happy birthday to mama cass!

miss mama cass turned 14 years old today. i was there the day she was born and she has been one of my best companions ever since. cass is a pretty special pup these days...she is the only remaining dog from the last litter of pups my dad bred at the birch coulee kennel. she has always been my connection to my dad and i treasure that connection even more now. cass has slowed down quite a bit and no longer runs through the forest with me, but she's still my best girl! happy birthday, cassie mae!

a teaser from indochine...

a few highlights...details to come soon-ish.

 elephant riding (and driving) in luang prabang, laos

 the bayon inside of angkor thom outside of
siem reap, cambodia...one of our favorite temples

 angkor wat at sunrise...i wish the photo could capture the
sound of the monks chanting in the distance

 ta prohm - an experiment in the jungle taking over the temple

 elephant guard at khai dinh tomb in hue, vietnam

limestone karst formations in halong bay, vietnam

visits with R-C-G-J and Mom

at the beginning of october, while pete was boating around in the puget sound, i spent a long weekend in grand forks, british columbia, with my dear friends roly, christine, and gabriel, and also got to meet juno for the first time. it was a bit of a whirlwind visit that included roly's birthday and canada thanksgiving, but so much fun and good for my soul! we got to hang out with roly's parents too, which is always a treat. i wasn't too sure the border guard was going to let me back into the u.s. - apparently a short visit across the border puts you on par with drug runners. yikes!

 face painting with gabriel - roly is being turned into a clock

 christine's turn!

 gabriel showing off his painted face - a bear faced pancake, a
seahorse-ish creation, and a rainbow on the other cheek. i don't
think i have face painted in nearly 10 years...it is hard!

 gabriel and bugaboo enjoying an apple and the view from our hike

miss juno and her fabulous chick hat from sarah ann

two days after i got back from b.c., my mom flew in from minnesota. when she arrived, we had a functioning shower and toilet in the bathroom. when she left, we had added paint to the walls, concrete counter tops, and two sinks. thanks for being a trooper, mom!

we had a lovely visit - a change of scenery was good for both of us. her visit was nearly two years to the day after my parents were last here for our wedding and my phd defense. we definitely felt my dad's absence, but it was good therapy to make some new, happy memories too.

i think that i would call this trip "the essential california" tour. we hiked in the redwoods in henry cowell state park (with cassie in her buggy for the first time since she recovered from her leg surgery five years ago), took in the sites in san francisco (on a fog-less day!), hiked around yosemite, and visited the santa cruz wharf complete with sea lions and monarch butterflies. and then we put my mom to work in the bathroom... :)

 the fighting banana slug in the redwood grove

 a rare warm and fog free day on the marin headlands

 san francisco's painted ladies

 golden gate bridge from coit tower

 bristlecone pine in yosemite

 giant sequoia tunnel tree in tuolumne grove

upper yosemite falls

 half dome - hiking to the top will have to wait for another trip

 on the beach in santa cruz

after a stretch of 80 degree days in felton, i sent my mom home to temperatures in the 40s. mom, i'll see you back here in february?!

next week we are off to vietnam/cambodia/laos for vacation (mostly) - stay tuned for many, many photos - hopefully from the road. 

so, so close...

pete and i demolished our bathroom on 24 september...that is four weeks ago for those of you keeping track at home. we started with this - 

 why is there a sliding window next to the bathtub you might ask?
so you can get to the office quickly, of course! (sigh) 

the white tile was EVERYWHERE...and it had nearly
a 1/2" grout line. needless to say, with a black dog
in the house, the bathroom never looked clean.

we progressed to this - 

 the "fun" part!

dirty window gone!

we did some initial dry walling and plumbing modifications for transitioning from one sink to two - 

full with dry wall 

pete's awesome circular drain

and then we had contractors come in to set the tub, put in a new (read - smaller, less creepy) window, and tile the shower surround and floor, getting up to about here - 

 48" soaking tub that is pretty awesome

 tub, window, floor, cabinet

and then we were on our own...

pete built the concrete countertops for the vanities and did an amazing job! we are nearly finished with this project, but still have a few finishing touches to install - 

 double sinks (so pete doesn't have to worry about me spitting
on his head?!) and pretty concrete tops (we had just glued the mirror
to the wall so that shim will be replaced by a maple back splash)

 shower/tub

floor

i have discovered that i like the finished product (thankfully) but strongly dislike the process of remodeling...especially when there is only one bathroom in the house. i also learned that everything takes about twice as long as you think it will. i only had to pee in the backyard for a few days...and our backyard shower was kind of novel...

canning - part 2

this week - apples from our backyard! i only made it half way through the apple bucket yesterday and already have 7 pints of applesauce and four bags of frozen, pre-measured slices for pies. i also picked 7 pounds of strawberries yesterday from one of our local organic u-pick places. i usually do this in august, but...well. life happens. regardless, our freezer is now nearly stuffed full of mixed berries for smoothies and apples...and pesto.

we had a bumper crop of apples this year from our little backyard tree (i picked about 30 pounds yesterday)! i haven't used them for anything in the past because they have been pretty wormy, but this year they looked, and tasted great. i've been picking up apples from around the yard for a few weeks thanks to our pesky resident squirrels...i think i just won! :)

 frozen apple slices for a mid-winter pie

 my first jars of applesauce

canning!

because sometimes 30 pounds of tomatoes is all you have to get you through the day...

~30 pounds of organic early girl tomatoes from one of our local farms

 plus some peppers and garlic from our garden
and a bit of onion and cilantro

a few hours later = 11 pints of salsa and 11 pints
of crushed tomatoes (with fresh basil from the garden)

i think we are set on the tomato front for the winter. we have also had a bumper crop of basil this year so the freezer is rapidly filling up with pesto. the cherry and heirloom tomatoes are still going gangbusters with new blooms still coming in. and for the first time in my LIFE, i have failed at growing zucchini. i am so startled that there are no words, really. i didn't even think it was possible to have total zucchini failure! we had a couple of late rains in june this year that resulted in white mildew...apparently the plants have never fully recovered even though the vegetation is taking over the backyard. hmm. up next, fall/winter garden. fava beans, garlic, chard, and kale here we come!

a bit of summer...from minnesota

i'm in minnesota for a bit longer and am trying to enjoy some of the midwestern summer. many of the shots below were taken at my childhood home after we buried my dad's ashes. my parents sold the homestead six years ago; it was a comfort to be back in the place that was the setting for so many good memories. 

alexandra playing in (and ultimately eating) the dirt 

birch coulee creek - my childhood swimming pool 

luke and kieran measuring themselves against the soybeans 

madeline and luke looking at the barn at my childhood home 

tree frog on the shed

sunflowers for the birds

the old feed mill

the end of a beautiful life...

David Stephen Foley, the son of Ruth and Mike Foley, was born June 28, 1948 in Morris, Minnesota. He attended St. Cloud State University where he majored in music and met the love of his life, Ann Mellstrom. Ann and Dave were married in February 1970 and soon moved to the Franklin-Morton area where they raised their four children.

Dave was the service manager at Scott-Preusse in Redwood Falls for 31 years. When he “retired” to their lake house near Alexandria, Dave began working for Juettner Motors, a job he held at the time of his death.

He spent many years volunteering his time for the 4-H shooting sports program, gun safety classes, Boy Scouts, and Lake Rachel Association. Dave and Ann provided music for multiple churches including the Sacred Heart Catholic churches in Franklin and Glenwood. He was also a founding member of the Renville County chapter of Pheasants Forever and a member of Ducks Unlimited. Dave treasured his time with family and enjoyed fishing, hunting, sporting clays, and making music. He touched many lives with his kindness, generosity, and loving spirit.

Dave died, surrounded by his family, on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at the Knute Nelson Care Center in Alexandria at the age of 63. He leaves behind many beloved friends and family members including his wife of 41 years, Ann; his children Sarah Foley (Brian Allison) of Cologne, Stephanie Clemens (David Clemens) of Des Moines, Iowa, Melissa Foley (Pete Dal Ferro) of Felton, California, and Matthew Foley (partner Michele Miller) of Litchfield; his grandchildren Madeline, Kieran, Luke, and Alexandra; his siblings Phyllis Johnson (Gay), Karen Daly (Nick), and Mike Foley (Jean); many nieces, nephews, cousins; and his hunting companions Katie and Koda. In death he will be reunited with his parents, brother Jack, mother- and father-in-law, and many dear friends.

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Thank you all for the words of support, thoughts, blessings, prayers, and love. We are weathering each moment and day as they come and cherish the many wonderful memories we have of a brother, husband, dad, grandfather, uncle, cousin, and friend who left us much too soon.  

dad...

my dad suffered a major heart attack on monday evening. he is now in the cardiac care unit in st. cloud, minnesota, fighting for his life. we are hopeful that he will regain consciousness within the next day or so and have minimal damage to his brain. we will keep everyone up to date via his caringbridge site:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/davefoley

some exciting sh*t on circle drive (literally)

this post and photos are most certainly for nature-loving nerds.


we found two exciting discoveries this weekend - one just cool and one completely bizarre! the cool find was some owl pellets (aka poo) on our back stairs. we think that these are from a pair of barn owls that are apparently roosting in the redwood tree next to the house. we have been hearing them at night on a regular basis since january or february. we see them flying around the house every once in a while...their bright white wings being reflected by a full moon is magical. (on a totally different owl note, i found a dead burrowing owl while i was running a few weeks ago. so cool to know that we have multiple varieties around here.)

 two owl pellets

close up on what looks like a scapula

lots of other bones in there too...pete and i are going to dissect them later and see what we find. i mean, really. is there a better way to spend a 4th of july weekend? :)

find #2 falls squarely into the bizarre category. yesterday morning i was pulling weeds and raking leaves when something caught my eye in the pile...

at first i just thought it was a ball of tape or band-aids. but then i realized that it was much more... the hair and the shape of the poo suggest that it probably came from a coyote. but what in the world did it eat?!?!

 most bizarre coyote poo EVER. 

thoughts anyone??