Is It Time To Post Again?

Following my ambitious goal of posting at least once a year,       I  thought  it  was about  time to  add  something  to my blog

Last night, there was a total eclipse of the moon which we stayed up to watch.  It was a beautiful sight as the moon moved into the earth's shadow.  As the moon  moved into the darker part of the shadow, the light from the sun was filtered through the earth's atmosphere and caused the moon to glow a reddish color.  This photo was taken with a regular point and shoot digital camera as the eclipse was nearing totality.  The white object in the upper right of the photo is Jupiter.  I am not sure what the star is to the lower right of the moon.  If anyone knows, leave  a note.  

Another thing that we have enjoyed as winter passes away and spring arrives is our collection of daffodils.  We have many of them to the side and back of the yard as well as in the front of the house.  They add an attractive touch to the yard as well as inside the house where we always have a vase of daffodils on the table.

                                      

There are a lot of beautiful things in the world!

A couple of nice things about Cache Valley

During the winter months, Cache Valley is really cold and we get all kinds of visitors coming in to our yard.  Some of them come to get out of the mountains where it is even colder than in the valley, and others come to eat our shrubs.  Some just come to rest for a while.  Here is a photo of one who came to rest for the night.

The other thing that we have are beautiful sunsets.  Living at the end of a cul-de-sac, we do not have any obstructions and are able to fully enjoy the sunsets.  Not all of them are as spectacular as these two, but many are.

                                                        It is a wonderful place to live!

Has It Really Been Over Two Years?

LAST  DAY  OF  2012!

It has been so long since I last posted anything that I thought it would be appropriate to give an update on the happenings around Smithfield.  We have not had any more raccoons!   Dogs, cats and deer we have had, but no raccoons on the roof.

So much has happened in the last two years, but things are still pretty much the same at home.  I am still at the FamilySearch Library  (note our new name) and we still have our sporadic game of Scrabble.  The lawn gets mowed, the snow gets shoveled, the garden gets planted  and life goes on.  We just baked three loaves of delicious zuchinni  bread with the last of the zuchs we grew and are trying to decide whether to grow a garden next year or not.

We are both two years older now and I notice that I'm wrinkled, saggy and lumpy...  and that's just my left leg.  But then, they say that you are only as old as you feel.  If that's really true, how can I be alive at 130?   And I could go on and on, but will leave that for another day.

We wish everyone the best for the coming year, and will be sure to add a few more posts than we did this past year.

NOT SURE WHAT TO TITLE THIS POST

We could call this post "The pigs are flying again!!!" - - - "You found what on your roof??" - - - or maybe "Who pooped on my observatory roof???"

This whole affair is really gross. If you have a weak stomach, or if there are children present, you may want to skip to the next blog on your list. If you continue, it is with the understanding that you assume all responsibility for reading, and agree to hold harmless the writer of this post.

A strange thing happened the other day when we looked out the window and asked ourselves, "What is that on the corner of the observatory roof? It looks like a pile of poop." I walked out to check, and sure enough, that's what it was. A pile of poop. What? Where? How? When? Why? Who?

These thoughts all crossed our minds. Not having any intelligent or rational answers, I went out with a rake and cleaned it off and thought to myself "well, that takes care of that"

We talked a bit about the mystery during the day and then let it go.

Forward to the next morning........... We looked out the window the next morning and much to our amazement, saw several piles on the roof. We asked ourselves the same questions we had asked the morning before and added, "how come so MUCH?'




As we considered who or what the culprit might be, we finally narrowed our suspicions down to raccoons. One of our neighbors had found some raccoons in their garage eating their cat food a couple of weeks ago. Maybe they had moved up the street to our place. (the raccoons, not the neighbors).

A call went in to the town animal control officer and a short time later, we had a trap which I baited with tuna fish and set out to catch the critter, whatever it was. The next morning, we looked out the window and saw that we had something in our trap. I went out, and found that we had caught the neighbors cat. We let it go with a warning to never come into our yard again. The cat responded, "meoooow" which I assume meant "ok, I won't".

Well, to shorten this story, two mornings later, we had a raccoon in our trap.




It was in the trap for a couple of days, and we were starting to become attached to it when the animal control officer came and ( at 3:00 am) took it away. He will return the trap and we will see if we can catch any more.

End of story. ... so far... We will let you know if anything further happens. I wish I had been awake when he came to get the raccoon. I was going to ask him to save the tail so we could make me a Davey Crockett Hat. Maybe with the next one.

After reading this post, I thought that I should end it on a little lighter note, so here is a post of our artichoke plant with two chokes that we did not eat, but let them go to bloom. They are quite attractive.

KAYAKING ON THE GSL

We finally did something we have been talking about
doing all summer!
Last Saturday, my son Darin, a friend Jay and I
went yaking on the great salt lake.
What a beautiful day to be on the water.
The temperature was just right,
no brine flies or wind.

The water was just like glass the whole day.

We traveled a few miles from the marina
around the end of Antelope Island
to the west side where we did a little hiking
to find a geocache up on the side of the hill.
Then we returned to the marina.
We traveled a little over 7 miles
and were a little tired
when we finally got the yaks on top of the car.
We then went to the visitors center for a visit.

As we were leaving,
we saw a very large buffalo walking up the side of the road.
He crossed the road,
and went on his way as though he owned the place.
(For all we know, maybe he does.)
We weren't about to question his authority.

After, we found one more geocache before we left the island
at a spot near a memorial dedicated to a helicopter crew
who crashed into the lake and were killed.

All in all, it was a wonderful day,
and one thing that made it extra nice was that
nobody rolled their yak
or had to make a wet exit in the salt water.
That would not be fun!

OUR SILVER HAS TURNED TO GOLD!

It has been anther long time between postings,
and so many things have

happened that it is hard to know where to start.
We have, however, been thinking about posting
about a wonderful experience we had recently.
Let me have Cheryl, mom, g'ma, gg'ma tell you about it.

Belated Thank You

It has been just a month since we were treated, by our children,
to a lovely 50th wedding anniversary celebration

Every day since the special event, we have thought about
the beautiful decorations,
(the color scheme reminiscent of our wedding)
the delicious food, candy bar, clever wishes (written and hung)
and loving friends and relatives.



Everything was perfect down to the last impressive detail!
We especially appreciated the kindness of dear friends
and the support and love of our children and
grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

How grateful we are for blessings of marriage,
family and the promise of eternal life together.



Thank you Regan, Vanessa, Lisa, Craig, Cristin, Peter, Shauna, James,
Darin and Elisa. (+17 grands and three g'grands)
for sharing your beautiful home and yard your artistic talents,
treats, long hours of planning, work and presentation
and for just being there to share the occasion.

Many "thank yous" to Alicia for her expertise with event planning,
and also to the fun photographer as well.

Love to all and sincere thank you's from Dad and Mom,
G'ma and G'pa, GG'ma and GG'pa

PS
We have especially enjoyed going to the Shutterfly site

and looking at the fun video and photographs.

We would also be amiss if we did not mention the monthly
celebrations we have enjoyed. The flowers, framed pictures,
books and all have reminded us each month of
how blessed we are to have such a wonderful family.

3 Generations of Climbers

Last Saturday we (Darin, Miriam and myself) took the day to go rock climbing at the Rock Haus. We started in the morning and climbed for about 3 hours, then took a break, grabbed a bite to eat, and then headed back for a couple more hours on the wall.

What a fun day! Darin and I took turns belaying each other and Miriam. We weren't quite ready to let Miriam belay either of us. I was totally amazed at how quickly M took to climbing to the top.The first time or two, she became hesitant and wanted to come down without reaching the top, but after a few tries, and lots of encouragement, she made it, and from then on, every time she tried she went to the top. She even surprised us on one climb that had some overhangs when she worked her way through the overhangs and on to the top.


I'm afraid that if we are going to keep up with her, her dad and I will need to go take some lessons.


We had a fun day, and it was great to see how confident M became after pushing herself a little and overcoming the initial fears. Maybe there is a lesson here that the rest of us could learn from. If a 6 year old can do it maybe the rest of us should try things that at first seem a little difficult.

I am tempted to go take a lead climbing class. That looks like it would be a lot of fun.