Falling Behind

Oh my. October is almost gone and I haven't written a thing. Shame on me. It's not that I haven't been spending time on my computer, it's just keeping up with a website, three blogs, three facebook pages and one newsletter just can't be done. And then there's stuff like fishing on the Klickitat (shown next), hiking, marimba playing, and, and, and, I tell you, something has to give. I promise to give the Pahk higher priority.


Since the last post, my beloved Red Sox have gone on their end of season holiday, the Angels have been banished, and now the Phillies are taking it to the Yankees. It was particulary thrilling to have two former Cleveland star pitchers facing off in game one. Remember Cleveland? They were pretty darn good a few years back...maybe it wasn't such a good thing to let your free agent pitchers go...And can you believe Pedro Martinez gets to pitch in another World Series? I'm still watching, good baseball fan that I am.

What's been happening in the hood? Well, we celebrated our 28th anniversary on the 3rd at an Arts Council pot luck and gallery opening at the Inn of White Salmon. They've got some good photos on their Facebook page of all the donated art (including our big Yinka batik with the hand carved frame hauled back from Nigeria, but too big for this house).

We had harvest up at Wind River Cellars on a beautiful Saturday October 10th. The grapes were ready a week early, but the pickers were ready and we got the whole crop in by 6 pm. Jane and Bob Rossetter joined us from Bend, and we had a wonderful reunion weekend.



I had a great Sunday the 18th in the tasting room while Joel took Intern Brian (aka Ibey) back to the airport for his return to Fort Collins. Poor Ibey couldn't change his ticket, so he missed harvest. Not to worry, Joel put him to work crushing grapes. And battling fruit flies. Here's Joel showing pressing form, and Ibey ready to dive into some Tempranillo.



Want to see some crushed tempranillo up close and personal? No, this is not a jam pic.

Once the pears were done, I had apples to deal with. I've baked cake, pie, tarts, and dried six racks of apple slices. I still have apples. Thank God we only have two trees, only one of which gets loaded. I also picked 10 lbs of concord grapes up at Wind River Cellars, so had more jam to make. I think we have more than enough. Even if I give half of it away, I'll have more than enough!

We had our first snow in October. Didn't last long, but hey, it was snow! It's been rainy now for a few days, so the leaves are dropping fast. So is a bumper crop of acorns. You need a hard hat on the deck these days.


After a quick trip to McMinnville to see Mary and Matt's remodeled house, and celebrate the boys' birthdays at Red Hills, we got back in time for the arts council fundraiser for the artists who lost works in the gallery fire. Lloyd did an excellent job auctioneering those items without bids, and we raised over $3500.

I got the Halloween decorations out, and we're ready for trick or treat.


The last two years we've had NO trick or treaters. If you have been to my house, you can imagine why not. But this year we have some new families on the loop, and they promise they will come to the door. So the lights are up, the day-glo skeleton is hung from an oak, and there are bats in the bell(frey), the fine bell Alina brought back from Ireland. I'm ready.

So now I'm up to date. We'll be heading to Hooba's for Halloween Night, after the little goblins visit. I'll bring the camera and report back. Meanwhile, enjoy Rainbow Season. This one was the other morning, right off our back deck. Who needs a pot of gold????