Taking in Some Local Culture

28 Oct 2017

One of the senior missionaries in our zone was telling us about an unusual name she found in her family tree the other day –The ancestor lived in England in the early 1700s, and her name is Thankful Poop. No kidding!

We’ve had a full and busy week in the mission, and spent some time relaxing this weekend at the annual Heber Valley Western Music and Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Heber City, Utah. We enjoyed a wonderful concert featuring a long-time Western band, Riders in the Sky. (Reminded us of the kind of music we used to hear performed by Gene Autry and Roy Rogers when we were kids. If you own the movie, Toy Story 2, they performed “Woody’s Roundup” on that soundtrack.) Then, we had tickets for the first session of Just Cowboy Poetry. It was also great. However, since neither us of were raised on a farm or a ranch, we have no experience with some of the more intimate tasks involved in animal husbandry, and some of the jokes went right over our heads. Of course, there were lots of vendors, western art, western wear, etc. too. We’re loving taking in the local culture! :-)

                  Riders in the Sky                           

                                           part of the Mountain Men exhibits

This morning we’re meeting our friends, Loren and Lillimor Hubbard, and going to Antelope Island, on the Great Salt Lake, for the annual Bison Roundup! This is one of the nation’s oldest and largest public bison herds. Evidently, hundreds of horsemen from around the area sign up to ride in this, and they drive nearly 700 bison from other parts of the island to holding corrals in an area near White Rock Bay.

Once all the bison are in the corrals they let them rest there for five days so they are more relaxed and “de-stressed.” Then, they vaccinate them and do health screenings.

In order to keep the herd within a size that the habitat on the island can support (given other animals that are also there, and the amount of vegetation/food supply) some of the herd are released back onto the island and others are sold at auction. Since about 100-150 bison are born into the herd each year, they try to keep the number they release to about 550.

Tonight, is a complete change of pace, as we attend the fall concert of the Orchestra at Temple Square in the Tabernacle. We're going with President and Sister Hansen, who were just released from our mission presidency this week. They go home in mid-November and this will give them time to help the new counselor and his wife get a little training before they leave. We've really loved working with the Hansens and will miss them - but, we think President and Sister Thornock will be great, too.