It's been a busy summer so far. Ronda and I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go on several trips in the past few months and we've had a blast. We went back to the Midwest in May and were able to catch up with friends and family. I was able to go to Idaho for a weekend to see a cousin graduate and earn his Eagle. In addition, over the Fourth, we vacationed on the Oregon coast. Ronda's never really been camping before so it was fun to share that experience with her - I didn't even mind cooking every meal, cleaning up, setting up and striking camp - basically waiting on her hand and foot! We're looking forward to going camping again soon.
We also started jogging at the local State Park which is actually a lot of fun. We use it as an opportunity to meditate and, by the end of this week, we'll be up to 20 minutes of non-stop jogging. I think it's fun to set personal goals - I seem to improve significantly each day! Our main goal is to be fit enough to run in a 5k that's coming up in September. Up to this point, we've been training consistently 3 days a week - strictly following the Couch to 5k training schedule. I'm taking Murphy with us for the first time tonight - should be interesting to see how he affects my performance.
In other news, we joined a community garden that's just a few miles down the road. Basically, we contribute 12 hours of work over the course of the summer, and we're rewarded with all the organic vegetables we can eat - quite a treat at today's food prices! We've become good friends with the farmer and his wife - they're Quakers that seem to be giving a lot back to the local community by providing affordable organic produce. So far we've enjoyed zucchini, lettuce, Walla Walla onions, raspberries, and marionberries. You have no idea how excited I am to sink my teeth into a fresh tomato in the next few weeks.
This past weekend was spent making liqueurs (cordials). Last year we produced roughly twenty-four 375mL bottles, however, we're increasing production this year. We're currently fermenting 14 gallons of marionberry and raspberry liqueurs (7 gallons each) - enough to fill over sixty 750mL bottles! We got a great deal on the fruit since we're in the peak of Oregon's berry season, and we are using a grain alcohol base (rather than vodka) to improve extraction. Can you believe we bought 12 bottles of Everclear from our local liquor store!? You should have seen the look on their faces when I asked for a case of 190 proof booze! It was a long weekend indeed, but our hard work will be rewarded in about 6 months. It's going to be a great winter! We documented the process this year with our new camera, so you can check Ronda's site for pictures in the coming weeks.
That's about it for now - stay tuned for more updates about progress in reaching our 5k goal!