i woke up early today. i think it might have been the first time ever i’ve been the first person awake at my dad’s place. arlene was always such an early riser, that even jet-lagged like now, i couldn’t get up before she did. but i woke up early today, and had a chance to make coffee first. nice. Ceese was so kind as to get me some decent coffee from Seattle, so i don’t have to drink the canned stuff my dad buys. Yum.

Pretty soon everybody was up, and Dori and i went to pick apples from the tree down the road while Dad and Ceese got started cleaning the clams. I made fresh juice from the kind of dilapidated winter apples, a mishmash of sad leftover carrots, and 2 lemons. it was ok, but not really the best juice i’ve made. We fried up some of the freshly cleaned clams and munched on gevulde speculaas.

Dad’s new girlfriend, Dori, is really subservient in a lot of ways. I had to very firmly send her out of the kitchen. She was cleaning up AROUND my cleaning up. I was trying to clean up the mess i’d made using the new juicer, and she insisted on washing things i was washing while i was washing them. She’s nice, but that was getting ridiculous.

After we’d all eaten and cleaned up, there was some sitting around, then Dori went home. Dad and Ceese and I started to make some clam chowder, and while that cooked, i took Ceese for a walk around the property. Around then, Ceese was going to leave, but Dad revived and got to thinking about the chanterelles.

We took the quad up the ridge, and it is really mushroom season. There were all kinds of mushrooms all over the place. We picked tons of chanterelles, just kept finding more and more of them. I found the mother lode NOT where Dad specifically took us to look for them. He and Ceese were up this one ridge that was steep. I hadn’t wanted to climb it for fear of getting my good pants as muddy as Ceese got climbing it, so i wandered down the path a way. There was a huckleberry bush there, and i walked up the somewhat lower ridge to check it out. When i got up there, i found a really big stump, so i walked over to check THAT out. The chanterelles around it were the size of my face, huge, with water collected in them like vases. They were gorgeous, but i didn’t have a bag with me. So I lifted up my rain coat and filled it in minutes. I was examining a huge amanita death cap the size of my head when i heard the quad approaching. Dad and Ceese had loaded up their 2 bags and were coming to find me. I shouted out and they came up and helped me get the mushrooms out of there.

It took me nearly an hour to clean all those chanterelles, and i sent half of them home with Ceese uncleaned.

It’s late afternoon now, and Dad’s rummaging around. Jack and Glesy and the boys are coming by for dinner, and I think Dori and her daughter are coming too. Dori’s going to bring her karaoke machine. woo hoo! It should be a fun evening. We’ll drink some of Jack’s jack and watch the munchkins tear around the place.

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