Nov 20, 2011

Roping a yearling calf in the barnyard

If you have ever done anything dumb  then you can relate to the story I have to tell here. I grew up on a farm and farm boys are supposed to be able to do all these things with animals like break horses and rope calves and throw them down on their side and tie their feet and well you know all those things that cowboys do sometime.

Well I was a cowboy. I had cowboy boots and cowboy shirts and even a cowboy hat. I had even roped things standing still such as posts and tree stumps. I cut, raked, baled and hauled hay sometimes completely by myself. I irrigated the fields and rode a horse down to the pasture to bring the cows into the barn where I would there milk them by hand. I would drink milk that had not been pasteurized nor homogenized. In fact there was a usual thing that happened at least once a week and usually every day where the cows would let go of their bowls while I was milking and specs of green stuff would splash into the bucket. I would pour all the milk into a cream separator and the only thing between it and the milk going into the fridge was a piece of specially made paper that would strain most of the stuff out of the milk. I loved eating cereal with straight thick cream from off the top of the bottles and having butter made from the rest of it for spreading on our bread. Then there was the buttermilk we made and well I didn’t drink much of it cause I didn’t like it but I did eat the homemade cottage cheese on lettuce with miracle whip on top of that. Yes I was truly a cowboy that did everything that cowboys did except smoke and drink, that was never a temptation. I had also killed and skinned our own beef with my father and walked past the stinky guts that rotted outside of the slaughter house. I even went rabbit hunting and shot at coyotes (never hit any that I know of) except for the rabbits I did hit plenty of them. I cleaned out the barn and killed chickens and turkeys for meat. Gathered and washed eggs and fed the chickens. Learned how to do animal sounds that would get any mother animal wondering if I had her offspring. Yes I was a cowboy or was I a farm boy.  Well in a ploy to be a real cowboy I took the rope out into the barn yard one afternoon before doing chores and roped one of the yearling calves. No I didn’t succeed the first second or even third time. It was a lot harder than I had always thought it would be for me. However I did finally succeed and then suddenly realized I had made a huge mistake. The calf was bigger than I had figured and the power in it’s legs much stronger than I could have imagined. I finally got it to go on one side of a post for the shed and then was able to finally get it tied down. It took me a lot longer to finally get the rope off of it’s neck but I did finally manage to accomplish it. I hadn’t ever thought about the fact that as a calf backs up the rope only gets tighter around it’s neck. Needless to say I never tried to be a cowboy again by roping another calf.

Nov 19, 2011

Chain Gang at The Football Game

I attended Snow College on a scholarship after graduation from high school in 1972. I enjoyed Snow and had a very good experience the two years that I was there earning my Associate of Applied Science degree in Electronic Technology.

I also enjoyed the sports but never participated in any of the intramurals. I did however have fun a couple of times as I was invited to be one of the members of the chain gang during the football games. I still really don’t understand why guys will beat themselves up like that but must admit it was fun being that close to the action on the sidelines. I did have to drop the chain and run several times to prevent getting smashed. The one thing that I remember really shocking me though was the foul language used on the sidelines by the opposing team and probably ours as well. (I didn’t hear theirs since the chain was on the opposing side of the field.) The worst however was when the BYU JV team played Snow. I didn’t even know BYU had a JV team but they did and their language was the worst. I lost a lot of respect for football players and BYU standards that day. But of course had to realize that this was only a very small percentage of the people attending BYU. 

Nov 18, 2011

Christmas 2009

 Christmas this year was a lot of fun.  We had all of the children and their families here for at least part of the holidays. Jeff and his family were here from the 18^th to the 21^st. However during the short visit we had three parties. We met as a family on Saturday after Marie and I had completed photographing a wedding at the Provo temple during the morning.  We had a lot of fun and a big dinner. We played games and Jeff even had the four wheeler out driving around the yard in the snow. (It was a bit hard but after one trail was made it worked a little better.) The grandchildren even got to play a game of twister Christmas style where the plastic sheet had Christmas things on it rather than just the colored dots.

Then on Sunday we had a birthday party for Marie and more food. It was a big meal provided by the children.  Marie was pleasantly surprised with a new Kitchenaid mixer suggested by Tia. It had occurred to me as something that I wanted to do after seeing Tia use hers here to do a cake a few days earlier. I figured that if I got one that then Tia wouldn’t have to bring hers. However it was Tia making the suggestion to get it from Bed, Bath and Beyond.com that made it a little easier for me since she came and helped decide on the model and color. Marie also received a Cuttlebug machine which I didn’t even know she had wanted.  So Brittany picked up one of those and then suggested to me that I get some embossing folders for her for Christmas which helped me since I had no idea what would be best for Chritmas after having just given the Kitchenaid mixer to her.  We had a lot of fun watching her open the presents from each of the children.

Then on Monday night we had our family Christmas party here at home. All of the children and their families were here again and we ate more food. (I have gained five pounds over the past two weeks and most of it over those three days.) It was a lot of fun however and each of the families were excited to open their presents that they had given each other. We had a lot of fun but the end came too quickly and Jeff  and Lori began packing to return home that evening. They had to go since there were major storms predicted for the next few days and they had mountain passes to cross to get home. They left at around 9:15 pm and needless to say Marie and I didn’t sleep too well that night. Part of the reason I must admit was because of too much food in my stomach. I arose finally at 5:30 am and went to see where Jeff had emailed us at 4 am stating that they were home and I was almost ready to go back to bed since I could probably sleep then but I stayed up and instead almost slept at my computer at work all day instead.

I had taken Marie to a movie on her birthday on the 16^th that was called “Everybody’s Fine”. It was a movie about a man who was getting prepared for each of his children to come visit him and they all backed out at the last minute so he ate his home bar-b-qued filet minon steak by himself and then decided to go visit each of them.  It was a very interesting movie to watch at this time of our lives and knowing we were expecting all of the children for the holidays ourselves. Well for us they did all come and it was a very great event or set of events.

So for Christmas we had everyone again with us on Christmas Day as well, except for Jeff of course but even with them we had a video chat with them before we opened our presents here. Loren, Tia, and Brittany were here at around 9:30 AM and after we had video chatted with Jeff’s family we ate breakfast in our traditional manner and then opened presents and greeted Hayden’s family around 12:30 PM and Ben’s family around 1:30 pm. I got a lot of pictures and am trying to process them quickly so that I can send a cd back with Loren and Rachelle since of course Brooklyn was a major star in most of them. We have really enjoyed having them here and Brooklyn has really been fun. At first she wouldn’t let us hold her but now when they are almost ready to go home she is finally letting us hold her and play with her one on one.

Now Hayden gave me a present that is going to place quite a challenge on me. He gave me a book called “Dad, Share your life with me …” A daily journal of Childhood memories. I have been thinking that what I really should do is start a private blog and write it in the answers to the questions that are written for each day in that blog so that all of the children would have it and be able to read it since my hand writing is far from legible at best. Then each of them that might be interested could pull it off and save as they desired.

Nov. 17, 2011

An adventure on the way home from work.

Well I had an accident on the way home tonight from work. I was very blessed in that I got out of the car as soon as I came to a stop. I was coming toward the intersection of Maple and 1600 West (by the Conoco and Model A Cafe) when a truck pulled out in front of me trying to cross from the west side to the east onto Maple. He was driving a chevy truck that was made to carry glass on the sides as you can probably envision. Well I looked at my options in the fraction of a second that I had before certain impact. Having had this happen once before in my life I only hoped that I could be as blessed ( I was going to say lucky but I know better). So I swerved to the right since the truck appeared to be moving forward and going left would have put me right into his cab, a place I didn't want to be since I wasn't really that excited to meet him that way. Well as I went right I went into a slide and was not able to get around him but because I was pushing on the brakes the front end of the car was slanted well toward the ground. So I went under the very back end of his truck breaking off about 2 and a half feet of a piece of 2x10 board that was used to walk on while loading the glass. I was glad that I was in the saturn since it was built low to the ground on the front end and thus went clear under the truck and as you will be able to tell from the following picture it actuall slid the truck off of the car before it went through the windshield where I was sitting. Yes, I was truly blessed, far better than being lucky.

Here is just a note to put into the back of your brain so that it becomes an instinct rather than something you have to think about when the situation comes up. The investigating officer told me that I had made the right choice by veering to the right and not the left. Now why would that matter, well going to the left would have put me into the traffic which was quite active since it was when everyone was on their way home. The traffic was very heavy. Once again I was not lucky I was blessed.

Written Nov 17, 2009. It was on my blog: mytreasuredphoto.blogspot.com

Another note:  Written Dec 13, 2009

Maybe today should have been a Friday the 13^th as all the rest of the world sees it but not me. Today started out with Marie riding to BYU with me so that she could have the car to come later after going to our home ward to listen to Jeff and Brittany speak.  It had snowed a little last night and was almost raining as I shoveled the sidewalk.  Then the drive over at 6:30 A.M. was pretty slick to say the least. On her way home Marie was almost unable to drive the car up the hill out of Springville into Mapleton.  The roads were not a lot better when she went back over at 1:oo P.M. However on the way home tonight the roads were fairly dry and driveable THANK GOODNESS because as I approached the intersection at 400 South and Main in Springville with a Green light for my lanes of travel I had to stomp on the brakes as a young lady made a left turn from the opposite direction of travel right in front of me. Marie then looked at me and said WHY YOU?. Again we were blessed in the fact that the roads were dry enough that my stomping on the brakes didn’t turn into a sliding experience right into the passenger side of the young ladies car. 

Nov 16, 2011

Candy Maker Kara Chocolates

In 1993, when I was laid off from Signetics as they moved the operations to New Mexico, I wondered what I would do for work to provide for my family. We had the meeting in April to tell us the plant was closing in December and so I had several months to secure employment. I was in a leadership position in the ward with Bishop B Ray Anderson who owned a small chocolate company called Kara Chocolates. He suggested that I come work for him and so since I was on graveyard shift at Signetics then I could go to work for him right after I got off and work part time so that I would still be able to go home and get sleep before going back to work that night again. So I did just that and worked for $12 and hour instead of the $30 or so an hour I was getting at Signetics. With the two jobs though I was able to put in cement around the side and back of the house and join it to the shed as well as buy our first ever couch and love seat set for the house.  (The old ones were given to me by my parents and the couch was actually one we had owned as a family when I was a very young child.) Well the job at Signetics ended in December and I went full time at Kara for three more years. I loved the job and remained at my average weight even though I was eating chocolates quite frequently during the day. I made the children sick of eating chocolates because I could take home the outdated stuff that hadn’t sold and let them have it. It wasn’t long before they didn’t greet the candy with any enthusiasm at all, in fact they dreaded it. It was really quite a blessing for them in the long run.

It was a good experience and I loved being able to turn out in excess of 20 thousand mints or other candies in a day. I however had to quit the jod when the factory was purchased by a couple of brothers and they were unable to keep enough chocolate and other supplies for me to be able to make candy. The older brother specifically asked me to work a graveyard making candies which I did on occasion as needed. However I told him that I would need sufficient supplies to keep me busy through the night. He said there would be plenty but when I came to work I had used all of the supplies within less than a half hour after arriving for an 8 hour shift. I locked the  door then left the key on their desk with a note that I was finished and would not be returning to work. I had been promised to many times things that were never given and couldn’t work that way any longer.

Version 2

Candy Maker at Kara Chocolates.

In April of 1993 Signetics announced a company meeting to be held at the Scera Theater in Orem. It was large enough to house all three shifts from the company at one time. At the meeting they announced the closure of the Orem plant to be effective in Dec 1993. Needless to say as I walked out of the meeting I was very scared and sick about the future. However there had been enough talk around the plant that it really hadn’t come as a surprise but it was still a shock to hear it actually happen.

I left that day knowing only that the Lord would somehow take care of me and my family. It was announced through the ward fairly fast since there were actually a couple of us that were affected. I was the Scoutmaster of the ward that time and also in the young men’s presidency and in that calling had several meeting that IU attended with the Bishopric. It was only about a week later when I was in just such a meeting and the Bishop asked if I would like to learn how to make chocolates. I responded that I would love to so he asked me to go to Kara chocolates after I got off from graveyard shift the next morning and he would show me around and I could decide for sure. Well Monday morning came and I went over and met Keith Cavanaugh and was shown a machine that was called the molding plant for chocolate truffles. I decided to start working for Bishop Anderson from that point. I was part time until Dec and then would go full time in Jan 1994. I was able to learn quickly from Keith and soon discovered that he was actually the first owner of the company and then sold it to B Ray Anderson when things got kind of tight for him financially. B ray kept him as part of the company however and he was very knowledgeable about how to make candy.

I worked for B Ray for about two years before he decided to sell the company and return to full time law practice in California. He sold it two brothers and then within a couple of months left the company to them completely. They soon fired Keith and I was left to run the molding plant by myself. Another member of my ward however had been hired to do consulting work for B Ray and was there to basically repair and install equipment. Bob  and I often rode to work together and enjoyed the fact that we neither one had to drive to work every day. We worked together for about a year and I really enjoyed it but found the new bosses to be difficult to work for. They had bought cheaper chocolate and thus were making cheaper truffles. They also had me work graveyard several times and each time they seemed to have the need but would never provide the support to be able to have me do a full shift. I would either run out of chocolate with which to make the truffles or I would run out of room to store them in the cold room because they wouldn’t have a shift there to package the ones that I had made the day prior. One day after a year and a half of working for them I was asked to do graveyard and I explained that I would be happy too but that I would need to have chocolate with which to work. They promised that I would and so I went to work on graveyard. Well I got there and soon found I had enough chocolate to keep in work until 30 minutes later. I ran out the chocolate and wrote a note to the bosses and then left my key on their desk and went home never to return to that ob again. I began doing insurance selling and soon found that I couldn’t make enough money so I put as much effort as I could into my photography and struggled financially for a while before starting to work for Bret Anderson at his cabinet shop.