Sept. 22, 2011

Accidents: Ball Bearings under the car

There has been many times through my life that I have been blessed by the Lord and didn’t realize it until some time later.  One for instance was while I was working at Signetics. I had gone to work on graveyard shift, as was the case for the last seven years that I worked there, and spent a regular night at work. The Blessing had been given that night on the way into work in the car but wasn’t realized until I left to go home the next morning. As I went to find the car I was approaching it from the back when I noticed a steel marble behind one of the tires. I bent down under the car to pick it up and noticed there were actually several of them. At that point one of the employees who often rode into work with me realized that they were actually the ball bearings form the car. I ended up having to get the car carried over to my mechanic in Mapleton so that the bearing could be replaced.  Now, You may ask what was the blessing in having your car break down and leave you stranded at work, and I will promptly answer that the blessing was that I made it to work in the first place. Obviously the bearing had fallen apart while we were riding into work the night before but the bearings had stayed and worked properly until the car was stopped and sitting in the parking lot at work.  It is at times like these that I am so very thankful for a Heavenly Father that knows my time table and knew that I could spend extra time going home from work that I couldn’t spend in getting there.

Sept. 21, 2011

A Story of the Lord’s Blessings

There have been many times in my life that I have known almost immediately that the Lord has heard my prayers and sent the appropriate messenger to fulfill my needs or the needs of my family. There has been one person who the Lord has sent many times and he has heeded the call each time. I know also that the Lord ahs asked him to do it for many other people as well and that he has also heeded those calls. But for the sake of keeping it possible for the Lord to continue to bless him and so that it doesn’t appear to you as the reader that he has done it to seek earthly recognition I will not mention his or the name of his family. Just know that we have come to love them through these and many other opportunities where we have been served by them and also many times that we have been able to return service to them.

The event though I will try to spell out in detail so as to not be misunderstood as to how the Lord blessed us so greatly.

During my marriage we as a couple and family have received many blessings through good employment for myself. For many years I was able to be the total bread winner for our family. I was first employed by American Television Service in Orem for three years. I ended up leaving that employment because of consistent loss of income due to the employer going back on promises. I found myself working long hours and knew that my family was suffering from my never being able to be home with them. The boys small and I very often was gone before they woke up and not home until they were in bed again. So between the job and home I felt it important to try and change employment. I can’t even remember the final straw that caused me to quit but I do remember the morning that it happened. Marie and I had talked about it and she made the comment “You may want to quit but you won’t.”  So I put all of my extra shirts in the van and later left for work.. When I got there I talked briefly with Carl Haupt, the owner and boss and then left the keys with him and walked home. I left around 8:30 Am and got home around 2:30 in the afternoon. It was 14 miles part of which I followed the train tracks so that I wouldn’t continue to be asked if I wanted a ride. The blisters formed and I finally accepted a ride from Frisby’s for the last two miles.

I went without a job for nearly two months until I finally got employment at Signetics at between a third and a half the salary I had been making at AM TV. However one of the Lord’s blessings came within a year when I was the making more than I had been and my original salary was tripled. I worked with Signetics until the company moved to New Mexico and I wanted to stay here with my family. Bishop Anderson found out that I would be unemployed and asked if I wanted to learn how to make chocolates since they owned Kara Chocolates. I started working there 9 months before Signetics actually shut the doors.  Within a couple of years Bishop sold the candy company and a little over a year after that I also quit that job. (This time though I didn’t walk home.) I had been asked several times to work graveyard shifts for the company and did it willingly until it became evident that I was wasting time there during the night. I was asked to work but would often run out of raw chocolate or place to store the candy as I made it. The night I quit I had told them I would work on condition that there be enough chocolate there that I could produce the candy all night. Well I got there and had enough to keep me working for 1 and a half hours. So in keeping with my promise to them that I would leave I left the key on their desk and locked the door behind me. I had enjoyed working there but again missed promises were more than I needed to worry about.

Little did I realize though that my worries had just begun but so also had the real blessings from the Lord began to be manifested in my behalf and that of my family also. I worked as an Insurance agent for a few months and as a full time photographer and later at a cabinet shop (Anderson Cabinet and Mantle) and finally at my current employment with Provo Craft. There were many times that finances would seem to be all gone and we would lose the house and yet each time we would either be able to refinance enough to keep us going. I had $40,000 saved in an IRA account when Signetics shut down that ended up being used to help us stay afloat. But one day in particular before I was hired at Provo Craft the hours I had been able to work had not been bringing in sufficient finances. I remember that day so well because I sat in the den trying to pay bills and was nearly $1,000.00 short. I broke down in tears and then fell to my knees to pray for an answer as to what I should do to be able to pay the bills.  It was only a few hours later when the doorbell rang and our friend had come to see us. He inquired of our family as he always does asking me to report on each child and what they were doing. We talked for an hour or so and then he pulled a check from his pocket and said he had a feeling come to him that morning that we needed this and left it with us asking only for a big hug for thanks. After he had gone we opened the check to find it made out for $1.000.00.

That was only once of several times when we have received help form the Lord. Some of them we don’t know where they are coming from but they always come when we have done what we can to make ends meet. Then the Lord whispers in someone’s ear and we are blessed. I only hope that I have done the same when the Lord has whispered to me, although I am sure I probably haven’t done it enough. I am truly thankful for the Lord’s blessings and truly thankful for those who have heeded his call in our behalf. 

Even now with Marie and I both working we are often without money but I have always noticed as that happens we get blessed with a wedding to photograph or a family to photograph and sufficient money for our needs are received.

New Entry 02/08/2010

I feel that I need add a segment to this story. We have ended up getting a Passat Volkswagon. It is more expensive than we had hoped and may end up being far more expensive before we will be able to trade it but I hope to be able to someday soon. Anyway the real story I have to tell this time was about our trip to Colorado this past weekend to Kasia’s baptism. Ben, Hayden , Tia , and Marie and I with their families all made the trip to Colorado despite snow storms predicted both going to Colorado and coming home. Hayden left first on Wednesday and went half way to Grand Junction and stayed overnight then went on in on Thursday getting there around 4 or 5 pm.  They went swimming with Hallie in the morning and made the trip a little less stressful for her. Scott, Tia, Marie and I then left around 2 pm and drove straight thru getting there around 10:30 pm.  Hayden hit snow storms but didn’t have too much trouble getting thru. He also went thru fog just as we did when we came thru later and we also hit snow from Vail to Eisenhower tunnel. We went quite slow and didn’t have any trouble either. Ben then came thru as far as Grand Junction that night arriving there about the same time we got to Jeff’s. They had hit heavy fog thru the areas where Hayden and I also had only theirs was much thicker. Well they came on the next morning after letting the boys play and enjoy themselves arriving around 4 pm Friday night. I was so thankful to have us all there safely. 

We had a lot of fun playing and having dinner together Friday night and then had fun going to Kasia’s last basketball game of the season and later to her baptism. It was such a special day and we all enjoyed it. For some reason though that day Hayden had decided to check the fluids in his car. It was good that he did because he was low on oil so after we got home from the dinner following Kasia’s baptism he and Jeff went and got some oil. The car was 4 quarts low meaning they had driven to Colorado with only one quart in the engine. The Lord had really blessed them since the extra heating from having to cross over the mountains had not caused the engine to seize. Hayden and Cheyenne left for Grand Junction Saturday evening around 5 pm and arrived safely in Grand Junction around 10:30 pm.

We  again played games and had fun but retired to bed a little earlier that night. The next morning due to bad weather reports in Grand Junction we decided to leave t 8 am instead of going to church. Ben wanted to leave at that time and I felt it best that we travel together. We had heavy storm thru the mountains just west of Denver but when we came out of the Eisenhower tunnel the roads were clear and we were able to travel a little faster. However prior to that we had lost track of Ben and didn’t know why we had lost him. We had passed a van that had slid from the road and rolled. The passengers were apparently Ok since they were standing outside the vehicle. We slowed way down and found out that as Ben was approaching that accident that his car started to slide around and so he got into the outside lane and slowed down. He later caught up to us as we were going slow enough for him to do so without added danger of driving faster.   After we had started down the other side of the mountain we were getting near to Vail Tia got a text from Cheyenne stating that sliding off the road was fun Go Team Go. We were not sure what it meant until she later informed us that they had slid off of the road. They were doing about 70 and the car went into a spin of about three turns and then hit a snow bank and rocked up onto tow wheels then back down. They had to call a wrecking truck to pull them free from the snow and get them back on the road. As he got up to speed the car started to shake and he found out that the accident had caused it to go out of alignment. They were only able to drive the remaining miles home at less than 60 miles per hour arriving n Payson around 4:30 PM.  They had truly been blessed a second time by not being injured as the car could have rolled had it been in any other area of the highway.

We came home on dry roads pretty much the rest of the way with just a little precipitation around Grand Junction. It was a true relief when we were all safely home again around 5:30 PM.  The Lord had blessed all of us but Hayden had been the recipient of his greatest tender mercies. I am thankful that we had his watchful care upon us as we had gone to this wonderful event. Jeff and Brittany also arrived safely home form a cruise that they had been on, a present from his boss. They had a great time and were also safely home. Loren and Rachelle were at home in Texas as the distance for them to come was too prohibitive. 

Sept 20, 2011

Fallen Tree in The Granddaddies crossing time

When I was a young scout our summer camps always were going into the mountains near where we lived. I never knew at the time about Maple Dell in Payson canyon or that it was a scout camp where you would go for an entire week so when I became an adult and a scoutmaster for the first time I didn’t ever take my troop there because it was so foreign to anything I had ever experienced.  I did however return to some of the places of my youth so that I could take boys into the mountains for a real true scouting experience. Of course it also took me back to some of the places where I had felt fear as a youth and gave me a chance to overcome some of those long past feelings.

Of the camps that I went on as a youth I will write about the most memorable ones or at least experiences from them. This story is about one of those camps combined with one from my adult years as well.

I have taken pictures for many years and during my scout years I had a small brownie instamatic that I carried with me into the Uintah Mountains. Each year we would travel into the Grandview trailhead and then walk the 4 and a half miles into the Granddaddy Basin.  We went to Palisade Lake twice, Govenor once and Betsy once.  Of course we had to go past Heart lake and Granddaddy each time since the other lakes were further into the basin. We set camp one year at Palisade and then walked to different lakes in the Basin each day to go fishing. I wasn’t much of a fisherman but still enjoyed the fun of the camp and especially taking occasional pictures. One year as Don Hansen and I were walking along a trail to go back to camp I saw a tree that really captured my artistic interest. It was a large pine tree that had fallen across a small marsh. The water in the marsh was about a foot deep and had lots of grass growing up through the water. When the tree fell the larger limbs caused the trunk to break a couple different ways in that to stand back and look at it the main trunk formed the letter M. I was taken by it I guess because it would be so recognizable in the way it formed the letter that stretched across the entire little marsh over which it had fallen.  Fore several years as I was growing up I looked at that slide often and the memory of it was well burned into my mind. I often wondered just where it was but didn’t expect to ever find it again.

Then in 1992 I asked my troop committee to get a tour permit for the Granddaddy Basin so that we could go to Palisade Lake and camp there for a week. The Outdoor Committee Chairman, Brother Broadbent, checked with the Forest service to get the permits but couldn’t find Palisade Lake and decided to get the permit for Pine Island Lake instead.  I figures that was OK because what I had planned would actually work at any lake. I remembered the fears that I held in my youth of getting lost so at that time would never leave the trail. This time I wanted to dispel any fears that my scouts might also harbor of the same nature. (I came to realize later that nothing scared them or so it seemed.) Anyway I planned some special events for the week of which part will be covered in other stories.  One special event though was to have the boys take a cross country hike guided by their ability to follow a compass and read a map properly. We had worked on this several times and this would be the test in the outdoors.

So after we had hiked in to set up camp at Pine Island on Monday I let them go fishing and basically relax on Tuesday. The Wednesday we would hike into the Four Lakes basin staying on trails to get use to the maps followed Thursday by the cross country hike. Friday we would again relax before hiking out on Saturday.

To prepare myself though for the experience I did a cross country experience on Tuesday. I was blessed that year by the fact that I had four other adults that went on the camp with me. So Tuesday morning I told them where I was headed and with map and compass in hand set off for Palisade Lake which ironically was only a half mile from of Pine Island Lake where we were camped. (On the trails it was about 1 and 1/2 to 2 miles to Palisade.) I had a great time crossing through the forest following my compass. I went to the edge of a small cliff which was tall enough that I had to navigate around it to get down but not so far as to be a menace of sorts. It was only a short time and I was at the edge of Palisade lake looking at the outlay of the lake and trying to remember where I had camped  some 22 to 25 years earlier. I located it after some time since my coming from Pine Island had brought me in from the other side of the lake than where I had entered in during my youth. I spent an hour or more at the lake just enjoying my childhood memories and planning my exercise for Thursday. 

When it came time to return I was walking along one of the trails near the lake and noticed fresh Llama tracks. Hoping to see the Llama I followed the trail deeper into the Basin which would then wind around and take me back to Pine Island from the side opposite of which we had entered the day before. It was about 2 miles before I got back to camp and I didn’t ever get to see the Llama but as I came close to where I thought we were camped I suddenly stopped in total awe of the scene beside me just off the trail. There laying across a marsh with water about a foot deep lay the tree which formed the “M” across the marsh. I couldn’t believe that I had actually found the tree but to further my astonishment it was only 200 yards from where we had set up our camp the night before.  (I found that after I had returned to camp a few minutes later.) I stood back where I thought that the angle looked correct for where I had taken the pictures years earlier. I snapped off a couple shots so that I could compare them when I got home.  I later reflected while preparing to retire that night about the events that had brought me back to that tree. Had Brother Broadbent found Palisade on the map where it had apparently been left off on the map he had secured from the Forest Service I would never have been near Pine Island that week. My plans would have all taken me in the opposite direction from that lake. Then had I not returned on the trail from Palisade instead of cross country again I probably wouldn’t have seen it then either. I might have seen it on the way to Four Lakes Basin but with scouts on the trail with me I could have easily not seen it since I would have been traveling a lot faster and in the opposite direction from either of the other two times when I had seen it. I felt that the Lord had granted me the request of my heart that I had made known to no one else since it was just a nagging thought that had been in the back of my memory for all of those years. I had no idea where that tree was when I photographed it as a youth since I only followed the trail and had no maps to refer to during or after the camps.

Father in Heaven had truly blessed me with the opportunity to reflect on the passing of time and experiences that would normally mean nothing. After I returned home and had the film developed I compared the two photographs only to find that the trunk of the tree had changed but very little and that was due to the smaller branches having rotted and fallen off leaving only the large branched that held the trunk out of the water still in tact. The other major change was in the trees in the background as other smaller tree had grown and changed the background significantly. It made me ponder on the relativity of time and changes to the earth. I would never have expected to find so little change with the tree when my life had changed so much since the first encounter with that tree. I now almost wish I could return again just to see it again.

Sept 19, 2011

Cross Country with My scouts.

The place was Granddaddy Basin and the time was Scout Camp summer of 1992. I had planned a trip into the basin to help my scouts learn how to find their way in the mountains where during my youth I had experienced some great camps but also some greater anxieties. I feared getting lost probably worse than getting attacked by wild animals even though those thoughts had also crossed my mind a couple of times.

I had all of the geological maps of the basin where we would be camped and had marked where I wanted to take them cross country. It would be a trail that would lead me past the lakes where I had camped in my youth. We would leave Pine Island and cross through to Palisade Lake. From Palisade to Brinton Meadows Guard Station and on to Governor Lake. From Governor Lake we would basically follow the trails to Granddaddy Lake and then back to Pine Island.

I had told the boys the plan before we even went into the basin for the week as we prepared by doing compass courses in troop meetings and learned how to orient maps. I had about 20 people in the group so I divided them up into four smaller groups that would each take a leg of the journey being in charge of reading the map and telling us where to hike. Each group had one boy in charge of smaller segments as well so that they would all have a turn at being the decision maker for the group as we hiked.

The energy was high as we started off that morning and I had the thought come to me that I hadn’t made the loop large enough. At the rate we were going it would be noon by the time we got back and I had planned for it to be around 5 pm just in time for supper.

We crossed the half mile that I had walked the day before in about half the time it had taken me. I started to realize though after they got there that I was going to be OK because they became fascinated with the scenery as well as the process and started to take their time playing around the lake and wanting to explore as they went.(I Then started to worry if  we  even get back before the next morning.)  We had fun though and crossing to Governor Lake became a different fun all together. Brother Brent Haines, who was one of my young adult assistants, stopped to show the boys in a small stream that meandered through a large meadow how to catch a fish without a fishing pole. We had stopped in the meadow to allow the boys to do some fishing in the stream and to relax and just soak in the beauty of our surroundings. Not many people who  go through the  Uintah's ever get to see these types of places since the trails typically go around through the forest rather than through them. Brent caught a small fish with his hand and soon several of the boys were trying it as well with some of them also finding success. I thought it was a great  addition to my plans as it gave them experience in providing food for themselves should they ever need to do so in the future.

We did find a trail of sorts that led up a hill and upon arriving at the top found the source of the stream that we had been fishing in was Govenor Lake. We spent quite a bit of time there  letting the boys fish while  I walked around the lake taking pictures and again soaking up all of the memories of my youth at that lake.  I even found a couple of deer that I was able to photograph.

We then climbed the steep hill following the trail that I had traversed in my youth  up to Granddaddy Lake. We again did some fishing as we went around the edge of the lake toward the trail we had been on Monday and which would lead us back to  Pine Island for the evening campfire program and much needed rest.

I remember as I walked the edge of the  lake seeing a team of Varsity Scouts practicing some old time survival methods that we had been asked as modern scouts not to do. They were cutting branches from live evergreen trees and making shelters. I looked at the trees and thought how bad it made them look and  wondered if their leaders even cared, especially since I couldn’t even see any of them around.  I vowed then to do all I could to drive home to boys that I would work with in the future as well as the ones I was with to respect the outdoors and to take care of them for their children.