Santa Fe weekend

Hey Folks!

I am in a really good mood. :) I think this good mood is due to:

1. a great weekend 2. my upcoming road trip and, 3. an incoming STORM!

And as long as #3 doesn't disrupt #2, I expect my cheerfulness to continue.

To start - we painted the milk parlor and creamery floors Friday. Uneventful. Then I rode into Santa Fe with Ed and stayed at their friend's house again. She made us a lovely dinner, and I ate almost a whole loaf of sourdough bread. Yums.



It was a hominy sort of thing in a broth with pork (which I subtly picked out) and then you stirred in a red chili sauce thing... Started with an "f", but I can't remember what it's called...

Then I worked at the farmers market for a few hours Saturday morning, which was super fun. Spent most of the time keeping the plates of samples full - it was a busy morning! After market my friend and former boss, Laryl, came and picked me up with her 4 yr old Jonah, who might be the coolest 4 year old ever (with the exception of perhaps my nephew when he gets to be 4... ;) ). I hadn't seen her in a couple years, but decided it's more fun to be friends than coworkers. :) We headed back to the dairy so they could meet the goats and see my new home, and stopped at the Light Institute where she went for a semester way back when, and I got to meet the woman, Chris Griscom, who founded it. She smelled like roses.

http://lightinstitute.com/site/home/about-us.html

It really is out in what feels the middle of nowhere, and apparently the area is well known for extraterrestrial activity. Eek. I thought it was cool, though, that Laryl had lived so close to where I'm now living...who'd've thunk, eh?

She invited me to return to Santa Fe with her and Jonah to stay at a friend's that evening, so...I did. :) Her friends were so lovely, and they have a 5 (and 3/4) yr old who has the most beautiful eyelashes. :) He was a sweetheart, and loves trains...and I love it when little kids love trains, too. :) For his bedtime story his mom read him part of a book, one of those 100 paged, detailed-info-filled hard covers, about the Santa Fe Chiefs railyard.

Anyways. We talked and talked and had wine and sat in the hot tub and then I slept soundly...with an attached bathroom. woot! In the morning Laryl took me back to the farm.

Yesterday I spent scrubbing cheese racks, organizing the toolboxes, and reconstructing the creamery after having to take it all apart to paint. Today we did cheese stuff. Tomorrow there shouldn't be much to do, so I'll probably spend much of it waiting impatiently for my friend Nick to show up, who is en route as I write this.

We're heading to Santa Fe on Wednesday, then West on Thursday. I think we're planning to stay in Flagstaff and see the sites around there including the Grand Canyon. So I may or may not write until early next week. We'll see. :)

That's the latest. Sorry for the lack of fun goat/barnyard animal stories... Pretty bland the last couple days. :P

Love to you all!

P.S.

There's a storm coming at us over the mountains!!

Looking East it's fine:


Looking West....less fine... Eek! Snow's a-comin!

Thanks for bringing the Iowa weather with you, Nick. Everyone really appreciates that down here. Yuuuup.