Object Lessons

There is not much of a warning before the huge drop of Mesa Falls.  The water goes a bit faster as it tips towards the edge, but until you are right on the brink, there is no way to tell how deep and far it really is.   By then, it is much too late to do anything.

There is a tree that is right on the falls that has amazed me for several seasons.  I like to go back every year and make sure it's still there.  I always expect that the water will have carried it away.

This time I noticed that the tree is growing out of a rock.  It's roots are sunk deeply into the rock and there is no way to erode the tree's foundation.

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that is is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

Helaman 5:12

 

But spiritually, If you were carried downstream by the water, and didn't heed the warning signs, and were swept over the falls all is still not lost.  Alma teaches in the book of Mormon that the Lord, through the Atonement, can snatch us from destruction if we repent.

I love the word snatch and imagine a person being swept over the falls with nothing to save him from the sharp rocks and destruction at the bottom.  And then to have the Lord reach out and snatch him and put him on safe ground again.

Nature is full of great object lessons.

Mesa Falls

Coming home from the cabin we decided to take the scenic byway and check out Mesa Falls.

Since it was memorial day we had to share the place with tons of other people, mostly from Utah.  (I start feeling quite possessive).  We only stopped at upper Mesa falls because they have a really neat old restored cabin that has lots of animal skins and nests and neat stuff to look at.  It's also great to imagine you lived in the 1920's and stopped at the falls for the evening on your way up to West Yellowstone via train.  So Romantic!

Cabin Walk

We had a great time up at the cabin this weekend.  I fell in love with the water up there again.  I forget every winter how clear and beautiful it is, and then I see it again, and then I start pining about having a cabin on the water and other difficult to impossible things.

We also went for a walk through the woods across the street from our cabin.  It was very peaceful and beautiful and then the kids saw this track.  I am not great with tracks, but either this is a bear track or else we have a big foot with claws around Island Park.  Our walk back to the cabin was noisier and faster than the walk out.  I'm still not sure if It's a bear track.  If you know about these things, please enlighten.

Golden Delicious' 8th Grade Graduation

As Grandpa Tracy would say, "I could pick her out of a pen full". 

I am proud of Golden Delicious.  She made it through a really tough year and she did it with flying colors!  (Her lowest grade was a 97.2).  She's looking forward to being a mighty freshman next year at the local high school.  Braeburn is busy coaching her on what and what not to take.  Also, he's scaring us with tales of hours and hours of homework, but since we see no evidence of that in his life, the jury is still out on that one.

Here's G. D. with the principal, Mrs. H-T.  This photo is strictly for posterity.  I imagine my grand children (children of the 4 boys specifically)  being told stories like, "well, I know Mrs. So and So is not your favorite, but let me tell you about Mrs. H-T... " or since the spy twins swear they will never be so mean as to send their children to public school it will be more along the lines of, " shape up and do your work or else you'll have to go to public school, and you KNOW what I've told you about the teachers there!"

This is Mrs. Rice, 6th Grade teacher.  Fantastic teacher and lady!  Love Her.

And this is Mr. E, who G. D. had as a teacher this year.  (Sorry I'm missing the 7th grade teacher, who was G. D. all time favorite).  Mr. E.  was a good teacher who also teaches jujitsu.  Good skills to have with an 8th grade class.  To my knowledge he was never forced to display his skills in class.

You know, though, my kids really have it easy.  Imagine if I had pictures of my old teachers like  Mrs. Lloyd or Mrs. Blattner, or Mrs. Kelly, or Mrs. Mc Creedy.  Uggh.  After such a run of  teachers it's really amazing I know anything at all.  

Mrs. Lloyd did say I would never amount to anything, which  I can't agree with, since being mom to Golden Delicious is definitely something, and something good.

Cabin Update

The snow is almost gone and it's time for the cabin to wake up for the summer.  We took off the boards over the windows (you have to put them up if you're not going to shovel snow all winter because the snow gets so deep it will break the windows), and turned the power back on and other "wake up" activities.

The voles had a hey day with all the sod we planted around the fire pit.  Voles!  They're everywhere!

But the cabin looks as lovely as ever.  It's dangerous to go up there because you leave all troubles behind and have such a perfect time.  It's listed with a new real estate agent this year and so we'll see if he does any better than the last one.  Meanwhile, we'll keep enjoying it.

The Boy Pilot

Granny Smith is officially smitten with "the flying bug".  For his birthday this year he got to go for a little spin and that was all it took.  Since then he's been studying airplanes with his Grandpa and talking all sorts of code.

Typical conversation:

G. S.  "MOM!  Did you know an SR-71 can go mach 3??"

Mom "No."

G. S.  "MOM!  Did you know that pilots say that an SR-71 is just a big fuel tank with wings??"

Mom  "no."

G. S.  "MOM!  Did you know that the F-15 is my favorite?"

Mom "YES!  I did at least know that!"

G.S. "Mom!  Come watch the airplane movie with me!"

It's great to have a 7 year old pilot.

No Farmer's Market Today

That's right.  We will not be attending the Farmer's Market today.  Last week was our first, and perhaps last day at the market.  I've learned several lessons for those of you contemplating selling at the market.  

First, this is how I imagined it:  (Please don't laugh yet!) We would arrive with our beautiful produce, herb seedlings, fresh warm bread, apple muffins, and it would be lovely.  People would be thrilled to have REAL FOOD and VEGGIES at a farmer's market, instead of snow cones and kettle corn.  We would bask in the appreciation of these grateful folks and then come home, tired but satisfied.

Now, this is what happened.  I woke up early saturday (after baking late friday night)  and made bread and muffins and chocolate dipped pretzels.  At about 8:30 things became chaotic since I was supposed to be there at 9 and the bread would just be coming out of the oven at 9.  I called Annette's family, who was sharing the booth with us, and they were in the same frantic state.  The Spy twins loaded folding tables, seedlings, warm bread, markers, white boards, cash box, etc. into the truck and I took off and the rest of the family went to the ward activity.

Annette and I both got there in the nick of time and the booth did look fantastic.  Annette had four huge glass jars full of mint brownies, cinnamon almonds plus all our other stuff.  Oh yes, and I'd brought granola.

The market went from 10 to 2.  The kids did rejoin us and helped sell lots of stuff and had funny experiences while they were at it.  By 2:00 we were exhausted and ready to come home.  After paying all our fees and expenses, we both made about $80.00.  

That sounds great except for that when you consider how many hours I spent planting seedlings and baking I made about 50 cents an hour.  And since I paid the kids, I donated lots of time to this cause!  The worst part was that it didn't seem like anyone appreciated the real food.  So, I know now why there are not farmers at farmer's markets.  The name sounds great, but the farmer's can't make any money selling anything.

I will relate the horrors of trying to sell our eggs there on a different post.  Talk about over reaching government bureaucracies.  Uggh.