Great Lakes State of Mind (BOI-GRR)

The picture above was taken on I-84 in Idaho just west of Boise. If you can't read it, it says: "Trucking Ain't For Sissies". Priceless.

I booked a flight to Grand Rapids, MI to see my friends Scott & Mark in Muskegon, MI. In the meantime, we spent some time in both cities and various reaches of Western Michigan. Here is a synopsis of the week that was a miniature "Summer of Squalor". "Summer of Squalor" is a name given to the Summer of 2002 when Scott, Mark & I along with a whole cast of ever-changing characters shared a townhouse in Ann Arbor, MI for the summer. I will leave it up to you to determine the meaning of squalor here.

Saturday, February 19, 2011: I arrive a bit late to GRR. Scott picks me up, and we drive to his Brother's home. When I arrive, I am served home-made cinnamon rolls with left-over thai fried rice. Missy, Scott's Sister-In-Law gives us some home-made bread and a bottle of salsa to take with us to Muskegon. We meet her friend Tracie, chat for a bit, and get on our way. After arriving in Muskegon, we decide to head to Holland, MI to visit New Holland Brewery. The maker of one of my favorite beers: Dragon's Milk. We drank there for a bit, and headed to Grand Haven to bar-hop. We ended up having a few at a place called Tip A Few Tavern. It was during this stint that we decided to go back to Scott's Brother's house to hang out with Missy and her friend Tracie. We headed back to Grand Rapids and played marbles,laughed our asses off at a viral video of LaSarah and generally headed home late at night with Mark as our designated driver.

Sunday, February 20, 2011: I woke up somewhat hung-over at around 9 or 10 and start cooking breakfast. I had raided Scott's refrigerator the night before and all I could find was the following: eggs, tortillas, ground beef, asparagus and the salsa we had received from Missy. I made really thin egg pancakes and laid them on top of heated tortillas. Added the browned ground beef, sauteed asparagus tips and the salsa before rolling this mixture into a really jank-ass burrito. It was gross, but it did hit the spot. I think the rest of the day involved a couple of movies and a half gallon of R&R Canadian Whiskey. By 3:30 a.m., I was keeping Scott and Mark awake with my rendition of every song from Tom Brosseau's Grand Forks. It was ugly. Oh, yeah...it snowed about 10 inches during the day. Some idiot with a White Sox hat on posed for us during the snow storm:

Monday, February 21, 2011: Woke up in a haze. Our plan was for Scott to drive me to Grand Rapids to meet up with my Sister. She was in town visiting my nephew, Ethan. He is a student at Grand Valley St. University. We cleaned up and made the drive. Lunch was very pleasant. We went to a pizza joint that doubled as a sports bar. Pizza was good, as was the company and conversation. Got to see my other nephew Logan and my niece Addison as well. I really enjoyed being able to make this happen. After lunch, we headed back to Muskegon. I took a position on the couch and crashed hard.

Tuesday, February 22, 2012: Pretty chill day. We went bowling.I actually bowled my second best game ever: 198. After this, we decided we needed a board game. Monopoly it was. Played a long game that night and called it a day.

Wednesday, February 23, 2012: Scott was really restless from being in the house the last couple of days. We decided to make another trek to Grand Rapids. Our plan was to go to the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Vertigo Music (new Low Anthem was out on the 22nd) and then visit Founder's Brewery. I really think Founder's might be top 5 in the U.S. when it comes to making not only standards, but innovative, smart beers. The plan went well. The best part came as a surprise, though. We were hungry for lunch and we had just left the record store. We drove into a Latino neighborhood looking for a good taqueria. Instead we found "Tortas Gigante".A tiny, dirty, friendly place that specialized in a favorite of ours: the torta. The torta is basically a Mexican sandwich that can have any filling, but is usually topped by lettuce, tomato, guacamole or avacado, mayonnaise, cheese and refritos (refried beans). Two different kinds of bread can be used on these sandwiches: Bolillo or Talera. Tortas Gigantes uses Talera, which is the thinner bread that is much better for the flat top. It gets a nice crusty edge when grilled and tastes great. Scott got his favorite, Al Pastor (marinated pork) and I ordered the Milanesa (breaded steak). We were the only ones eating there, but there were several younger kids that came and went via the basement of the joint. Not sure what was going on, but we were only focused on the tortas. It was an amazing find. Beers at Founder's were great too:We retired to Muskegon to play more Monopoly and then we played a Hold 'Em tournament before we ended the day.

Thursday, February 24, 2011: Scott talked Mark and I into helping him shovel the neighbor's driveway. His neighbor is older and not able to do this herself. We agreed and after about 45 minutes, it was cleared. It felt good not only to do something nice for someone, but to get some excercise! We spent the rest of the day just hanging out and watching television until Scott and I decided to go get some food and drink. We ended up at a brick oven pizza place drinking beer from Mt. Pleasant Brewing Company (our old stomping grounds). We drank more at home, and then dug into Missy's home-made bread. Grilled ham & cheese sandwiches, and then we just buttered the bread and grilled it. Add some salt and it was ridiculous. Simple but amazing. It marked the end of the trip, because I had to go to the airport for my flight out Friday afternoon.

Here is a link to a drunken FaceBook note I wrote about the trip Thursday night: http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/benjamin-barker/great-lakes-state-of-mind/149142341812639

Meatcutting Week 15: Actually... Remodeling Week 15

The week of Feb. 14-18 was the last week of work before the shop was shut down a week for Jeff and his family to go skiing in Utah. I took advantage of this and booked a flight to Michigan for the next week to visit friends in Grand Rapids and Muskegon. In the meantime, we cut a few beef and then built a door for our walk-in freezer. I was supposed to work Friday helping to slice bacon, but I felt like ass all night and in the morning. I wanted to rest so I was good to go for my flight Saturday morning, so I called in sick. I rested Friday and left for Boise that night. My flight was leaving at 5:40 a.m., so I did not want to wake up at 1:00 a.m. and leave La Grande to make my flight. I will detail my trip in the next entry.

Meatcutting Week 14: Hogs, lambs & goats, oh my!

Week 14 (Feb. 7-11, 2011) brought some new "critters" to the cutting table. "Critters" is actually a term thrown around our shop to describe the animals we cut. The new ones this week were a variety of lambs and goats. They are very small and actually very easy to break down compared to a beef, of course. They are basically like mini-beefs. Most of the cuts are exactly the same. Their 30-50 lb. frames were a welcome relief to the 325 lb. beef halves we usually work with. It may sound weird that we are cutting goats, but this meat is getting more popular in the U.S. I would venture to say that more people in the world eat goat as a regular part of their diet than any other animal with the exception of chicken and fish. The meat is pretty lean, but it is usually a little tougher than lamb, etc. Because of this, most cultures have created dishes that involve very slow cooking with lots of liquid and spices. If cooked properly, it becomes a very flavorful protein.

Speaking of tough cuts of meat. I recently got my hands on a beef neck roast. This is a quite unusual roast, but Jeff did not want to use the neck for soup bones, so he took the neck with the surrounding muscle tissue and slow cooked it like a roast. There is a large amount of connective tissue in this surrounding muscle, so it has to cook for quite a while before it becomes gelatin and the meat falls from the bone. The resulting roast is just as good as any pot roast. I really liked it.

We also spent an entire day cutting hogs! This was the first time we were able to make a whole day out of cutting pork. I need this repetition to get the routine memorized. When we have cut them in the past, it was limited to a handful each time. I think I have mastered the basics of breaking the hog down for the saw. Exciting.

Unfortunately, this work did not leave us with a whole week of cutting. We put some finishing touches on the walk-in freezer and called it a week.

Spent the weekend shooting an AK-47, flying a kite, playing disc golf and drinking heavily. My buddy Mink got officially ordained as a minister somewhere in the chaos. I couldn't make this up.

Meatcutting Week 13: Butcher's twine & Good times

Last week we cut one beef all week. This sucks, but we are still working on the finishing touches of our walk-in freezer. However, I was able to learn how to tie our london broils and roasts with twine using a knot that made me feel like I was learning how to tie my shoes all over again. I am now practicing on bananas, my remote controls or anything semi-round. I was not a Boy Scout, which became quite evident to Jeff immediately. Jeff calls it a Cinch Knot. Actually pretty basic once you are able to practice for a bit.

On Thursday, I was invited to a strategy meeting held by a community organization called Oregon Rural Action. Check out the link...http://oregonrural.org/. Ours is the Blue Mountain Chapter. I was anxious about what to expect, but it was very interesting. Not only did I find out where to get chicken feet from a church's food bank, but I also found out there were a number of young people in this area that are very passionate about local/sustainable food, and local enery conservation, etc. It was very interesting, and after the meeting, I was invited to hang out with some of the community organizers at a bar in La Grande. I had a great time chatting about lots of things, and it was parlayed into a Super Bowl party invite. The Super Bowl party was much more laid back than I am used to. My memories of them are quite hazy, but usually they involve me not showing up to work the next day. We had good food and beer and rooted for the Steelers (I thought the Steelers @ +2.5 was the smart $, unfortunatley).

One quick note about beef: Since I had the carne asada at my rental in FL last year, I have been looking for a particular cut of meat that our crew got from the mercado. I had no idea what it was, but it was one of the best flavors of beef I had ever tasted. Last week, a customer ordered flanken-style ribs. These are about 3/8" thick and they are basically small circles of rib bone that are surrounded by a strip of meat. It looks like flank or "fajita" meat, but it has these rib bones in it. Jeff said they are also called "Asian-style ribs". If you have a meat shop nearby, ask them if they can cut these for you. Marinate them in beer (preferebly Mexican), fresh lime juice and salt for about one hour. Lay them on the grill and cook them on a very hot flame for about 1-2 minutes on each side. Ridiculous.

On another amazing food level. I had a top 5 meal this past weekend. I have become friends with the proprietors of Golden Crown restaurant in La Grande. I happened to walk into the place on my first night here to get some food after imbibing heavily. I was not dissapointed. They had a very low-key sushi bar (the only one within 60 miles), and I was at home. I met Franky, who along with his family owns this place and another in Baker City, OR. We had great rapport, and talked about food, hardcore. I have since been to Golden Crown on a weekly basis to enjoy their fresh salmon sashimi and an occasional TG IPA. The staff behind the sushi bar is great too. Polo and Francis take care of me well, along with Franky, his Mother and his wife, Angela. I will keep this short: I was invited to partake in a staff meal at Golden Crown consisting of pork belly and lotus root. Obviously, I was in. 9:00 p.m. Saturday night, I showed up with a empty stomach, drool crusted on my lips and a curious mind.

Every night, the employees of Golden Crown cook an authentic Chinese dinner for all the staff to enjoy before the joint closes. One of the regular dishes contains a top 5 ingredient of mine: pork belly. This is basically bacon that has not been cured or smoked. It has multiple layers of fat and muscle tissue and really needs to be cooked low and slow to create the desired texture. This shit can chew like shoe leather if left to an amatuer (see Brugge Brasserie in Indianapolis). Luckily we had Franky's Mom cooking for us tonight. From what I can gather, she starts cooking the pork belly in a stock with unknown spices, etc. Very soon after, she adds the Lotus root after it has been stir fried in oil. Lotus root is an authentic Chinese vegetable that is grown and harvested under water. It can grow up to 4' long, and is very fibrous. This is why it has to cook slow with the pork belly.

Basically, when all is said and done, you have food texture porn. Seriously. If you haven't eaten slow cooked pork belly...do it immediately. I guess the only thing I can compare it to is the hot cracklins I had in Marksville, Louisiana. Although the craklins are a bit different in texture, but you can still feel the pork fat melt in your mouth like roasted bone marrow. Next, if you have the ability to buy imported Chinese produce at your local International market or your city's China Town, pick up some Lotus Root. It may be a bit pricey, but do yourself a favor. This shit is life-changing. It is a starchy root vegetable, and it picks up all flavors it is cooked with. But the texture...the texture is unexplainable to me. I want to say potato, but it is firmer. Firm, but as you chew it, it also melts in your mouth dispensing all flavors/seasoning that Franky's Mom decided to throw in the pot. It is cut into discs that are about 1/4 inch thick. I could not get enough. The great thing about this meal was that it was basically the protein and the veg served over white rice. No over-sweetened sauce or ridiculous flavor-enhancers that are often added to the American version of Chinese food. This was a taste of home for their kitchen staff. It was no frills, home-cooked food. Cantonese-style. The ingredients were cooked the way they should be. There were 2 stars in the movie, and they were unimpeded by an over-priced set or special effects. It was pork belly and lotus root cooked exactly the way they should be. Simply amazing, really.

Quickly: We just sold a beef to the owners of Terminal Gravity. Here is part of our payment. I was lucky enough to bring 6 cold ones home last night.

We are currently cutting meat this week, and it has been great to get back to practicing. Next blog will contain details about a nice meatcutting surprise.

Meatcutting Weeks 11 & 12: Sun, Fun & The Man

Over the last 2 weeks, our business has been incredibly slow. I have become concerned, but I am not scared yet. I have kept busy working with Jeff on building our new walk-in freezer. We are now ready to install our FRP board as the final touch to the freezer walls/ceiling. We spent a couple of days last week actually building a new wall. It was cool to see how this was done. The ridiculous thing was we built the entire wall with scrap wood found at the "old building" on our property. The old building is where Jeff originally had his shop when he purchased it. It still houses some random items along with all the waste from Dale's mobile slaughter (don't spend too much time thinking about this).

Our winter has gone from Siberia-esque to actually bareable over the last several weeks. The weekend of the 22nd I went to play disc golf at a small 9-hole course located on the Eastern Oregon U. campus. I was surprised to find so many people playing, but it was the first sunny, over-40-degree day we have had since October. I played the course twice and actually worried that I would get a sunburn. No luck. I threw pretty well. The course is smaller with a majority of the baskets within 250 ft. It is very cool playing on a campus that has hills, buildings and lots of trees. http://www.discgolfscene.com/courses/Eastern_Oregon_University

Oh, yeah...I also had this grand idea of offering beef, pork or lambs from our local ranchers to my friends/family. I had done some research, and the price was right for the quality of the product we have at our disposal. Unfortunately, the meat has to be purchased as halves or wholes and shipping frozen food makes the price a little overwhelming (dry ice and 2 day air shipping is not cheap). It is still cheaper than buying the same cuts via retail meat counter, but not competitive with meats that can be sourced locally. After shipping and my fee for handling/etc., the cost for pork that has been custom cut, wrapped and frozen would be approximately $5.00/lb hanging weight (usually about 100 lbs per half hog). I calculated this to be about $7.98/lb net price per pound of frozen meat. The meat is great quality, and there are some great cuts worth much more than the $7.98/lb in a retail counter, but it doesn't make sense for people to pay this when they can get quality beef/hogs/lamb locally for much cheaper in large quantities.

I had a small run-in with the LaGrande police this past Saturday. It sounds a lot more dramatic than it went down. I was rifling through all my records Saturday night pretty late and completely lost track of time and the level of volume I was playing the Immortal Technique record I had not listened to in a long time. I heard a knock at my door, and immediately knew what was happening. I turned off the music and answered the door. The exchange was quite cordial, and we parted ways within 20 seconds. Me apologizing, and him saying thanks, have a good night. I felt like a tool keeping people up at night, but sometimes after living in an apartment for a while, you need to listen to music above an acceptable level. Sorry to my neighbors. This probably won't happen again for some time.

I got my fix.

Meatcutting Week 9: New tasks

As promised, along with less beef to produce at this time of the year, Jeff had me working on several new items this week. I was excited, but also very anxious (see last post). I want to be proficient at all aspects of our shop as fast as possible, but now that I am completely comfortable with breaking down hind quarters, I found myself wanting to cling to that task. It is what I know and it has officially become my comfort zone.

Here are the things I started to learn this week:

*Prepping the front quarter for the saw. The front quarter contains the chuck, ribs (my favorite steak resides here), brisket, skirt, neck, etc. This is much easier than breaking down the hind quarter, but it will take a week or two to become comfortable with it.

*Using the saw. We had several "hamburger cows" to break down on Thursday. Hamburger cows are beefs that are being processed into ground beef only. They are usually older animals that have tougher muscle tissue. They can be old females or old bulls. The older females are usually very fatty, while the bulls are very lean. The better cuts of meat on these animals would not be tender, therefore, the best way to utilize them is to grind everything. However, we are able to salvage the tenderloin in some animals.

That said, these hamburger cows present a perfect opportunity for me to practice some saw work. We went ahead and broke the beefs down like usual, and I was able to use the saw to cut some steaks and roasts, and break down each quarter further. If I made mistakes, it did not matter, because in the end, all was going to be fed into the grinder. It made perfect sense, and I appreciated the opportunity to try the saw.

*Hogs! On Wednesday, we processed 9 hogs. I had tried a few of them weeks ago, but sort of forgot how to do it. Unfortunately, we do not do hogs very often, so it will be hard to get into a routine, but I think I will learn it eventually. They are much easier than beefs. Basically, each half of the hog is cut into 3 parts: the shoulder, the ribs/loin/belly and the ham. There is more to it, but those are the basics. It is a little tougher to trim the fat from hogs. It is a softer and more flexible material. Knife skills are tested with this task.

*Installing insulation. Friday we had no meatcutting work to do, so we went to phase 2 of our walk-in freezer project. I also had to conquer a small portion of my fear of heights. Only 1/4 of the ceiling has planks installed for storage and to walk on above the room. the rest of the ceiling is just beams right now. We plan to install a "floor" to walk on above the room, but now we just have the one side to walk on. I had to measure, cut and install foam insulation to fit between the beams across the entire ceiling. I was frozen while trying to prepare to do the work, but after verifying that the small portion of floor would hold my weight, I got semi-comfortable. The fear kept me working very slowly and safely, but we got all but 4 open areas insulated by the end of the day. Phase 3 will have us installing plywood over the insulation, creating the "walls" and ceiling of the freezer. After the plywood is installed, it will be covered with FRP panels.

I am hearing rumors that I will be working with Dale, our mobile slaughter guru, sometime over the next several weeks. I am excited.

Inspired

I was always rightfully taught that our fears were at the apex when we had to speak publicly. I have, through experience, been conditioned to disagree.

I really think our fear is at it's greatest when we attempt to learn a new task. Think about it....a trembling fear comes across our neck when we are accosted by change. There is something beautiful about our "comfort zone". Here we are, "experts" at what we do. Now, we have chosen or are forced to remove ourselves from this! "I hate this", "the new boss is making us do this!" "Muther fucker has no idea what change is good". I have been there many times, as many of you have been.

I am confronting this ultimate fear as I write this. I am inspired by my Brother. After he had graduated from Indiana University with a Philosophy degree, he decided to go to Nursing school. Half-way through, he called me saying he had this horrible, bitch-of-a-professor. She was going to inspire him to quit his dream. I remember the call...I remember trying my hardest to inspire him to get through this one class. I said, "you are the one person in our family that is working toward a skill". "There are a lot of classes you will excel in after this". "Please don't hold up your whole dream on this one professor". He actually listened to me and grinded it out. Now he is a successfull LPN with a job that he is passionate about. He would not admit this, but his anectdotes prove that he is passionate.

I guess what I am trying to say is: the most intense fear in the human experience is learning something new. It sounds ridiculous, but think about it....when you have to learn something new at work or in life, to become inspired, you have to pin your ears back and attack without any ego. It is very hard. The crazy thing is, when you become a baby again while learning this new task, you feel embarrasment, but after you succeed, you have the highest sense of self. That is what makes us feel alive.

Obviously, in the small amount of time I have been in this humbling position of hind-quarter breaker at Stafford's Custom Meats in La Grande, OR, I have had this epiphany many times. I felt that it was worth writing about. After seeing what my Brother went through, and his friend Alison who quit her job as a Social advocate to follow her dream as a stylist, it became easier to follow my dreams. This post is written with all dreams in tact. Here's to you Todd Brown:
Please check out the Teddy Rossevelt quote at this link:http://artofmanliness.com/2009/02/28/manvotional-the-man-in-the-arena-by-theodore-roosevelt/

Meatcutting Week 8: Back to work

After a couple of weeks in Indiana, I was ready to get back to work. Unfortunately, we had not yet caught up with the rush we made before our break. We had enough beef to get us through Wednesday, but Thursday and Friday would find Jeff and I working on a different project.

When Jeff moved his business into our current building, he installed a meat locker system for his customers. Customers could pay a monthly rent on a locker to hold the meat that was cut at our shop. It really helped people that did not have the freezer space to keep the large volume of meat they had ordered. Unfortunately, the idea fizzled. Most people now have freezers specifically for their meat orders. The lockers have sat empty in a large space at the front of our building for over 10 years.

Thursday and Friday, we worked on removing the locker doors and the framing they were installed on. I was hesitant to do the work because I am not the handiest dude, but I put on my overalls and came to work with a positive attitude about changing the look of the shop. Thursday, I spent the whole day using a grinder to cut the steel framing. It was actually fun, but I forgot to wear a mask, so I inhaled my fair share of metal dust. My snot was black for days.

Friday, we removed the locker doors and moved them to a cattle trailer on the property. They are great antique freezer doors circa 1930. We actually found a penciled inventory count of turkeys from Thanksgiving, 1955 on one of the doors. Very cool. We then removed the metal frames and cleaned up the area.

We are going to convert the space into another walk-in freezer with an overhead door entrance. This will allow us to handle larger orders that need to be moved on pallets. That is my segue to the news I got when I returned:

*Jeff is starting to research a shift of our business to a USDA inspected shop. This would allow meat that is slaughtered (we currently have the capability to slaughter, but we would have to be inspected to make it worth our time to do) and butchered at our shop to be sold in a retail setting. There is currently no USDA inspected shop in the area, and ranchers that choose to sell their beef, hogs, etc. through retail outlets must ship their cattle to Boise, ID (3 hrs. away) to be processed.

*If we do make the transistion to a USDA inspected facility, we may have an opportunity to cut meat that will end up in local schools. There is a push in Oregon for locally raised livestock to be available for local school lunches. I am excited about this.

* Since we have entered a slower time of the year for production, I will have the time to start learning the other stations of our operation. This includes preparing the front quarters and using the saw to make final cuts for our orders.

Onward.

BOI-IND

Although I did buy chains for my tires in preparation for my trip to the Boise airport, the weather was agreeable, and the 3 mountain passes on I-84 from La Grande to Boise were easily navigated. In Oregon, along with other states, there are zones of highway that require chains to be installed on tires to pass. If there are lights flashing as you enter these areas, it is actually required by law to install chains. These areas have extreme change in elevation and are very remote.

I left for Boise on Monday, although my flight didn't leave until Tuesday. I wanted to give myself time to beat any inclement weather and maybe check out Boise for a bit. On Monday night, I headed downtown to check out a record store. The Record Exchange is the main spot in Boise to pick up the latest releases on vinyl, cd or cassette (largest cassette selection I have seen in probably 15 years). http://therecordexchange.com/mainsite. I picked up a couple CDs (no room for vinyl on the plane). Newest releases by Deer Tick, Matt Pond PA and Frightened Rabbit. Loved Deer Tick's last album and got to see them live on their home turf, Providence, RI, in '09. Still giving all 3 albums a chance.

My arrival to the Boise airport was matched with lots of Boise St. fans heading out to LAS to check out their team take on Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl. Here is a picture of a woman with an orange fur coat on with blue sweat pants (Boise St. colors for you non-sports-fans). Classy:

I arranged for my friend Ted to pick me up at IND. It was his birthday. Hated to keep him sober enough to pick me up at 11 p.m., but we anticipated a late night. I finished a bottle of Romana Sambuca that I brought to his house about 3 years ago. He drank bourbon. We listened to music on his heated sun-porch until about 5 a.m. A little mix of tracks from his itunes ranging from Bo Diddley and the original Fleetwood Mac to George Clinton and Midlake. It was a good night.

The next day, I stayed with my friend Adam on the Southside. We have been religiously watching and betting on college football together for over 4 years. We followed our normal Saturday routine of binging on vodka bombs, chain-smoking cigarettes and rooting for the team we foolishly wagered on. This day, it was the previously mentioned Boise St. We won our bet. I got to visit with Adam's neighbor, Larry, also. Great dude. He actually got me a Christmas gift. We both like Ford trucks, and he works at a Ford dealership. The gift was a T-shirt that read: "Ford...Built without your tax dollars". It was classic Larry.

My plan for Thursday was to meet friends at my old home-bar, The Ale Emporium http://ale-emporium.com/. It was a success. All my "Ale" friends came out to say hi, and lots of other friends showed up. Shout out to Todd Brown, Noel, Dan, Fisher, Jeff & Kim (thanks for giving Jeff a chance to come out and play), Mike, Brittany, Kristen, Matt, Ian, Mike Jusko, Jim, Kent and anyone I'm missing. Amazing night...too bad it ended with Mike Jusko and I heading to Joe's at 82nd St. for last call while Jeff and Matt ended up at Joe's at 96th St. Still not sure why we didn't go to Kip's.

After 40 minutes of trying to get me to wake up with calls to my cell phone, my Dad and Brother convinced the associate at the hotel I was staying at to call my room. I finally woke to the hotel phone. It was just after 8:00 a.m., and my Dad was on his way back to Huntington from picking up my brother in Bloomington. I made it.

Spent the next 5 days and 4 nights with my parents in Huntington. We had a great Christmas. My Grandma was there most days, and I got to hang out with my Sister and her family too. I got what I wanted for Christmas:

*Overalls for work

*Z-Place Pizza

I left Huntington Tuesday night (12/28). My Dad dropped me off at April's place so I could spend some time with her and our cats, Nyla and The Pocket Pig.I am sort of obsessed with our cats, and luckily, I get pictures sent to me from April on approximately a daily basis. They got me a picture frame with a picture of each cat laying in the sun. It wouldn't fit in my bag, so April is shipping it to me.

Overall, my time in Indiana was fantastic. It was an odd feeling not knowing when I will be back.

IND-BOI.

Meatcutting Week 7: Hustle to the Holidays

The week leading up to our Holiday shutdown was intense. We all wanted to get out of town ASAP. Jeff, my boss, was heading to Park City, UT to celebrate Christmas with his extended family. I was leaving on the 21st out of Boise back to Indy and Huntington to spend the holidays with friends and family. We made a plan to work the weekend, so we could all leave on Monday, the 20th. Problem was, we needed to have over 30 beefs cut and in the freezer before we left, or they would be hanging too long.

Luckily, my hands were in much better shape, and I was getting faster at breaking down hind-quarters. We had our focus on speed and production, so I really didn't learn much this week. However, there were some cool highlights:

*We were able to cut and freeze 34 whole beefs working Monday-Saturday.

*On Thursday Jeff, Jen, Joanne and I cut, wrapped and froze 9 whole beefs in about 10 hours. Unbelievably, Jeff claimed this was a record.

*On Saturday we sliced, wrapped and froze 9 slabs of bacon and as many hams along with the 3 beefs we needed to finish before we closed the shop.

*I got some really good feedback about my work from Jeff as we shared a Terminal Gravity IPA after we finished work on Saturday.http://terminalgravitybrewing.com/

*I was given a basket of meat, local beers and other food items for Christmas. It included rib steaks, cottage bacon, chirizo, italian sausage, ham, pepperoni sticks and hunter sausage from Jeff's personal stash.

I was very anxious to get home.