Awards Assembly at the Middle School

So Nolan is my first child to be in the Middle School and I was unaware of this assembly till Lisa Transtrum, the administrative assistant for the Bear Lake Soil and Water Conservation Board, told me that Nolan had won the Weed Essay Contest and that it would be presented that day.  So I went and I am glad that I did.  I did have to leave the tractor but it was worth it. 

 So this is a picture of Lisa.

 Here is a picture of Nolan accepting his award.  A check for $100 and a water bottle.  Adrianna Johnson (Nolan's cousin) got second place and Cheyenne Mast got third place.  I was really impressed with his essay.  It was quite comical.  Let's say that he did it on his own. 

 

What about the Fuzz?

By Nolan Jenson

 

 

          I have a border collie, named Zeus that loves to run.  He is not careful about where he runs.  This leads to him running through patches of hounds tongue.  I love this dog but get tired of cleaning hounds tongue burrs out of his fur.  Besides this inconvenience to me the burrs are a lot like the fuzz on a dandelion that spread wherever they want. This is not good because the burrs are the seeds of the hounds tongue.  In this case, though the burrs are not spread by the wind but by the dog running around the farm.  These burrs might appear to be fuzzy and friendly but are the exact opposite.

Burdock, to the untrained eye, can seem fuzzy.  But this is not the case, just ask my horse.  When I ride my horse through a patch of burdock we always pick up a few burrs along the way.  I have learned to avoid these areas but sometimes it can’t be helped.  The burdock is like the hounds tongue, in that it is a menace to me and my horse because it gets in my horses mane and tail.  The burrs are also the way it spreads.

 

          It has been my experience that when getting bucked off you do not want to be near a musk thistle patch. Once when I was riding my donkey, named Scout, he bucked me off into a musk thistle patch.  Not only did it hurt when I hit the ground it also left little pokey things sticking all over me. The purple flower on the thistle dries up then turns white. The wind blows the white fuzz everywhere. This is how the musk thistle seeds spread.  It may appear fuzzy as well but

 

          As described above these weeds may appear friendly but in fact are not.  Not only do they cause problems for me, they add no value to my farm.  In fact they only create more work for me when I have to go and dig them up.  My Grandfather started a weed digging program on the farm I live on.  My dad has continued this program.  But they both know that if you try every year to dig up the weeds you see that it will make less for the next year.  I have also learned in my short life of digging it is much easier to dig a weed when it is young than putting it off till the middle of the summer.  If left uncontrolled these weeds take over the pastures that my animals feed on.  Not only does that affect my animals but also me.  My cows do not produce as much milk if they don’t have food to eat.  Also when one farmer lets weeds get out of control it pollutes the fields around him with more and more weeds and less and less feed for the animals.  In conclusion, weeds may appear to be fuzzy and friendly but are the exact opposite.  We need to do what we can to stop the spread of weeds.

 

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 So after that award his Math Teacher got up and started presenting her awards.  She handed out a few and then came to the last in her math classes.  She started by saying the it was for the Most Improved in Math.  She stated that the first day of school this young man walked into her classroom and plopped down in his chair.  She said that she started talking about math and he started sinking lower and lower in his seat.  To the point of his head resting on the desk.  So she asked him what was wrong and he said, "I hate Math."  (At this point I was deathly afraid that this was about my son) She then said that he improved so much that he was a good student.  I am crying as I write this because it means so much to me.  My son has hated math since the 2nd grade.  No matter what I have tried to do and his teachers have tried he has fought so hard against math.  I was really worried about this year at school because I had heard things about this teacher but somehow someway she got through to him.  I can see the difference in him.  He no longer quits when it gets tough.  He had an A the first semester and a B+ the second.  I was so proud of him.  He had to work really, really hard but he did it and I could not be happier with anything else.  I can not thank this teacher enough for giving this gift to my son.  It will affect him the rest of his life.  See good things still happen.

 I tried to get a close up but it was too dark.