12 May – Awoke to snow this morning. Somewhere in the middle of the night the wind stopped blowing. The quiet and stillness woke me up. It took me a few minutes to realize why. Had to giggle. We had spits of snow throughout the morning but it was all gone by afternoon. Boy the wood stove sure felt good today. Then in the late afternoon, the wind blew in again heralding the next approaching storm.
Because of the weather, we did no hiking along the trails today. Maybe tomorrow. Instead we did paperwork, cleaned the Depot some more and had a fun home evening with the other three couples. We all get along super fine…..no clashes, no one upman ship, just good folks. It’s wonderful!!!!!
Arnold did some repair and fixing this afternoon – when the weather was milder. He refastened some sheet metal that had worked loose on one of the big flatbed trailers used to haul handcarts from spot to spot. And, he dug a drainage ditch which will allow water on the road to drain away rather than causing a mud hole.
14 May – Oops I skipped a day. Today was P-Day and we went down the mountain to take care of errands in Utah Valley. Yesterday we learned trek routes about the property. We drove on the roads the trekkers will use and walked overland where they’ll be going cross country (no roads). We have learned the three Corral routes – Corral West, Corral North and Corral North North (no that’s not a typo, that’s really what they call it). Next we start on the Fox Hollow routes. The Lost Creek route will be last and, hopefully, the drifts will be melted and wet spots dried up soon so we can learn that one.
The snow banks that kept us snowed out in the beginning are nearly all gone now. Had the warmer weather come a couple weeks sooner, we wouldn’t have been snowed out. Elsewhere the snow banks are melting fast – you can almost see them shrinking.
Most of the routes make a full circle and end up where they started. The Lost Creek route is the only one that does not end where it starts. But, we manage that by taking a trek down and leaving the carts at the bottom. The next group to do the route brings the carts back up.
I’m beginning to realize I have a pretty good built in GPS in my head. I cannot give you co-ordinates, but once I’ve been over the ground, I can usually see (in my head) a bird’s eye view of where I’ve been. I guess all the times I helped my dad navigate by reading maps for him as he drove about the world have taught me quite thoroughly. I can remember him teaching me how to read a topo map when I was in 4th grade. Not to mention, I was born with an internal compass. I can remember the direction most of our houses faced clear back to when I was 3 or 4. For a long time I thought everybody thought about and comprehended directions just like I do. I was an adult before I learned I was ‘strange’ that way. However, I can get lost and totally confused on a cloudy day, but not on a sunny day. I guess my internal GPS takes note of and plots directions from the sun.
While we were down in the valley today, Arnold purchased a new pair of binoculars. I can actually see with these. I’ve never been able to really use binoculars – never could figure out why, but these really work for me!!!!!!!!!! YEAY!! We went bird watching tonight by Shearing Pond (just south of our camp at the Depot). We spotted some Ruddy Ducks and another duck we cannot identify with the bird books we have. It looked like an oreo cookie – black head and chest, white middle and black tail. We also saw a lone Antelope buck come down the road near our camp’s gate. Since we both constantly wanted to look we kept the Nocks (binoculars) really busy. Arnold decided we must purchase a second pair so both of us can look at the same time. Giggle.
I also purchased some towels & wash cloths to make some baby bath towels. The wash cloth is shaped & sewed then sewed onto the middle of the towel to form a hood for the baby’s head. We sisters are going to gift these baby towels to the new babies in the wards we attend. One couple has already had a baby blessing in their ward. In our ward they announced a new birth last week, so we’ll have one coming up soon. I’d never seen these neat little baby gifts until our friend, Lynette Taylor, made one for one of our grandchildren. The other missionary sisters were glad of the neat idea. Thanks Lynette!!!!!
16 May – Looks like I skipped a day again. We walked and drove routes yesterday morning, then spent the afternoon working with our GPS phones to get the waypoints correctly marked and put into the phones. These GPS phones are kind of a walkie talkie and kind of a portable GPS device. Neat toys!!!! Grin.
The computer guy came up from Salt Lake this morning to get our satellite up and running. The desktop has a problem with an unknown password on a virus protection program that’s on it. We worked with that, without resolution, until nearly noon. He had tried all the tricks he knew and finally determined he’d have to do deeper research to remedy the situation remotely.
As soon as he was done, the sisters all drove cross country to the main ranch – cross country meaning across ranch property, not by highways. Lovely place!!! Good thing I had my map along as the two sisters who were here last year would not have remembered which way to turn at a couple intersections. The map I have is a copy of a topo map with the roads hand drawn on the original topo. We have discovered some of hand drawn items aren’t quite accurate.
I pulled a James/Brent (for those of you who don’t know, James & Brent are the two in the family who are always playing with words) on the sisters as we drove to the main ranch house. I saw a couple of hawks flying, pointed them out to the other sisters and said, “There’s a couple hawks up there……and there’s another in the back seat.” (One of our missionary couple’s last name is Hawk.) It took the other sisters a minute or two to get it. But, we had a good giggle.
After visiting the ranch HQ we drove into town (via the highway), did some shopping and finally got home in time to fix supper. The Elders were just winding up their afternoon of route plotting on google earth and had me type out a list of co-ordinates for one of the routes. We are getting organized in a techy way!!! We’ll give these lists to our trek groups so they can plot their path and create their own route maps.
After dinner Arnold and I took our lawn chairs down to Sutton’s Creek Reservoir to bird watch for an hour or so as the sun sank toward the horizon. We saw six new species we hadn’t seen before and many we had already spotted. Some of the ducks are so colorful!!!! A pair of Sandhill Cranes foraged up in the sage brush along the far shore. A fearless American Coot pottered about very close to where we sat.
While the Elders were out driving trek routes this morning, they added a Red Tailed Hawk and a Golden Eagle and lots of big game to our list of beasties sighted.
17 May – Kind of a lazy day today. Did lots of little jobs around our “camp.” We brought our splitting maul up from the valley earlier this week because some of the logs are too big to fit into the stove. One of my jobs today was to restocked the wood box in the Depot. I also tidied up a pile of wood near the Depot which had some big logs in it. I used the splitting maul on the big logs and discovered I can still split wood without breaking the handle. Yeay!!!! I did some sewing on pioneer clothes for myself – made a pair of pantaloons and almost finished a blouse.
The Hawk’s had their first route review this morning. They left quite nervous about the job they’d do, but came back grinning. Before they left, Arnold took their picture in their pioneer finery out by our front gate. Man they really looked the part!!!!! Arnold also made them a nice booklet to give to the trail boss that came for the route review. The Hawks were pleased with his efforts.
I started turning over the garden this afternoon. Just as I finished a row, Arnold came out to tell me we had a route review Monday morning. Kinda slipped our minds this morning when we were organizing things. So, he’s been working on creating the paperwork ever since. He’s creates the route maps using Google Earth – an impressive job!!!
Took some time this evening and walked out to Shearing Pond to watch the ducks and water birds. Found yet another new species. GRIN!!!
The snow banks have melted fast – really fast- this last week. I sure hope the water levels in the rivers and creeks aren’t getting too high down in the valley.
May 18 – The brother who collapsed in church last week, is home and mending. It appears he had a bad case of pneumonia. We are thankful he is mending.
Tomorrow is our first Route Review. We dress in our pioneer garb, meet them at the gate, give them a map of their trek route, then drive them around (the part that is on roads) on their route so they can see where they’re going. We have to figure out how far they go their first day and each succeeding day, where they’ll camp each night, where the water/potty stops will be during the day and where they’ll have their Women’s pull. Man there’s a heap of logistics that go on behind the scenes to make a trek work.
When a group has Woman’s pull the fellas are called away and the women have to continue pulling the carts alone…..usually up a pretty good grade. Near the top, the guys have to stand and watch the gals struggle. Finally, close to the top of the pull, the fellas are allowed to assist the gals the last bit to make it to the top. It’s really hard for the guys to stand by not helping and it’s tough for the gals to pull all alone. It’s a very concrete lesson for both the guys and the gals in male/female team work.
Went bird watching on Shearing pond this evening. Got a really good look at an Eared Grebe. He has red eyes. Amazing looking bird. While we were out, we checked on the nesting Killdeer to find she has abandoned her nest. Darn!! I had hoped we could watch the progress of her nesting.
19 May – We did our first Route Review today with S Jordan 9th ward. Drove them over their route, explaining possible camp sites, women’s pull areas, water/potty stops and such. It took about three hours from start to finish
This afternoon, after lunch, we walked a part of the Fox Hollow routes. We went cross country from Fox Hollow (down near the Wahsatch gate or Exit 191 on I-80), over two ridges into Sutton’s Hollow then over another ridge into Shearing hollow where we stopped at a point called 235 along the pipeline not far from our camp (The Depot). The pipeline is a big, buried petroleum pipe line that crosses the ranch property from east to west. It starts across the property at the Corrals (SE corner of the property near I-80), passes just south of the Depot along Shearing Hollow and continues west.
20 May – P-Day today. Arnold and I went to town, out to ranch head quarters to pick up a package then back to town. The package was our second set of 10×32 binoculars. We purchased one set last P-Day and liked them so much we called Out-n-back and had them ship us a second set. On the way back to town from ranch HQ we stopped to watch birds a whole bunch of times. The Bear River bottom runs down through the ranch and has lots of little water spots where the birds gather. What fun we had ID’ing the birds. With two sets of ‘nocks’ we could both watch the same birds at the same time. (Didn’t have to share one pair, giggle) We saw a young Bald Eagle (his tail was white but his head had not yet turned white), a pair of terns doing ariel acrobatics, gulls, Cinnamon Teals, Western Shovelers, Long-billed Curlews (their bills are as long as their bodies), and the usual mallards and coots. When we were through we looked at each other, chuckled and said, “What a couple of crazy’s we are.”
In the evening all the missionaries (all eight of us) gathered for a BBQ in the pavillion then sat around swapping stories. Lovely end to a leisurely day.
21 May – After a night of wild weather (so wild all us sisters thought the wind would roll our trailers – the wind came broadside at the trailers) we awoke this morning to snow. It snowed off and on all day long. The Sherwood’s had a route review, but due to the wet weather, some roads were too muddy to travel on. In fact, the road out of camp to the interstate is best driven in 4-wheel drive. Even then, the truck will sashay and slip in some spots.
All the rest of the missionaries found things to do inside. Sister Platt and I did computer things while Elder Platt, the Hawks & Arnold worked on creating route maps – all of which is work that needs done to make a trek work.
Looks like the weather is going to continue for a few days, so Arnold and I went to town this evening and picked up some contact paper, among other errands. Tomorrow I shall keep busy doing a “contact attack” on the kitchen cupboards at the Depot. Currently there is no shelf paper at all on the shelves.
Our ‘camp’ is in a hollow with low hills on all sides. The main road comes in from the SE before turning west to come up our lane and into the ‘missionary camp’ which every one calls the Depot. The entry gate is on the SE corner of the parking area. The trailers park in a east west row with the hitch end pointing NW and the back end pointing SE. As you come in the gate, our trailer is the first on the left, followed by Sherwood’s motor home, Platt’s 5th wheel and Hawk’s 5th wheel. Pappy’s Bunk House (which we don’t use) is on the north side of the parking area on the right as you enter the gate. The Depot building is just north of Pappy’s. On the NW corner of the parking area is the pavillion. South of the pavillion and on the west side of the parking area is the tool shed. On the south side of the tool shed is our garden, dubbed the Garden of Eat In.
22 May – When we are assisting a trek group, each couple needs a vehicle and we are not to use our personal vehicles. So, a couple weeks ago the Elders went over to the main ranch and picked up two trucks which are designated for trek use only. One broke down on the way home. – the clutch totally went out. Thankfully they made it into Evanston, just barely, where the truck totally stopped right next to the Chevy garage. The truck is a Chevy – guess it knew where it needed to be. The other truck wouldn’t pull hills with any power but it did make it home.
About a week ago, the Elders went down to Salt Lake City where they were supposed to pick up two more trucks from the church motor pool. They came home with only one, another Chevy, which has been dubbed “Fancy” because it sure is fancier than the other two. The one that broke down in town is now named, “Clutch.” and the other that came from the ranch is “Charlie,” a Ford. Charlie has now been fixed (new fuel pump and filter) and has good power. The fourth truck we were promised has yet to be seen and is now named, “No Seeum.” So there you have it, our four trek trucks are Fancy, Charlie, Clutch and No Seeum.
The Elders have fun talking about the trucks by name and, of course, comparing Fords to Chevy’s, etc. Yesterday, I over heard them planning a photo of the four Elders with their four trucks. Of course, there’d only be three trucks in the picture cuz No Seeum is invisible. Giggle.
Clutch has been in the shop almost two weeks now. First they forgot to take a look at it, second it took them several days to order the necessary parts, then third, they broke the clutch pedal in the process of replacing the clutch. Go figure!!! GRIN But, a couple of the Elders have gone into town today to pick up Clutch. Hopefully, it’ll be reliable for the rest of the season.
We are house bound again today, weather is too wet to get on these dirt roads to do any route training. We have, in fact, attempted to postpone several of our route reviews so we don’t rut up the roads (something the Ranch does not want us to do). So to stay busy, the Elders are building route maps with the help of Google Earth and another similar software program, plotting way points on the maps, and generally preparing master route maps and lists of way points for the future. This way they become better acquainted with the routes, get them mapped in their heads and our master lists will serve others in succeeding years.
These route maps are really important to the success of a trek. The terrain here is rolling hills covered with grass and sage brush with hollows between and an occasional pond. There are no significant landmarks for one to use to take a bearing and one hill looks just the same as the last. It’d be so easy for someone to get lost without the information necessary to stay on track. And, we as ‘guardian angels’ must know the route like the back of our hand to keep groups from getting lost. Frequently, adverse weather may change a trek in mid course and we have to move a group to a more sheltered location. If we don’t know the area like we know our own homes we can’t do the job.
With the wild, wet weather we’ve been having, I’ve tried to comprehend how a group of trekkers could successfully manage. I don’t think they could have. I think we would have had to ‘rescue’ them. I sure hope the elements are gentler and kinder when the trekkers come.
Down in the Depot, there is a kitchen, a living room (complete with wood stove), a bath room with showers and a huge room containing several bunk beds, our laundry and our ‘office.’ We have our Sunday dinners in the Depot kitchen and our daily meetings are always around the big kitchen table.
This morning I did a ‘contact attack’ (putting contact paper on the shelves and in the drawers) on the kitchen cupboards at the Depot. I was able to do all but one of the cupboards before lunch. Of course, I finished the remaining cupboard right after lunch.
This is a very different kind of mission. We have been told that if we see something that needs done, do it. So besides our regular responsibilities, Arnold keeps the low spot in our drive way drained so it doesn’t become a total mud hole and we will be repairing handcarts in the very near future . I’m doing the garden and have planned to repaint the sign at the Wahsatch entrance gate and some door jambs on Pappy’s bunk house that are badly weathered. It’ll be interesting to see what other ‘jobs’ we find to do in our spare time.
When treks start, the first week of June, we’ll be really busy all day shepherding our group, making sure they have water, know where to camp, keep their vehicles on the road and don’t park them on the meadows, show the ‘water buffalo’ driver how to get back to where he can fill the tank again and knows how and where to find his group once the fill up is complete. We’ll also be the ‘enviro-cops’ who make certain they leave no trace as they agreed to do.
We understand that some times a group leader has his/her own ideas in spite of the rules the ranch has laid for the trekkers. We’ll have our jobs cut out for us should we meet such a person!!!
May 23 – Last night there was a power outage and today the phones and the internet do not work. All the missionaries here use Verizon and most use Verizon for the internet as well. However, the church satellite system is not down and it does allow us to read our email.
All day today it either rained, sleeted or snowed. Our jobs were all inside today. I washed windows at the Depot and scraped spattered paint off the glass. I typed up lists of GPS way points for the various routes then plotted them on Google Earth. In the process of plotting, I found some errors which the bretheren quickly corrected. I think we have good lists now.
Several of the missionaries are filling spare time by building leather scripture totes for themselves under the tutelage of Elder Sherwood. They really look nice, and I’d love to have a leather one, but cannot figure out how to make it a zippered case like I’m using right now. I really like the way the case opens in my lap like a book. We tried to figure out how to make a leather tote just like my current one, but didn’t come up with anything that really worked. Guess I’ll have to do some research on the topic and see what develops.
Today one of the Elders took photos of our trucks. I reminded him he should not forget to include No Seeum and asked him if he wanted me to be a “Vanna” to indicate where No Seeum might be parked. He did, so I did, and we both had a good giggle. The next morning he printed the picture with a caption explaining that I had my hand on the tail gate of the 4th truck. What a hoot!!!!
The Sherwoods and Platts have been doing this mission for 2-3 years now. I understand, they won’t be returning next year so we have a eye single to leaving a good paper and electronic trail for the next lead couple to follow in succeeding years. We hope to come back next year and I think the Hawk’s are also planning to return.
24 May – Today dawned clear and crisp and sufficiently dry that we were able to walk a cross country leg of the Fox Hollow Route. As Elder Sherwood shows us the cross country portions of the route, there is invariably an antelope standing on the far hill right in line with where he says the route will take us. The joke has become that the instructions are to, “Just go straight toward the antelope.” Arnold and I chuckle that this is much like the expression the Brits use in their directions, “…and it’s just theah,” which can mean ‘right there’ or several miles down the road. We Americans can never figure out which.
As we were hiking this morning, we intersected a route we walked the other day. I decided to see if my “internal GPS” recorded things correctly and started off ahead of every one else. I went in what I thought was the direction of the next way point. Part way through Arnold shouted, “Hey, Syd, turn left.” I thought it odd, but obediently turned left. When we came out near the way point we were well to the left of where the way point was. My internal GPS had been correct, the rest of them just decided to go another way. GRIN!!!!!!
Tomorrow is Sunday – another day of rest and feasting on The Word. I do enjoy Sunday and church!!!!
Love & Laughter
Arnold & Syd
