The Most Beautiful Place...

I love - and I mean LOVE - the sound of the River! Sleeping with the window open in the summer is the BEST, as the sound of the River can lull you to sleep. This spring, the River has scared many people, but I had faith in the old dike the Provo River Water Association put along the north side of the River back in the '50's. I knew the River would flood on the south side, but it goes to the hillside--not any homes, so.....
The weather protected us, however, and with the cool spring...never any good warm weather...the snow melt in the mountains was slow and we experienced high water, but no flooding. In the lower church farm where Earl has the cows, the River had decided not to take a turn and just headed straight, taking quite a bit of pasture with it, but lucky for us, the neighbor came in with a trackhoe and built the banks up with rocks in three different locations. This is the view of the River from the hill coming straight from the Francis corner. Isn't Woodland the most beautiful place!


This is really interesting...as long as I can ever remember...the River has run right along side the road at Riley's Canyon. Dad and I used to drive up the canyon every night each spring looking at how high the River was. Earl came home one morning and told me the River was so dry at Riley's, he could walk across the rocks without getting his feet wet. This was unbelieveable, as in the spring, the water is so high and runs so fast that you can hear big boulders rolling if you listen. I couldn't believe Earl...so, I made him take me up to see. Yep, the old Provo River just decided to take a different route one morning and now there is no water in the regular location...just a trickle!
This tree with the sign is a marker Dad and I used to watch to see the level of the River. High water was the bottom of the sign, so that is about 4-5 feet of water in the River that is about 20 - 30 feet wide. Can you imagine how much water that is and how swift it is! Earl - the "water master," says it is about 4,000 cubic feet per second. Imagine there is no water there now and it took pasture land out to the south of the River site.
Eli is just a little accident prone, to say the least. Let's just say he has lots of brains and it takes a pretty good sized noggin to house all of his grey matter! He has had his face glued together right under his left eye from our dog (yes, we did have to put him up for adoption--the dog--that is), and had stitches in the back of his head, and now stitches in the left front of his head. Aunt Chelsea is removing them now. He was a good patient!
Aunt Olivia came home from work with water balloons for the kids, so the fun began! Filling the balloons and then tying them proved to be a challenge that kept the kids busy for a while, but team work makes the mission easier.
With everyone helping, the balloons are getting filled and the real fun is about to begin!
Meanwhile, the adults can visit a little and have our own fun. To our surprise, Earl showed up for a minute and sat down for a "break" to watch some of the fun
This is a picture of gambling. I know, you don't see a table or cards or dice or anything like that. What you are looking at is 45 mother cows with babies. The babies were all born between the end of Feb. and the first part of May. We lost 6 to snow storms, freezing, and sickness, but the remaining 37 just eat lush, green meadow grass and nurse their mom's all day. The gamble is two/three parts -- 1. Hoping and praying they will stay healthy and gain lots of weight for the rest of the summer 2. Hoping and praying the price of beef will be good in the fall; and 3. Hoping and praying that one of the little things will not escape the fence and get run over in the dark. This is a beautiful sight to any true farm girl (or guy) and farming is definitely a gamble!
Lastly, this picture does not do justice to the reality of the beauty of this place! This is Bench Creek. The place my grandfather bought as a young man and cleared with a horse-drawn plow as he walked behind . He had to first clear the sage brush and it took him several years. This property has been passed on to us kids from our loving parents. Earl now has the opportunity to farm this sacred piece of land. He plowed up 15 acres last year and another 5 this year. He uses a 4-bottom plow pulled by a 125 horsepower tractor with an enclosed cab. This sounds easy in comparison to what Grandpa Bisel had to do, however, even with modern equipment, it is still lots of work. It does give us an opportunity to think about the work and sacrifices that have been made for us and makes us realize how much work it took to tame this country. The pioneers were not afraid of work, floods, drought, wild animals, Indians or anything else that may have prevented them from accomplishing their goals. We owe so much to so many who have made life comfortable for us.
Kamas City asked me to put together a musical history for their annual Fiesta Day Celebration on the 24th of July. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning in-depth histories of those who first came to this Valley. Come and spend Sunday night, July 24th, with us in Kamas at the Middle School at 7:00 pm and learn for yourself, about the sacrifices that have been made for all of us!