Friends, Fairs, and Milking

This week has turned into a fairly busy one (no pun intended). My longtime friend, 8th grade chorus/band teacher, and piano teacher came by for a visit with her daughter and parents, all the way from Germany! Her parents live in Montana, so while she was visiting them, they all popped over for a quick visit. It was SOOOO great to see them.

Friday night, I went to the Park County fair, which is the county that Cody is in. My favorite exhibit by FAR was the hay exhibit. I could have stayed in there forever it smelled so good! There were lots of wildflowers and beautiful pictures and neat things on display.

I spent the night with Jessica, and this morning, I got my first lesson in milking! Grandaddy would be so proud of me! Even though they do mechanized milking, I still got to practice by hand
which was a little weird at first, but I got milk to come out first try! I was very proud of myself, and Jessica said I did a good job, since most people she teaches don't really want to do it. Naturally, I squirted my shorts first thing, so I got to walk around with warm, soggy, milk shorts for awhile, but it was a lot of fun. They have a system down for milking that was really efficient, and when we timed them, the average time it took to milk a cow was 7 minutes. If you can be fast washing them off and attaching all the milkers, you can really shorten the milking shift. The George's milk their cows twice a day, starting at 2 in the morning and going till 9 or so, and then again in mid-afternoon.

Things are starting to wind up out here and settle down. I'm finishing up on my projects at work and i'm trying to get those organized and finalized in the next 2 weeks before I come home.

National Day of the American Cowboy

What an incredibly busy past few days! Friday was an average day at work after a long week, so a relaxing evening would have been nice. Instead, I went to the lake with Jessica and some of her friends from her church and got to go tubing which was a workout! When we first got there the wind was blowing pretty good, so I wanted to say underwater to keep warm. Eventually the wind died down and it was really comfortable, even at 9:00 when it was still daylight. I didn't have my camera with me in the boat, and I really wish I had because the sun set right behind the mountains and the almost full moon was coming up on the other side. It was absolutely incredible. It looked like a page out of that kids book about the Indian paintbrush with all the different hues and muted colors. I had a lot of fun out at the lake.

I spend the night at Jessica's because we were both working Saturday, celebrating the National Day of the American Cowboy at the museum. It's a good thing I did! We were using some of the calves out in the gardens for kids to look at and pet, and there was a lot more preparation involved in getting all the stuff together than we were expecting.

We had so many fun games and activities for all the kids. The education department (which I'm not working for, that's just where my office is) helped organize the whole day and included some of the Rodeo people. There was a stick-horse station where kids could make a stick horse that they could use later in the day in a barrel-racing competition.

The rodeo people set up a place to learn how to ride saddle-bronc style and also taught kids how to lasso. Carpentry built a plywood steer that kids could brand with a real branding iron (HUGE HIT!) and then an area where they could make their own brand out of pipe cleaners and stamp it on a paper cow with paint and take it home. The day was extremely popular and very successful.

(Daisy-the black heifer who was about 2 days old, and Dandy-the white bull who was a day old)

Sunday, I sang at church, and it went really well. I was pleased with how everything turned out. Then in the evening, I was invited over to Jonene and Pat's house for hamburgers and card games which was a blast. Jonene is the choir director and has been really nice to me all summer. We had a lot of fun playing games. They live in a straw-bale house so I got a lesson in how that was built which is really neat. Their house is up at the top of the hill by Beck Lake (Dad, that's the lake across from the airport) and have a great view of the entire town and Heart Mountain. I had a busy, but fun weekend.

Baby Bowtie

What a busy weekend! I went swimming out at Jessica's pond again and there was actually good weather this time! The past two times that I've been out there've been storms that sweep in right when we want to get in the water. After swimming, I got to help out with some more farm chores. I found my baby calf, #143, who I have renamed Bowtie, because of the white spot on her forehead that looks like a bowtie.

I got to feed her by hand which was fun, and I think she remembered me!! :) All the cows liked my pants, and everywhere I turned, there were calves licking my pants. As the calves get older, they get moved from the individual crates into a bigger corrals. We had to move some of them from one side behind a barn to the other side in a narrow section with a stream in it. We got the calves to chase us to get them to go to the right side, and the ones closest to me kept licking my pants. Cow tongues make me laugh, especially on the full-grown cows. They stick their heads through a gate to eat grain and hay on the other side, and they'll sweep their tongues around on the ground til they get every last bit of it. It is hilarious!

After feeding the calves, I got to go irrigating again. After getting caught in a brief rainstorm, the sky cleared up pretty quickly and the sun came back out again. I've been able to set the 1 1/2 inch pipes, but the 3 inch pipes are really tough and I can't do them. I am determined to get at least 1 set by the end of the summer. Watching Jessica and Arley just set them and throw them down first try is frustrating sometimes because I don't want to be a burden while they are trying to get chores done and I just want to be able to do it! Hopefully I can get it down pat soon.

Back at the farm, I got to see one of my favorite sights---the sun shining from behind the clouds with its rays spanning out. I love it when the sun does that, because I always feel like God is looking down on us and checking to make sure we're doing ok. One of my favorite times that i've seen it is over behind Grandfather Mountain. This one was hard to beat though.

Sunday was certainly a day of rest for me. I had spent the night at Jessica's and got up early to help them feed the calves again (personal feeding #2 for Bowtie!!) and then I headed back into town to get ready for church. After church I got to take a good nap which I really needed and I pretty much spent the rest of the day relaxing and piddling around. Sunday evening, the other interns and I went to see Inception at the movies. It was awesome! I certainly agree with Mike that it's one of the better movies i've seen. I liked it so much, i'm going back on Thursday to see it again! Monday night, I went to the drive-in in Powell again. This time we watched The A-Team which was ok. The setup is really nice, because they put a whole bunch of couches in the back of the trucks and back up towards the screen. There are supposedly 3 drive-ins in NC that i'm going to have to look up. I may have a new hobby! :)

Adventures in Yellowstone

I just got back from an awesome trip to Yellowstone. The Education Dept. at the museum has "Discovery Field Trips" throughout the summer to various places with super fun activities. Jessica was supposed to go on this trip as a leader, but unfortunately, she got sick again. We had just been to the drive-in movie with her brother, cousin, and a bunch of their friends the night before, so I was really surprised when she called me early the next morning to see if I could go in her place. After running around like a chicken with its head cut off, I finished packing in a hurry and rushed to work. I double-checked with John to make sure it was ok with him that I be gone for two days, loaded up into the Acadia (which is one of the nicest cars i've ever driven!) and followed the van off into Yellowstone.

Since this was an educational AND recreational field trip, we stopped off for a picnic lunch and then headed to the marina for a lesson about cutthroat trout and lake trout. The lake trout are not a native species to Yellowstone, while the cutthroat are, and after being introduced, the lake trout are more or less taking over the lakes. It is a very invasive species of trout, and the park has a very extensive system in place to catch, kill, and dump the lake trout so that they don't kill off the cutthroats. It's a somewhat serious problem, and Chelsea, the park ranger who showed us around, did a really great job explaining, and then showing us hands on, some of the methods that they use to control fish populations. I know lots about cutthroat and lake trout now, so if you want to know more about this, please feel free to ask.

After learning about fish, we went hiking for a bit, and went to view Natural Bridge. I ran into somebody wearing a Gators t-shirt, so I just had to stop and chat for a few minutes. Gator Nation really is everywhere!

We set up camp over in the Bridge Bay area and fixed some delicious Hobo Meals. I've never had it before, but can't wait to go camping again so I can fix it next time. Angela and I successfully pitched the tent with only 1 pole left over (which we really didn't need anyway, honest!) and felt very proud of ourselves. It wasn't shaped like most tents, because it had little places that jutted out for extra people, which made the process a little tricky, but we pulled through and it didn't fall down on us during the night. It got down into the 30's last night, and I woke up and my pillow was a little damp with frost, but I was warm enough for the most part. After supper and setting up camp, we went on a drive through Hayden Valley. We didn't really see much wildlife, but when we pulled up to an overlook, we talked to some older men who had super expensive telescope things, who said that there had been a pack of wolves across the river about 5 minutes before. I really hate that we missed seeing them. Maybe next time! The sunset was absolutely gorgeous, and it seemed like there was a fire somewhere because the sky got really hazy. I don't know for sure, but I do know that the sunset was beautiful.

This morning we got up pretty early (I woke up about 5:45 and couldn't go back to sleep, so I enjoyed the morning noises and smells) and fixed breakfast and broke up camp so we could go pull noxious weeds! We volunteered to pull Goats Beard, flixweed, sticktites, white canpions, fanweed, and others that I can't remember the names of. We were supposed to keep track of how many of each we pulled and report back to the rangers, and our group of 9 people pulled nearly 3,000 weeds in an hour and a half! It was way more exciting than it sounds, especially because I got to be outside ALLLL day yesterday and today, and not everybody gets to say that they pulled weeds in Yellowstone National Park! After our weed pulling, we stopped for a picnic lunch.

We did a little bit of brief sightseeing at the mud volcanos. I don't know if this buffalo was lost, taking a nap, or getting ready to die, but he looked rather out of place next to a pit of boiling mud. We weren't really sure why he was there.

After our little stop, we got to go horseback riding! It was really fun, my horse was named Ash, and was extremely docile. I had hoped for a horse with a little more spirit, but that was not to be. I could have been sitting on a trolley car going around for all the spirit Ash had. I'm sure after all the rides those horses have given, they can do it with their eyes closed. One good thing about a non-frisky horse though, was that I could look at all the beautiful hills and valleys and rivers back away from the road that most people don't get to see. The scenery was BEAUTIFUL and I had a great time.

It's back to my real job tomorrow. More research, reading, and computer screens! But I am extremely thankful and glad that I got to go on this trip. It was like a mini-vacation even though I was still working. That will make the next few days not seem so bad since I can tell everyone what all we did.

A Night At War

Yesterday was such a great day for me. I got to go out to Jessica's farm again and spent most of the day. We took a picnic lunch over to the pond before swimming, which was quite the adventure because we had a tractor tire inner tube to transport over there on the top of the truck. So with 2 girls riding the running boards, clinging to the truck and the inner tube for dear life, we finally made it up there 2 minutes before the bottom fell out. We finished our picnic in the truck while we waited for the worst of the storm to pass, which wasn't too long, and then jumped in. Because the sky is so big out here, and there aren't any trees to block your view, you can see for 30 or 40 miles sometimes. It's hard to judge how far away a storm is sometimes, just by looking at the clouds (at least it is for me) because sometimes I think the storm is gonna get us, and then it doesn't, and sometimes I think the storm is gonna miss, and then we get it. The weather can be a bit tricky sometimes. After jumping off the inner tube a couple times, and getting tackled off once, we headed back to the farm with the inner tube back on top.

After changing into some work clothes, I got to go help with the irrigating, which was a BLAST! I was very thoroughly instructed in a couple different methods of irrigating (one was successful and one was not) and really enjoyed myself. One of the corn fields needed some adjustments so after a few pointers, I marched out with my trusted shovel and got to work.

Once all the chores were through, we headed over to Byron for the fireworks show. This town is about 30 miles away or so, and boy, do they put on a show. Jessica has some family that live about 75 yards away from where they shoot off the fireworks, so we went up on the roof to watch them.

Time for another history nerd moment. :) Because we were so close, we could see all the fireworks shooting out of their containers and all the way up until they exploded. The show was so intense, that many times, I could see people 100 yards away like it was daylight. It was one of the most eerie experiences I've ever been in. With all the explosions going on (especially when they sent up about 25 of the fireworks that just do bright flashes and big booms) I felt like I was in WWI. I kept waiting to hear a whistle blow for the men to rise up out of their trenches and charge across No Man's Land. It was like a scene from a movie when they send up the flares and then the artillery starts their barrage on the enemy. It was extremely eerie, and I have a better understanding of why some veterans don't like fireworks shows. If you look at the trees in these pictures, you can see how bright the sky was. During the grand finale (and boy, was it grand!) there were so many fireworks in the sky, and it was so bright, that it literally looked like daylight. It was incredible. No matter where I might be next summer, I would come back this particular weekend to visit just to be able to watch the fireworks again. It was awesome!!

Eventful Day Off

What a great day off this week! After the excitement of the 4th, including a small wildfire set off from the fireworks, I was ready for a relaxing day. So what did we do? We went shooting! One of the men that works in the Grounds department at the museum offered to take several of us interns, so we had a blast (no pun intended) shooting over on some public land. I got to wear the holster, which made me feel like a true gunfighter. We got to shoot revolvers, pistols, rifles, and shotguns. I am ready to go shoot skeet with Dad once I get back! I need a lot of practice with that one though, I didn't do very well with the pigeons.


At the very end, we got to try out some expired bear spray, which people out here try to use before actually shooting the bears if they attack. Basically, it's super strong pepper spray. Let me tell ya, it really works. I was finishing up the last squirt of the bottle, and a puff of wind blew it right back into my face. We had been spraying with the wind instead of into it, so this wouldn't happen, but it took a turn right when I sprayed, so I got it straight in the face. If I was a bear, I would definitely be turned away from attacking somebody. My face turned bright as a cherry and it was about 20 minutes before we could get back to the house for me to wash off. As soon as I washed it off, it felt fine, but I was still pretty red. Tuesday and Wednesday, people at the museum were commenting on the sun I had gotten over the weekend. I had to sheepishly tell them it wasn't the sun, but bear spray. That got a pretty good chuckle. :)

The rest of the week has been pretty normal, with lots of reading and research at work, and after work just trying to be outside as much as possible. Jessica and I have plans for this weekend for some outdoor farm activities, so I'm really looking forward to that.

Laura, one of the year-round employees of the museum is having us all over for supper tonight. She went out of town last week and we took care of her cats, so she's having a thank you supper for us, so I better go get ready.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!! This weekend is a whirlwind of festivities and fun! Friday night, I went to the Tough Enough Rodeo, which was raising money for breast cancer research. Some of the museum staff volunteered at the rodeo, so we got to go watch once our duties were finished.

Yesterday, I got up early and went to watch the parade at 9:30 with Laura and Vanessa. We had a great spot about halfway through the parade. We saw some really great floats, including one with veterans from WWII in the Pacific Theater.

...and a woman with her pink poodle. The only word I can use to accurately describe what she looked like, is tottering. She tottered down the entire street and it was really funny to watch.

The parade also had a bunch of really old farm equipment and old cars that were fun to see. I thought Daddy would like this tractor. We think it was steam powered, but we have no idea. It didn't have rubber tires, just the metal frames, and it chugged down main street like it owned the place! That one was one of my favorite "floats." There were TONS of horses, i'd say about 150 or so, in the parade, and all of them were absolutely BEAUTIFUL.

Tonight, I am going to the rodeo, and then to a party that the museum is having before watching the fireworks. We are going down by the river behind the musem on some secret property that the museum has which is really close to where the fireworks are shot off from. I'm looking forward to it, although I am missing both the festivities at Montreat as well as Collettsville. I will miss seeing everybody at the ballpark in Collettsville, it has always been such a great time to catch up with some of my childhood friends, not to mention the best fireworks show in Caldwell County! :) I also hope that the parade at Montreat went well today and nobody lost any kids!

Happy Fourth of July to all, and God Bless America!