St. George in January

January 27-30, 2011 Richard had a class to teach to a bunch of firemen down in Ivins, Utah. Since the classes were in the evening, he was free all day so I decided to go with him. We took our own car so I could have transportation for the 3-5 hours he was teaching. 

During the days we saw some of the sites in the area. One of the first places we went was to the Jacob Hamblin home. He had quite the estate. It's amazing what he was able to accomplish business wise with all the missions he went on to the Hopi and Navajo people.

There was lots of cool stuff in Jacob Hamblin's home. I've always had a love of saddles and this one is really nice and in great shape.

I thought this ceiling (which was also the floor of the loft) was very interesting in that the joists were not evenly placed. I wonder if there was a special reason for that or if they just didn't care or what.

We also went to the St George Tabernacle which is where James Cottam pumped the organ for the songs played during the 'Windows of Heaven' meeting.

There is a newer road in the area. It's called Snow Canyon Parkway and goes from Hwy 18 (better known as the road to Veyo) out to Ivins. Along the parkway there is a large round-about which has beautiful, life sized, bronze statues. I've always loved horses and this colt is beautiful.

 The Mustangs

Ed Hiavka, Sculptor

 I love this Indian Brave and his horse. Every detail of this piece depicts the strain of the chase.

 There is another round-about in Ivins. This just fascinated me how these big slabs of rock are held up by such a little one. It's more amazing in person.

While I was out on my own with the car, I visited the quilt shop Judy works at. Judy was on vacation somewhere but there is a lovely quilt she made up at Scrap Apple Quilts. She said it's the best shop in town. I went to a couple others and I have to agree.

I also had lunch with Joann. She's so hilarious and we had a great time as well as found a good Mexican diner.

 On our way home, we stopped at Cove Fort, just north of I-70. 

Airstream

We bought a camp trailer. It's an Airstream and among some groups, that is really prestigious. To us, it's just a nice trailer that won't get dang mice in it and we can get out of the wind and sun to have a sandwich while up at our property. It definitely needs some cushion fabric updating and a good wipe-down but that's about it.

They're Growing!

July 9th Richard borrowed a friends truck, rented a tractor and went to the property to scrape a fence line/firebreak. The job was not without it's trials and only got half done.
As you can see, the area can be a little rugged and there was the learning curve on how to drive this bucking bronco of a tractor but the biggest problem was that the tractor lost a tire. Yep, it shimmied and shook and the tire came off the rim. Can't do anything with a gimpy tractor. Richard had to stay the night knowing nothing more would get accomplished and pondering how to get the tractor back on it's trailer without damaging things further. Once morning came he got that accomplished and drove back to town, got the tire fixed and didn't even get charged for anything, including the use of the tractor! He'll try again later in the summer. For now, everything is going well with the plants. they are growing and a few even had berries which were quickly munched by the local birds and rabbits.

Weekend at Grammie's! (May 14-15, 2010)

Whilst Hillary and Marc headed south to Tuacahn with Sonia and Shawn, the girls and I started out the weekend in the manner of every kids dream... playing in the field! I used to love the fields around my home when I was young and it was no surprise when these four kids begged me to play in the field. I even let them take my camera with them and this is what they came back with. We also went to the library. They loved it and all came back with books galore (which their mother returned on their way out of town to San Diego... thanks Hillary!) promising to have them all read but then begged to keep them a while longer when it was time to go. I knew they would want to do that.

After the library trip we went to the Community Park at Kearns Oquirrh Park Fitness Center and had a blast. I walked the short trail while they played. One of the funnest things was to roll down the hill and I'm sure that had a lot to do with why Adelyn slept for 12 hours that night.

Planting Trees

This last weekend the family spent a good deal of time at our property. We went thinking we'd spend two days planting trees and bushes. That didn't happen. There was the mondo watering system to build first. That took more than the two days but on day three, there was enough done to start planting. This tree is a Nanking Cherry and was the first tree planted on the property next to that cute little emitter on the hose. Richard worked all day Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to get the watering system completed to where it actually waters. There have been many bumps along the way. There are 8 - 500' lengths of hose to plant along. We have 400 trees/bushes so they are planted about every 10' and we have two lines planted so that's about 100 plants with 300 to go.

The weather is forcing us to take a break but we hope to be back at it and get the rest planted this coming Saturday. Then we can start planning our play time!

The Aquarium

Saturday, January 23rd, I was tending the girls while Hillary was at her clinicals for her nursing course and Marc was in Park City being fabulous (filming at the Sundance Film Festival for Timberland). It was supposed to be a horrible snowy day but it turned out to just look threatening all day here in the valley so Sonia and Shawn came over and we all went to the Aquarium. It was way fun and I want to go back when they have the Penguins which are arriving in March.
All the girls were soaked from 'petting' the sting rays but amazingly enough, were mostly dry by the time we left for home. As you can see by the pictures, there were great photo ops all over. I don't
think the octopus tank was meant to be a photo op but with a little encouragement from 'Auntie', Tasha put her face up to the tank. I've tried to put the pictures in the order they were taken... Enjoy.

Solar Panels or Bust!

Not long after James returned from AIT, he started going up to our property with dad. His friend and fellow soldier, Private Hemsley, went with them the first time. They put in all those bolt thingees you see in the picture.

Then on the second trip, the rails were attached and bolted in. This was all quite the project because this is a very steep roof on the shed. They also had more bolt things to put up. If I remember right, it took two trips to get all the rails up.

Then came the panels. Fortunately dad was able to take a couple days off of work while it was good weather. The solar panels took two days to get them all up, bolted to the rails, and wired into the electrical box that will run the solar pump down in the well.

After all this work, the pay-off was that when everything was bolted and clamped down, taped and screwed and the switch flipped, it worked and watered flowed at about 4 gallons/minute. Not bad for solar panels that hadn't seen the sun until they were brought out of their box and put on the roof.

Some of the funniest stories came out of the little Country Store in Fruitland. There is a little lady, Charlotte, that runs it. The Country Store also has tables and chairs if you'd like to sit and get a bit of lunch. Charlotte will come take your order and another gal makes it. Charlotte is so funny tho. She has quite a dry sense of humor and the best poker face around. She really likes people to enjoy their food and eat it all. Once James didn't eat all of his fries and she drilled him on why. Another time Leland ordered a very large meal and Charlotte told him he was too little to eat all that. She was right and she didn't let him live it down the next time he ate there... said she was gonna have to babysit him! She's quite a hoot.

Trippin'

This last Tuesday I hopped the Fire Marshall express and played in St. George for the day. (This is me at the hot tub.) Hubby had meetings in both St. George and Cedar City which were relatively short so I went along. Shortly after arriving in St. George we checked into our hotel. Cousin Judy picked me up and we went out to lunch, the copy shop and even got an ice cream sundae! When Judy asked if we should get one for my hubby I said, "Oh, I think we can have ours eaten by then!" Hee hee!

Back at Judy's we visited and she showed me some of her wonderful quilts. She didn't know I was into quilting and was so excited. Judy has one on display in her home that fills a two story wall. It has some dimensional features that make it quite striking. This picture is taken about two streets away. I thought it was interesting that every street in the neighborhood was something Hills... Desert Hills, White Hills, etc... and then in the middle of the neighborhood is Ducati Way. Of course I thought of Sonia and Shawn and just had to take this picture.

It was a fun, although a whirlwind trip. I'll have to do it again. Next time I'll make sure to call Joann myself. She'd also wanted us to come visit and I thought hubby had made contact before we went. He hadn't so although we kept trying to call, we didn't ever find her home and were forced to go to a ritzy restaurant (The Painted Pony) for dinner instead.