Christmas 2008

Christmas 2008 is now history, but like Christmas' past it was full of a lot of joy and the memories need to be preserved. Unfortunately, a lot of the time around the holiday was spent moving 50 plus inches of snow, but that too is an event that may not happen again in my lifetime.

One event to remember was going to Michael McClean's production of "The Forgotten Carols" on December 18th. We went to Saint George and had dinner at the Cracker Barrel with Terry and Vicki Atkinson and another couple and then to the "Carols" at the Cox Arena. I have learned to love many of his songs, and the story that he has written to go along with it is interesting and fun. I would recommend it as a Christmas tradition if possible.

Jillyn, Kenny and girls arrived at our house on Sunday evening the 21st and stayed through the 28th. Kenny and I had some hope of getting in a round of golf, but that was not to be. Many thanks to Kenny and Jillyn for shoveling my driveway a couple of times while I was cleaning the road to the bridge, plowing out Dad and Donna and helping some of the neighbors. We did have a couple of warm days in between storms so the snow settled quite a bit and now has a fairly hard crust beneath the six or so inches that came later.

We had a birthday dinner for Dad on his 84th, which was Monday. Annette and Ed brought steaks which Ed braved the cold to barbecue on the grill outside. Claudine brought home made rolls and a salad. We provided drink and dessert. Brent was having truck problems and couldn't make it. We had a good time eating and visiting. Later we went to Saint George to a Sandberg family party. It was raining the entire time we were there but it didn't dampen the spirit. Some of the kids and grand kids performed Christmas songs and Aunt Grace (Rex's wife) recited a story that was an incredible feat of memorization for someone near 80.

Dad's 84th Birthday

Ellie and I drove her dad back to Cedar and stayed over night with him. He is suffering from an enlarged prostate and was having a biopsy on Tuesday. I went home Tuesday morning and Ellie stayed with him to take him to have the procedure and came home later. I shoveled out James' driveway then while I running some errands got a call the Dad was missing. It was assumed he was out stuck somewhere in his Ranger. When I finally got home to look for him I noticed the garage door was not open and there were no tracks leaving in the new snow. I back-tracked and found him laying in the snow just outside the chicken coop. He had slipped and couldn't get himself up. I asked if he was freezing and his comment was "It ain't very hot!" When I asked how long he had been laying there his reply was "not too long." When we got him in dry clothes and warmed up we realized he had left the house at around 7:15 and I found him at 11:15, four hours later. I can't believe how tough he is. so far there seems to be no ill effects, and within two hours he was ready to head out again.

Tuesday night Ellie and I sang in the choir for "Christmas in Harmony". I had made only one practice because they were usually held on Tuesday when I have Mutual. The entire group hadn't practiced nearly enough so it wasn't the best performance ever, but the special numbers were good and it got us in the Christmas Spirit.

Colleen dropped James off on Christmas Eve and he spent Christmas and a few days here with us. I think he enjoyed it but was glad to get back to his own home on Saturday.

Christmas Day was fun, especially seeing the girls so excited with their gifts and treats. We had Dad and Donna down for Christmas Dinner and we all enjoyed visiting and eating.

Camille and McKenna enjoying Christmas

Camille in her "Princess" outfit

Joel, Tiffany and their girls arrived Friday afternoon to join in the festivities. All the girls had fun playing with dolls and toys. The adults played games, ate and visited. On Saturday we played in the snow, sleigh riding and just sliding down the huge snow piles. The snow was too dry to make snowmen, but Kenny did make a sculpture(?) and Joel and I dug a snow cave. By the time we got it finished all the kids were either tired or cold and had gone inside. We did get out for a while Sunday morning to enjoy the snow again before church.

The girls enjoying the snow cave


Even the 'adults' enjoyed the cave / Jillyn stuck in the emergency exit

Sledding down the frozen road, we could go nearly to the old bus

Jillyn and Kenny left around noon on Sunday. Joel went to Dixie for some dirt biking with friends. He and Tiffany are going home tomorrow. It has been a great Christmas and we hate to see it come to a close. It will seem kind of lonesome around here when they are all gone and we will be anxiously looking forward to their next visit.

Snow And More Snow

Me and my big mouth. Never again will I brag about how little snow we have had since we have been in New Harmony. After clearing snow all day Wednesday, I had barely out the equipment away when it started snowing again. Thursday morning we woke up to another 15".



Dad used to have a funny saying that I think is appropriate: "That was the winter it started snowing and never did quit!" I suppose he was quoting someone but I'm not sure who. He came up with another one just the other day. One of his favorite pastimes is reading the obituaries. The conversation was about someone that had recently passed away and someone asked him how old they were and his reply was, "As old as he's going to get." We probably should keep a log of his funny sayings and quotes.
Back to the snow... I have a skid loader and it works quite well for moving snow, except when it is slick. When all four tires get spinning there isn't much you can do except gun the engine and spin 'em faster, hoping that one will grab. I don't like to use it on my concrete driveway because it is too easy to gouge the cement, so all the snow you see piled along it was shoveled! I'm sure I have shoveled at least an acre-foot!
Don't get me wrong. I love this snow. I can hardly wait until the grand kids come for Christmas and we can make snowmen and snow forts and maybe snow caves and snow trails an sleigh runs and maybe have a snowball fight. The beauty is incomparable, and it tends to emphasize the change of season, which I love. And OH! what a change! I just hate shoveling it! And I suppose I should be a little grateful that it it is forcing me to do some exercising this time of year when I mostly exercise my jaws.

Christmas Road Trip - Journal Entry

We made our annual Christmas Road Trip this past weekend. We try to make a visit to see each of our kids and their families and deliver Christmas presents before the big day. We left home Friday morning (12-12) and headed north. Though there was storm forecast, the roads were dry all the way and we didn't encounter any bad weather. We arrived at Jillyn's house in Lehi around 1:00 pm and visited for a couple of hours. Jillyn and family are coming to our house for Christmas so we will be seeing them again in about a week. Kenny dropped in from work so we also got to see him for a few minutes.

We arrived at Joel's house about 4:00 pm just as it started to snow. Tiffany cooked some great Chinese food for supper and after the girls were in bed we watched a Batman movie, "Dark Knight".

We arrived at Clay's home in Rexburg, Idaho just after noon on Saturday. Clay was working so we played with the grand kids and visited and read most of the afternoon. After Clay got home he took us down to his office for a tour of the newly remodeled facility. It is fabulous. We also met Dr. Zollinger and his wife Mary, both seem like really nice people.

Ayla playing with her dinosaurs

Lori cooked chicken tacos for dinner, along with a really good spinach salad and honey bun cake for dessert. After the kids went to bed we played Scrabble. Clay won with Lori close behind.

We had a lazy Sunday morning before going to church at 11:00. Clay made crepes for breakfast, they were excellent with Lori's apple pie filling or buttered with cinnamon and powdered sugar. It was bitter cold and the wind was blowing which made it even worse. It must have snowed three of four inches during the night but it is hard to tell because of the wind. Their new church is already too crowded. It is a big ward with lots of young families. We played Scrabble again after the kids went to bed. I started out with a seven letter word "tougher", using only one blank. The 78 points I got from that blew out the competition and I won by about 50.

Nathan and Grandma having a piano lesson

Monday morning we had breakfast with the family and shortly after Clay went to work and the kids to school we hit the road. We made a little detour through Inkom to look at the area where a large development is planned. I am doing a little consulting for a company the may be putting in the telecommunications.

We arrived in Kamas about 2:30 pm. We stopped and had a short visit with Tony and Mona Powell, then went on to Darin's. The kids weren't home from school yet so I dropped Ellie and I went over to All West and paid a visit to the folks there. Lynne's father passed away this past weekend so she wasn't there, but I think I saw about everyone else. I got back to Darin's around 5:00pm. Suzanne made Spicy Chicken Chili for dinner and we enjoyed family home evening, visiting and playing with the grand kids.


Tuesday morning we had waffles for breakfast, then everyone was off to work and school except Paxtin. When we were ready to leave we took him to Diane (Goates) Bayles' for daycare. We stopped and visited with Larae DiStefano before leaving the valley . It snowed a few inches in the night and was still snowing when we left. The roads were snow packed through Heber, then slushy into Provo but clear after that until we got to Cedar. We made a couple of stops in Provo, had some lunch at Subway after finding they have closed Fazolis, then headed south.

If this blog seems to be mostly about food, it is probably because it seems like about all we did was sleep, eat and drive. When we got home about 5:00pm we found our road blocked by two feet of new snow. I put on my boots and hiked in and brought out the truck, pushing snow with the bumper all the way. We left the car at Frehner's and loaded what we needed in the truck and drove to the house.

Snow Day

I guess I got just what I deserve. Last Monday we were in Kamas to spend some pre-Christmas time with Darin and family. I stopped by at All West and said hello to some of my former co-workers and I was a little too smug as I bragged about not having to shovel my driveway at all last winter. When we got home Tuesday night there was 24" of that cold white stuff blocking the road. I made it to the bridge but that was all.

Luckily I carry some cold weather gear in a duffel bag when we travel in the winter, so I put on the boots and coat and started hiking. It only took about 200 yards to find out I am in really poor shape. My boots were only 12" high, so I was getting the top 12" of snow down them and so I tried to hurry, but I was puffing like a steam locomotive. Trudging onward I finally made it to the house and changed into some real cold weather gear (my ice fishing clothes) then went out and started the skidster but soon had it stuck. I went and got the truck out of the garage and was afraid I was going to get it stuck too, but what a machine! There was snow above the front bumper, but it pushed through and I made it back to the bridge. We left the car at the neighbor's house and took the truck and made it back to the house. I shoveled for a couple of hours last night and spent most of the day today pushing snow after getting the skidster un-stuck.
It started snowing again about five this evening and at 7:30 there is about two inches of new snow. From the looks of the weather map, which I have inserted below, we could be in for another two feet by tomorrow night! I can hardly wait so I can start shoveling again.

Coat Of Many Colors

I have had a few people ask me for an update on the shop, so here we go...

In an earlier blog I mentioned that my hired help had all quit. One of them got a toothache and they never came back. That was over two months ago and I still haven't seen them. I really thought they would at least be back to get their boom box. Since they left I have been kind of puttering along. I think I may have learned a new work ethic from those guys. I didn't have a toothache but I caught cold and didn't feel like working one day so I took a couple of weeks off. Then, while horseback riding I was chewing on a hard piece of licorice and a crown fell off. That cost another week. Then Thanksgiving came around and I gave myself that whole week off.


I'm back to work now have the stucco pretty much finished. Accent color around three more windows and the front doors and I'll have it. It looks... how to describe it? Homemade. I guess that's how it looks. I knew starting out that I didn't know how to stucco, but I went ahead and proved it. I went right after it and pretty much made a big mess. But after all, it's just a shop. I thought that by starting on the sides and back I might know what I was doing by the time I got to the front. The front is the only thing most people will see anyhow. On about the second bucket on the front the battery powered drill I was using to mix the color died on me. I thought it was mixed enough so I put it on. Bad decision. It ended up too dark at the start and too light at the end. I decided the best way to fix it was to paint, so I went to Home Depot and picked the best match I could find. After putting on two gallons I decided it wasn't a very good match, so I took a sample and went back to Home Depot and tried again. What you see below is the result.




Don't get your nose out of joint, I'm not finished. The color on the lower part is the final, and I mean FINAL color. It only warms up enough to paint for about an hour per day, so I paint between two and three pm when the temperature nearly makes 50 degrees. That gives it a while to dry before the sun goes down and takes the temperature with it.


I hope to get the painting done Saturday, then perhaps the accent stucco next week. I have garage doors ordered and they should be installed shortly after that I think. Wouldn't that be a lovely Christmas present to myself, to have the outside all finished!

Rock On...

I know this isn't the rockiest place on earth, but I'll bet it ranks up there pretty high. If anyone is keeping track, I want to nominate 82 E Rachel Lane. I doube there is a record book, after all how would you quantify it. Maybe rocks per square mile? And who is going to count? And how big does a rock have to be to be counted? So many questions, I'll bet even Guiness doesn't have it in his book.

Anyhow, can you believe all the rocks in this pile came from the foreground of this photo? If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I probably wouldn't believe it either. I had quite a pile of rocks here that I dug up while preparing my orchard spot. My neighbor (and others) hauled them all away for landscaping. I thought to finish up I would just dig out a few more that were showing... HA! For every rock that is showing there are about 8,000 more hiding beneath it. I would think these things are just layong around having babies, except that most of them are full grown!

I took this photo just to give you a little more perspective as to the magnitude of the problem here. I hope you're not thinking that I dug these all out with a shovel. Yes, I am retired, but I don't have rocks in my head. I don't think. Maybe I shouldn't think, because if I think about it, maybe I do, for even trying to move these things. And it's all so I can plant a garden and give the local wildlife something else to destroy. Hmmm. Don't even try to look at it logically because there is only one answer. I have rocks in my head.