Finally following through!

With the horrible sounding hair-cleansing method dubbed 'no poo'. That's right ladies! (And gents?). After finally running out of conditioner, I washed my hair with baking soda and vinegar. It was weird, it felt weird, my hair got extra silky (fine by me... the cold air is doing its frizzing thing), and to you skeptics it smells like... nothing. It passed the Brandon sniff test with flying colors. He even re-tested a day later to make sure the results were the same. Real scientist I've got here.
It just went straight into the old shampoo bottles...so visitors beware. Its not 'real' soap in there.
And if you don't believe me about the 'no-poo' movement... look it up. There is a Facebook 'support' page that totes its own acronymed-for-no-reason phrases, a whole developing culture of the self righteous who do it the 'natural' way. Too cynical? How hard is it really to type 'water only'? I just did. And I'm fine. Two legs, ten toes, two eyes.... I think I just need to accept that some things I will never fully understand, like why develop a culture that inherently excludes newcomers while acting holier-than-thou over the common brain-washed shampooing hordes (Who may be interested in this concept for other reasons, say environmental, than to become a pure true human). Ahhh. Now that I've way over thought that whole concept... Moving on!

In other hippy/crafty news, the coconut oil/baking soda/cornstarch deodorant works! Ha! If only those fancy deodorant tubes had arrived, I would show you that, but all in good time. I have genuinely converted the Otter there I think; sometimes I'm not sure if he's just smiling and nodding or he's actually into the lotion and chapstick and hodgepodge items I churn out and immediately attempt to test on him. That's a hazard of dating me I guess. But I make him things he likes... Like chicken fried steak.


I have been in a fog the last week and it caught up with me the day I (re)attempted the art of yogurt making. The first time nothing came of it but sour milk. But after the demise of a candy thermometer, Tupperware, dishcloth, and an additional quart of milk (can't have broken thermometer in my yogurt now), I got it! Real, live (haha seriously!) yogurt that tastes remarkably like the stuff from the store.
Right now, Martha is thinking "Gosh Phoebasaurus, more pictures, fewer words!"

Anywho, the adventures have dwindled to pretty much moving the kitchen/dining/game table to dance and working out with jugs of milk. My vehicle needs a little mechanic love (its been a whole 5 months since the last visit!), I harbor the suspicion that Bucky the Trucky is a hypochondriac. Maybe, this time there's something palpably wrong. This time.

As luck would have it, I did find Chanterelles! They were too old to eat, but find them I did! Mission accomplished. Fuzzy picture proof! Cream of Chanterelle soup above.

We saw other pretty mushrooms on that outing, and found a beautiful spot on one of the forks of the Nooksack. Whatcom County is the place to live!

 This picture like totally represents my brainspace lately man... You know what I mean...?

 Spectacular valley formed by/around/whatever part of the river, grey at the bottom of pic is the river.
As promised, mushrooms...

Brandon spotted these amanitas while I dawdled along. Pretty little life suckers

 There were oodles of them (several doz.) This guy on the right (not an Amanita) would have been massive while intact, am regretting not using something for scale at the moment, but truly dinner plate to platter sized cap based on what was left of the fat stalk.

Red Osier Dogwood has beautiful red/gold leaves in the fall. They're pretty much gone now, but they're little sparks in the senescencing landscape while they last.

We found a beautiful spot, there were a few dead Chinook. Very picturesque.  

 Brandon wishes you a Marvelous short week, yay!