Jan. 20, 2012

Herding the sheep down indian canyon

I seem to remember writing about this but have not been able to find it so here goes again and it’s not like I haven’t written twice about other things as well.

When I was young I used to love to go with my Uncle Mont and work with him on the Indian Canyon ranch. That is the ranch where mom and dad spent the first year of their marriage. We often had irrigation to do or hay to cut, rake, bale and haul. (When I was real young I went once when we hauled the hay loose and I was assigned to stomp the hay as the men threw it up onto the wagon. I got covered with hay leaves while doing it too. There was one day though when Lynn and I were asked by Mont to go with him and herd the sheep from the ranch to Duchesne.  It was only seven miles but I remember being pretty sore and stiff from being in the saddle all day since it took that long to move the sheep that seven miles. We herded them along the highway so we had to watch carefully  so that they would stay off of the road and not be in the way of any occasional cars that might come along. I learned the herding sheep was not real easy because when one decides to go across the road they all want to and they don’t care what’s coming. We did have Mont’s dog that helped a lot but even then we would have to hurry the horse around them to get hem back off of the road. Mostly however it was just a long time in the saddle because Mont wanted to let them eat while we were going as well which meant that we would just be sitting on the horse while we waited for the sheep to move a little further. It was a long day but I will always be glad that I had the chance to do it.

Jan. 19, 2012

Grandpa and Grandma's @ Centerfield

I remember that we didn’t get to go to Grandpa and Grandma Hansen’s place very often since it was such a long drive from Duchesne to Centerfield Utah where they lived. We apparently went for the purpose of reunions I suppose since we always seemed to have cousins there each time. I guess they were not always there because I do remember traveling on another super long journey from their place to Uncle Carling’s in Circleville to see them a couple of times. The best parts of those trips were when we went part Big Rock Candy Mountain and got to stop there for a rest. I drive that road now and realize it isn’t so far in actual miles but the speed limits and comfort of the cars is far better now so the trips don’t seem as log even though I am a grownup now verses being a child then.

I remember best about those trips however that Grandpa and Granma would always come out of the house and either stand on the porch and wave to us or come down the walk to the car while we were getting out.  Grandma always seemed to be in the kitchen cooking while we were there and grandpa would let us go out and do the chores with him if we were not too busy playing with the cousins. We always slept in the rooms downstairs that were connected with a small window, no glass, up above the beds through which we would try to crawl since only a child could fit through them.  

They also had an old Victrola record played in the west room that we love to play and play with.  Many times we would play “Red Rover “ and other tag games out on the front lawn with the cousins. It was always fun. Grandpa would always have to make a trip to the reservoir and get water in the gallon jugs since the water in the taps was not drinkable for some reason. It was 10 or so miles to the place where he filled up the jugs. I can also still remember Grandma telling us to only use 4 sheets of toilet paper when we used the bathroom. Some of the granddaughters also use to get stuck in the bathroom because they couldn’t open the door, I personally never remember having that problem myself.  So even though our trips were not very often, they were always fun.

Jan. 18, 2012

The Grand Canyon trips.

When I was around 8 or 9 years old, in 1961 I think, I remember a trip when I got to go with the family to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon while on our way to pick up Alma from Jacob’s Lake, AZ where she had been employed during the summer. I was young enough to remember what the place looked like where she worked and I remembered the fields and high mountain grasslands that we passed by while traveling to the North Rim. It wasn’t until years later as Marie and I were headed to AZ to photograph Troy’s wedding in 2003 that we decided to leave early enough that we could go to the rim on our way to Alma’s. I must admit that the images which had been in my mind from my youth were totally correct as to what they looked like but totally incorrect as to where they were in relation to the entire trip. I had always thought that it was only a couple of miles from Jacob’s Lake to the rim but was shocked to find out that it was over 30 miles one way. (I remember thinking I was glad we had left earlier than planned initially.) The areas or scenes that had stuck out in my mind were between Jacob’s Lake and the rim when I had always thought that they were just outside of Freedonia, AZ. I had wondered several times while traveling to Mesa before for other weddings why I never been able to find those places even though we went past where Alma had worked all but a couple of those times. It became very clear on our last trip. The images of the resort at the rim and the fences and everything else around that lookout were correct. We decided also that year to come back from AZ and visit the South Rim since I could not remember ever having been to it. I enjoyed that view but must admit that the North Rim is far more spectacular in the view that you get of the Grand Canyon.

Jan. 17, 2012

Youth Conferences at BYU 

During my Mutual age years, after age 13 that it, I was blessed to be able to attend Regional Youth Conferences at BYU. I think my memory has kind of made the two conferences into one since I remember certain details and am not sure during which year that they occurred. I was blessed both times to be on the region planning committees and the first year as a member of the Duchesne Stake Youth Council and the second time as the Chairman for the Region Council. I think because I was involved so heavily in planning both is the reason why they are gelled together. Both years were a lot of fun and it also gave me a chance to make friends in Roosevelt and other areas and towns that were involved in the region planning committee. We usually held our meetings in Roosevelt where the Adult Chairman lived.

The highlights that I remember best though were the bus trips from Duchesne to BYU and the experiences that involved the classes and firesides. I didn’t really care for going to class so the fact that I had to help other youth find theirs, then it kept me from being able to attend for the most part which was alright with me. I also had hall duty and found the challenges in keeping girls off of our level even though I wanted desperately to visit theirs so I could see Marie. We did get to do a lot together however at the meals and in between classes. I did like going to the firesides since I could go with Marie to them and that was well worth it. In fact during the second conferencew we had to perform for one of them. Kevin Wilkinson, Marie and I and Rhonda (who later married Kevin) and I think a couple more people sang a song that Kevin could lay on his guitar. I still remember the title “Ruby, Don’t take your love to town”. I was a bit embarrassed since the message of the song really didn’t fit the messages we were trying to portray at youth conference but we did it anyway. I don’t remember any recourse from our leaders although there probably should have been some and it seemed some council given as to which verses to omit. 

Jan. 16, 2012

Car engine quit near Beaver

I have had the opportunity to take several trips to southern Utah and to Las Vegas. One year in particular Marie and I were going to Las Vegas to participate in an MLM meeting of which I do not remember what it was about. We were not sure the car we had would make it down there so we borrowed Tia’s Saturn. Well had we known we would have probably taken the other car. Anyway just about 20 miles outside of Beaver, before arriving there, we lost power in the engine had to pull off the side of the road. This was luckily in the days of cell phones and not prior to them and so we called a wrecker from Beaver to come pick us up and we also knew some of the upline who lived near Fillmore so we called them. They had room for us and they actually got there just about the time the wrecker did. We went on in to Beaver to the Chevron on the south side of town where we had them look at the engine. They said it couldn’t be fixed so we left it in their parking lot and went the rest of the way with the other families. After it was over we came on home and for a month tried to figure out how to get the car here. I finally asked Doug to go get it with me and was very surprised after getting there that they had charged $10 per day for storage which equaled about $300.00. They finally let me take it for $100. Since they hadn’t told me there was a fee for parking it in the sagebrush south of the station.

Doug and I then hauled it to his place where it was my intention to take the engine apart with Loren’s help so he could learn about mechanics as I did also. Life however was very busy and so we were only able to manage getting it torn apart and finally hauled it to Max’s where he replaced the engine due to the nature of the problem with the engine and repairs costing more than the replacement engine. That became Loren’s car anyway as I had bought it from Tia so she could get another one. He used it for quite a awhile before his mission and then I took it over and used it until I was in an accident with it while coming home from work. A fellow in a glass hauling truck pulled out in front of me across from the Model A café. I swerved to the right to miss him since he was pulling out so as to be in my path if I were to swerve into oncoming traffic to my left to miss him. I was almost able to miss him but the end of the glass carrying attachment on his truck caught and slid up the front of the engine and off just to the side before going through the window where I was sitting. The police later told me it was the best thing that I could have done since going to the left would have ended up involving a lot more vehicles. I have been in several accident but this was probably the worst and I am so thankful to the tender mercies of my Heavenly Father who guided the car the right direction that time just had He had always done it before.  

Jan. 15, 2012

Camping on Skyline Drive

When Ben and Jeff were young Marie and I decided to go for a camping trip along skyline drive above Mt Pleasant. We borrowed dad's (Verl's) old yellow pickup, loaded up our camping gear and went for a weekend , well friday and saturday camping trip. We found a campground of sorts and stopped for friday and saturday. We set up camp and had fun just being in the outdoors for the day.  The weather decided to turn bad however and we knew after a while that we would need to get off the mountain before we got stuck up there. SO we loaded all of the gear into the truck with the sleeping bags on the bottom so that they wouldn't get wet while it was raining. We didn't have a cover for the hear and so the tent went on top. We drove to the nearest road that would take us back down into the valley. It was a dirt road that came up from Spring City to skyline drive. As we were driving the rain became worse and we were starting to slide on the wet clay based road. It was like driving on ice and all I could do was just kind of steer it down the narrow winding steep road. It became so bad that we finally pulled off the road into a small camping area and decided to set up camp there and sleep for the night.  Well as I started to pull out the gear I realized that because of our going downhill and the bed of the truck being metal like a dich that all of the water had run to the front where our gear was packed. As I pulled out the sleeping bags from the bottom of the pile I became sick because they were all about half soaked due to the rain. Well it became obvious that we couldn't sleep in them and the rain had stopped by then and the roads were not as steep since we had mad it most of the way down the mountain so we packed everything back up and drove on down to Ephraim and stayed the night at Lynn's place. It was a very memorable camping trip.