Model student

Last night was a long night for Tim of getting up every couple hours to check that the boat hadn't escaped from the dock from the strong winds but us girls were much luckier and finally got some sleep after I kept everyone up the night before with something much less fun than bad weather. Tilly was amazingly good on the boat all last night and today! ...Well, aside from when we first arrived and failed to realize she would be best off staying in her kennel. 

This morning, after two months and one week of trying to get in touch, my Cottey sister, Elisa and I finally met up! She and Tim finally met each other and her and I did some catching up at a little Tea and Yoga place up the street from the docks in Oak Harbor. We were both sick, so the tea was the draw and not any physical movement. Oh, and Elisa's mom sent along her favorite pair of shoes so I would have something other than slippers to wear and Tim wouldn't have me making off with his shoes and coat all day. 

Tim and I packed up our things from the boat and with me feeling much more chipper than yesterday, we headed back to our house for a quick stop before it was time for Tilly's class. What a delight to go home and smell nothing! And see our beautiful floors and finished house all ready for us to move in! Unfortunately, Tilly and I had no time to swoon as I needed non-pink-elephant clothes and real shoes and we were off to puppy class. 

This time, instead of being half an hour late, we were the first ones to Puppy School, giving us plenty of time to scout the place out and get comfortable. The familiar puppy faces came in one by one, putting us in a much better place for winning at the attention game. The instructor slipped me a bowl of the good treats and Tilly was the perfect pup. We could walk right up to another wiggling bundle of cuteness, and Tilly would sit inches away, still only paying attention to me. It is wonderful to have a highly food-motivated little girl. During puppy playtime, rather than all chasing each other around like mad, the puppies found an odd game of going from person to person, sitting patiently and collecting treats. We thought we would have a few minutes of them distracted with each other, but instead we had mobs of little obedient pups making the rounds to collect the rewards. Even the instructor was surprised by them. As you can see below, it really was All of the puppies, and none of us were safe from those irresistible eyes. 

Evacuating

Oy. After being terribly sick all day and having my AMAZING husband feed me smoothies made of a dozen fresh fruits and veggies and walk our puppy while I lay curled up in sad positions on soft surfaces, Tim reported that the smell of the polyurethane (like nail polish) the guys were putting on the downstairs flooring was getting so strong he could taste the chemicals and for the sake of our brains we needed to get out of the house for the night, right away. Tim brought the car up to the front door, I wrapped my blanket around myself and curled up in the car, and after thinking about our chances of finding a cheap, clean, available, pet friendly hotel, we headed for Oak Harbor for a night on Joe's boat. I probably should have brought shoes other than my slippers, but at least I brought a change of clothes other than my pink elephant pajamas, and Tim brought food for all three of us. With the fresh air, funny movies, and plenty of Advil (which, I have realized, is sugar-coated Ibuprofen - Wonderful!), I've started to perk up and feel at least well enough to take Tilly with me when I make the long trek to the top of the dock to go to the loo.

Today, I did not do the walking or much of anything, but yesterday we ran into Sandy and her wonderful humans, John and Fay, all of whom Tilly adores. Even when Tim - who has yet to run into our neighbors walking - takes Tilly out, she will stop and pull and want to go their house anytime she walks past. Here is Sandy in her sporty rain poncho with Tilly nipping along beside. How patient that big white gal is! Thank goodness.

[Also, I will confess, I am posting this retroactively because I felt THAT terrible, and because my computer and the internet are two things that weren't on Joe's boat... along with my shoes. Really a bad call with the shoes.]

Posting about posts.

First off, I'd like to promote an Island resource and mention some changes to this site.

From Drew's List, the local list-serve for South Whidbey, I've rediscovered Whidbey Green Goods, which is a site that boasts of offering produce from over 50 local farmers and suppliers and over 200 items, though probably a little slimmer choices in the winter. Though I don't believe I currently have anyone reading my blog who actually lives on the Island, it's a good thing to know about even for visiting or for living here in the future.

On changes to this site, you may notice that under the "pictures" link at the top, I've streamlined the setup so that each month has a sort of summery through a few choice pictures with captions. I plan to continue to update this section monthly. Under calendars, I have been working to update the information, so now perhaps it will be useful to check out what's happening on the Island that you might look forward to next time you're here. That's the sort of thing that takes continuing updating, though I've now got some regular events scheduled to repeat so at least there aren't any more blank months. I hear about more cool things happening on the island all the time, so I expect the calendar to continue to improve.

Finally, a little update on things around here: The floor in the basement is no longer gray, but now a nice warm fall color instead. Tomorrow should be finishing touches! So far, I didn't see quite the variation in colors that the floor at Greenbank has, but maybe that's part of finishing touches. Besides, it was hard to get a good look at anything today, so I guess tomorrow will be the great unveil, and as long as it's livable, I will be relieved.

Never think of this again ever.

Tilly and I headed up for our morning walk (on the new timezone! success). When we got to the top of the driveway, there was a city-looking truck parked and a man in a yellow vest walking the road. I waited for him to come back towards the truck and then thought of the tactful way to ask a stranger, "are you here for the rotting deer in my yard?" He was, though said he didn't remove deer from bushes and we would have to drag it up for him to take away. I ran and got Tim, then headed into the bushes armed with gloves and trying not to gag from 20 feet away. Tim said it was a one person job and he didn't need my help. I can't imagine being single - Tim is such a hero. He grabbed an arm load of rotting bits and headed for the truck, while I headed for the furthest bushes I could find to fight the losing battle with my stomach. Now I am listening to the sounds of grinding and pounding and who knows what else coming from the guys finishing the basement. Happy sounds. Trying not to think of what just happened and working up to taking Tilly for the rest of her walk.

Here they are putting on the top coat of floor. All that remains is polishing it up a little and staining it tomorrow and Wednesday!

Tilly's super stylish grown-up collar just came in the mail

It is pretty big on her still, but tightened to the smallest setting, it at least stays on and looks oh so good

Puppy dreams

It is ridiculously adorable when Tilly dreams: wiggling her feat, muffled barks and growls. We were watching her and wondering what she was dreaming about. Chasing bunnies? No, she's never had a chance to do that yet. Then Tim realized the obvious truth: about the only thing she has experience with is her toys, so clearly she is dreaming that her toys have come to life and she is chasing them all around the room. A day fills up incredibly quickly with a puppy, particularly on daylight savings day when the best solution to the time change seems to be to do everything twice. Morning walk on old time, morning walk on new time. Lunch walk on old time, lunch walk on new time. Play time on old time, play time in new time. Night walk on old time, night walk on new time. Hopefully the adjustment will go quickly this way.

PLAYPLAYPlay Play Play play play play pl-zz.zzz...zzzz.

This morning, Tilly had a play-date with our neighbors dog, Sandy. Although Sandy is about 12, she kept up with Tily just fine. John and Fay said they had a dog and cat and three sons, clearly a puppy would be fine running lose in the house. I gave up and let Sandy babysit while I sipped coffee and toured their beautiful home. This is the closest Tilly has ever been to being lose and unsupervised, and our first time in someone else's house, though I trusted Sandy to take good care of my puppy. Amazingly, after two hours of hard playing inside and out, Tilly had still managed to avoid going potty on their nice floors. I started seeing warning signs around when we were all ready to get going with our days, so I scooped up the little one and headed back home. While we were visiting, I told John and Fay about the dead deer Tilly helped Tim and I find in the bushes last night.

After days of wondering what the increasingly horrible smell around our house was coming from and assuming there probably wasn't an invisible stream of spawned out salmon running down our driveway, Tim and I set out looking for the source. After opening the front door of the house, Tim was pretty convinced something had died under our porch. I assured him this was just a distant whiff and it got worse closer to the street and mail boxes. Tim didn't hesitate to crawl through the stinky bushes at dusk. After a few minutes of looking on in horror, Tim suggested I bring Tilly in to sniff it out. Reluctantly, I followed her eager tugs, then stopped and scooped her up while I tried to make out a shape on the ground. As my eyes adjusted, it looked more and more like a dead deer, and Tim confirmed that it looked like a little black tailed doe.

So, after telling Fay about the stinky problem on our property, she dialed up the number she thought was right for the people who come and deal with such things. They said they'd come on Monday. Oh the perks of living in this civilized lower-48 where there are people to deal with rotting carcasses in your bushes! Will Department of Fish and Game do that in Juneau, or are Alaskans on their own for such things?

Back at home, the floor guys were finishing rolling on a second coat of floor, and I am happy to say Tilly passed out behind the couch for most of the rest of the day so I could get some schoolwork done. I think she had dreams about playing with Sandy. She needs a play-date every morning!

(Picture from yesterday at Greenbank farm. Sandy is a giant white dog, more than all three of those little things put together.)

Horseradish

Last night we met a new friend named Maggie who lives in town. She mentioned the garden of her new house is over-run with horseradish, and if I want I can come collect it. I've been doing some research to see if I can really put up several pounds of horseradish root. Here's what I've been learning:

• Late fall is a great time to break out the shovel and start digging up those big roots. 
• The whole root, washed and packed in wet sand in zip-locks, should store in the fridge for a few months.
• Skinned and chopped or grated root can be food processed with enough water to help it blend without getting watery, then stabilized with a little vinegar and salt to be refrigerated for a few weeks or frozen for a few months. 
• Wear goggles - it's like onion but much, much worse. Maybe do it outside too. Maybe get a gas mask...
• The longer you wait before adding the vinegar, the hotter the sauce will be. Blend together right away for more mild, or stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes before adding the vinegar for extra hot. 
• For canned horseradish, use 2 parts grated horseradish to 1 part vinegar and a little salt. Use a hot water bath for 10 minutes to seal in jars, then store in the fridge to keep the nice white color.
• Mixing the horseradish puree with some mustard and mayo, sour cream, cream cheese, or buttermilk with optional red pepper, beets, or lemon juice makes a pretty awesome cream sauce. 

My super-secret sources:

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_prepare_horseradish/

http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/HG_Garden_2006-07.pdf

http://www.aces.edu/dept/extcomm/specialty/horseradish01.html

http://low-cholesterol.food.com/recipe/horseradish-canned-30959

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/horseradish.htm

I think this is my favorite. Good canning description and excellent pain-in-the-eyeballs description. She uses the horseradish to make a sort of crazy-hot bloody mary she calls a Snackin' Cezar or Canadian Cinco De Mayo:

http://www.gastronomicalsovereignty.com/2013/06/canned-horseradish-root-aka-death-by.html