{"id":20194,"date":"2023-11-01T00:14:27","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T00:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=20194"},"modified":"2023-10-31T20:15:24","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T20:15:24","slug":"my-ag-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/01\/my-ag-teacher\/","title":{"rendered":"My Ag Teacher"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bryce Angell – The outdoors has always been a large part of my life. My father was an outfitter and guide for 35 years and I was there to shoe and care for the horses and help him do the cooking. We took many great trips into the Yellowstone area. Even now that I\u2019m older, we still ride into the Tetons, Yellowstone and surrounding areas. My poems are mostly of personal experience. I am now retired and enjoying life to the fullest. I plan to do more riding and writing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Transitioning from junior high to high school weren\u2019t no treat, for a country boy who despised sitting all day in a seat.
\nSo, my father told me, \u201cSign up for the Agriculture class. There\u2019ll be days out in the field and that will get you off your rear.\u201d
\nThe year was 1969, or somewhere there about. The class would teach me confidence. A man can\u2019t be without.
\nThe teacher called the roll he\u2019d pulled out of his leather bag. Said, \u201cThis class is Agriculture but we just call it \u201cAg.\u201d
\nThe Ag instructor looked to be a solid six-foot-three. Intimidation was the word for me at five-foot-three.
\nHe had a reputation with the paddle on the wall. And I\u2019ve watched a quivering lip come from the toughest of them all.
\nI weren\u2019t the brightest student to have walked the halls at school. But I soon deduced the paddle came from trouble acting cool.
\nThat year I kept my nose clean and the paddle off my butt. And I learned the FFA would build me up, not in a rut.
\nIn my second year of Ag and at the end of class one day, my Ag instructor asked me, \u201cGot a project on the way?\u201d
\nI told him that I promised Dad I\u2019d build a new squeeze chute. The project would require some skills, and confidence to boot.
\nIf I took on this whole project, all alone, I\u2019d soon be lost. Now the project would have two of us, me and my cousin Ross.
\nWe honed up on our welding, learned some fabricating skill. But class time cutting into shop proved little more than thrill.
\nAs seniors we spent every day, two hours in the shop. The time worked on the squeeze chute kept us busy, on the hop.
\nWe welded every piece in place. Then ground the bad welds down. One student asked if they\u2019d been welded by a circus clown.
\nWe\u2019d weld the iron, then grind it down to look better than before. We sprayed two coats of red they said would last ten years or more.
\nOur project was complete. I never thought was possible. Our Ag instructor taught us how to reach into our soul.
\nI walked away with confidence on graduation day. The Ag program and FFA proved worthy all the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Transitioning from junior high to high school weren\u2019t no treat, for a country boy who despised sitting all day in a seat. So, my father told me, \u201cSign up for the Agriculture class. There\u2019ll be days out in the field and that will get you off your rear.\u201d The year was 1969, or somewhere there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-cowboy-poetry","7":"category-commentary"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20195,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20194\/revisions\/20195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}