Field Trip to the Trappist Monastery

~ a report by Megan & Ian


On Tuesday, May 29, 2007 we visited the Abbey of the Holy Trinity in Huntsville, Utah. We decided to take the scenic route (it was a couple hours away). A lot of the drive was on a dirt road. Mom spotted a huge gopher snake crossing the road! Megan jumped out and tried to catch it, but the snake hissed and tried to rattle its tail at her. A bit further along the road, Mom saw another huge snake! Again Megan jumped out to try and catch it. This snake also hissed, but she was able to catch it without getting bitten. She grabbed at it five times before actually catching it (see the video here). Soon we were back on the road.







We got to the monastery three minutes before None, their afternoon prayer. They didn't sing it in Latin like we thought they were going to. We could kind of understand what they were saying. The prayer session was about ten minutes long.

After that we went to a little shop where the monks sell creamed honey. They make the honey in a variety of different flavors. We got five containers of it. The monk behind the counter was named Father Patrick. He told us that he had been in the monastery since 1950. He is 79 years old. He let us watch a movie about their life in the monastery. We learned about the different things they have and how they live.

The monastery was founded in 1947 by Trappist monks from Kentucky. The monks are vegetarian most of the year, but every year in July, they celebrate the day that they were founded. One of the monks will go and pick up 100 pieces of Kentucky Fried Chicken and they will have a feast. The word monk comes form the Latin word monachus, which comes from the Greek word monos, meaning "alone."

We had a good time at the monastery. It was a fun field trip.

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Old Ephraim Mountain Man Rendezvous

Each Memorial Day weekend, the Old Ephraim Mountain Man Rendezvous is held in Blacksmith Fork Canyon. After missing it for several years, we finally were able to attend it and went with our friends, the Buchert family.

There were many participants, dressed in "authentic" clothing of the time period and living out of their tents and tepees for the weekend.

This man demonstrated how to start a fire using flint, steel and charcloth.

The dads and boys watched the black powder rifle shooting. This was much too noisy and scary for the 2-year-old girls, so we had to take them away.

Here is a blacksmith making iron products to trade.

Some of the trading posts had nice animal skulls for sale.

Daffodil and Ian tried on skunkskin caps.

Erin liked the turtle shells.

All in all we had an enjoyable time, but we were a bit disappointed that there were not activities in which all visitors could participate. The advertisement had led us to believe that anyone could try out archery, rifle shooting, tomahawk throwing, etc., but one could only do these activities if he had brought his own equipment. (And we don't happen to have extra tomahawks lying around...)

And now, yet another Natural History Moment:

While returning the remains of our picnic lunch to the car, Kevin and Erin found a yellow-bellied racer. Kevin managed to catch it without dumping Erin out of the child backpack. He bagged it (yes, we keep herp bags in the back of the car for moments like these) and brought it back to the rendezvous to show everyone else. Megan, Ian, and Soren all wanted to hold the snake. After admiring it and photographing it, we released it away from the crowds.

FSM-14 Space Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motor Static Test

We live about an hour away from Thiokol Corporation, a supplier of aerospace and defense products. Occasionally they conduct tests that the public may view, from a distance, that is. On 24 May, we had the opportunity to watch a test of a FSM-14 Space Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motor.

We traveled to the test site with our friends, the Kangas family. We had been advised to arrive early, so we set up our chairs and enjoyed a nice picnic lunch while waiting. The rocket motor is visible in the above photo--it is the long white object.

They had a loud speaker set up, so we could hear the preparations and the countdown to the test. At 1:00 p.m., they ignited the rocket. We saw a huge flame, and thick billows of smoke immediately filled the sky. The blast continued for almost 2 minutes. Needless to say, it was pretty exciting for everyone.

A half hour later, the smoke and most of the crowds had dissipated but the hillsides were still smoldering from the blast.

We left the test site and visited the Rocket Garden, located a couple of miles further up the road. Here the children were able to view older rockets as well as play inside a small segment of a solid rocket motor used for space shuttles.

Here is a group photo of the happy children by the Rocket Garden. Erin is not pictured because by that time she was no longer happy and was ready for a nap.

And now, A Natural History Moment with a mother killdeer:

While April was walking around the Rocket Garden looking at other displays, she encountered a mother killdeer who started chirping loudly and calling attention to itself. Knowing that these birds exhibit a broken wing display to lure predators away from the nest site, April looked for the nest and found it well-camouflaged among the rocks. The poor mother continued squawking and displaying while April took photos and video. She eventually attracted the attention of other onlookers, who got a short lesson on the behavior of killdeer.

Frog-Catching Field Trip—May 17, 2007

~as told by Ian to his mom

We went out to catch frogs last night. First we went to Benson Bridge, but we couldn’t find any frogs. Dad caught a cliff swallow. He scared it out of its nest and it was flying around. He caught it when it tried to go back in its nest. He showed it to us. It had good colors. We got to pet it.

We went and looked by the river and heard some splashes. One of the splashes was a beaver and it scared us all.

Then we went to a cow pasture where we heard lots of croaking. Dad wore waders and caught the first chorus frog. The croaking was so loud it hurt his ears. First I wasn’t so sure about getting wet, so I tried not to get wet, and then I got really wet. After a long time, Mom caught one. I caught the last frog, and Megan didn’t catch any. I snuck up and Dad shone his head lamp on the frog, and I got really close and caught it with my hands, but it was really squirmy. We put Mom’s frog and mine in the same net to watch them.

It was cool to see them croak and it looked cool to see the bubble under their mouths.





We didn’t try to take them home because Mom and Dad had tried to keep some as pets in college and they grew fungus on them and they died. They are also hard to feed because they are very tiny.

Mother's Day 2007

Isn't she a cutie? Here is one of the reasons April celebrates Mother's Day. The other two reasons didn't feel like posing for any more photos.

We spent the weekend with grandparents, Saturday with Grandma Tsukamoto and Sunday with the Youngs.






On Sunday afternoon, Andrea and Tyler prepared and cooked a delicious dinner of grilled chicken and veggies with Andrea's famous lemon cake for dessert.

The cake was beautiful to look at as well as wonderful to eat.

Great-Grandma Young was also able to come. We visited with her while Clytee, Andrea, and Nancy played Ticket to Ride.

Wetlands Nature Class

The final session of our science classes with the Stokes Nature Center was held Thursday, 10 May. This time we met at Benson Bridge to learn more about the wetlands. It was a beautiful, sunny day, perfect for bird watching and other activities.

We observed cliff swallows and a few barn swallows flitting all around the bridge trying to catch insects to eat. As we were waiting for things to begin, we watched them fly to and from their mud nests which lined the underside of the bridge.

The children were divided into 2 groups and participated in several different activities. Megan's group started off with a lesson about bird identification, and they used field guides to help them identify birds they saw.

Ian's group started off learning about aquatic insects and their characteristics. Then they collected water samples and tried to identify the creatures they found. They also learned about soil composition and looked at a cross-section of a soil sample taken by an area where cattails were growing.

Walking along the river's edge, we saw some recent beaver activity and some fairly fresh raccoon tracks in the mud.

Ian asked if we could return sometime and try to follow the raccoon tracks further. He also wanted to try to catch some frogs. We promised to bring the children back for another adventure at night (see future post).

Visit to the Mink Farm

~ A Field Trip Report by Megan

On Wednesday, May 9th, we visited a mink farm in Lewiston with our friends the Crooks and the Wallises.

We first went to the area where they skin the minks. It isn’t skinning season now, so all the equipment was in storage, but they explained the process to us. They kill the mink in a box that they put carbon monoxide into. The box fits about 100 males and 140 females inside it. The minks are then skinned with machines that peel the skin off inside out. The skins are taken to the defleshing machine, and the fat is taken off. They use sawdust to help absorb oil off the skins. The family who owns the mink farm skin and sell a lot of mink. On a good year, they did 26,000. After explaining about everything they did to skin the minks, they showed us a mink pelt. We got to touch it. It was very soft.

Next, we went out to the place where they keep the minks. One of the owners showed us a newborn litter of babies. They were very small. We got to hold some of the bigger ones. Unlike the baby mice we have, who squirm all the time, the baby minks barely moved at all. The minks, though they were cute, would bite anyone who put their finger near them. They had glowing eyes and made hissing sounds as we passed. Most of the minks were black with a little bit of white on them, but then the owners took us to a place with grey minks. They were very pretty. We got to hold some very light-colored babies.

We also got to see the food. It was pretty gross. We were told that it was made with cereal, chicken, fish, and a few other things. It smelled bad and looked terrible. Jim Crook tried feeding the minks. To feed them, they used a machine that had the food in the back and a tube that it came out of. The food was put on top of the cages.

I liked going to the mink farm. It was an interesting experience. I learned quite a bit from it. They invited us back in December during skinning season, but I don’t think I want to see that.

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