Our Very Own Pumpkin Patch

We got to pick pumpkins from our garden yesterday. It was my first time growing pumpkins and the plant was productive, we had nine nicely shaped pumpkins. We have also had a steady supply (and at the moment, an overabundance) of zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and basil. The boys got to ride in the wheelbarrow, which we discovered had a flat tire after we put the pumpkins in. It was fun to pick them and put them around for everyone to see and be surprised by when they got home.

Our Crawdad Feed

We had a fun adventure yesterday, hunting crawdads in a creek in Visalia. To start things off, we had a picnic lunch after church then headed for the creek. It was a beautiful day, perfect for a little exploring. Here we are going down to the creek and starting to hunt. Jaime caught the first crawdad and many more afterwards. It was creepy to be walking in a creek with a bunch of crawdads lurking about with their pinchers. Sometimes they would swim right by your foot and it was startling. Heidi seemed to attract them the most. There were a number of tunnels to go through and that was gross too because they smelled worse and it was dark so harder to see where you were stepping. But all our near death frights, cuts, and scrapes paid off and we caught 39 crawdads. We brought them home, rinsed and cooked them. Then we had a feast and it was delicious. We ate all 39, thanks to me because I ate the tails of the 4 rejects after dinner. All in all, it was a fun afternoon and a tasty dinner.

The Continuing Drama that is My Job

Have I mentioned that I like my job? I do, it is not boring. Yesterday I went in to bake bread and found out the temperature probe, which had been sticking out in the middle of the oven for a few months, had broken off so the oven just kept getting hotter and hotter. That meant I would have to bake bread in two smaller ovens that are on the line where we make lunches. The first batches from each oven were burned on one side and soft on the other, they were pathetic loaves of bread. The back of the ovens were apparently very hot, but I couldn't see back there at all so I didn't pull my bread out to check it until the front was just getting golden and by then it was too late. One of the loaves also got stuck on the top of the oven because the shelf was too high, but I couldn't move it down, so the top of that loaf was a bit mangled. The bread started to improve, but was still browning too quickly so the next couple loaves were doughy. We finally got the temperature and rotation figured out and the loaves started to look much better. I was trying to get all the bread baked before lunch because there is not any room there to bake bread anyway and if people are working on lunches, it is downright dangerous. However, that was not to be and five loaves were left in the proofer while we had our lunch rush and got over proofed. We baked them anyway and they were very fluffy, but should be okay. We didn't end up losing any bread because James decided to do a special of crab sandwiches with crust less bread, good thinking. The loaves at the end actually started turning out better than in the regular oven because the fan in that oven sucks out all the moisture we try to put in to get a good crust and it is a constant battle. But the smaller ovens didn't have fans so they kept the moisture in and we were able to get a nice hard crust that had a great crackle (think Ratatouille: you can tell good bread by the sound). Since the oven was out in the middle of the kitchen to be worked on anyway, James and I rewired the fan switch to be off/on instead of high/low; okay, it was really mostly James, but I helped. The day ended up having good come out of a minor disaster, now we should be able to get good crusted sourdough in our regular oven too.

A Music Video

This is what happens when we are bored and have a new computer. We had a bit of fun making this video.

Tulare County Fair

The Chandler family clan, minus Isaac and Jonah and plus Heidi and Juan, went to the Tulare County fair last night. I hadn't been to the fair in a long time and it was fun. We got to see cows and pigs. Someone was leading around a cow and it came super close to me and Micah, we kept moving over, but it still brushed against my hand, wow. The boys got to go on some of the fair rides and they had a fun time with that. Heather and I had to ride one of them with Evan and Micah and it made us a little sick going around in circles. Next we went to the food area and got Icees and cotton candy. I wanted to see the quilts, but when we got there they were cleaning up from a medical emergency so we didn't get to go in. It was getting late anyway, so we decided to head home.

Joining my generation (maybe)

So, I got a laptop.

And so it begins...

I have now completed my first week at Fresno State, woo hoo. I only have two classes this semester in an effort to not try to do too much and I think they will be pretty good. I'm taking violent weather and health behavior. Both my teachers seem pretty cool, I'm getting familiar with the campus, I have one of my books and my parking permit. So I feel like I'm settling in pretty well. My violent weather class seems a bit too easy. My teacher is from Nigeria and has been all over, but he said he is trying to make things easy on us and from what he said, I think he went a bit too far. We are in college after all. But he says the material is hard and I think it will be interesting. The health behavior class sounds interesting too, although we have to do a lot of talking in class and getting to know people and stuff like that which I find annoying. It is good to have started though and I'm excited about the semester.

Things at work are going well too, although life in the deli is totally up in the air. I thought things were going to be settling down in the next week or so, but I found out yesterday that they are probably going to get more complicated first. It's nothing major, just rearranging of positions and trying to figure out what we need and can get and stuff like that. The schedule is weird right now as we are transitioning. But it's good, I'm just going with the flow and trying to help get things organized.

Family Photos

We had the whole group here this weekend so we decided to take some pictures with everyone before the Nickells left for Camarillo. We are now a family of 10, big enough that any time we are all together, it's a party! We had a good weekend, yesterday morning we made funnel cakes for breakfast and they were tasty. Mom used to make us funnel cakes for our birthdays, but when we moved up here she decided it was too much of a mess, so we made them while she was gone yesterday (don't worry, we also cleaned up before she got back). Last night we had homemade pizza for dinner, took our pictures, played charades, and made ice cream. The Nickells had to leave after lunch today, which was hard. Heather and the kids have been living with us since May, so it will be weird not having them around. The house will be much quieter and cleaner, which we will enjoy, but we will miss them. Thankfully, Natalie has an appointment with her pediatrician up here in 3 weeks, so they will be back soon. Fresno State starts tomorrow and I'm excited and nervous about that. But it will be nice to have the first week over and get into a routine.

Olympic Moments

We have been enjoying watching the Olympics here at the Chandler party house (we had 8 adults and 3 kids around the table at dinner last night). Here is a link to probably my favorite event so far, the men's 4 x 100m free relay.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0811_HD_SWB_HL_L0194

Anyone who hasn't seen this yet should watch it, what an amazing finish, I can't help cheering every time. The video is a little long, but there are some funny moments at the end, so in my opinion, it is worth watching the whole thing. Swimming and gymnastics are my favorite Olympic sports.

Working the Line

It has been three days since I began my new position at work and things have been going well. I wasn't excited about being in training again after feeling settled into bread baking, but I'm hitting my groove much faster with this. It helps that I'm already familiar with the place and the people and the schedule. Yesterday was a bit of trial by fire because James had jury duty and had to leave at 12:50pm. So he was there for our first rush, but not our second and it was just me and Fiore making lunches, with some help from Rosa when we ran out of turkey and tomatoes. I was making one of the specials, house made pasta with sauted shrimp in a light cream sauce, as well as sandwiches and menu items. We are working on simplifying our menu, but right now there are a lot of options. That was a bit scary, but exciting. My summers in the kitchen at camp came back as I slipped right into the roll of prioritizing, balancing a number of things at once, and being efficient. I enjoy the fast pace of kitchens, as long as it isn't constant or because you weren't prepared.

Finally

Jaime and I got to take a trip to Calvin Crest this weekend for the staff concert. It was wonderful. We had a rough start because I got off work later than we were expecting and then we had car trouble and had to drive home to switch cars. But we made it just after the concert started. It was so good to be up at camp and to see everyone who is there and hear how they are doing. The concert was good and dinner was good, it included some new options, like beef gyros which I had and it was tasty. After dinner, we enjoyed catching up with Amy and had a nice long visit with her. We got to stay in a Westview cabin and enjoy the cool, fresh air. Today we got to sit on the pad and drink tea and coffee, the lighting was neat. We also got to visit with Rachel for awhile then went to church, which was neat. The first of the blackberries are ripe, so after church we picked some by the lake. Then it was time for lunch and goodbyes and we had to come back in time for Jaime to get to work. But we are thankful for the oppertunity to go and soak it in for a little while. Josh tried to talk me into working in the kitch during CommonFire, and I must admit, I was tempted.

The Smell of Bread in the Morning

This is my job. And I like it (most of the time). One of my fellow employees worked his last day today, so I took the oppertunity to take my camera to work and take pictures with people there. This one is of Lisa and me, we are the bakers and world travelers (we both took trips to foreign countries this summer). Lisa does the muffins, quick breads, cookies, scones, cakes, etc. (she gets some help with all that) and I make the yeast breads, sourdough and focaccia. Here are some of our lovely staff up front, Warren, Amy, and Lauren. They are lots of fun. And here is a picture of our chefs. Fiore is our authentic Italian who is hard to understand and talks no stop, Alex is a good worker but he is moving so starting Monday I will be taking over some of his responsibilities on the line and prepping, I'm in the middle of course, then James is the owner with his wife Michelle and he knows his stuff, Troy is James' son and is helping out over the summer. So there you go, a little glimpse into my life at work. I enjoy being in a kitchen again and work with some quality people.