Welcoming the Snow

The beginning of winter is upon us here in Walla Walla.  This past weekend, our mountains got dusted with their first snow.  From town we can see the tops of the mountains and the whole family began to think about ski season.  

To celebrate the first snow, we loaded up the car with warm layers, sleds (hopeful thinking) and hot chocolate and headed to the Umatilla Rim. Before we left as Stuart and I were getting the last minute details together, the boys put together this wonderful gift, made from 2 colors of rose petals and some very red leaves.

 The Umatilla Rim is a beautiful area about 50 minutes into the mountains from our house that we are just beginning to explore.  As we got near the summit pass, the dusting of snow turned to about 1/2 an inch saved by the shade of the trees.  As soon as we parked the boys were out headed for the first snowball fight of the year. 

Here is a short video clip of the snowball fight.

The trail was amazing.  One we had not visited before this hike.  And one we will certainly take future visitors to see.   The first thing to notice is that here in the west there is a deciduous conifer, the western larch also known as the tamarac tree. In this photo you can see it's fall color change contrasted by the evergreen next to it.  This made the stunning views all the more spectacular.  Note in the upcoming photos the stark contrast in the forest landscapes.

Wren hiking up the hill from an off-trail explore down to see where the "edge" of the canyon was.  Dakota really wanted to through his stick off the "edge" so we followed his lead and hiked down for a while all the time looking for the "edge" that we could not find.  The "edge" just kept rolling away. 

 Here is the stick Dakota wanted to throw off the "edge."

 After a while, we headed back up the steep hill.

 This was the view pretty much the whole way, looking out across the ancient basalt lava beds now uplifted and covered with conifers and open meadows. 

As we explored, we wondered if this might be bear country.  And then we noticed some bear sign.  This first tree has clear bear size claw marks.  

 And this next one is clearly bear hair.  We think this must be a good back scratching tree.

Near the end of the hike we got to pass through some wonderful forests where the snow was again captured by the shade.  

 Dakota captures his brother hiking along the snowing trail  using my iPhone.  Dakota really likes taking pictures. 

Grape Juice with the help of the Magic Steamer

Grape Juice is made in many different ways I am sure.  Through pure luck, I think I have stumbled on an amazingly easy way to get the yummiest grape juice ever. 

First comes the picking.  At our new property, we have about 30 feet of healthy concord grape vines that produced an amazingly abundant crop of grapes this year. 

This is what they look like coming off the vine.  It takes about an hour to fill up my trusty basket with grapes.

I get them home and begin to process.  This means washing them and picking off all the green grapes.  Here is the bowl at home full of grapes.

Then comes the magic steamer.  This contraption is amazing.  So I load the top layer with grapes.  This layer is like a giant collander.  The second layer with the hose coming off the bottom is like a bundt pan with a cone in the middle for directing the steam up into the grapes.  The space around the cone collects the juice that gets steamed out of the grapes. The bottom layer is the water bath where the steam comes from.   When the middle layer gets filled with juice, I just drain it off through the tube into a sterilized jar and put a canning ring on and VOILA! I have canned grape juice. 

Here the final product sitting next to an amazing dahlia.  It is so concentrated, you can't even see that it is purple.  YUM YUM YUM.