Miller Farm Madness

For those of you who live in Colorado - SPREAD THE WORD. Miller Farms is doing just fine (despite all the hail damage earlier this year), but the news agencies did such a good job of telling everyone that Miller Farms was destroyed that nobody is going out there to get their veggies! On Saturday, we did our new annual tradition of taking the hayride and picking our own veggies, followed by a processing party at S.'s house - (thank you S.!) where all hands pitch in to de-kernel veggies, slice, blanch, package, etc.

Unfortunately, at about 8:00 p.m. one of our slicers decided to see how sharp the mandolin was with his knuckle - so the evening ended with a trip to urgent care (and apparently skin sutures - but no stitches). To anyone who owns mandolin - I used to sell Pampered Chef and they drilled this into our heads - ALWAYS use the safety. Mandolins are so sharp and work so quickly that by the time you realize you've cut yourself, it's entirely possible you lost a finger.

There were many jokes that at least we were washing his vegetables in his own blood water - but still . . . not the yummy vision you wanted of packaging vegetables, right?

For various reasons, T. was under doctor's orders not to go to Miller Farms, so it was just me and the squeaky-bot. You pay $10 per adult (i.e., person over 3), and each person (including your 5-year-old :P :P :P) gets two 10 lb. bags per stop for 4-5 stops to fill with as many veggies as you want. This year they ran our of 10 lb. bags, so they gave us 20 lb. bags. Thankfully, I was in a "quality, not quantity" mood, so I just focused on filling one 20 lb. bag at each stop for A. and I. We came home with corn, red potatos, 2 pie pumpkins, squash, zuchinni (one squachinni - he couldn't decide which veggie he was), cucumbers, green beans, and a 15 pound bag of assorted peppers for T. - whose response was "Jesus Christ"! Not the response I was looking for! Heh :P :P :P

The bento obsession is still going strong (I orderd a nori punch last week! YAY!) - and I've actually had one adult-person notice the lunches I'm sending A. to school with and ask me if I'm a chef. That was a nice motivation booster! If anyone is interested in kawaii (cute) lunches, I started an alternative blog called Obento Obsession. Half my friends and family thought I was just linking to that site as a cool place to visit (anoterh nice motivation booster) - but NO! Obento Obsession is me. Those are my Kung Pao Piggies, thank you very much! I'm hoping to use some of these lovely Miller Farm veggies in A.'s bentos this week. And I get to keep asking T. what he's going to do with all his peppers. Usually right after he mutters "what am I going to do with all these peppers?" MU HA HA.

Obento Obsession

To spare my regular readers my on-going obsession with Japanese lunchboxes, I have started a secondary blog devoted solely to bento at www.obentoobsession.blogspot.com. My first week was fairly successful. I even managed to drag myself up at 5:00 a.m. to make the silly things! The funniest spot all week was when an attorney came across me washing out my seal bento (T. won't let me send him to work with a fluffy harp seal bento . . . go figure :P :P :P) when one of my attorneys asked what I had for lunch. It was sandwich day - so I replied "an egg salad sandwich, a PB&J samwich, potato sald, chicken/cucumber/mozarella skewers, grapes, apple, and half a hard-boiled egg. The attorney looked at me, looked at the bento box, and said "there is no way in heck everything fit in that little box." So the next day, I took the lid off my scallops bento to show him - and he said "Oh, my God." He even grabbed a paralegal to point out how cool . . . er compact . . . my lunch was. SUCCESS!

Moose? What Moose?

My activity of choice over Labor Day? Camping on privately owned land - because you won't catch me within 300 miles of any of the public campgrounds (which were all reserved in February, anyway). Fortunately, I have friends who own private land. And I'm a shameless mooch (for this once a year activity, at any rate).

One of the more fascinating aspects of Colorado is it's schizophrenic weather. (I've actually seen it snow on a clear and sunny day. In fact, I think I posted a picture in my blog . . . ). What few folks realize is - the rocks and landscape are as varied as the weather. Beautiful - but nonsensical. For example:

The leg from Denver to Fort Collins - wide open, blue skies, and if people can see for miles, the circling hawks can probably see the ocean. Of course, as we approached Fort Collins, there was an odd haze . . .

A murky haze that cars just vanished into.

The landscape turned surreal.

There was no smell of smoke, so I think this was a low-lying cloud. A gray, smoky, misguided piece of mist. Or it was an attempt by aliens to turn our atmosphere into clone feed (how's that for a Doctor Who reference :P :P :P). Either way, on the other side, the hawks could see clear to Hawaii.

Plateaus . . .

became scattered rock formations . . .


and turned into pine forest.

I love places where you have to "take the road less traveled by."

Oh - and if you see a bunch of random fences in a field - they're called "snowbreaks." Believe it or not, this is a fence meant to keep snow off the highway. I'm talking 10 foot drifts of snow. Not kidding.


And . . . once we made camp - we did nothing. Glorious wonderful absolute nothing. We did have to pitch the tent in closer to our friends' free-standing gazebo structure since there have been sightings of moose (moose? what moose?) and we didn't fancy a 700 pound hooved critter wandering through the tent. Other than that - we sat in the sun. We listened to the wind roar through the trees. We took walks through the forest and played horseshoes. (For anyone who's never played horseshoes, you take a set of horseshoes (yes, those U-shaped things that go on horse feet) and throw them at a metal pole sticking out of the ground. If you're really good, the shoe will end up on the pole. If you're really bad (like me) your shoe will end up under the bushes or completely buried in the dirt.) We also set up some stumps and practiced knife, stick, and hatchet throwing . . . which felt oddly unfeminine. Though it was amusing to watch the non-dog try and fetch a hatchet.

Other highlights of our trip . . .

Happy camper. . . or wild kid-ling accompanied by non-pochi.

Sleeping bag for two.

A fuzzy picture of me taken by A. (Yes, I am reading a bento book - why do you ask? Obsession. Not kidding about the obsession part.)

And fire by moonlight.

I hope you all had a happy Labor Day as well!

The Particle that Shouted "I"

Sometimes we all need a spot of encouragement. I feel like I was a particle, standing on the cliff - shouting "I" at the Universe to see if nothing came back but echoes . . .

and 'lo! There was an answer. A small voice that said (paraphrased, of course) "I kind of like your stuff . . . keep shouting."

And the muse stirred, the stars aligned, and the Universe presented all new inspirational obsessions that don't fit neatly in the 500 words or less Facebbok updates.

The particle nodded. And the blog lived.

(And I've obviously gone a little punch happy and had one too many shots of caffeinated beverages today. Starbucks enhances my weirdness factor by exponentials of caloric intake. Scary stuff. Scary.)

The Field

I hear it in the field
and taste it in the sun,
the silence hanging golden -
the activity all done.

Long fingers of the day
comb through the rows of wheat.
Shadows filled with sound
and emptiness complete.

The furrows have been hollowed -
yet stand ready for the seed.
The soil of the ending.
The new beginning that I need.

I hear the crickets chirping,
I see the weft and weave Peace.
In earth and sun, and all work done.
Reflection, and release.