The Halloween season is upon us, and we are busy preparing. Spooky yard ghosts:
A cloud of bats:
Festive table arrangement:
And, most importantly, my Halloween costume (Any guesses?):
I made some very tasty Chex mix:
Sunday was cold and rainy, so we went for a hike:
Some food we made this week. Ramen:
Palak dal (spinach-lentil dal with cumin and mustard seeds):
Pumpkin oat power muffins:
What is even better than a breakfast smoothie? Smoothie bowls:
Leaving school on Thursday we discovered a screw in our tire! By the time we had a new tire there was no time to make dinner, so we headed to the Yacht Club for dinner. Thanks, Nan & Pop!
As you can see from the fires at the Yacht Club, it’s getting cool here. That means it’s pumpkin recipe time! Check out these pumpkin streusel muffins dad made!
Due to much complaining by The Mother about our tent being too small, we bought a new one. So we had to try it out of course. We went to Christmas Valley and Dad took us on the Crack in the Ground hike…
Whoa! This is a crack in the ground.
In some places, it was pretty tight, but not too tight to monkey around.
Here’s our new tent. Spacious. Or so it seems.
Here is the view from the Green Mountain Campground. We had it to ourselves.
It got dark pretty early so I checked out some planets and stars with my telescope.
In the morning it was quite obvious to The Mother that no tent would be big enough if said tent was infested with a snuggle bug.
After breakfast we headed to the sand dunes. It was very cool but so windy that we all are now partly blind.
We stopped at Fort Rock State Park for lunch on the way home.
It was a pretty cool rock formation. I climbed up lots of it, with little regard as to how I would get down.
We had picture day at school this week. I dressed appropriately:
I make my own lunch everyday for school now:
On Saturday, we went to Maston for a desert mountain bike ride:
On the way home, we stopped at DD Ranch to pick a pumpkin. The Bigs said ‘no way’ to this one:
Though this one was not too bad either:
I also went for a pony ride at the ranch. I have to say, I was pretty disappointed. Not nearly as exciting as I had imagined. I thought I’d feel a bit more cowboy.
Sunday, we went for a hike along Tumalo Creek.
A bit of bouldering along the way:
Starry Night (Thanks, Great Uncle Jim!):
Pumpkin blueberry waffles. Who is this Pac Man guy the Bigs keep talking about?
This week’s bread creation: Pane di Lino, golden flaxseed bread. Great for toast:
And, finally, my latest plum creation, plum and strawberry crisp:
Monday was my last day of quarantine. We made the most of it.
Nan and Pop bought me a kite for my birthday, but I haven’t been able to fly it until now. Why? Who knows. The Bigs and their excuses…not enough wind, too much wind. It was worth the wait!
We also picked all the plums from the plum tree in our front yard. We harvested 25 pounds of fruit. Mom and I used some of the plums to make an Austrian plum cake.
I’ve taken to dressing like the karate kid and doing strange moves in the living room.
On Saturday we went biking. The Bigs rode on a trail called Duodenum. Strange name. I guess because it curved around over and over again like the eponymous small intestine.
On Sunday we hiked the very popular Tam McArthur Rim trail. The views were terrific. From the ‘End of Trail’:
we saw: North and Middle Sister,
Broken Top,
and Mt. Bachelor. (Not to mention Mt. Washington, Mt. Jefferson, Three-Fingered Jack, Mt. Hood, and even Mt. Adams all the way up in Washington.)
I’ve been putting my starter and biga to good use. My latest creation, a whole-wheat sourdough boule:
