Betty Hill's Homemade Jam

Lauren, Aidan and I were invited to dinner at Betty Hill's house in Corvallis. Richard and Kim were visiting, and we all got together for a wonderful dinner of Raclette. The Raclette was so amazing that we didn't stop to take a photo of it.

During our visit, Betty Hill invited me to see her prized garden. It had raised vegetable beds, fruit trees, and flowers. Every year Betty makes home made jam. Her supply from last summer was almost depleted. She gave us Blueberry Jam, Apricot Jam, and Strawberry Jam that she made to take home with us. This morning, I opened the jar of apricot jam and spread it on my English muffins. Betty's jam is exquisite! It is rich in fruit and not very sweet, just as I like it. Betty Hill says many 100% fruit jams on the market are mostly apple with some fruit. Hers is 100% apricots, or 100% blueberries, or 100% strawberries with not other fruit mixed in. This accounts for its richness of flavor and lower sugar content.
Thank you Betty Hill for having us over for Raclette this week and giving us some of you marvelous homemade jam.

Business Grants

Here in Lake Oswego, among the Mansions and modest apartments, we are but a microcosm of Oregon being impacted my the Global Economic Crisis. Stimulus package? If you want your part of the stimulus package, you have to work your butt of to get it. No pain, no gain. Just like tax deductions. If you want them, you have to keep records and work hard to get them.

Here is another site I found for finding Business Loans and Grants. It is simple and targeted. What I like about it, is that it isn't flashy, nor so federal that you can't find anything.
Here is the link to the Business.gov search page for Loans and Grants:
http://search.business.gov/startLoans.html
Here you can search for Grants in a targeted area. I selected Technology as a broader term for Internet Technology. It came up with one granting source
businessownersideacafe.com/small_business_grants
This site is targeted for small business owners and the grants are $1000 each. This way they can give more grants to more people.

Again, will all the grants, you do have to work for them. You have to write a grant proposal.
Hey, where is your Entrepreneurial spirit?

Lake Oswego, Oregon

I love Lake Oswego. It's a quaint town just south of Portland. It takes 10 to 15 minutes to get to downtown Portland from here, but I'm happy just hanging out here around the lake. Lake Oswego is bounded by hills on both the north and south sides and by the Willamette River on the east side. On the west, it is bounded by I-5, the main interstate freeway that shuttles travelers through from California to Washington on their way up to Vancouver, British Columbia.

Lake Oswego is the only lake in the Portland Metropolitan area. It was historically a weekend get away spot for the wealthy Portlanders who built homes or cottages on or near the lake. This is why there are so many cottages here. Some of them have been very well kept. Others are treated like vacation rentals - now just regular home rentals, and some are in a sad state of disrepair.

I've been living here since my kids started kindergarten. I lived in a number of apartments around the lake before buying my own home. In this blog, I hope to take you on a tour of this quaint little town, that we locals so dearly love.