Fun Utah Facts

The name Utah comes from the Native American Ute Tribe and means people of the mountain. Utah has five national parks: Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, Bryce and Capitol Reef. Utah has seven national monuments: Cedar Breaks, Natural Bridges, Dinosaur, Rainbow Bridge, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Timpanogos Cave and Hovenweep. Utah has six national forests: Ashley, Dixie, Fishlake, Manti-Lasal, Uinta, and Wasatch-Cache. Utah has two national recreational areas: Flaming Gorge and Glen Canyon. Utah covers 84,900 square miles of land and is ranked 11th largest state. The Great Salt Lake, which is about 75 miles long and 35 miles wide, covers more than a million acres. Of the 50 states, Utah has the youngest population; one of the highest birth rates; the second lowest death rate; the heathiest population; the hightest literacy rate; the highest percent of high school graduates; and the highest number of people with a college education.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Tabiona Sky



The pictures were taken from a house that we were interested in the
Tabiona area. There was an old three room cabin that was build in
1935. Over the years someone had put up stucco siding and we had
grand visions of restoring it back to it's original log. I look
back after all the work and time we have put into the inside of
this place and realize how much time we would have spent on that
project. Soooo glad the septic was not up to code.
Beautiful golden sunset and a rainbow.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Internet Blues



Two more pictures from Kearns. The one was taken from our front
door. It's the rooftop of the house across the street, with
a fiery red sunset.

The flower a bulb that was spreading fast. It bloomed atop a
3 or 4 foot stem.

Our internet may be a thing of the past. If so I may try to
post a blog from the library or Mayberrys house every few weeks
or so. Will keep you posted.

For Real ?


This actually happened to me on March 25th, 1981 at Cottonwood hospital.
I also had to eat a spaghetti dinner with my left hand. Try it sometime.
Good thing they sent me home with a baby girl.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Wasatch Front Picture



Watch out, Babs is going through all the lost, scenic pictures.
I will send a few of them your way. Hope they are fun
and NOT toooo boring.
The two here are from the front porch in Kearns.
There is a lot that we miss about the house and yard.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Freedom Bridge


I am adding a picture of Freedom Bridge, just because we have to cross
it to get to town.

Greenie, Gr`en'ie: of the color of growing grass or foliage, or a remote control
dragon fly, fun, gift from father/gramps.

The great adventure "going to town". We have made a few friends at the
laundro-mat and if it's empty Eli walks in and says, Hey - where is everybody !?
He took his greenie in one day and made a-lot of friends, by flying it into thier faces. Good thing people generally have patience for rowdy, talkative 4 year olds.
One interesting story, I met a gal that had named her baby girl Cindy. She or her husband could'nt even call her by her name, it just didn't fit her. So they went
to the state and since the baby was under 6 mo. old they could change her name
for 1 dollar. They renamed her Rebecca and it fit.

Fun reminder hanging in the doctors office waiting room -

MEN-tal anxiety !
MEN-stral cramps !
MEN-opause !
MEN-tal breakdown !

How come all our problems begin with men ?

I should have some info on the Freedom Bridge but not finding any.
I wonder about the old bridge and was it as long and in the same spot?
Thats all I got.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Get up Family !

My eyes were open, but my body not moving at any great speed to climb out
of bed this morning. Wendy has put this best. She and Eli had slept on
the pull-out bed in the living room. I heard the next morning, the rustle
of the bed and her feet hit the floor . I then hear her grumble.... nothin
like puttin your boots on first thing to walk to the outhouse. Winter gives
it extra special - I don't want to - meaning.

So, laying there this morning not wanting to get up, all cozy and warm, Dean
and Eli still snoozing, I hear a LOUD female voice say "WARNING CARBON MONOXIDE".
Dean is up. What?. That voice again. "WARNING CARBON MONOXIDE". Open the windows
Dean say's from down stairs, he is fast and already checking the wood stove.

This happened one afternoon in Kearns and it was a combination of low battery
and dust build-up on the sensor. But here the danger is greater here with our woodburning stove, also the propane fridge and stove both have pilot lights
burning. Our detector warns well before levels are dangerous and also senses
strange odors, so we really didn't panic.

I had left the oven on. A strange temp of 270 degrees ? The point of this
post: Check your surrounding before going to bed, have 2 or more detectors
up and in working order.

P.S. I no longer even try to format or edit, it just does whatever it
wants anyhow.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Snow Days




Today was about pushing snow. Dean plowed with the old tractor, today was colder
than most but he loves it. It keeps him busy. I put on the last coat of paint
in the bath, we ate luch. Work done. Now for the fun stuff.

We have a perfect little sled hill for a 4 year old, but we (I) wanted to make a launch pad to gain just a little umpfff to slide farther. We hauled snow in the
sleds yesterday, up the hill and packed it in. I wish I had taken pics yesterday because we also built a luge run and we packed it down and were slidin way down
the field.

Also I have a snow angel.

We have had some snow storms lately and last night and all day today down it came.
I like to say to Amanda and other young mothers : Trying to keep a clean house
with three kids is like shoveling your driveway in a snow storm. That is what
I did today, shoveled while it was snowing. For fun. For exercise. I like to
put Eli in a sled and drag him around. For fun. For good exercise. It packs
down the snow and makes pathways.

I am begining to REALLY like snow.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Ponderisms

Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack?

Why is the person who invests all your money called a broker?

Why isn't the number 11 pronounced onety one?

If you take an Oriental person and spin him around several times,
does he become disoriented?

What hair color do they put on the drivers licenses of bald men?

If Fed Ex and UPS were to merge, would they call it Fed UP?

Do Lipton Tea employees take coffee breaks?

If it's true that we are here to help others, then what exactly are the
others here for?

Monday, February 2, 2009

Rocks and Sticks


This is for my kids and grandbabies. I have always said to them, you are so lucky. All we had to play with when we were young kids were rocks and sticks. I know "mom"
Ben always say's - and you carried your sister to school on your back, barefoot, in the snow, up hill both ways! YES, and thanks for paying attention son-son. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. This is where an e-mail from 2005 takes over. I will shorten it and must omit some language.

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with thier tedious diatribes about how hard things were for them growing up, and I remember promising myself that when I grew up there was no way I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that....
I'm over the ripe old age of thirty-something, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean compared to my childhood you live in a damn UTOPIA!

When I was a kid we didn't have the INTERNET. If we wanted to know something we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no E-MAIL!!!! We had to actually write somebody a letter...with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There was no MP3's or Napsters! you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ's usually talk over the begining and MESS it all up !!!!

We didn't have fancy crap like CALL WAITING! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a bust signal, that's it! And we didn't have fancy caller ID boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, MISTER!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics!! We had the Atari 2600!!!! Your guys were little squares!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder ! and harder and faster and faster until you died!..... Just like LIFE!

When you went to the movies there was no such thing as stadium seating! If a tall guy or some old broad wearing a hat sat in front of you and you could'nt see, TOOO
BAD!

We had 4 television stations. There was no onscreen menu and no remote control! You had a little book called the TV Guide to find out what was on! You had to get UP!!!
to change the channel. No surfing and no CABLE 150 options !!!! There was no cartoon network either! You cold only get cartoons on Saturday Mornings. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-B@#%%'S!!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat somthing up. We had to use the stove or go build a friggin FIRE....Imagine that!!! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid JiffyPop thing and shake it over the the stove forever like an idiot.

That's exactly what I'm talking about !!! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in the 70's or 80's!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

So... About the Bears


The first thing the rangers station peoples asked was were did I live, then shoved a bunch of info on black bears into my hands. You live in bear country I was informed and the activity was heavy this year. They are closing camp grounds and watching dumpsters. I need to be Bear aware ! My next stop that morning was to the Welcome center in town and the gal informs me right away that there are two black bears and a cougar that live on Tabby Junction. Tabby Junction ! Thats where we live, three miles up the mountain. We were neighboors and I learned alot more about our area that day. This all had meaning to me. My Pa had struck the bear fear into me January of 2007 when we bought the place. The president of our HOA only validated my fears may of that same year. There was a black bear attack on our roads he tells us all, a front end loader was workin on the roads when a bear attacked and he had to use the bucket to defend himself. He will not come back to our area.
Well, I am a walker (wannabe) jogger. You need to pack a pistol many people have said. It just seems a bit ironic that after many years (16) of walking/jogging the mean streets of Kearns I need to carry heat on the peaceful lanes of Fruitland. I have settled on a whistle and pepper spray and I make A-LOT of noise singing out loud. Poor Bears!

Note: The chance of surviving a bear attack is very, very good. No Quotes on this - but there has only been 1 death from a black bear in Utah. This was a child back in 2007 when all the bear scare was goin on. The chance of surviving a Cougar attack are not so good!