Week 18

Day 119: Dec 7, 2014

It was lovely to have a day off. Working 6 days in a row doing heavy lifting is tiring. I am not sure how some of the remediation workers do 7 days a week. I think I would die. I spent most of my morning and part of my afternoon doing some carving. I had some blanks that I worked on (Dala Horses mainly) and I started working on a spoon but it hadn't been soaking long enough so it was still kind of hard. Other than that I took a nap and updated my wish list for Christmas. Dang, it is coming up quick. I need to figure out what to give my parents.....

Day 120: Dec 8, 2014

I learned how to knit two socks at a time today! I also spent a fair amount of time sanding my spoon today. I worked on my spoon (the sanding is both the worst and yet most rewarding part of the carving). I also spent a fair amount of time filing down some of my pottery. The glaze ended up running so I had to try to clean that up. It didn't work very well so I guess I will just have to try again.

Day 121: Dec 9, 2014

Today was pretty average except for a morning meeting. It was a pretty great morning meeting, as these things go. It was all about avalanche safety. I even got a pin because I participated. There was another meeting right before lunch but I couldn't go because of work (I was ok with not going). Tomorrow there are more meetings but since I work the morning shift I will probably miss the avalanche training but apparently we are going to try to get lunch done as early as possible so that we can make at least part of the “winter living” (or something like that) meeting. I lead my first shift tomorrow. It should be good (I hope).

Day 122: Dec 10, 2014

My first shift as a Lead went very smoothly. Everything got out on time and we had plenty of left over time. Breakfast was hot cereal so that was pretty easy and lunch was soup and salad. The main soup had been made ahead of time for me because the village wanted us to get to some meetings that were happening so all we had to do was make the vegetarian soup, cut bread, and cut some tomatoes to add to what we already had for the salad. It was pretty simple. I lead dinner tomorrow. Basically, I am cooking a fairly simple Thanksgiving meal for 85 people and I have to think about gluten free options and vegetarian options. The gluten free is easy- just use cornstarch to thicken the gravy. I am thinking about doing roasted tofu for the vegetarian option so that they can still get their protein. Since the village rarely does meals like this we don't have any recipes for roasting turkey or for gravy which means that I have spent over an hour tonight looking up recipes, cooking times, ratios, and amounts per person. We are going to make almost 2 gallons of gravy tomorrow and about 50lbs of mashed potatoes. At least there is very little prep and things really shouldn't take too long except for cooking times because there will only be three of us in the kitchen. Should be fun.

Day 123: Dec 11, 2014

Dinner went amazingly well. We didn't have all of the spices I would have like to put on the birds but the rosemary and thyme worked wonderfully on their own. Everything ran smoothly especially considering that the power went out for an hour during the afternoon. It was a planned out so we knew about it so we were able to get everything ready and in ovens. Luckily, the ovens are well insulated so we put the turkeys in a little early. They were done at the perfect time. We were able to take them out, let them rest, cut up and put on the line just in time. The potatoes were about as perfect as them could have been minus the second pan that we forgot in the oven- the top was only a little brown so we just scraped it off and life was good. It felt so good to have everything go smoothly and to have people come up and compliment the meal. I think tonight was different than the other meals I have been a part of because this was a meal that wasn't in the cookbook. I had to do the research and such to figure out the gravy and the herbs and such on the birds and I think that made all the difference in the amount of pride I had in the meal.

Day 124: Dec 12, 2014

I got a cold. :( I ended up leaving work early because I got almost no sleep last night and I was trying to hold in my snot all morning. It was not fun. So, I went home and went back to sleep for a few hours, grabbed a PB&J from the dining hall and stayed in my room for most of the rest of the day.

Day 125: Dec 13, 2014

I felt a little better this morning and I was leading the morning shift so I got up and went to work. It ended up being a great shift. We were done with things in more than enough time and ended up preparing cookies for tomorrow. I got to work with Josh and Hallie today. Both are such great people. Hallie and I have bonded since she got here and Josh is just a hoot and a half. For example, I walked in to the dining hall this morning and went to go change my shoes. Josh comes in and immediately asks me if the coffee is ready. My response? Only if you made it earlier this morning. I taught him how to make coffee so now he knows how to make his own coffee if he feels the need. I am still fighting this cold so I took a nap this afternoon and then we had a special vespers tonight. It was called Las Posadas. Basically, we followed Mary and Joseph to a few different places around the village as they tried to find a place to stay. They stopped at the carpentry shop where a bunch of people were “staying” and were told that there was no room there. They stopped at a chalet and were told there was no room there. They stopped at a hose house (where we keep our fire hoses and where hydrants are. They are about 3ft by 4ft and maybe 6ft tall) and were shown that there was no room. It was basically a clown car. We had put a few smaller kids up in what would be the attic, one person was shoved up under some of the shelves, I was standing on the hydrant so I was up and over people and about 8 other people were crammed into the main open section of the “house”. It was pretty funny, The final stop for May and Joseph was the dining hall where there was plenty of room and we had a little party with a fancy sort of hot, virgin sangria (it tasted like really good hot cider with some cinnamon) and ice cream. It turned out to be a pretty good day and I have tomorrow off :).