On the Road Again

While getting ready for our long camping trip, I decided I didn't want to take my good scissors, so I went ahead and cut the steeks for my Oregon Autumn Cardigan. I'm hoping to get a lot of knitting done on the road.

I needed something mindless to work on during meetings and the Olympics, and who doesn't need more dishcloths? I had some Peaches & Creme cotton yarn left from the trailer rugs I wove for the old 5th wheel and then resized for the r·pod, so the color is perfect for the trailer. I picked the pattern because it's slightly different from Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth, which I've used before, but still mindless.

We have a new addition to our collection of tiny poodles in our china cabinet. Do you recognize Rocky? A friend and very kind person created this replica for me. He arrived in the mail a few days ago.

She used a photo of Rocky in his later years as a model. He's perfect, even down to the haircut. (Usually poodle figurines have a show haircut, like they come that way.)

Now we keep the hair on the body and legs shorter, for ease of maintenance. Dusty and Sandy went to the groomer on Thursday. We wanted to get their haircuts shortly before leaving town, so they wouldn't need too much attention while we're traveling and would stay in good shape until we get back. They will need regular brushing, however. Gracie, the groomer, said that Sandy has grown up to be very easy to work with. (He has always been easy, but when he was a puppy, he was...a puppy.)

I'm still walking the dogs early in the morning and managed to get a 2-mile hike in every day this past week except for one day, when the AQI (air quality index) was in the unhealthful range. Sometimes it clears up if I wait a bit, and it still isn't too hot, but not always. I don't want them breathing the smoke, and it isn't good for me, either.

Sometimes we meet someone on the trail and have a chat, which is nice. The pups always attract attention.

We're leaving today and expect to get as far as...Winnemucca, Nevada! Remember Winnemucca? Our three weeks there with no vehicle during March 2023? Our Arizona vacation? We plan to stay at the same place: Silver State RV Park. They were so nice to us. It was a good place to be stuck if you have to be.

On Saturday, we hooked up the r·pod and moved her to the curb, so we could load her up. It will be interesting to see how the shelves work out.

We plan on meeting up with Alexa, Soren and Johan, in Utah. They set off a few days ahead of us for a family reunion and the some camping along the way to Utah. Here they were, in the car, ready to take off on the trip.

I don't know if Johan was asleep or if he was just saying, "Can we just get going?"

We'll be picking up Peter at the airport In Salt Lake City and doing some camping with them. We plan to see Alex, too, who lives in Utah, while we're in that area.

 

Peter works for Laika, the film studio in Beaverton that produced Coraline, Missing Link and several other stop-motion films. They are working currently on a film based on Wildwood, by Colin Maloy. They will use Coraline to introduce the film, as explained in this article. The film is due out next year.

I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of any of our books, including Emil, Mariah or Classic Tales Retold, please leave an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still working on the Oregon Cardigan.

What's on my loom: Still in its corner under the windows.

What's on my sewing machine: Still its dust cover.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In Hidden Talents, the dolls speculate about how Emil can see and hear what animals are saying.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service by Anthony Fauci. Also still reading Elfen Königin by Holly Black, translated from English.Didn't get very far with the physical book. I'm taking it along, in case I have an opportunity to read.

What's in my wine glass: Delta Cabernet Franc from 2020. Not sure whether it's named after a body of water (in California?) or the airline, but it's nice.

What's my tip of the week: Have some leftover rice? As you may know, we lived in Indonesia for five years. One of our favorite Indonesian dishes is Nasi Goring. Here's my recipe.

Nasi Goreng à la Balikpapan
Servings: 4 servings
Categories: Indonesian, Main Dish

Ingredients
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tsp red chili flakes,

1-2 small red peppers, chopped
• 1 small onion , diced
• 3 cups cooked white rice , day old, cold
• 2 tbsp kecap manis (usually available in Asian food stores)
• 1 C frozen green peas
• 8 eggs, scrambled, cooked flat (as for an omelette) and cut into strips

• Garnishes / side servings (optional)
• 2 green onions, sliced
• Tomatos and cucumbers, cut into wedges/chunks
• Lime wedges

Directions
Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat.
Add chili flakes, red pepper and garlic, stir for 10 seconds.
Add onion, cook for 1 minute.
Add rice, peas and kecap manis. Cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes until sauce reduces down and rice grains start to caramelize.
Top with egg strips
Serve with garnishes of choice (green onions, red chili).

(Shown here without the egg on top.)

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes. 

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook is available from the BookBabyBookshop and other booksellers worldwide. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook and Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are also still available from booksellers. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories in Emil are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The three stories in Mariah are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less. 

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Since it's Christmas day, I'm taking the day off to spend with family. Rather than disappoint my readers, I'm sharing this recap of the past year, also known as the family holiday letter. The regular blog post should be back next week.

This year has been a roller coaster ride for us. We’ll just hit the highlights, or it will be a book instead of a letter.

Last year at this time, we knew we would be saying goodbye to our dog Rocky soon. He was 18 1/2 years old, virtually blind and very hard of hearing. When the day came, we threw him a party. The dogs had some birthday cake from the freezer from Rocky’s 18th birthday in August. Afterwards, we bundled him up and put him in the stroller for a last walk along the trail.

The vet came to our home that evening with an assistant. It was all very peaceful but still sad. Well, we were now down to one dog and thought that would be it. However, by the next day, both of us had come up with the idea of seeing if the breeder had any miniature poodles that would be ready to come live with us in the Spring. (We were planning to take the trailer to Arizona in March to visit Charlie’s brother, who has a small winter home there.) We decided to have a look and found this.

These puppies would be ready to leave their mother by the middle of March, about the time we expected to be coming home from Arizona, and the breeder was on our way home. Clearly, it was meant to be. 

We had planned to go to Beaverton in February for the Rose City Yarn Crawl, but some serious winter weather made that impossible, so it was rather a quiet month. March 1st, though, saw us pull out with the trailer on our way to Arizona! Our trip went well until the next day, when our old Silverado pickup truck and tow vehicle broke down. We were about halfway between Burns, OR, and Winnemucca, NV. 

It took a few hours for the Auto Club to find someone who could take both the pickup and the trailer. While we waited, the three of us covered up with the down comforter to stay warm. (We could have run the heater, but the vents are covered when the slide-out is in.) Fortunately, the tow truck took us to Winnemucca instead of going backwards. He dropped the trailer off at the RV campground where we had made arrangements and then took our pickup to a place that does repairs. Little did we know that Silver State RV Campground was to be our home for the next three weeks. The mechanic discovered that one of the pipes that goes from the catalytic converter to the manifold had broken off, and the other one was clogged. Finding parts for a 23-year-old vehicle was the problem. It was an interesting three weeks, while we waited. Most of the people in the campground were full-time residents. They had skirts around their trailers and heat tape around the hoses. Some had huge tanks of propane. They had vehicles they could use to go to the store.

It didn’t take too long before we realized we weren’t going to Arizona after all. We would pick up the puppy when we could and go home. While we waited, we started talking about trading our 5th wheel in for something smaller and easier to tow.

We did eventually get to Pahrump to pick up the puppy, about a week past when we expected to get him. He was able to get his next puppy shots before we picked him up. We decided that since we missed out on an Arizona vacation, we would give him a name that would represent hiking in Arizona. When we met him, he looked like this. (Do you see that snarky attitude?) Presenting Ash’s Mystical Coconino Sandstone Trekker, or “Sandy” for short.

Sandy has entertained and exasperated all three of us. He’s a great playmate for Dusty.

He’s a thief! He likes to steal things and finds ways to reach the things he wants (eyeglasses, remote controls, slippers, newsletters, wallets). He learned to use the dog door very early and takes things out to the yard.

Unlike Dusty, he’s definitely a water dog.

He’s a great traveler. We’ve been out to the coast with him a couple of times already.

We think he may be slightly taller than Dusty when he finishes growing. He’s so much like Rocky, it’s spooky. The first time I heard him bark his special bark out in the backyard, I thought it was Rocky. 

During the Spring months we continued to talk about getting a smaller trailer. We did some research and learned about the R-Pods, which are more aerodynamic than our old 5th wheel. We picked out a floor plan we thought would work for us, the 171, which has the bed at one end and the dinette at the other, so where the ceiling slopes down, you aren’t standing up anyway. We found a dealer in Eugene that had one, so when we took a trip out to the coast in June, we decided to stop there and have a look. We decided it was the one for us. We just had to move all our stuff out of the old 5th wheel, which they were willing to take as a trade-in. We ended up selling our old rig to someone who came to our door wanting to buy it, but it took them some time to come and pick it up. The end of July, we loaded our trailer equipment (linens, cooking supplies and groceries) in the truck and headed back to Eugene. 

We camped nearby the first night, so we could go back for help if we needed. We did, but it was little stuff. We went back out to the coast to camp again. We managed to get in three more camping trips, including two with Peter’s family. 

They had a tent, but when we had rain, everyone came into the RPod for lunch. (Next time we’ll take the awning that goes over the picnic table.)

Now the RPod is covered with a tarp for the winter, dreaming of all the places we will get to go next year.

Somehow, in spite of all the changes going on, we managed to get another book out. This one is made up of poems from The Doll’s Storybook. (I say “we,” because, while I write the stories and take the photos, I have a little team of editor/proofreaders.) Like the other books, this one is available from bookstores or from Book Baby’s bookstore. Royalties go directly to St. Jude.

In November, disaster struck. I was knocked over by a very large, exuberant puppy and had a skull fracture, from which I’m still recovering. Hearing problems and balance have been affected, but I’m getting help with those things. It could have been worse. As of this writing, I’m still not allowed to drive, which is a nuisance, but life is otherwise getting back to normal.

We’ll get to see Karen’s family over Christmas. She and both of her children performed in the ballet “The Little Mermaid” with Ballet LaCrosse this year. They had a lot of fun, so I suspect there will be more of this kind of activity in the future.

Also visiting over Christmas are Peter’s family, Charlie’s brother, and our niece and her husband. Not everyone is staying overnight in our home, though.

I hope all my readers have had a great year. See you New Year's Day!