The Mountain Man

As many of you know, Ryan is working for the summer as the Site Lead for the Shoshone/Native American Site at the American West Heritage Center just outside of Logan. He's getting a lot of fun hands-on experience with all sorts of things that are totally Ryan.

Above is a picture of his site- the teepee is over 30 feet tall and took four men two days to put up. The small brown teepee-ish thing on the left is called a Wikiup, and was the first thing Ryan made when he got to work. Cut willow branches are woven into a frame of larger poles and was used often by Native Americans as a temporary shelter.

The other day he took pictures of everything he's been working on for his portfolio and I wanted to show it all off. He has become quite a talented leather worker, and . . . seam. . .strer (is that a word?). After all my attempts at sewing and quilting he's already WAY better than I am! I told him that he gets to fix the edges of Sam's baby quilt (pics of that soon!) for me since he obviously has more natural talent. :)

Anyway, he's been making all sorts of cool things, and here are a few of them--


COUNTERCLOCKWISE- Leather moccasins, pocketknife case, rib bone-handled knife (made and fitted the handle) in leather sheath, bison-horn spoon, leather working awl, spear, essentials bag


Here's a close-up of his knife and belt sheath.


This is called a "Winter Count"- it was sort of a calendar/scrapbook for Native Americans.


Each picture depicts the most significant event of a certain year. Ryan recreated a specific count that told the story of over 200 years of Native American history, stretching the rawhide and painting the images himself.


This is a Drying rack, traditionally used for drying buffalo meat- it's been so wet here throughout the last month though that they haven't had a chance to try it out yet. :) Hopefully soon.



Arrowheads: Napped stone, metal, and bone. The last two Ryan shaped himself, and attached all three with synthetic sinew to dried cattail shafts.


That's all I have for now, though he has several pairs of moccasins planned out for Reese, me and a few others. He's been having a blast with it all, and I'm totally impressed with how fast and how well he's picked up on everything.

See, Baby, you didn't have to live the lonely life of a Mountain Man to do what you love after all!
So happy I didn't lose you to the Arctic Tundra. ;)

Little Nun, Big City

When I first arrived on my mission to Paris, France this was the big, bold headline printed across my mind. It seemed the perfect title for my 'memoirs' should I write it all in story form and someday have them published. It would be a hoot- so many hilarious, embarrassing, and awkward moments of an optimistic small town girl thrown into the mix of a foreign metropolis.

Anyway, since then, the same headline pops up whenever I'm feeling particularly out of my element. Accepting my latest calling in church bumped the font up several sizes and even had the editor considering changing what is normally a bold, news print to a full-fledged neon sign complete with animated nun jumping up and down beside it.

I am the new Relief Society pianist.

Sakes alive, I get so nervous playing in front of people I'm hit with a sudden, stress-induced bout of paralysis rendering me temporarily blind. "I can't see, Pa! I can't see!" This last week was particularly bad. So much so that I found myself, between the practice hymn and the closing, mentally listing off all the things I'd rather be doing than preparing to butcher "All Creatures of Our God and King". Here's a snippet--

I'd rather compete on Hell's Kitchen, complete with getting royally chewed out by Gordon himself. . .

Skydive (if you know my fear of heights, you'll fully comprehend). . .

Host my own show on the Food Network for the first time with only a few of my needed ingredients, half-dressed, and broccoli in my teeth. . .

I'd rather swim with whales. . . well, maybe not. Nothing is that bad.

Anyway, that's where the daydreaming stopped, because it was time to kill yet another beloved LDS favorite. Sigh. Heaven help me.

Ever so glad I'm not a sheep

I took Reese to the American West Heritage center today where we spent quite a bit of time with the animals. There are many reasons I'm happy to be human, especially after walking past the pig pen and seeing how happy they are rolling in their muck, but one in particular had a bold heading.

I was particularly struck (read: horrified) by the sheep. Maybe it's my present state of mind, being pregnant and all, but as we watched, one of the lambs came to its mother to nurse and positively ATTACKED that poor mother! It jumped up with such ferocity to get it's milk that I involuntarily crossed my arms to protect myself. Just when I thought it would calm down it decided to try for another and another and, well. . . I didn't blame the poor mom when she kicked (lighter than I would have, I'm afraid) the crazy lamb and walked away.

Just sittin' here counting my blessings and thought I'd share. :)