The Weekend

I've occasionally been asked how I spend my weekends out here, and because Green River, Utah is FULL of riveting excitement, I'll tell you a bit about them.

I've been here for almost 7 months now, most of which were fall/winter.  Now, thankfully the winter here wasn't too bad at all, not compared to the polar vortexes experienced in recent Indiana winters, but it did limit the amount of outdoor fun that one can have in the middle of nowhere Utah.  Unless, of course, you're a super hard-core hiker, which I cannot claim to be.

So, winter weekends usually contained things like reading books, watching movies, and hanging out.  I've managed to make it through the entire Harry Potter series.  On the surface, it's so that I can better relate with Hope (lover of all things Harry Potter), but really I'm also glad I had an excuse to finish all of them.  There's also no shortage of time to pick up those personal projects laid by the wayside in college- music, pictures, crocheting, etc.- and make food.

Sometimes the weekend includes going to the BIG CITY (Grand Junction, town of 60,000).  I've come to experience abnormal excitement over things like Target, B-dubs, haircuts, and Taco bell.  In general, I am not a supporter of chain restaurants, but when you can't get a crunch wrap supreme whenever you want you just start to crave that toasty, crunchy, creamy goodness.  I've found that most people in Green River experience this phenomenon to some degree.  For Hope, I think it's Pizza Hut, book stores, and cats.  There's a robust yippy dog population here, but alas, few cats.

Inevitably, when I go anywhere on the weekend with a real grocery store, I feel pressured to go in.  Even if I don't know of anything I need, I'm wracking my brain for anything that might come up in the near future (or like, a month).  After being in Green River for so long, I find the shopping experience to be totally overwhelming.  It's something like the Beverly Hillbillies going to the city for the first time.  I think my heart rate increases as soon as I step in the door at the panic of navigating all the aisles.  Finding what I need requires so much concentration that the other shoppers probably think I'm suffering from severe constipation.  I stand and stare at the options in a shell-shocked trance (seriously, there are so many types of crackers...), and I totally can't handle the number of people I have to maneuver around.  The Melon Vine may not have like half of the things I used to eat- things like tofu, gouda, and sea salt (really)- but man, it's so easy to shop there.

When it's not cold, you can usually find me doing something outdoors at least one day of the weekend.  Middle-of-nowhere Green River may not be conducive for social plans, but it's certainly good for exploration.  Around 70% of Utah is public land... there are literally limitless options of places to hike, climb, bike, camp, etc.  Hence, I've gone to a number of cool places, and I hope to continue doing so.  There's a lot of fun things right around Green River, including Swasey's Beach (a truly lovely beach), the San Rafael Swell, and the Blue Castle butte (pronounced byoot, for all you immature people) area.  Arches and Canyonlands national parks are both less than an hour away.

These adventures are hard to describe without pictures. So, it's a little crazy... prepare yourself... I will now inundate you.  Stay tuned, I'm sure there will be many more this summer.

- Arches & Canyonlands -

Delicate Arch with Brent and Tadd when they came to visit

Cyrus was a visiting artist in Green River for awhile.  He decided to give a lovely little concert at Arches.

I had the pleasure of joining Grant and Anne on a little jeep trip through Canyonlands.

Overlook of the Green River in Canyonlands

Upheaval Dome (Canyonlands)

- Other Moab-area sites - 

Fischer Towers

Loved having my family over Thanksgiving!

Corona Arch

Mill Creek

Potash mineral "ponds"

I thought my eyes were blue, but they're so not in comparison to these beautiful ponds.

Professor Creek

 - Close to Salt Lake City -

Fifth Water Hot Springs

Wintery hike near the Red Butte Garden

Park City

On top of the slopes with Tadd and Brent

 - Green River Area - 

Little Wild Horse Canyon

Goblin Valley State Park

Black Dragon Canyon

Swasey's Beach

Uniquely stable mud castles built by Hope and Bryan

February 29th.  Justin and I are jumping in every month of the year.  

Uneva Mine Canyon

That there is my other roommate, Mollie

Bunker area

The minerals sometimes make crazy colors in the soil

The buttes

One of many petroglyph panels

Then, like in any good small town, there's shooting guns and watching sunsets.

An Ode to Cacti

Oh look, some cacti enjoying the sunshine in Canyonlands.

For some reason, I have a small cactus obsession (not an obsession with small cacti, but an obsession with cacti that is not very extreme... yet).  It's kind of the same with succulents, but because really trendy things awaken some kind of "anti-mainstream" complex in me, I'm trying to keep a lid on that one.  Don't worry, I do have a few succulents, so I'm not totally depriving myself.  

I'm assuming I like cacti so much because, well, they weren't really around in Indiana, and seeing things in real life that I've only seen in pictures turns me into a child.  

Utah doesn't have those traditional fork-shaped cacti... those are further south and at lower elevation, but we do have a lot of prickly pear cacti.  Whenever I go hiking, I inevitably end up with one or two (or five or six) cactus pictures.  They are usually preceded by me shrieking "A CACTUS!" like a little girl and running over to it.  

One time, when we were out on a pictograph/petroglyph hunt, I meandered off the trail a little ways and Justin found me entranced in the middle of a little prickly pear forest.  

SO MANY CACTI

So, my apologies, this post is nothing more than an excuse for me to compile some of my cacti pictures and look at their cute little spiny selves.  I hope you enjoy them too.   

It's an extra-poofy cactus!

It's a cactus who overtook a plant!

This is not a cactus.  Just making sure you're paying attention.  And yuccas are nice too.

It's an extra spiky cactus!  I think this one's the "mojave" variety of prickly pear.

And finally... baby cacti!

Right now you're probably having some kind of "oh my gosh, this is Amber's sad life now" moment.  It's true.  I used to spend my time with lots of people, and now it's lots of cacti.  But really, people and cacti are not so different.  To really appreciate either of them, you have to find the beauty in all the spikes.

Coordinator of Edible Things

I suppose (5 months after I got here) it's high time I talk a little bit about what I actually do at work, other than the youth cooking classes.  This will probably be the boring post, but it must be done...

First, PACT as an organization operates a few different things.  There's Pyramid Youth Programs, Food Programs, the Green River Thrift Store, and Cottonwoods on the Green, a collection of affordable apartments.  My title within PACT is Food Programs VISTA.  Andrea said recently that she saw a job title for a position similar to mine that was called something like "Edible Schoolyard Coordinator".  I don't deal in schoolyards, but I like the sound of it.  So just call me the Coordinator of Edible Things.  

This is a picture of the community center from last year with some of the youngsters in front of it.

Currently PACT's Food Programs only includes the Green River Food Pantry, which provides supplemental food assistance to Green River residents whose income is below a certain level. The nature of the economy in Green River (seasonal jobs, service and hospitality industry, farming work) mean that 33% of residents live below the poverty line.  That's a pretty high number.

(If it starts to sound like I'm trying to convince you to give money to our programs, it's just because I've written a lot of grants recently.)

So, my job is to expand PACT's Food Programs to include other food-related community initiatives.  These can be broken down into three major categories.

The Silent City Garden Project
This community and youth garden will have space for multiple things.  Some raised beds will be set aside for community members to plant whatever they desire.  A larger area will be the "PACT garden" portion, where PACT staff and volunteers will grow produce to distribute in the community.  Most of the produce will be distributed in a nonprofit food box program, where community members can sign up to receive a food box every week or two weeks at a low price.  Finally, the garden will include space for an expanded youth garden- space for the youngsters to learn, experiment, and grow what they eat.

Last week we got approval from City Council to use this empty lot for the garden space, which we're pretty excited about.  It will be contained either within Space 1 or Space 2.

Workshops
There's not much opportunity for adult education in Green River, so our goal is to help people become more informed about nutrition, cooking, gardening- basically food in general.  The goal is to offer about one workshop per month for gardening and another for cooking.  Thankfully we're able to partner with Utah State University extension services for some of these.

Community Meals
The food pantry is great, but being able to bring people in to sit down together and enjoy a hot meal would be even better.  Especially in the winter when jobs are low.  So, our goal is to provide monthly or bi-weekly hot meals, totally free, possibly combined with other fun activities.  There used to be a hot meal delivery program for the elderly here, and we'd like to get that started back up a couple of times a week.  Both of these meal programs, however, depend on a lot of funds.

Which brings me to what I've really been doing since I've arrived in Green River.  Aside from teaching and planning for cooking classes (which does take a decent amount of time), I've spent most of my time conceptualizing programs and writing grants.  So many grants (well really like 6 or 7, but it feels like more).  For those of you who are unfamiliar with this concept, I'll explain it a little.  Some nonprofits fund themselves through their operations, but the rest of us need federal or private funding (or some combination of any of those).  Foundations and organizations who have money to give accept applications from organizations who would like to use that money for programs, operating costs, capital projects, whatever.  All of my potential programs are dependent on receiving money from grantors.  No grants, no money, no programs.

None of this probably sounds very exciting, but it will be more so when things become real.  If they become real.  This may be a small town, but developing and running programs is still not easy.  In fact, it may sometimes be more difficult because of the small number of people and resources there are to draw from.  The worst part of my job is that everything depends on me and my ability to make things happen.  The best part of my job is that everything depends on me and my ability to make things happen.  It's a great and somewhat terrifying learning experience.

#FurrerFrenzy2015

I've had a few people ask about our family vacation to Orlando, Florida, so I thought I'd tell you a little bit about it from my perspective- a 24-year-old with no children. (;

It begins on Friday, December 19th, the day of the annual employee Christmas party.  I've come home early from Utah to help, and per the usual, I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get everything ready for the party.  This is always a pretty stressful (albeit worthwhile) day for the Furrer household.  Every year my dad decides to make way too much food, and every year my mom berates him for having so many offerings.  Every year my sisters and I just try to manage the chaos.  Perfect day to leave for vacation, right?  Well, it gets better.  After an afternoon of putting out many (figurative) fires and cleaning up, my dad still needed to make 200 biscuits for his friend Rudy's customer appreciation breakfast.  "I've made them for him for 12 years!", he says.  "Eye roll", everyone else says.  But, of course, we pitch in and churn out the biscuits in about an hour as the rest of the family arrives and mom finishes (or starts?) packing.  

In case you're wondering, this is the new shop's kitchen, not the house's.  (: 

Finally, at about 9:00 PM, after much to do, the family (all 23 of us) was gathered and the bus loaded.  No small undertaking with all the suitcases, kid stuff, and 4 or 5 coolers full of food and leftovers.  The bus is a former tour bus for a family of singers from the 90's.  So it's beautiful, in a hideous kind of way.  Miraculously, we all fit on it.  There wasn't a place for everyone to sleep, so the children got the 7 bunk beds and the adults... just didn't get much sleep.    

Isn't she a beaut?

I think the best way to describe the bus (and really, the entirety of vacation) is just chaos- punctuated by the screams, laughter, and cries of the children and comments from adults. "Can I sleep in my underwear??" (Luke)  The kids loved it because it was pretty much a confined play space, most of the adults tolerated it, and I liked it because for some reason I like being in the midst of chaos.  I think it's just because I like observing... I like taking in a scene with all it's people and their interactions, and the more chaos the more to see.  It might be different if I had my own children. (:  

On the way down we stopped at a very busy Chick-fil-A and took up no less than 5 parking spots.  By far the most difficult undertaking with 23 people is going to a restaurant of any kind.  The best part was yelling "We're going through the drive through, give Dad your orders!", which Heather (Hoerr) actually believed.  

The house we arrived at in Florida was the polar opposite of the bus.  Huge and spacious, modern, clean, and well-equipped.  There were 9 bedrooms, a backyard pool, an arcade room, pool table, and a home theater.  It was the perfect space to enjoy being together without being too much together, and there was plenty to do without leaving the house.  Most of our time was spent here, except for the days we went to Legoland and Disney.  That house might never be the same though, especially the kitchen.  I don't think it's been accustomed to the cooking of the Furrers.  No one is crazy enough to make almost all their meals, right?  

I think I (and probably everyone) spent most of their time watching, chasing, consoling, or laughing at one child or another.  I speculated that we went no more than 10 minutes in between crying episodes, but at least they usually took turns rather than all melting down at once.  It's a little sad I suppose that the adults don't get to spend more time together, but it's just a phase that will pass.  All too soon, I'll look back on it and laugh.  And then Callie will have kids. (;     

These are some of my favorite pictures.  I think they fairly accurately depict the moments that filled our house.  

Ok, so I wasn't always chasing kids...

The whole family went to Legoland, and to spare you a lot of details, I'll just say that it was a really nice, small park, perfect for children.  Because the entire group stayed together most of the time, I found it exhausting (in the same way that I'm sure herding cats is exhausting), but it was still fun to see the kids enjoy themselves.  Disney was an entirely different experience, as Andrea, Callie, and I just ran around Magic Kingdom doing what we wanted and having a blast.  We managed to never wait in line for longer than 30 minutes, which we were pretty proud of.  If you need Disney advice, we'll be happy to contract our services. (;

This scene is just...... perfect.

I was genuinely so excited to meet Piglet.  Disney just gets to you.

One highlight was a little shopping, lunch, and manicure outing the women of the family took while the men watched the children.  I think that was the first time we've ever spent time together with just us!  Lest you feel bad for the men, they went to an Orlando Magics game that night and had a great time.  Except for the questionable Boston Lobster Feast experience they had prior to the game (Lobster in Florida is just not a good idea).  

Another highlight was watching the two Home Alone movies on separate nights in the theater.  Not only are those movies still as great as ever, 10 children who laugh ridiculously loud at every physical comedy moment make them all the better.

My final highlight was on the way home, when we stopped at Wild Eggs in Louisville for breakfast.  I ended up at a table with Callie, Mark, Troy, Briana, and 5 of the children, while the rest ended up at a couple of other tables.  You can kind of feel the whole restaurant looking at you when you're with a group like that, ya know?  At some point Briana left the table and sat somewhere else, so we decided it probably looked like I was Mark's mail order bride and I'd already popped out 5 children, which Callie took care of as our nanny.  Troy was just the weird uncle.  The validity of this scenario was confirmed when Callie went to the bathroom and a lady asked, "Are you from that table with all the kids?  Are they all from the same family??".  Surprisingly, after a sleepless night, the kids were all well-behaved, but I'm sure the wait staff still breathed a sigh of relief when we were gone.  

Getting home from family vacation always comes with a bittersweet feeling for me.  I'm happy to be back in a comfortable place without a certain amount of stress, but I also feel the absence of so many people I love around me.  Family vacation has always been one of my favorite things.  I'd take it over presents any day.  Not because of the exotic places we go to (because we don't), but because it's one of the few times we're ever all stuck together.  As the family grows, many would say it seems crazier and crazier to do this sort of thing.  I say what's life without a little crazy in it?  Boring.  And at the end of the day I'd put up with pretty much anything to spend time with all of them. (: 

I hope I don't have to eat those words...