Life Is the Stories You Can Tell
  • Life is the Stories You Can Tell
  • Sing His Praises
  • My Creed
  • Books I Love
  • Christmas Letters

Big Bang

7/11/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
 Some things start with a big BANG:  fireworks shows, band concerts, the universe….   Our trip ended with one.  BANG!   BANG went our tire as it exploded crossing a cattle guard on the way home.  BANG went the rim as it rattled over the washboard ruts.  BANG went my hand as I hit my forehead.   Dang!

As inconvenient as the exploding tire was, the BANG could have come from something much worse.  It could have come from the gun that I might have used to shoot the marmot who ate two of my dinners.  It could have come when Lance hit the bottom of the snow field that he slid down after making a snow angel.   It could have come from the rocks some people in the group wanted to throw at me when the hike got long (LONG) and hard (HARD).   Yep.  All things considered, the BANG we experienced was not all bad, especially when it cost us only $45 to buy and install the new-to-us tire that got us home. 

This week’s trip, the one that ended with a BANG on Friday, started Monday when Joe and Michelle Drago, Michael and Mikayla Drago, and Lance and I headed to Kemmerer, WY to “rock fish”, i.e. split rocks in a quarry, hoping to find fossil fish.  The men also hoped to find fresh fish in a local reservoir.
 
The rock fish hunt was much more successful than the hunt for fresh fish.   Lance was the only one to hook a fresh fish; all of us found multiple fish fossils, most of them 2-4 inches long.   Joe was particularly successful; he unearthed an 8 inch monster.  Lance estimates it could be worth up to $1000.  Nice!

After a couple days in Kemmerer, WY we headed back to UT where we backpacked into Henry’s Fork Basin.  I was giddy with excitement; I truly love backpacking.  Also, for over a year I’d been telling the men about the fish in Cliff Lake.     When Mark Housley and Miles fished Cliff Lake they had an amazing experience.   Amazing.   Big, big fish.  And lots, lots of them.  A bite on almost every cast.   I wanted Joe and Lance to experience Cliff Lake, which is the whole reason we chose to backpack to Henry’s Fork Basin this year.    I am the only one in the group who enjoys backpacking.   Mikayla hates it but loves Michael.   Michael does not hate it but does not love it either.     Michelle is a good sport and is up for anything, but she much prefers going places with showers.    Joe and Lance both hate backpacking but love fishing.   I lured them on the backpacking trip with promises of amazing fishing at Cliff Lake.

The fishing was not amazing.   First, we lost Cliff Lake.   Though I had printed 4 maps and Lance downloaded one, we ended up at a puddle lake at the bottom of Anderson Pass and had to go around Henry’s Fork Peak and scramble up to Cliff Lake.    It was incredibly beautiful.   It was also windy.  The water was choppy and the fishing nothing to write home about; Lance and Joe caught 3 each.   Michael was fishless.

There is not an established trail to or from Cliff Lake.    We were in a high-altitude basin, miles wide and miles long and had to find our way home.    We knew approximately where we were camped but not exactly.  We navigated around bogs, streams, and brush patches, followed ridges, and stumbled (literally because bushwhacking bushed us) onto a whisp of a trail that led us to a log cabin.    Whaaa-whooo!  We were happy to see the symbol of civilization and even happier to see a well-worn trail going from the cabin in the general direction that we were camped.    Turns out the trail went under the ridge we were camped on top of.   Blessedly, Lance recognized some landmarks, so he and I ascended the ridge and found ourselves next to our tents.   Nice.

Not so nice was the mess Michelle found when they returned to camp (before us).  I made a rookie mistake; one I frequently warn my students against.  I left the bottom of my backpack unzipped and an opportunistic marmot feasted on my Mountain Man meals; two dinners, two servings each.  We also saw antelope, white-tailed deer, a baby moose, and a bald eagle.   The marmot was the only critter I shot….with my camera.

Mikayla hiked out twice as fast as she hiked in; five hours vs ten hours.   It took Lance and I about six hours.   I love the mountains.   Love.  Love.  Love.  The sights, sounds, and smells of the wilds fill my cup in a way that nothing else does.   And I love pushing my physical limits.  There is a certain sense of satisfaction, accomplishment, even joy that comes when I take myself out of my physical comfort zone.   And this was not comfortable.   Very NOT comfortable.   I was very glad to see the parking lot at the end of the trail.  Very glad.  So was Lance.

We thought our adventures were over; we’d have a nice lunch in Mountain View, WY and then an uneventful ride home.  Nope.    On the dirt road leading from the national forest the back tire on our van exploded.   We put the spare on, a do-not-go-over-40 mph-or-100 miles doughnut-type tire and limped into town.  We did have a nice lunch in Mountain View, but the uneventful ride home did not start until after we had gone to Lyman, WY to get a new-to-us tire. 

All in all it was a great trip, though I sense that if I suggest a backpacking trip again in the near future the adventure will start and end with a big BANG….when someone hits me on the head with a rock! 



Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Joe's big fish....and my big foot.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

National Failure or State Winner?

7/4/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture

We arrived in Des Moines at 12:15 a.m.   and had to take Lyft to the hotel.    There we were---Lance and I—at the 2021 National Ag in the Classroom Conference, “Field of Dreams”, Des Moines, Iowa.  Coolio!

The food was great—agriculture-related conferences always are--as were the people and the conference sessions.    I learned about things ranging from chickens on Mars to vermiculture to desktop greenhouses.    I toured a soybean/seed corn farm, a cattle feed lot, and (virtually) a hog raising operation.   I learned that having plants in the classroom increases student attention by 70% (not sure I believe that one….), 35% of the food Americans buy is wasted, and Utah ranks 15th in the US in hog production.   I met a man who successfully farms 3,000 acres with just one employee and a woman who has a small hog operation, only 3200 pigs.   

One of the workshops was especially (and unexpectedly) gratifying.  We attended an elementary teacher workshop on chickens, hoping to get ideas for a raising chickens on Mars project.   One of our tasks was to make an art project showing a new breed of chicken.   To incentivize us, the session presenter promised a prize to the art creation she deemed to be the best.    Art supplies included sequins, beads, faux feathers in outrageous colors, and glitter.   Lot of glitter.   The elementary teachers went all out with the bling; their chickens were decked out, glitter galore, shiny sequins everywhere, beads and buttons abounding. 
 
Lance and I chose a different approach.   Lance drew a roasted chicken carcass and a KFC bucket.  It was awesome.  The presenter laughed out loud when she saw it.   I used torn, cut, and crumpled construction paper to create a 3D chicken sitting in a nest.  No bling.  No glitter.  No beads.  Nothing but construction paper.    The presenter, when she saw my entry, gasped and immediately held it up.  “This is the winner,” she said.   And she presented me with set of 21 plastic eggs, each of which opens to show a different stage of the 21-day development of a chick embryo.   I won an art contest.   Crazy!

Though we were in conference session or on a bus for most of the time, I managed to get over 10,000 steps daily by choosing stairs over escalators and walking in circles during coffee breaks.   Wednesday evening, before the banquet, a younger man (probably in his 20’s) stopped me and said, “I just wanted to tell you how impressed I am that you always take the stairs.”    I guess gray-haired ladies usually use the escalator.

Wednesday evening, after the banquet, I was chatting with Lance and absent-mindedly stepped onto the escalator with him.    About three steps down I discovered my error, squealed, turned around and started running up the down-going escalator.   Fortuitously, I made it back to the top unscathed.   Very fortuitously, I did not run over the gray-haired lady that stepped onto the escalator behind me.

Lance and I were able to attend the 2021 National Ag on the Classroom Conference because I was named the Utah Ag in the Classroom Teacher of the Year (
https://utah.agclassroom.org/teacher/award/​ and, as such, was given an all-expense paid trip to the national conference.   As the UT award winner, I was also nominated for the National Ag in the Classroom Excellence in Teaching Award.    I spent hours filling out the application for the national award, finding photos, writing essays, etc….    When I submitted my application to Denise, the UT Ag in the Classroom coordinator, she said, “Editing your application was easy; you are a good writer.”   Her response was very positive, and it seemed that she thought I had a good chance at winning a national award.  My hopes soared.  It would be so cool, SO COOL, to be named as a National Award winner.  I imagined many awesome scenarios and conversations, centered around me.   I thought that receiving a national award would give me clout, respect, and authority; my opinion would matter, if I were a national award recipient.

Nope.   It was not to be.   I did not receive the national award though I did receive feedback about my application.  Negative feedback.  The reviewer said that my writing was disjointed and my thoughts jumbled.  “You should have someone proofread your work before you submit it,” I was told.   Ouch.   Ouch.

So, at the Conference, when the state Ag in the Classroom award recipients lined up to practice walking across the stage for our recognition ceremony, I felt like a total failure.  I failed as a writer.  I failed my state as a nominee.   And, to some degree, I failed as a teacher of agriculture concepts.   And I did it on the national level.   I was a national failure.  I felt awful.
​
Thankfully, between the recognition ceremony rehearsal and the actual event, I found some perspective.   Honestly, Teresa!   Quit being ridiculous.   Several ugly traps had grabbed me—pride, basing my value on external factors, and ingratitude to name a few---but blessedly, I reframed my thinking.   I was a state winner, not a national failure.   And, most importantly, I acknowledged that my status as an award recipient is irrelevant.   Awards are fun, attending the conference was great, but the important things in life are inside.  Inside I am a daughter of Heavenly Parents. I have a divine nature and eternal destiny. 

​So do you!




Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

    Author

    Teresa Hislop
    thislop@msn.com

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    August 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.