It's been a long time!

Well, I'm finally back online.  Since I last wrote, so much has happened.  We sold our home in California and moved to Orcas Island, Washington.  What a change!  Right now our new home is under construction and we are living in a 16 foot yurt on the property.  We've done a lot in our 5 months here and have established ourselves as full time residents of Orcas Island.  We have yet to go back to the mainland but are planning a trip soon to select appliances for our new home.

What's foremost in my mind right now is a small garden plot (12 ft x 4 ft) raised bed that Michael built for me that I planted with shelling peas, snap peas, spinach, kale, cabbage, beets, turnips, scallions, onions and soon to be garlic and saffron crocus.  This is my 'tasting garden' as a friend of mine here calls it.  I hope we get more than just a taste of everything on the list.  So far, the peas, spinach, kale, cabbage, beets and turnips have sprouted.  I am still waiting on the onions and scallions to show signs of life.

Cooking here has been a challenge on a two burner Primus camp stove.  I have a small Coleman oven that sits on one burner that I use to bake bread and other goodies.  Right now I'm getting the oven heated to bake a loaf of sour dough whole wheat toasting bread.  It's a pan bread that I've been making every week since we arrived here.

Tonight's dinner is going to be a chicken, zucchini and cabbage stir fry.  Many thanks go to George and Molly Orser of Orcas Farm who run a small CSA (12 members).  What a change from our 900+ member CSA in California.  The vegetables and fruit from Orcas Farm are superb and the farm itself is less than 2 miles from our house.  That's local!

We've been able to source local meat, seafood and eggs here too on Orcas Island.  There is very little we lack except maybe a local source of wheat.  For that we have joined a buyers club and will probably buy wheatberries from this club to be stored in the pantry.  200 lbs of wheat berries should do us for the year.

The weather here has been mild so far and we hope to be in our new home before the worst of the winter rains.  We shall see.  So much to do here the weeks go by very quickly.