Thankful for so much...

I have been back from Alaska for over and month and life has just whipped right on by! It took me a bit to get used to driving in Idaho and Washington and it has been great being able to sleep in my own bed again! I do have to admit that I do miss out eating all the time, but am very happy to be in Tekoa where there are familiar faces, and of course happy to be back with Shane.
Thanksgiving sneaked up on me this year, and was over before I could get a second helping of turkey! We celebrated at my Grandparents house in Myrtle, (outside of Lewiston.) It was the first time since the wedding that I have spent time with them and my parents and brothers, aunts, uncles and cousins rounded out the guest list. It was fabulous having the entire 'gang' back together.
My parents and brothers joined Shane and I in Tekoa, WA for a couple days. We watched football, ate great food, and played the Wii. I realize I am very fortunate for family and friends this season! Thank you everyone being a part of my life! Until next time!

Glaciers, Moose, Eagles, Oh My!

Awww....Alaska. I have been really enjoyed being in Alaska. It is going to be so hard to go back to Tekoa and Moscow. Before this trip I truly thought I lived in the most beautiful area, no offense to anyone in North Idaho/Eastern Washington, but Alaska is AMAZING!! I grew up in a family that went camping, explored, and got out to the unknown of the Northwest. I thought I had seen it all. I have been to ghost towns, Yellowstone, and many other National Monuments, and parks. I thought it would take a lot for me to be surprised or amazed at my surrounding. I have been in awe most of my trip here so far. Here is a taste of what I have experienced and there is more to come!
Sunday while I was driving through Anchorage a moose (yes a full size moose!) crossed the street. Now, I pictured Anchorage as a smaller "city"--bigger than a town but still small. Boy, was I wrong. It is a good sized city with more than one Target! And here is a moose walking down the street! It was absolutely amazing.

Monday I had the pleasure of visiting Seward and Soldonta High Schools on the Kenai Penninsula. I had some spare time in Seward before I left for my next visit and was able to visit Exit Glacier. This is my first experience with a glacier. I didn't know what to expect, but I was amazed at the beautiful color and the size of the glacier. As I was leaving the glacier a Bald Eagle flew right over me--it was amazing feeling to be engulfed by nature, only 8 miles from a town.

I was able to look at four different glaciers in the portage area later that day after all my visits and they were all amazing. Once again a different bald eagle appeared. I was able to pull over and take some pictures as it ate its fish that it pulled out of the stream. As you can see I was able to get very close!

Now, I should probably say something about the work I am doing up here. Every student that I have met has known someone who has been or is currently a student at the wonderful University of Idaho. I have been very excited about the students and the teachers that I have encountered. This trip has been a blast and tonight I started the fair circuit and was able to meet the recruiters from other institutions.

As always, more to come soon. Tonight I am in Ketchikan, tomorrow Sitka, the day after tomorrow Juneau....I am a traveling fool!

Give Moose A Break....

My favorite road sign that I have seen so far in Alaska has been the "Give Moose A Break" Yesterday I had quite the day before the day even got started for me! I went out bright and early to warm up my car because it was frosted over and I had high school visits in Wasilla and Palmer, AK. I got out there and my car was dead.
I asked the front desk and everyone in the hotel breakfast area if anyone had jumper cables. Everyone I encountered had a rental or a work vehicle and had none. But, once again, everyone was so nice. I walked through the lobby and over heard a gentleman re-asking the front desk for me! The front desk called a cab company who came and did it. The gentleman who had re-asked the front desk for me (he was about my dad's age) actually went outside with me when the cabbie came to make sure that he was legit and didn't kidnap me or anything! It was so nice of him!
Anyways, I paid the nice cab driver and got on my merry way to Wasilla. I pulled into Wasilla, turned my car off to grab a water and a coffee at a gas station and got back to my car and it was dead again! Ridiculous I thought to myself! I jumped out and went into the gas station, they luckily had jumper cables. I found someone to jump my car and when we got back to my car it was locked....WITH THE KEYS INSIDE IT. Not only were my keys inside it, but also my cell and wallet. I had nothing but my coat.
So I went back into the gas station and they called a cab company. I was about in tears!
The cab company got there and tried to start working on my car. The woman was kind of struggling with it and a guy filling up his car with gas came over to try to help. While he was working on it a competing driver came by and started to try to help. 10 minutes later he was in. No one would take any money for getting me into my car or jump starting my car! EVERYONE WAS SO NICE!
I went on to have spectacular visits--and was so ahead of schedule that even with all the drama of the morning wasn't late to any visits! Every student that I talked to knew someone who had or is going to University of Idaho and UI was in many of these students top three. The counselors were all very welcoming and allowed students to be pulled out of class and asked me to come back again soon to visit! It all turned into a great day--mostly due to the amazingly nice people that I met in Wasilla. THANK YOU TO THESE PEOPLE AGAIN!
Now...today (Friday) it hit me, that maybe the second time my car was "dead" it actually wasn't. I remembered later on, that I had a hard time turning the engine over when the guy hooked the battery pack up to it. He jumped in and said, "Well you need it in Park, honey" I had acidently turned off the car with it in gear. I drive a manual so I usually coast into a spot and pull the brake. So, maybe if I had checked that I would have never gotten into my second mess. I still haven't figured out the locked out, but I have turned the car manual inside out and found the pin access code for the keyless entery on the door.
Hopefully I will have no more car trouble for the rest of my trip. I find it funny now, but yesterday if anyone gave me a hard time about it I would have cried. It was stressful and not a very fun way to start a trip. Those of you who know me wont be surprised by this story at all :)

ALASKA!!

So, I have made it. I have been in Anchorage, AK for a little over eight hours. Why am I here you may ask? University of Idaho sends recruiters to Alaska every year to talk to potential students etc. Alaska fell into my area so here I am. I am all alone in a new city, new state, new timezone! I love adventures like this!
Today I cruised around Anchorage to try to become better acquainted with it, talked to some locals and decided that there is just too much to do in this one trip. Oh yah, I am also supposed to work on this trip :) Tomorrow I head to Wasilla and Palmer to do High School visits. Friday I am sticking around Anchorage and Monday I will explore Seward and Soldonta. I do get the weekend to explore freely--I am very excited about that!
This trip is different than any I have ever taken before. I will be gone for 15 days. Shane and I have never been apart for that long. Weird. He is busy with fall work and maybe by the time I get back he'll be done...probably more around Thanksgiving time he'll be completely done. So, no Shane to join me. It is a weird feeling to have someone who you want to call and share each new experience. A friend of mine who is married told me this would happen.
"Traveling alone just isn't the same. You want to share everything with your spouse."
I laughed and told him that I had traveled enough alone that it would be fine. I had been to Hawaii, New York, D.C., and plenty other places alone and while I would call my mom to catch up, I never had that feeling of wanting someone to experience it with me. I was fine being a lone traveler.
Not even 24 hours into this trip, I am wishing Shane were with me. I called him when I got my rental car. I called him when I got to my hotel. I called him when I ate my first meal alone in Alaska. I called him when I returned my rental car because it smelled of cigarette smoke. I swear I am bugging him, but I guess that may be the price he pays while he's driving a tractor in Idaho!
Some notes on Alaska. The first thing I noticed was that people in customer service jobs are NICE. They are genuinely kind and good at their job. Now, I have only encountered 5-6 people in these positions, but all were extremely welcoming and effecient. Not something that I have always encountered during my travels. I am loving this town (the little I have seen) and am looking forward to getting more and more acquainted as the week goes by!

My Birthday....

My birthday is tomorrow, Oct. 3--the best day in history. I know of a couple people who agree. On October 3, my parents had their first child, their only daughter and I have been a constant joy ever since, (just ask them!) My grandparents (both sets) were blessed with their first grandchild, thus making me the favorite for the rest of my life.
My Grandpa Tes used to tell me that I was the only one who could say certain things to him. Those of you who knew him, know that he didn't always take a joke directed at him very well--but I for some reason could get away with making smart-aleck remarks.
On a great October 3 while I was in high school my amazing cousin, Ellie, was born. It is a very special thing to share a birthday with a child. We had horse themed birthdays, and Dorah, and many more.
My favorite would have had to been last year. Ellies parents and her siblings and my parents and Zack and Shane all came together in Moscow. Early in the afternoon Shane and I had lunch with his parents (Dennis and Terry) and my parents (Jon and Teresa.) This was the first time they had met, and it was a lot of fun. Shane and I both agreed that they seemed to get a long well (which was nice--we got engaged a couple weeks later.) After lunch time we hung out together for a couple hours and then Ellies family and my family came together in the house I was living in last Fall for a BBQ dinner, lots of birthday cake, and a little tailgating for those of us who were old enough. We all loaded into the cars and headed to the Vandal Football game. We wont that game, which was awesome, but the best part of it was having everyone come together once again for the birthday celebration.
Many people believe that farmers are only busy 3 months of the year. That farmers just twiddle their thumbs and stare at each other after harvest. This my friends, is not true. It is weird how you have to take care of the soil, fertilize the land, plant seeds and work on equipment so it is always ready to use. This for me means that farm work is not even close to being done.
Not only will this be the first time in 9 years that I am not with my parents or Ellie and her family to celebrate my birthday, it will be the first time I'm married. This is the first time in a long time that I have actually felt a birthday.

I feel old. Should I feel old? Another thing is that Shane has been working long days (11-13 hour days) I am not sure if he has time to even remember that it is my birthday tomorrow. So, I am going into tomorrow with no expectations. We will wait and see--keep your fingers crossed. If nothing happens, I can do my best to be understanding towards him. He loves farming and it does require long days--we signed up for that together. I knew going into it what was required and expected.

Till tomorrow!!

Over the Mountain and Threw the Woods...

I haven't been able to blog lately, my life has just been too crazy...that isn't the complete truth. My life has been a little more busy with work travel picking up and everything, but mostly I have been tired. I hate winter time and how it is dark when I wake up and usually almost dark when I get home. It is only going to get worse so I need to start adjusting...believe it or not, this has nothing to do with my current post. The story I am about to tell you is real. It happend a couple of weeks ago and a beautiful Sunday morning. Here are the details:
Shane asked me if I could come give him a ride at some point while they moved fields--I agreed of course because I want to help as much as I can on the weekends and love to get out of the house whenever I can. He called and it was time to meet him at the field to move him...or so I thought.
I got to the field, very promptly I must say, and started counting drivers to machinery and trucks etc. I noticed that we had more combines and trucks than people. Then it hit me. I wasn't giving him a ride. I was going to be a driver. I tried to remind him that I had never succesfully gotten the truck out of fourth gear...(read below to prior post)...he didn't care much. We went through a 30 second refresher course. His dad told me I'd be fine and they all took off.
I started off by just creeping the truck through the field and trying to get a feel for it. I started gaining confidence and actually caught up with the combines and shifted into eighth gear.
For those of you who have never seen North Idaho farmers move fields it is quite the production. We had one truck as a flagger in the front that was pulling the header of the combine, 3 combines (2 without headers on) another truck pulling a header, and myself in the big truck. The other truck drivers were out unloading from the last trip and I thought it would take them awhile to catch up. So luckily I was in the very back. It didn't matter if I killed the truck or went super slow or anything--it was great. But then the other two trucks caught up within 5 minutes of starting. I felt added pressure to be able to keep up with the group so they didn't miss out on any of the action when we finally arrived.
Oh, did I mention that the field we were moving to was in a different state than we originally started in? It was over a half hour away and we literally went up and over a mounting and threw the woods to get there. We also spent some time on the highway...more on that to come.
So back to the up and over the mountain part. So--while I was learning to drive the truck and Shane was in the cab with me, I would go to hit the breaks and he told me not to. He told me instead I should downshift or roll to a stop. In the hustle and bustle of getting out of the field and on the road I had forgotten how exactly to slow down this huge truck! So here we are coming down the mountain and I have three combines and 2 trucks in front of me and I was cruising and I didn't think I could hit the breaks. I started to tap the breaks and actually unbuckled my seat belt so if I needed to I could jump out of the cab and try to roll to safety (thankfully that never happend...)
The worse part was actually when we got to the highway. The truck is really hard to get started in first gear for some reason so I was really worried when I had to come to a complete stop and get it going again with 20 cars behind me. Luckily I was able to get it going enough to limp to the shoulder of the road and wave everyone by me so collect myself. Thankfully this truck is so high that no one in the cars below could see me cursing and looking around the cab wondering if I would ever be able to get it going fast enough not to hold people up enough.
Finally I made it to the field and everyone was so nice and said I did well...I told Shane and I had used the breaks and I was sorry. He informed me that I should have used the breaks and acted like I was crazy for thinking I shouldn't have...He's very forgetful sometimes.
This was a great lesson for me! I have always been the type the learns best by doing and learning from my mistakes. I have been so scared to make a mistake on the farm that I hadn't been doing anything period. I need to become more comfortable taking chances and learning from whatever comes my way. A huge thanks to Shane and his dad for being so patient with me while I was driving the truck and not acting mad that I was a little behind everyone else and for being very grateful that I came out to help. So, if anyone wants truck rides I am officially able to get out on the open road. I don't think I'll take you on the road we went on though, probably an empty field where I am still most comfortable and I can't do much damage :)

Rain...Rain...Go Away...or maybe come to stay?

Tuesday was great...for me! It was cloudy, windy, and rainy! Just the kind of weather that used to make me depressed, especially in August, when it is usually sunny and warm. But rain in my life means Shane and the rest of the farmers on the Palouse were not so happy.

I came home to a empty dishwasher, a hot meal waiting, and the most amazing part--a husband--and it was MY HUSBAND! Yay! I was very excited and enjoyed my evening to the fullest. We were able to have a couple much needed discussions and watched some TV together.

I tried not to let myself get too excited about my evening, but Wednesday night I came home and he was working on the drier! Two nights in a row was almost overwhelming. Now, he is telling me that he will be able to make it to the Vandal football game this evening in Moscow...OUTRAGEOUS! I am so looking forward to the first game and never dreamed that I would be able to share in the joyous event with Shane...this for me is like Christmas! Now...we need a win!!

So, rain, rain go away so my husband can get done with harvest and be home to stay!

Truck Driving Lesson...

This is the beast. I got up to 4th gear in this truck this weekend! Not a huge milestone, but I officially can drive around a field without causing too much damage to the truck, the field, or to my self esteem.

I have been wanting to learn to drive truck for over a year. I want to be able to contribute out on the farm and get to spend some time with my hubby. Not only did I get a truck driving lesson (it was the first of many I am sure) I got a lesson on how the truck works and the gears.

Now, in my family we have many different kinds of people. Jake my middle brother is into engineering. Zack, is into baseball. I am into talking to people and can bust out a decent paper in 15 minutes. And Shane is into how things work properly.

I cannot start to comprehend why I have to double clutch etc. I just need to know when and how I need to double clutch. Shane wants to know why it works that way and thought I would want to know too. He explained it to me. And I swear I tried to follow what he was saying, but I felt my mind turning to mush, just like it did in Sophomore Ag when Mr. Church tried to get me to put together the PVC Pipe and tried to explain why we had to get the angle just right etc.

I think he talked for 15 minutes...I watched as his hands made foreign movements that I couldn't understand and when he looked at me and said, "you got it" I in true form nodded my head, just like I did that day in Ag Class. He got out of the truck and I skooted into the drivers seat.

Now, looking back I know I should have yelled, No! I'm sorry I don't understand!" I should have explained that while he was patiently and excitedly explaniing these things to me, I was actually going over our grocery list, thinking about how beautiful the scenery was and how I really want a new Canon camera to properly capture the beauty of the Palouse. But, I had already nodded yes, I understand exactly what you were explaining to me.

I turned the key, so far so good. I pushed the clutch in...not so good. Apparently I am supposed to try to shift to first while easing on the clutch. I think, "Goodness gracious! This is nothing like my Honda!" I eased on the clutch slipped into first and took off. I worked my way up to 4th gear while driving up and down the field. They didn't let me try my hand at unloading the combine, but it will happen this summer.

I am just happy that I am officially able to drive one of the trucks and able to contribute to the harvest time! I feel more North Idaho farmer already!

Door to Door...Free Cookies!

So, I have been tempted the last couple weeks to make a big batch of cookies and sit on the front porch when Shane leaves early in the morning and see how else's husband leaves that early. Once identifying those houses, I will take cookies around and say, "Hi, I'm Marie, I noticed your husband leaves at 5 am too! He must be a farmer, want to be friends?" I think this would be the perfect solution to meeting people in Tekoa.

So, if you by chance read this, you live in Tekoa, and your spouse/boyfriend is a farmer and there is a weekend you get bored, just let me know :)

Notes on Tekoa--I should say that Tekoa is a great town and everyone I have met has been so friendly. It helps that Shane was apparently VERY nice to people while he was in high school. People seem genuinely nice, interested, and supportive of having us live in the cute town! I am going to try to make it to the pool one of these days and am very excited for sports to start up again to watch some Hawk action :)

John Deere...

While driving home last night it hit me that I am a farmers wife. I wear many hats in my life--any given day my duties range from cook, cleaner, laundress, professional driver, runner, UI recruiter and more. But, I had never thought of myself as a farmers wife. I have been a farmers daughter and a farmers granddaugher my entire life--but this was quite the realization to me!

I love farming and growing up was lucky enough to be around agriculture. I drove truck for my grandfather while he fed cows, I pulled weeds, turned bales, and irrigated for him. I showed market lambs at the county fair for 12 years straight. I have seen many sides of agriculture, but that was South Idaho.

Now I'm in North Idaho/Eastern Washington. The tractors are bigger, the fields are more acreage, and the old farmers that I bs'ed with growing up are over 300 miles away. Now, I am adjusting to working full time and being a wife...I mean a farmers wife, which has some differences...especially in North Idaho :)