Recent Happenings - April 2014

So since my last post, things got busy, and then I had to start a blog for a summer class that I've been taking and as a result I really neglected this blog. But I missed it! So here I am about to attempt to update you all with our recent happenings.

First I'll start in April - which seems like it was ages ago. The first weekend of April was General Conference. I love the opportunity to listen to our living prophets who lead and guide us! This conference, I also had the opportunity to sing in a choir during one of the sessions. It was so cool! The Orem Institute of Religion (at UVU) was asked to provide the music in the Saturday afternoon session. The chance to join the choir was one that I didn't want to miss. We learned five hymns (plus the congregation hymn) and were told that we would sing at least three of them, and then two of them would be used if there was extra time to fill. We all knew that in reality we probably wouldn't use the two extras. But it was fun to practice and learn it all!

The choir singing "High On a Mountain Top"

If you pay close attention, you can see half of me close up for a couple of seconds towards the end. ;) To see videos of the other songs and talks, click here.

Also in April, we finished up the seemingly never-ending semester. Garrett finished a week before me (but I got a Spring Break in the middle, so I'm not complaining) so he worked for a week, and then on Friday the 25th, I took a couple of finals and then we went down to Arizona. This trip has a bit of a story to it.

My great-grandparents, Harold and Nina Bowman, founded Jacob Lake Inn just off of the Northern Rim of the Grand Canyon in 1923. My Grandpa and Grandma, Harold Jr. and Afton Bowman, and Harold Jr's sister Effie Dean and her husband John Rich, continued to work hard at the Inn and on the ranch close by. My Grandpa died when he was quite young. As he was flying from Kanab (southern Utah, closest plane hanger to Jacob Lake) to Salt Lake City he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed. When he passed away, he left behind my Grandma and their four young kids. My Daddy was the oldest and he was only 9. It was hard to keep up with the demands of single motherhood and running a business. Effie Dean and John and their family stepped up to the plate and kept everything going. The Rich family currently runs and maintains Jacob Lake Inn. We love it when we are invited to join them at Jacob. There is a wonderful spirit there, and we love being there!

Harold, Nina, Harold Jr, and Effie Dean

My family in front of the Inn at the end of our most recent trip down as a family. Thanksgiving 2011.

Jump ahead to this last Marchish... I was at work and went into a coworkers office to deliver some supplies to him. I commented on some small Navajo rugs that he had on display on his desk and mentioned that my Dad basically grew up in Northern Arizona. My colleague, Mark, asked where and I just kept beating around the bush because I didn't think he'd really care. Finally, after he had asked me to be more specific, I asked, "Do you know anything about Jacob Lake?" He responded enthusiastically about how he did. I explained that I was the great-granddaughter of the founders of Jacob Lake Inn, and he proceeded to tell me that he has a friend that manages the insurance policy on the Inn and explained that the two of them go down to help with the Cattle Round-Up every year. I was excited about the connection about thought it would be fun to hear more about it, but my colleague interrupted my questioning to say. "You should come with us!" I was really hesitant about it though. I've never helped on a round-up! I would just be in the way! After some convincing, I agreed to go.

Here is the part where I regrettably explain that I left my camera at home during the trip. Garrett kept reminding me to pack the camera, and ultimately I was a big finals week space case and left it at home. I know, I'm such a dork! But I will attempt to explain the trip as best as I can.

The rest of the round-up crew went down on Thursday night to start early Friday morning. Because I had some finals that I had to take on Friday, we went down as soon as we could after that. It was anticipated that we would make it to Jacob around 5 o'clock that night, then we would get to see everyone for a few hours, hear about the day, then go to bed and work in the morning. When we were about an hour away, I got a call from Mark.

"Jeni. Where are you?"
"We're almost to Kanab. Why?"
"Tomorrow's weather isn't supposed to be good. Hurry up, we're branding tonight!"
"Okay, we'll hurry!"

Now we were feeling bad that everyone was waiting for us, especially because we didn't know how many calves we needed to brand and we were worried that it would be difficult to do when it was dark. We finally got there at about 5, and awkwardly walked up to the gate. It has been a long time since I had seen all of my distant relatives, so the only person I would really recognize was Mark. We eventually got in and got situated. It was clear to all of them that I had never had anything to do with cattle round-ups or brandings, and that Garrett only had a little experience. I volunteered to be the recorder who would prepare the tags and keep track of which numbered calf was a bull or a heifer. Garrett had the job of putting the clotting powder on the calves heads after their horns had been cut.

And then, like a whirlwind, the biggest calf of the bunch came out of the shoot (chute?). One man lassoed the the calf by the neck, then two others worked on lassoing it's back hooves. Once they had the back hooves, one, two or three (depending on the size of the calf) would simultaneously tip the cow to it's side, then they would loosen the rope around its neck and tie it's front hooves in with it's neck. Then out came the horns (and Garrett's job to cauterize the wound), they would tag one ear, yell to me on the sideline if it was a bull or a heifer, then if it was a heifer they would cut a triangle out of its other ear. Then the men would turn the calf to its other side in order for the actual branding to take place. Man... The smell of cow hair and skin burning is not pleasant. And, before this even in my life, I always thought that cows only ever had one expression. You know, the whole blank face thing? Like this:

Come to find out, that is not entirely true. When a cow is being branded it (for good reason) sure hollers about it. After completing this process 22 times, we determined that the calves that still had their umbilical cord could wait until Fall branding. It was cool to actually see how the whole branding process was done!

When we finished, we made traveled a few more miles up the plateau to the Inn. It was so fun to show Garrett this place that had so much of my family's heritage! We loved the chance to have dinner at the Inn and enjoy the company of my Dad's cousins and a few of their kids. When we went to our room, it was lightly raining. We knew that there was rain in the next day's forecast and just figured it was getting a head start. But when we woke up the next morning, there was snow. Yep, snow. We were prepared for rain, but not snow! After breakfast, we layered on all of the clothes we had packed for the weekend and drove to the bottom of the plateau to the ranch. When we got there, it was very obvious that we were unprepared for the snow. The others around us were very kind and gave us any extra gear that they had. Mark gave me some snow pants and gloves at first I told him I didn't want them, but he explained that I would be one of the horse riders so I would need them. I had no idea that I would be on a horse all by myself... The only time I had done been on a horse by myself, someone else was leading it. So I took the snow gear, and hoped on an old horse (seriously, he was about 19 or 20, which I'm told is pretty old for a horse) and followed Garrett around. I wasn't very good, but I sure had a lot of fun! I got very saddle sore and very cold, but overall it was a great experience!

That night most of the crew headed back to Salt Lake, so Garrett and I had the opportunity to stay at the Inn and have dinner with my Dad's cousin Steve and his wife Melinda. They were so kind to tell us stories about my late Grandpa and Great-Grandpa and even stories about my Dad as a boy. I loved hearing the stories, and even more I loved that Garrett could hear the stories and experience this beautiful place that I had talked about so much.