Our New Home and a little past info!

As most of you have hear Janelle and I moved to Port Angeles at the start of October. It has been so nice living here. Our living room window has a view of Mt Angeles and we can hear the ferry horn blow (but not to loud). Janelle has started her practice and she is quickly getting through the growing pains of getting her new business on its feet. I am so proud of her. She spent 9 years in school to become a Doctor, but only received maybe a 16 hour lecture on how to be a business woman. Now she is tackling both at the same time. GO JANELLE!!! She gets most joy from seeing her patients, it's all the other stuff that tightens the curls in her hair, but she is doing it. As she gets further into the business things will become more simple. Your prayers are much appreciated!

I am still working in the Southwest District, stationed in Kalaloch, it's about a 1.5 hour drive. It has been everything I have been looking for in a job. It has many dimensions and you never know what the next day is going to bring. Some of the focuses during the summer were beach patrol (consist of walking the beaches during the day and night. The night usually found the most situations as you would step into a groups fire light and surprise them with "Good evening, Park Ranger" as you could imagine the underagers, drugs and drunks etc.. There are also around 300 campsites in the Southwest District, so campground patrol gave a lot of variety as well, once again a night walk through the campground a hour after quiet hours usually had the most interesting situations. Patrolling traffic was good experience, we have highway 101 going right through the park, so you could work traffic as much as a person could want, it's a 13 mile stretch that goes from 60 to 45 to 55. We did have a few motor vehicle accidents which puts you into 2 roles (Law Enforcement and EMT). This summer we had a dozen plus EMS calls (heart attacks, broken hips, alcohol poisoning, knife wound, car accidents etc, our ambulances are 30 minutes away so it gave you plenty of time to work on the subjects. We also have some back roads that are used for fishing, if they are not fishing or sight seeing they usually are up to something they are not supposed too. In Quinault there are in-holders (people that own houses on park land) it's a neighborhood so we get 911 calls for DV's and loud neighbors and etc etc, so I was able to enter a few houses, even retrieve to people wanted with warrants in Florida, that was cool since one tried to hide. I had a dozen warrants I came across, most were releases because county jails were full. Now, our focus is mainly on hunting around the boundary of the park and fishing. You see you can't hunt in a National Park but hunter comb the outside of the park and sometimes illegally on purpose or accident shoot a nice Elk (or other animal) just inside the park. These are the big numbers of people we are seeing, we still do the other stuff but it's a lot quieter. Anyways that was my summer of work in a nutshell, I have about 2 more months left to work before I am done till next May.

BUT.....I wrote this to tell and show you our house and neighborhood. We have a 3 bedroom place with a large fenced in yard and a garage that is separate from the house. The people before had many flowers around the house as well as tomato plants, we have had tomato's growing out our ears. They are wonderful but are just coming to an end. THere was also some corn and cucumber plants which we have utilized as well. We have heard P.A (Port Angeles) is a great place for gardening, Janelle is really excited for spring, she will have lots of space to repeat her gardening experience from this summer, I will post that picture as well (from her garden in Seattle) I am loving having a garage, I have been trying to organize it. I love having a place to use my tools! I will build Janelle a gardening corner. Our 3 rooms have been designated as bedroom, office and spare bedroom, it's nice to know we can house company since all our family and friends live at least 2 hours away.

P.A is a beautiful little city (I believe around 18,000 people). The restaurants have a lot of character to them, they are all like the little places in the city you fall in love with, real food! The ocean is no more than a mile away, a easy walk. There is a ferry that goes to Victoria, Canada. I do think everyone should try and visit Victoria at least once. The ferry drops you off in downtown so you don't need to bring a car. It's a big city with personality. It is great for shopping, restaurants, theatre, art, or just sight seeing. It is also a great Island to scuba dive off of!! On the other side of us are the mountains. The Olympic National Park (my employer)we are a 30 minute drive to hurricane ridge a beautiful spot that looks over ALL the mountains, I will post a good picture of Janelle from this summer on the ridge. There are more hikes than we could probably ever do in this park, but we will try!!! This area is also the best river fishing area in the state, some beautiful rivers flow out of the peninsula. So I look forward to learning all of them, I have learned two already and I will post a picture of some fish I pulled from one. Lake Crescent is 20 minutes away, it's a crystal clear blue lake that is around 600 feet deep carved from glaciers. I scuba dived it this summer and the underwater rock cliffs and walls are beautiful, they go forever down!! So are are many beautiful lakes to kayak on, as well as the ocean (because our beach runs east and west, we don't get much for waves). There is amazing hunting here as well but I have not gotten into that hobby "yet". I have gotten into mushroom hunting, I have learned the Morel, chanterelle, oyster, shaggy main, bolete (porcini) chicken of the wood, and the different russula's plus of course some poisoness mushrooms, a fun hobby!! Everything in the town is within about 5 miles from our house, Janelle has road her bike to work a few times. We live a half block from the main field where soccer takes place, football games etc. I have already walked over there once to try and pick up a soccer game. We also live a few blocks from our new gym, the YMCA, it's a nice community place. Janelle is in the middle of rating her favorite coffee shops, I think she has at least 4 rated so far. This seems like a warm community and Janelle and I are looking forward to becoming part of it. Here are some pics of our house!


our front view from window, Mt. Angeles

living room left half

living room right half

bedroom

office

spare bedroom south side

spare bedroom northside

living room into dining room/kitchen

dining room (sorry for the angel

stove view of dining room

kitchen and wife

kitchen view over sink

patio with BBQ and fire pit

backyard

alley view of garage and back of house

OUR HOME!

Diggin It!! 10/19/2009

Wow am I happy! Do you ever have that really content satisfying feeling after putting together some new food dishes for yourself? Well I want to share my experience.

Yesterday was the last of 2 days of razor clam digging on the Kalaloch beaches. This was the first “dig” in a long time because the beaches have been closed for about 5 years to try and help the razor clam numbers grow. For work I had to patrol the beaches for the last 2 days, checking peoples counts and making sure they were following regulations. It was a good shift, a little variety from the past shifts (which is a big part of being a Ranger (Variety)). I have my shellfish license and watching all the people (hundreds) have fun with there families and kids really made me wish there was one more day open, maybe a day I would have off. Well.. the tide was a late one, close to 7:30pm and by then it was already really dark, most everyone had left. The other Rangers and I made a few final sweeps across the beach and headed out. My shift ended at 9:30pm and I decided to throw on my waders and head lamp and make a dash back to the beach to try and dig my limit.

While combing the shoreline for “nipples” (razor clam lingo for the little hole they make in the surface of the sand) I notice maybe 3 other lights out on the beach looking for the prized clams. It was so dark I couldn’t see much more than my light showed me. One of the lights made it my way. It was a gentlemen who worked at the local correction facility and got off work late both last night and tonight. The guy shared that last night he couldn’t find any in the dark, uh ohh.

We worked together and had a great time and great conversation as we took turns digging as we came across many “nipples” ☺ We both limited after about an hour, it was awesome. I can’t wait to take Janelle clam digging, I know she would have a hoot!

Well if any of you have ever caught razor clams, well they aren’t like normal clams where you leave them in a bucket of water to clean themselves. No, you have to basically dissect them to clean them and take them from the shell (creating razor clam steaks). That was what I was up to tonight after work. Just after work I helped my Ranger friend with her bike and looking at her ocean view yard I made a discovery. I saw my first King Bolete and a couple admiral boletes. You may say, HUH?? Boletes have another name you may have heard… Porcini, the king boletes are the most prized and many say the best mushroom overall. They have a nice nutty flavor to them, so I have heard. That was my second project clean and prepare these boletes.

I cooked a few of the razor clams. What I did was I dipped them in egg yolk and then in a flower mixed with many seasoning and fried them golden brown and wow did they taste good. Then I sautéed a little bit of the two different boletes, separately, but both in butter, garlic and salt and pepper.

I am telling you these to “appetizers” were amazing. There is a wonderful nuttiness to the boletes and there texture is great. The razor clams were nice and tender in the middle with a crispy outside. I had to maintain my self not to cook up them all!

I am looking forward to bringing some home to share with Janelle tomorrow for dinner. There is something really satisfying to finding or catching your own food. I have put a lot of time into identifying mushrooms and I have learned a whole lot (and yes mom I am really careful). If I had a choice to be doing one thing it would be to be with my wife. If she wasn’t around, my second choice would be to be doing something in the outdoors. I feel really lucky to have so many amazing blessings in my life!!

FISH ON!! 10/05/2009

Well I have a lot of time to make up on the blog, but since I am not in the mood to think back too far into my summer yet, I will start with the last week.

Last week was my salmon week. I landed my first ever river salmon on the Queets river. I had a day off and decided to make a whole day out of the adventure. I walked down from the Salmon Bridge to the mouth where it dumped into the Queets. A week earlier my dad had a HUGE fish on which decided to wrap itself around a branch underwater and escape.

I got to the river and it was a gorgeous cloudy day, perfect for fishing. I brought myself a six pack, some homemade jerky and spicy cheese-its, a meal any fishermen could enjoy. The fish were rolling and I was excited for my chances. I tried everything, finally throwing on the wiggle wart, 3 hours later all I had was about 3 beers and a lot of jerky and cheese-its. I went for the impossible cast over a branch knowing the wiggle wart floats until you reel I felt it was a good chance to get it into a deep hole. Well… I over threw it and it went across the river and stuck into a tree. I couldn’t believe it, those things cost 6 bucks! I decided I needed a break from fishing. I had noticed some broken lines in various spots on the other side of the river, so I decided I would get my wiggle wart back and improve my tackle box. It was hard to cross the river but I made it without getting wet. The far side bank was covered with downed roots and trees from winter storms. It was hard maneuvering and climbing and at times, I put total faith into my balance a few times I probably shouldn’t have but it worked out. In the end I retrieved my wiggle wart and also gained 7 more lures/spoons. I was pretty happy about my find! I got back to my side of the bank and I knew I was going to catch a fish. It didn’t happen. I had been on the river for 6 hours and no fish, I was ready to head back to my truck I wanted to pick chanterelles before it got dark. On my way up the river I spotted another lure stuck across the stream, I decided to go for it, I took my rod with me and after securing the lure I tried one more cast while I was standing in rushing knee high water. I through the cast….I got ticked I got snagged….oh……but……wait! My snag jumped out of the water a waved its tail at me. FISH ON!! Now all I needed to do was get back to shore, I still don’t know how I managed not to fall but I got to shore and landed my first Silver caught on a river. I then raised my hands in the air to accept the applause, I turned south and north, east and west, yelling "thank you, thank you" Of course no one else was out there but it felt good! Half of it fed four Rangers that night, I served it with some pan seared chanterelles in a garlic butter sauce mmmmm, I ate the other half the next day for breakfast lunch and dinner.

Few day later Ernie, Christina and I went to the Hoh and fished by the mouth. I caught 4 fish that day and Ernie caught one MONSTER fish. I think I would of traded Ernie my four catches to get to reel in that large Silver. I sent one fish to Ernie’s dad to get smoked, 3 fillets to Janelle and I have been eating the other fillets daily. I also caught one last salmon yesterday. So I have made a chanterelle broth salmon soup, I have been playing with different sauces to top the fillets and I have also taken slices and soaked them in a light salt water solution with cayenne and a drip of liquid smoke, today I dehydrated them and they turned out to be a tasty salmon jerky. I have kept the eggs for future fishing trips but the next hen I catch I will use the eggs to make caviar

Chanterelles and salmon have been about 70% of my diet lately and it still isn’t getting old!