Sporting Clay Shoot Fundraiser

I talked Ted into doing this fundraiser for the land trust with me.  Not that it took too much convincing.
We had to rent our shotguns.  Luckily Ted warned me to rent a 20 gauge. He wanted to rent a 20 gauge too, but they only had four of them and I got the last one. 
I had some worries the night before (what have I gotten us in to), but the whole thing was conducted in a very safe manner, and I felt very comfortable about the shoot. Ted and I both ended up getting the same score.  It was very fun, but note to self, don't even think about doing this if you can't get a 20 gauge shotgun.  We shot 50 rounds, and I did have a sore shoulder for a day or two (as did Ted).

Crooked Lakes Trail hike to Penner Lake

Snow level is obvious from the moss.

Island Lake

Penner Lake

We took this hike on August 18.  Left home at 8.45 am.
The weather was perfect and the flowers, thanks to our very late spring, were about peak.  We picked up F and D in Sacramento, but poor F turned out to have some awful respiratory bug, and so did not feel up to hiking.  We left them sitting beside Feeley Lake and proceeded post haste to our destination which was Penner Lake. To get back sooner, we truncated our planned loop hike into an out and back.  We left them the map but if we had been smart we would have taken a photo of it for reference, because we got confused at several points and it would have been helpful to have the map.  Now why didn't we think of that before we were halfway along the trail??
The hike only has about 500 feet of elevation gain over the 3 mile plus distance from trailhead to Penner Lake, so the hike was quite easy.  The trail is remarkably pretty, with one lake after another popping into view.  We ate lunch on a large smooth granite outcrop overlooking the edge of Island Lake, where we were entertained by the antics of an osprey.
The water at Penner Lake was just perfect for a quick dip: pretty cool but not frigid.
Dinner at Gatsby's in Sac. $60 for 3 burger plates and 3 milkshakes (includes tax and tip).  A bit (!!!) on the pricey side but good. Home at 10 pm.

Trout Lake 2011

Had a wonderful family reunion at Trout Lake this year.  The plane rides were delayed in both directions !ugh! 1 one hour delay going and 3 hours coming back.  Met Barb at MSP and shared a rental car w her for the 5 hour drive to the lake.  We had terrific thunderstorms for the first night and most of the first day, but the weather was quite nice after that.  We got in the usual mongo bike rides and the wonderful ice cream rewards at Mad Dog Jake's.

The nieghbors have a pontoon plane which was fun to see land and takeoff.  Takeoff is on one ski.

As usual we slept on the porch, which allowed us to carefully monitor the sunrise every day.  This picture was taken at 5:19AM and my brother was already up fishing!

Plum Sauce

The neighbor's plum tree overhangs the fence and has a bumper crop of beautiful fruit this year. And since we don't have any apricots or peaches this year, we have been busy making and freezing plum sauce.  Using about a cup of sugar per 6 cups plum puree.  Also made a great nonfat plum frozen yogurt. Yum! 2 cups nonfat yogurt, 3/4 C unsweetened plum puree, 1 C sugar.  Processed and resulted into 4 C frozen yogurt.

Update Feb 6 2012
My neighbor cut down her plum tree!!!!!!!!!!! So we went out and bought a bare root Santa Rosa from Lowe's and planted it today back where the cherries came out.

Robins and Lettuce

Except for a week long heat wave when we got back from the beach this has been the most delightful summer.  The robins have been hanging around and singing!  I don't remember that from other years.  It is really nice to hear them.  And they are still nesting.  I spotted this nest a while back and took this picture this morning.

This year I grew Jericho lettuce.  It has been fabulous!!!  Ten plants have provided lettuce for weeks now.  I have some seedlings still in cups and somehow they are still hanging on. I plan to plant them and see if they can still make it.
And finally are getting our first ripe tomatoes off of the Juliet grape tomato.  I think the tomatoes are getting a little too much afternoon shade, so they have been really slow this year.

Love the beach

I love the beach.  I miss the beach.  Haven't quite recovered yet from my week there. Here it is hot (over 100) there it was cool, mid 60's. The weather was fantastic, the best we've had in years.  It was sunny every day.
In spite of biking, boogie boarding, and long walks on the beach I still managed to gain 2.5 pounds.  There was just so much chocolate! My weakness! Next year I'm not even going to take chocolate.  I had ingredients along to make cookies, but with all the other snacks available I didn't end up making any. 

Finally summer

As far as I'm concerned this was really the first bike ride of summer! On June 14.  What a long extended spring we had, of cool and rainy weather.  The first day could have been the 13th I guess, but we were gone that day.  Since the 14th we have definitely been in a summer weather pattern.  In fact it has been so warm that we have switched to biking in the morning.
I planted zucchini seeds Saturday, and bean seeds today.  This is really, really late, we will see if anything comes of it.  Transplanted hollyhocks, yesterday, today, and maybe tomorrow.  This is reallly late too, I hope they can get established in spite of the hot weather.