Family Events and Europe is ON

As parts of the nation suffer from extreme weather we continue to have unusually cool and wet weather. There was snow on the yard just yesterday morning and low temperatures still hoover around freezing with highs rarely reaching 70 degrees.

After prolonged negotiations Dad and Dave have accepted an offer to contract with ON Semiconductor in Oudenaarde, Belgium during July, August and September. They will assist with work on expansion of the factory automation system they developed and installed there while working for AMI before it was acquired by ON. We plan to travel around some in Europe while there with some weekend trips and possibly a more extensive tour at the end of summer before returning home. I look forward to learning about other cultures and languages and the time Laurene and I can spend together exploring the area immediately around Oudenaarde while the guys are working.

This past week we visited with our three kids and their families in Northern Utah. Last Saturday we went to the final performance of "Les Miserables" performed by Merit Academy High School in Springville. LaRinda and Trevor's kids, Brendyn and Kaylie as well as their Danish foreign exchange student, Josie, had multiple parts in the play. This performance was spectacular! The kids all put so much emotion and intensity into their parts. The costumes and props were most impressive as we compare this performance to the austere presentation of "Cinderella" at the school just a couple of years ago.

Brendyn, Kaylie and Josie



Most of Cast with Drama Teacher on Floor in Front

Then the following Wednesday we attended the graduation from Payson High School of Leon and Nicole's daughter, Kendra at the UVU special events center in Provo. We are especially proud of Kendra as she was one of just four students in her class to complete high school with a perfect 4.0 GPA.



Brendon, Chrissy, Kendra and Leon

The preceding Monday evening we attended a party for her at the Maple Dell Boy Scout Camp a few miles up the canyon East of Payson. Kendra's step father, David, is a scout executive responsible for this facility. It was a nice setting in the mountains with a lake just outside the hall where we met.

Kitchen Help

 

Kids Goofing Off

In the time between events we spent time with each family. At Laurie and Evan's we got to go to a special treat and movie with Mckinsie's class at school. It was fun and Dad got assigned by the teacher to pick the order the kids could come up to be served ice cream prior to watching the movie on "kid" safety.

Now that the creek flow has dropped a little we see that the pond is now completely filled with gravel after Dad completely dredged out all the mud and sticks earlier this spring. Thanks Mother Nature for the added exercise! Along with house and yard work we continue to enjoy having little Taylor to brighten our lives a couple of days each week.

Heavy Lifting Back Home and Old Man Winter Lingers Still

This past two weeks were busy and physically demanding after the relative leisure of our winter away from home. The weather, except for a few days, continues to feel almost like winter. At this writing it is snowing heavily as it has done all day and beginning to accumulate. During the few dry days we put in many hours recovering our property from the ravages of winter. Little furry critters love to shred our beautiful lawn under the cover of snow every winter but this was the worst we have seen by far.

All the dead turf had to be raked off and nest holes filled. Every spring there is also a major cleanup of willow branches and twigs that have to be raked up from the property along the creek and burned. The pond as usual had filled to the brim with mud and willow branches which had to be dredged out by hand. All this was finished just before it began dumping rain and snow again for three straight days now. The creek is running at levels we have not seen since building here twelve years ago although Dad says we have seen nothing compared to several summer flash floods his family lived through on this property in the 1950's that saw the entire valley floor knee deep in flood waters. For those who have seen the quite pond and tiny clear stream that normally flows check out the following. In the second picture a 10" culvert through the dam is running at capacity but hidden by the flow over the dam.

In addition to yard work we have had the pleasure of babysitting Lance and Aubri's little Taylor several days as well as celebrating her second birthday on May 5th.

Then there have been major car repairs to our little blue Elantra. Two were an eventual consequence of inadequate protection from pelting gravel to both the radiator and air conditioning condenser while being towed, primarily during our Alaska trip in 2009. A recommended timing belt change whose failure would destroy the engine was also done. A big surprise upon returning was an offer from Dad's old employer to go to Belgium with Dave Gardner for up to three months to work on a fab automation project with which they are intimately familiar. There are many considerations but a major condition was that the company would also pay the way for Laurene and I to accompany them. We don't know if all conditions will be accepted and are awaiting the outcome of negotiations at this time. We hope to hear by the end of this week so that we can make plans to either leave the first of July for Europe or get on with summer plans at home. Finally, I had a wonderful Mother's Day, receiving gifts, visits, cards and/or phone calls from each of our dear children after very inspirational Sunday meetings to honor mothers.

Home, Sweet Home But What Happened to Springtime in the Rockies?

We spent a day or an evening with each of our three Northern Utah families (Laurie & Evan Ockey, LaRinda & Trevor O'Donnal and Leon & Chrissy Lewis) sharing experiences, pictures and lots of hugs. Upon returning home we found things mostly in order on the home front. Within a couple days we had visits with our Southern Idaho families (Lance & Aubri Lewis and Leslie and Matt McKnight) and likewise enjoyed the reunions. We miss not being able to personally visit Lindsy and Ben Hartsock who live in Chicago but we have spent considerable time on Skype keeping in touch. The weather here in Inkom has shown that Old Man Winter is not yet about to give up. It has been raining, snowing and unseasonably cold most every day since we returned with more expected in the foreseeable future and below freezing temperatures every night.

We have not gotten all the work of being gone caught up but are still working on it. We did get our walk in today. It was cool but very invigorating. We got the two beautiful paintings given us by our Arkansas artist friends, the Bramwells, hung today (on left).

The sand painting we bought at the Four Corners needs to be framed to be hung. As a closing note, I don't know why but the days seem to be longer here. Maybe it's because I don't keep busy enough. It seemed we were on the go doing something new every day during our winter trip. But as soon as the weather warms up there will be plenty to do. The mice did a real number on our lawn through the winter, there are many willow branches blown down to rake up on the property every spring and the creek is running very high. The pond is completely filled with silt that will have to be dredged out before we can get our sprinkling system running.

Heading For Home

Sun Apr 17
We left Gallup early this morning and logged nearly five hundred miles on a windy day to arrive at our daughter, Laurie and Evan's home in Springville, Utah by early evening. We passed several abrupt rock formations protruding from an otherwise flat desert floor.

Our only side trip was to stop at the four corners monument where the four states of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah share a common boundary. This monument is entirely surrounded by Indian lands and is run by the local people. Rows of commercial booths where locals sell Indian art, jewelry, etc., one in each state, surround the marker.

"X" Marks the Spot

Standing in Four States at Once

We took pictures, bought Indian fry bread from a very cute little girl and her Mom,

and bought a beautiful sand painting representing each of the four states.

The older gentleman who sold us the painting was named Frank Austin or Bahah Zhonie as his Navajo name.

We talked with him some and found him to have an interesting background, with a college education, as a professional clothing silk screen designer and artist. Soon we could see snow-capped mountains in the distance.

We then passed through the beautiful Canyonlands area, the red sandstone rock and cliffs around Moab and Arches National Park and over Soldier Summit at 7500 feet elevation with plenty of snow still on the ground along the highway. In Springville it was quite cool and overcast but it felt good to be back with family close to home.

Chaco Culture National Historic Park

Sat Apr 16
We hope you don't get bored with another lengthy post. We got an early start to the Chaco Culture National Historic Park in Chaco Canyon

Visitor Center

this morning with an anticipated three-hour trip each way. We returned about dusk and had a most fulfilling day in spite of some difficult travel. The southern approach we took from Gallup was 98 miles each way, the last twenty miles of which was unimproved road that was a challenge for Little Blue. A high-clearance vehicle would have been better suited. There were ruts all along the way, stretches of serious washboard and frequent rocky sections that we had to crawl and pick our way over to avoid undercarriage damage but we made it both ways without incident. It was amazing that after all this the roads within the park were paved! From articles we read there is great resistance by environmentalists to paving that section of access road to discourage high volume visitation. But for those that brave it you cannot imagine what an incredible experience it is to visit the home of these amazing peoples from the distant past who left so few clues regarding their culture. But what we do know makes one wonder how they gained their apparent knowledge, as with other ancient cultures down through Central America, of the times and seasons of the sun and moon. It is known that the Chacoan people traded with peoples as much as two-thousand miles to the South. The ruins we visited were built over a period of three centuries beginning around 800 AD. The largest ruin and where we spent most of our time was in the D-shaped Pueblo Bonito.

The straight outside wall is precisely aligned to the sun's movement North and South (no shadow at noon day).

Ranger-guided tours were available but booklets at trail heads with maps and interesting, detailed descriptions corresponding to numbered markers along the route made self-guided tours possible. It was also easier on self-guided tours to get pictures with fewer people in them.

As Pueblo Bonito evolved it eventually towered four to five stories high and contained over six hundred rooms and forty kivas. The ancient architects designed high multi-story walls with massive bases that tapered toward the top.

These larger complexes are referred to as "great houses." Ceremonial round kivas that supported two to three hundred people are likewise referred to as "great kivas."

Eras of construction can be identified by the patterns of rock and mortar in the walls as shown in order from the earliest to the latest top to bottom.

Additions can be identified by walls that butt up against

rather than being integrated into the wall they meet.

While these people were not cliff dwellers they did build structures that were tied into cliffs. Rows of holes in some places show where supporting roof beams were embedded in the cliff walls.

A trail between the great house Chetro Ketl and Pueblo Bonito displayed several examples of petroglyphs in the cliff walls.

The climax to our visit was a two-mile round trip hike that climbed the two hundred plus foot high canyon wall through a steep, rocky, very narrow pass to the canyon rim

where we first had a look down on the Kin Kletso ruin

and then continued to the  Pueblo Bonito overlook.

This provided an "aerial" view of this ruin and it was awesome!

Gallup, New Mexico (Indian Country and Route 66)

Fri Apr 15
This morning after a below freezing night outside we returned to the Gallup Cultural Center to see what we missed yesterday.

There were many beautiful displays of Indian culture and art


Hand Woven Blankets Using Hand Spun Wool Yarn (prices to buy one were up to $3000)



Incredibly Detailed Sand Paintings (using plants, berries and minerals to create colors)

 

Kachina Dolls (each had a unique ceremonial purpose)



Beautiful Sculpture Painted by Various Artists



Painting

but the thing that caught our attention was a film on the Chaco Canyon Ruins. A lot was told and explained about them including a complex road system between ruins and "great houses" that could be up to five stories high and contain hundreds of rooms and kivas. But the most fascinating was how the alignment of many building walls and a spiral petroglyph found near the top of a butte relate to shadows and beams of light cast by the sun and the moon. These ancient Chacoan peoples even went so far as to track the eighteen year cycle of the moon as it moves slightly more North or South over nine year periods. We then visited Red Rock Park a few miles East of Gallup. Besides the museum it was apparent that this park was primarily designed to support tribal rodeos. However, all rodeo facilities and the arena currently had restricted access.

They also had a very interesting museum, again on Indian culture and art which we enjoyed thoroughly.

Upon returning to town along historic Route 66 we stopped at the El Rancho Hotel. This working restored historic landmark from sixty-plus years ago is found along that famous highway in Gallup.

The interior was most beautiful with polished rough-hewn wood railings on the circular staircases and around the upper level above the lobby.

There were literally hundreds of autographed pictures of Hollywood celebrities, movie stars and even US presidents from the past who had visited hanging on all the upper level walls. As we have just finished watching a couple of John Wayne movies we took a picture of the section with his picture.

We then returned to camp to prepare for a trip to Chaco Culture National Historic Park tomorrow. We have some concerns as it is nearly 100 miles with 20 miles of dirt and gravel road each way that is not maintained. Hopefully it will be worth it.