Finished!

I have been working on a talking stick and after three and half years, it is finished! Its about 18 inches long and the center beadwork is the hand hold.

We use talking sticks on the Trail during our fire circles. A fire circle is when someone brings up a topic to discuss around the fire in the evenings. (The topics can be on anything but many times they are to help people ponder about their life or their relationships with others.) Whoever holds the talkings stick can speak; they can speak for as long as they wish. When they are done, they say their Trail name or Honor Name and that they "have spoken" to let others know they are finished before passing on the stick. This one is a bit extravagent for the Trail. Usually they are simple and smaller so they can be carried in our packs but I used it as an excuse to learn gourd stitch beadwork.

One reason it has taken so long is the learning curve on this particular style of beadwork. I had to restart it six times before I figured out the proper way to do it. The spiraling of the beads can get confusing. It also takes longer than other methods because you have to put each bead on individually and then thread it to the row of beads above it. It creates a sort of net around the object when it is finished.

Trail Birthday

For the second year in a row, I celebrated my birthday on the Trail. This year was better than last year because I had better food to eat. I spent it with T-Bird, the windwalk for the week, scouting out Final D spots along Cherry Creek. As always it was gorgeous especially because the fall colors were coming in. There were a few birthday greetings from the bands as they checked in. My favorite was when Quin from the Sinagua band began singing "happy birthday" and I could hear the rest of the band join in from the background. I was laughing and smiling so hard my cheeks hurt.

Because my birthday was on a Sunday, T-Bird and I went to Young the next day. We had to go anyway to get gas for the Ridge vehicle, so while we were there, we stopped at the little convenience store. Somehow T-Bird found a tea candle and some of those terrific animal cookies. There was a clump of them which she put the candle on and called it my "birthday cake. You can see it below. It was the most unique cake I have ever eaten and wonderfully tasty, maybe because I had been on the Trail for six days at this point.

The next day Catherine managed to bring out chocolate milk for me. Not the nestle stuff but made from Shamrock farms whole milk. Its the closest I've found to BYU Creamery chocolate milk. She froze it so it was slushy by the time it got out to me which made it taste like a milkshake. I was in heaven. I have the best friends!

a quick story from the Trail

"AHH!"-Sam says as she becomes frustrated with a project she's working on.

Jeremy turns to their Young Walker and says, "Do you hear that?"

The YW says "no."

Jeremy replies, "that is the sound of joy in embryo."