Ashley's trip to the Farm!

I spent this past weekend with Brenda on the farm where she grew up in Vale, Oregon! Vale is right over the Oregon/Idaho border near Boise. Here I am with Brenda standing in the corn with our awesome straw hats- a must on the farm!
Brenda made me stand in the corn a lot. Here I am about five feet in, that stuff is thick!
There were lots of baby things at the farm: calves, puppies, and this little kitty! Love it. I hugged all the ones I could, much to Brenda's dismay. ha!Mama Saunders taught me so much about farming!All these little strings (called silk) are hooked on to each kernel of corn. They catch the pollen that falls from the top (tassel) of the corn stalk which makes the kernels grow! Did you ever know that? I had no idea! Here I am standing near the top of the pivot, it's like a giant sprinkler that rotates and waters all the corn.One of my favorite things I got to do was dig up potatoes! I totally look like a farmer...
Here I am with my first potato!
Later that night, we ate the potatoes and corn we picked/dug up for dinner!
I have never had corn that tasted that good, and I don't think I ever will! It was SO fresh and delicious! Everything on this plate was from the farm- cool, huh!Don't worry about it! I got to drive a tractor! THAT was AWESOME!I wasn't just driving a tractor, I was actually baling hay! Hay is alfalfa.You can actually see me in this picture driving the tractor!
Me and my pal Lowell (aka tractor driving instructor).
Here I am on the hay I baled!
While on the farm, I also got to milk a cow. Here's Phil showing me how it's done... sort of...The prospect of this was very exciting, until I realized the cow lives next to the pigs... and pigs stink! Yuck!
Okay, it was actually hard to want to touch the cow...Once some milk came out I was done and outa there!
Mama Saunders taught me so much about the farm, including how to set siphon tubes. The tubes siphon water from the canal to the rows of corn.
It took a couple tries, but I finally got the hang of it. Brenda had to do this for EVERY row of corn when she was growing up!
Here is a view of the Silo on the other side of the farm... the farm is so beautiful!
The silo was 100 feet tall, and we totally climbed to the top of it! You can see me close to the top in this picture, with Brenda's brother Jay nearer to the bottom.
Here we are at the top! It was really scary, but I didn't tell anyone I thought so...
From L to R, Phil, Jay, Sheryl, Me, Brenda
Here's a view of the farm (from the top of the silo) just after sunset...While in Boise one day I got to hang out with Garrett! We had a blast and he showed me all around Boise (it was my first time there).
So, the whole point of the trip was Brenda's brother got married. Here we are at the reception on our last night in town.
L to R: Denise (love her!), Brenda (well, love her too!), and me!
Brenda's family is just about entirely red heads... including these two... here I am with John having a starring contest (he's so cute!) and that's Adelaide in my arms.
I enjoyed the farm and meeting all of Brenda's family so much!

The next morning at the airport, we realized we weren't on the same flight (even though it's the same flight #!). The flight from Boise to Minneapolis was the same, but we were actually on two separate flights from Minneapolis to New York, landing in two different NY airports. Oops!
The End!