Winter wrap-ups

It's been a busy month -- I keep building up updates in my head without writing them down, and now my head is getting too full. So I'm going to try doing some smaller snippets more often the next couple of weeks and see if I can catch you up.

Snow activities
Although there is still plenty of snow in the mountains, it's starting to look like spring in Wenatchee. There are little flowers blooming, snow tires have come off, etc. etc. So, it's time to post these last winter-y photos before they start seeming totally out of place.

First is from a snowshoeing outing near Mission Ridge, one of the downhill ski slopes nearby.



Second is from the Hogloppet, an 18 mile cross country ski trek from the top of Mission Ridge to Blewett Pass, another of the mountain passes nearby. It was beautiful at the top, and I wish I could post more pictures from the rest of the trek, but we had to drop out (too bad...). It was seriously seriously downhill for the first several miles, and while I'm reasonably competent on cross country skis (especially going flat and uphill), I find downhills bordered by cliffs and trees scary. This is definitely not Minnesota skiing. So Mike & I decided to just walk the first downhills, but were foiled when the sweep skiiers caught up to us and needed to pass us to keep up with the rest of the pack (and they couldn't pass us as long as we were still officially in the race). On our way walking down off the course, we ran into the downhill ski patrol, who offered us a ride down the ski hill in a skiier-pulled tobogan. I have to say that was pretty scary in and of itself, being pulled in a sled over steep downhills and huge dropoffs, but for the ski patrol of course it was fun -- they like pulling people down in a sled.




Snow driving
The altitude here is funny in that you can be very solidly in springtime down in the valley and then cross the mountains in a snowstorm. This is especially true this time of year, and is only really strange I suppose when one is used to the snow line separating latitudes rather than elevations. One such journey across the mountains involved me having to stop on the side of the road with all the semi trucks at the top of Snoqualmie Pass to put on tire chains, which I had meant to learn how to use beforehand but of course hadn't. Not surprisingly, I missed the meeting I had been heading too, but I did learn how to successfully use chains. Also note, speaking of snow and latitude differences, that Mike & I went to Atlanta in January to visit friends and for me to go to a conference, and we went to a big park whose main attraction for the winter was a "snow park" -- a hill with manmade snow that inspired weeks-long waiting lists and pricey tickets to go sled down. True, snow is really amazing when you don't see it much, but it just seemed so funny at the time coming from the top of Snoqualmie.

Kitchen adventures
Our kitchen adventures mostly stopped with the end of fruit season, but we had a couple of winter hurrahs. First we dehydrated some late season (stored) pears in slices, the first test run for our dehydrator -- yum. Second we tried to make feta cheese, which didn't really work out. It was looking great until we put it in salt-water brine to harden and store (as per recipe) and instead all the cheese melted, making for a soupy white salty water mush. Found out later from a lady cheese-maker around here that the cheese wasn't hard enough before we put it into the brine. Next time we have to wait more, more patience required. Meanwhile, same said cheese-lady gave us some of her whey, with which we way more successfully made Danish Gejtost cheese. See more cheese photos and descriptions on Mike's newly created blog (http://truemn.blogspot.com).

Goat updates
We have slowly but surely gotten Frosty and Cle used to us enough to be a little more friendly. This also means they are pushier and no longer have qualms jumping on top of us if they think we have food for them. But we like it better than their earlier shy standoffishness.



Meanwhile, they have also learned how to be more aggressive with dogs. They have taken to pulling us around the neighborhood at breakneck speeds on leashes (I'm sure we could exert some more control here, but I always feel bad that they don't (yet) have enough room to run around, so if they're running on the leash, I tend to just go with it). Anyway, in running around the neighborhood at breakneck speeds on leashes, we inevitably run into dogs. First Frosty and now Cle too have taken to rearing up on their hind legs when encountering dogs and walking two-legged toward the dogs to scare them. It happens even if we're really on the dogs' territory, but it also sometimes alternates with running away from said dogs. See the picture below to get an idea of what it's like, except that here it's Mike and not a dog. See too a picture of them climbing around our neighbors' unfinished construction project (with permission, but still...).



In any case, Frosty and Cle are actually on vacation right now. They are in the town of Moses lake 1 1/2 hours south and east, at the farm where we originally got them, hanging out in a pen with a buck named Tahoma Citation and a protector llama. The idea is to deal with Frosty's heat cycles by getting her bred and accordingly having goat babies in the fall. So far no news, we're wondering if the trip down and the buck and llama scared all the heat cycling out of Frosty for a bit. So we just have to wait and see.

Meanwhile in our goat-less-ness, we've teamed up with a goat dairy lady (lady of the cheese references above) who has needed a little help on her farm. So we're occasionally helping her milk her goats and clean pens in exchange for learning goat milking tips and in exchange for overly large quantities of milk, eggs, and cheese-making ingredients.

So, that's it for winter update #1. Mike & I are heading to New York tomorrow to visit mi familia for Passover, but I'll try to keep going on these blupdates. But meanwhile I leave you with the following photo, entitled "Dances with Goats," soon to be a major motion picture I'm sure :)