HomeGrown

Sunday Best:

I just love these girls and it is going to be an amazing summer! (Bekah, Annie, Meredith, Me)

Last Ride on a Monday: 

It rained and I took Scott riding. Once again I learned a new path and I LOVE riding in the rain.

 Work:

I had to cut metal poles for tents and bunk beds and it looked pretty cool. I even got to wear Keith's brand new welder's cap.

Sunsets in Idaho and Alabama!

It had been raining for days in Idaho and when I was in Pocatello the clouds let up to give me a great show. Then I decided as soon as I got home to Alabama I was going to the stake camp out at camp Hulaco and this was the sunset on the way and I loved it.

Stake Camp Out:

Since I am ropes certified my friends volunteered me to help work the ropes course all day. It was so fun to see all the kids I use to babysit come up and do a great job on all of the elements. This place is beautiful. and I miss it so much. (Jessica Armstrong with her daughters Lily and Kate. I am their former babysitter. And Don Paul the most knowledgeable man I know when it comes to the outdoors.)

 Baron's Baseball:

My parents both have summer jobs downtown for Birmingham's Minor League team the Baron's. My dad and my sister were at the beach for a music festival so I went with my mom since she had to work. We lost by a landslide but I was still in heaven. I just love being home and the south; just look at those clouds! She also showed me where they installed the sign for the entrance to the newly done rotary trail. I love being home!

Lovin' Every Minute

Sunday Flower Fields:

Dandelions are actually really pretty when there are enough to take cool pictures like this on a Sunday afternoon.

Alli's Birthday Present:

I went riding on Monday and I took Alli with me for her birthday. But of course she one upped me and brought her camera. But I'm glad she did because just look at these!! Photos courtesy of Brock.Alli Photography:

Snow:

I thought this was over but we woke up on Tuesday to 4 inches of snow! It melted by noon thank heavens! But green and white look oddly beautiful together.

Critter Ran:

Wednesday I am out with President Wilson riding. He had to get down to clear the path and cut a small dead tree. He is about half way done and critter decides that he has had enough and runs home to the barn. Sure enough when we got back he was there. But in the mean time president takes the horse I'm riding, Indie, and goes to make sure he ran home. So I was in national forest for a solid 15 minutes by myself paranoid a bear was going to eat me.

Tailing:

So president comes back and he walks the whole way home clearing this path. We get to the bottom if a very steep hill and he says to me, "Okay when I say go you are going to have Indie run up the hill and make sure he runs and I will follow." I was fine with that but I felt bad that he was going to have to walk up this dreaded hill.

He tells me to go and I go, then I turn around as we are going and I see President Wilson holding onto the horse's tail and running up the hill behind Indie! It was the craziest thing I have ever been a part of. But it was so cool. Here is President Wilson (photo courtesy of Brock.Alli Photography):

Bike rides:

Thursday Bree, Merideth, and Bekah all decide that they want to go on a bike ride so I borrowed a friend's bike and tagged along. Little did I know how out of shape I am. We rode to Tetonia and back and it was a whopping 8 miles. I thought my legs were going to fall off. But the sunset on the Grand was beautiful! And so was the sunset afterwords. And we saw 2 owls and their nests!

Work:

We built and delivered bunks to different camp sites on the property in preparation for AFY. We built 22 bunks which passed our goal of 20 so we get to have a pizza party. We also had to set up more tents but we didn't have enough poles so I had to cut some new poles. Sparks were flying and it hurt when they hit but it was fun to try something new!

Ebony and Water:

Since Critter ran away Wednesday I got to spur train him on Saturday. I took my friend Kennedie to ride with us and she rode Ebony. We go down a trail that crosses over a creek about 3 times and Ebony did not want to get her feet wet. The first cross she jumps and Kennedie almost flew off. Then next one she dragged her through all of this side brush and the last time she ran Kennedie into a tree. I felt so bad, so this week President Wilson is water training her.

Week 3 Adventures

Train Trestle:

For our Sunday afternoon a couple of us went to this really cool hidden gem in eastern Idaho called The Bitch Creek Train Trestle. Soooo the name of this creek that runs under the train Trestle is Bitch Creek! It comes from the French word Bishe which means deer! So the original name was Cove of Deer or Anse de Bishe in French. The trestle is also 135 feet tall and was built in 1923!! It is huge and so fun to go adventuring around. Here is Meredith and I goofing off and loving how cool this place is. It is so fun that we went twice this week, Sunday and Saturday. Also the sunset was on point! Pictures have no justice.

From Saturday:

 Week 3 Wrangler:

Horse back riding was really fun this week! It was so fun Monday I decided to go again Saturday. I went with my friend Josh on Monday and he knows Indie from last summer so they got along really well. I liked going this time to familiarize myself with the trails that I will be using throughout the summer.

Saturday was hilarious though. It was cloudy up in the mountains so he made me wear chaps! It was really nice to have the extra layer because it ended up getting colder but the best part was we were coming to the open part with fewer trees and President Wilson took off running with Indie and Ebony followed! Riding a horse running through national forest is not something very many people get to say they have done. It was so exhilarating to be comfortable in knowing what I am doing but new enough to still make my adrenaline pump!

 

From Saturday:

Harry Potter 7:

I finished Harry Potter for the second time. I started the series last summer and with one semester of 18 credits and one semester of 13 credits I'd say I did it with great timing! I also cried. Again. Thank you J.K. Rowling for opening my eyes to so many real world problems we are facing through the problems that fantasy faces.

IBC (Integrated Business Core) and Fences:

This week a group of students that are business majors came up to bond with the people that they will be running a business with for the spring semester. They are assigned in groups to a teacher and 2 facilitators. The teacher that was assigned to my group was Brother Morris. He is from Bessemer, Alabama!! I loved talking to him and hearing his story. He brought great insights in to the lower course elements and what could be learned from them but he also related the higher course elements to things I had never thought about. I loved having him there to teach us, including the facilitators.

On one of the upper elements my co facilitator was not comfortable with the upper element facilitation so I ended up sitting on top of the inclined log and changing people out! It made me a little nervous but it was nice to get use to the height again! Can you guess which one is Brother Morris?

Our big projects this week for work were picking up all of the debris from cutting down trees all over the property and adding it all to our massive burn pile and building 2 fences! One for the staff parking lot and one for Keith's front yard. The parking lot fence was really difficult because we had to go down 2 feet and at about a foot we would hit the water bed and have to dig the mud out with our hands! A whole foot of mud for a wide fence post. It would have been more fun it it had not been so cold but the water was freezing so we kept taking turns digging it out. This is all the girls working in Keith's front yard.

 Extra Thoughts: I got a farmer's tan/burn this week! Went on a date, watched The Man from Snowy River and Bourne Legacy.