Bits and Pieces

A picture taken at the Utah Olympic Park

Pretty scenery up American Fork Canyon

Our state flower, the Sego Lily

This picture was taken while we were on an ATV ride. I have never seen so many varieties of wildflowers. With the wet spring the flowers have never been so plentiful and beautiful. On one ride we saw flowers that were red, orange, gold, yellow, pink, lavender, dark purple, blue and white plus several in-between hues.

A deer by Reed's 4-wheeler

This is a very typical sight. We usually see several deer each day. Bucks are few and far between. Does with a couple of cute little fawns are really common right now. I think the animals feel peace and reverence here on the mountain. They aren't very skittish; they wander amongst us. We have had a badger and weasel on our challenge course. There are thousands of 'pot-guts' or ground squirrels. They often stay on the gravel roads as we drive by...only to run away at the last opportunity. Occasionally there is a 'grease spot' in the dirt where they didn't make it. They hibernate early so we won't see them much longer.

We only have one week after this one with the Young Women. The last two weeks in August are full with families. Starting in September most of the campers will be here on weekends only. Because we won't be running the challenge course everyday, we will be assigned other duties such as painting, staining, cabin construction, cleaning, trail upkeep, thistle removal, clearing dead trees, repairing the dam etc.

Our mission is for 6 months or 26 weeks. We have been here 15 1/2 weeks so we are on the homeward stretch. I have put about 500 miles on my 4-wheeler around camp. Reed's 4-wheeler front tires have been worn nearly bald because his vehicle is always in 4-wheel drive. Mine stays in 2-wheel drive until I need it, then I just flip a switch. I guess you could say one of our missionary perks is that we have free gasoline for our ATVs. Gas and diesel fuel are available at the maintenance building. We just sign for the amount we pump. ATV gas and our utilities are included in our rent. Another perk is that we occasionally receive $5 coupons for food at the best hometown drive-in, Dairy Keen. The owners of the drive-in are members of the church and are very generous. They also pay $75 dollars a month toward the support of any of their former employees who are serving on a church mission.

Last week on p-day we went home. It was good to see the grandkids. Jill took us through some of the homes they have under consideration for purchase. They were very nice! One of the main purposes of the trip was to have our windshield wipers fixed. Unfortunately the switch they needed would have to be ordered so we returned without having the repair done. We had no precipitation from June 11th until the last week of July. It was then that we noticed the wipers didn't work. On the way back to camp our odometer reading on the Avalon was 88,888.8 miles.

I think the hottest part of the summer is past. We don't have air conditioning. We open windows and make the best of mountain breezes. Sometimes we use a fan and sweat it out. Generally it cools down at night but often we have to close our windows because the campfires stink up our cabin and make it hard to sleep. When we sit out and visit with neighbors in the evenings we usually grab a jacket. Our temperatures are probably at least 10-15 degrees cooler at this elevation than in the valley below. Since the days are getting shorter and it doesn't get light as early in the morning, I wonder if I will have to start setting an alarm to make sure I am up by 6:30 a.m. The only time we set an alarm now is for Monday morning when Reed has to get up at 5:30 a.m. to get to a 6 a.m. meeting.