Tuesday, March 27, 2007

incomming

Ok, I know this picture is itty bitty, but I think this is the easiest way to do it. Click on the picutre to see it larger and go to the photo album. In the upper right corner you can click to see the next and previous pictures. These are shots taken by scott while we were in moab.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Mondays Suck!



Here's a picture of my lizard Alex eating a meal worm out of his food dish.

When people ask if you are feeling ok? is that just a nice way of saying you look like crap?
I got that a few times today. I also had one guy say I looked like hell and should go home and sleep.
Strangely enough I feel pretty good today. Not motivated (expected for a Monday) but I don't feel sick or overly tired or anything. Maybe I'll just go home anyway.

I had a really fun weekend and I'd like to go back to Yellowstone some time this summer.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Janet's pregnant!!

wahoo this makes #3

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

What happens when a pitbull challenges a porcupine?




Somewhere out there, there is a naked porcupine

Monday, March 19, 2007

Glass half full...or empty?

WARNING:Bipolar post ahead. The first paragraph is sad and not uplifting. Don't read it if you don't want to. The second one is about the weekend at Moab...could it get any better?

Once again depressed by the news. Why do I read the newspaper on my lunch break? I don't know. Maybe it's because I can't join in on the fishing and hunting stories. I read about some sad things today. Two brothers (in their 20's) and their dog went back country skiing by the Darby wind caves. The avalanche watch said there was low risk and they were both experienced back country skiers and "did everything by the book". They got close to the top and the snow shifted as an avalanche started. The one brother reported watching helplessly as the snow swept away his younger brother and the dog, taking his brothers life. Another sad story was about two 14 year old boys who raped a 14 year old girl. They are being tried as adults. The actual sentence was for "forced penetration". Sick! Why can't they just leave it as a rape case. Ok, and the last one (when I decided to stop reading) was about a child molester. I guess there are rules about how far registered sex offenders can live from school bus stops. This particular man lived closer than he was allowed and nothing was done about it. Neighbors reported that he would go down to the bus stop and watch the kids get on in the morning and then go back again and watch them get off. (WHY WAS THIS ALLOWED?!) He is now being charged for molesting and killing a kindergartner. The boys body was found in a black trash bag in a dumpster 4 days after he had gone missing. He was one of the children that rode the bus. What the heak is wrong with people! Why would you let a registered child molester live next to a school bus stop and watch the kids get on and off every day! It just makes me thing of the stupid cops that give me speeding tickets. Why can't they go bust pedophiles or put in some time researching things that would prevent things like this. Ok, on the same note though, I know there have been kids killed by speeding drivers so who's to say what is worse. On my blog...I am. I think it's a lot worse to have people intentionally hurting people than doing it as a result of being irresponsible. They are both bad, but that's my opinion.


Moab this weekend was soo awesome! I know it's been said on everyone elses blog, but I need to say it too. My weekend started Thursday night after work. I was packing and waiting for Mary to get done with her slacklining thing at the school when Kori decided to join us as well. We loaded up my truck and headed to Utah. We pulled into Highland around 2am to find Sterling up and watching T.V. The next morning after a little bit of run around we headed to Moab :) Mary, Kori, Kona, Granite and I met up with Jens and carpooled. Our truck was soo loaded it looked like we were moving in! Our first stop was Big Bend (a bouldering area). It was soo hot there and after sitting in the car for so long I was a little sluggish but I got going after a while. We worked a bunch of sweet bouldering problems and I ran into a guy that I knew from Petco. It's a small world. I really like my new shoes. And it felt soo good to climb in the sun on real rock again. That night we met up with Angela, Catherine, Lindsey, Adam and Scott and had dinner at the park. We set up a slack line and just had a good time. We then headed to our campsite, reserved by Angela's cousin. It was packed! There were BYU students and who knows who else there. Not to mention the eight people we added. Saturday morning the marathon runners (Angela, Catherine and Lindsey) were up early and gone by 7:30. The rest of us had to get out quickly to because they were closing the roads for the runners. We headed to Amasa back trail. A multi use trail for bikers, hikers, 4 wheelers and jeeps. All of which we saw on the trail. I definitely thing biking it was the best way. It was a 16 mile round trip route on a trail that reminded me of a combination of slick rock and porcupine rim trail. Two of my favorites. It was 8 miles up hill to the peak and then we turned around and headed back...8 miles down. Kona and Granite did great for their first real ride of the summer. The view from the top was awesome. On one side was the La Sal mountains with red rock below and on the other was a gorgeous canyon with the river running through it. After the ride through 80 degree sunshine I was exhausted and ready for the super secret swimming hole. Also known as the hippy pools. We met up with the runners again and headed to the swimming hole. The water was really cold but it was refreshing. Just what we needed to get us pumped up for more climbing at Wall Street. We set up 3 really cool climbs and by the time we all had done them the sun was going down. We stopped at Arches National Park (free after dark) and ate dinner. After a little rest and food we were ready for our drive home. Well I thought I was. I fell asleep hard about 30 minutes into the drive. So did Kori. It's a good thing Jens can hold his own. I woke up a few times and tried to strike up conversation but with no luck. My story doesn't end here. Sunday morning we woke up, showered and tried to get dressed for church. Mary was the only one who brought a skirt so Kori and I were left with our imaginations. This was unacceptable to my mother who has recently been caring a lot more about our appearances. I once again was able to reap the rewards of such feelings and walked away with quite a few new pieces of clothing that would be suitable for a sacrament meeting in Highland. Thanks mom! :)After church we got some food and the family together and took a drive up the American Fork Canyon. We stopped at a picnic area, ate some tacos and played on the slack line. Sterling brought his fishing gear but mostly hung out with us. That night Kori, Mary and I had a pretty fun ride home. I can't really remember what we talked about but I remember thinking it was entertaining. It's good to have good friends. This morning I was up bright and early to meet my volunteers with a puffy face and tangled hair. My job seems a lot harder when I'm tired.
Well I don't think my recap of the weekend really did it justice. I had soo much fun this weekend. The sunshine and outdoors hit the spot for me and I can't wait for summer to be in Idaho! Also I love my family and friends.

Thursday, March 15, 2007



acupuncture? So I have this pinch under my shoulder blade. Something that happens every so often since I hurt it a few years ago. I've gone to chiropractors that cannot fix it and some that have but this is the first time I've had them try acupuncture. This isn't a picture of me but it's pretty close to what happened. Only I had 2 needles and he ran an electric currnent through them. Weird or not, my shoulder feels better. It was kind of cool actually. The needles are so small you don't even feel them go in. Then when he runs electricity through it it starts to sting but it's a good sting. Best of all, thanks to insurance, the whole thing was only $8.

Monday, March 12, 2007

It's a bummer when you have to be in meetings on beautiful days like this... But not too much of a bummer when it involves skiing at harriman

Monday, March 05, 2007

Do you ever feel like you need a rest day in between your days off and going back to work? I had a really good week and weekend but I really felt rushed this morning. I screwed up work today because I didn't call 2 people. Dang it! Things up to this point had been going really well. Now 2 volunteers who wanted to help are left feeling unwanted and Damon, who needs help at the hatchery is left short handed. I will hopefully be able to patch relationships by the end of the week, but nothing is going to change the fact that Damon was by himself at 8 o'clock this morning.

I've been at a Serve Idaho Conference in Boise all week. I wish everyone could have gone. We learned SOOO much! I don't really have time to blog it all (not that anyone wants to read it all anyways) but the basic idea is just to be a good, proactive, influential, organized, efficient, diverse person. I also got to spend quite a bit of time with Tolman. Well, more than we usually do. I think we spent most of our time climbing, which is normal for us, but we did go out to eat and go to a biking shop and eat dinner at his sisters house.

Thursday night I headed back to Idaho Falls. The roads were absolutely terrible and there were cars and trucks all over the side of the road.

The next morning, bright and early, Mary, Kori, Heidi and I headed down to Utah :) I don't even know what we did on Friday. I think we just hung out with my family. Friday night Kori hung out with Mary and Angela and I went with Jens and Adam to the Quarry sp? to climb. They had some fun routes, but I didn't really like the gym. There was no bouldering section and they made you belay a certain way that I thought was dumb. The worst part was that the guy was a jerk about it. But after I got over my lame feelings of repression it was a really good night.

Saturday started off early with me driving my dad to work so we could use the car. I got home, showered and Kori and I made a couple of lasagnas to help my mom out. Sterling had 4 or 5 of his friends over and she was stressing about dinner. I guess it didn't help that I had 5 people stay the night to! I really think my mom and dad like it though. They've always wanted to have a big house that everyone felt welcome at. After cooking Kori and I headed up to check out the new climbing gym by the Sandy REI. It was definitely worth it. The gym was HUGE and it had a great bouldering section where we spent all of our time because the rest of it was still under construction.

After climbing Kori went to hang out with Marcus and I went to see Sterlings play. It was good. I had fun watching Sterling sing and dance on stage. Saturday night Mary, Angela, Jens, Adam, Kori, and 4 of Sterlings friends stayed the night. It was a full house but if you've seen our house you know it can handle it.

Sunday we all made a killer breakfast and hung out for a while before going to Stake Conference. It was uplifting. After church I finally got to talk to my dad for a little bit. Kind of funny because most of why I wanted to go down was to see my dad because of his birthday and his unfortunate trip to the hospital. Well, I guess this is long enough. Sorry there are no pictures...I was to involved in the activities.

Ok, I have to post this email I got. It's pretty funny:

Deer Roping

I had this idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed
it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first
step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that since they
congregated at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me
when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at
the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away)
that it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag
over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.



I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The
cattle, who had seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They
were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes my deer showed up - 3
of them.

I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the
feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I
wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a
good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could
tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a
step towards it...it took a step away. I put a little tension on the
rope and received an education.

The first thing that I learned is that while a deer may just stand there
looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when
you start pulling on that rope. That deer EXPLODED.

The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT
stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I
could fight down with a rope with some dignity. A deer, no chance.

That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no
controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off
my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me
that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I
originally imagined. The only up side is that they do not have as much
stamina as many animals. A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not
nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get
up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded
by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head.

At that point I had lost my taste for corn fed venison. I just wanted to
get that devil creature off the end of that rope. I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow
and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between
me and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing and I would venture
a guess that the feeling was mutual. Despite the gash in my head and the
several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by
bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the
ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a
small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the
situation we were in, so I didn't want the deer to have it suffer a slow
death so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the
feeder - a little trap I had set before hand. Kind of like a squeeze
chute.

I got it to back in there and started moving up so I could get my rope
back.

Did you know that deer bite? They do! I never in a million years would
have thought that a deer would bite somebody so I was very surprised
when I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of
my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a
horse where they just bite you and then let go. A deer bites you and
shakes its head - almost like a pit bull.

They bite HARD and it hurts.

The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and
draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was
ineffective. It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several
minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a
deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now) tricked it.

While I kept it busy tearing the bejesus out of my right arm, I reached
up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose.

That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day. Deer
will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their
back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their
hooves are surprisingly sharp. I learned a long time ago that when an
animal like a horse strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get
away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make
an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to
back down a bit so you can escape. This was not a horse. This was a
deer, so obviously such trickery would not work. In the course of a
millisecond I devised a different strategy. I screamed like woman and
tried to turn and run.

The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a
horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit
you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses
after all, besides being twice as strong and three times as evil,
because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the
head and knocked me down.

Now when a deer paws at you and knocks you down it does not immediately
leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What
they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you
are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head.

I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away.

Now for the local legend. I was pretty beat up. My scalp was split open,
I had several large goose eggs, my wrist was bleeding pretty good and
felt broken (it turned out to be just badly bruised) and my back was
bleeding in a few places, though my insulated canvas jacket had
protected me from most of the worst of it. I drove to the nearest place,
which was the co-op. I got out of the truck, covered in blood and dust
and looking like hell. The guy who ran the place saw me through the
window and came running out yelling "what happened?"

I have never seen any law in the state of Kansas that would prohibit an
individual from roping a deer. I suspect that this is an area that they
have overlooked entirely. Knowing, as I do, the lengths to which law
enforcement personnel will go to exercise their power, I was concerned
that they may find a way to twist the existing laws to paint my actions
as criminal. I swear...not wanting to admit that I had done something
monumentally stupid played no part in my response. I told him "I was
attacked by a deer". I did not mention that at the time I had a rope on
it.

The evidence was all over my body. Deer prints on the back of my jacket
where it had stomped all over me and a large deer print on my face where
it had struck me there. I asked him to call somebody to come get me. I
didn't think I could make it home on my own. He did. Later that
afternoon, a game warden showed up at my house and wanted to know about
the deer attack. Surprisingly, deer attacks are a rare thing and
wildlife and parks was interested in the event. I tried to describe the
attack as completely and accurately as I could. I was filling the grain
hopper and this deer came out of nowhere and just started kicking the
hell out of me and BIT me. It was obviously rabid or insane or
something.

EVERYBODY for miles around knows about the deer attack (the guy at the
co-op has a big mouth). For several weeks people dragged their kids in
the house when they saw deer around and the local ranchers carried
rifles when they filled their feeders. I have told several people the
story, but NEVER anybody around here. I have to see these people every
day and as an outsider - a "city folk". I have enough trouble fitting in
without them snickering behind my back and whispering "there is the
dumbass that tried to rope the deer."

Friday, March 02, 2007