Friday, June 3, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Lots of stuff, none of it climbing.
Okay it's June now. And it's like 60 degrees. Craziness.
Since I haven't been climbing due to my rotator cuff (it feels better though so hopefully it's been worth it), I've been doing domestic things like gardening and mushroom hunting and cooking and working. And job interviewing.
People ask me if the job interview went well and I say that it's difficult to tell if it went well, but very easy to tell if it went horribly. Fortunately it didn't go horribly, so I'd tentatively like to say that it went well. I should find out in about a week if I'm accepted into the pool of adjunct faculty. Maybe I'll also find out if I am offered the job teaching the fish class. I'm not even sure what I want. I haven't heard back from the Vegas job yet either. I might call the guy and bug him this week.
Instead I'd rather talk about mushrooms. It should be clear to everyone now who reads this (all 4 of you) that I'm obsessed. When the weather sucks or I'm injured, mushroom hunting is a great past time. This past weekend I went with Ben, Summer and some other random chick to look for morels. We had an insider's tip to go up to Amador County where some controlled burns had been done at around 4000-5000 feet. We didn't find much in the way of morels (below is all that I found). However spring bolete season is upon us (we weren't expecting this), so we at least ended up with some nice Boletus. I'm the only one who found any black morels. Apparently I have a supernatural gift of spotting them on the roadside while we are driving. I kept yelling at Ben "stop the car", and then jumping out and running back down the road to grab a few. People were astounded, and soon we were doing it American-style and trying to spot the mushrooms from the car. Nobody was able to do this trick but me. Ha ha ha!!!
Sunday Sarah and I worked on the garden. It's looking great! Hopefully the cucurbits do well this summer (squash, melons, cucumbers etc.). Last summer in Davis they all got some disease and nobody got much. Our strawberries are amazing! I can't even wait until they are at peak ripeness...I have to eat them now!
Sunday afternoon I went over to Bjorn and Lisa's bearing more foraged gifts. I made elderflower sherbet from elderflower syrup I made. It was amazing. I also made elderflower fritters. More like fried dough, but novel nonetheless. I mean, who doesn't like fried dough sprinkled with powdered sugar?
Last night Kat and Emily came over and we made pizzas with the mushrooms I found Saturday. Emily brought over some taleggio and Kat brought over teleme cheese. I caramelized some onions, then we sauteed the mushrooms, added kale, garlic and pancetta. Here are the final results (pre-baked):
I realized this morning that I didn't get any after shots because we were too busy eating them! The pizzas were amazing. I can't wait to get out and find more shrooms.
Since I haven't been climbing due to my rotator cuff (it feels better though so hopefully it's been worth it), I've been doing domestic things like gardening and mushroom hunting and cooking and working. And job interviewing.
People ask me if the job interview went well and I say that it's difficult to tell if it went well, but very easy to tell if it went horribly. Fortunately it didn't go horribly, so I'd tentatively like to say that it went well. I should find out in about a week if I'm accepted into the pool of adjunct faculty. Maybe I'll also find out if I am offered the job teaching the fish class. I'm not even sure what I want. I haven't heard back from the Vegas job yet either. I might call the guy and bug him this week.
Instead I'd rather talk about mushrooms. It should be clear to everyone now who reads this (all 4 of you) that I'm obsessed. When the weather sucks or I'm injured, mushroom hunting is a great past time. This past weekend I went with Ben, Summer and some other random chick to look for morels. We had an insider's tip to go up to Amador County where some controlled burns had been done at around 4000-5000 feet. We didn't find much in the way of morels (below is all that I found). However spring bolete season is upon us (we weren't expecting this), so we at least ended up with some nice Boletus. I'm the only one who found any black morels. Apparently I have a supernatural gift of spotting them on the roadside while we are driving. I kept yelling at Ben "stop the car", and then jumping out and running back down the road to grab a few. People were astounded, and soon we were doing it American-style and trying to spot the mushrooms from the car. Nobody was able to do this trick but me. Ha ha ha!!!
Black morels and the lone blondie
Sunday Sarah and I worked on the garden. It's looking great! Hopefully the cucurbits do well this summer (squash, melons, cucumbers etc.). Last summer in Davis they all got some disease and nobody got much. Our strawberries are amazing! I can't even wait until they are at peak ripeness...I have to eat them now!
Sunday afternoon I went over to Bjorn and Lisa's bearing more foraged gifts. I made elderflower sherbet from elderflower syrup I made. It was amazing. I also made elderflower fritters. More like fried dough, but novel nonetheless. I mean, who doesn't like fried dough sprinkled with powdered sugar?
Last night Kat and Emily came over and we made pizzas with the mushrooms I found Saturday. Emily brought over some taleggio and Kat brought over teleme cheese. I caramelized some onions, then we sauteed the mushrooms, added kale, garlic and pancetta. Here are the final results (pre-baked):
I realized this morning that I didn't get any after shots because we were too busy eating them! The pizzas were amazing. I can't wait to get out and find more shrooms.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Yet another endangered plant, and another photo of me in Europe!
First a picture of me in Ceuse that Keith Ladzinski gave me (after I begged; I know no shame):
Ok switching gears.
Kind of depressing and kind of cool to see another endangered plant. There are probably less than 200 of these guys in existence. They grow on random outcroppings in random places in Marin county. This particular population may be one of the largest and we counted 46 plants. The rock is in a field below a housing development in Bodega Bay. Such a narrow range for a plant. Doesn't make for a good prognosis, though apparently they are easy to grow in a garden setting. Behold the only yellow larkspur, Delphinium luteum:
I flashed this route! It's 7a+! Yay me!
Ok switching gears.
Kind of depressing and kind of cool to see another endangered plant. There are probably less than 200 of these guys in existence. They grow on random outcroppings in random places in Marin county. This particular population may be one of the largest and we counted 46 plants. The rock is in a field below a housing development in Bodega Bay. Such a narrow range for a plant. Doesn't make for a good prognosis, though apparently they are easy to grow in a garden setting. Behold the only yellow larkspur, Delphinium luteum:
Mushrooms!
I'm so excited about another mushroom season - this time morels. I went up towards Marysville last weekend with Ben (of the pig-ass-shooting fame) and his wife Summer. We'd located a fire around some random lake in Yuba county. We found the fire ok and pulled over and got out of the car. Within the first half hour we found a really good flush of morels - which was great because none of us had ever found any before. They were in a north-facing drainage. After we collected the shrooms, we wandered around for another three hours or so and found nothing. The first flush gave us some false confidence I guess.
The first two nights I sauteed some with bacon and arugula and ate them over penne with some shaved parmesan. Man that was good. Last night I decided to try something different, so I made "pizzettas":
After we found the mushrooms, we stopped and bought some eggs from someone with very cute chickens. Chickens are so great. I mean, look at them:
Hmm...other than that, I'm trying to bribe/harass/cajole/beg my friend in El Portal to take me to the spot where he found a bunch of morels. If he doesn't, then all of the photos that he sent me via his phone of the morels he found will just make him a mean mean person.
Oh. right. rock climbing. Had a fucking great day at Gold Wall last Saturday - I feel fitter than ever...still. I wonder how long it will last. I'm going back with Addison again Friday. Hopefully I will send Golden Showers. It's a great route, but it hurts my shoulder a bit. You can see why here:
High gaston = shoulder distress
However, don't I look goooooooood? Just kidding, but this photo is so funny:
Friday, May 13, 2011
Crazy times - me a professor?
So shit's been crazy lately. I've finally started to apply for jobs. So far I'm applying to teach a course on fisheries at American River College in the fall, and also a state wildlife biologist based in Las Vegas. I've been polling people on whether or not they would live in Vegas now. People tend to be either violently opposed to living in Vegas themselves (but happy to have me live there so they can come visit), or ambivalent. I think only Brad was stoked on living in Vegas. Beth mentioned that they have a great Whole Foods, Stanley mentioned that it would be awesome if the city burned down completely. Vegas tends to get some funny polar reactions from people. I'm into it.
The job in Vegas would be working with endangered aquatic species throughout southern Nevada, which would be perfect for me. Working at Fish and Wildlife has made it VERY clear that I do NOT want to sit in a cubicle for 40 hours a week. Both the teaching job and the biologist job would surely involve moving around quite a bit. This is a good thing-crucial in fact.
Can you see me as a professor? NO WAY! Hard to believe. I get the willies thinking about it. Not to mention the hiring process for both jobs involves and interview (for the teaching position, I have to give a 10 minute talk to the recruitment committee - yikes!). Ugh. I should probably work on what few charming aspects I have...and maybe find some more.
There's so much going on with applying for jobs and getting labwork/writing done. So many projects. SO MANY PROJECTS! I doubt I'll finish everything by September, but hopefully I'll at least have all the data collected.
Tomorrow Gold Wall! Yay! Super excited to climb there. Such an enjoyable crag.
The job in Vegas would be working with endangered aquatic species throughout southern Nevada, which would be perfect for me. Working at Fish and Wildlife has made it VERY clear that I do NOT want to sit in a cubicle for 40 hours a week. Both the teaching job and the biologist job would surely involve moving around quite a bit. This is a good thing-crucial in fact.
Can you see me as a professor? NO WAY! Hard to believe. I get the willies thinking about it. Not to mention the hiring process for both jobs involves and interview (for the teaching position, I have to give a 10 minute talk to the recruitment committee - yikes!). Ugh. I should probably work on what few charming aspects I have...and maybe find some more.
There's so much going on with applying for jobs and getting labwork/writing done. So many projects. SO MANY PROJECTS! I doubt I'll finish everything by September, but hopefully I'll at least have all the data collected.
Tomorrow Gold Wall! Yay! Super excited to climb there. Such an enjoyable crag.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Last few weeks
Since I've gotten back from Europe I've been adjusting back to a normal schedule. I'm almost there. I think that the measure I can go with is how much I'm thinking about all the shit I need to do - and I'm thinking about that a lot. Getting back into the groove.
The last two weekends I've gone to Mammoth to climb with Shannon. This past weekend Tom Addison came with me, and we did 2 days in the gorge and a day at Granite Basin doing Hair Raiser buttress. It is a runout granite slab. I made him lead everything. I'm no hero.
Photos of Granite Basin:
Here are some photos of the Eldo Roof in the Gorge. Poor Peanut ran through a shitload of nettles and was suffering. I felt so bad. John was suffering because he just had wrist surgery:
We picked some nettles and made some nettle pesto, which was super good. I'd always wanted to eat them (I get a kick out of foraging). So I just got some gloves, scissors and a plastic bag and loaded up.
Finally, a photo of the garden. We've done some summer planting already. The trick is going to be keeping up with the watering. But we still have a ton of chard (blah, sick of it already), and our strawberries are going off! I love picking strawberries and eating them. They never even make it home - I just eat them there.
The last two weekends I've gone to Mammoth to climb with Shannon. This past weekend Tom Addison came with me, and we did 2 days in the gorge and a day at Granite Basin doing Hair Raiser buttress. It is a runout granite slab. I made him lead everything. I'm no hero.
Photos of Granite Basin:
Here are some photos of the Eldo Roof in the Gorge. Poor Peanut ran through a shitload of nettles and was suffering. I felt so bad. John was suffering because he just had wrist surgery:
We picked some nettles and made some nettle pesto, which was super good. I'd always wanted to eat them (I get a kick out of foraging). So I just got some gloves, scissors and a plastic bag and loaded up.
Finally, a photo of the garden. We've done some summer planting already. The trick is going to be keeping up with the watering. But we still have a ton of chard (blah, sick of it already), and our strawberries are going off! I love picking strawberries and eating them. They never even make it home - I just eat them there.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
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