Salmon and Beer

To help me beat the monotony of post, Richard invited me to watch the Pack take on Atlanta last night. I of course jumped at the chance to get out of the room for a night. Rich picked me up at the office and we headed out to run some errands before watching football at his place. After a couple of stops; the Commisary for broccoli , PX for beer, post office to check the mail, video store to drop off dvds, his neices to drop off Lourdes Grace (his daughter) and Robs to pick him up we arrived in Richards small enclave of a neighborhood. This isn't some suburb, predesigned and cleared of all tree life to make it easier to run utilities, oh no. This is gravel road, tall pines, organic twisting driveways hacked out of the forest. Awesome. It was only about 430 but the moon was high in the sky and the glow on the snow was glittery silver and beautiful. The smell of woodsmoke wafted by as the tops of the trees sang with the wind. I was impressed to say the least. Richards digs are full on log cabin. A huge 8' deep full length covered porch welcomes you into his humble abode. The layout inside was compact but dramatic at the same time, with a double story ceiling above the dining area/kitchen and an open loft master bedroom. The inside is all wood, floors, ceilings, walls, cabinets. 18" logs make up the outer walls and loft joists. They also have guest rooms downstairs, but I'd venture to guess that all of their daily living happens on the first floor. And as a special treat, he fired up the woodstove and pointed out the radiant heat slate floor in the bathroom. I am jealous to say the least. His house is a near perfect facsimilie of what I've built in my head hundreds of times. There is also a heated 2 car and the whole compound sits on about 2.5 acres, much of which he has cleared by hand to turn into actual usable, kids rolling, dogs frollicking yard.
We kicked back a few Stellas and watched the Pack break open at least of 6 pack of whoop ass. Rob also showed me the Geico wee wee wee all the way home commercial. Wish I would have seen that before leaving SC, I could have irritated Hollie with that action. Look it up on youtube if your eyes have not had the pleasure yet. Its almost as good as the woodchuck geico commerical. 'You woodchucks stop chucking my wood!'
We snacked on some Delta Meat Sausage sticks during the first half, and I must say I was pretty impressed. Going to have to hit that place up for some care packages back to the Lower 48 once I buy a car and have the freedom to roam.
Somewhere into the shellacking of Atlanta, Richard tossed together some Salmon he had caught earlier in the year. He baked it with a little lemon and some onions and I'm sure a secret blend of herbs and spices. Maybe a little beer drizzled on for good measure.  While the fish sucked up some quality BTUs we headed onto the porch for a coffin nail. I decided to conduct a cold weather experiment. I went outside without my down jacket to see how long it would take to get cold. 3 minutes at -15. I was shivering pretty solid when I headed in. I huddled around the stove for a minute then dug into the salmon. It was very tasty and Richard informed me that after I become a resident I can net catch something like 20 or 30 out of the rivers for freezing, now that's Organic.