Morning Fog

I love seeing the fog on these hills; I can just see part of it from the kitchen window. This morning it is clearing up quickly, but we have started getting rainy days, overcast skies, colder nights, and chilly mornings. The garden has been enjoying the cooler weather and rain followed by sunny days. 

 After some time to get settled into an office with his fellow first year students, then a week of orientation meetings and events, Joshua started his first quarter of classes at UO yesterday. Mondays are his longest days, but it went well. It's exciting to be getting going.

Family Values

It is easy to valorize the past, particularly for those of us with some conservative tendencies. In this vein, the 1950s are often viewed as a golden age for the American family, since when we have seen marriages become unhappy and unfaithful, divorce rates skyrocket, teen motherhood rise, etc. But what do the data say?

Happiness in Marriage

• In the 1950s, 47% of married people described themselves as "very happy" in their marriage. By the 1970s, that number had risen to 53%, and it is now closer to 65%.

Marital Infidelity

• In the 1950s, when people married younger, "shotgun marriages" due to surprise pregnancies were far more common, and divorce was more difficult, extramarital affairs were more frequent than they are now. The best numbers we have (which are not very good) put the adultery rate in the 1950s at 50% for men and 26% for women; by the 1990s, those numbers have dropped to 20-25% for men and 10-15% for women.
• Unsurprisingly, in a society where marriages are more often made by choice and that choice is more often mature, adultery tends to be increasingly frowned upon. It is hard to get statistics for the right time frame, but firm disapproval of extramarital affairs has risen steadily from 50% to 75% over the last few decades.

Divorce

• The 1950s were a time of turmoil for divorce. Since the Civil War, divorce rates have exhibited a slow but steady upward trend. WWII had a dramatic impact, resulting in a divorce rate which spiked wildly in the 40s, was depressed in the 50s, and rebounded in the 60s. By the time by the time no-fault divorce laws had been introduced across the country in the late 70s, however, the effect had dissipated, and divorce rates -- whether measured per person or per married person -- have been falling for decades.
• On the other hand, the introduction of no-fault divorce laws in the 1970s -- which both allowed abused spouses to leave abusive marriages and gave them greater power within relationships to stop or prevent abuse -- have led to significant drops in domestic violence and suicide among married women compared to earlier periods.

Teen Motherhood

• Rates of premarital sex are not significantly higher today than in the 1950s.
• The birth rate for teenage girls has been falling steadily over the past 60 years. Both the rates for girls age 10-14 and those for girls age 15-17 are less than one third of what they were in the 1950s.

Child Rearing

• Today's fathers spend three times more time with their children than fathers in 1960 (the earliest point at which data is available); today's mothers also spend more time with their children.

With respect to marital happiness, faithfulness, divorce, domestic violence, and teenage motherhood, and other factors, the 1950s were a worse time for the American family than today.

That does not mean the picture is rosy, of course, particularly with respect to the economic realities of poverty, excessive incarceration, and growing income inequality. Nevertheless, the myth of the idyllic past is a false one.

(Interesting article found in the course of research: penicillin and the sexual revolution.)

Summer Harvest

We arrived in Oregon in the midst of summer produce and between unpacking, organizing, and job searching, I spent a lot of time picking and canning fruit. Here's a rundown of the results:

5 1/2 pints peaches

3 1/2 pints lavender peach jam

26 pints applesauce

2 3/4 pints pears

4 pints apple cider

6 pints pear juice

Plus, the batch of blackberry jam Heather and I made at the coast, our portion of which is long gone. Joshua and I have also started fermenting pear wine, blackberry wine, and grape wine from fruit we picked up here. And we have five gallons of plum wine fermenting from all the plums my mom gave us from their tree.

I sun dried tomatoes and raisins for the first time this year, both of which turned out pretty well. It has been a satisfying summer.

Things are winding down now. We are still getting tomatoes from the garden, but they have slowed down and are the end of things. I have a lot of tomatoes in the freezer; once the plants are done, I'm planning to make a batch of pasta sauce. The spinach, lettuce, beets, and garlic for our fall garden are all growing nicely. The days are still warm, but the nights are cold and our little basil plant has to come inside every night because it is getting too cold for it to stay outside. 

Visiting

We headed up to the Portland/Vancouver area this weekend to spend time visiting with friends. Saturday we met up with Alex and Meredith and went on a lovely walk through a nature preserve. 

We came to a clearing that had a view of the marsh and got to watch some nice birds fly in.

By late afternoon, Meredith had to head off for a baby shower, but Steve, the husband of the hostess, came to hang out and avoid the festivities at his house. We played a number of games, ate pizza and snacks, and enjoyed relaxing and hanging out. Sunday morning, we said goodbye to Alex and met up with Ben and Rachel for brunch.

After some delicious food, we decided to pick up the girls and go for a walk. The day was warm, but it was cooler under the shade of all the trees.

We left late this afternoon to drive back home with a piece of pizza in a bowl. The beautiful bowl was made by Rachel's dad who throws a lot on his pottery wheel and has a whole set up in the garage where he mixes his own glazes and fires the ceramics in his kiln. We were a bit tired, but happy to have spent time with some quality friends.

First Day of Work

I started work today at a local bakery. They have freshly baked yeast breads, all kinds of pastries and goodies, cookies, dinner items to go, and they serve breakfast and lunch. My position is part time bakery prep. I'm not sure what exactly that is going to look like, but mixing up cookie dough, making frosting and fillings, and baking a second round of goodies if they sell out quickly are some of my responsibilities. Today I got a tour of the kitchen, which is actually pretty big. Besides Calvin Crest, it is the largest kitchen I have worked in and has the most staff. I toasted nuts and coconut, mixed up and portioned two big batches of cookie dough, and made lemon curd today. They have two large stand mixers; one of them is the biggest one I have ever seen -- it's a monster. Overall, things went well and I think it will be a good place to work. Plus, I'm happy to have found a job quickly, and one that involves baking and is so close to us.

Cherry Tomato Pasta

I recently stumbled upon a recipe for Simple Cherry Tomato Pasta and decided to give it a try since I had just picked a bunch of cherry tomatoes. It was so nice to make a fresh pasta sauce without having to peel the tomatoes, or even cut them. The only things I had to cut were onion, garlic, and basil, so it really was pretty easy. The biggest problem I had was that the power went out while I was cooking! Thankfully, everything was almost ready and the pasta was able to finish cooking without additional heat from the stove.

The pasta turned out great. The sauce had lots of flavor and was so fresh and delicious. It was a great way to use cherry tomatoes.

Mount Pisgah Arboretum

 Joshua and I got a tip about a park near Eugene that might be good for picking blackberries. Since it shared parking with the Mount Pisgah Arboretum, we decided to check out both. The arboretum covers 209 acres and has a number of trails with lots of different kinds of trees and flowers.

 It was a cooler day than we have typically been having lately and we had a great time walking around and exploring.

 The feel of early fall was in the air; some of the leaves were changing color, falling from the trees, and crunching underfoot.

This Incense Cedar tree is known as the Octopus Tree.

 After strolling through the arboretum, we settled down to the business of walking along trails in the park nearby looking for blackberries. This has not been a good year for blackberries in our area. The consensus is that is probably because of the drought. A lot of the bushes don't have many berries and the ones that are there are often small and dried out. This was our second trip out to hunt for berries, and we weren't finding much again.

 We ended up driving to another area where we had noticed large berries driving in and did find some blackberries. There were a few patches that were full of large plump berries, but still not a lot. However, we picked what we could find and were pretty happy with that. I think we got enough to add to the berries from our time at the coast and make a gallon of wine, which is what we want to do.

Heather, does this guy look familiar? We saw lots of spiders in the area where there were berries, but nothing like the time Heather and I picked blackberries at the Kaweah Oaks Preserve. Apparently, spiders like this enjoy hanging out by blackberry bushes. After being attacked by blackberry bushes and surprised by spiders, we cleaned up a bit and took advantage of an Olive Garden gift card that was given to us to have a date night. It was a great end to a lovely afternoon.

Pressing Party and Potluck

 On labor day we attended a neighbor's annual apple pressing party. That morning we stripped the rest of the apples off the trees and most of the asian pears also to take with us. One thing that was different about this pressing compared to ones we have done in the past is that we cut the apples into quarters. Bad spots also got cut out, although what was consider to be bad was left up to the discretion of the person cutting. This obviously made it a lot more work to make apple cider, but there were lots of people there to help and it made the apples easier to grind.

 This was one of two presses at the party and was similar to the one we have used at camp.

 Most, but not all, of the pears and apples we brought with us. There was at least one more five gallon bucket of apples already being cut.

 There were so many people there, this is maybe about half. It was fun to meet lots of people and talk with the ones we were working with; everyone was in a festive mood and having a good time. The only unfortunate thing about it, which we didn't realize before we went, was that most people didn't bring any apples. So, we didn't end up with anywhere near the amount of apple cider we expected to have, which we were planning to turn into apple wine. That didn't work out, but we do have plenty just for drinking. And we ended up with lots of asian pear cider, five gallons worth. We started fermenting three gallons of that yesterday.

Joshua spent most of the time helping work this press, while I cut apples and pears with a group of about four other people around our age. We didn't have any cutting boards and I ended up slicing myself a few times, two of which I noticed right away but there were a number more that I found after washing up a bit. We both got pretty splashed with juice and sticky. After about three hours of pressing, we had a potluck dinner. There were a few buckets of apples left, so after dinner Joshua and I ran a press together to finish off the apples.

On our way out, we went to the sheep pasture to look at the solar panels. I got distracted taking pictures of the golden field in the setting sun. I love rich golds and browns of summer.

Laundry Day

The first time we tried out our new hand-turned mini washing machine to do laundry, it rained. It was the first (and only) real rain we have had since moving to Oregon. Thankfully, the sun came out the next day and we were able to move the clothesline back outside to finish drying.

Visit from Friends

 Our good friends, Ben and Rachel, moved north just a couple weeks before we did so now we are about two hours apart again, just like we were in California. They came down for a visit with their two girls at the end of August. We had a picnic lunch, good conversation, barbecue for dinner, and we tried out our never before used ice cream maker that we got as a wedding present. It worked great and made delicious ice cream.

It was close to Jory's second birthday, so we put a couple candles on her scoop of ice cream. She wasn't quite sure what to think of the candles, but loved the ice cream!

 It was fun to see how much Jory has changed since we saw them just a few months ago, and little Amelia is growing so fast too.

It was a wonderful visit and we always appreciate time we get to spend with the four of them. Plus, it's so exciting that they are still close by and nice to see someone from California.

Evening Walk

Joshua and I have been enjoying going on walks in the evenings.

Chandler Family Visit

Our second round of visitors/movers arrived on August 8th. My family (minus Isaac and Jonah) brought up the rest of our stuff in a small Uhaul trailer and stayed to visit for a few days. After unloading, we had pasta for dinner under the grape arbor.

We toured the property and picked apples after dinner.

The tour ended in the blueberry patch, so we picked some of those too.

Emery loved to help pick tomatoes.

We enjoyed our first fire.

Brownies and ice cream for dessert.

Saturday morning we had breakfast in shifts.

We got to tour the University of Oregon, so everyone saw where Joshua will soon be spending lots of time. It is a beautiful campus with lots of trees and cool looking old buildings.

 After the tour, we had a picnic lunch in the mostly empty parking structure where the echos were great. Then we got some tasty ice cream.

We went on a short, but challenging hike nearby. 

It was beautiful walking through all the trees.

Emery fell asleep while Michelle was carrying her, so we passed her around for awhile.

Finally, it got too steep and rocky for us to climb with Emery, so Mom stayed with her under a tree while the rest of us finished heading to the summit.

We got pretty dirty from all the dust on the trail.

 A group picture after we were all back close to the beginning of the trail. We were pretty tired after our exploring, so we quickly cleaned up at the house and tried a local barbecue place for dinner.

The next morning we started off slowly.

 Later in the morning, we headed to Alton Baker park to go canoeing; Joshua wasn't feeling well and had to stay home.

 We rented two large canoes and had lots of fun.

 There was a spot where we had to portage our canoes to get to more of the river.

 We found some blackberries to pick along the river, and then found more when we portaged the canoes again on our way back.

After a fun time on the river, we headed home for lunch.

Joshua asked the kids to decorate his school notebooks for him.

Despite the heat, we decided to check out the u-pick blueberry farm that is just down the road from us. The berries were delicious and we had fun picking together. They even had a Chandler variety! 

We had a family favorite, gingerbread, for dessert after dinner.

Then we went on a walk and enjoyed the sunset and a few sprinkles of rain. 

We had another fire; the above picture is Evan blowing on the embers as the fire died down.

 Monday we headed to the coast to stay with Isaac's parents for a couple days. Joshua and I got to have the boys in our car.

 We arrived at Dennis and Diana's house and got to have a tour, then Diana's famous tacos for dinner. I had only heard about her tacos in the past and was excited to finally try them; they were delicious.

 Joshua and I slept on one side of the sun room with Heather and the kids were on the other side.

 The next morning we headed down to Bandon.

 Our first stop was the wild animal park. These little guys were pretty cute.

 A lot of the animals roam around freely in the main part of the zoo.

 You also can pet many wild animals in special petting times. I wasn't sure what to think about that. Of course, it was exciting to get to pet a tiger, bear, and lion, but it didn't seem like teaching people to pet those animals was a great idea.

There were lots more little creatures to pet and hold at the nursery; the ferrets were a favorite.

So was Todd, the fox.

We walked around the zoo to see the other animals that were there.

 After eating fish and chips for lunch and a trip to Cranberry Sweets, we headed for the beach. It was pretty chilly, but of course the kids didn't mind.

 We sampled cheese at the Face Rock Creamery.

 Back at Dennis and Diana's, the girls headed out for some blackberry picking.

 Then Heather and I got to make a batch of jam together; always fun to jam with your favorite canning partner (and one of the few people who understands your fruit picking/preserving obsession).

 Evan caught a fish that morning, so he got to have that for dinner. The rest of us had barbecue chicken, zucchini, and baked potatoes, although Evan generously shared his fish with those who wanted to try some.

 We had a fire after dinner and made s'mores with the huge marshmallows Diana got for the occasion.

Wednesday morning, Emery and I had matching outfits. That was a hard morning; my family was heading back to California, while Joshua and I went back to our new house. It was hard to say goodbye knowing we won't get to see anyone from either of our families for quite awhile. It was especially hard to see the kids having such a hard time. Emery didn't know what was going on and Evan did pretty well, but both Micah and Natalie were crying hard. I miss everyone a lot.

One last group picture with Dennis, Diana, and Trish before we headed home.