Kale chips

Dad and Judy were kind enough to grow kale for me in their garden this summer. Last night I harvested a grocery bag full of kale.  Today I made kale chips.  The kale shrinks down quite a bit, so it's pretty easy to eat a lot of kale if you aren't careful.  Some people have a hard time digesting kale, so it's best to go easy on it.  I juice kale and put it in smoothies all the time, I didn't think I would have an issue.  But oh man.  I have over done it.  I have the worst stomach ache! 


I planned on making this a kale chip recipe review, but I now have a total aversion to kale chips.  I can't even look at them.  I haven't even put them away, I could barf at any moment.  At this point, I don't ever want to eat kale again. Let's just say when the kale departed, I was very glad I was only a couple feet from the washroom.  Cautionary tale of kale.

moving weight

Ah yes, that awkward moment when you realize you have stumbled into something you shouldn't have.  I was at the Aldergrove lake trail, and decided to see where a well travelled side trail went.  It was basically a goat trail through the bush up a steep hill.  It rained a lot yesterday, and the trail was pretty muddy, tough going.  I got to the top of the trail and it opened up into a clearing. ... I was in a berry field?  Why is there a trail up to a berry field?  I walked all the way along the length of the field trying to find out where to go from there.  It took me about 5 minutes to walk all the way to the end, nothing but barbed wire.  How was I going to get back to the main trail from here?  But there was no where else to go except south into the berry field or back the way I came. 

Along the back of the field was a 6 inch diameter pipe that ran the length of the field.  I noticed that someone had spray painted the pipe with arrows.  I figured the arrows must be pointing the way to go.  They pointed me back to the steep muddy trail I had just come from.  The trail was marked with spray painted words "TD Black."  I have no idea what that means.  The trail was so muddy and steep, I had a hard time going up, I really did not want to go down the trail.  But there were no options. Down I went, with a stick in one hand, grasping on to whatever I could to stop myself from falling. About half way down, I stopped to rest.  It was then that I realized that I had traipsed through some sort of stinging nettle or poison oak.  4 hours later, my legs are still on fire.  

By the time I reached the end of the goat trail, I had figured out what this trail was all about.  No one is going to climb up a hill like that, that was 20 minutes from the parking lot, in the middle of the park to go steal strawberries and raspberries.  But, this berry field is on Zero avenue, and the arrows were pointing the way out of the field.  Yup, I had stumbled along a drug smuggler's trail.  Whoops!  Sorry about that... moving on.

 

When the going gets tough, poo on the floor

Yup. this is where we're at.  Poop on the floor.  This is the cats rejecting the new flushable cat litter.  It looks like chicken feed, and they are having none of it.  After having this happen three times, I got the message.  So we have temporarily gone back a step to non-flushable litter, and there is no hole in the middle of the pan. 


Today I bought another brand of flushable litter.  Fingers crossed.   I have only found 4 flushable litters, two of them are made with wheat.  Not an option for me. 


I have noticed a major advantage of flushable litter.  The smell factor.  It's much less smelly, as soon as the cats visit the toilet, (they get some cat treats and then) I flush it away.   No more awkward elevator rides down to the dumpster with a bag of shit and piss with some poor person giving me "the look."  You know the, did-you-just-pooh-your-pants look. 




Despite this bump in the road.  Things are going along really well. 

Rock Climbing!

This really isn't the best picture is it?  I can't fix it.  I'm on the far right.  Oh well, I'm glad someone thought to take a picture at all.  So after my disastrous experience with meetup.com, I decided to give it another shot.  It was really fun, but really hard.  I learned that I have a bit of an issue with heights.  I climbed all the way to the top once, and then looked down to tell the instructor I was coming down, OMG.  Lesson learned, Hilary does not look down.  Today is the day after, and I am so sore!  Mostly my arms and whatever the muscles are that are under my armpits.  It's a whole body work out, there are not many parts of me that are not at least a little sore.  My neck is okay, but I'm dying to get to massage therapy tomorrow.  My hands were so sore when I left that I was having a hard time holding the steering wheel!  Next time I think I might tape my hands up a bit. 


Verdict?  Rock climbing is highly recommended.


(note I am scheduling blog posts into the future,  as I had a back log of things to post about.  This actually happened over a week ago.  My massage therapist put me back to rights.)

Cat Toilet training

Well week one is over. 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

It was the best because I have hardly any kitty litter to sweep up.  The cats used to love the feel of flinging cat litter off of their four paws as they stepped out of their box.  It went everywhere, and created dusty conditions that really stood out on my dark wood floors.  It took about 24 hours for the cats to accept the new place to do their business.  I read that some cats don't and they either hold it in until they are sick, or use your bed/sink/laundry basket/carpet.  My secret? Cat treats.  Each trip to the cat box earned a handful of cat treats.


It was the worst of times because Salem sits in the middle of the Litter Kwitter and pees over the edge and on to the floor every single time.  It's not the end of the world because it's onto the tiles and it takes a minute to clean it up and wash the floors.  But it's annoying.  She's doing fine on number 2's.  Marley is a toilet rock star, she totally gets it.  We are supposed to stay on this stage for 2 weeks until they don't pee/poo in other places in the house.  Since they have never done this, we are moving on. 

So today we are moving to the next phase.  There is now a small hole in the middle of the litter "box".  If we're lucky they will start accidentally doing their business down the hole (and not freak out).  It will maybe also teach them how to perch correctly, since Salem won't feel so comfortable sitting in the middle.  Hopefully this will fix Salem's crappy squatting.  We have also changed to flushable litter so any litter that gets pushed into the toilet won't be a problem.

Update, Salem did not think the change was a good thing from 3am to 5am last night.  She voiced her displeasure - keeping me up half the night.  We compromised by me putting the Litter Kwitter on the floor for her to use instead (she was happy with that arrangement).  In the morning, the Litter Kwitter went back up on the toilet, and she used it again (no pee on the floor!).  I'm thrilled.  Marley thinks the hole is fun.  She keeps putting her arm down the hole and splashes around with the toilet water.  She also likes to push litter into the hole to and watch the splash.  So basically she's a 2 year old child learning about the potty.  I'm cautiously optimistic.

If a car rusts in the forest...

Today I went along a different part of the park that I usually walk in.  I had never gone down this path because it said it was the way to the dog park.  I assumed that it was not far down the path, and so never went that way.  Today I decided I would check it out.  My dad and step-mom have adopted a puppy, and I have asked if I can take him for a walk sometime or dog sit.  I thought I should check-out the dog park for him.  Turns out, it's about a kilometer down the trail.  My eyes spotted this up the hill from the trail I was on. ...

Judging by the trail that encircled the car, I wasn't the only one that wanted to check it out. 

It had clearly been there a long time.  There were no seats left, the tires were gone, the interior was gone as well.  I couldn't even tell what make of car it was, looks older than the 80's. 

No motor, no hood. I'm not sure how it got here. There is a road about 50 meters up the hill that runs parallel to the car. In between there are a whole lotta trees. I figured someone must have dumped it, and it was too much trouble for the parks workers to pull it out of there.

Ferns growing in the middle of it.

 This made me think of a scene in Footloose, where the characters go to an abandoned train car that was covered with quotes from books that were banned.  This car was covered in writing, but none of it was Hemingway.  Then I started to think about Christopher McCandless- the guy that Into the Wild is about- he sold everything, and went travelling.  He eventually ended up living in an abandoned city bus in the middle of the forest in Alaska.  He made some stupid mistakes and ended up being too weak to save himself and he died in the bus. 



Lots of people hike in to see the bus.  Hiking in Alaska is on my bucket list, although I'm not sure I need to visit this sad bus.  I've seen pictures of the inside, it's still full of his belongings.  It's all been left as a monument to him, and his way of life.  So then I started wondering if someone had died in the car in front of me, and maybe it was a sad accident that I just didn't know the story of.  And then I left, because I was getting sad over a rusty car in the forest.

Hottie of the Game - Stanley Cup Edition

Say what?


That's right we've got a hottie of the game!  So exciting.  So who's it going to be?

Willie Mitchell!! A couple of Canucks are representing on the LA Kings team. I say once a Canuck hottie, always a Canuck hottie. Plus he buys his shirts at the Salvation Army, he's staying humble, not letting his hottie status go to his head. Congrats to the LA Kings, if we had to lose, I'm glad you went all the way.

It has begun

That's right, the toilet training has begun.  It's going to be a long road of baby steps and cat treats.  We skipped to step 2, Litter Kwitter on the toilet.  Step one is Litter Kwitter on the floor, in the bathroom.  Too easy.  I haven't taken away their old litter box, and they are still using it instead.  So far they are just playing the new litter "box".  We'll be in this stage for about 2 weeks.    The next stage has a little hole in the middle for them to get used to.   Then the hole gets bigger and bigger.  If all goes well, they'll be perched on the toilet seat in about 2 months.  If all goes wrong, they'll be pissing on my bed.  I'm pretty confident in the cats, they have already learned some good tricks- how to play fetch (Marley), how to ring a bell for the balcony door to be opened (Salem), how to open cupboard doors (although I didn't teach them that) and how to push doors open (Salem). 

Perk of Country Living

Salmonberries!  One of my earliest memories was sitting at the pig pen feeding the pigs salmonberry leaves until they had green frothy beards hanging from their chins.  The pigs were my babysitters when my sisters were at school and mom was busy doing mom things in the house.  Pigs love salmonberry leaves.  I love how much food there is in the forest, if you know what's there- and it's all free.  Everyday I pick a big handful of salmonberries along my hike.  You pretty much never see salmonberries in the store, I think I saw them for sale once.  Do people not know how delish they are?  It doesn't look like many other people are picking them.  More for me!  

I have thought of one drawback to moving.  Right now I live close to the farms that ship their produce into the city.  It is kind of nice to be able to buy flats of berries fresh from the farmer.  Today I went to visit a farmers stand that just opened up a couple days ago.  Maan Farm on 790 McKenzie Road, Abbotsford.  It's early in the season, and it looks like they aren't selling any of their own produce. It all looks like the same stuff that's in the grocery store.  They also have some gourmet grocery items, a dairy section, and frozen locally made foods like perogies, stuffed potatoes.  I think they also have a restaurant/cafe, but I'm not sure, it wasn't set up yet.

They didn't have any organic produce- which was the whole reason I went.  But in a couple weeks they will have their no-spray berries.  I'll go back then and check it out. 

 I think it will be a fun place to go visit with kids.  They have a picnic area, a play ground, tractor rides, a petting zoo and corn/sunflower mazes.  But it's not free to do all of those things, but it would be a good way to spend a hot summer afternoon. 

Does it Float?

So I've been doing the math, and a float home (and moorage) would cost about the same as an apartment (and strata fees).  Hmmm.  A float home could be kinda nice.  Nice views, feed the ducks, see seals from your couch.  Peaceful, but still in the middle of it all. 

However, I just watched a couple documentaries on the Sumatra and Sendai tsunamis.  The mental picture of a tsunami hitting is still pretty fresh in my mind.  Maybe a float home is not a good idea.  Plus, the smell of diesel in the air, and I would never swim in the Fraser River, and the front door in the picture above seems to be missing something.  Plus I'm not sure about the whole maintenance thing, and I'm not sure how mortgages would work on a float home.  Do these things sink?  What about mold?  All things to think about.  The float home above is listed for $78,000, so definitely an  affordable option. 

Why am I thinking about these things?  In the next month I have a meeting.  It's like a professional development thing where I decide the direction I want my career to go.  I need to have a goal- shouldn't been too hard for me right?  I love goals.  I make goals to make more goals.  Problem is any job I apply for in the future needs to be part of my professional development plan.  I can't just spur of the moment pounce on whatever job posting comes up.  So I need a plan.  Option A, would mean eventually moving to Victoria for a job that appeals to me quite a lot.  Again fricken tsunamis.  Will all of Victoria be destroyed?  How far from downtown would I have to live to survive a tsunami?  Is it true that there are a lot of sailors in Victoria?  (and now the theme from Top Gun is in my head). How does the cost of living compare?  Googling these questions has really got me nowhere. 

Option B is to plug along as I am.  Not having an ambitious plan looks bad, it means I might as well not plan on anything different for the next 2 years, and it's unlikely that I would be selected for any jobs that I do apply for.  Lack of ambition seems to be frowned upon- and really, that's not me.  I've been very good at cooling my ambition lately.  I don't even look at job postings everyday anymore as much.

Option C, I go for something in between, making my goal to have a very specialized job, that would limit my ability to do anything different after that.  It would also probably limit me on where I could work.  Maybe there is an option D, which would involve changing to something completely different, but I don't think I want that right now.  So where do I see myself?  I don't know.  I know that I want to move out of the valley, and back to the city for a while.  I want a bit more hussel and bussel.  Can't I just put that as my plan?  That's the only thing I know for sure.  So somehow I need to make the work plan fit with my original plan of living on the other side of the river. Or on the river, whatever.