Cranberry Adventures

Since my last post we've definitely left our unusually long, sunny summer behind. That first weekend that it started raining, we headed to the Coast with our friend Caitlin to pick cranberries. It was a very soggy day, but it was still fun. 

Do you know much about cranberries? Well, I certainly didn't. All I knew of cranberries was the pictures of flooded cranberry bogs--that, and the prepackaged bags of berries we buy at the grocery stores. Long Beach has a fairly significant cranberry industry. Mom found a farm that offered u-pick cranberries. When we got there we found that both the u-pick and pre-picked berries were offered on a complete honor system.  

Those bins are full of berries. For six dollars, you're welcome to take a gallon bag of them.

"Pick. Weigh. Pay. Enjoy." Honor system u-pick.

The pre-picked berries weren't a bad deal, but the u-pick was even better--50 cents a pound, so we wanted to try. This was dry harvesting. We just walked out into the unflooded field and combed berries out of the vines. It wasn't that bad, except for two things. Cranberries grow very low to the ground, so lots of bending. Also, it rained the whole time we were in the field, and we were getting pretty soaked. So, after a brave effort at u-pick, we supplemented with pre-picked berries.

Cranberries peeking out from the vines. 

Our u-pick harvest.

Pre-picked for the taking.

  One strange thing about this farm. We had to walk through this band of holly trees to get to the cranberry field, and for some reason the owners had chosen to decorate it with strange statues and this rocking chair. I didn't feel like photographing the statues, but I thought the chair looked interesting. 

After getting our berries, we headed over to the cranberry museum (yes, there is an actual cranberry museum in Long Beach). They were harvesting a bog while we were there. This is the wet harvest method that I had known of before. They flood the bog, then use machines to free the berries from the vines.

All the cranberries float to the surface, so that they can be gathered together and drawn out of the water.

It was a fun trip, and I certainly learned a thing or two about cranberries. Now we have a nice store of them in the freezer. Thanks, Caitlin, for going with us!

Things from the Kitchen

Ciabatta! It's homemade, crusty-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside bread with four simple ingredients. We love this bread. (Recipe here).

Homegrown cherry tomatoes. We like to pretend we're gardeners. :) Our yard is really too small for large harvests, but the tomatoes did really well this year.

Very Green

While out in the yard today I discovered this cute little guy on the raspberry bushes...

Hiding from the obnoxious photographer who was crowding his space?

Critique Club (Part 2)

These are the final three pictures which I submitted for the IPS critique club. 

Assignment 4: Mood, using texture.

(This is a door in the unrenovated building at the back of the Academy property in downtown Vancouver.)

Assignment 5: Sound, using color. 

Assignment 6: Taste, using shape and line.

Colville 2012

Our final adventure in July was participating in MTW's annual missions trip to Omak, WA, to serve the Colville Indian Reservation.  At least two people from our family have been on every July trip since 2005. All four of us got to go this year, which was fun. The MTW team this year included members from the Vancouver/Portland area, the Seattle area, New Jersey, and North Carolina. Most of those individuals had been on previous trips. It's always a joy to work with this group.

My photo documentation seems to be decreasing in recent years, but I still have a few shots to share. Again, Facebook friends, you probably have seen these pictures already.   

The traditional Sunday morning after-church picture. 

Also after church , some of us visited the top of "Suicide Hill." This is where Omak's annual Suicide Race takes place.

And what is the Suicide Race? Horses and their riders race down this steep hillside into the river below. They cross the river and run into the arena you can see over on the right.

The view from Suicide Hill.

While Sunday gives us some time to rest and recharge after traveling up to the reservation on Saturday, Monday through Friday are generally pretty full with various ministry activities. For me, that meant a lot of painting on Monday through Thursday.

The first house I helped paint.

Finished!

The second site I was on included installation of a ramp, which you can see some of our hardy guys working on here.

Another (almost) completed project.

 Painting wasn't the only thing we did that week (just the only thing I have pictures of). Other ministries that week included singing for seniors and inmates at a couple local prisons, construction, Vacation Bible School for the kids, and just visiting friends from past years. We had an exciting opportunity to host a women's gathering on Wednesday night to share "Stories of Hope." The biggest night of the week is Friday night, when we host a meal for all our friends from the reservation.

Through all of those diverse activities, our purpose is to show love to the people of the Colville Reservation, just as God has shown his love to us through Jesus Christ. We hope to show that we care for both their physical and spiritual needs. God blessed this year. Like every year, it wasn't without challenges, but we had exciting opportunities as well.  

Group shot on Saturday morning, before heading back home. It was a great year!