I SHOT MORE GAME THAN I COULD CARRY

I love the Oregon Trail game but frankly, who doesn't? Its awesome. As I visited Washington/Oregon to see my parents, I was reminded of the glorious game that aided in my childhood awkwardness and obesity. As you can tell from the post below, my parents really like me and even more so, my dad likes taking me places that only the two of us would find interesting. Well another stop on our trail was the real Oregon Trail. Dad and I went to the Whitman Mission National Historic Site (if you want to hear the story of the Whitmans I will tell you because its pretty cool) and stood right on the trail. There was even this old wagon still on the trail. Some people are pretty lazy I guess because they've had like 150 years to finish the trek, geez. Anyway, it was pretty fun to see, especially with my inquisitive history buff dad.

MORE CORN

I like to know things about the world around me, how things work, why things are the way they are, etc. One of many "Ashley wonderings" was how they get corn off the cob. Do they pluck out each individual kernel? I didn't know but now I do. I asked me dad about this great puzzle and he actually had an answer for me - a visual answer. My awesome dad arranged for me to visit a processing plant in Weston, OR. One of the stake presidents in his area runs the plant and he gave me a personal tour of the entire place.

We got to see corn go from the fields to a frozen bag of Western Family corn right before our eyes. It was amazing. To get the juicy details on how it all works you will have to talk to me in person so I can show you some great pictures from inside the factory. Really guys, I know I am a nerd but this was amazing. I learned that it takes 45 minutes to freeze a cob of corn (and the freezer room was really cold) but it only takes 7 minutes for cut corn to freeze. Another thing I learned was how to grade corn and peas. There are grades A, B, and C for corn and to tell which one it is you squeeze an individual kernel to look at the liquid that is expelled. Depending on the color and consistency of that one kernel, you can grade an entire crop. Amazing.

We also got to see where the plant does carrots and peas and silage. This place was so full of all this crazy technology like red laser corn scanners that can tell if a single kernel of corn is not up to par. Yeah, crazy. We also got to eat a cob of corn while touring that President Brown just picked of the assembly line and gave it us. It was so cool. Thanks dad for giving me your inquisitive nature and taking me to see the corn, I loved it!!!