The Nurse Wouldn’t Hand Over Her Child After Birth

Day 27 National Park 2011

Woke up at 6am and found myself the way I fell asleep, on top of my sleeping bag.  I am amazed I didn’t catch a cold.  I slept for twelve hours.  Evert was up and inquired about last night’s campfire.  He thought I went to eat at the lodge.  I told him I just lay down for bit but ended up falling asleep for twelve hours.  We bid goodbye and they rolled off at 7am.  Evert is a nice decent man.  I returned to the tent to mediate and recite.  My head was foggy.  

By 8:15am generators were on and the campground was loud.  Most people rolled off and those who stayed moved to better campsites.  My neighbor Timber from Kalispell moved across next to the restroom.  Timber has a Montana mustache that curls at the tip and a Montana mountain man gut.  They have three generations coming tomorrow.  The people I meet by the water source fascinates me. 

Breakfast was at 10am, almost out of fuel so the water took forever to boil.  I made it out to the bus stop at 10:44am.  I took the path behind my site, it led me straight to the road, the amphitheatre and the bus stop.  I looked at the lake water and noticed there was lake access for swimming.  At the bus stop I met my new neighbor that moved into Evert’s site, David and Margrite from Colorado with three small dogs.  They are a sweet cute couple. 

The bus runs at one per hour.  The bus driver was a sweet old man.  He could play as the perfect Santa Claus in the winter.  The bus went up to Avalanche then I had to get into another line for a small shuttle up to the loop.  This line was long and the shuttle took 12-15 people at a time.  I managed to get on one by racing to it.  A tiny young bear about three feet tall crossed the road and sat on the side and ate.  It was very cute.    

At the Loop Trail I had the choice of the trail or do the paved path.  I chose the Highline trail.  It was quiet.  I saw a snow melt waterfall and dunked my head under it twice.  It was hot and my wet hair dried fast.  I enjoyed looking at new wild flowers I haven’t seen before and I didn’t go to the Granit Park Chalet which was covered in snow.  People who past me all had skis on them.  I was not equipped for the snow trail and I was out of water.  I made it back onto a shuttle at 2:18pm and I switched at Avalanche Lake for Apgar shuttle.  The bus driver only picked up half the capacity somehow and so the line was slow.  I met others and chatted with them in line about where to hike etc..I finally made it onto a bus and the A/C was on, I had to put a jacket on and hoodie. 

I had dinner at 4:15pm back in camp and I heard claps from the amphitheatre at 5:20pm.  I saw the road was packed with cars and people were all heading there.  I heard singing and wondered if it was a church service.  I later found out it was a mass.  There is mass everyday at 4pm.  Really would have been nice to have gone to mass.  I missed it. 

Timber was on his bike with his nine year old Palmarian.  Timber invited me to join their fire tonight.   I joined Timber and Meryle Stevens his wife at their fire.  Timber made a perfect fire, an entire tower of wood of which he chopped with an eight pound sledge.  They were both reading when I arrived and they put their books down to spend time with me.  

I learned that the Catholic Mass always occurs and is never advertised but the Sunday Christian service is.  

Timber is a Gunsmith.  He makes guns and repairs guns.  He owns his own shop in Kalispell.  Timber’s mom is Japanese and is still alive.  His dad was a career military officer.  His mom after giving birth to two children adopted two children from Japan, a boy, and a girl.  The girl was dropped off by parents at a relative’s place and never came back.  The boy was left in front of a door step as a newborn.  Post World War II was a difficult and strange time.  Timber does all the grilling outdoors.  He is diabetic with no prior symptoms.  It just sprang up at age 57.  He is now 58 years old.  Last year in March when he had his physical exam, his blood test came up as a #8 and found aggressive prostate cancer and because it was discovered early, he is alive today. 

Meryle has a total of seven siblings, eight children in her family.  She cooks at home.  She works with four year olds or preschoolers at St Mary’s Catholic school.  She takes high blood pressure or blood sugar control pills.  She said it makes her get up and pee so it is better in the morning that she takes the pill than at night.  So they love this site next to the restroom.  

When Meryle gave birth to her first son, the nurse wouldn’t hand Timber Jr over because he looked so Japanese.  The second son looked Caucasian and can’t tell he is Japanese.  Timber Jr is a neat clean perfectionist of which the parents can’t stand.  Second son just remarried to a Greek wife and they have a beautiful baby girl.  Rex, their dog leans back on two feet to get petted like Rocky my sister toy poodle.  Timber said that dogs do that because they trust you. 

How this couple met.  Timber had his father find him a community college where he can hunt and fish and be in nature.  Kalispell community college had only been registering students in the second year and his father registered him, put him on a train and sent him off.  He and his wife met in college.  They got married super young.  They will be celebrating their forty years together next weekend.  They had their honeymoon in Glaciers.  They are just a very sweet couple. 

Rex was abused by the first owner, locked in the basement.  Second owner was an elderly couple who had knee replacements and couldn’t walk him so Rex got tied to a leash outside to go out and then locked in the restroom so they can easily clean up after him because Rex doesn’t bark or make a fuss, he just stands by the door and wait for you to notice and if you don’t, he eventually won’t be able to hold it.  Stevens had a dog that died and they waited a few years for a new one.  When they saw Rex, Rex jumped and licked Timber.  Rex is a good travel companion who goes to work with Timber each day. 

Meryle made a giant s’more.  Timber insisted I eat one even though I had brushed my teeth.  He said I could brush them again.  I felt like I was eating the s’more on Timber’s behalf because he can’t eat them anymore.  The marshmellow was perfectly roasted on an extendable skewer and it melted the chocolate.  I offered green tea, Timber dinks green tea.   

We chatted until 11pm.  Meryle’s eyes drooped.  Timber gave me a map of Montana and drew the route to Cascades for me.  It was very nice of him.  He really wanted to ensure my safety on my travels.  I shall miss them.  I miss them already. 

                                                                                                                                                   

Meryle Stevens’ die hard bullet proof Blueberry Recipe

3c fresh/frozen blueberr

1 peel grated apple

Flour/ corn starch

Sugar

butter              

Kimchi Fun

We all met up at HanKook Market on El Camino Real in Sunnyvale.

Sowen spent two hours teaching us how to select products. The type of napa cabbage for kimchi are the big green ones. The other ones you see at other markets are great for soups not kimchi. How to pick out radish, firm, shinny ones are freshest.

How to select red chilli powder, the ones that are bright shinny red and made in Korea. Make sure to peak in the window of the bag to ensure freshness.

How to pick out soy sauce. Pick one with no wheat in the ingredient list, so that it is pure soy sauce to maximize the flavor. How to tell if it is good soy sauce, just shake it and the top should foam and bubble up.


How to pick out white sesame seeds, pick the ones that are toasted to avoid the bitter taste of raw sesame seeds. This one says no salt added in Korean.


Dried whole chilli is also another ingredient you add to make kimchi paste.







How to pick out chilli paste to make your favorite Korean dishes, pick the ones that don't have corn syrup and the least amount of items in the ingredient list. Malt syrup is the one to pick in the chilli paste ingredient listing.



This mung bean or green bean starch powder is great for making your own Cheng Po Muk or mung bean noodles a.k.a. liang pi. Mix 16 oz powder to 9 cups of water, set aside for an hour. Pour out debrie that has floated to the top and replace the mixture with same amount of liquid that was poured out. Stir and mix well over medium heat until bubbles start to burst from the mixture in the pot, turn to low heat and stir for another 5 to 7 minutes. To check if it is done, use spatula and lift some of the mixture 5 inches above the pot and it should run like thick silk. If it is still lumpy or too thick to run smooth like silk, add more water. Turn off the heat and cover with lid for 10 minutes, then pour the mixture out into a mold, let it set over night in room temperature, cut and serve. If there are left overs then put the green bean mold in water like fresh tofu to avoid edges drying out and hardening.



Coarse malt powder is for making Shike. It is the sweet malt drink that is often served at the end of a spicy Korean meal. To make 3/4 of a gallon of Shike use 1/2 pound of coarse malt powder. First soak the powder in water for 4 hours to a day in room temperature. Pour out top debrie and then use your hands to rub the powder for a minute in the water. Then pour the liquid through a filter into your cooking pot and filter out all coarse malt particles. In the pot add 1/4 cup of cooked rice and cook until desired sweetness. Optional, you can also add 2 cups of kabocha squash for flavoring. This can be served hot or chilled.

While we waited for Rinaldi and Yvonne to arrive, we had some Tie Guan Yin tea served by Victor's mom. I brought Indian samosa that I bought at the store. Megan and Franklyn brought vegan taquitos.











For lunch we had Bi Bim Ba. It is a traditional hot clay pot rice dish. For simplicity we had it without the hot clay pot. What is used for toppings are up to people. It usually consist of a min. of 5 different colors of pickles or preserved, marinated vegetables and sliced fresh herbs. Today we had a seaweed salad, mung bean sprouts, daikon, two other dishes I forgot to ask the name for, they were delicious. The red one is used in Chinese Medicine and tasted like radish kimchi. The brown one is a vegetable found in northern China and Korea in the fern family. For fresh herbs we had Japanese shiso, and daikon sprouts. The sauce that you mix the rice with is important and everyone makes it their own variation. This afternoon we had one that was mixed with the following: red chilli paste, pure sesame oil-preferably Korean or Japanese, sesame seeds toasted. Purple and white rice was served today.

This is what a green napa cabbage should look like on the inside very different fron the white napa cabbage. This is tight, firm, and shinny. To split the cabbage, make a 1/2 inch to 1 inch part at the head, then use your hands and part the cabbage into two. Parting the cabbage this way is a critical part in kimchi making sucess. Cutting the entire cabbage with a blade will change the flavor and the kimchi making process.


Then rub coarse sea salt into the leaves of the cabbage while keeping the halves intacked. Put the two halves back together and let it sweat for at least 5 hours and turn sides so the top half is on the bottom half way through to get even sweating. Then rinse the salt off the cabbage leaves and set side and drain off the water in natural drip speed on a rack.


Here is a shot of the entire ingredients for kimchi paste.


While we waited for the cabbages to sweat, Victor had a long line of friends ready to have their pulses read and new prescription written. Yvonne and Rinaldi arrived with very delicious papayas and pineapples. They baked brazil nuts at 425 degrees for at least 10 minutes in its shell and it was delicious hot.

Sowen realized she forgot a few items for the kimchi paste so we headed out for the store again. Here is Yonne picking up a bag of brown rice and coarse sea salt.















Sowen also made Duk Buki and Tofu soup. The soft, soft tofu is the kind that comes in a tube not a box. The extra silky ones in a box is still not the right ones to use.



And the kimchi paste making process began. Everyone got involved.





















So what is in the big pot of kimchi paste? Well, first of all it was meant for whole 12 to 14 six inch diameter napa cabbages. The following gets blended in a blender into a paste: 6 cups of fresh ginger, 2 bundes of fresh cilantro, 5 cups of seeded fresh red chilli, 3-4 cups of dried whole red chilli. This then gets mixed with the following, 1.6 litre of good grade soy sauce, 3 pounds of Korean red chilli powder, 5 tbp of sugar, 2 gallons of shredded daikon, 1/2 gallon of shredded carrots. Adding walnut and pinuts are optional. This last part is critical in the kimchi process, it replaces the raw oyster and shrimp paste. Use 3/4 cup of raw soy bean powder and mix with 1 gallon of water over low heat for about 10 minutes or until bubbles start to pop. To check to see if it is done run a spatuala a few inches above the pot and the mixture should run smooth and continus silky creamy. Set aside to cool. Use 3/4 cup sweet potato flour and mix with 1/2 to 3/4 gallon of water in low heat for also about 10 minutes or until bubbles start to pop. To check, use previous method. Mix these two chilled mixtures into the big pot of red paste.

How to stuff the paste in the cabbage? It is done leaf by leaf and then pick the whole thing up and round off the end draining off excess paste, set aside into an air tight glass or clay pickling container. Place in cool dry cellar or cold garage for at least 1 week but best to wait for a month before poping the lid and serving. The longer and slower it takes to marinate in cool temperature, the better it tastes.







It is highly advisable to wear gloves in the paste and stuffing process.

Today was a totally fun day. Jokes were like none stop. That's gotta burn of some caleries consumed today right?

Victor has his medical doctor exam to take in March 16, I think he will do well on his exam and he will be officially Dr. Victor Cheng!