A Month In

Well, I've been here for about a month now, and since then have gotten to know the town a good bit, as well as very many great people. To be perfectly honest, I'm still reeling a little bit from the trip out and the whole prospect of my experience, the whole thing beginning to end (and continuing) was and is just such an unbelievable time that I can hardly believe it happened. But from the minute I got here I've been having a blast, getting settled in, meeting some friends whom I can tell will be lifelong ones, and of course searching for a job and a place to live. The job search came first, and I started looking hard on the second day I was in town. After catching up on sleep for about a full day from the bus trip I spent the next full week talking to as many people as I could about employment prospects and possibilities. Being that Autumn is in full swing, everything here in town has begun to slow down, waning into the off season, when jobs are truly hard to come by, and some places even choose to shut down entirely for a month or more. Upon learning this, I redoubled my efforts at a few select businesses, and after weeks of returning and talking to employee after employee, I eventually landed a job at one of the biggest outdoor sports stores in the area. This was great news and saved me a lot of worrying over whether or not I'd get a job soon enough to move into a place, however I won't be starting work until mid to late November, because I'll be in the store's satellite ski rental shop at the local Snow King Resort (a much smaller and closer mountain than Jackson Hole, in fact I can see the entire ski mountain from the window here) so until then it's just more enjoying Jackson.

Besides searching for a job and longer-term housing, I've been enjoying all that the area has to offer this time of the year, and most recently joined up with a new friend yesterday for a hike up the almost 8,000 foot (1,570 vertical) Snow King Mountain in the snowy cold morning. When it got warm for a week or so I took advantage of the area's great mountain biking trails to enjoy one of the most breathtaking riding experiences of my life. All of the foothills surrounding the town (before the Tetons) are incredibly steep, and all of the mountain biking trails wind up and down the side of the hills, cutting zig-zags into the scrub brush and dirt, climbing and twisting along treacherous ribbons of dirt until you're panting and you can't hear anything but your heart pounding, and when it's time to finally stop for a breather you hardly realize the entire range of the Grand Tetons staring down at you. These are real mountains; they are impossibly large and jagged, coming to sudden, sharp peaks, and although not all of them are considered part of the Teton range, they completely surround the valley so that no matter where you turn you can spot a rocky, snow-capped knife breaching up through the flat, golden valley below. And so my days have been filled with fresh, clean 6,200+ft. mountain air, huge mountains, snow, and not to be omitted, some superb food experiences. One of the perks of having a cousin who's a professional chef is that-being that many of his friends are chefs as well-we will often gather for an evening of some serious cooking, and of course, eating. The host's house turns into the set of Iron Chef America as we ferociously tear through ingredients building extravagant course after course, using whatever we can get our hands on to make delicious and innovative foods, and just as soon relaxing after a big, long-prepared meal, kicking back and playing music, singing, and laughing near the wood fire with full bellies while Winter sneaks into the valley. I don't think I'll soon forget playing delicate and long-and-ringing-noted harmonies to Willie Nelson and Van Morrison while my Louisiana chef-friend wailed out "Always on my Mind" or "Into the Mystic" while ballroom dancing with his wife by the fire and simultaneously professing his love for this music which he had grown up on. Those sorts of evenings just don't leave you, the food, the people, and the collective warmth that brings such a varied bounty of beneficence to everyone involved simply leave a lingering presence of assuredness with you for quite some time, to be pulled out of memory when needed, and used as a reminder as to what kind of community it is that makes that the case.

Many folks are hunters here as well, so I have partaken now in a few wild game feasts, eating such local delicacies as mule deer, elk, and specially-raised Mangalitsa pigs. The deer and elk came first, and we had some New Orleans-style deer meatballs, which, when made from scratch, take quite a long time. The pigs, however, were raised semi-wild over the course of their lives and just slaughtered last week. After a few days after they had been dressed and treated, I was able to partake in the butchering of these fine specimen, and when I walked into the garage which had two 300 pound hogs cut open hanging from the ceiling, I knew it would be a fun day. The pigs had been gutted, but still had everything else intact. They were completely recognizable as pigs and the heads were still completely attached and the only thing different about them was the lack of innards. So we sliced the skin open all down the spine, and separated the sides and their mainly fat-producing nature was immediately evident. This breed is prized for its lard-producing qualities, and due to its way of being raised, possesses incredibly light, clean, and much less saturated fat that normal breeds, but a lot of it. The meat is incredibly tender and has over double the amount of marbling than a standard meat hog, so of course we immediately sliced a strip off of back meat and tossed it in a pan for breakfast with a quickly whipped-up mustard seed aioli glaze, no big deal...how much more fresh can you get? The rest of the quartered pigs we brought to the restaurant where my fine host works and the rest of the day was spent in the industrial kitchen slicing up our pig into the appropriate cuts of meat and parts that we wanted. Almost every part was used, in fact the only things we threw out were the hooves, the rest of the meat we kept, even the head and spine and of course the shanks and loins. Needless to say, there will be plenty of pork on the table for quite some time. Other than getting a job or my lovely outdoor adventures and delectable cooking and eating experiences, I've spent most of the rest of my time anxious to get on snow, which I shall soon be doing, and meeting lots of folks with whom I can share the joy of fresh snow on the mountains. Until next time from Jackson, rest assured that I'm certainly having the time of my life, and get ready to see some great skiing photos in the near future, it's not far off!