Hello!  What a week I’ve had -so far.  As you know I’ve been staying at the KOA for the past few weeks.  The good news is I love it… the bad news is, they are SO PACKED this time of year that I had to leave for 11 days!  Long story, but when I went to extend my stay they had already booked up and had no room at the inn until Aug 10th.  So I will be staying with family and friends for the next 2 weeks.  Yay for family and friends! 

First stop:  Spokane!  I dropped my trailer off at the Spokane Airstream dealer to have them figure out why there is water leakage under the trailer when I hookup to city water.  Hopefully it will be as simple as tightening a few hoses and won’t cost an arm or leg. 

I stayed with my sister for the weekend and while there she, her friend Shirley and I went to a Powwow in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho – which was so much fun!!  All I can say was WOW at all the color!!  There were so many people that I could not get close enough to take pictures of all the dancers in main arena.  This is the best I could do – sorry – it does nothing to show off how beautiful and elaborate all the outfits were!

  
But I managed to put my brave pants on (pun intended) and ask a couple of dancers if I could take my picture with them.  The one on the left looks all mean without a smile, but he was super nice and was all smiles before and after the picture.  Same with the hottie on the right.

  
My sister and Shirley were giving me a hard time about missing my chance to grab a husband.  So to get back at them, I asked another dancer, who was dressed up in a gorgeous outfit if he would take a picture with my sister.  We nicknamed this guy “Chief I’m Single” because his friend was trying to set him up!  So many missed opportunities! LOL

  
Now onto the creative stuff – In my last post I teased that I would show you how I make Raspberry jam – well, here it goes:  

 Step 1: go for a long walk along the Green River trail where raspberries grow wild along the river!! 

 step 2:  Pick about a gallon of berries!  You will need the extra for your yogurt parfait or smoothies. 

Step 3: enjoy how beautiful the trail is!  

   

   

 Step4:  get down to jam making business!  I used about 1/2 gallon of berries and the juice of one lemon.  I love experimenting with different flavors and since I am planning on giving these jars of jelly away I though lemon would be a safe and refreshing option.  I washed the berries off real good – (I was more concerned with critters than chemicals spray). I then put them in a pot over medium heat with about 2.5 cups of sugar and let it boil for about 10 min stirring constantly!  

  I did not use pectin in my jelly – instead I boiled the mixture until it had the consistency of a thick syrup and then boiled a few minutes more.  Then I laddeled it into sterilized canning jars, covered with a lid and canning ring then boiled in a canning pot for about 10 min.  I found with Jellies you don’t have to boil very long before you hear the lid seal.  Sometimes it will seal even before I put it in the pot! All good signs! 

   

I did all of this in the comfort of my own trailer!  It makes me happy that so far I haven’t had to give up anything but debt by downsizing to a 27′ trailer.