Memorial Day on the Farm

This is my friend Elisha.

She is leaving on a LDS mission in a week and is headed for Madrid en España. She will be gone for a year and a half having the time of her life. Before that she invited a few of us to have the time of our life out on her farm over Memorial Day weekend. I'd never really been to a farm before and this did not disappoint at all. Upon arriving we had dinner followed by a huge bonfire next to which we all looked incredibly awesome.

That puppy was hot (the fire that is), but as soon as it cooled down we were able to have some smores. Of course it was so hot that Elisha's brother built an extended skewer for roasting the marshmallows.

The next day started with a tour of the farm with Elisha's Dad. The fields are all spread out with wheat fields, hay fields (timothy and alfalfa), potatoes, peas, and apple orchards (all sorts including the superior Fuji's). Here I am with my roommate Stephen in some wheat fields (notice that the beard is now down to a Southern Dandy, almost like a Spanish Conquistador in honor of Elisha heading to España):

This is inside the potato storage warehouse. The flash is too weak to show how huge this place is. It has 2 sides each of which holds several, several tons of potatoes. They basically are stored waiting for McD's and BK to come a calling. And they always do.

There are cows out there too, which Elisha's family raises and sells to the butcher where they go from this:

To this:

Mmmmmm. I got to cook these after church using Elisha's Dad's Traeger smoker. This was one slick machine (just an on and off switch and thats all it takes) and it made some awfully good steaks.

After this we went out to play on some of the farm rides. Elisha rolled out on this huge John Deere 8430T. One by one we all took a turn, each of us making our Bishop insanely envious.

It looks like a tank, but it handles smoothly. It has a nice hydraulic seat and AC inside the cab, plus I could stop and turn this beast on a dime. Just need to crank up this baby's top speed and there would be no stopping me. My roommate and I then took an organic ride on one of their horses.

This does not handle as smoothly as the tractor, nor is it as comfy, air conditioned, or responsive, but it is sort of fun to try and make something that is much stronger than you think you are in charge. This one wasn't buying it though and constantly tried to go back to its buddy in its corral. So I took a lesson from Mongo and did just about the only thing you can do to a horse like that.

That night another friend, Cassie, arrived and she brought with her some karaoke game. We stayed up all night rockin out a bit.

The next morning Elisha's Mom told me she was serenaded to sleep by the musings of Quiet Riot's "Cum on Feel the Noize" delivered by yours truly.

On Memorial Day we went to a brunch with Elisha's family. Ate well and then went to ol' swimming hole which had a sweet rope swing.

In case you can't see me too well on top of that tower here is a better shot...for all the ladies in the world.

Of course I didn't just stand up on that tower to simply look cool and then walk back down making you believe that I did my duty and jumped. You would have to be some sort of sissy to climb all the way up there only to climb back down. I jumped and here's the proof.

We then returned, ate more steak and then went to shoot some guns. Elisha's brother taught me to fire a shotgun. I thought it would be much harder than it really was. There wasn't that much of a kickback (that or my shoulder is built like a rock). The best part is after taking the shot you cock the gun and the shell comes flying out and it happens just like when you were a little kid pretending to have a shotgun.

My first 2 shots were hits and I went 3/5 against the fierce clay pigeons. I think I am a bit of a natural and I am probably much better suited behind a gun than a computer. If only genetics needed more actual shotguns rather than those fake ones we use for whole genome shotgun sequencing.

As if that wasn't enough for one weekend Elisha managed to pack in one more adventure for us by rounding up a bunch of 4 wheelers (apparently only city folk call them ATVs) and we took off for Saddle Mountain. We hauled up that hill to find this view.

When it was all said and done and we were back down off the mountain I looked something like this:

After washing up a little Stephen and I took off and returned to Seattle. It was a great weekend! A weekend of firsts. First farm. First 4 wheeler. First tractor. First shotgun. It was great! I nearly cut some hay too. I understand why people like the farm life so much. The only bad thing about the weekend is that only now, when Elisha is leaving, have I finally made it out there. That and mosquitos. There were a ton of mosquitos out there.

Muchas gracias Elisha. Te deseo lo mejor y mucha suerte en España.