Cooking with Pumpkin and Garbage Pickup

I have been trying to think about what Mark and I have been doing lately so I can update my blog. Sometimes I get thinking that I can only blog when something major happens, but actually it's the little things that I enjoy reading on others blogs, so here's some "everyday" happenings at the Telford house:

This fall I have had a fun time cooking with pumpkin. I don't know why I was so into that flavor this year, but I tried some new recipes that I think I will make every year! I made a pumpkin puree' by cooking a whole pumpkin in the oven and then putting it through my blender. I had enough puree' to make several different recipes. I made pumpkin flavored bread and dinner rolls, pumpkin soup (sooo good! you have to try pumpkin soup!) and also dinner in a pumpkin. Just yesterday I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and mini-loaves for visiting teaching; and before Halloween we had orange colored pancakes, no pumpkin in them, just food coloring so I could get an eyebrow raise out of Mark.

I should have turned the picture! Sorry! This is my pumpkin bread. I was so proud. In my mind it looked like something Grandma Zelma would have made! It tasted like homemade white bread with the slightest hint of pumpkin.

Orange Pancakes!

Dinner in a pumpkin has become a yearly Halloween tradition in our house. It's pretty delicious!

This time of year I always try to be thinking of the little things I am grateful for. As a result of our recent move to Arco, I have had a few new things to add to my gratitude list. The one I'd like to share today is:

That's right! I never thought in a million years I would add a garbage can to my list of things I'm grateful for. In fact, I'm so grateful to not have to burn my garbage that it almost brings tears to my eyes when Thursday morning rolls around and I see all the cans pulled out to the curb. You might think I've lost my mind, but if you have ever tried to burn garbage over an extended period of time, you will understand how awesome city garbage pickup really is. When we lived in Kimama, it was my first experience with burning garbage. And really I don't know why they call it "burning garbage" because it never really burns. It just smokes a lot and stinks up everything. When the fire is finally out you can go look in the can and there is still the same amount of garbage in there, it just looks black. And every couple of weeks you have to take the burning barrel somewhere and dump out all the garbage that never burns (so pretty much you are dumping all the garbage because only the Kleenex burns). In the summer the pivot walks over the burning barrels, and it's so wet you can't burn it. In the winter you wake up to discover that the barrel is 5 feet under a drift. (It will only drift around the burning barrel, the rest of the driveway will not even have a flake of snow on it.) So as you can see, this year I am most grateful for that blue can which conveniently has a handle and two wheels which can be moved with only one hand to the curb. So to all of you "garbage burners" out there: my hat goes off to you!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Harvest Pictures

I was amazed at how many people would stop on the side of the highway to take pictures and watch us harvest potatoes. Then it occurred to me that if you had never seen spuds harvested before, it would be pretty cool! So here is my interpretation of how it works:

The windrowers (or crossovers) dig in front of the digger (some call it a combine). This gives the digger and truck a place to drive. The windrower drops the potatoes it digs into the next row over so the digger will dig twice as many rows at one time. Our windrowers dig 4 rows at a time, and we had 2 of them; so one windrower would dig 4 rows of potatoes and drop them on one side, and the other would do the same on the other side so the digger could dig 12 rows at a time. You can fill a truck really fast digging 12 rows at a time!
The windrower at work!
When the windrowers have "opened up" the digger comes through and fills the truck. The trucks have little doors on the side that can fold down so the digger boom can be lowered inside the bed of the truck, lessening the bruising that can occur. When the trucks are filled, they return to the cellar and the next truck pulls under the digger. Each truck can hold around 32,000 pounds of potatoes. On a good day we could fill 50-60 trucks.

We have people all along the "line" that take out rocks and clods before they reach the pile in the cellar. There are pipes on the floor of the cellar which air blows through so that the temperature can be maintained until we take the potatoes out in the spring.

We are happy to have finished harvest before that crazy snow storm hit on Saturday! We feel it is a blessing that we had no injuries or other major problems. We hope all of our neighboring farmers and friends will have good luck as they finish up also.

Vue Salon and Spa

My friend Davian is opening a salon in a few months. She is going to let me rent a station in the salon so I can keep doing hair! She has started working on the building every spare minute, so I thought it would be fun to post before pictures so everyone can compare them to the finished product. It's going to be good! Yay for Arco! There will be 2 stylists, a massage room, a nail tech, and a tanning bed. No more mullets! (Just kidding there aren't that many mullets in Arco).

New Niece

She isn't so "new" anymore, but we think she is just adorable! We can't wait for the blessing so we can finally meet Kaylee Nicole! Isn't Braden such a good big brother?

Farming 101

Class Description: Farming 101; a 24 credit class, transferable to many other useful applications in life. (Let's just say I can jump anything with some battery cables.)

I signed up for this class a little over 4 years ago. The professor is pretty cool, he doesn't ever flunk me out even though I deserve it a lot. Actually, the only reason I took this course in the first place was because I thought the professor was HOT! (I think he likes me too, why else would you bring a city girl to the hands-on classroom everyday?)

So, my assignment for the day was to rake the hay I had swathed last week. (yes, I have successfully passed the swather-operator course). I was doing a fine job on the rake. I came to a part in the field that was really bumpy! Of course I followed the instructions of the professor and slowed down the rpm's. Then after continuing on for another 200 feet, it was not getting any better. In fact I was having a hard time sitting in my seat because the cab was so tilted. I decided I better stop. Of course I could not open the door on the tractor, so I had to wait to be rescued by Ryan (the professor's brother). This is what I found when I got out:

Wow! What a discovery! It wasn't a bumpy field after all! I had just operated the rake on a flat tire for 1/4 of the way around the pivot. Let's just say I did not receive an A. However, the professor did not even get mad. He must really enjoy me, why else would he be so patient?!?

Canning

Yay, I am so proud that all the pears sealed! It will be so fun to eat them during the winter! I really do enjoy canning, but I think I need to get a pressure canner. That "hot water bath" stuff takes forever! Oh well, I got it done and the mess is cleaned up!

Harvest Updates

So, we we are in the middle of harvest. I say middle even though I do not feel that the end is in sight by any stretch of the imagination. This city girl (who is desparately trying to act the part of typically amazing farm wives) will now attempt to recap the first two weeks of potato harvest.

Week 1: We started harvest in Richfield. My husband tells me that typically you can harvest 30 acres in 1 day. I, being the mathmetician that I am, (insert courtesy laugh here) took the 100 acres to be harvested, and discovered that we could be finished in Richfield in 3.33 days. So, I told myself, "I can handle waking up at 5:00 in the morning, work all day, and be in my bed by midnight for 3.33 days." Well, 2 trips to Burley chasing down parts for the broken machinery, and 5 days later, we were in fact finished digging in Richfield. I will not miss that drive!

Week 2: Actually, I have decided that it would be more dramatic to break this past week down by the day.

Monday 15th: (Babe's B-day) I was told Sunday night to wake up early enough to drive to Blackfoot in search of a motor for a table at the cellar. And, Now I am pleased to announce that I can easily find Spudnik equipment in Blackfoot. I quickly made my way back to Arco to discover that the feild was too wet to harvest.

Tuesday 16th: We did not get very much done. Leave it at that.

Wednesday 17th: I hurried off to Idaho Falls in search of bearings and parts for a broken down 10-wheeler. Around 8:00 that night the digger was broke down, in need of yet another bearing. Mark and I traveled back to Idaho Falls to get the bearing. I called this a date, we did stop at Artic Circle for dinner.

Thursday 18th: Things were going pretty good in the morning, then the crew was back to sitting when the top belt of the even-flow tub would not work. Back in my car, I went to Blackfoot getting another motor.

Friday 19th: I was feeling quite depressed about the potato harvest at this point. Things seemed to be going good on this particular day, but all those trips in the car had made me a bit crazy. I decided to check out of reality around noon, and go PARTY WITH THE GIRLS AT THE HALL'S CABIN IN BEAR LAKE.

Yes, this my fellow wanna-be farmer wives, is how you deal with stress. You know how the saying goes, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" (going on vacation that is!)

Enough with all the talk, the pictures will tell you that the weekend was an ab-workout in itself. (Which is why I felt justified to eat that extra little cup of Heather's amazing white chocolate popcorn.)

As you can see, this annual weekend with the cousin's is just what I needed. You can also understand why the husbands must never comprehend how fun this is, or they would want to come too! So when you get home you say things like, "yeah, it was ok" or "I was worrying the whole time what you were going to eat" or you can do as I did, and say "My weekend was so fun, but I know how hard you were working while I was gone. Why don't you go put your feet up and take a nap while I do the dishes."

This is the picture of a husband who wants his Sunday afternoon nap much more than he wants to help with the dishes. I do believe he will remember this nap when it is time for me to go on the retreat next year. But if he does forget, I, being the wanna-be farmer's wife that I am, will offer the same bargain next year.