Yesterday we decided to take a trip to the Stahmann Pecan Farm and see if they'd 'bumped' the trees yet. This process is performed sometime around Thanksgiving and I'd checked a few times over the past few weeks...but when we got there, we were told they had bumped the trees last week! It would've been fun to watch...they use big trucks that grab the tree and shake all of the pecans out of it. Then a huge vaccuum truck sucks up the pecans, along with all of the leaves and branches and blows the pecans into the back of the truck and blows out all of the other debris onto the ground. Ah well, we tried! And Ed was able to get a few good pictures of the pecan orchards...with bare trees!

This is a picture of a tree shaker that I found online.

Ed took these pictures at the Pecan orchard.

After our visit there, we decided to go to the Farm and Ranch Museum about 4 miles away. Our friends Judy and Sam had gone and said it was great...and they were right! After a self-guided tour inside the museum, starting with the creation of the Bracero Program, which brought Mexicans into New Mexico and other states to do the jobs that were left behind by Americans during WWII. Other displays included a history of the agriculture in New Mexico, farm life, a display of a general store, a common kitchen, the progression of coaches and buggies, and a fascinating display of biographies of people, dead and alive, who lived in NM during the late 1900s and early 20th century. After walking through the museum, we were driven around the ranch in a golf cart by a wonderful, extremely knowledgeable woman who had been working at the museum since it's inception 13 years ago. She showed us their livestock and explained the differences between the Texas Longhorns, the Angus, Hereford, Holstein, and I'm sure many more that elude me at the moment! Did you know that testosterone is a horn growth inhibitor?? We saw a variety of sheep...some used for their wool, some for their mutton. And this woman knew more about the livestock and the history and the agriculture...she was amazing! You could tell she was very proud of this museum, as well as her state of New Mexico!

Our two excursions took us through most of the day, so went home to our nice warm RV and I made another batch of scramble! I plan on making 10 batches...a huge task, since I can only cook a 1/2 batch at a time...2 hours per each 1/2 batch...you do the math! I'm hoping to get them all mailed in the next 2 weeks so that they get to their destinations by Christmas! Keep your fingers crossed!

More later!