Granny Snatcher, Boxcar.... Room of Doom!

One of the things I've wanted to do for YEARS is go white water rafting.  A few months ago Groupon (don't you just LOVE Groupon??) offered a white water rafting trip for 1/2 price on the Deschutes river in Maupin, Oregon.  Without a second thought I grabbed and convinced 5 other people to go on this adventure with me.

It was just a 1/2 day trip and we scheduled it for this past Saturday.  Leaving for the weekend isn't so easy for us anymore.  We had to make arrangements for alpaca and goat babysitters, we had to leave instructions for duck, goose, dog, cat and chicken care.  We had to water the garden, feed the creatures, clean the stalls, pack the car, pack our clothes, and put away our inter stellar transport ship...  We had a Friday morning, 10:00 am target departure time and managed to pull out just after noon.

Then we hit Seattle traffic.  It took us three hours to get from the north side of Seattle to the south side of Tacoma.  Normally a trip that takes less than an hour.  We finally rolled into our campsite about 9:30.  Our friends were already there and we quickly set up our tent and blew up our air mattress.  We visited for awhile and went to bed.  A totally useless effort.  We were staying in a river rafting camp ground.  It was a primitive campground to say the least.  There were eight port-a-potties at one end, a hose at the other, and about 50 tents with people all high on adrenaline (and who knows what!) eager to start their river adventure. Partying went on until 2:00 am.  Hoots, hollers and music filled the air.  Our air mattress went flat well before the partying ended.  Sleep was elusive at best.

Finally - it was time to hit the river.  And hit the river we did.  Our trip involved class 3 and 4 rapids with such fun names as Granny Snatcher, Boxcar, Oak Springs, AC/DC, Devil's Hole and the dreaded Room of Doom.  Our guide, Justin, briefed us on proper safety and paddling instructions and off we went.

The scenery was breathtaking.  Unfortunately there was no time to take photos.  There were other rafters on the river and there is a certain amount of rivalry.  Serious splashing of rival boats and rival companies was required.  In the slower patches of river we would try to sneak up, nonchalantly like and then WHAM water was the weapon and there was unlimited ammunition!  We rammed other boats and taunted them mercilessly.

We got wet - and then some.  On the slower sections we got out and swam. The smaller rapids we were allowed to "ride the bull" - one person would sit on the bow of the boat and hang on for dear life.  The class III rapids were exciting and plentiful.  The trip had one class IV rapid.  Before we went down it were pulled over to the side and were given special, specific, instructions.  What would happen, what we would experience and what we needed to do to get out alive.

We did an excellent job!  It was exciting and exhilarating and we all came out alive.  Wet, but alive and still on the boat!  Justin broke his paddle but man it was fun!

After we made it through the rapid we pulled over to an eddy and watched the next raft come down.  That raft got into trouble.  They made it down but the paddlers weren't able to get out of the suction of the river, they spiraled around the drop in a most dreadful manner.  Justin said, "Oh.. they are in the room of doom.  That's bad, watch this!"

Here's a photo.  That's the guide going over the back, if you look closely you can see the foot of one ejected rafter, in the air around the middle of the photo.  All together they lost three rafters.  Justin sent us paddling and we managed to rescue one, two more were pulled out just a bit farther by a safety line.

A little farther down the river was a stretch that we could ride down, sans raft.  We were told we could just jump out of the boat and ride the rapids. Body surf, in a way.  After that stretch we had to get back in because the river got quite rough again.  Two of our crew did it and then climbed back in the boat.  As we were preparing for the rougher section we ran across a person continuing to ride the rapids, without a boat.  Justin called over to him, "Were you planning on riding the lower elevator??"  The guy said no, he'd lost his kayak up above and couldn't do anything.  So we paddled over to him, pulled him in the boat just in time, ran the rapids and saved yet another human life!  We let him out just past the rapids and sent him hiking back up stream to find his kayak.

We are already planning to go again.  I'm keeping my eyes on the groupons.  I've researched other rafting trips, down the Rogue River, Snake River, Nooksack.. they are all over.   I want to do them all.  And I think I'll join the late night revelry.  I can hoot and holler with the best of them...

Betty Botta bought some butter

Betty Botta bought some butter;

"But," said she, "this butter's bitter!

If I put it in my batter

It will make my batter bitter.

But a bit o´ better butter

Will but make my batter better."

Then she bought a bit o´ butter

Better than the bitter butter,

Made her bitter batter better.

So ´twas better Betty Botta

bought a bit o´ better butter.

Every now and then I have to pause and reflect on the position I find myself in and I have to say out loud, "Thank you."  I try not to pause and reflect in public places because most people don't understand why I'm talking to myself and they tend to swing wide around me at the grocery store and paint shop.  They stare at me in my car as I have entire conversations with myself about how grateful I am.  Perhaps though, they might think I'm talking on a bluetooth cell phone and I'm just imagining their reaction.

I have a job that I don't absolutely hate any more.  I work one day a week but have opportunity to work more, but I don't HAVE to work more than I want to.  I get to play with goats and alpacas.  I get to spin, weave and knit, when I want to.  I get to bake and cook as much as I want to, but not more than that.  I get to make soap and butter, beef jerky, jam, jelly, pickles and more.   I get to do all these things because I want to.  I do not have to grow my own food, make my own soap and butter and such just to survive.  Deep inside I'm certain I would not enjoy these things nearly as much if I HAD to do them or starve.

I love to tour historic houses.  For some reason they really spark my imagination.  There is an historic house in Ferndale called Hovander Homestead.   We toured it a few years ago and It was fascinating.  The kitchen was equipped with all sorts of appliances from "the day,"  There was a wood-fired oven with a hot water reservoir attached, an ice box,  and a butter churn.  The butter churn was a mason jar butter churn that totally intrigued me.  For two years I've been keeping my eyes open at second-hand stores and estate sales hoping to find one of these treasures.  I finally spotted one - but they wanted $100.00 for it!  I sure didn't want it THAT  bad.  Then as luck would have it, our local newspaper had a story about making your own butter using a Kitchenaid mixer.  I already have one of those!!

So I bought cream from the local dairy.

It's really good cream.  I mean, the cream started out so thick it needed to be coerced out of the bottle:

Once I got it out of the bottle I mixed it.  A lot.

The directions said to add really cold water and knead the butter under the water.  I immediately thought I had ruined it.  The nearly-solid-almost-butter turned into a gushy soupy mess.  I would have taken a picture but both of my hands were covered with goupy soupy ick and I couldn't pick up the camera.  

Needless to say, I was very disappointed, but kept working with it, refusing to give up.  My perseverance paid off and I eventually ended up with butter.  Real butter!

I gotta come clean.

I'm absolutely loving having goats.  I have, indeed, become that crazy goat lady.  I'm a lost cause. In two short weeks I've taught my goats to come when I call.  They seem to love me back.  Peter says the sound of their bleats changes when they see me.  It's like they start hollering "Mom!!  Hey!! MOM!!!"

Een likes to nibble.  She even likes to nibble toes.  It tickles.  A lot.

Just for fun, we are babysitting a third goat, Een and Twee's sister/cousin.  She needs to be weaned and had no where to go while she gets use to her new diet.  So now we also have Sprout.  Three recently weaned kids means there is lots of milk.   A goat shop needs soap to sell and this gave me the opportunity to try my hand at making it.

I found a recipe for oatmeal and honey goats milk soap.  I've been wanting to make soap since I first dreamed of My Little Goat Shop.  I shopped second hand stores to find a used enamel pot and other equipment, I borrowed a food scale from the freighbor and I gathered the ingredients.

I figure my first batch of hand made soap cost about $50.00.  If I sell each bar for $3.00 I can actually make a profit.  Not a big profit but a profit none-the-less.

Part of soap making requires a lot of stirring.  A friend came over to help stir - with water (just water!) in hand.  It was hot and she had worked all day.  She was such a good sport.

I had built a mold out of wood and lined it with a black garbage bag.  Then I looked at the amount of soap in the pot and the huge size of the mold.  We decided my mold was not going to work - unless we wanted 1/4 inch bars of soap... so we scrambled for a smaller container and lined it with a Dead Frog Brewery bag.

Then we poured the soap into the mold.

By nightfall the soap had gotten quite firm.

Today I cut it into bars and now I have to wait and let it cure for 3 to 6 weeks.  I don't do wait well - but if I don't wait the lye in the soap will eat my face off.  No one wants that.  Ouch.