! I don't care if there's any connection to the gay community or not, to each his own...I just think it's ugly. It doesn't represent anything I can think of ...except the fact that there are no more logging companies up here and maybe this "art" represents how some locals got screwed...not. Oh, this is my raciest blog yet...
What do you think?

Monday, August 10, 2009

Huckleberry Picking in Idaho









First picture is a huckleberry plant on our place, but as you can see it's a little too reddish. They should be a purplish-blue color. We were invited by the neighbors to go up to the high mountains in Idaho on government land to hunt huckleberries. While they weren't plentiful or big there were many,many plants. It seems most the plants had already been picked or the bears had their fill!! Some of you may know that hunting areas are kept secret by most people as they can fetch as much as $40-45.00 a gallon!!! Personally, I think they're over rated... They are good in milkshakes though, but since I've never made anything else from them I'll reserve judgement. I've gotten a few new recipes I hope to try this year.

My long time friend, Vonne, is waving from the patch she is working on. Our group took a short lunch break, thankfully not too many flying critters were there.
The cleaning process is almost as labor intensive as the picking. Rinse, sort three times, used a blower on cool setting to dry off to prevent ice crystals. Then packaged them and froze between my Limoncello and Haagen Dazs! Humm, I see a milkshake in the near future...

Monday, August 3, 2009

Bee Gone Already !

These bee's have stung almost everyone in the area....including me. Put out this bee trap in the morning...
















A few hours later there's over an inch of dead bees. Next year we'll set them out earlier to get the queens, like Thomas (my neighbor) mentioned in his blog.