Week five, "This is The End"

This is what I'll miss the most:



(Back row, L to R: Jessica, Perry, Kim, Annalise, Kara, Henry, Ty, Tim, Joe, Aaron T., Carey, Middle Row: Michelle, Sydney, Carrie, Vanessa, Claudia, Julia, Daniel, Steven, Ali, Allison, Aaron M., Susan, Front row: Gina, Cadie, ME, and Bill)

What a group. I will miss every single person in this photo! I am so thankful for Facebook, I don't want to lose any of these fabulous new friends...

Okay. Week five FLEW by! Monday and Tuesday were shopping days, so like usual they were busy and fast. Come Wednesday, it was practically time to close down camp, Cadie and I were already preparing for the end of the year FEAST (dinner is such and understatement). Thursday was all cleaning and cooking (and Mike came), and then Friday, we packed it in and went home. It really felt that fast.

It must have been because it was the final week, but Cadie and I had a little fun on our last down the hill shopping trip Monday. After shopping at Costco to get our last block of cheese, case of baby wipes, and feast items (oh, and to repair another flat tire, 14th of the field season) we met with Mark Woodson who showed us around the grove and picked us fresh zucchini and basil. The Grove is awesome! In addition to a huge farm full of good stuff, they have goats and chickens, and the historical Barton schoolhouse is on the grounds.





Tuesday was our last visit to the awesomatic Big Bear farmer's market. I was so sad to say goodbye to our favorite vendors, especially Adelina's fruit stand (her partner is the guy who made the comment about not knowing how many chickens they have because of "bobcats and stuff"). We bought bags and bags of fresh peaches (more on this later).



We also took the group picture because Bill left that day for Peru (lucky!). Here are some pics from Tuesday morning:



Walking through the meadow, Gina with the Golden Metate



(Team A)



(Team B)



(Team C, Chupacabras)



(Cadie and Natalie: Team Wipe Your Plate Clean)

I didn't even take a single picture on Wednesday. I did do something unprecedented in Field school history. I took TWO naps. I knew how crazy Thursday and Friday would be, so I tried my best to get lots of rest! It was great.

Thursday morning we made sourdough pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Mmm...



SO MUCH FOOD! We have some traditions for our last FEAST together every field season. Daniel McCarthy BBQs a turkey and Cadie and I like to make some traditional dishes along with holiday-esque favorites. Marilyn made real lemonade, I made nopales and the students made wiwish (acorn mush) from scratch along with blood orange glazed ham, beans, green beans, sourdough biscuits, deviled eggs, polish beets, roasted red and sweet potatoes, roasted red pepper and goat cheese dip with blackened vegetables, guacamole, and salsa. It makes me full just remembering all the good eats. And it was great cooking with everyone. Sydney was in that kitchen with Cadie and I since day one, and she helped so much with the last meal. yes, this is a shout out: Thanks Syd!!!





(Daniel and his turkey, Sydney darling)

Remember those bags and bags of fresh organic peaches from Adelina, our favorite farmer's market vendor? Well, with the help of Carrie and Julia, I made three pans of peach cobbler for dessert. I liberally showered the peaches and sourdough topping with handfulls of brown sugar, and I even topped the pans with more brown sugar for good measure... Unfortunately, the brown sugar turned out to be unleached acorn flour used to make the wiwish. I turned what should have been a beautiful peach cobbler into an inedible bitter cake. The horror!!!



(Will label bags in the future)

After dinner, everyone gathered around the fire for awards and to just hang out. We exchanged our favorite (and least favorite) field school memories. Tim and Allison tied for the Golden Marshalltown Award, which is given to the person (or people in this case) you'd most like to work with in the future. Carey a.k.a. "The Guy" won the Indiana award for student most likely to roll with the punches and a rattlesnake skin. I wanted to stay up late with everyone, but I knew how crazy Friday would be, so Mike and I went to bed early. The students slept in the meadow together (locos!)...



On Friday morning we broke down camp:



:(

I had an incredible time getting to know everyone. I will post more pictures and stories in a week or two. For now, I'm off to Tucson with Cadie for a week! Please feel free to send me your stories and/or photos you'd like me to post @ natalieikahn@yahoo.com

I love you guys!!!

Week four, I'm so tired!

Hi friends!

In case you didn't notice, I added a few pictures to my last post... Anywho, week four was good, but I am really looking forward to re-entering the real world again. I kind of feel like the next time I fill the water tanks and solar showers... I might just snap!


(water buffalo (most boring way to waste an hour and a half every day of my camp life (ugh)))

Okay, I wont snap, everything is still going well. I almost cant even remember the daily goings on of the past week, because we're kind of on auto-pilot at this point, and nobody is causing any chaos. Amazing. Really. Good thing I've taken some pictures! Let's see, let's see... It rained this week! Thunder, lightening, the whole thing. It was beautiful and made everything smell great. The excavators were hard at work, some better prepared than others:



Cadie and I started the week with the usual crazy, day-long shopping spree. I hate to call it a "spree," because that makes it sound like we had "fun." And it is, a little, but MAN it's a loooooong day of shlepping tons of food across the i.e. and up the mountain. Tuesday, we went into town and went to the farmer's market, etc. I'm still loving that. Strawberries, mmm........



On Wednesday, we got a visit from Dr. Robertshaw, the chair of the anthropology department and Mike, my fab boyfriend. Cadie made Tom Yum soup, it was sooooo good! Here are some of the ingredients:



Friday was very eventful. A group of students and staff from San Manuel came up to show the kids around. They sang bird songs, bear songs, and big horned sheep songs, led by James Ramos.



It was so fun to talk to kids again, I was dying to hear what they were reading! Cadie and some of the students baked them cookies. I lined then up meticulously. We all have our strengths.



Friday night was the best. The students celebrated Kim's 21st birthday (but unlike the kids (in)famous party last year, it ACTUALLY was her 21st) by eating pizza and playing beer pong, true hallmarks of the college exerience...


(appropriately blurry)


(Mike and Dan, Steve and Brit)


(Ali, Brooke, Carrie and her hat, Kim, and Vanessa)

All in all, a good week. It was great getting to know the students a little better, and Cadie and I made a lot of good food! Last week starts right about... NOW! I'm excited, I'll let you know how it goes! :)

Week Three, I forgot my camera...

UPDATE: I added a few pictures, yay!

Maybe it was the thrill of seeing Mike and the family, maybe it was the joy that only the impending use of indoor plumbing can bring, maybe it was the three glasses of red wine Friday afternoon that made me forget to grab my camera from the kitchen... Boo!!!

I'm so lame! I was going to write a big post about Sunday night (4th of July), and Mike took some really cool nature pics of wildflowers and ants, etc., but I suppose for the next week you have to just imagine it all, because under NO circumstances am I going back up that hill until I'm back "on the clock" Sunday evening!




For fun, here is a random picture of pancakes (from week one, I think):



Oh well. The thing about pictures is a) I hope that they distract you guys from my crappy writing, b) you'll actually believe me when I write about the insanity, and c) they jog my memory about what happened/what we cooked each week

The weeks go by so fast that I can hardly remember all the things that we do. Right now, I can't even remember what we had for dinner each night. I guess week three is the week of forgetfulness...

Here's a random picture of Mike and the "spring" (I think it's actually a sag pond) that our camp is named for:



One memorable meal was Thursday night's Sauerbraten with sauteed red cabbage and egg noodles. Dr. Sapp (one of the field school instructors) requests this meal every year. The recipe comes from a New York restaurant called Luchow's, you can find the recipe we use here:

http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/luchowrsquos-sauerbraten



Fourth of July was also a serious dinner. Cadie and I made a bunch of classics, and Mike grilled burgers and baked an amazing pineapple upside down cake. I'll post pictures next week, I promise!








I'm still having a great time. The students are working hard and getting along well. They're still having campfires after lectures and dutifully doing the most heinous of camp chores with relatively positive attitudes. No meltdowns (okay, this is scary, I hope week four isn't meltdown week), no fighting (nothing serious anyway), and no complaints about the food (amazing). In week four, more than anything, I hope to just remember my camera...

Week Two and still no crazies!

Week two is great because most of the set up stuff is done, and we all settle into the field school schedule (even the students). It's been harder to wake up in the morning, it's been a little colder this week, but thankfully not under freezing.

I took some pics of our kitchen, so before I tell you about my week, here's a tour of my home for the next three weeks:

This is our oven. On Friday, we replaced her. This tilted little BBQ has baked muffins, cookies, brownies, birthday cakes, and casseroles (and that was just last week, honestly). RIP.



In the past, we have had nicer food pantries. This year, we have (basically) a topless dumpster. Sounds awful, but it is filled with the best foods, water, and even a bar (you think i'd go anywhere without a bar (just kidding, Mom (not really))).





We serve all of our dishes, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, on real serving platters. And the students eat on real plates with silverware, which means they wash real dishes.





If you gotta do dishes, at least you have a nice view!



We also have pretty oilcloth tablecloths on our tables where we prepare the meals. Our tools, pots, and pans all have a place on shelves, tables, or hanging from hooks. Sorry about the trash can in the shot... :/



Week two was smooth. Scary smooth. Like I hinted in the post title, everyone is really... Nice and normal! Woo-hoo!!! Nobody had a nervous breakdown about seeds in their bread (it's happened), bug bites (it's happened, and it was me), or sleep deprivation (it's still too early for that, maybe). The students really seem to like each other. After their evening lectures, they all sit around the fire and hang out (even though I know they're tired). They help each other with chores, and nobody even freaks out about cleaning the "bathrooms" (and it really is awful). Here's a paparazzi picture my mean boyfriend took of me in one of my finer moments (the horror):



Our menu (terrible transition, my apologies) was definitely Mexican this week. I got to cook a couple more of my recipes in week two, chile verde and chile relleno casserole (easier than making 100 individual chile rellenos) with fresh tomato sauce. I didn't take pictures because I was busy cooking! I thought both turned out well, I could eat food with fresh chiles every day. My hands burned so bad from peeling and seeding all the poblano, anaheim, and jalapeno chiles. Cadie also made her chicken enchilada soup, a serious favorite of the students. She blends enchilada sauce into masa harina, and then blends it into homemade chicken soup with lots of garlic and onions.

Monday we were feeling a little more Mediterranean, I think, because I made fresh pesto with lots of basil, some mint, garlic, walnuts, romano cheese, salt, and olive oil. We served it over pasta with poached shrimp. I think next week, I'll try to take more food pics...

Our friend from the Los Padres field school, Dan Reeves came by. He'll be staying for a week! I'm so happy, he is great! An archaeologist who has lived a few different lives, he has great stories. If you ever meet him, please ask him about a special tie-dyed shirt he made for someone who crossed him. Oh man, Dan's stories...



Any questions I can address in next week's blog???

Tuesdays

Tuesdays are going to get a special shout out here... Cadie gets the "big" shopping done over the weekend or on Mondays down the hill (mainly Redlands (Costco, Target, Sports Chalet, Trader Joe's, Home Depot, etc, etc, etc...)). On Tuedays, we go into Big Bear City to finish up shopping, which includes a visit to the farmer's market. It is a long, crazy day, but probably my favorite. It's nice to get back into civilization midweek, and as you'll see, it has a few perks.

First, we take the trash and recycling into town. It sounds easy enough, but having to separate two weeks worth of clear, brown, and green beer bottles is disgusting! At least we got it out of the way early. Yuck!



Then, we go around the corner to fill up and top off our propane tanks (for cooking). A guy named Justin fills the tanks, and seems a little cranky (maybe because it's before 8 a.m.?). It's also the time I get to give Mike a call, going into town also means I get cell phone service (perk #1).



At this point, it's 4 hours after we started cooking breakfast, and Cadie and I are beginning to crash, so our next stop is Starbucks for iced Chai lattes (if you haven't, try one, they're like delicious, legal crack). We can call this perk #2, there are no coffee shops where we are camping, can you believe it?



Here comes the best perk (sorry, Mikey, talking to you was great and everything, but...), Perk # 3, we got SHOWERS!!! There is a campground in Big Bear called Serrano, and for $3 dollars, you get a million dollar shower. You press a magical button for HOT WATER! AMAZING! I also got a chance to meet a pair of 9 year old twins named Aaron and Adam while I waited for Cadie and scraped the dirt from underneath my fingernails. We talked about Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants books. I really miss my Plum Canyon kids! This picture certainly does NOT capture the luxurious feelings that only a post-camp shower can produce, but here it is in all it's glory:



After we are fresh and clean, we head to the framers market!



I. Love. The farmer's market! Cadie and I have been coming to this market on Tuesdays for a few years now, so we have made some friends, it was so nice to see them again! The stone fruits are from Adelina's stand. She and her husband sell fruits and eggs. Last Tuesday, this annoying woman kept asking him a million questions about their fruit, location, soil, on and on and on... Anyway, she asked "how many chickens do you have?" I can tell he was annoyed (I was too) because he answered "About 400, but I don't know, because we got bobcats and stuff." I laughed about that for the rest of the week. It sure did send that woman with the questions away (she didn't even buy anything, ugh!).

The market also has beautiful Indian clothes, woven Mexican purses, a yodeling cowboy, roasted peanuts, breads, candies, a tamale stand, and a million wonderful smells. We bought more produce than we could carry.



After we schlep it all to the car, we head to Vons for our last bit of shopping (finally!). We get goat's cheese for a salad, a few more gallons of milk, wheat germ for muffins, and my last shot at indoor plumbing (sorry guys, this blog gets RE-AL!).

Lastly, before we make our way down the dirt road to camp, I convince Cadie to stop for lunch (something she'd never do without my coaxing (Perk # 4)). Burritos at La Paws (odd name, bomb food!).





And then, back to the grind...