Fun in Delta, Utah: Football Game, Triathlon, Pizza, and Museum

 A few weeks ago the kids and I headed into Delta, Utah on a Friday afternoon to watch the Delta Rabbits play the Juab team. Our nephew and his  cousin play for the Rabbits, so we wanted to support them. Plus, the kids had never been to a high school football game, and I thought it might be an interesting cultural event for them. Unfortunately it was raining when we got there. And it never stopped, it just rained harder. I had the kids dress in their snowsuits to stay somewhat warm and dry.

At half time the band came out. I participated in high school marching band, so I was curious to see what they would do. They put on a nice program and did well despite the pouring rain.

I think the kids' favorite part was the concession stand. They went back several times to get new treats. Here they are with pacifier suckers, which they found oh so fun. We managed to stick it out until near the end of the third quarter, and then we were so drenched and cold that we decided we better leave. We had reserved a motel room for the night.

The next morning we got up early and headed over to the West Millard swimming pool for the annual Ready, Set, Tri triathlon. It's a super sprint, meaning all the distances are really short. I participated in the adult version. Once again the swimming was my best part, even though I haven't done laps in months. That muscle memory I built competing from age 6 to 19 has stayed with me!

Then it was time for the kids to compete. Desert Boy was enthusiastic, but Desert Girl wasn't so eager. It was a little chilly, and turnout was way down from last year. Only four kids were competing. They got into the shallow part to start warming up.

Desert Girl managed a smile. She loves to be in water.

Ready, set, go! The older boys started.

Desert Girl did her laps in the shallowest part of the pool. She started with some stellar doggy paddling.

Desert Boy changed to backstroke half way through.

If you've never been to the West Millard pool, it's super nice, with a shallow area, lap area, and diving area, complete with low dive and high dive. It even has a water slide and basketball hoop.

The kids swam 100 meters. Desert Boy is almost done. Then he was off, and I only saw him in the distance for the rest of the event.

I stuck with Desert Girl, who was now doing back float with kicking, but she refused to move her arms. She's just six, but we have some practice to do!

Next came the transition. We had her towel and clothes all laid out. The pants proved to be too hard to get on, so she just skipped those.

She was pretty fast getting ready to ride.

Then she was off, pink basket and all.

The bike route was around a huge block occupied by school buildings. Traffic was almost non-existent. I rode with her to keep her company.

Then came a quarter-mile run. Both kids are good runners, not super fast, but they have endurance.

We all congregated at the finish line for the prizes.

Desert Girl was first for girls, Desert Boy third for boys (which he was not happy with and we had a long talk about being a good sportsman), and I finished third overall for women. We all won medals and prizes.

We used the Lotsa Motsa gift certificate right away and celebrated with lunch. That put everyone in a better mood!


Then it was on to a trip to the Delta Museum, where we always see something different and learn something new. Some grocery shopping and time to head  home. Another fun trip to Delta! The Ready, Set, Tri is usually held the last Saturday of September, and they have a Facebook page.

Meeting Artist-in-Residence Virginia Catherall

 Textile artist Virginia Catherall was selected as the artist-in-residence at Great Basin National Park in 2016. She specializes in knitting wearable artwork that is inspired by the terrain around her. It sounded like such a neat concept, and I wanted to learn more. Fortunately, we were able to attend one of her workshops, where she gave a program about her art and taught newbies how to knit. The kids and I all gave the knitting a try, but none of us made it too far. Virginia made it look so easy, but it's definitely something that takes a little practice.

Desert Girl went on to make some string art. She had first learned this when Virginia went to the schools and did special programs for them.

 As part of the program, Virginia showed some of the artwork she had made during her three-week residency in the park. She had been in the park for a bit over two weeks, but had already made so much! She had visited the Strawberry Fire, and the blackened tree trunks made an impression on her. She made a cowl to represent them.

She had an interaction with red-winged blackbirds that inspired this shawl.

The blooming rabbitbrush inspired these rabbitbrush mitts.

She also showed quite a bit more. You can see some of Virginia's creations on Ravelry, where you can purchase her patterns. Virginia also has a blog, where she explains some of her inspiration and creations, and an e-book of a compilation of her patterns from when she was artist-in-residence on the Black Rock Desert in 2015.

Meanwhile, Desert Boy picked out a different color yarn and knitting needles and started again. And he kept going and going. And he was smiling. He had learned how to knit!

It was so nice to see the tears turn to a smile and some perseverance where I had given up. Maybe I'll give knitting another try too--or at least encourage Desert Boy to continue!

Labor Day Kids Rodeo at Leamardo Days, Leamington, Utah

 On Labor Day, we went to Leamington, Utah for their Leamardo Days celebration. We bought tickets for the BBQ dinner, rodeo, and raffle. We also signed up the kids to participate: Desert Girl in mutton busting and Desert Boy in calf riding.

Mutton busting (little kids riding a sheep) was up first, and one of Desert Girl's classmates also participated. He rode the sheep backwards to get a better grip, and he sure did hold on tight.

What a face! He was bound and determined to stay on.

Eventually, though, he started sliding off, but he stayed on a good while, good enough to earn $20!

He had a little jaunt walking back. He had done it!

Desert Girl was very nervous about doing this, but she wanted to give it a try. She wore her cowboy boots and cowgirl shirt and some decorated leggings (she's going through a not-liking jean phase).

That sheep moved fast, and soon she was only holding on around the sheep's neck. (That darn railing was in my way for the photos!)

And then her arms weren't even around the sheep.

She was on the ground and getting up.

She was not at all happy about the falling part of the ride. But she did better than some of the participants, who didn't really even make it out the gate. She was awarded a package of Skittles, and that helped make her feel better.

Next up was the calf money run, where a calf has tickets on it and the kids try to pull them off to earn a buck. Kids were running all over the arena, including Desert Boy.

Next up was calf riding. Desert Boy was very nervous about this.

He loaded up in the chute.

And then he was off!

I mean literally off! He had a rowdy calf.

Ouch!

He didn't like the falling part either.

He said his calf riding days are over.

Soon after was the greased pig competition. Whoever tackled the pig got to take it home. Desert Girl was motivated. She wanted a pet pig.

The kids ran around and around in circles.

This kid dove for the pig but didn't quite get it, but eventually someone did.

There were other events like barrel racing, saddle bronc, and hide racing, but I didn't get photos of those because the kids really wanted to have snow cones and we were kind of worn out from the camping adventure the night before (more on that later). After it was all said and done, Desert Girl was really glad she had done the mutton busting, and wants to do it again. She's near the weight and age limit, though, so I'm not sure she will. Desert Boy is upset he can't do mutton busting, as that seems to him a lot less painful than calf riding. I'm glad the kids got the chance to participate, and I'm quite all right if they don't decide to take up rodeoing for a hobby or career, it's not an easy sport and the chances of injury are pretty high! It was great having an event where they could give it a try.

Finding Frugal Ways to Enjoy Culture in the Desert

We had a wonderful vacation last week that along with camping included cultural things that we had never done before: watching Mary Poppins, a production of the Utah Shakespeare Festival, and visiting the new Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA). The kids are still singing Mary Poppins tunes, and I think we'll try to make it a tradition to see a play each year.

I was so impressed with SUMA. It's free, which was nice because the play tickets were kind of pricey. The exhibitions are focused on the Utah national parks in honor of the National Park Service Centennial. Some works of art are for sale. One exhibit really caught my eye, by Kevin Kehoe, called Western Therapy. The works of art showed great Utah scenery, along with people experiencing that scenery. It was magical for me, and one of the reasons I enjoy art so much. I felt reinvigorated seeing those paintings, inspired to go out and enjoy the beautiful scenery around us and be part of it. His exhibit totally worked for me.

When we got home, the Olympics were starting, and I wanted to see them. The problem is that our antenna rarely pulls in NBC. We don't have a cable TV subscription, which is necessary to watch the Olympics on NBC's website. So I did some Internet searching and found an article on Fortune.com about how to watch the Olympic Games without cable. Basically, we have installed Tunnel Bear, a little program that disguises where our computer is. Then we can get on CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and choose what Olympic event to view. Last night we saw some of the archery on replay (which is kind of handy when you want to skip ahead to see my husband's second cousin compete), swimming, and air pistol this morning (talk about an interesting event I didn't even know was in the Olympics!). So far it's been free, but soon we'll reach our bandwidth limit, and I think we'll be happy to fork over $7.99 to watch the rest of the Olympics. Watching it from a Canadian viewpoint is culturally intriguing--their commercials are better, more intelligent, than those in the U.S. And their announcers are much more fair and even-handed than the U.S. ones. The Canadian swimmers got a bronze medal in the 4 x 100 m freestyle relay, and the announcers were focused on the Australians, who won and broke the World Record.

While I was catching up on blogs, I found one on Money Saving Mom about audiobooks. We've had a subscription to Audible.com for a few months (after 3 months free we decided to continue because we really like the audiobooks for our frequent long drives). MSM blogged about ways to get free audiobooks, including using Overdrive, a program available at many libraries. I had looked into that briefly a year or two ago but couldn't get it to work on my computer. I decided to try again, this time on my smartphone. Success! All I needed was to download the app and put in my library card number, and I suddenly had access to all sorts of ebooks and audiobooks for free! Most are available for a 7-day checkout. And many are recent, like Janet Evanovich's books and Jenny Lawson's Furiously Happy. Yeehaw, I am a happy camper. Suddenly I have access to so many more books, which is nice when I live in a really remote place. And there are no overdue charges. :)

One other cultural event to mention on this photoless blog post (I know, how weird!). Saturday night, August 13, 2016, at 8 p.m. there's a free concert at the Great Basin Visitor Center in Baker, Nevada, by Hal Cannon and others.

Hurray for some culture out in the desert!

A Hot Day for Branding

A couple weeks ago I took the kids to check out the last branding of the spring. It didn't feel like spring, it was approaching 90 and windy. About 270 calves had to be processed, and the cowboys and cowgirls were doing it the old-fashioned way. The calves were sorted from their moms, then they were roped individually.

Each calf was ear-marked (instead of an actual brand), an ear tag put in, vaccinated, and for males, a rubber band was applied to a delicate part to restrict blood flow (let's just say that too many bulls are trouble). It took about a minute or two for each calf to be processed. Then it was marked with chalk and let go.

I find watching the roping to be fascinating. It takes a lot of skill and practice to be able to get a rope around a calf's back legs.

I'm told that the elbow position is extremely important.

When the right moment is spotted, the lasso is thrown out.

The slipknot is tightened...

...and if all goes well, a calf is caught. Oftentimes it takes multiple tries to catch a calf.

Several ropers were out there working their magic.

Meanwhile the calves were moving around. Did I mention that it was windy? The kids weren't so fond of all the dust. I found sunglasses a necessity to keep grit out of my eyes.

 The horses are so well trained. They were fun to watch along with the riders.

Baylee kept pulling calf after calf.

It was kind of neat getting down low and seeing what it all looked like from there.

In this corral, a metal doohickey called a Nord Fork is put on the calf's head to keep it from moving during the procedures.

The next corral over didn't have those, so a calf was held by two ropes, each attached to a horse on either end. I hadn't seen that before, so it was neat to check out.

It took about eight hours, but they got all the calves processed. Way to go!

You can see more about moving and processing calves (and other things about ranching) on this fun blog, written by my sister-in-law.