Week One

I left Rochester at 10:01am on Monday morning. I flew to Chicago then hopped on my next jet to Phoenix. At the Phoenix airport I couldn’t locate where I my next flight would board at. I finally walked across the airport until I found this small, separate building where my flight was. I looked out the window and found out that I was flying on a small puddle jumper. The plane itself could only hold about 30 people. It was very loud, but the views out the window were very amazing. I could see the flat desert around Phoenix turning into tree topped and snow covered mountains. The flight on small prop powered plane only lasted about 40 minutes. Once we landed I hopped off the jet, grabbed my bag that was too big to carry on, and walked inside the even smaller airport of Show Low. I waited for my bags to unload off the small plane. During that time, an employee of Hidden Meadow Ranch showed up. His name is Mike. In about 10 minutes time I found out that only my big black duffle bag showed up in Show Low. I waited another 10 minutes until a representative of the itsy bitsy airport arrived. I told her about my missing bag and gave her some information. Mike and I loaded up his SUV and drove to the ranch. After about 40 minutes of driving through Show Low, by a rather large casino, and through small Native American town, we reached the dirt road that takes us to the ranch. Once we arrived to the ranch it was dark outside so I couldn’t see much. I got situated into the staff house. Filled out some paper work. Later, Chef Afif and Sous Chef Joe showed up. We talked for a bit and then they left. I picked a room, unpacked, and went to sleep.
My week of work started today. I got up around 7:00am, and at 8:00am Chef showed up. We went to the welcome cabin where I got some more paperwork. Chef and I went to his office in the ranch house. The ranch house is where the dining room and kitchen are located. There is also a lounge area upstairs where one of the only two televisions for guest use is. After we filled out all the needed paper work and everything that needed to be faxed was faxed, Chef and I went to go sign me out a uniform. Now the time was about 10:00am. I went into the kitchen and began. On the first day all I made was stew and chili. Both tasted amazing. The day ended for me around 3:00pm. I found out that my bag arrived to the ranch, so I picked it up at the welcome cabin. I went home and unpacked. During the rest of the week I maintained the hours of 8-3. During those hours breakfast and lunch as served for the guests in the dining room. For the first couple days we had no guests at the ranch, but we had employees to feed. The employee’s get at least a lunch everyday, whether there are guests or not. If we have dinner, then there is employee dinner.
For the rest of week I prepped even more than just chili and stew. Once the guests showed up I started to work the line for breakfast and lunch. During breakfast I made omelets, pancakes, French toast, and waffles. During lunch I made Buffalo burgers, mac and cheese, chicken pot pie, quesadilla of the day, and plated the chili, stew, and soup of the day.
It has been a great week. I have met many awesome people, and seen amazing stuff. The views here are amazing, the air is clean, and the sky is clear and full of stars. I cannot wait for next week to start, but I never want to leave.