California Dreaming

Family trip number 2 for the summer: Meagan is due to have a baby during the week of July 24 and we were invited to visit and await the birth of the second Judi girl (Rogers grand-daughter). Lorie went out with Jackie to play mother and help with the baby -- really to hold the baby and play occasionally helping with the chores (ha, ha). She did help Meagan and Derek a lot with the house hold chores and played with Brooklyn and held Emma. If you can't tell Grandpa is just a bit jealous.



Driving was a cinch as all three of the younger girls Nikki, Rachel, and Hailee drove almost the whole way. From Salt Lake City to San Jose, interstate 80 is fairly easy to drive and Nikki had her licence, Rachel has her learners permit, Hailee is not really of age but the time has come that she needs to learn to drive also. She drove from west of SLC across the saltflats to Wendover. I had a real enjoyable time and slept a lot. The parental opinion is that she might as well start learning now and that route is an easy drive with an occasional drive.



Playing with Brooklyn was very enjoyable. She would laugh and giggle and just run all over. There were times when she wanted only grandpa but mostly she played with her aunts and was very happy getting them to take care of her dolls or reading her a story or going shopping. We went to the beach on Monday and she and grandma built a sand castle while everyone else played in the surf. She helped bury grandpa and was tired in the afternoon as we spent the whole day at the beach, something she is not use to. The beach was at Santa Cruz and there were various animals either flying or swimming off in the distance. Jack was able to swim very close to a sea lion out in the surf. The sea lions would sun themselves on the pier near the beach and then go for a swim in the waves.



Meagan did have little Emma early Sunday morning, very early Sunday morning. She is a cute little girl and we love her very much.

Trip to Topaz Mountain

Topaz Mountain is a wonderful place for a family outing. It is about 35 miles west of Delta, Utah at the south end of the Thomas mountain range. I became acquainted with this wonderful place when our mineralogy class led by Revel Phillips (BYU mineralogy professor) went there one Saturday to collect topaz. We didn't collect topaz at Topaz Mountain but drove past it after collecting topaz and garnets earlier that afternoon in the northern part of the Thomas Range.

We tried it once as a family when all of the girls were home about 10-12 years ago. I couldn't remember where it was exactly where we collected the clear, colorless gems, but everyone who collects topaz goes to the BLM collecting site at Topaz Mountain. So, we followed the advise of all of the mineral clubs and went to Topaz Mountain. It was one of those trips that Meagan, Shawna, and Jackie thought dad was nuts trying to get them to collect and find topaz. What is topaz any way. It isn't my birthstone and it isn't pretty and it is too hard to find, so who cares. With that attitude we didn't spend much time looking and we didn't find any thing.

This summer I was wanting to visit the Thomas Range area again and take the remainder of my family out and see if we could find and collect some topaz. Shawna and James met us there and we camped out at Topaz Mountain Friday night and collected Saturday morning and afternoon. Again, we weren't able to find the BLM's excavation pit where people do find the elusive pink or smoky topaz crystals, nor were we able to find any topaz crystals around Topaz Mountain where we were camped. We did figure out the secret and drove aways to the north and started picking up crystals that have been washed out of the mountain range over time. These crystals are all over. They are clear and show the orthorhombic structure and crystal faces. They are mostly clear and colorless. Occasionally, light pink or smoky ones can be found in blocks of the ryholite where they grow in cavities formed by gas bubbles as the ryholite magma cooled.

Other minerals that can be found in the ryholite are almandine garnets and titanium minerals such as Bixbeeite. Red beryl has also been found but it is extremely rare.

The Big Five at Tau Lodge

I promised that I would blog about Africa and I know you have all been waiting on baited breath for some experiences with the wild life of the "dark continent". I have been busy doing other things during June and realized that I hadn't displayed anything about my adventure. Yes, I did get to see wild animals but and here are some of the pictures.

Africa is famous for the Big Five (5): lets say them together as you probably know them, elephants, lions, leopards, rhinos, and water buffaloes. I was lucky enough to see 3 of the big 5. I did however have to go to a game reserve to see them. This is common in Africa because animals running around tend to make a mess of things. I was in the Kalahari where I thought I would see lots of wild animals but it was along the eastern part of the Kalahari where there is a lot of cattle posts as well as natural boundaries which keep the animals limited in this area. There was a leopard that had been seen by several in the camp before I arrived but I was not fortunate enough to see it even though I took several walks outside of camp by myself. The central Kalahari is where the animals are in greater numbers as well as in northern and southern Botswana.

This is a small group of lions (I don't know if it is a pride or not, can't remember what the ranger said). It is a mother and her four cubs three females and one male.

After seeing the lions we then saw some elephants. There were about 30 and it was interesting to note that where ever there are elephants, the trees are pretty beat up. They destroy the brush and shrub vegetation. The one picture is not very good but it shows a young elephant that is less that a year old.

This loner was seen on the way to the water hole and just kind of stayed out of our way and tried to hide.

This big bruiser came walking up to the water hole that was next to the lodge where I stayed just before coming home. He just wanted a drink. The water bucks that were at the water hole rutting just moved out of his way.

This rhino is standing in the road. We went looking for leopard early in the morning but all we could find were elephants and rhinos. This is a white rhino (you can't see it but his lips are square shaped and not pointed like the black rhinos). You also can see this in the picture but there is a stream of urine as they mark their territory this way. They also walk their feces into their hoofs and then walk it all over. "Fascinating", at least that is what the ranger said.

Together Time

Friday before Mother's Day Lorie and I went for a ride in the swell. We really enjoy doing this but we don't get much of a chance. I told her to get a lunch and we would go see some part of the swell that we haven't seen yet. As it turned out we really got a late start and got to the trail head about 1:15 pm. The San Rafael Swell is a geologic wonder land full of land forms and wonderful sites. Most of you won't care but a small geologic description has to be told as it is really a trip through time.

We start off in the Carmel Formation which is mid Jurassic in age (approximately 161-175 million years ago). It is a sequence of marine strata formed by an inland sea. It covered large sand dunes of the Navajo Sandstone as seen in the first picture Lorie took. This is a large sand dune that formed 190 million years ago. Dune structures can still be seen in the rock forming the canyon walls and in out crops along the trail. From these structures the ancient wind direction is from the northwest to the southeast. This area that extends from southern Wyoming into Utah and terminates in north central Arizona had a climate similar to that of the Sahara in northern Africa. This formation as it weathers forms spectacular land forms; wind erosion of this sandstone forms arches.

















Lorie got a picture of an newly forming arch that we saw as we road the Eva Connover trail.

This picture shows mass wasting and this formation makes for a fine picture.

This is a very cool cottonwood tree. I can picture a person hanging for horse theft or Butch Cassidy galloping past on the way to one of his many hideouts. It was a fun afternoon even though we did get separated and Lorie thought I was dead somewhere along the trail.

Mopani Worms

For all of you blog followers, this is the begining of a series of stories or adverntures I had in Botswana. I wasn't able to write blogs because my laptop is secure, I can't figure out which buttons to turn on to allow me to add phots to my blogs, so I saved them and decided to write about them later. This first story should grab your guts as well as maybe cause them to turn. I did not take the photos but I did find them and these are the Mopani worms that I ate.

I had a new adventure this evening at supper. I already told mom about it but since she distributes these to everybody I thought I would write it up. First of all you need to look up Mopani Worms on the internet and yes with words like worms and supper you guessed it I ate a couple of the Zimbabwean delicacy Mopani Worms. They weren't bad really, like eating jerky. Remigiyo one of my Zimbabwean friends was asked to bring back some Mopani Worms by one of the South African Africaners, so he brought back about a pound of them when he returned from Zim this week end. I saw them in the sack earlier today and Neville (he is the one who asked for them) ate one right then. I don't know why he asked for them as he didn't seem to like them very much. Any way Remigiyo gave him the whole sack. I did not have one at that time as I wanted to take a picture of them so that you could all see Dad eat a worm.

Now if you have not yet looked them up on the internet I will tell you about them. If you remember the movie Quigley Down Under when Tom Selleck and whats her name were eating the white grubs that were moving, it was a bit like that except they were dried. Yes, the Mopani worms were about that big but they squeeze the guts out of them when they pick them and then dry them and smoke them like you would jerky or a salmon. No, not smoke them as in tobacco. They keep longer that way.

They then cook them in chilli sause and onions and then eat them. The Botswana people cook them also but not to the Zimbabwean liking. They ate them tonight but weren't happy about the way they were cooked. We barbaqued or Braii (South African term for BBQ) Tbones (not hereford or black angus) yes, we had a Brama T bone. They are larger and tougher than the good ole hereford and black angus. One thing I will definately enjoy when I get home. We had mashed potatoes, a tomatoe onion sause, spoon full of beans, spoon full of coleslaw (cabage and carrots with some sort of dressing), half of a butternut squash cooked in the coals (what they call a butter nut squash, a long oblong pear shaped squash), and a Tbone steak the size of the plate, which sat on top of all of my other food. I still don't know where everyone found room to put a spoon full of Mopani Worms. I finished my food and went in to get my spoon full and darn the luck there were only about two to three worms left in the pan. So, I took two thinking it would be very impolite to take the last one or two so I just took two and put them on my plate. Everyone was going to think this non beer drinking american was really weird not eating a sensible food like Mopani Worms.

I went out side where the cool people eat -- I haven't eaten under a roof since I have been here -- we have a pic-nick for breakfast and supper. Now as I tell and describe this next part you have to remember that I have just cleaned my plate and had a nice brama steak, in-other-words I am hoping that it stays put in my stomach and make a real show infront of everyone at the dinner table. They would never let me try anything else new again. Well, I stuck it with my fork and as I was sticking it in my mouth, Malvyn, another Zimbabwean told me that they are good but the are prickally as you chew them. He was right, it was like the hair of a dried catapillar and the catapillar was like jerky or leather. It had a smoky flavor (not something that will leave the pallet soon after the meal. I chewed it real good as I didn't want my nice dinner to come out like Mount St. Helens. It was not too bad, soggy bread is definately worse and had it had that sort of texture, it probably would have come crawling back out. I then ate the other one on my plate as I couldn't be snobbish and just try one. That just wouldn't be neighborly would it?

They really weren't too bad and I must say that I would rather eat a Mopani Worm than a grasshopper or something else. I can still think of a lot worse things to eat. That said and the Mopani worms eaten, I still agree with Crockadile Dundee when he was asked if he was going to eat the eguana he was cooking, "sure you can live on it, but it tastes like sh8^%" and then he proceed to open a can of something. I could get use to them if I had to but I am 49 and I am not starving as of yet. It was fun though.

I went to visit the pan area in north central Botswana and on the way home there were many people selling Mopani Worms along the highway. They had buckets and gunny sacks full of them. I thought about buying some and bringing them home for Lorie and the girls, but we didn't have time to stop as we were trying to get back to camp.

This isn't Kansas

What was it Dorothy said to her dog Toto? "We're not in Kansas any more". I know how she felt, and I only felt that way one other time when I was 19 years old and 10,000 miles away from home. At least there was only a four hour time difference not an nine hour difference or starting today and eight hour difference. That means that right now as I type it is 3:49 pm mountain standard time but it here as I type it is 11:50 pm and I have been awake since 5:00 am. The thought that you are soooo far away from home is a downer for the first few days. If I started walking now it would take along time to get home.

I am trying to get pictures but I can't load them. The internet is german based and I cannot read german yet. I don't know if anyone heard yet about my adventure in Johnannesburg but it was one that most travelers fear just traveling in the states on business. If you miss a flight or lose luggage, you get a new ticket and figure out what to do or where to stay. That is what happened to me in Joeberg SA as they say here and it was mind boggling. I got new flight arrangements and then a motel or somebodies upstairs appartment where they give lodging, up at 3:30 and to the air port so I don't miss the 6:00 flight to Botswana. All this with Jet lag and not much sleep. I don't think I have slept much maybe four-five hours per day. As it is not midnight I will leave you with this little post and hopefully get picture out on the next post. By the way, I almost got hit in the head by a swarm of bees looking at core. There must have been 10,000 bees in the air looking for a new home. Couldn't tell you if they were Africanized or not but it was interesting and James should like it.

Valentines Day

Valentines day is one of my favorites days. It always has been. Maybe it is the lover inside of me or not. Any way, we had a wonderful day. It started out on Friday. Yes, Friday the 13th. I always get the girls a flower and take it to school where they can show off to the other girls and make the boys jealous. That is the main reason I started this tradition is that I wanted to send these young high school boys a message, "My girls are already taken thank you". I never meant for this event to become a tradition, but a week before Nikki, Hailee, or Rachel asked me if I was going to get them a flower this year because Valentines day was on a Saturday instead of a school day. I told them that no I wasn't going to get them a flower and the mutiny began. I didn't let them know that I was going to get them a flower until they got one at school on Friday afternoon.

A couple of weeks earlier, I got Lorie her Valentine day card. I like funny cards not the goofy sentimental ones that are nothing but mush. Then on Friday night we went into Price and I got her a Valentine present, the Pride and Prejudice on DVD. I can't ever surprise her though as she is always with me. We also bought 4 lobster tails, boy were they at a good price, six dollars a piece. Then we came home and watched Casino Royal.

Saturday, Valentines Day, I put up the lights in the garage and tidied up some electrical projects. Lorie cooked the lobster tails purchased the night before and we sat down to a wonderful candle light dinner. Salad, shrimp, asparagus, and a baked potato. We shared our bootie with the girls who kindly ate downstairs, probably because they thought we would kiss or something. We didn't though, it was a very proper dinner. Lorie and given me a bottle of Diesel Colon and all day long the girls said I smelled nice. That is Lorie's and especially Hailee's new favorite smell. We also talked with Jackie and asked her how her date went the night before (Friday Night). She is a good girl and we miss her as she is out on her own living in Logan and going to school. After dinner, I helped Lorie and the girls do dishes and then we retired to the family room to watch Third Rock from the Sun reruns until midnight. It was a great day to remember.

Work on the House

Well, blogging has been put on hold as I have been busy sheet rocking the upstairs and the garage. Lorie, the best wife in the whole wide world has been right at my side helping me get the project done. We borrowed, not sure if the will charge me or how much they will charge, a sheet rock jack so it would be easier to sheet rock the ceiling. Boy, it worked very well in the upstairs and the ceiling is only 8 feet high. It was a different story in the garage where the ceiling is at least 11 to 12 feet high. The jack would only go to about 10 1/2 or 11 feet and we had to lift it up 6-12 inches from there. Hailee helped us a lot and all three of us had aching muscles at the end of each of those days.



Then, yesterday I decided to install the lights in the garage since the ceiling was up. It took all day long as an electrician I'm not. After I figured out what breaker to turn off and remembered how I had wired the lights -- which end was the beginning and where the power was coming from -- I installed the first fixture and then plugged in the lights. Wala, they worked and I didn't even have to redo the project like I usually do. The lights are 48 inch fluorescent lights and they really light up the garage. I can't wait to start wood working or fixing cars in the garage now. There are four of them and they really light up the room. Now I need to finish the upstairs, redo the floor in the old part of the house, put the stair tread on the stairs from the basement, replace the girls bathroom, face the front of the house with brick or rock, cement the drive way, put gutters on, make a walkway around the west side of the house, and hmmm is there anything else, oh yes, I also need to build a deck on to the east side of the house so I can use the office door, and "breath" re square the double doors on the office. Whew, maybe I can get this all done this year. I also want to play in the swell and look for gold and I guess I will never die, I am too busy and have too much to do.

Trip to San Jose

Boy did we have fun. (I just found this and forgot that I had even started writing it). Actually, I got my camera in the mail and now I can show you pictures of the eldest (her family) and San Fransisco. It may also be time for another geology lesson. It was more than I expected. It was, however, a very quick trip. We left on Thursday night and arrived about 2:00 of Friday afternoon. This was after a semi good nights rest in Reno, we drove until 4:00 am on Friday. What can I say, with Lorie one learns to travel and get places. We had to leave Nikki and Rachel at home as they had places they had to be.

Brooklyn likes beaches, so when we arrived Meagan and Brooklyn took us (Lorie, Hailee, and Myself) to a beach near Santa Cruz I believe. The Beach was a California State beach called Natural Bridges because of the sea arches formed by the waves. The water was sooo cold but that didn't stop Brooklyn from running in the water. One time she didn't stop soon enough and a wave covered her. She is quite the little trooper as she didn't even cry. I don't think she shivered. I ran in the waves with her several times but my feet and legs were numb from the cold.

Saturday morning Derek, Meagan, and Brooklyn took us into the city (San Fransisco here I come). Lorie had been there but I had never been in California except for a visit to the L. A. International Air Port. It was great fun and actually a very nice day for the middle of January. A bit hazy but very nice for this time of year from what I'm told. We went to Coit Tower first: this was an amazing place to go as we parked the car near the pier and walked up 200 feet of stairs to Coit Tower. The stairs take you up a steep hill and on either side of the stairs, there are homes. Each home has a gate and fence but they are on the left and on the right. These are nice homes. Not a very good place where earthquakes are frequent but actually safer than on the valley floor. We went to the top of Coit Tower and took pictures of the city and bay area. The picture of Meagan, Derek, Brooklyn, and Hailee are in the back of the tower where there is a garden of sorts.

We then went to Fisher Mans wharf to eat lunch. It was rather nice but nothing to write home about. The Sea Lions were out sunning on floating platforms and it was fun to have Brooklyn show us them.

Then it was on to the Golden Gate Bridge. This structure is simply amazing. I didn't think it was red for some reason, maybe steel gray was what I had in mind. It is huge. There is a picture of Hailee standing by a cross section of the cable used in the construction. I can't remember the amount of wire used in the cable but it is on the sign next to the cable, so you can zoom in and read it yourself. We walked out to the first post or whatever the structure is and looked down into the bay. It was a long way down. Derek and I said it would be fun to ride a bicycle across it and someday I just might. I wanted to see what was on the other side, that is just what I am about, so I told Derek I would pay the toll and we drove across and drove up the road and took some pictures of the bay and the city, the geology of the mountains, and as it was late at night we took some sunset pics also. I don't think I like the red color paint on the bridge. They didn't ask me so it doesn't matter. I was just very surprised at the color.

Derek then drove us home by way of Highway 1 along the coast and that was very nice. I got a passing view of the Melange of the San Franciscan complex. It consists of blueschist facies of metamorphic rock formed as the oceanic crust dives under the continental crust. As this happens parts of both plates are scraped up and it forming the coastal mountains of California. This is important because it is one of the only places where we get to see rock of the ocean plates. It was actually very interesting as I have never seen this type of geology before.

On Sunday after church, Meagan and Derek took us to see the redwood trees. We drove to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. It was a very nice drive a time to get some rest for me. When I woke up we were just about there. We arrived at the park head quarters and walked around and looked at big trees. I always thought this would be boring as I am sometimes not culturally very bright, but it was very interesting. The trees are big and very different than the spruce, fir, and pine that I am use to. What was really interesting was where the trees were hit by lightening and continued to grow. The core of some of those trees was completely gone and growth appeared to be from the outside or bark of the tree. We looked as a cross section of one tree they had on display where they had the rings corresponding with historical dates. This tree was very old and dated back to about 400 years before Christ if I remember right. On the way back we thought Meagan was going to get sick. We drove with the windows down which helped a lot. There was one time when she thought it was over as she had Derek stop the car and got her composure back (I have tough women around me).

It was a great trip and we want to thank Derek and Meagan for sharing their time and making our trip so enjoyable. As Brooklyn would say "It was really, really fun".

Snowman and Snow Angles

During Christmas when Brooklyn was visiting, between snow storms we made a snowman. Actually her dad, mom, and Hailee built a snowman. I suggested they start the project while I shovel snow off of the sidewalks and clean the driveway. Come to find out the snow was very powdery and not very packable. So by the time I got in the back yard to help, there was this snowman on the retaining wall. He was a small bugger but a snowman he was with arms and three body balls of snow, and eyes making him a real person. I felt bad that I hadn't helped and Brooklyn had fallen in the snow, so I made a snow angel. As I fell into the snow with Hailee and Rachel's help, Brooklyn thought they were mugging me and taking my life. She let out a howl and cried "save bommpa, don't hurt him". I don't know if she actually said that but it sounds good. I tried to get her to stop crying and started waving my arms and my feet making a snow angle. She didn't quite get it as she continued to cry. So after getting up again, I found a new place to fall in the snow and start again. By this time her crying ceased and although she was not exactly laughing, she did accept that maybe there was a bit of fun in the snow.

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2008, what an event to remember: getting Christmas trees, putting up the Christmas trees, having everyone home for the Christmas Eve bash, and best of all playing with my favorite granddaughter, I can say that and actually get away with it because she is the only granddaughter I have. My Christmas spirit usually takes a while to wind up due to the hassle coinciding with the blessed event, but this year it seamed I was able to have a child like anticipation for the event. That has not happened for a long time.

A few minor words about the tree. It is customary for our family to travel to the mountains after Thanksgiving and cut our tree and this year was no exception. With permit in hand, we traveled up the Wasatch Plateau looking for the perfect tree. Usually because of snow fall we are limited to where we can get a good tree. This year the snow was late and we were able to get higher in the mountains and look over trees that usually are not accessible to our saw. We found one and brought it home to decorate it.

Our new addition has never had a tree in it so we figured a taller one could be place along the wall that separates the kitchen/dining room from the office, this location is just under the apex of our ceiling. What a gorgeous tree! The tree once decorated decided it did not like our old decorations and just as Lorie was leaving to visit with her Visiting Teachers the tree fell over breaking several of her ornaments from past Christmases. We could not get the tree to stand up so we tied it to the wall with 30 lb fishing line, and there it stayed until we took it down after New Years.

The Christmas Eve Bash is a family tradition: the party starts at 4:00 or 5:00 and if you can make it you come and feast and play games and if you can't make it, no hard feelings and we will see you next year. This year was special because Brooklyn was coming over and she is 2 and 4 months, the perfect age for Christmas. She loved to play on our stairs and have grandpa or aunts chase her - man can she fly down those stairs - it was the funniest thing I ever have seen. She would run around our couch fall down on the stair landing, then rollover on her tummy and slide feet first down the stairs. It was incredible how fast she would go.

Traditional food for the Christmas Eve Bash is something exotic that we either never have eaten or that we seldom eat, so the feast is mostly a treat. This year we had homemade rum cake, homemade fruit cake - I am the only one who appreciates a good fruit cake, oh well more for me - two different salsas, a black bean salsa and some cowboy caviar which was a delicious mix of peppers and black eyed peas. From the moment we start the bash we are playing silly games. One of the most popular is the Hat Game. This game is played with everyone wearing a Santa hat. One person is it (I usually start the game since I am the chosen one) and that person removes his hat when no one is looking and the last one to take off their hat is the looser and they then start the game. This game is played continuously through the night as other games are being played.

We were truly blessed to have had such a wonderful Christmas Eve Bash. Even though we were having such a wonderful time, we do remember the reason for the season and having family together during the holidays accentuates the birth of the Saviour and reason he was born and mission he would fulfill.