Hearts of Stihl

The past few weekends, the Stihl chainsaw totin' head hillbilly has been up in the woods cutting firewood with his best friend. Their team work has formed a large pile of wood to warm each of our abodes sufficiently, and then some. They've been intense and focused in their endeavors, even if slowed just a tad when they got the bright idea to bring along their wives on a foray into the woods.

The connection to Jules cell phone was shaky as they traveled deeper into the Trask Mountain Range. But I managed to find out that she was bringing the red therefore I brought the white.

Part way however of loading firewood, backing up the truck, and dragging chain through the rain soaked and muddy ground we cracked open the bottle of Coelho Pinot Gris and I proceeded to slake my thirsty throat with it's crispy tart coolness.

Well, never mind the wood, we ladies became photographers and played propped and fiddle faddled with our bottles of wine as we traipsed among the forest flora of ferns, vine maple, and fir stumps.

This tasty bottle of Pinot Gris comes from the vintners of Coelho of Amity Oregon.

This bottle of Pinot Noir, from Laurel Ridge of Carlton Oregon was so delicious and made me glad we packed along meat and cheese to go with it.

A bit of a tipsy angle. It was the angle, I'm sure it was the angle.

Dusk came too soon! But the day in the woods, the fresh moist air and pitchy scented firewood, good friends and fine Oregon wine?

"woodoggie"

Oregon Black Truffles

A basketful of clinkers?

If you were a forties child you would know that a clinker is the rock like refuse cleaned from a coal burning furnace. Head hillbilly was appointed that chore as child. But these are not clinkers, and so, soooo, much more interesting in that fine cuisine restaurants will pay an upwards of $250 a pound for these beauties. Skip the beauty part. They look like potatoes long forgotten in my pantry and thus petrified. It could happen.

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These are geniune Oregon Black Truffles. Much sought after and elusive, for the untrained hunter. That would be me. This morning actually. Feverishly digging in the early wee hours in the woods, alone.
Well, cept' for Jack, my not so trusty canine companion.
And he weren't no help a'tall!

It all started because of a little outing with my daughter that included attending a meeting for the Oregon
small Woodland Owners Coop last night. I knew as a busy young mother she would be due for a night out. Oh how my evil mind works! We both actually enjoyed it though.

Last nights topic was about non-timber forest products. Eric Jones,Ph.D. of the Institute For Culture and Ecology brought Oregon white and black truffles. The black being a more pungent truffle that is reminiscent of blue cheese or a strong brie. It will readily lend it's earthy character to whatever food it is blended or infused with. An amazing homely little fungus if ever there was one.

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The inside of the black truffle can be mostly black with white veining, or creamy white with dark veining like what we observed last night. The most efficient method of harvesting truffles long ago was with the help of a pigs snout. Their high sense of smell helped the hunter locate their booty. The pig however, could quickly devour the precious truffle in a blink of an eye in their zealousness. ( Dear PIg, I feel the same way about a tin of danish butter cookies.) So, one of your hunting attributes would have to include pig wrestling. Hence, the introduction to using trained dogs in truffle hunting.

I employed an alternate method recommended by Eric for the truffle novice.. And that is to just look for disrupted earth near the preferred area ( a tell tale sign of a critter in search of truffles) and with your hand, disturbing as little earth as possible, scratch down a few inches into the duff (decaying vegetation on the forest floor). Hopefully you will receive your prize. Not so for me today.
So I am still on the hunt for the aristocratic caviar of the forest.


Wish me luck fellow trufflers.

Unsuccessful

It's official. This years hunting trip was unsuccessful. Well, at least in terms of the head hillbilly not filling his hunting tag. That's sad. But the stories? Boy, oh boy, the husband will be forever regaling the great camaraderie, the scenery, the almost had one scenarios (complete with illustrations), and the weather. In that order, I think. Trust me about the illustration part. He actually sketches out every detail of where he went, up hill and dale, ravine and clearing. Knowing he has a GPS gives this gal that easy peaceful feelin' if you know what I mean.

Here is an earlier post about a successful hunting trip that yielded a freezer full of delicious organic elk meat. Oh, and a picture of the magnificent creature that graces our neck of the woods, the Roosevelt Elk.

Some lucky shots,

of the scenery that is,

that didn't get away!

100 years old

Not me, not 100, not yet, although, there are days when this cottage woman feels 100. Okay I'm exaggerating, 101. But Panther Creek Cottage will be celebrating 100 years of existence in 2011. For reals!

My imagination swims with thoughts on life here in the woods ONE HUNDRED years ago. I have taken a peek at the bones of this ol' girl when we needed to remove a small portion of wall in our tiny living room. Full dimension rough sawed lumber. Produced I am sure by one of the small independent lumber mills that used to dot our neck of the woods in earlier times. The sturdy gal has been home to our family for the past 27 years. The kids heights and hand prints are inscribed on the small closet door tucked under the stairway, and now each new grandchild.

She holds our history, all 1000 bless-ed square feet of her.

Panther Creek Cottage
1911 - 2011

This verse written by the head hillbilly from a song we would sing with the children in our younger days sums up our life at Panther Creek Cottage.

"Three Kids, a Mom and Dad.
We live here.
We're oh so glad!"


Below is an interesting video of Lloyd Kahn, 1970's designer of the geodesic dome. He and his peers were looking to design and build an efficient sustainable dwelling for the future. He abandoned it to the dismay of his builder friends, in favor of a simpler design for modest living. The family that built our home so long long ago, I think, built JUST what was needed to shelter their family. It has provided the same for us too, sufficiently.

SHELTER from jason sussberg on Vimeo.

Lloyd has a new book, Builders of the Pacific Coast,

Interesting homes for the imagination.