I’m not here.

The latest edition in the TWL work party series removed a number of alders growing on the Crawford property which, in full leaf, significantly shade the grapes on Day Road Farm — on the last farm walk I noticed while elsewhere on the farm the full sun had melted the morning frost this section of the farm still remained white late in the day.

I had never participated in the felling of trees so tall so I watched and learned, fortunately most of the volunteers have years of experience. I think the combination of tree-felling and bring-your-own-chainsaw greatly increased the usual attendance — we had enough volunteers for two separate teams of ropers, pullers and fellers.

The handing over of animals is usually a production, with the frantic dash — “wait-wait!” — through the house by my daughter finding just the right choice for the ride.

Today was different, when I got to work and opened my bags I found Red and Apple Pear staring up at me — stow aways! We had a little chat and they sat next to me until afternoon coffee. On the way back a quick detour took us to Seattle’s famous Pioneer Square so the two friends could hang out. Look Ma, blue skies!

So many old friends came out today, the sun, blue skies, Mt Rainier and an animal!

I made an animotion for my daughter over the weekend and it clearly re-sparked her interest in sending animals on the “big boat”. I arrived at the boat late, making only the last loading (after the cars) therefore missing the clear shot of the Cascades without the blinding sun — it didn’t matter, I was thrilled for a sunrise!

Our friend (unnamed) in a perfect sun-blocking position with Mt Rainier standing proudly. All the mountains were out today, Rainier, Baker and the Cascade and Olympic Ranges.

Seattle glowing in the background; an arm twisted in the railing “for safety”.

I’ve received a tremendous amount of positive feedback for the TWL animotion, so, confident with past success, here’s another dedicated to the animals and their adventures.

Since the mochi festival I’ve been honing my animoto production skills. I like the service quite a bit though there are some improvements I’d love see — an API and a better image browser top the list.

The Trust for Working Landscapes has a booth at the Healthy Living Expo this weekend so I decided to work on a animotion we could loop. Behold!

I upgraded to the DVD version for the show to run the video full-screen but I’m disappointed the images are still a bit grainy. I added the images by using animoto’s fetch-from-smugmug feature so I’m not sure if it fetched the full-size images. I’m going to try again uploading the originals directly to see if there’s an improvement.

When the storms hit after Christmas the Mochi Tsuki Festival at Islandwood, courtesy the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community, was one of the casualties — fortunately it was just postponed.

We’ve never been to the long-time Island affair and we were excited, the gorgeous blue skies, perfect temperatures and outdoor venue at Islandwood certainly helped!

I, for one, was unclear on the mochi making process. Like so many great foods it starts over an open fire — the firebox on the bottom, hot water in the tubs and the rice steaming in boxes over the boiling water.

From the fire the rice is dropped into a large granite bowl — rumor has it no one knows the age of Bainbridge’s. The consistency of the rice at this point in the process doesn’t look much different from a nearly done risotto.

To finish it off, out come the mallets and the pounding begins. There are a couple different methods, done in progression, for removing the moisture from the rice. First, some simple kneading with a couple of mallets, carefully orchestrated — unless of course a volunteer from the crowd is helping and keeps hitting the other guy in the head with the mallet handle. Then, in our case, three work in unison, swinging away.

Finally it’s down to one mallet and one set of hands. The mallet strikes down, then up, the hands go in, folding the mochi as you’d knead dough, hands out, mallet hammers home again, mallet up, hands in, mallet, hands — all the while chants ring out.

The finished product is pinched off into balls, variously stuffed — I’ve read ice cream is a popular center. My daughter rolled out her own, stuffed in the center with red beans and sugar — yum! It’s definitely my kind of sweet.

I’ve been hearing quite a bit of buzz about animoto but I hadn’t tried it myself. For those who don’t know, animoto sets a series of photos to music creating a very dynamic slideshow. I’m unleashing only my second full-length video on you, please be kind but feedback is welcomed! I bought the year-long All-Access Pass so be prepared!