Mar 16, 2011

The traveling Cactus or was it a chunky bar?

Recently there was a Chunky Bar that was traveling back and forth between Dawna and Tia. It would end up somewhere in their possession and then the other would try to sneak it back. Well recently it has escalated and become a neighborhood traveling Cactus Plant in a jar. Rance Hutchings was reported to have been having a contest with Greg Jones, or at least their families, as to who was the best neighbor to Scott and Dawna. It was said that Rance took some horse, well road apples as we refer to them in scouting, and put them onto Scott's porch then later went and gave them a candy bar to show who was the best neighbor while making it appear that the Jones had given the road apples to them. Well we were at Britt's the other night when Vickie Hutchings brought them supper as her visiting teacher. We then got into the discussion about the road apples and Vickie explained that he had thought about doing it but didn't actually do it. So anyway we ended up giving Vickie the Cruchy bar so Rance could give it to Dawna which he did by slipping it into Dawna's purse. Well she then went to St George and the candy bar melted in her purse. Well while that was going on we went to a silent auction where an older lady had donated a large cactus in a large potting plant. (By large I mean it was about 3 feet tall and with the cactus it was closer to five foot.) Anyway Marie was told about the story and then suddenly decided to have me buy it and out it on Dawna's doorstep.  So I put a bid of $5.oo and was the only bid. We then tied it into Scott's truck with a set of jumper cables that Jeff A had in his car. we had no other ropes or twine with which to secure it on the ride from Springville to Dawna's. This all took place on Saturday evening. 
Sunday evening we were headed to a fireside in Provo and saw Dawna so decided to take her mail to her that we had collected while they were in ST George. Dawna then told us about the Cactus that Rance had left on her porch and she didn't want to offend him so she didn't quite dare do anything to it. She said that the tournament they had been playing in was called the Cactus Tournament and figured that he must have given it to them as a gift for winning the tournament. But he couldn't possibly think that I would like it.
Monday night Dawna and Scott had a reunion with the past Bishopric from the singles ward and expected to have a lesson on gratitude and figured that they would mention it by the end of the lesson but nothing was said. So finally today Dawna went down to Rance's and confronted him with it only to find out that he knew nothing about it. So they then went to Greg abd Vickie's where Rance proceeded to blame it on Vickie. He even said that she must have played poker and could hold a poker face but finally figured out that she really was innocent. They then called Tia as she was finishing up at work so she really didn't pay attention as to what they were saying but she did say that she had written the note but she didn't put the cactus on the porch. Tia d then called Marie and told her what had happened and while they were talking could see in a reflection in the picture in the front room that someone was coming to the front door. She hung up quickly and we went out to see them, I noticed as I went out that they seemed to be trying to get enough courage to come and knock on the door.  After we walked out to talk to them Hutchings then came to us and Rance thanked us very emphatically for throwing him under bus and then handed the note "Love from Hutchings" with a large chunky bar to us. We then talked about it awhile and finally told them that it was for a good cause and explained how we had come by the cactus in the first place. They then parted after we had laughed for sometime and we came back in to have supper. I then suggested that we take Dawna and Rance a cake. Well Dawna wasn't home so we took both of them to Hutchings and gave her one of them, She said I hope we didn't make you feel bad and we told her that we had quite enjoyed it. We then decided to take the second one to Jones. We then had a geat laugh with them as well and discovered that they didn't think that we would do it either but we admitted to them that we had and then related the whole story to them as to how it came to pass. They then informed us that it was now at Gary Miner's place with a note something like "Catus Tournament Trophy". I only wish now that I had a picture of it at each place as it starts to travel around taking with it a story that  all started as a gift sincerely given to help in a silent auction to pay for a young man to have an operation to restore his eyesight.


Now Tia and Britt please add your comments to help fill in the parts of the story that I have missed in writing this.

Mar 15, 2011

How Time flies, just home from mission ,4 years for Lynn

As I have grown older time has grown shorter not only for my time left on earth but also seems to be going faster each year. I remember just after returning from my mission that I had been talking to Lynn and thought about the fact that he had now been home from his mission twice the length of y mission in other word for four years. It seemed the to me to be a very long time but four years later it seemed to be extremely short and now that I have been home for 36 years it really seems short. I have had a great time and lots of experiences in my life and over the past 5 years have been trying to write some of them down I now have around 100 of them done and at least two hundred to go. I have a hard time remembering all of the details but started out by just writing a line that would remind me of an event. That is why I know I have at least two hundred left but I keep having more so I may never get caught up and certainly will never get done. Hopefully my posterity will enjoy the stories though and maybe even learn something in the process. Lyn has now been home for over40 years, wow has time flown.

I had a conversation with one of my scouting friends as we traveled down to work on a woodbadge staff one year. He reminded me that it could easily be that days are physically shorter from year to year because the ord has stated in the scriptures that time will be shortened in the latter-days for the sake of the righteous. I always interpreted that as meaning the Lord would return sooner than planned but can easily see how the interpretation could be time during a day is shorter and I suppose if the earth were to slowly get closer to the sun and the rotations be shorter that time in turn would also be shorter. That is one of those mysteries that I don’t worry about knowing the answer to now but look forward to knowing it in the next life. It really has little bearing on my faith or testimony since I know that all of these things are done according to a law that God knows and someday if I can live the commandments that I will know also. 

Note added after the 9.0 Japan Earthquake March 15, 2011.

It has been reported that due to the earthquake that the earth now spins a little faster and thus time has been shortened by just s a fraction of a second but things adding up as they are has led me to believe that indeed the time of a day can truly be shortened.  

Mar 14, 2011 Happy Birthday Hallie 4yr old today

Learn well the Rules of Your Youth.

Life has a way of teaching some valuable lessons to us. One being “Rules of your youth also apply to your adulthood.”

Marie and I have not been married for 34 years. I cherish the time that we have been able to spend together and the love that we have for each other. That 34 years of course has not been void of it’s challenges for each of us and it has been many times that I have heard her say to me “We don’t seem to be having a very good relationship” or something to that effect. Now I have been a typical male and thought things were going great but she has had things missing in the relationship that I just didn’t understand. I have worked hard to change that and can now say that I haven’t heard those statements for several years and hope not to if I can avoid it. Some of the things which helped foster those feeling was my lack of doing the dishes and other household chores. When we were married Marie became pregnant on our honeymoon and Ben was born 3 weeks premature just 8 and a half months later. I was working for a TV repair shop and required to be on the job from early in the morning until the job was done which many times was till late at night. I felt as though I didn’t ever get to see her or Ben until Saturday and Sunday. When I would try to help with the dishes or whatever she would always chase me away and say that it was her job not mine and I finally quit offering and found other things to do. That was a big mistake but one that I made and it has taken years to be able to occasionally help with the dishes. We did always go grocery shopping as much together as possible and I always liked to take her with me when doing errands in the car or being required to go somewhere for something when I could take her along. However our love for each other has been challenged several times.

One particular instance started when another member of the ward took a liking to her and found ways to talk to her and be with her even though I might have even been there as well. During the years that I worked on swing shift he would call her form his shop and talk to her for long periods of time knowing she was home without me there. The occasional times he would call and I would answer when I was there didn’t seem to puzzle me for long because he always had something to ask me about and then would hang up. The there was a ward adult party where we met as couples and left babysitters with our children for the night. We had gone up to a cabin in Hobble Creek and had a great evening meal and then settled in for games and eventually as movie. It was a bit chilly so we had blankets that we put over us as we watched the movie and I was on one side of Marie and this fellow had sat on the other with his wife next to him. It wasn’t unusual to me because I was there family home teacher and knew them both fairly well or so I thought. It ended up that while we were watching the movie had had his hand high up on her leg and was caressing her during the time on the couch. This is why I titled this story as this ws one of those lessons from our youth “Never sit under covers together when dating while watching a movie.”  I never knew this had happened for several years or that he was calling her late at night but have always been thankful that she loved me enough to stick with me during those tempting times for her. He eventually moved on to another woman in the ward to whose family he was assigned as Home teacher and broke up that marriage. Then ended up with his own marriage broken and living out of his car.

I too have had a challenge that I never recognized until later. I had become friends during this same period of time with a divorced young mother that worked at Signetics on the same shift. I was a supervisor over the work crew repairing the  manufacturing equipment and had 5 or six men whom I was responsible for during that shift. One of the fellows was single and quite liked this woman and she would often talk to me about their relationship. I would “counsel” her about the relationship as though I really knew how to do it and unknown to myself he was somewhat jealous of the time I would talk to her not knowing that I was talking to her for his sake. Then there were a couple of times that she became scared that someone was stalking her and following her home to Spanish Fork after the shift was over at midnight so a couple of times I followed her to her apartment and waited for her to go in before going on home to Mapleton. She had even invited me in to the apartment as well but both times I told her I would stay in the car until I saw her light come on and then I would leave. I was tempted to go in with her but knew that I had a far better girl waiting at home for me. Later my employee told me in an interview for a raise that he thought that I was trying to get her from him for myself. I was shocked because I had never wanted to do that and told him that and then a few months later was invited to their marriage. I thought that I had really helped cement the relationship for them however when looking back realize just how close I had come to falling in love with her at the expense of my own marriage. Then a few years later learned that they had divorced and I have often wondered if she was really after me rather than him. Thus a second lesson was learned again that applied from my youth to “Always remember who you are and do the right thing”.

Well I have been grateful that I learned these and many other rules in my youth. I also am thankful that they apply even more once you are married and have found one that you can be eternally happy with and deeply in love with as well. But my reason for telling these stories is that you must always remember those rules that applied during your dating years and during your youth because they apply even more if you want to have a lasting relationship. Life is not as shown on TV and those who fool around texting, calling, sitting next to under blankets in the most causal of circumstances or even trying to counsel for all the right reasons will loose that which is most precious, a wonderful partner whom you must have once loved or you wouldn’t have decide to marry the first time. Love is something that has to be constantly nurtured and never left to chance or left alone. I love you Marie and thank you for all the wonderful years together that we have had and hope to still have.

Mar 13, 2011

Eagle Court of Honor 8/13/1971

I enjoyed scouting as a young man, at least the activities of scouting but not necessarily the merit badges of scouting. I did them however and was almost ready to receive my Eagle rank at age 14 like my older brother Lynn had done.  However there were two merit badges that stood in my way and I just couldn’t get past them. I did my eagle project and everything else required for the rank and still just couldn’t get past those two badges. I then stopped earning badge s as I went into the teachers quorum at church and later into the priest quorums where scouting wasn’t a major part of the activities. I still had everything to be an Eagle Scout except the leadership or personal motivation to get those two badges. Now you might be thinking  what were  those badges and why were they so tough. They were swimming and lifesaving and I was not a deep end of the pool swimmer since I swam so well as a rock rather than a person. Then Sister Caldwell moved to town and had been a professional lifeguard for years and upon discovering my plight with water took me on as a special project the day after I graduated for high school. We went swimming during the day and evenings as I had a graveyard shift at the Texaco for the summer and had time tat I could learn to swim. I finally passed off those two merit badges and four days before my 18^th birthday passed my board of review for the eagle rank in scouting. I received it four days later on a Sunday afternoon at a District Eagle Court of Honor. We held that Courts of Honor at a district level back then and everyone from tabiona, Altamont and Bridgeland came to the court of honor. It was a great day and I was in my scout uniform still able to have parents who put enough importance on the program to buy me uniforms as I grew. Luckily I didn’t grown too much and only had to have new pants and shirts a couple of time between 12 years old and 18 and then they were pretty much hand me downs form the older brothers. I was the only Eagle presented that day and right after it was over and the pictures were taken for the local newspaper (in Roosevelt) I got into the pickup with Lynn and Leesa and headed off to college at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah. When we got there we quickly unloaded our things into our apartment with Sister Anderson and Lynn informed me that we had a dinner engagement and I didn’t have time to change from my uniform before we were to be there so I went in my uniform to the home of Brother and Sister Findlay. He, Brother Findlay, just happened to be the Director of Training for the local council the Utah National Parks Council from which I had received the Eagle rank. I think it was a setup but I have always been thankful for it since it set me on a trail of scouting that has helped me to help other young men who have been in much the same predicament that I was in during those years and I always tell them about Ray Hansen and Sister Caldwell. 

Mar 12, 2011

My personal Eagle Project

Scouting will be the subject of many of my historical stories. I was not the most avid scouter as a youth but became such many years later. However the reason it became so intense an interest in my later life was due to a few stories that did occur in my youth. One such story was the story of my Eagle Project. I was I suppose as many of the youth of today and dutifully did my project even though I didn’t understand the scope of the reasons for it’s being required.

The reason for an Eagle project is so that the youth can show his use of the leadership  skills that he has learned through his scouting experiences.

I didn’t know that back then but as I look back now I realize that I did have to use many skills that in the time since then I have fallen back on many times.

My project was a deep cleaning of the LDS church meeting house where we went each Sunday to church. I had a number of good friends during my youth and most of them were involved in this project since we all went to church each week together.  One of special interest was also there whom I later married and with whom I still do many scouting projects and activities. Marie and I were about fifteen at the time if I remember correctly. (Another story that will require verification from Mom’s journals.) I had planned what we needed to do including such things as removal of gum from under the benches and washing the windows on the inside and out. I can’t remember how many were there but I do remember working on one of the windows and Marie was working on the next one to the side of me. It was such a special feeling that I suppose it stuck where many other details have long been forgotten.  It was tough one of the many times during our youth that I knew I loved her (or thought I did at that age, I have since discovered that it was love but not to that extent that it has since become.) I always enjoyed being around her during those years as we were growing up and she made many of my memories very pleasant.

I went on to earn my Eagle Rank even though it was several years later as I was nearing my eighteenth birthday. Another story.

Mar 11, 2011

The next few posts are some stories from my history.

Years: 1961-1971 Chores

When I was in High School I had the responsibility to do chores. Milk and feed the cows. Feed the horses and chickens and whatever other livestock we would have on the farm at the time. Generally Dad would get me up in the morning to milk the cows and then I would do them in the evening after school. When I was younger it was in conjunction with my older brother Lynn but since he was four years older than I then he was off on his mission by the time I was fifteen. Until I was 18 and off to college then chores were my daily routine at home on the farm.

The getting up routine was an interesting one for I was not unlike any most other teenager’s. That bed would be able to have a strong pulling power in the morning and breaking out of it’s grip generally took Dad about three trips to my room. He would start at about 6 AM and come down to my room and would say “It’s time to get up.”  The furnace room was just on the other side of the door from my room so then I would lay there and try to sleep as he would remove the clinkers from the furnace and fill the coal bin with new coal. After that job was complete he would again open the door (if it wasn’t already) and again announce “Come on son, it’s time to get up.” 

Dad would then go out to the barn and get the cows into the barn and once again return and tell me. “Get up, it’s time to get up.” He would then usually succeed and I would crawl out of that very warm bed into the chilling cold of the basement room that serves as my bedroom.  I would then go up and help him carry the buckets of hot water the 50 yards out to that barn.  Part of the water was used to wash the cow’s tits and then the rest later served to wash up the buckets and other milking tools.

The main reason the cows were so easy to get into the barn was due to the grain that we would put into the stanchion.  After they stuck their heads through the bars we would then move one of them into place and lock it there so that the cow couldn’t back out and walk out of the barn while we were trying to milk them.  We would also put hobbles around their back legs to prevent them from kicking us (and the bucket) while in the process of milking them. These hobbles were sometimes more trouble than help.

We had one old cow that wouldn’t let anyone milk her by hand so we would have to hook up the milking machine to her and then milk the other two cows by hand. This was accomplished by removing a one legged stool from off the wall and while balancing on it put the bucket between your legs tilted toward the cow and then spray the milk into the bucket. We could each take one of the two cows and have them milked about the time the automatic milking machine, or what we referred to as the “milker”,  would be finished with the first co

We then would put the milk into another room and let the cows out of the barn. I mentioned that the hobbles were sometimes more trouble than help and it was during this part of the chores where that happened. There were a couple of times (OK several) when I would forget to take off the hobbles before releasing the cow's head. She would then go to step back and if she didn’t fall she would go out of the barn jumping with her back feet each time she moved them. It was of course very hard at that point to stop her and get the hobbles off but if we were lucky they would fall off or she would stop long enough that we could flip one side free so that they would then fall off. I always felt bad when I did this because of the terrible time it would give the cows but even more because of the hard time I would have in getting them off. There were times in my later years that I wouldn’t hobble them because I found out it was easier for me to move when the cow wanted to kick than it was to get her back up off the floor when she would still try to kick and thus slip and fall down while her head was still locked in the stanchion. There were those times of course when she would reach up to relieve a minor objection to my milking and catch the edge of the bucket and then get her foot caught in it and spill it out onto the floor. Of course though the cats and our dog Pee Wee loved that because then they got more than an occasional squirt that they would lick up off the floor under the cow beside my stool.

After the cows were let out of the barn we would then put the milk through a milk strainer to remove all of the hair that would fall in as well as any other foreign objects that might have fallen in as well when the cow would flick her tail or move her leg or let out other objectionable stuff while we were milking. (It is funny as I think back over the years realizing that all that stuff that came from the strainer never once made me stop drinking it or using the cream on my cereal.) 

After the milk was strained we would either pour it into glass gallon bottles that I would get from our neighbors who bought the milk form me or put it through an old crank up milk separator that would separate the cream from the milk. We would save the cream and feed the milk to the pigs.

We would then go to the house carrying the extra milk we kept for our use and the empty buckets. The other milk was left in the barn where our neighbors could pick it up later in the day. I kept the bottles it in cold water or would take them to the house depending on the temperature in the barn and how soon they would be over to get the milk.  The cold water would keep the milk good for almost a full day if needed.

I then would have breakfast if there were time and then get ready for school and ride the bus to school. Dad would usually have left to go to work earlier while I was finishing up the chores.

At night after I got home from school I would change into my old clothes and go out around 5 pm to do the evening chores. The routine was much the same in the evening as in the morning except for the fact that the cows would not be waiting in the barnyard but rather would be somewhere else on the farm. I would either walk down to the bottom of the field and drive them back to the barnyard or take the horse and put a halter on it and ride bare back down to drive them back to the barnyard. The evening always found me having to go out to the stack yard where we kept the hay and spread out a couples bales into the place where the cows could stick their head in and eat the hay. I then would carry some of it over for the horses as well. I only did this at night since Dad would usually have it done in the mornings while I was still battling my mattress.

I do not regret ever the responsibilities I had doing the chores for it taught me how to work and how to stick with a job until it was done regardless of the way I was feeling. There were many times I still had to do the chores when I was sick and didn’t want to do them. One time in particular I will relate later that has stuck with me throughout the years.