Less Than a Wheat, I Mean Week!

Hello Everyone!

Less than a week till I'm back home (5.5 days to be exact)!!!!

To keep me busy while I'm counting down the days, my second graders and I have been talking about one of Montana's largest crops, wheat. I was able to borrow a wheat grinder from a local business and the kids have been able to grind wheat into their own flour. It's been super fun.



I don't know what's been more entertaining, the little girls that can barely crank the grinder or the super competitive boys that challenge each other to see who can grind the fastest. Either way we've been having fun and learning about good old wheat!

That's all for now. Can't wait to see everyone while I'm home!!!!

Love,
Becky

Wonderful Wednesday

Today has been a great day so far and it's only 11:00. Why?

1. Today marks two weeks until I'm boarding the plane back to Cleveland.

2. I got $175 Patagonia boots for only $80 thanks to theclymb.com. Seriously check that website out, it's awesome.

3. Texas basketball won last night.

It might not be much, but it's the little things that make me the happiest.

Oh well, that's all for now.

Love,
Becky

Finally!!!!!!!

So I've been waiting to make this post for months now. NBA basketball is finally back and I am the happiest girl in the world right now. I literally screamed in joy checking my twitter this morning. Now winter won't be quite as bad since I'll have games to watch. Some bar in Livingston better have NBA League Pass and be ready for me to be there on a regular basis.

I've compiled a list of the top 20 reasons I'm so pumped for the NBA season:

1. Seeing Kyrie and my TEXAS boy Tristan Thompson in the wine and gold.

"We've come to save you Cleveland!"

2. Watching the Cavs in general. Let's Go Cavs! Believeland!

3. Watching the Thunder make it to the NBA finals (I'm calling it now)

4. Two words: KEVIN DURANT (best player in the league).

"Who gon stop me huh?"

5. Seeing the Celtics get older and older and worse and worse.

Rondo save us please!!!!

6. Delonte West. I frickin love this guy.

I'm one BAMF.

7. Seeing Chris Bosh cry.

Womp. Womp. Womp.

8. Seeing Lebron James choke.



9. Seeing Dwayne Wade look like a tool in new Tmobile commericals (really, who has Tmobile?)

10. Watching Ricky Rubio become Rookie of the Year.



11. Watching the Timberwolves in general (they will surprise people).

12. The crumbling of the Lakers era. Sorry Kobe you're old. Sorry Mike Brown, you're nowhere near the coach Phil Jackson was and no one is going to listen to you.

13. While I hate to say it because I hated him in college....Blake Griffin. He's really growing on me, but I still would take K.Love over him any day.

"You may be good Blake, but I can score AND rebound. 31-30 man!" -K.Love

14. Watching on Christmas Day when the Mavs get their championship rings in front of the Heat....hahah suckers!

In your face Heat!

15. Seeing D.Rose break some ankles.

Fast don't lie.


16. Rudy Gay's return and the emergence of the Grizz.



17. The NBA on TNT. Basketball comedy at its best.

18. Jimmer totally sucking in the NBA. Sorry I can't stand that guy or his fans.

"That's about right. You are a dog Jimmer. Get ready to get lit up in the NBA. This is where the real men play" -Love, every single NBA player.

19. Dirk being Dirk and seeing what hairstyle he decides to rock this year.



20. The 2012 NBA draft....Cavs gotta continue to stock up. We're going to be the next OKC.

Welcome back NBA. You've been greatly missed.

Now anyone who really loves me will make sure to get me tickets to the first Cavs game while I'm visiting for the holidays....hint hint.

GO CAVS!!!!

Love,
Becky

Thanksgiving Shout Out!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

For awhile I was pretty bummed I couldn't come home for Thanksgiving. It is the first major holiday I'm spending away from home, but when I thought about it, I have nothing to be bummed about...

I have great friends and family that have totally supported me 100% in my choice to come out here and do what I've been doing. They've been when I needed a phone call/text/tweet/etc to lift my spirits on days where my homesickness was unbearable.

I live in a great community that has truly embraced and welcomed me. You don't know how loved I felt when I was invited to over ten Thanksgiving dinners today.

I am doing something I am truly passionate about. I've found a cause I want to dedicate my life to.

I live in one of the most beautiful parts of the country.

And I have this little bugger in my life now



Look at that little face, no reason to be bummed at all. And to make it even better, I'll be home in 3 weeks!!!

Alright, off to the gym and then to a couple Thanksgiving dinners. I'll be having turkey for the first time in 5 years! Yum!

Miss you all! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,
Becky

One Month!!!

It's exactly one month until I fly back to Cleveland for a couple weeks. And for those of you who follow me on Facebook and Twitter you already know how completely pumped I am. Being away from home for this long has really made me realize how much I love my family, friends, my dog, and the city of Cleveland. My supervisor Todd said to me one day when I was really homesick, "You must have some good things to miss back home" and he couldn't have been more right.

So what am I looking forward to when I go home????

1. Hugging my parents
2. Hanging out with my sister
3. Hanging out with my friends
4. Taking Sophie on walks
5. Chipotle and Cozumels
6. #TeamDingus trivia nights
7. The plethora of awesome Cleveland restaurants (Melt, Bier Market, Momochos, Ty Fun, etc)
8. I would say Cavs games, but after today I highly doubt that will happen : (
9. Group Power class at Peak
10. Christmas Ale
11. Just being in a real city. I <3 Cleveland.

Hopefully the next month goes by fast....

Miss you all.

Love,
Becky

My New Hobby

Went indoor climbing for the first time last night. My "roommates" aka the boys that live above me are avid climbers and they promised they would get me climbing too. We went to Spire, a super awesome climbing gym in Bozeman. One thing I didn't realize was how big of a climbing scene Montana has, Bozeman especially. I guess it does make sense though when you think about it.

Montana=Tons of Mountains=Good Climbing.

Anyways. My roommates Christian and Trevor (who are pretty stellar climbers themselves) showed me the ropes (literally and figuratively). What I've learned about climbing is there are scales to rate climbs. In the most basic terms, climbs are rated on a 5.0-5.15 scale. 5.0 being no climb at all really to 5.15 which only a hand full of people in the world can do. If you're pretty athletic you can usually start at a 5.6 if you've never climbed before.

I started at a 5.6 and climbed it with no problem. So I moved onto a 5.7, a little tougher but I reached the top fairly easily. Finally on my last climb I tried a 5.8. I got about halfway up and couldn't go any further. I blame part of my failure on just being tired from my other climbs. Climbing requires a ridiculous amount of forearm strength, which I don't have right now. Even after my first climb of the night my forearms felt like rocks. So by my last climb they were hurting a little.

I'm so happy Christian and Trevor introduced me to climbing. I think I might be hooked. Being a fairly competitive person I like climbing because you can always competing within yourself to do a tougher and tougher climb.

Can't wait to get back to the gym to tackle that 5.8 climb I didn't finish.

Now it's off to Missoula for the Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings concert. I've been waiting to see them forever so I'm super pumped!

Love,
Becky

A Weekend to Remember.

So it's been awhile since I've made a post and some of you have been getting on my case to post more (cough, cough....Mom and Dad). Anyways, things have been slowing down a bit in the office as the temperature outside continues to drop and the holidays continue to approach. And while last week was slow, my weekend was not. I had a pretty scary/fun/awesome weekend (in that order exactly). Here's a rundown of what happened....

Scary:

Friday night on my way to Bozeman to hangout with my friend Maggie I hit my first deer. I clocked him while going about 50 mph on the highway. My tough little Subaru handled the incident fairly well, however the deer did not (R.I.P Mr. Deer).


The damage.

The whole thing scared the shit out of me, and now I know I'll be super paranoid every time I drive at night. While the whole thing sucked, it could have been a lot worse. Thanks Mr. Subaru for keeping me safe.

Fun:

So what was the best way to curb the killer anxiety I had from my deer accident? Why have a few drinks with a few friends of course! Which is exactly what happened next. My friend Maggie was sweet enough to take me out for dinner and some bar hopping in Bozeman as a belated birthday celebration. My new neighbors/rock climbing friends met us there. We had a great night exploring the bar scene in Bozeman. I can't express how awesome it was to go out and be surrounded by young people (something I don't get in Livingston). I will definitely be participating in the Bozeman nightlife scene more often.

That night I stayed a Maggie's place in Bozeman. The next morning we woke up, grabbed some coffee and eventually decided the best way to cure our hangovers was to go visit some puppies and kitties at the local animal shelter.

The void in my heart from Leroy passing away had been taking a toll on me for awhile. Minutes upon walking to the shelter it was filled by a sweet little cat named Walnut. I believe I have a sixth sense when it comes to animals, more exclusively, pets. I just know when an animal is right for me, it's just a feeling I get. I had it with Leroy and I got it with Walnut too. I had no intention of going to the animal shelter on Saturday and even less intention of adopting a cat, however some of the best things happen unexpectedly and my adoption of Walnut was one of those things. Here's a picture of my little man:



Awesome:

Sunday was awesome because I finally got to go to Yellowstone!!! I have been to Yellowstone once, but only to the Boiling River for a couple hours. This time I took a day long trip with some of my friends. Part of our reason for choosing Sunday was it was the last day most of the roads were open before they closed for the winter. While it was super chilly outside, we had a great time braving the cold to see some of the most beautiful places Mother Nature has to offer. Since there's no way I can describe the awesomeness of what I saw here are some pictures. Check out more under my "Sweet Pics" tab on this blog.



Mammoth Hot Springs



Old Faithful


Bison!


Grand Canyon of Yellowstone


Pretty awesome, right?

So while my weekend started off on a bad note, it ended on a great one. This work week is dragging, but luckily I have another exciting weekend to look forward too. Friday I'm going to Missoula to see Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and Saturday I will be in Helena with some friends. Yay!

As much fun as I am having here, the countdown till my visit home is always on my mind. Only 36 more days!!! Can't wait!

Love,
Becky

To Get a Dog or Not to Get a Dog....That is the Question

So lately I've been really wanting an animal in my life again. As a poor VISTA it makes the most sense for me to get another cat. They're easy to care for a fairly inexpensive. However as much as I love cats, I must say dogs have my heart a tiny bit more.

In Montana there's just as many dogs as people. Basically to be a true Montanian you need a couple things....

#1. A Subaru
#2. A Gun
#3. A Dog

I have a Subaru. I will probably never own a gun. Now a dog?????

What brought about the dog discussion was a chat I had with my new neighbors that live in the apartment above me (they're super cool guys). They've offered to help me take care of a dog and watch it if I ever have to travel.

So while sitting here at work I've created a list of the PROS and CONS of getting a dog. Here it is...

PROS

* Companionship
* Hiking Buddy
* Rescuing a Shelter Dog

CONS

* Cost (Food, Vet, Etc.)

That's all I got, and as you can see the PROS outweigh the CONS right now. I'm going to the shelter today to look at this one pup I have my eyes on. Here's a pic...



Her name is Ashby and she's a 4 year old German Shepherd mix. As you can see she's completely adorable. I wonder if she's the right dog for me. Guess I'll just have to find out....

Love,
Becky

My Favorite Holiday

Today is my favorite holiday. What is today you might ask? Well it's the first ever National Food Day. Food Day is a celebration of food in America. However not all food should be celebrated. There's plenty of foods that should be left off the guest list for this party. Some examples include:

*Twinkies
*Marshmallows
*Fast Food
*Chicken Wings
*Pop
*Nacho Cheese
*Donuts

And the list goes on.....


To me, Food Day is a celebration of the progress we've begun to make in our country changing our food systems and food culture. Food Day celebrates the small local, organic farms. It celebrates the parents that cook healthy, homemade meals nightly. It celebrates anyone who is or wants to change the way we eat and where our food comes from.

Today at my school we celebrated Food Day by offering a 100% local, fresh, and homemade hot lunch. After weeks of menu planning and coordinating this special meal finally happened and was a great success! Not only did more kids buy school lunch, but more food disappeared from their plates too!

Of course being a foodie myself I wasn't going to pass up a local meal. I had a great time eating my beef, barley, and veggie soup while gabbing about Halloween costumes with my 2nd grade buddies. Here's a goofy picture one of the little girls took of me.



Yum! HAPPY FOOD DAY EVERYONE!!!

Love,
Becky

Tears, Cheers, and a Deer

Yesterday started out bad....real bad for reasons I shall not say in case the wrong eyes get a hold of this blog. Let's just say I've already been down in the dumps about missing my friends and family and to add some work bullshit on top of it along with it being a certain time of the month (sorry if that's too much info for some of you) broke me down into tears. I'm not a crier, but yesterday got the best of me.

Luckily I had a farm field trip with the kiddos that day. How could I not perk up around 20 happy kids screaming with excitement over carrots, kale, cabbage, and potatoes? As always we had a great time on the farm. I got my fair share of hugs and stories from the kids, which was greatly appreciated. I must share one conversation from my little friend Kelsey that made my day...

Kelsey: "Ms. Naab do you have a boyfriend?"
Me: "No."
Kelsey: "Do you have a husband?"
Me: "No."
Kelsey: "Do you have a wife?"
Me: "No."
Kelsey: "Do you have kids?"
Me: "No Way!"
Kelsey: "Can I call you Mom?"
Me: "Just call me Ms. Naab."


My buddy Kelsey and I and some red kale

After some fun on the farm it was off to yoga to de-stress and relax (which I needed greatly). Once yoga was finished I headed off to my supervisor's house (he invited me over for dinner, I think he felt bad for the horrible morning I had). The menu that night was fresh antelope Todd had killed that weekend. With no hesitation I grabbed some antelope steak and chowed down. I can honestly say I've broken the threshold of meat being scary to me. The antelope was great. To be honest it tasted like steak.



Even though yesterday started on a bad note, it ended on a good one or a tasty one at least!

Love,
Becky

Terrific 2's

If Livingston Montana was Sesame Street the number of the day would be the number 2.

There are 2 reasons why 2 is the number of the day...

#1. I have exactly 2 months until I fly back to Cleveland for 2 weeks.

#2. I finally have 2,000 views to my blog.

So today's been brought to you by the number 2! Now I leave you with a picture of Sophie my sister sent me this morning just because she's so gosh-darn adorable.





Love,
Becky

School to Farm

Today was my best day of being a FoodCorps volunteer. It was today we started a series of field trips with 2nd graders to my friend Mark's farm. It's taken me weeks to coordinate these field trips and there was a couple of road blocks, but I finally got it to happen.

I stepped into the school this afternoon to be greeted by a bunch of anxious youngsters lined up, name tags on and ready to go! As we boarded the bus I had about 10 offers from little girls to sit with them which melted my heart(one of the little girls insisted on holding my hand the whole field trip). After 10 minutes on the bus we were at the farm.

The kids unloaded the bus bursting with energy. Mark and his wife Caroline, having a kindergartner of their own, quickly rounded the kids up before they took off into the fields. For the next hour Mark showed the kids each veggie growing and even allowed them to pick some veggies themselves. Let me tell you, kids that most likely never touch vegetables at home were eating broccoli and tomatoes right off the branches.



Seeing that gives me a feeling I don't know if I can explain. I guess if I'd have to call it anything it was a feeling of hope. Hope that these kids will develop life long healthy eating habits. Hope these kids will help continue the food culture that I'm dedicating my life to change. Hope these kids will grow up and never have diabetes, heart disease, and all other food related illnesses.



Today's field trip did more in changing kid's ideas about food than I've been able to do in 2 months of my Farm to School lessons in the classroom. There's such a powerful thing about knowing exactly where your food comes from. I've felt this many times and I felt so lucky to share that feeling with these kids today.

Yay for a HUGE Farm to School success! I can't wait for my other field trips this week. I'm probably more excited than the kids.



Love,
Becky

Chicken Heads

Warning: This post has a disclaimer. All of those who are faint at heart or are hardcore into animal rights, do not proceed reading the rest of this post. The words might be a little graphic, but the pictures are even worse.

Read at your own risk.

Alright with that out of the way, let me tell you about the evening I had yesterday...

While going through my daily E-mails yesterday I received one from my farmer friend/mentor Mark. It was mostly about some Farm-to-School stuff we've been working on, however he ended the note with an enticing offer. He was going to start slaughtering his 80 or so chickens that night and I was invited to witness the process.

For those of you who know me well enough, you know that until recently (due to some moose and yummy grouse) I've been a vegetarian for about five years. Now it seems there's this common perception that vegetarians are against the killing of animals, and I'm sure there are many vegetarians out there that are, but that is not why I was a vegetarian. I believe that humans are omnivores and that meat contains many vitamins and nutrients that are key to human health and well being. I became a vegetarian because of my distrust of the growing meat industry. The cows pumped with hormones, the chickens stuffed in cages so tightly they just constantly shit on each other harboring who knows what kind of harmful bacteria, and the corn and soy these animals are forced to eat even though it's completely un-natural and indigestible to them. Those are the reasons why I became a vegetarian.

I must say out here in Montana animals (both game and ranch) are much happier. They eat grass, they roam in fields and in woodlands, they don't get hormone cocktails to fatten them up. I like happy animals. Happy animals are healthy animals. Healthy animals are yummy animals.

Anyways, Mark raised some happy chickens on his farm and now it was time for those happy chickens to die.

I pulled up to Mark's farm yesterday with some anxiety. I've never seen an animal butchered. Would I get grossed out? Would I feel bad for them? I didn't know, but it was time to face my fears. I always say I want to know exactly where my food comes from, this was just a facet to that notion.

Mark butchers the chickens in two mobile trailers. He's developed this whole mobile chicken slaughter process himself. I must say it's pretty ingenious and just another reason why Mark is a badass and my hero. This is a picture of the inside of trailer #1:



Here's a rundown on the whole process....

#1. Chickens are placed upside down in "Kill Cones". Their heads go through the bottom of the cone and then you chop it off. Once the head is off you keep them in the kill cone for a few minutes to drain all the blood.

(I have pictures of this, but I've decided they're a little too gruesome to share. I'm trying to keep this blog PG-13)

#2. The be-headed chickens are put in scalding hot water for a couple minutes to soften the skin so the feathers come out easily.



#3. Chickens are then put in the "Chicken Washer" a cylinder that is full of rubber fingers. The chickens bounce around in there and the rubber fingers remove all the feathers.



#4. The naked chickens are taken to a second trailer where they're gutted.



And that's it. The whole process takes about 10 minutes. I must say while I thought I would be grossed out, I wasn't at all. If I had the chance next time I think I'd even be able to chop the heads off myself instead of just watching. Montana is turning me into more of a badass than I ever thought I would be, and I like it.

Well thanks for bearing with me through my semi-gruesome post. I hope each of you learned something about how chickens go from the field to something what you'd find in the grocery store. Now I leave you with some goofy pictures I took.

Love,
Becky

Mmmm Meat!

So I've become quite the carnivore (at least in my book). This Friday at work I was greeted by my supervisor Todd holding a limp grouse he had killed the night before. For those of you unaware of what grouse is, it's a bird kinda similar to a pheasant I'd say. I think the Ohio Becky might have been a little freaked out about this, but I must say as the new and improved Montana Becky, it didn't phase me at all. Here's Mr. Grouse himself.



At lunchtime Todd cut up the bird, sauteed it with some garlic and butter and everyone in the office enjoyed grouse nuggets! Yum Yum!



The grouse tasted kinda like chicken with the texture of pork. Here's me munching on some grouse.



Next is antelope.....

Love,
Becky

Drumroll Please...

I'm going to be an organic farmer.

Love,
Becky

Trusty Rusty

Hola Amigos!

I need to write about my awesome Montana outdoor adventure weekend. Honestly I think it was one of the best weekends I've had thus far.

Let's start with Friday. After volleyball practice my coaching friend Lori and I went to dinner. She had a gift card to the Rib & Chop House which is hands down the best place to eat in Livingston. I got a margarita and ahi tuna....two of my absolute favorite things. Delicious! I went to bed happy as a clam that night.

After sleeping on Saturday I woke up with a small dilemma on what to do that day. Yellowstone had a free entrance fee AND I had a free ticket to the Museum of the Rockies.....decisions, decisions. Well I ended up not going to either. Inside I took a hike up to Pike Creek Falls which is located about 10 miles south of downtown Livingston. There's just something about walking alone in the woods that is so peaceful and liberating and just real to me. I love it. After about a mile hike I reached the falls. They were a little weak, but that's expected for this time of year. I even took a little risk and climbed straight up the falls to the very top. I'm glad I did. Here's a few pictures from my hike:









After my hike I returned to my car and my phone with a voicemail from Lori. She and her husband were going to dinner at here mother and father in law's ranch and I was invited to come. Free dinner? As a poor AmeriCorps VISTA I never turn that down. After dinner at Lori's in laws we did a little four wheeling on the property they own. We went to look for some wildlife, unfortunately all we saw was deer. Boo....deer don't impress me, there's enough of them in Ohio. I was ready to see a moose or a bear (in reasonable distance). Oh well!


Here's me and Lori's dog Maggie on the trail!

I concluded my busy Saturday by going to see my friend Wes and his band play in Bozeman. The show was in this super cool venue in the basement of a warehouse. It has tons of abstract artwork over the walls as well as many abstract people. I loved it. Words can't really describe the place, unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, sorry.

On to Sunday.....

Again I slept in, a luxury I always take advantage of. Around 1:00 I went with Lori to her parent's house to make and can salsa(Dad- don't worry the salsa we made still doesn't top yours). It was at Lori's mom and dad's house that I did the inevitable. I ate meat! Not any kind of meat though. I had moose salami! I figured moose was a pretty ballin' to transition back to my omnivorous ways. If you don't believe me here's picture proof:



Some pieces of moose salami and several jars of salsa later I returned home just in time to meet Wes for some horseback riding on the ranch his dad works at. I wasn't sure what I was in store for, but let me just say I went on an epic Montana horseback ride. My horse was Rusty, who I would like to deem Trusty Rusty. Here's my man:



Rusty took good care of me. We even did some trotting and loping which is still a little scary to me, but everything was good with the Rust-man. This is us after we did some climbing to the top of a mountain.



There's one last thing I want to mention. Besides for the sheer awesomeness of just being on a horse, the views of the ranch and the mountains were breathtaking. The whole experience was such an authentic way to take in some of the most beautiful sights of Montana. I don't know if I'll ever forget it.

On that note, I need to do some laundry badly. Hope you enjoyed reading about my weekend as much as I did living it.

Love,
Becky

Food is Good

Tonight I had a great dinner. Yes, the food was great, but the company made it even better. Here's a little back story for you....

While at my FoodCorps training last week in Great Falls I had the opportunity to meet with a farmer who also happens to be the CEO of Timeless Seeds an organic bean, lentil, and barley company. Awesome man. Anyways when he found out I was in Livingston he automatically told me I needed to meet his friend Jim. A few E-mails later and I was invited to dinner at Jim's home.

Jim is an architect for AERO (Montana's Alternative Energy and Resource Organization) which does a lot of work with sustainable food systems. Jim and his wife have a killer garden, do tons of composting, have totally remodeled their home to be modern/rustic themed.....totally my type of people. Tonight they also invited a couple over who they've been friends with for awhile. The husband is a part-time professor at MSU he also runs a couple acre farm near Bozeman and even sells at the Livingston farmers market. Totally my type of people too. I received some great advice from the farmer/professor when I told him I was considering the Food Systems graduate program at MSU. He told me that I shouldn't waste my time and money and I'll learn more staying in the real world, something I am really taking to heart.

I had a great time talking and more importantly listening with these people. They were all very accomplished people, but yet so laid back and happy. They are people who haven't let their careers let them loose track of the little things in life that are critical for true and pure happiness. Little things like sitting around having a meal together.

That brings me to a point I really want to make. It was a dinner like tonight that really reminded me why I want to get involved with food and food systems. While we were all sitting around the table sharing stories and eating one thing I realized is that the food at the table is just like every person sitting at the table. It has a story too. Some food (like the food we ate tonight) we know the story of. We know were it came from, how it was raised, and how it got to the table. Some food we don't know it's story other than the fact it came from a box or a bag. When you talk to people you seem to connect best with the people that are most willing to share their stories. The same I think is true with food. The more we know the story of our food, the better we connect and enjoy it.

We should eat the foods in which we know their stories, not only that, but we should eat the foods with the best stories. The stories that start in gardens or small farms. The stories that don't include shipping from across the country or world. The stories that don't involve pesticides and herbicides. I like to know the stories of the foods I eat. That's why farming has become so intriguing to me. When you farm you get to make the story of your food and you get to share it. However me and my farming dream is a story for another day.

Anyways, I hope everyone got the point I'm trying to make. I'm sure I'll bring it up again.

I'm tired I need to go to bed.

Love,
Becky

It's Official

This afternoon I booked my flight to come home for the holidays. I'll be back in Cleveland Decemeber 14th-January 2nd. I can't wait! As much as I love it here I miss all my family and friends dearly.

See everyone the 14th!

Love,
Becky

Buddhas, Orphans, and Cats

Hello All!

It's been a quick minute since I posted last, I was traveling all last week.

I had to mentally prepare myself for this post. It's going to be a long one.....hope you're ready.

So last week I was on the road doing some cool stuff and some lame stuff as well. I've decided I'm going to separate this post into those two categories: COOL and LAME. I'll start with the lame.

THE LAME:

1. The Mobilizing Rural Communities Conference: Wednesday and Thursday us FoodCorps gals went to Great Fall for this conference. I'm not a big fan of sitting indoors all day so I already wasn't really looking forward to it. The conference itself was super boring. Myself and some my FoodCorps buddies couldn't muster up the patience to sit through some of the talks, so we played a little hooky. No big. Overall the conference gets a big, fat "L" for lame.

2. The Orphanage: Okay so I wasn't at a real orphanage, but close. While in Great Falls we went to the Mobilizing Rural Communities Conference Wednesday and Thursday. After that we had a FoodCorps training part of Thursday and Friday. So in total we staying in Great Falls for three days. During those days we stayed in a place called the Ursuline Center, which I believe is a Catholic boarding school. All nine of us got to sleep in one room "Annie" style. Check it out:



To make matter worse, there were pictures of Jesus glaring down at us all over the walls. Nothing against the guy, just kind of creepy.

THE COOL:

1. Missoula: I know I already posted quickly on this topic, but I just want to reiterate how much I love Missoula. Here are some pics:








(Yeah I really like this place)

2. The Peace Festival at the Garden of 1,000 Buddhas: Over September 11th weekend all VISTAs were required to do a service project of their choice. My friend Jared invited me to volunteer at this Peace Festival with him and some other VISTAs since he knew how much I was into Buddhism. We drove up north to Arlee on Friday where the garden is located. Saturday was the festival. I got put in charge of helping a Tibetan nun cook a bunch of Tibetan food for the festival. Which worked out great for me because I love cooking. Here are some of the things we cooked:


Mo-Mo's traditional Tibetan dumplings.


Veggies with a bunch of Tibetan spices.


Dal, a yellow lentil soup.

Helping out at the Peace Festival was great, but let me also give you a little background on the Garden of 1,00 Buddhas where the festival was at. The garden was started by a Tibetan lama who had a premonition that this place was holy ground. He came to Montana and started this garden. The garden includes a sculpture of Yum Chenmo, a female manifestation of the perfect of wisdom. Here's a picture of Yum Chenmo:



The reason the garden is call the Garden of 1,00 Buddhas is because the garden will not be complete until 1,000 ceramic Buddha statues are completed. Currently there are around 800. They are hanging out in the "Buddha Barn" right now.



Once 1,000 Buddhas are completed, the Dalai Lama is going to come to Montana to bless the Buddhas and the garden! I really hope I'm around for that!

Just for fun here's a picture of me being a little Buddha and one of me doing some trampoline jumping in front of the monks' house.





3. Cats: With Leroy gone I miss having a cat around. Luckily this week I had the chance to hangout with two cool kitties. Shimmy was the house cat at the Garden of 1,000 Buddhas. The other cat I hung out with was Twiggy. Twiggy was the cat at an organic lentil farmer's house I spent the night at. Twiggy had only one eye like Leroy! She lost it getting in a fight with a raccoon.


Shimmy


Twiggy

So those were the highlights and low lights of my week on the road. Overall I had a good time and I got to see and do things I've never done before. Definitely a lot of memorable moments.

Back to work tomorrow for me.

Love,
Becky