Feb 13, 2011 Video Chat

I love to talk with my grandchildren on the computer. They live in Arizona, Texas and Colorado. I just don't know why I haven't figured out that I should do some screen captures of them while we are talking. I did it tonight and they are just fun. Thanks Hallie and Leilah for being so cute.

Feb 14, 2011

The next question from the book was more about pets that I already included in the ast post. So since my mind has been heavily upon the experiences with David Nemelka that I have had I am posting a story from my history that took place while he was a Scout Committee Chairman and led to the event where we had 14 Eagle Scouts at one time.

Scout Camp of 1992 - 400 MB's

In 1986 I attended Wood Badge at Camp Maple Dell and learned some very important leadership principles that I later used as I was asked to be the Scout Master of Troop 66 in 1988. However I was asked in 1989 to be an Assistant Scout Master (specifically the Quartermaster) for a Junior Leader Training Course known as Timberline in the Utah National Parks Council where I was Scout Master.  A cousin Mark Poulson was the Course Director/Scout Master and had asked me to participate and to bring Ben along as a Junior Staff Member. I became very involved in Timberline at that point and 16 years later finally retired from involvement on the District, Council and Area Junior Leader Training Staffs. I expanded my leadership knowledge through participation in this area of Scouting. It not only helped me with leadership in the council responsibilities it also helped me in my troop responsibilities.

After I had participated in Timberline for about three years I decided to put the principles to use in my troop. I had been Scoutmaster for over four years and from the knowledge that I had gained decided to put together a summer camp that would not just give the boys a good experience but jump start them in a huge way toward their Eagle Rank.

I had a number of boys in the troop that were 12 and 13 years old but had a lot more in the ward that were still not Eagle Scouts. I decided to use these older boys for my staff and then put together a camp where we would specifically work on just merit badges. I used the Patrol Leader’s Council at the end of the summer prior to the year that I wanted to do this and we decided on 20 to 25 merit badges that we could do during the year. My plan was to work on the badges during troop meetings from October to July and we would concentrate on the requirements that included paper work and research at home. Then in the end of July we would do a summer camp at Bristlecone where we would work on all of the rest of the requirements that required we be in the outdoors to accomplish. So it began in October and we studied, as I remember, about 25 merit badges. Over a few weeks we decided to limit them to 22 merit badges. We spent troop meetings late at night one month doing astronomy since there was a special event occurring that spring where three planets were lined up very close to each other in the night sky. My home at that time was still far enough away from the city lights that we were able to see the stars and planets clearly. We also did other special projects to help do the other merit badges.

We still held our monthly campouts and had great participation in them from all of the boys in the ward. We prepared by using the patrol method and continued to build up our camping equipment.

Finally we were ready and went to Bristlecone early on Monday morning. I had three adult assistants. There were 20 boys and we had put them into three patrols. I took an old motor home that had been lent to me by Dave Nemelka for use in the scout camp. After I had driven it down into Bristlecone I worried that I wouldn’t be able to get it back out the steep road to get home. We did make it but had another vehicle chained to it to help get enough power to climb out.

At Bristlecone Varsity Teams form Carbon County had used a number of trees to build villages off the ground. It had killed a lot of the trees and so each year they would cut down some of the dead ones and make shorter logs out of them. There was an old log cabin where we set up our camp. We kept all of our food in it to help keep it from predators. (It didn’t help as skunks could still get in and did so during the week.) However the trees that were cut down were just down off the hill from the cabin so we pulled them up out of the trees and lashed them together for our tables for the week. We built three of them, as we needed one for each patrol.

During the week the 16 and 17 year old boys acted as merit badge counselors for the camping part of the badges. We did merit badges like hiking, bird study, camping, and other easier ones like basket making and leatherwork. It was fun and I still specifically remember studying an ant farm in a tree and others on the hillside in mounds. We did bird study and did a number of hikes around the hills. We looked for wild animals and even spotted a large herd of Elk that we watched during the week. We did a mountain top patriotic experience and then did all the normal camping stuff which helped us to complete the cooking merit badge as well as others. I can’t remember all of the badges we did that week but I do remember the last hike required for our hiking merit badge.

On Thursday morning we left early for our “20 mile hike”. We had all of the maps of the area known specifically as the Kyune Quadrant. (I learned a lot about the area that week especially of the history of the railroad that winds through the canyon.)  We went east from camp and wound down off the mountain headed toward the Price recreation campground area. I had never been to that area but knew that it existed.  I had different boys leading us to the area by the use of the map and compass skills we had been developing. One leader went with me, Orin Bawden, and he became a key player toward the end of the hike. We stopped and had snacks along the way and had our canteens of water. It was a hot summer day but the first part of the hike was even somewhat cool as we were hiking at 9000 feet elevation. We had a great time and even ended up on a nature trail that led us right down off the hill into the park. We filled up our canteens, rested and the first 6 miles was over. We then left the park following the road down to highway 6 that runs from Spanish Fork canyon to Price. It was three miles to the road and just as we were getting to the junction of the roads we met a US Forest Service Fire Fighting truck headed up to the park. He stopped and got out his hose and sprayed the boys. It got them soaked and I was worried about them hiking in wet shoes but they thought it was great and really had a good time. We left there following Highway 6 up to the rest stop at the top of the canyon which was another three miles. We practiced our hiking skills that we are supposed to use along highways. I went first and Orin followed at the end. There were parts of the hill where we were spread out several hundred yards. I tried to keep a slower pace so that we could keep the boys closer together but it didn’t always work. ( I learned over the years that no matter how fast or slow the leader goes that there will always be boys who keep up at the front and boys who will lag as far behind as possible whether it be a short five mile hike or a long 20 mile one.) I had planned on filling our canteens again at the Kyune Rest Stop at the top of the hill near the highway before we continued up the hill to the camp. It was at least a 1000 foot climb over 7 miles to return to camp and I knew we would need water for the afternoon part of that hike. I was sorely disappointed when we got there and no water was to be found. The water I had remembered being there years ago had been taken out some time earlier by the state road department. So it was early 1 pm and we had the heat of the afternoon to walk up the dirt road back to camp. I have said many times since then that I would go the opposite direction if ever given the chance to repeat that 20 mile hike. At least that way we could get water for the last 6 miles.

At that point I knew the boys couldn’t get lost and decided to let them go as fast as they wanted since the sooner the lead boys got back to camp the sooner we could have the other scout masters bring water to us. I stayed behind with Orin as we were already having a couple of boys that were resisting the rest of the hike. Two boys in particular were really struggling to make the hike. Orin had kept most of his water and ended up walking about 100 yards and then telling them they could have a little water as soon as they got up to him. After about three miles it became evident to both of us that we would need more water, and faster than we had planned. I started hiking faster and told Orin I would go to camp and bring back water. I had hiked another three miles and passed several of the boys who were starting to also struggle. By the time I had reached the top of the hill a half mile later I was met by one of the leaders in a vehicle with more water. I relaxed my hiking at that point and he took the water to the boys as he went down the road. I was surprised to later discover that Orin and the two boys that had the hardest time were only about a mile behind me at that point. Orin’s 100 yard method had worked pretty good even though he was out of water before our other leader got to him. There were also boys that had been back to camp almost a half hour before I got there. We all had some blisters and some had some real bad ones form hiking in their wet shoes but it ended up being the highlight of the camp that week.

Friday night we were joined at camp by three other adults (Tom James and David Nemelka were two of them) who were members of the Scout Committee and the adult leaders wives. We had a great patriotic camp fire, great dutch oven food and retired an American flag. Then we went to work the next morning  making the camp official and the merit badges official. Several of the boys had written reports during the week to finish up the paperwork parts that they had missed at various times through the year when they had missed troop meetings and others were still doing them that morning. The troop committee then held a long Board of Review as we had to get each boy through the process. They would each meet with me in my tent and we would make sure that they had finalized all of the merit badges and then they would meet with the members of the troop committee that had come up. I had a spread sheet with all of the merit badges requirements and the boys names so that I knew where they were. We had a lot of work to do that morning and while some of the boys were completing requirements the others were breaking camp and cleaning up form our week.  It ended up being a great success in that we completed 400 plus merit badges for a combined total of 22 boys. I was thankful for all of the help that had come with me and I was very impressed by the boys who had acted as the counselors during the week. They had each prepared well and in so doing had passed off a lot off the requirements for themselves.

I had been successful because I had used the principles of leadership that we had been teaching in Timberline. The principles of sharing leadership, knowing and using resources and counseling were especially useful that week and I will include other stories from the week to illustrate that later in my history. 

Feb 13, 2011

How many pets did you have? Which one was your favorite?

I had several pets or at least we did as a family. Many of them I don't remember their names but one of the earliest was a large black dog that was very protective of us. The story is told of him walking between Marsha and the hole to the septic tank that was being dug out in the field.  I don't know when that dog died or why but it was probably poison that had been left by neighbors at the edge of the fence between our properties. We lost a number of dogs to that.
The three pets that I remember best were a small black female day named PeeWee, an old grey cat named Smoky, and her kitten named Flame. PeeWee was brought home as a pup and died at an old age of at least 15 or more. I was married before she died. She was a fun dog to have and didn't have pups until she was actually several years old. She had two pups that lived for some time and I don't really remember what happened to them. PeeWee used to go for long runs or adventures and one time didn't come home for several days. When she did she was walking on three legs. She had been apparently caught in a trap and finally chewed off her leg to come home. Dad took her to a vet in Roosevelt and he removed the leg to the shoulder. She was with us a lot of years after that. I still can see her climbing the hay stack with just those three legs and sitting on the top looking across the valley and watching the traffic (I Guess) on Highway 40.  She could run pretty fast on those three legs and the front one that was left became very large and strong. She would stand along by the cows when I milked along with the cats and lap up milk as I squirted it on the cement floor for them. 
Smoky was a pretty special cat. She and Flame were around for a lot of years even though I believe they disappeared before I left for my mission. Smoky was a very good hunter and kept the mice from over-running the barn and stack yard. She gave birth to a lot of kittens. Smokey may have been one of the 27 or more cats that we had on the farm at one time. We ended up having to take many of them to the ranch. Smoky and PeeWee and their off spring were all outside pets. Mom would not allow pets in the house even though we did sneak PeeWee into the basement room several times and occasionally I would take Smoky in so she could catch some mice in the basement for me. She was so scared though that it didn't really work very well. Smoky loved to have you rub and pet her though as she sat on your lap. She would purr quite loudly at times as well while petting her. 
These were all special pets and I loved them a lot. I guess that is why when Pookie was brought home I let him stay since he was the male version of PeeWee.

Feb 12, 2011

What was your favorite toy?

I don't remember a favorite toy. I remember toy trucks that we played with in the tractor tire full of sand. And small cars that we used in it also. I had lots of fun. 
Today though I think that I need to comment about something that I thought about during conference. There was a talk about changes in culture from my generation to today's. Then he said to go out and do things except maybe play computer games and facebook. Then the thought suddenly came to me that one of the culture differences are in those very games that are played by these two generations. We played "No Bears are Out Tonight" and other games outside requiring interaction with each other while today they are often playing computer games which requires communicating only with the computer. It was just a thought but as you think about it there is a lot of differences in the two cultures and these games may just be a part of the problems in the dating world of today's culture.

Feb 11, 2011

What was the climate of the area where you grew up?

It was typical Utah climate. Hot in the summer, great in the fall, cold in the winter and again great in the spring. Here are a few examples. I remember going out in the winter when it would be cold and starting a fire in the small wood burning stove to get enough heat to o the chores. One particular winter however was almost too much for that little stove when it got down to -33 degrees. Not all of our winter's were that cold but just about every winter we would have to connect a welder to our water pipes going out to the barn to thaw them out so we could have water for the cows.
Then there some pretty wet springs. There were three or four years when our road leaving the farm would wash out where we drove from the canal to the top of the bench. It was pretty muddy when it would wash out. One year we even had to walk a half mile into the yard since we couldn't get into the end of the road.
I always loved the summers until we had to haul hay in the midst of the heat. I loved the heat when we got to the canal and started to swim but that was usually the only time.
Fall however was the perfect season, other than school starting again. The fall colors were always so pretty and the weather was usually so good. It was a good time of the year because the hay was all in the stack and the irrigating done for the year. there were the different fruits to can but they were always so good to have later through the year.
I grew up in a special place that will always be close to my heart.

Feb 10, 2011

Who pulled your teeth when they were loose? How was it done? How much did the tooth fairy leave for a lost tooth?

This is a painful subject. Dad pulled the first teeth with a pair of pliers. I soon learned to tie a string around it and a door handle and then slam the door. Not much better but at least I had control. As far as a payment for the teeth it was a dime or if lucky a quarter. As far as one that got lost it was nothing. we kept good track of those teeth until the fairy paid up which was usually the very night we pulled the tooth.

Feb 9, 2011

Do you remember having a favorite nursery rhyme or bedtime story?
What kinds of books did you like to read?

I remember having many nursery rhymes somewhat committed to memory in my childhood and although I don't really remember having them read or told to me they were obviously very much a part of my early childhood. Mother loved to read when she got a chance and I am sure she read to us a lot or told us the stories a lot.
As far as books that I liked to read, well , I wasn't much of a reader even though I did read a lot of books in my youth. They were mostly westerns in origin and adventure in plot. I did read some church related books that had been given to me through the years and would always order books through the readers book clubs at school. I must admit however several of them were never read. I guess that is why I was somewhat excited when some of my children took to reading very heavily. I always wanted that kind of drive but never fully had it as part of my young life.

Feb 8, 2011

Since I just made an entry about best friends I feel it appropriate to add another story of another of my best friends in life from my history short stories collection.

Truly A friend: Dave Nemelka

I was in a ward with the Nemelka’s for several years after a ward boundary change placed us in the boundaries of the Mapleton 1^st Ward. After the ward change I was called to be the Scoutmaster of Troop 66 in that ward. I ended up being the Scoutmaster for 5 years before being called into the Bishopric as second counselor.

While I was the Scoutmaster I worked hard to take the boys to the Eagle Rank. I planned the program so that I could take my sons to that rank and thus along with them the other boys. One such boy was Mike Nemelka son of David Nemelka. Mike wanted to be the youngest scout to reach the rank of Eagle. I had a lot of the other older young men nearly to their eagle rank but some had stalled and so I had a number of them that were close but not yet there. Anyway I took  Mike and planned a program that would get him to the next rank as soon as the time was done. We went hiking and camping and even had the father’s go one time when I couldn’t just so we could keep them on track.

There time flew by quickly and one time I arrived home to find a Motor home parked in the driveway with a note in it that it was given to me. Well Dave later explained that he had bought a new one and would like to give that one to me. Well I decided to use it primarily for scouting. We took it out to the sanddunes and up to Fairview for snow caves. I used it for a place to put sick boys and a place to haul several of them at times. Now I wouldn’t be able to use it since everyone would have to have a seat belt. I took it to Bristlecone camp for a summer camp one year where we worked prior to the camp for nine months to get twenty merit badges ready so that we could compete the outdoor requirements during one week. On Friday night of that week Dave and the rest of the troop committee came up to camp and we had a very large Board of Review to complete the last part of the process. Dave as the committee chair was not only there for that camp but would give updates each week in Quorum Meetings. We did a number of eagle projects and worked on merit badges as often as possible. Finally the day came and we had 11 boys ready to receive their Eagle rank. And Mike was the youngest of them having reached the goal right on schedule. We had a live eagle at the eagle Court and everything planned in such a way that it only took an hour to get all of the program completed.

The scouting program wasn’t the end of Dave’s help either. Later after Signetics had shut down and I had worked at Kara Chocolates and then began working as an Insurance Agent he came to me after church one day and said “You are hardly the kind of person to sell insurance, you are too honest”. We later had several discussions and one evening he gave us a car that we badly needed. His children had bought a new car for him and so he passed his on to us. We used that car for several years before an accident on the freeway totaled it and we had to get a new car.

He also helped me to learn the internet and at one point was even involved in starting a company called OWOL or One World On Line. It was a multilevel company that established web pages on line and helped me to get my photography business started. I have greatly appreciated all that he has done for us over the years and his gracious friendship. He helped us out more than once just when we were needing it most and gave renewed meaning to being there when the Lord needed someone to work through to give us aid.

A final tribute to a wonderful life and friend.

On February 8, 2011 Dave took his life after battling some apparent brain disorders for several months. I will miss his calls and queries about my family and how they are doing. It is hard for me to understand the stress that must have taken over his mind after literally years of helping others to avoid that very process. He was very kind and was also very smart. He took me with him on several scout activities with the boys and was always a great example to them. I will always cherish his memory and the memories of the many talks that we had through the years. I know there were many nights that he was up all through the night counseling others and then after sleeping a few short hours was into the shower taking a long shower while talking on the phone helping someone else or planning something else that would benefit many others in their lives. I know because I spent some of those hour and shared was on the other end of several of those early morning shower calls. He couldn’t let his mind rest and possibly that was the final cause of his unrest. I truly grew to love that man and did not always totally agree with his views knew that he would listen to my counsel as well as giving counsel to me. Recently a young man was killed in a traffic accident leaving football practice. The fellow had almost completed his Eagle and Dave and I spent quite a bit of time discussing the possibility of presenting that Eagle after completing his Eagle project which was the only thing he hadn’t completed. I couldn’t quite feel that was right and after discussing it with Dave he finally understood my concern and knew there was a better way to honor the life of that young man. Thank You Dave for all of your love. A child is not only raised by a village but a village will never forget those who were so instrumental in the growth of many of those villagers.

Feb 7, 2011

What kinds of things did you like to do? What were your favorite childhood games to play?

I have mentioned already the games that we played so I will not address that part of the question. Don and I however probably had one thing that we did the most. We both owned .22 rifles. My rifle was a single shot and he a semi-automatic. I have also told how rabbits and wood chucks were a menace to the farm so he and I would often go for a rabbit hunt after school or after work during the summer. We lived out on the end of the road below blue bench so the rabbits were as close as the hill above the house where we had to watch closely where we did the shooting. However when we would go up on the bench and over to the big draw (Hammond 's Hollow I think it was called) we could see a lot of rabbits and shoot pretty much at them in any direction except toward the valley. The rabbits would run across the small draws and hills of the big draw allowing us some challenges as they could crest the hill and go down into the next draw really fast. They would also cross over the draw and go up the other side which made them much easier to follow and shoot.
I look back at it now and wonder how I ever really enjoyed it but at the time it was fun, plus I suppose we did help control them since there was a lack of natural predators besides us. I learned to be a fairly accurate shot and would often use only one bullet while Don would go through several. With his semi automatic he would just pull the trigger and hope to get one by following the trial of where his bullets were kicking up the dirt. He did aim but just not before he started to pull the trigger. I had to aim since I had one shot and then would have to reload. It was good exercise for us to since we got to where we could run up and down those hills fairly rapidly. That may have been why I did as well as I did in cross country and 880 yard dash in the track and field events.
I also got to be pretty good at shooting but regretted it once when I was trying to scare off a dog that had come around the farm and I aimed below it as it ran up the hill. I didn't guess it would hit a rock and bounce up under the dog and end up killing it. I always felt bad about that even though my intent was not to kill only scare. It tend to help understand why shooting toward rocky areas was always very dangerous and so I avoided it after that.

Feb 6, 2011

Who were your best friends in your early years? Did you ever have sleepovers or campouts together?

Besides my siblings my other best friends were Max Wimmer, Don Hansen, Lee and Wendell Moon and the Weber's. For the most part Max was my best friend when I was in elementary school along with Chuck Wilkins and Russell Conn. Then when Hansen's moved to town I started playing with Doug and Don. Don eventually became my best friend in High School and we spent a lot of time together.
I never really had any sleepovers when I was young that I can remember. However Don and I did do some camping when we were in Scouts.

Here is what I have written about that experience.

Don and I and the garden tractor campout.

When I was new to scouting I had a den leader named Donna Hansen. Later her husband Ray became my scoutmaster. They had three sons. One who was my age and in my class during the school years, and one a year younger in Marie’s class. They became close friends during those years of scouting and Don became probably my closest friend of the two. So Don and I did a lot of rabbit hunting and scouting events together. When we were about 14 years old we needed more campouts to complete the required camping merit badge so Don and I struck onto a plan to take the small garden tractor that dad owned and pull the trailer that goes with it up onto the bench and find a place near the canal where we could easily set up a camp and spend the night. We had a great time after we set up camp and made and ate supper. We decided we needed and easier way to cross the canal (which we could easily jump) so that we could gather firewood and other things fo camp. So we set out to building a foot bridge over the canal. There were always a lot of cottonwood trees growing along the canal and always a lot of dead and downed ones that we could cut up for firewood. This time however we got a couple of the bigger trunks and cut them so that they would span the canal. We then added smaller ones and laid them crossways of the tow logs to make a crossing. After we had lashed the end ones to the two logs then we just laid the rest into place and then covered the logs with dirt taken form the sie s of the canal complete with the grass so that it would not just be a muddy mess. It didn’t take us long to build the bridge so then we also made some other camp gadgets like a tripod for our fire from which we could hang our water pots for heating.

We did a number of other small gadget as well. When we did finally go to bed it was fairly late but we had been able to have a great night. Well the canal was actually about 35 00r 40 feet below the level area where we had driven the tractor to before we commenced setting up camp. During the night we were awaken by the sound of the garden tractor being started and discovered our means of transportation of our equipment that we would be hauling back the next day was being stolen. We quickly got up and ran up the hill to find my brothers being the misfits who were thieving the tractor. It was quite fun and I don’t remember if they took it home that night or if we succeeded in stopping them but we must have stopped them because it wasn’t a traumatic enough of an event to set it deeply into my memory. It was always fun being the youngest brother however because of things like that which were always done by older and wiser brothers, well at least smarter (smartelic that is) ones than I. 

Just as a side note. That bridge remained there for a number of years . It was above the canal enough that it never caused junk to lodge and create a dam that would have made the canal wash out the side of the hill upon which it ran. It was eventually removed as the ditch company went through and dug out the canal to make it deeper.  It was a reminder for a lot of years that we were able to create a camp and make it useable and still be smart enough whether through dumb luck or actual planning of something that could be used for years to come. The grass continued to grow watered only by rain but still made it a very crossable bridge.

Of course these were all boys that were best friends but Marie Behrmann probably took the number one spot for the last several years of school. I was very blessed with good friends and enjoyed my experience while growing up with them. And growing old now with Marie.