Max Rose

I arrived home from Capitol Reef around 4:15 Tuesday afternoon. Just in time to take a shower, change clothes, and pack for a quick trip to St. George. I know your thinking, "are you crazy, go to St. George this time of year"!
We left Provo about 5:30 pm and stopped for a quick bite by the mall. Then we were onto the Freeway and headed south. The temperatures where above 100. Thank heavens for air conditioned cars. We arrived in St. George just before 10 pm. The temperature in the parking lot of the hotel was 102 and you could really feel the heat radiating off the black top.
The reason for this trip was the funeral of one of Susie's dear friends and colleagues at Dixie State University, Max Rose.

Max Rose was a professor of Chemistry and Mathematics at Dixie State College when Susie taught there. They had offices right next to each other for a time and became great friends. Mas was an engaging personality and loved a practical joke. He attended high school at Bryce High school in Henryville, UT. To show how smart he was he took a calculus class via correspondence. When he took the final exam he scored so high the people in Cedar City determined he must have cheated so they sent a proctor to Henryville to make Max repeat the exam. Of course he passed it again with basically the same score.
One of my favorite stories from Max's past involved a member of the faculty who was quite anti-Mormon. The local newspaper had run an article about a new bishopric being called in one of the wards in St. George. Max cut and pasted the photo of the professor over the photo of the new bishop and then changed the caption so it read as if the professor had been sustained as the new bishop. Then the made several copies and put one in each of the mailboxes of the teachers in the department. That created quite a stir.
Max later served as the Academic Vice President for the University and then as Superintendent of the Washington School District for 11 years. He was also Stake President for the University Student stake.
The funeral was well attended and Susie was able to see many old friends from her days in St. George. We were able to have lunch with the Gillilands on our way out of town. We were back in Provo around 6 pm, just in time to start packing for our vacation trip to Alaska.

Cohab Canyon to Sulfur Creek

Sam Andrus and I agreed to accompany the 4th year young women on their high adventure hike. Monday June 20th we met at the church at noon and drove south to Capitol Reef National Park. We arrived in the park around 4:30 and after driving around the campground we finally found our group site. It was 101 degrees when we arrived and it certainly was a dry heat.

Capitol Reef from the road to our campsite

We set up our tents, had dinner, and sat around and visited until it cooled off a bit. While we waited to go on our evening hike we watched the girls try to cross the taught line that Sam Andrus had strung between two trees.

L-R: Bethany Yorgason, Elizabeth Windsor, Isabel Andrus, Stephanie Jenks, Kristal Masbernat, Serena Keck, Sloan Vigoren, Katie Jenks, Su-Yi Hwang, Ellia Chan, Tammy Yorgason, Adeline Chan, Sam Andrus

Around 7 pm we walked to the trail head for Cohab canyon. This canyon gets it's name from the 1800's when citizens of Fruita Utah who practiced polygamy would hide in this canyon to escape arrest by Federal Marshals.

In Cohab Canyon; Top to Bottom: Stephanie Jenks, Isabel Andrus, Su-yi Hwang, Ellia Chan, Bethany Yorgason, Sloan Vigoren, Elizabeth Windsor, Tammy Yorgason, Katie Jenks, Adeline Ho, Serena Keck, Kristal Masbernat, ElRay Roper

The first part of the hike is quite steep with many switch backs as you head up into the red rock cliffs. As usual I brought up the rear though on this part of the hike sister Chan was at the end. We found some side canyons that were perfect for group photos.

On the top; L-R; Serena Keck, Ellia Chan, Su-Yi Hwang, Sloan Vigoren, Stephanie Jenks, Tammy Yorgason, Katie Jenks

It took us about 45 minutes to wind our way to the top of the cliffs overlooking Fruita and the park center. The weather was perfect and the young women really enjoyed going on a hike with a some risk of falling. They spent a lot of time trying to catch one of the many lizards scurrying around on the rocks.

Isabel Andrus, Bethany Yorgason, and Elizabeth Windsor lead the pack down Sulfur Creek

The entire hike was about 4.5 miles and we arrived back in camp around 8:45 where we enjoyed snacking from the cookie barrel. Unfortunately Bro. Andrus had brought chocolate coated cookies and they had pretty much melted into solid blocks of cookies. That didn't stop us from eating them, it just made it messy.
That night I slept in my car. I learned that the back seats in a Ford Edge to not fold down flat which made for a long night. In addition to that misery, Tammy Yorgason had left her phone in my car with the alarm set for 4:30 am to get her up for aerobics. That was pretty disorienting to say the least.

Tuesday morning we were up at 6 am to take down camp, have breakfast, and head for the Sulfur creek trail head about 5 miles west of camp. We left my car at the picnic grounds and drove to the Chimney Rock trail head where we left the other cars.

Sulfur creek is a small stream the flows from Boulder mountain to the visitors center in Capitol Reef National Park where it joins the Freemont river. From the trail head you hike a little over a mile down a wash until you finally reach the stream. The entire hike is about 6.5 miles.

Ellia Chan down the last waterfall. She's all dirty from the girls mud fight upstream

There was a lot of griping about how far it was to the water but once we were in the stream all the complaining stopped and the fun began.

Even Bro. Roper got into the action at the last fall

I've taken the Priests on this hike before and to them it is just something to get through. I guess they've done so many of these hikes that they don't see the novelty.

The young women played in the water, went down the water slides, got under the waterfalls, had mud fights, and generally had a blast hiking down the river. They all agreed that they want to do something like this again in the future.

I still hate sprinklers 2016

The reason I was anxious for Peter to find the missing sprinkler line was that I wanted to get water into the raised garden bed I installed 4 years ago. I have tried to get things to grow by hand watering but I'm on the road so much that it hasn't worked.

 I had Peter and Kevin dig the new trenches. Yesterday afternoon I started to install the new line. Of course, even though I have 5 bins of sprinkler parts I only had one 3/4" elbow so I had to go to the hardware store to buy sprinkler parts. Luckily my glue and primer were still good. Usually I have to buy new bottles every spring.

I finally got the lines all in but before I buried the lines I wanted to make sure everything worked. I went to the controller and activated the line I thought I was connected to but there was no water. I tried 3 other lines with no luck. I was about to start digging to see if I was really attached to the main line when occurred to me that the sprinkler heads were adjustable and might just be turned off.

I was right, both sprinkler heads were in the off position. A little twisting of the head and a trip back to turn on the line and there was water. It will be interesting to see how these work out and whether plants in the raised bed grow better this year.

Let's Try It Again

Two summers ago Ward Yorgason and I completely recovered our front deck. We replaced all the old worn out wood lattice with composite lattice. I thought that would hold up better to the weather. I was wrong. Almost immediately it started to sag when it got warm and after one year it was starting to break apart.

Ready to add the lattice

So this week Kevin and I did the job again. This time we removed the composite lattice, stained all the support beams, and installed new cedar lattice. My neighbor Sam Andrus was kind enough to let me borrow his truck to pick up the lattice at the Home Depot.

Kevin fastening the lattice to the frame

This morning Kevin and I cut the lattice to size and installed it on the frame. Previously we did some work on the frame to make it a bit more stable and reset some of the cross beams to the right width.

Looks good from the top

I haven't decided if I will try and stain the lattice. Perhaps this fall. In the past I tried spraying it but that was a real mess. This time I may try doing the job with a very shaggy roller. For now it looks nice and provides more shade than the composite lattice did.

Hopefully this is the last time I'll have to do this job

He Found It

During the spring of 2013 we removed the juniper bushes at the front of our property. While Jacob and Ward were removing those they broke the sprinkler line that ran through the middle of the bushes. I capped the broken line and put a stake in the ground to mark where the line was so I could tie into it later.

It is now 4 years later and I have tried a couple of times to find that line but with no luck. Earlier this spring my nephew, Peter Weitzel, said if I had any digging I need done to call him because he would like the exercise. So last week I called and he came over this morning. I explained what I was looking for and where I thought the line was. Fortunately he misunderstood me because the line was not where I said it was nor did in run in the direction I told him.

In less than an hour he had found the line, the end where I had capped it, and dug me some new trench so I can extend the line to the front flower beds. I paid him well for his hours work but his uncovering the line was much more valuable to me than what I paid him. Now, hopefully I can stop dragging the hose out to water the front raised flower bed.

Hiking with the Young Women

Last fall I was released from my calling with the young men. Since then I have hardly done any hiking. Fortunately, Susie is still assistant camp director with the young women so this year I'm helping with Summer camp for the Young Women.

As a warm up for their camp we did a 5 mile hike yesterday. We hiked from our church along the path by University Avenue to the Timpanogos Story Telling Park at the mouth of Provo Canyon. I drove my car up there in the afternoon with a cooler full of Otter Pops and dry ice. Then I rode my bike home.

Audrey, Stephanie, Kristhal, Morgan, and Bethany head to the finish line

We met at the church at 6 pm and were on our way by about 6:20. (always takes a long time to collect all the stragglers). Susie and I were posted at the rear and ended up with the really slow walkers, Morgan Vigoren, Stephanie Jenks, Kristhal Masbernat, Audrey Hipwell, and Bethany Saldana. By the end of the 5 miles we were a good 10 minutes behind the rest of the young women. I think they suffered from Samuel Finch syndrome. They got so busy chatting that they forgot to walk. Between yard work, biking, and hiking I had over 25,000 steps and 50 flights of stairs. It was a good day.

First Harvest

When we moved to our new home 10 years ago we brought a number of plants that had been in the Frost's yard and then in Susie's yard. We brought several starts from the raspberries in Susie's yard but they did not do well in our yard and finally died. Three summers ago I got several starts of raspberries from my brother and I ordered some from Burpee's. I put them in the raised garden at the end of the driveway but they didn't do well there. Finally last spring I moved them to the back of the house behind the stairs. They have done much better in this new location.

Yesterday I picked the first bowl full of fruit off raspberry in the new location. It is the first time we have really gotten any fruit off these vines. It's a constant battle to keep the deer from eating the new shoots and keeping them wet enough to not burn up but the berries were delicious and it has been worth the effort.