This week so far!

     The baby robins are getting bigger by the minute!

Alright, so I've been getting questions about if Chelsi and I actually work during the day at the Monument. Let me give you a run down of our week. We work 6 days in a row this week, 9 hours a day, with a 30 minute lunch break. We are outside the majority of this time. We work really hard doing things that I never thought I could do!
     For example, on Tuesday, I went to the Freeman School with a guy from YCC and we dug thistles all morning. I mean, I was using a shovel about as tall as I am to dig thistle out by the roots that was as big (if not bigger) than I am. If it weren't for the hat that Poppi gave me, my farmer's tan would be all out of whack!
     Chelsi and I had to tend to the Freeman School after lunch doing our butterfly monitoring. I take pictures of butterflies, then she and I identify them for the coloring book she plans on making near the end of our internship. We had a little surprise waiting for us when we went to unlock the door... and Chelsi almost stepped on them! They were slinking through the grass just like snakes, trying to get back to the hole underneath the Freeman School.

It was a family of 13 lined ground squirrels. I counted seven of them! They even let us pet them. They were really friendly and SO ADORABLE.

     They would peek their heads out of the hole, and bleary eyed, they would rest their head and slowly slip back into the hole. I stalked them for about two hours, and they let me get really close. They were cautious about peeking their heads out really slowly... not even noticing the huge black Canon pointed right at them. They even squeaked a few times, but they were never scared by us. What a great surprise! Baby animals are always fun. 

     A little bit about the beginning of the week... but first, my computer battery is low, and we are yet again sitting at Arby's. The time it takes for my computer to go off will determine the length and detail of this blog. 
     After Chelsi and I stalked the baby ground squirrels, we walked back to the EC and refilled the "pop" machine. I still think it's funny that they call it "pop". We then closed up the EC and headed to Wal-Mart. I wanted to make my famous sour cream enchiladas. The only thing I was missing... Jack cheese. Little did I know that Jack cheese is IMPOSSIBLE to find in Beatrice. I scoured Wal-Mart to find nothing. Therefore, we had to go to another grocery store on the way home because I wanted my enchiladas to be perfect. Well... that grocery store didn't have any either. It was time to settle. Here's the recipe (Jack cheese included)
4 palm-sized pieces of shredded cooked chicken (don't you love our units of measurement?)
salt and pepper
1 dozen corn tortillas
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz sour cream (I used way more than this)
JACK CHEESE
Heat the oven to 350. Cook the chicken and shred it into fine pieces. Fry tortillas in hot vegetable oil to make them soft. I fry them one by one and put them on a plate so they can cool down a little. Take some chicken with your fingers and place it in the middle of the tortilla. Then roll the tortilla up and place it in the casserole dish. I used a 13 by 9 casserole (I think). Do this until the bottom of the casserole is covered by the rolled tortillas. Mix all other ingredients (except the CHEESE). Pour it over the enchiladas, making sure it gets into all the cracks. Cover them with the cheese (make sure it's Jack and not the mixed stuff I had to settle on). Bake at 350 until the cheese is bubbly. I left mine in there for around 30 minutes. It was delicious!

     We worked with kids yesterday as well. In the morning a group of 12 kids came, then after lunch we had 40! It was exhausting. We taught the morning group how to make dolls from rags and Chelsi was in charge of showing them how to make a "buzz saw", which is essentially a button on a string that you can do 1 cool trick with or make it 'buzz'. They also did a sensory activity on the prairie and I think they enjoyed it. There was also a game called "rattlesnake" where the kids got in a circle, and one gets in the middle. The middle child is then blindfolded. A cup full of rocks is then passed randomly around the circle, and the middle child has to figure out who has the can. It was actually a lot of fun! I got to play a few times. The kids really enjoyed it, especially when a second cup of rocks was brought in that they didn't know about. This was a game the "pioneer children" would play. 
     I also was in charge of a game called "pack the wagon". You are given a list of things you would need for a 5 month trip on a wagon, and each item is listed according to weight. You cannot exceed 2,000 pounds or your spokes will break. You can't stack your things more than 2 feet high or it will fall out. It is a fun yet challenging game.




Homestead Days begin tomorrow and go through Sunday. In Beatrice, Homestead Days is the most important event of the summer! I will be crazy busy, so don't expect to hear from me until next week. 

There are an estimated 93,000,000 descendants of homesteaders in the world today. Are you one?