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.

I Can Do Hard Things

Wrangler Training
This week I started of my weekly training with my branch president to learn how to wrangle horses in preparation for AFY. He is giving me a golden opportunity for free that most people pay thousands of dollars for. It sounds fun, and it is, but it is so much work! I am excited for what I have learned so far and will continue to learn before AFY starts at the end of May. Thanks to Natalie for coming with me!

 

He also is having me memorize 3 poems about horses. Here are 2 that he has given me so far:

Horse Sense

It must have been a right smart horse

to figure out the proper course

to keep himself free from flies

and not forget his hears and eyes

you see, a horses bushy tail is made to switch

just like a fly swatter,

and tho he whips it hard and rough

the dang thing just ain’t long enough.

Hung clear back there on the south,

It just won’t reach his pestered mouth

And flipping ears and blinking eyes

Are no account for scarin flies.

Then one horse to the other said,

you flip your tail across my heard,

and then your tail will work for me,

and free from flies be both shall be.

Now there you have cooperation,

used by horses since creation,

so human problems small and great,

Use Horse sense and cooperate.

Horses

On Horses We Find Two Legs Behind

and Two We Find Before;

We Stand Behind Before We Find

What the Two Behind Be For.

When We're Behind the Two Behind

We Find What These Be For;

So Stand Before the Two Behind

and Behind the Two Before.

Church Famous!!

I found out that I am on page 56 of the conference issue of the Ensign! All of my friends wanted to tell me about it too! Thanks goes to Gretchen for all of the fake laughing we practiced! Check your Ensign magazine if you would like to see me laughing at myself for fake laughing!

Lumber Jack

I also chopped down trees for a whole day of work. I mean I sawed and chopped. All of the chainsaws for the facility were in the repair shop the whole week and the trees needed to be cut down all over the 200 acre property. We got about 4 major sections done and I got my butt handed to me on what hard work really is.

Inclined Log

I got trained this week on a ropes course element called the inclined log. All you do is walk up this 25 foot log that goes up from the ground to about 20 feet high. It is really steep and the only grip you have are these pieces of rope stapled to the log. I was in my work boots (horrible planning) so that made it harder. The goal is to go up this log without falling or squatting to use your hands. It was extra hard because I am scared of heights (ironic that I work at a ropes course) but I got all the way up without slipping or using my hands!

Railroad Ties

Also this week we had to make a new path with railroad ties. All we had to move these ties down the path to wear we needed them was 2 bungee chords and a dolly. It was 2 other girls and me (one of them being very petite) moving 8 of these where they needed to go. I have bruises all over my shoulders from the weight but we moved all of them by ourselves! But the real work came in when we had to stake them down to the ground! Pounding in 2 foot long 3/4 inch wide stakes was probably worse than cutting down trees!

Shooting

I ended off the week in the best way I know how with friends from church. We went shooting! It was my favorite part of the week! I shot a 12 gauge, a 12 gauge semi-automatic (my personal favorite), and an AR 15 that my friend built! There was a beautiful sunset to match!

Bonus!

I saw a heard of 50+ Elk on the way home about a mile from the ranch where I live. Here are some low quality pictures to prove it:

March Madness: Traveling

This was the busiest month of my life! Some events are not included because it was that crazy!

I went on a camping trip to a beautiful gem in Idaho called Gold Bug Hot Springs. It was the shortest but steepest hike I have ever done and proved that I need to start working out more. The view was well worth it and I recommend it to anyone! 

(It was a perfect 2 days for camping, hiking, sitting under waterfalls, and gorgeous views!)

Then the next weekend I had the opportunity to travel to New York City for a whole week. I was chosen as one of six students to advocate for the unit of the family at the United Nations’: Commission on the Status of Women. I went as an intern for a nonprofit NGO (non-governmental organization) that hosted Fight the New Drug at a parallel event. I was chosen as one of two students to speak alongside the CEO of FTND, Clay Olsen. It was an eye opening experience for who I am, what I believe, why I believe it, and what I want to do with my future career and future schooling. I went so many places! Here are just a few. #pornkillslove 

(Time Square, Les Miz, Brooklyn Bridge Freedom Tower view, Rockefeller Center, Clay Olsen and I after we spoke.) 

The day after I came home I went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the Zac Brown Band Concert being held there. Randomly before the concert we were in one of the tourist shops in Jackson Square and I look up and see Zac Brown himself standing right in front of us! I was with 2 huge guys that happen to be twins. We were so close to the stage later that night that he recognized them and smiled at us the whole night! 

(It was freezing cold hence the jacket, creeper picture!)

The following Tuesday I drove 13 hours to Portland, Oregon for my best friend’s wedding! I spent a week there being a tourist and helping out as much as I could with the wedding. I was chosen to do her hair for her big day. Talk about nerve wracking! 

(Cannon Beach, Silver Creek Falls, Downtown Portland bachelorette party, Horsetail Falls, Wedding Day!)

Once I came back to Badger Creek I was working with my boss my last day and he, out of the blue, offered me a job for the summer to stay here and be an AFY (Adventure for Youth) counselor! So all of my plans for summer changed at the absolute last minute and I’m anticipating an amazing summer to come!