Dishes, dishes, dishes, beer, and more dishes

Nykele

So. Many. Dishes.  They rarely stop coming. Adam and I switched today, he got to play outside and I was in the kitchen. The kitchen can certainly be enjoyable. And I would rather do dishes than toilets any day so there's a plus. I was able to practice my dicing skills, got myself a blister and I was even holding the knife the way I was taught....hmmm fishy. 

We got our first round of German's today. They are... A bit more demanding than the French. I was hoping to be able to practice my German but haven't quite gotten the chance. Any time I was around them today they were asking me for a beer, coke, Arnold Palmer  or wine. We don't serve alcohol at the Rockin' R but people can bring their own in. All of it was in the fridge so we had to bring it out for them. So I cracked open my first beers tonight, guess that's what you're supped to do before you give it to them. We'll see what fun they bring tomorrow.

Recap from the past few days: we have an English family staying here, the kids are two (S) and four (T) and are so precious! The four year old boy (T) talks like an adult, from first conversation I would have labeled him as six or seven. And his little sister is such a doll, she has cute cheeks and a darling smile. I was able to spend a lot of time with them the past few days. I could listen to them talk all day long. I went on a hike with them yesterday to Butch Cassidy's old hideout. Ya that's pretty sweet, his descendants still live around here so they have shown one of his spot in a grouping of rocks. T would say "we're going to the naughty cowboys hideout"- put that in an bright English accent :) yup cute. We learned some of the different words they have for things, like sweat pants are tracksie-bottoms, our chips are their crisps, our fries are their chips.    We later rode in the arena. Little S rode the donkey-Hallelujah, and T rode a horse. We rode the day before as well. I got the horse to run for him the day before so he was asking that I lead his horse :). Made me happy. I love being able to get to know families. This family has been here since Tuesday and leaves tomorrow. They are such a joy! I'll be sad when they go.

Well sleep is calling.

Adam is not feeling so well. He's had a soar throat the past day or two, so he's already asleep. He'll catch up tomorrow. He enjoyed the sun today though :) Yey! 

Awe! Sunday!

Sundays are the day of rest, and for a job like this it certainly is true. We are so grateful to have time to just relax. Church was enjoyable and uplofting, we go to the Antimony ward, so with 169 people in the town and not all being members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints it makes for a small congregation. All that we met were very inviting. They are used to adding people during the summer months because of added staff at the Rockin' R. Adam got to meet his first mission companion's father today and found out his companion will be visiting this next weekend. He's excited for the reunion.

We are quickly catching on to the swing of things. The staff treats us as part of the team. I thought it would take a while to integrate but we feel like a part of the crew. There are about ... 15 of the main staff, I believe. Four of which are the farmers (Creston-owner, Wilfrado, Tony, Rudy), two head managers (Brandon & Brandi), cook (Stan), pastry chef (Dawn), assistant manager (Sarah), head wrangler (Dachelle- said like Nykele but with a D- talk about confusing), other staff (Adam & I, Hannah, Melissa, Billy), the little hires (sky, tichelle, cameo), and photographer (Haley).  I hear we'll get more as the season progresses. 

There was another bus of French who came in yesterday evening. They didn't do any activities, just here to stay a night. We fed them dinner, had the band again, and fed breakfast then they were off. 

Nykele:

I helped with cleaning the rooms before the new bus came in. We really do every aspect of ranch and hotel work. Put that on the job apps. I also had to run the register for the store for a while. This was a bit of a stress because my asst. mngr explained it, I thought I had it, then she left and the floods came in. It's a computer operated register, I got it now :) .  The evening was spent in the kitchen helping get dinner out and washing all the dishes. Woohoo my favorite chore :/.  But actually i stand and use the power sprayer and rinse everything off, it can be fun...when I don't soak myself.

Adam:

I was in the kitchen all day yesterday, literally. It was dishes, dishes, vegetable chopping, and more dishes. I worked a 14 hour day and by the time I was done I was dead tired. A day of rest has never been so welcome. I was to the point where you're so tired you can't fall asleep.  If you know what I'm talking about say yeehaw... Thank you for those who actually said it. This next week should bring new adventures, it'll be interesting when Nykele any I switch and she's in the kitchen all day. 

Love you all!

Day one!!

Whew what a long day!!  We were thrown into the mix of it all. Trained during the slow part of the day and were a part of the huge rush tonight. We're just part of the crew :)

Nykele:
I started off the morning being a maid, but a cowgirl maid so all was well. :)  my morning chores are cleaning the bathrooms and some gathering areas. I was feeling a tad down when I could hear Adam laughin and lovin the kitchen, but hope is on the horizon for me because after this first week of his kitchen training we'll switch and I'll get trained. But after chores and breakfast I was trained at the front desk, talk about intimidating! After a quick run through of my duties my supervisor left. I was in charge of answering phones and greeting people, eek I don't know much about this place yet so I was weary of being able to talk to people as a rep. Luckily all those that called I was able to just take down messages. Then finally after lunch I got to go outside :) worked in the tack shed organizing, let horses off their posts to move them somewhere else, and stained a deck beside the arena. Then dinner, THEN the guests arrived!! We had a bus of 42 French people! We hear a lot of our guests are foreigners. Dinner was a rush and fun to help serve. And to complete the night we had a band and dance. A whole lot of country dancing.  We also swing.... Adam and I might need to learn more of a country swing cause we may have been a wait too quick paced? We just need to relax it a bit but we had a blast:). The guests cameras were out the whole time, so our faces will be showing up on someone else's photo albums and facebooks. Now it's bed time! I'm pooped!


Adam:
Today started in the kitchen..... And ended in the kitchen. It was fun though! They're training me in the kitchen so that I can get started as the breakfast cook if I want to. The cook's name is Stan and he's a nice guy. A little hard to read but still nice.  I tried to show him that I wasn't completely incompetent. I chopped veggitables and did dishes after breakfast.  Preparing lunch wasn't too bad, we had chicken and waffles in sandwich form... I would have done it a little differently.... But it was good.  After lunch we had a big break because we were waiting on. Huge bus of 42 French people to come at 8:30. So I took a nap only to get woken up by a little finger tapping on my knee (the managers little girl wanted me to play dominos with her... She's 3) and hearing "play with me!" she was really cute.
   The rest of the day till dinner involved unloading supplies from the managers car and chopping more veggies... I am getting pretty good at it.  It didn't get really fun till the bus full of French people arrived and we had to rush to get all the plates put together and brought out to them.  It felt like lunch rush at chick-fil-A... And I loved it. : ) after the guests ate we had a band play music and they were taught line dancing. I didn't get to join until I finished cleaning the kitchen with a few others. But I was able to jump out on the dance floor and bust a move.

Now I am tired. Goodnight.

Well we made it and are ready to start our Rockin' R Ranchin' Adventure. Rockin' R Ranch sits in the small town of Antimony in Southern Utah.

Moving out of Rexburg was a feat, as always! We are so lucky to have some glorious friends and neighbors who took care of us as we stumbled through our packing and cleaning stress. We've concluded we are horrible movers.

Our travel down was nice and easy. We broke up the travel in two hour trips getting to spend time in Logan with the Shapiro's, a stop in Provo to see Becca, and a couple days in Beaver with the Stephenson clan. We were so blessed to have family along the way to stay and enjoy our time traveling.

We're still not so sure what we'll be doing, but we'll find out soon, seems like we'll just get thrown into the work. The main part of the ranch isn't too large. We'll be living in the lodge until it's warm enough at nights to turn on the water and not have it freeze, then we'll be moving into the "Shabin" as they are called (shabby cabins). 

We are very excited to start this crazy awesome adventure!
If you want we'll take you along with us on this Rockin' ride!