Could be a better "Tree" year just ahead

Thinking back to Christmas 2008.............. I figured "this Tree to the left" ought to live in infamy. It indeed takes the award for the least impressive tree ever to be in our house. Course I take the responsibility for putting it up. Last years Christmas was one that we could have gotten by without a tree, here at the ranch. Then this year one can only speculate and imagine what "this years Tree to come" will be like. Could it make a blog next year looking back again due to some great significance? Could it be an award winner? Will it take a little more floor space or height? What about all those all time great trees we have had, will it be like those? At this very moment it is in a box in the garage waiting for unveiling.

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Course today is just another regular Saturday. Blue skies. Good morning walk through the neighborhood with my returned walker perhaps runner. As we speak, or more accurately, as I write, one guy is to my right, not really, reading about some politics and the other one to my left again not really but out the window on the patio sharpening the shovel. I notice that one of "the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" listed on a little note by some other quotes just to my right, really, suggests that we be

1. Proactive,

2. Begin with the end in mind,

3. Put First Things First,

4. Think Win-Win,

5. Seek First to Understand Then to Be Understood,

6. Synergize, 7. "Sharpen the Saw".

So there you go. A little wisdom right in the middle of all these pictures.....................................

tomorrow

This will be updated tomorrow. This is the 2 years ago version.....................

2 years of service for Zach

This last week we went to California to bring Zach home from his Mission. We spent a few days with him and visited a lot of very nice people. Lots of pictures. I wondered what to post as a memory of the week. The older people were the most interesting. Many did not speak English so we were not able to visit but listening to Zach visit was well worth it.

Thinking back a few years about a challenging hike

Piferhorn Peak up Cottonwood Canyon toward Alta. Take a right turn half way up and go South (this is the beginning of about a 20+ mile hike) over a mountain, up a mountain and into this meadow. Then climb up to the top of the peak and you can see Timpanogos to the South and the Great Salt Lake to the North and West. Worth thinking back about. I found a picture of a couple of friends standing on the very top rock that I took when we made it to the top. Mike was with us. This was a challenging hike.

Seems like that flower is alone?, sort of

Like a lot of daily blogs this picture was probably used before, somewhere along the line of 550 or so blogs over the last few years. I am pretty sure Mr Z took the flower picture. It is in our back yard in the "garden could be grown" area. I remember today looking through some boxes in the garage and noticing a flower like this in one of the boxes that had some other flower type items. Yellow is a good color for a flower......................................... at least I would like to make that claim in this "overview of a Friday night at around 8:59 or so".

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I am currently reading a book about a bookstore and book addict which is of course a lot like a number of books I have read but this one is one I am enjoying right now. I have finished a couple of others in the last few weeks. I wonder how much we really learn from all the books we read? I was looking at a picture of myself and my brother when I was probably around 10 or 11 years old. I wondered what it was that I knew then that I still know now? Did I have an awareness of what the world was really like or who I was and how I might fit into the world or what I could gain from my time from the world then? Did I understand how important it would be to just do my best. To get up and try again. To care for and about family. In some ways I think I may have. Did those thoughts exist then or did they grow from then to now or were they just added along the way? How have those perceptions or convictions or just thoughts then changed over all this time? Did reading change or add to those thoughts or what changed or added to it them most? I think probably the greatest knowledge comes from interactions with others. On the other hand reading is often about presentations and expanded interactions with others in a way. Maybe reading is just another side of life? Still you learn what works and what doesn't by doing. On the other hand reading about others isn't all bad in that it saves some pain. Then of course it offers some joy but maybe a lessor version of joy.

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How exactly did that guy grow up? Then again what is next?

Rain

Rain

Saturday Stuff

Good Saturday it was. Too walks with a couple of fine folks. Worked on the outdoor water hose outlet issue with another fine neighbor friend. Did some serious home R&D on a special sandwich for lunch. Put up a drape rod and a wall shelf with some help from my friend. Sort of finished the day off watching a good movie on the tube. Might now have to work on finishing the book I am reading. Finished one this week already. This morning when I was out for a walk with my friend we both saw shadows on the wall with the nice looking guy on the left kissing the one on the right. Hope she posts that picture. She does carry her camera.

Wonder if we can go back, course in a prior blog I went back to this house and some similiar thoughts, or if we do go back when we remember??

My dad was born in 1914 and grew up in this house.

*(Yep taking this little memory lane trip again.............)

The one room smaller house behind it had a coal stove and a bed and lots of storage shelves and was used more in the summer. In front of the smaller house and behind this house was a water pump that one could, and I did on occasion, pull pumping water out of the ground. Off to the right a ways was a out-house, and off to the right a shorter ways was a small creek. If you followed the creek up the field from in back of the house far enough, East to the hills where the spring came out, you could find crayfish in the water. In the summer the water from the creek could be diverted to flood the larger front lawn area. The trees in the summer were full of leaves and blocked the view of the house some. I remember being on the porch in the summer. The nearest neighbor was about 1/2 a mile or more away. I remember the "fire flies" at night. In front of the house was a two lane road, actually the main highway to Salt Lake, and across the road from the house were areas fenced in with a cow barn and chicken coop area. A few horses and pigs were there also. Seems like a pretty simple place for two folks to raise 4 boys and 3 girls. All seemed to be fine people and later had fine families of their own. I recall my dad never had any interest in living on a farm after having left it.

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Makes you wonder why I keep going back even if it is just a mental trip.

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I remember going to this house often as I grew up. Watching my Father working to re cover this roof and regularly helping with things around the house when his parents were a lot older.

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Time spent, now remembered, visiting and helping then. Good Folks.....................................

Fall Again

Saturdays are good days for walks, and or runs, and today I went on a walk twice. One earlier with KJ and another after with MJ. Great weather and sky. Earlier we saw some balloons off in the distance. The air is crisp and the feel of fall is great.

Fall

Fall is worth having. Good colors on the trees, balloons in the sky, not to hot and not too cold. Course without change there would be no butterflies which is what it says on a little magnet picture next to my computer so it must be true. Today was the second day of General Conference. Good messages. One speaker mentioned that folks stand sometimes to tell everyone that they love their family but don't do it face to face and in their own home. The implication of telling everyone this in conference was that is that they should tell their families these things face to face and that would be even better. Good message. I recall my own Father seemed in some ways too quiet and reserved to be telling us all that but then again I do remember a lot of times that he did tell me that he loved me. Then again he loved our Mom and all of us and his life did indeed show that.

best running trail, "ever"...............Millcreek

Out West in some various ways

A Saturday walk in the neighborhood ............was a little different this week. The sights of the "far west side of the old home town " were a lot different, than normal Saturday walks present. To finish off the day, after this walk which could have been a good 4 mile run, we went to see the big K copper mine. Just a few miles to the West, again.

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So much for Saturday. Except of course the nice visit and chance to be with family and to enjoy that time. It also lead to finishing a lot of a book I have been working on but then the final couple of chapters were finished today.

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"Ellis Kackley the Best Damn Doctor in the West" (Soda Springs, Idaho) by Ellen Carney was recommended by KJ's Aunt. It was set in the late 1800's through the 1940's and presented a picture of a wild west town and changes that took place in a way that I don't think I would have ever experienced without this book. It told a story of small Idaho town, places that I knew well, and of several groups of people that made up the town and the West for that matter. This book, like the last one I read, took me into a time and place that I had not expected to learn about. Seeing events through the eyes of others is enough but through the eyes of those you really didn't know existed is something else again.

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This, the next few sentences, may seem like an odd way to end this blog, switching gears and talking about a "word", but twice since I finished the book I have had the "D" word brought to my attention as a word that might make one less sensitive to the good influences we should seek each day? I have to admit that point of view may not be one that is widely held, really, but then it may be well worth re thinking. What for some is natural and "crusty" or "earthy" or reflective of a time place may also for others be a first step away from a better place. On the other hand the world is full of challenges and with some "words" it seems that we find an step into reality just by hearing them.

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Then again that may be the point.

this is all I got today...............

Suppose being in the food business all my life I ought to have something insightful on occasion about the food we eat. Well golly I remember my 8th grade art teacher. He had a saying he hated. He really disliked folks who said they didn't know much about art but they knew what they liked. Guess he figured the poor folks just didn't know what they were missing and that as a "artist" himself it was his role in life to let them know what they might have been missing. A real "mission" I suppose. Course to let folks know what they have been missing you sort of have to know what it is that would have better not to be missed.............

"You may not know

much about what other people

really know, but then you just know

what they ought to want to know"............

So then full circle. This art teacher must have disliked himself or he wouldn't have been saying this. The real trick here is that it may be better to just learn to like oneself rather than worry about what it is that others should like. So there you go, a little gem of wisdom. And you thought I was going to blog about Cows.

Almost Autumn,alright

Fall weather is best. I was thinking some about the leaves in Millcreek Canyon this time of year. They can be very yellow and orange and it is a nice experience to be in the middle of them.

jumper

I suppose based on all the interesting things that this cat does around here this is not a very unique picture. I do like to watch her stalk out a planned jump however. In this picture she had just left the other end of the desk where she loves the printer. Yesterday's blog was one I passed on in one form or another to a number of folks who would not see this blog. Of course when you figure out the number of people who would not see this blog it becomes really "everybody" but never the less I did pass on my suggestion that the book, "The Latehomecomer A Hmong Family Memoir" would be good reading. Then again I wonder about suggesting stuff to read. On the other hand KJ suggests stuff to me and it is always a good recommendation. We have an Aunt on KJ's side who suggested a book a few weeks back about a Dr in Soda Springs in the 1800's that I really would like to get and read so maybe suggesting a good read "is ok". This book reminded me of a lot of Pioneer Stories that I have heard over the years. Looking at how much people sacrifice to have a better life and to find a better life for their children is basic 101 "Pioneer Story". People work so hard with no other motive than to want their children to have a better opportunity and this book is one of the best examples of family love that you will find.

One of the best books I have read in a long time

The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir
by Kao Kalia YangEdition: Paperback
Price: $10.17
Availability: Usually ships in 11 to 12 days

This book will change how you think and is a "must read"

"click" the link below to go to "My Amazon Reviews" ( I have other reviews here but this one is listed first)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A3RX9706A2ZP8F?tag2=bjsran-20

43

Today is 43 years for "us". We have had some great years. Thinking back I recall a lot of things we did together. Being in the same room is good. I still feel a difference when she comes into the room. Going places with her is still the best. Simply the Best, indeed.

Sunrise straight ahead...................

........................might as well hang out the flag since it is a holiday today. I looked up Labor Day and found an arm with a muscle holding a hammer and I guess that is an image of Labor Day of sorts. Of these three pictures the one that probably is the best representation of today is the one taken or could have been taken in our back yard. Just opening the door today and feeling the breeze and a little crispness in the air was great. Fall is a great time of year. Maybe I will resolve to write another blog soon.