BJ and the Deer

BJ and I just had to go outside and play in all of this crazy snow (more about that later!). I was planning on just taking pictures of the cabin and everything covered in snow when I looked to my left and there were 8 deer!! Since none of them had antlers I'm guessing that it was 6 females and 2 babies (Bambi!)

At first BJ was just running around in the snow being his usual oblivious self, but all the deer were watching him intently.

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I could tell these deer were really curious about BJ, but I was shocked when one of them decided to approach BJ!

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Of course BJ is still oblivious....but not for long!

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And then another one came up to say hi.

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In all three of the deer came up to check out BJ-and of course he barked at all of them-and they didn't seem to be fazed by him and all his loudness at all!

I don't think he would have ever had this experience if we were still in Portland!

Big Sheep Ridge Wildland Fire

Yesterday, walking out of the library I saw this:

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Whoa! I had no idea there was a giant wildfire raging in the mountains! Of course I had to drive around the county side and take pictures-and almost be late for class!

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Thanks Smokey the Bear!

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Life on the Lake

After a little over a month of incredible hospitality from Craig and Renee, it is time for our little clan to move on and out to our own place for the next few weeks.

With Renee's help, we are now staying at a little cabin on Wallowa Lake for the rest of our time here in Enterprise! That means no more pictures of the chickens and horses and probably a lot of pictures of deer and the lake-not a bad trade!

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Here is our living room, dining room, kitchen, and study:

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Luckily most tourists are starting to clear out of this area, so it looks like this may be the majority of our neighbors for the remaining couple of weeks-which of course BJ can not stop barking at!

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I apologize if anyone got emailed a draft of this...while I was typing BJ jumped on my lap and hit send!

Party, party, party!

What a week! Not only did I have my birthday but Keith and I have had not one, not two, but three parties to go to this week-and one is being thrown just for us!

On the big ole' 3-0 we had the clinic BBQ to go to, which of course we were late to because I had archives class and was dying to get out of it the whole time! I was very surprised that right when we walked in to Liz and Nic's candles were lit on a birthday cake for me, even though almost no one there even knew me!

Then on Thursday evening we were thrown a community (recruiting) party at the Fish Trap house. Liz and Kathleen planned the party, down to hand picking who were invited. I'd say the best part of this (besides the pizza and beer) was that the about 20 people who came all sat around and told us all their favorite parts of living in Wallowa County and how much they would love us to come there to stay. I'm not sure if any where we go after this will be able to compete with what was referred to as the Holy Trinity of Wallowa County: the mountains, the community and Terminal Gravity beer!

On Saturday we went to the benefit for the hospital. It was an auction and dinner and Keith and I were among the very few younger people there. Keith said that he had never seen so many people he had seen in clinic in one place before. We were seated at a table with the Wallowa County District Attorney and her husband and family as well as Ann Hayes-who I had interviewed on the phone a few weeks before for an assignment but hadn't met in person before. The best part was that I got to dress up and wear my new necklace!

Well I don't think we have any more parties to go to since we're only going to be here for a couple more weeks... but this past week was a lot of fun!

Hike to Maxwell Lake

This was probably the last beautiful weekend here in Enterprise Oregon before it starts to snow and Keith wasn't on-call so we had to go hiking! We had both heard about how beautiful the hike to Maxwell Lake, so off we went!

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Keith, BJ and I got started up to the Lake at about 11 am. It was just getting warm and sunny-confirming that it was going to be a great day! The first couple miles weren't so bad and we were making pretty good time-and then the pain hit-after doing about 14 million lunges the day before my body was starting to mutiny and we still had about 2 miles to the Lake.

Keith starts in with his 'come on, it's not that much further'....I've heard that line about a million times before-what it really means is that we have an elevation gain of about 2000 feet in about 2 miles and by the time you get to the top you're begging for death, water, or at least the bag of BBQ chips that we brought with-and this hike was no different-but at least I made it up to the top and it was worth it!

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BJ was clearly feeling kind of like I was-exhausted, dirty, tired...but I could hide it a little better than the pups could!

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The way down wasn't bad at all! We finally made it down at about 4 pm...and we had to be clean and dressed up at the hospital benefit by 5:30-we barely made-more about that later!

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I should turn 30 more often!

Yesterday this was my facebook status: Ellen De Young is a spoiled little bitch and doesn’t care who knows it! At the time I wrote it (while Keith was making me the delicious breakfast described below) I didn't realize how true that statement was!

We are kind of officially celebrating my birthday this weekend (with some celebrations going on next weekend too), since my birthday falls on a crappy Monday-I have class all evening and then I have to go to the clinic BBQ with Keith-I'm trying to not throw a My Super Sweet Sixteen size bratty fit because I don't get to have a party for ME on MY birthday...I'm not too old for that right?! :)

We kicked off the weekend with a delicious breakfast! It was strawberry pancakes with a strawberry compote and bacon! Here is how it started (sorry this picture is kind of terrible-I was starving):

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And here is how it ended:

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Notice the empty plate to the right-it was full of scrumptious bacon-but it disappeared rather quickly!

Most of the rest of the day was spent watching football while Keith made an amazing dinner! I don't have any pics of the appetizers-prosciutto and basil wrapped dates filled with goat cheese-I have no self control when it comes to these mouth-watering bits of perfection!

Next was a salad of mixed greens topped with spicy roasted squash, lentils and goat cheese. It might sound like a strange combination, but it was marvelous!

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Now for the main course! Buffalo tenderloin with saffron root vegetables and a spicy mango mint sauce. The buffalo was from a local ranch that is just outside of town-fresh and yummy!

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Dessert was just about the richest, tastiest dessert ever! Bread pudding made with croissants, dried cranberries, dark chocolate, toasted pecans-then topped with vanilla ice cream and black currant liquior-OMG it was amazing!!!

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Now for presents. Keith hands me a small box saying "Please be honest with me if you don't like it, but I don't know if I can take it back..." OK husband...so I open up the little box and I love it!

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I couldn't believe, I don't know what I expected but I didn't expect a necklace that I could wear to the Oscars! It was made it the 1950s and is pearls with rubies, emeralds and sapphires (oh my!). I asked Keith how I'm going to get him anything as nice for his 30th-he said that I should be lavished with jewels and gifts-not him. I think I'm cool with that plan!

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Well, I guess I am pretty damn spoiled and if turning 30 means I'm old enough to get such amazing and unexpected gifts,then I'm all for it! I can't thank my marvelous, fabulous husband enough for such a wonderful and memorable birthday!

These boots are made for walking

Here we go-Walla Walla Day 2

After starting the day at a local greasy spoon which was nothing really exciting, we still weren't quite ready for wine tasting yet-so what do we do?? Go cowboy boot shopping!!!

We found a great western store with a HUGE selection of boots, belts, buckles, hats-pretty much everything you can think of. After having a giant machine scan my feet and tell me two things I already know-I'm a size 6 1/2 and have flat feet- the kind, old gentleman started pulling boots for me. Ultimately it came down to a practical but awesome pair of black boots or an AMAZING pair of navy blue snake skin boots....I was so torn-but the old man working there helped me make the decision by telling me to let my feet decide-and I did. I am now the proud owner of a pair of amazing comfortable black cowboy boots-I needed to wear them-now! My first birthday present so far!

After that we were ready for some wine tasting and we had heard that there were a number of wineries by the airport. The airport?!? you say-yup the airport. Apparently Walla Walla wants to encourage start-up wineries and they provide a number of wineries space at super low cost-at the airport. Well, I can tell you it's not very pretty out there, but we did have some good wines! The two best places we went were Elegante Cellars (no website) and SYZYGY

At Elegante we were greeted by Doug, the owner and winemaker. He started making wines very recently, but they were really great. The tasting room smelled amazing and it turns out that he had just gotten his Merlot grapes and was just starting the fermentation process. We got to see these huge vats where you could actually watch the fermentation process-very cool! We left there with his 2007 Walla Walla Valley Sangiovese.

We were walking around from winery to winery when Keith says to me: "Ellen, you look like a diva today." Me, a diva?! In attitude, everyday-in dress, rarely! After he snapped this picture, I had to agree....I love my boots!

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Pretty much the only other place to write home about was SYZYGY. In case you don't know what a syzygy is (what you don't know! :)), it describes the alignment of three or more celestial bodies in the same gravitational system along a plane-like a solar eclipse. Goofy name aside, the wines were really fantastic and I'm surprised that we only went home with their 2006 Columbia Valley Red Wine blend of Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec.

We were pretty much done with wine tasting for the day, it was kind of early in the day and it was getting HOT-what else is there to do but go to the movies!? We saw District 9, which was a great sci-fi movie. It was so nice to go to the movies since there isn't a theater (yet) in Enterprise.

Of course Sunday means football too and we had heard about a bar called the Green Lantern, so there we were! It was here where I got my second birthday present of the day, mozzarella sticks! I realize this may sound weird if you don't know me and my obsession with fried cheese, combined with living in Portland for 3 years and for whatever reason most bars I went to overlooked putting this bit of perfection on their menu. I have been experiencing a mozzarella stick drought that is now over!

I have to recommend a trip to Walla Walla to go wine tasting. We had a really great time and I can't wait to go back-I wish I was there instead of sitting in class right now!