Bluergh!

The last couple of days I am feeling totally blah, bluergh and ick! I don't really know why and can't really put my finger on it but I just don't feel 100%. My back hurts and my stomach is icky so I have been taking it easy this afternoon.

On Friday we left town to go camping for the weekend. I was really looking forward to getting away and also for some cooler weather. It had been far too warm for little ol' me and I was starting to feel a little wilted. I needed some cooler temps!

Dear hubbie loaded up the truck on Thursday evening and I did the last few bits on Friday morning and then I jumped in the truck to go pick him up from the field and we hit the road. We headed just south of Bend to a place called La Pine but as we pulled into the campground we were greeted by the 'Campground Full' sign. Uh oh, this was bad news. We hit one other campground and saw the same thing so we decided to head up to Paulina Lake.

We had wanted to camp up there but I was a little nervous because of the lake and the mosquitoes, but since the other two sites were full it was a sign so we headed up the road to Paulina Lake. Neither of us realised it was so high up and it seemed like the road just kept on going and going... at 6350ft we entered the campsite and it wasn't full. Infact, it was only about half occupied! YAY - I was excited!

We found the perfect spot and jumped out to start setting up camp and WHOOOSH, the mosquitoes were on us like crazy! I could even feel them biting me which is a first, usually the first I know that I've been bitten is a few moments later when it starts to swell.

Ugh! Cory was willing to leave and go find another campsite somewhere else but I didn't want to, it was so pretty there and it was an adventure after all.... a few painful bites later I was starting to feel like I was going to go crazy, so I got inside the half erected tent while Cory set up everything else and got a fire going.

A few moments after the fire got going they started to leave, they really didn't like the smoke so we kept the fire really smokey!

We walked over to the lake and it was just beautiful, it was as if we were on top of the world. There was no other point of reference that we could see from where we were and at over 6000 feet we really were up high!

After that we went to find the host and paid for the night... he warned us that it would be cold (and it was) and that hopefully we had enough blankets to keep warm for the night. I was actually looking forward to it being a little cold, and already had my beloved beanie hat on! ;)

We went back to the campsite and fixed up a yummy dinner and chilled out by the fire before hitting the hay early.

It was pretty cold that night, it hit somewhere in the low 20's and we felt it but we were very glad for lots of warm blankets and a blow up mattress! After breakfast and a walk to the lake we packed up our stuff and hit the road.

Saturday evening we stayed at a campground at Detroit Lake and it was substantially warmer than at Paulina Lake (it was also substantially lower in elevation) and had next to no mosquitoes. I didn't get one bite that evening nor did I even see a skeeter lurking nearby.

We camped close to a little beach on the far side of the lake and it was quiet and calm. We had a fun & very relaxing weekend... laying on the beach, relaxing strolls, throwing rocks and just not having to do any of the stuff waiting for us back home.

ooooh, and I almost forgot to mention that we had the first smores of the year and they were perfect! :)

Good News!

Just a quick post to share some good news. I just got back from seeing my Maxillofacial surgeon for my 2 week follow up and he is so pleased with how much healing has taken place since the surgery.

AND (yes, it gets better) he is giving me the go ahead to move into ortho treatment right away.

Awesome huh?!?!?!

I should have another 4 week wait before I'm ready for ortho, but my body is healing so well & he knows I'll take extra good care of myself and my teeth so he's letting me start!

I am so excited - it means I get rid of the flipper sooner rather than later and that we're taking another step in the right direction. This is also the first time for a long time that something has happened ahead of schedule with my health and dental issues!!!

So, watch this space people - brace face will be showing up a little sooner than scheduled! :)

Now I really need to get off here and get cracking - I have so much to do today and tomorrow. We're heading camping tomorrow afternoon for the weekend so we have to pack all that stuff into the truck and for some reason while I was at the store I thought it would be an awesome idea to take advantage of the deal they had on apples, so I just bought 10 pounds of Granny Smith apples that I am planning to make canned apple pie filling with and I still have berries in the refrigerator downstairs. Not to mention the chili and scones I'm making to take with us camping... Oh and dinner for tonight...

Yikes!

Over & out!

Hello & Canning so far

Well, it's been a while since I've written on here... Not too sure why, probably just since I haven't had much to say... so I'll keep this post short so as to not bore you to death.

Last weekend we picked berries, and we picked a LOT! It's craziness how many blackberry bushes there are at the farm. It seems like with the weather this year everything is late producing fruit, the blackberries are no different. There was plenty of ripe and juicy berries for us to pick but I'd say about 75% of the fruit weren't ready yet. We picked several gallons of berries and will probably wait a couple weeks before another mammoth picking session.

So, I made jam for the first time ever! It was quite a process but so much fun, AND the jam tastes yummers too, so that's a bonus. I made two batches, one just straight blackberry and the second is blackberry, blueberry & strawberry mix. I also made a batch of blackberry pie filling and canned that, but all the recipes called for a product called 'ClearJel' that I couldn't find in any of the stores close by so I subbed with cornstarch. I don't know if it turned out ok, it seems a little runny to me, but I guess the only way to know for sure is to make a pie and see... so I guess I'll be doing that next week sometime too.

I'm still holding out for apples... I have an awesome recipe for canned apple pie filling and I'd love to have that stashed away for the winter.

Yah, I'm nutso

Well, those of you who know me will know how I love a good project... ideas bubbling over, sometimes I can't sleep at night because of ideas going round my head, or popping into my head in the middle of the night... my brain just keeps ticking over and over with ways in which to make it better and more exciting... and that in turn makes me more excited about the project... (Yeah, I'm nutso)

Some of you will also know (hopefully less of you) that I am just crazy about recipes... yep, you heard it. I'm a feeder. I love to cook, bake, create some kind of yummy edible goodies... and I love to also research these goodies, read about them, drool over them and they get my brain going in ways I just can't explain. I don't know why, except perhaps because I'm nutso.

So, imagine the insanity that would explain my excitement if a certain project also involved recipes and or cooking in some fashion, add that to the love I have for family and you have pure craziness. Well, that's exactly where I'm at right now!

I am working on a project that has all of those elements, and it's awesome. I am putting together a book... Yep, you heard it. Crazy, huh!?!?!

As you know Cory's Grandmother passed away in March, she was a wonderful woman and she loved to entertain, cook, bake and create... story has it that she was as crazy about recipes as I am and would often sit reading cook books for inspiration and ideas (YAY, I'm not the only person in the world who would happily take a recipe book to bed).

I wish I would have had some time to know her in the prime of her life, I have a feeling we would have gotten on like a house on fire.

Anyway, I have collected books and books and just tons of recipes from her and I am probably not even a third of the way through. I am sifting through the recipes and books and collecting ones that she loved to cook and some that stand out to people when they think of her.

My plan is to put these together in a book that people can have, and so not only will the memories of Paula Ann Fast live on, but her recipes will also.

It's working title is: After all, there's nothing quite like Grandmother's cooking!

Canning time!

Laugh if you will, but I have never done any of my own canning before. Probably partly due to the fact that I grew up in London and it's not really the thing to do in the big smoke.

Last year we had an awesome vegetable garden, a bumper tomato crop and grand plans of canning sauces and all sorts of goodies to see us through the winter months.

Unfortunately, my diagnosis of Graves Disease and then the dental stuff on top of that kind of put a spanner in the works and we just couldn't keep on top of the garden or get round to doing anything with the produce either. We were up to our neck with other stuff going on so we had to just let people have the tomatoes from our garden. At least they didn't go to waste - that would have been unbearable.

This year we had high hopes too. We planted our garden and were excited about being able to have our own produce to see us through the winter months. Unfortunately the weather this year wasn't quite as good as last year for tomato plants and we haven't had the bumper crop of last year that we hoped for. It's kind of sad, but hey, that's life. We will have some tomatoes from the plants but they're coming so late. I doubt we'll have much to can though.

But the canning story doesn't end there... no, no, no... We still have grand plans! We are going to whip up a batch of berry jam and I'm planning on gifting some of that to friends and family and we have grapes galore in our garden too that I will find something awesome to do with. We're going blackberry picking this weekend too and I'm planning on using some of those for the jam but most to make pie filling and we'll be getting our grubby hands on some apples too for pie filling. So, it should be pretty awesome... and there are rumours that a friend of ours might have a bunch of extra tomatoes that they'd be willing to share with us... YAY!

So, watch this space people - the canning extravaganza is going to start in the next couple days... I have no idea how easy or hard it will be, but I'm guessing it's not rocket science... and after all, we are two fully grown and fairly smart adults, I'm sure we won't blow up the house!

I'm a chipmunk... just not sure which one!

Well, it's been several days since surgery and simply put I feel terrible.

Cory stayed home from work on Thursday and Friday to help me and that was awesome. A good perk of being ahead on the farm during harvest.

I was doing pretty good up til about Sunday when my swelling started to get worse and the bruises took on some colour. My mouth is pretty stiff and sore and I think I look like a chipmunk. I totally don't look like me, I look different... weird.

I spent most of yesterday doing not very much. I rested and slept most of the day and kept cool in the basement. Today has been pretty much the same thing, I've been bored out of my head but there's not much else I can do about that. I've been reading online, searching out recipes and watching a little tv - yep, sounds about as boring as ever, huh.

I'm thinking about canning... yep, sounds exciting huh? Apple pie fillilng, jam etc etc.... So, perhaps we'll be out picking fruit this weekend! :)

Anyway, that's about the height of it. I'm scheduled to see Dr Johnson for a follow up next week on Wednesday, unless the swelling and pain doesn't go away, in which case I'll see him sooner...

Harvest

Harvest is an especially beautiful time of year in Oregon. There is so much to see, so many textures, colours and the landscapes are just highlighted by the farm machinery and all the activity buzzing around.
I couldn't help but try to capture this.

Mooooooo

Cows are fun subjects to photograph. I didn't have much time to snap these photos before they got freaked out and started a stampede.... nope, I'm not kidding - just very thankful they were runing in the opposite direction!

Some recent photos (photo heavy)

I have always loved to take photos - and as you can tell, sometimes my posts are a little photo heavy (sorry).

I've really been enjoying taking photos in and around the farm and where we live this summer... here's a few of my favs :)

No Surprises

This is from an email I sent to some friends and family members yesterday afternoon after surgery - As you can read, there were no surprises and everything went by the book.
My sleep was restless last night but I am taking it easy today and Cory's Dad told him to stay home with me too, which is awesome. It's nice having him here to take care of me :)

----------------
12th Aug at 17:21
Everything went well this morning. Last night I was very anxious as I went to bed but I woke up this morning filled with peace and the nerves had reduce substantially. (I didn't even cry as we drove to the appointment - and I'm telling ya, that is a first).

Dr Johnson performed the surgery expertly. He reported that the cyst was large but that they were able to clean it all out nicely and graft the site with bottle-bone. He also removed some tissue underneath a 1st molar on my lower jaw - it looked like it was forming a cyst there and they didn't want to take any chances. Thankfully we didn't need to graft that site and hopefully it will heal well by itself. The cyst in this site was so close in proximity to the other cyst there that it doesn't appear to be anything to worry about. They have sent the cyst tissue to OSHU for biopsy and I will receive the results in 2 weeks. Dr Johnson is 99% sure it's the same type of cyst we found on the upper jaw and should be nothing to cause further concern.

Everything went so smoothly, my Doctor couldn't have wished for anything to go any better - this is also a first for my surgeries and I am very thankful!

I'm in a fair amount of pain right at the moment but I have some pain killers that I will use tonight if necessary and they already gave me some meds through my IV that should keep the swelling and bruising to a minimum. Movement in my lower jaw is very restricted at the moment but I'm doing good & Cory is doing a great job of taking care of me.

D-Day tomorrow

I know I've been bad at writing, I've been both busy and not really in the best of moods, so I figured it would be smart to not write while that's the case. It'd only end up with short sharp posts anyway! ha!

So, tomorrow is D-Day for me. I will be having my latest maxillofacial surgery. I was scheduled to have two implants placed tomorrow, two bone grafts (one upper & one lower), a cyst removed and teeth pulled but it turns out that we have had a change of direction.

The 3D scan showed that I do not in fact have enough bone in the upper site to hold the Ti implants. The bone has reabsorbed into my body and is now too thin to hold the implants. That was a major blow that I hadn't really expected to hear. I thought we were doing really good with the bone strength up there.
The other thing that changed the game plan was the position of the canines. I need to have them moved a little so that the implants can go into exactly the correct spot. Ugh.

So the treatment plan has changed. We will be leaving the implants until the end of orthodontic work which will be in about 30 months (+/-). Tomorrow we will remove the lower incisor (for ortho) and a lower molar and also they will remove the cyst that has grown in my lower jaw at the front, they will also bone graft the site at that time.

I'm hoping it will not mean a loss of nerves to the teeth above the cyst, but it's a risk we have to play with.

In approx 6 weeks I should be good to go into ortho and get that ball rolling. We're going to have to keep a really close eye on the upper bone grafted site to make sure that the bone loss there doesn't get too much worse, and if it does it means dropping implants during ortho to stop resorption and save what they can. If everything goes to plan, after ortho I will have one final surgery (which I didn't expect... ) which will place an autograft - a block of bone taken from my own body and placed in the site - and also a Xenogenic graft which is a block of bovine bone.
I will have a soft tissue graft at that time and the implants placed. It sounds like a lot, well, it is a lot but I'm really trying to not worry about that right now. I'm just trying to keep stress free and rested for surgery tomorrow and worry about each procedure as it comes up.

I'm just very thankful for good doctors, who know exactly what they're doing and have a vision in mind. They are fighting for the very best for me in this situation, so that's definitely something to be glad about.

Hummmmm.... Pie

Our neighbours (and good friends) are having a big party on Saturday evening in celebration of their daughter's recently wedding that took place in beautiful Mexico. They have been planning, prepping and working so hard for months on end to get their place ready for this big day - it looks amazing - and now it's just a couple days away (YIKES)!

So, we offered to help them out with whatever we could and I somehow also volunteered to make pies, 3 of them to be precise. It's not like I didn't have anything else to do, far from it, but they wanted home made pies for dessert and the number of people who are coming quickly jumped from 65 adults to just a handful shy of 200... they were really short on pie and I like to bake... I just made sense to me that I'd do my bit!

All that aside yesterday I had grand plans of cleaning our house and getting all organised and everything ship shape in preparation for my surgery next week, because I knew I wouldn't have any time this weekend and didn't want a mad rush on Monday & Tuesday.

Well, I should start by saying that didn't exactly happen... ok, that didn't happen at all. But I did do a few things around the house in the morning before my afternoon got a little crazy.

I decided that I needed to do a trial run of one of the pies that I would be making for the weekend. It is a recipe that was originally Cory's Mammaw's (Mother's mother). She gave it to Cory's Grandmother (Father's mother) who changed it a little, and then it was given to me by Cory's Mom... (are you still with me? I know, that's a lot of women and mothers, but it's really simple... keep up!).

I seem to have a habit of not really being able to make a recipe exactly as it is written, even if I have tasted the recipe and it seems perfect, there's always a little something here and there that I want to change... this wasn't any different. But since it would be fed to people other than Cory & I it needed testing, I didn't want to be embarrassed by showing up with a monstrosity!

So, I nipped to the store, grabbed a few things I needed and hurried home... Cornstarch sometimes makes me nervous - sometimes it can get messy when you're trying to make syrupy goodness and instead it just turns into lumpy gross yuckiness.

Thankfully this seemed to go smoothly, my syrupy goodness was mixed and was cooling before I added it to the pie crust.

In the middle of the cooling time, and way before it was ready to go hubbie called... He'd gotten a flat tyre about 15 mins from here and needed me to come get him, take him to go get a replacement and then bring him back to change the tyre.

So, I decided that it was now or never with the syrupy goodness I had so proudly mixed. I had no idea how long I would be gone and just had a feeling it would be set in the jug by the time I got back if I left it, so I took the plunge and quickly poured a little on the crust. I knew it was too hot but I carried on.
I added the fruit - yummy raspberries and then hurriedly poured the rest of the mixture on top. I threw it in the refrigerator, grabbed a couple berries as a to-go snack, my keys and handbag and jumped in the truck!

Last night we ended up eating out (read: fast food - but decent fast food, I will say) and by the time we got home neither of us were really up for pie... so tonight we;re going to try it. I hope it's ok!

(As you can see from the photo it has a couple bubbles which I guess are from just throwing the berries in, and then pouring the filling over top but not doing anything else)

I guess I'm going to whip up an apple cake (cleverly disguised as pie) and an English style apple and clove pie for the party, so at least those two are safe bets! ;)

Now I'm about to head and do some of the other things I didn't get done yesterday, and whip up a batch of hubbie's fav cookies too - I like to put them in his lunches!