LMG and the Sweet Boards!

World Famous Kite Board Designer and Manufacturer Greg Boyington, LMG to his friends and fans, has come to UCM for the express purpose of shaping more boards... many, many more boards in fact. In this case, not the sweet boards for riding waves while kiting or surfing but planks and plywood into a sweet garden shed to support the orchard.

You can see below the beginnings of the structure that will house the tools, fertilizers etc. that we use to enhance the bounty of the orchard and garden. One of the key components of the design is the sheds alignment with the valley and the view.

With the foundation frame in place, and the first sheets of tongue and groove 3/4 inch flooring nailed, the pressure treated 2 x 6 planking was rested on the porch framing. Sylvia had the honor of first viewing from the new deck and as you can see from the photo was all smiles about it.

In the background LMG can be seen installing conduit for the automatic watering system for the orchard. The system will ultimately be powered from solar panels placed on the south facing roof pitched at 43 degrees which matches out latitude in Langlois. This angle will maximize year round solar potential.

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Devils Tongue?

The Devil does not have Sylvia's tongue.

Quite the contrary!

Sylvia is holding the Devil's Tongue in her right hand!

Honestly, it is simply a type of delicious heirloom specialty salad much like the head of Redder Ruffled Oak in her left hand.

If the truth must be known they made it into tonight's UCM salad and are quite, quite yummy!

Marguerite's 85th Blossom!

One of our dear friends from our days in Alameda, California just celebrated her 85th birthday!

This photo is of the gladiola that she gave us for our orchard and garden space taken on her birthday yesterday. As you can see it is in full health and vigor, much like the woman herself! Those bulbs were the very first planting in honor of family and friends that occurred in the orchard. It is along the fence line just above the ceremonial circle and to our great joy is visible from our sun room porch (no accident) where we enjoy morning coffee and evening nips.

Some of the components of this photo that may be of interest to y'all from left to right; our tomatoes in bed #2 that are approaching six feet tall, raised bed #3 with celery, salad, and parsley. Raised bed #4 has been recently turned over and you can spot some starts of Mache (corn salad) poking their heads out of the rich soil! (According to Sylvia's this is "the most delicious green and she feels lucky to have scored seeds!") In the background is Steve Morrow's plum tree, the four potato tubs, beyond that the new berry trellis and parked just outside the orchard the mini excavator that was rented to form out the building pad for the shed to be for the orchard which will house supplies, the solar powered watering system and most importantly the covered porch with a view of the valley.

Happy Birthday Marguerite!

And Thank You for the Joyous Glad

U-Pick Berries

It is not quite out our front door, but it is just beyond our front yard to the u-pick berries of the organic farm in the valley. Sylvia is pointing out for you the saddle in the ridge where our home is located. Going down to the valley floor just to pick raspberries to put in our morning yogurt is a lot like a trip to Costco. You go in for one thing and you come out with a shopping cart full of items. Today we went for berries and they also had cucumbers, purple pepper, broccoli, and golden beets that just had to come with us as well. Our garden is producing heavily but it is always fun to round out the menu with super fresh organic goodies - just out our front door ;-}

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Benadryl for Dogs

Country Dogs are not always easy to monitor and there are lots of things around to entertain and interest them. Often we are entertained as well by their antics. Today however an unmonitored activity by General Lee somewhere on the property led to a sudden and significant outbreak of hives. In the course of five minutes his entire body was covered in pea and marble sized bumps so his entire body resembled bubble wrap. Our solution (researched on the internet) was to give him Benadryl, 1mg for every pound of puppy. After three strips hidden in a large piece of Brie the swelling stopped and has been slowly subsiding. At first Lee was a bit agitated and active but has since settled down into the Benadryl drowsiness... I wonder just what he got into...

Kitechick Redux

It has been several years since "Kitechicks Rule" was placed on the dock in The Port of Bandon to honor the divine Ms. Sylvia. Since then Great Pacific Northwest weather has tested the durability of the spar finish that was originally placed upon her. It was not enough to keep her sparkling. So Bob got together with the superb artist Chris Foltz who carved her to sand off the original finish and try again.

Even sirens of the sea enjoy a facial once in a while!

Here Chris works with a sanding device he designed for his chainsaw carving competitions. He took third place in the world championships this summer and did the same at the Fairbanks International Ice Sculpture competition last winter. Truly a gifted artist!

When Bob and Chris were done with the sanding a blow torch was used to add the highlights then on with the Cabots Clear which is more of a penetrant than a coating. The final result after one coat is the shining glory of the sequoia log carving was brought out once again with all the unique highlights of color and grain. Very beautiful! And now it is up to Bob to go down to the docks weekly during the summer to continue to add coats to saturate the wood. Anything for his Kitechick!

Bricks Nearing Sidewalk

The Port of Bandon Walkway Project is nearing completion. Here is a sample of the bricks for the UCM Posse waiting to be placed on the walkway next week. When completed you will see it here first. The installation was delayed as an archeological dig was completed along waters edge. The current site of the Port Office use to be the US Coast Guard Building and before the white man arrived was the site of the Coquille tribe fishing village. The sidewalk site was directly over what turned out to be a trash pile from when the tribe was there. Several stakeholders had to work together to complete the dig. And now that it has been completed the sidewalk will be going in with the bricks curving along the walkway.

Harvesting

The huge alder tree in the front of the house came down this week. Alders tend to fail at around 40 years old and this one was getting to that size. Although we loved the tree its proximity to the house and its prominence on the banking had us concerned that it might come down in the next big winter storm. It was within reach of the house and would have undermined the bank the house sits on when the root ball toppled. Josh demonstrated great skill at removing the tree one fifteen inch log at a time. When he was done we had about a quarter cord of wood harvested and ready to season for a year.

Speaking of harvesting - Sylvia has been getting lost in the mountains of green mass between bed one and two. The sugar peas are arriving faster than we can eat and are threatening to reach across the path to the tomatoes behind her which are beginning to bear green fruit and flower.

We are harvesting edible flowers as well. These beautiful blossoms are borage, which is a very interesting plant popular in Germany. The textured leaves as well as the delicate blossoms taste like cucumber. It makes for a wonderful addition to our daily green salad. During our wedding in the orchard this was the only plant to stump our friends from the organic farm in the valley.

Bob Marley would be Proud! - We're Jammin!

We took advantage of the local organic farms u-pick berries and picked 9 pounds of gorgeous strawberries and 4 pounds of luscious raspberries. Then, in a mix and match potpourri with the 6 pounds of salmonberries gathered from our forest, turned it all into jam.

So we were jammin for a day in the kitchen to great success!

Small Town Fourth of July

We had a tremendous Fourth of July here in Langlois that culminated in a very traditional BBQ ribs dinner at UCM. You can see here on the grill are bones roasting for the puppies and the ribs and corn for us with of course a fresh salad from the garden.

There was so much good food that warm up stretches were required before diving in!

Earlier in the day we traveled to Port Orford to enjoy the festivities there. One of the annual highlights is the tag team dinghy races that often include capsizes and swampings. The hill above this surfing site is covered with spectators ready to enjoy the mayhem. The parade, sidewalk chalk art, sand castle contest and tennis ball golfing down the beach all adds to the fun of Independence Day in this small town.

The weekend before the fourth, in what is becoming an annual event in Langlois, there was a community pot luck gathering held at the feed store. About half the town attended (around 200+) to enjoy some great home cooking, community conversation and some fine kick-ass fiddle music. The dance floor was shaking big time. You can see some of the gathering outside the feed store in this photo. It is a pleasure to realize how many folks we know and recognize as we slowly integrate into the community.