2010 Deer Hunt

All year long Earl anticipates the Deer Hunt. We ready the supplies, make lists, work on the trailer, all of those things we need to have a safe, fun week. This year, we were more prepared than most. We got everything on the list in the trailer and truck (except for extra AA batteries) and were on the road Friday by 12:30! That's a record.

We had a safe drive to Beaver, stopped at a friends house to fill up the water tank in the trailer to find the electrical wires had drug all the way from Orem to Beaver. No more lights! Fortunately, I married a handy man who knows how to take care of that. A quick trip to the local Ace Hardware and we were up and running again.

Unfortunately, when we discovered the wires we also discovered a missing plug in the water tank. An ear plug and some duck tape held that temporarily until we used enough water that it wouldn't leak after that-see I told you he was amazing!

We got up into the mountains safely, set up camp, and then came the rain...actually more rain. It had rained all the previous day and night. The roads were still in pretty good condition, so after a quick meal and a good night's sleep we got up at the crack of dawn Saturday morning, drove out to Earl's best look out point and waited, in the fog and mist, for almost two hours, to see no deer, five head of cattle, and when the fog finally drifted out, Earl's brother-in-law sitting on the next ridge over.

That's pretty much how the entire hunt went. Rain, mud, hanging out with Sheldon, and no deer! Not even one buck. We eventually saw a few does around, talked to a few other hunters who hadn't seen anything either, and the rain just kept coming. Sunday night after slipping and sliding all over the roads, we discover the leaks in the trailer--disappointing, but expected from an older, used trailer. So, Earl "called it" and we packed up and headed off the mountain with a snow storm on our heals. So 2010, not a productive hunt year. Here's to 2011! The video is just like the hunt, short and uneventful...

Small World

In my attempts to break out of my Primary world, I went to my second Relief Society activity since we moved here a year ago (I know, that needs to change). It was a short and great Visiting Teaching conference. I know so few people in the ward, I tend to gravitate to those in Primary, and then occasionally meet other sisters.

Tonight I had a great visit with a sister in the ward who has adopted three children and learned we have more in common than I thought. Then, I met a sister who's last name is Gibbons and her husband's family is from the Snowflake area and are probably decedents of the Gus Gibbons family...cool family connection.

I met anther sister from South Africa who has three children suffering with drug addiction and is a kindred "knitting" spirit. We're going to knit booties together someday, I just know it!

As I was leaving, I was telling a sister in the ward how much Earl admires her yard (she has beautiful flowers) and in talking found out she is Vania Wilkenson's aunt. Boy, we live in a small world.

Relief Society really is a divine organization. It's amazing how I can walk into a room with fifty women, feel the spirit, and come home feeling accepted by those whom before tonight I thought of as strangers.