Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Cochise County Picnic



Last Saturday I spent the afternoon and evening in Cochise County at their county Farm Bureau Picnic. We had a great tour of Cochise Groves, a pistachio farm and Golden Rule Vineyard. We had about 60 people show up and it didn't rain. It rained on me on the way there and just a few drops after I was headed back to Phoenix.




I did drive through a mud puddle pretty fast and felt great about getting the truck a little dirty- made me think of home.




I learned a few things about pistachios and wine grapes.


1. pistachios that are red in color are dyed to hide the flaws and stained shells from harvesting.


2. clear or natural shells are usually pistachios grown in the U.S. which means it comes from either CA (#1), AZ (#2), NM(#3) or TX (#4).


3. Pistachios don't actually grow out until almost harvest time, unlike all other crops such as corn, lettuce and such.


4. a pistachio tree can last for up to 50 years.


5. Male trees don't produce nuts.


6. Bees do not pollinate trees- it is done by the wind.


7. Wine grape vines are cut for two years before they actually are allowed to produce fruit.


8. Wine grapes taste nothing like regular grapes.




Vacation Bible School



I have been helping with the preschool group for Vacation Bible School. I know what you are thinking- preschool. I like little kids individually but as a herd it is a whole different story. I have come to the conclusion after only 3 days that it isn't too bad- although sometimes I think I may never have kids if I continue with the group. Ha Ha




We started out Sunday with 10 little kids but were able to pass four of them off to the Kindergarten class which only had 2. So we have six and they are really funny and very entertaining. We have three more days left. We have our lesson then head out to missions where we get to take a boat ride to visit different missionaries (Tuesday night was to some cowboy pastors in Idaho). Then we head to music and back for recreation and snacks then we get to go to crafts before heading back to our room to finish out the night with another snack and review the different lessons.




Our kids are also collecting items to send to soliders in Afghanistan. So we spent one evening during missions time coloring pictures and writing notes to put in all the boxes.






I have come to the conclusion though that I think I like babies more than I like any other age group- teens I don't really know what to say when they think their life is over and I can't really laugh at them (because that would be wrong). And little kids scare me a little so I like babies because you can smile and make faces and they just laugh and can't talk back to you and they still think you are funny and great!




Saturday, July 18, 2009

again... been a while

It seems like I can't keep up on this thing....

I have spent a lot of this year dog sitting or dad sitting. In October, dad had open heart surgery and I spent 3 weeks at home on the ranch. At the end of the 3 weeks, I packed up dad to come and stay with me (in my one- bedroom condo) for 5.5 months. It is very difficult to take a rancher and plop him down in the middle of mesa and expect him not to go crazy or to some extent drive you crazy in 5 months.

But we did have fun. When I was on the road to my various county Farm Bureau meetings, I would bring him along. He really enjoyed chatting with other farmers and ranchers. The weather may be different and some the crops were definetlydifferent but the issues were the same.
He even got to tour a cotton gin and ride in one the the new Case IH module building cotton pickers. He really liked that.

He went home in March and I started to dog sit and have done that off and on (more on) all summer.

We are currently in the middle of the county policy development meetings for all my counties. next week I start my county picnics. I really enjoy those.