Springtime in the High Uintas

When we left the Salt Lake Valley three weeks ago the temperatures were getting up to the hundreds, but here at Hinckley Scout Ranch it was spring-time.  While the lilacs in the valley had bloomed and died a month earlier, we saw houses in Wyoming with their lilacs in full bloom just last week.

This blue flower is one of the first varieties I noticed; the blossom is shaped a lot like a columbine flower.

Here’s how second spring was for the Norths:  When we went outside at 7:30 for breakfast each morning it was cooooold!  We'd  bundle up in a jacket or two and then shiver through the first meal of the day before we went to work.  Inside the commissary it felt good to warm up in the balmy fifty-degree vegetable refrigerator.  But after an hour or so it was perfect weather (outside—not in the refrigerator!).  And a couple nights ago we did finally get a little rain that tamed the dust around here for a day or two. Yay!

The biggest of these baby daisies is about  3/4-inch in diameter.  The ferns in this natural flower arrangement are probably yarrow.

But the best part of spring in the mountains has been the huge variety of flowers that are blooming right now, and have been since we got here.  Blues, purples, whites, pinks, yellows and reds . . .  At first I wanted to take pictures of every different flower I saw, but there are way too many—I feel like there’s a new one every day.  Even the dandelions looked pretty here when they were in full bloom!

The girls and I have been calling these flowers sweet-peas because of the curling, twining tendrils the plant has and because, in our minds, the flowers look like pea flowers.  Do they? 

We first saw these fuschia-colored blossoms right outside our cabin.  They almost look like carnations, but they open up into a globe of little, individual flowers.  The blue flowers in the front right corner grow on tall stems and come in blue, pink, and white.

The leaves of the flowers on the left make me think of Oregon Grape.

I've seen these flowers in purple, pink and white.



The Indian Paintbrush started blooming about a week ago.  There's another flower that I thought was also Indian Paintbrush, but on closer inspection I discovered that it was a totally different, more pink than red flower.

 

I thought this flower was really interesting; it has lots of little blossoms with these spiky-looking centers. From a distance it kind of looks like a bottle brush.

 

Even the dandelions—which were blooming in abundance when we arrived—look pretty here.

Last week we saw wild roses blooming. And we’ve also found lots of strawberries blooming all over the place, and some raspberry bushes, too!  The girls have been watering the strawberries that are growing just outside our cabin in hopes that the berries will get bigger than my fingernail. :-)

Yep. The little white flowers are strawberries!

I’m thinking I’d like to landscape my yard just like this mountain, with wildflowers (or just random perrenials) covering the ground and some quakies and pines scattered throughout—maybe even a dead, fallen tree-stump or two just for effect. Especially if it would take care of itself like the mountain does. ;-)

But now summer is coming—yes, even on the mountain top.  All the snow is melted and it is a scorching 80 to 90 degrees; it's hot enough to keep me awake at night if I forget to open the cabin window.  I hear it's super hot in the valley—we're expecting 106 when we go home Saturday.  Bleh. So I do love the weather here and I love the plants. If you look to nature and not the dirty old roads, it is quite lovely. Quite lovely.

Birthday Weekend

Tonight we celebrated Lindsey’s and Rachel’s birthdays!  Lindsey turned seventeen yesterday (June 21), and Rachel turned eleven today. 

My first celebration was when most of the staff went home around 11:00 a.m.  I like the staff—those few I've met—but now it would be Totally Family Time! Yay!  The archery director stayed at camp for the weekend, too, and she invited Kaylie, Rachel, and Jessica to go down and shoot this afternoon. So all the kids but Michael and Lindsey went down to do some archery.  (Jason says that wearing his Robin Hood hat did not make him a better archer. :-) )  Bruce had a little work to take care of and I wanted to get the cabin cleaned up and then we were going to go down and take pictures of the kids shooting, but by the time we were ready, they all came back home. We are not very good at the photo opportunity thing. Maybe another day.

Brandon hikes up to our cabin.
The older kids,  from Ryan and up, sleep in camp tents.

By the time they’d hiked back home the kids were ready for a rest so Bruce and I went to take a little walk around Frontier Lake by ourselves.  That was nice.  Probably the most time I’ve spent with my husband—bar sleeping—all month.

When they heard Bruce and me coming this little family of geese thought they'd better jump in the lake and go for a swim.

For dinner we raided the staff refrigerator and brought home pasta, meatballs, and some steamed veggies.  (This commissary lady stocks frozen veggies—like broccoli—and not just canned green beans. Yum!)  I made some sauce with stuff that we had brought up to camp, tossed in the pasta and meatballs and we had a much more delicious dinner than we’ve had in a while.  We went out to walk off our dinner a little and found wild raspberries growing near the lake (Frontier Lake—there’s more than one little lake here.)  It was fun to be with all of my family, and  for more than two minutes at a time. :-)  We sang and played and just had fun with each other. 

Back at the cabin we played a game of Boutros Boutros Gali (I have no idea if that’s how you spell that name). We sang “Happy Birthday” twice—once for Lindsey and once for Rachel.  They opened their presents, and we had birthday pie. I just bought frozen pies to thaw and serve here—don’t really have stuff for baking.  But they were all right; key lime for Lindsey and Rachel chose Cookies and Cream (which tasted like Oreos mixed in whipped cream).

Lindsey is pretty excited about
her birthday present . . .





Rachel appreciated the aluminum-foil wrapping paper and Hershey's Kiss bow (which was stuck on with a drop of honey).  She appreciated the playing cards and crayons that were wrapped inside it, too.

It was a nice, relaxing day.  I really enjoyed just spending time with my family. 

Sundays

For the past two Sundays we attended church at the Hilliard Ward in Wyoming.  When we left home we didn't think we'd be able to go to church at all on the weekends we'd be staying at camp.  Consequently I didn't pack any skirts or dresses for the girls or myself.  Then we found out that we could go to church only thirty miles from here.  We were assured that in the Hilliard Ward they were used to visitors attending in casual wear throughout the summer months.  Nevertheless I was a little uneasy about the clothes situation.  I've been taught my whole life that wearing your Sunday best--a nice dress for ladies or a suit (or at least a dress shirt and tie)--showed your respect for God, and I have always tried to dress my best for church. The menfolk did all right because they could wear their class A uniforms to church; while it's not their usual Sunday, go-to-church attire it at least looks like they tried to dress up.  You know, uniforms are always classy.  Scout uniforms maybe a little less so, but still . . .

Lindsey also had her class A uniform--which seemed a little stranger church wear for a girl, but at least it still looked like she tried tried her best. But the younger girls and I had only T-shirts, jeans, and sneakers to wear.   It was completely true that the ward members didn't mind; they greeted us warmly, shook our hands, welcomed us, and didn't even bat an eye at our clothing.  I was still a little uncomfortable though. The worst part was my big, clunky shoes; well maybe they tied with my blue jeans.  I just wanted to sit in the very back and tuck my feet under my chair.  But, as I said, the ward members were really nice and didn't appear to notice our clothes (or clunky shoes) at all.  When I expressed my discomfort to one of the ladies who had introduced herself to me she said, "Honey, this is Hilliard Ward!"  :-)

We had to go to Wyoming to go to church!

A lot of the men in the ward were wearing felted wool vests instead of suit-coats, bolo ties, and cowboy boots.  They looked very nice, but it's not a look I've seen often outside of TV.  And when a young man made a comment in Sunday School and mentioned that he'd been "riding horses and pushing cows" it was evident that we were not in Salt Lake City any more!

So, anyway, church was nice. Better the second week than the first, because I was a little more accustomed to the idea of my very casual wear at Sacrament Meeting. At least our clothes were clean.  Yes, despite the dust and dirt that pervades the camp, our clothes were clean.  We have access to a washer and dryer up here!  That's one for HSR over Steiner. It was a nightmare last year trying to wash a week's worth of laundry for ten people and have it packed back into the van and ready to go in less than twenty-four hours every weekend.


And here we are on our way back from church.
(We had another staffer friend with us—she took the pics.)

On our way to church the first week here a big moose crossed the road right in front of our van!  It made me wish that I always had my camera in hand and ready to shoot.  Sadly, my camera battery died yesterday afternoon; I wanted to bring the battery-charger up here because I knew we'd have electricity, but in the craziness of cleaning house and packing, the silly thing completely disappeared. :-(  It turns out that my memory card will fit into Michael's camera, so I may just have to commandeer that.  I do have a little guilt over that thought, though.

Yesterday, after a fairly quiet Sunday ,and a tiny little Father's Day celebration of our own, it was kind of disappointing to have the whole staff show up again in the evening.  Yeah, that's what we are here for; it isn't really paid vacation.  But it was still kind of a let-down.  Today went pretty well though.  I think Courtney (my supervisor) and I are learning to understand each other--not that we've ever disliked each other or anything.  Just getting to know and work with new people, you know.  I will do well enough here; I will do well enough.  

Until Later . . .

It is too hard to post blogs from here.  The next ones will come when we get home for the weekend.

By the way, the food truck arrived Saturday morning.  At least it came. :-)

First Impressions



Bruce strikes a manly pose at the very top of our mountain. :-)

 So here we are at Hinckley Scout Ranch. I'm not really sure what I think, but I know what my first impression is:  I liked Steiner better.  

HSR is about thirty miles north around the mountain from Steiner, and about 1000 feet lower in elevation.  You can get here by driving up past Evanston, Wyoming, but Google maps says it is a shorter drive to go through Kamas—the same way we drove to Steiner last summer—so we came that way.  I fell asleep on the drive and woke up just in time to see the road into Kamas; it was just like driving home, it was so familiar!  The winding road up the mountain wasn't scary at all except for the really curvy part at the very top of the mountain where Bruce kept going 50 to 60 miles per hour and I thought he should be going 35 at the most.

Up at Steiner it was too cold for any deciduous trees to grow; here at HSR we have quakies.  It is springtime here and about ten to fifteen—maybe even twenty—degrees cooler than it is in the Salt Lake Valley.  We got here just in time to avoid the first big heat wave of summer (I heard it was already up to 99 degrees in Salt Lake by the time we left last Friday).  There are lots of little flowers blooming—tons of dandelions—and we found strawberry plants in few spots too.  Some of the strawberries are flowering, so the girls are pretty excited to see some strawberries grow.  So is Jason, who is supposed to teach mountain-man skills. (Stephen says that really Jason's job is just to make sure the scouts have fun for three hours; Jason is afraid he’s gotten a summer babysitting job.)



looking in at the front door of our cabin

 We have a really nice cabin. The front living area--living room and kitchenette--are as big as our whole cabin at Steiner was.  We have electricity and even some (very limited) internet access.  The living room has a little couch/hide-a-bed and a recliner, and the kitchenette has a table with four chairs, an electric range and a sink with running water.  (There were three TVs in our cabin--one of the first things we did was shove them into the closets.)  We have two bedrooms--one with a queen-size bed, two dressers and a closet, and another with bunk beds, a dresser and a closet.   Best of all is a bathroom with our own shower  and a flushing toilet! :-)

The two doors behind Michael are the bedrooms.  The door at his left is the bathroom—complete with shower and flushing toilet! :-)

In spite of all the niceties, I think we are losing some of the charm of last summer's camp at Steiner.  Here it is not really like camping at all—not that I am a big camper by any means.  But I didn't mind our rustic little, cramped, broken-down cabin with chipmunks occasionally running through it—although it is super nice that  Bruce and I don't have to share a room with any of our kids!  And I didn't mind being without electricity—as long as I could use my generator for some early-morning light in the kitchen.

But the biggest bummer is that Hinckley is so big!  The BSA took several camps here at East Fork of the Bear and made them into the new, huge Hinckley Scout Ranch.  Stephen's  job is to make it look super-awesome and attractive to scout troops, and I guess we are here to help.  I am working in the commissary, not cooking, which is OK with me because I would have had to cook for about 300 to 400 people a week here once the scouts start coming. Stephen says I will have lots more free time this summer than I did as the cook at Steiner.  But I liked being the cook there; I was always in the middle of things, it was easy to hike to any of my family's areas and visit them, and I enjoyed my staff-family of fifty or so people; I knew all their names and I think they all liked me too.  I have the feeling that here I will be on my own a lot.

I was dismayed this morning when, at our first staff breakfast, they divided us into patrols, told us that we had to eat all our meals with our patrols, and then found out that Bruce and I were put into different patrols.  I can't eat with my husband?  Not cool!  I talked to Courtney (my supervisor) about it, and she said that the patrols for her and for me were "kind of optional."  I hope so.  Bruce said he was eating with his wife. Period. :-) 

So my first impression is that this camp is pretty, but not as pretty as Steiner. I might end up being bored or frustrated with my job, I probably won't get to know the staff very well just because of the camp size and the particular area I work in, and I won't see a lot of my family.  Only time will tell how it will really be.  Wish me luck!

Alas, Poor Abbi!

There were lots of teary eyes, but we did it.  We took Abbi to the Humane Society.

It has been a long debate—what to do with the cat.  She's been in our home for eleven years—almost as long as Kaylie, and longer

                                                         than Rachel and Jessica.

Ryan,  just barely two years old, is petting the new kitten.

We hated to send her off, not knowing just what would happen to her, but she's been using our carpets and our laundry as her litter-box for a long time, and we hated to have her wrecking the house.  We offered her to give her to other people—we almost had a bite from one of Jessica's friends—but who wants an old cat that potties on the carpet?

For two months now every time I made up my mind to just take her away I would feel bad about it; it seemed heartless on several levels and I just couldn't do it.  Then, this week as we've been deep-cleaning the house and finding dried up cat stuff in the laundry hamper and smelling the carpet as we pulled it up it became much less difficult to harden my heart against her.  But then when I was sitting quietly she would come around and be snuggly and cute . . .

Abbi preferred to drink from the running faucet.  For a long time she had us trained to go in and turn on the water for her.

It was our fast-arriving summer employment that determined the question:  We simply couldn't go away and leave her in the house and hope that she might use the litter-box on the days we were gone. For a week at a time? She would have to go. :-(

So Bruce, Jason, Lindsey and Ryan took her to the Humane Society while the rest of us—yes, even I!—stayed behind all teary-eyed.  Bruce said they were all crying at the Humane Society, too, while they filled out the paperwork for her.

I believe that Abbi would use a litter-box if it was in a convenient spot for her and if there was no precedent of cat-smell making her think that the carpet was an appropriate place to go.  I truly hope that some nice person who would love a mellow cat to sit on their lap will adopt her.

So our talkative kitty is gone.  I don't think I want another pet, but already I find myself thinking we could get another dog or cat . . .

Summer Begins . . .

Did I tell you that we are all working at scout camp again this summer?  We hadn't intended to—we were hoping that Bruce would find a full-time job (instead of substitute teaching) before summer.  But then along in April some time, after a couple of discouraging "Thank you, but no's," he suddenly felt like scout camp would be the thing to do.  So he contacted Stephen Eborn—last year's camp director at Steiner—and said that he and I would like to work with him again.  Stephen is running Hinckley Scout Ranch this year; our older kids had already applied and gotten jobs with him for this summer, and he was happy to give Bruce and me some jobs too. Hinckley is about thirty miles down and around the mountain from Steiner. So Bruce will be a rifle-range instructor and I will be . . . are you ready for this? . . the person who orders and delivers commissary to Steiner.  Yes, I get to be the one who tells the Steiner cook—the infamous LeDawn—that she must take five cases of bananas a week. ;-)

Well, in preparation for camp (we leave this Friday—the day after school gets out) I decided that the house had to be clean.  Amazingly clean.  We left it in kind of a mess last year.  So I've been putting on my bossy mom hat every day—and forcing Bruce to put on his bossy dad hat—and making kids clean their rooms, do their chores, wash "extra" laundry, etc. I, myself, spent hours yesterday cleaning the kitchen. 

As if deep-cleaning the house, preparing and having an Eagle court of honor, holding a couple of bake sales, getting through the last weeks of school, and running around for medical exams—both for scouts and for missions—were not enough, on Monday morning the city delivered great big trash bins to our neighborhood (three on our street!).  They do this periodically and, apparently, totally randomly—we never know when they will show up. So we started overhauling our yard, too.  We got rid of an old couch and some nasty old carpet that was on our back deck; we got rid of the wood pile (wood disaster) that was overgrown with weeds and infested with bugs and snails; we pulled weeds (there's lots more of that to do!); and we cleaned the garage.

This was about six weeks ago, when they were planting peas.  You can see the verdant jungle growing all around them already, and the wood pile behind them.

The sun beams down on my men cleaning up the yard.

Wow! Look at that!  Still some weeding to do, but so much better!

The girls weed out the front flower beds.

Then we got rid of the living room carpet.  Yes, we did.  We can't afford to replace it yet—probably can't until tax returns next year (and then no carpet. Anything but carpet!).  It was disgusting before the cat had at it; now it is intolerable.  I mean, it always used to be that when people came over they'd say that my house smells great; now I'm afraid they will walk in the door and vomit in their mouths. (You can't ever get rid of cat smell, although now we may get rid of the cat.)

before

Jessica is shocked by the mess that was inside the couch.

Need I say more?

Bruce is the man! He'll get the job done even if he has to use a broken shovel (it broke doing the yard work Monday night).

The shovel is for getting the glued carpet pad off of the floor.

In the process of getting the living room ready for carpet removal we had to take the couches out.  When we tipped them so they'd fit through the door we heard a very jangly-clanky sound.  So we pulled off a bit of the webbing from under the couches and, in addition to random junk, we found: a candy-cane (eeeww!), a long-lost Wii-mote, a DVD remote control, a spoon, some pencils and scissors, an MP3 player, and Michael's camera that's been missing since Christmas of 2011. No money though.  When we had a look at our couches in broad daylight we decided to get rid of them too. (OK. They were ugly in the dark of night, too.)

There they go . . .

. . . and there goes couch number one. The second one followed soon after.

This is what our living room looks like now.

And this. Niiice floor! ;-)

So, anyway, we've been really busy.  Hopefully the house and yard will be finito by this afternoon. Then tomorrow we will pack up our stuff, and Friday morning we will be headed up to the mountains.  And then we will have a restful summer. ;-) Yay!

Jason's Eagle

Jason earned his Eagle Scout award!  Yay!!

After two weeks of preparation, we had his court of honor last night. It was short and sweet—the way Jason wanted it; but it was nice too.

This is the invitation we sent out to friends and family:


I had actually designed several for him to choose from.  I kind of liked this one:

And Michael favored this one:

But it is a once in a lifetime occasion—and a nice one at that, so we behaved ourselves and sent out Jason's choice—the majestic-looking eagle invitation. :-)

Bruce and I spent a lot of time last week making a little slideshow of Jason to show at the court.  It was lots of fun for us to look through all the photos of him from when he was a baby until now.  I had also asked friends for any scout-type pics they might have of him, and I got to use this really cool picture  from one of last year's Steiner staff members:

This picture was taken when Jason was working on his Ranger award with the climbing staff last summer.

We—I spent all day Saturday making eclairs and cream puffs for treats.  And then the court was last night (June 2) and this time we remembered to take the camera and take pictures.


Alan Dexter pins on Jason's Eagle award as Bruce and I look on.
(By the way, I love that Jason wore his Robin Hood hat to his ceremony.)



Jason chose to award Isaac Azevedo and Brian Bennett with mentor pins.

Our friend, Christine Western, makes balloon designs as a business.  She gave Jason this cool eagle balloon as a gift! :-)

Lots of people told me the ceremony was really nice; I was kind of frazzled from all the preparation so it's hard for me to say.  But I do know it was really great to see him get his Eagle award.  And they mentioned his Ranger award too—apparently it is more rare for a boy to earn that than to earn his Eagle.

So yay! I am very proud of Jason!