I Love Commenters

Today I would like to dedicate my blog to commenter's. I write my blog for myself and not for others to read but having said that, every morning the first thing I do after I get into work is check to see if anyone has commented on what I said the day before. I love to read peoples comments. I don't care if they're positive or negative, I just like to see what people thought. The clear winners are Kira and Lynn. Lynn has a private blog or I would definitely have a link to her. She is the daughter of some good friends of ours in Rosemary and it so happens that she married the son of another good friend of ours in Rosemary. They now live in Calgary and are raising their own little family and I love to share in her experiences as a mother. Kira of course is our oldest and she is pretty consistent with her own little blog. They are very faithful commenter's and I only wish I could be as good as they are. Coming in third as a commenter is Lisa but lately she is pretty much up there with Kira and Lynn. Because of how much I enjoy comments I do try to make a conscientious effort to post comments on other peoples blogs but sometimes I'm just in a hurry and even though I read them I don't take the time to comment on them. Following the golden rule I will try and improve so watch for my comments. I would love to hear from the rest of you. I have no clue how many people actually read this thing.

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The town of Rosemary had quite a few resources for such a small town. They had Harry's General Store (13) where you could buy pretty much any type of groceries or household supplies that you might want plus they even had a gas pump if you were really desperate and willing to pay the higher prices. They had a bank, a little Treasury Branch (14), they had a coffee shop (15) and they had a furniture store called R W Furniture (16). We bought our kitchen table and two recliners from them. And then, of course, they had the post office(17). What more could you want in a town? We were box 57. Sherry Dyck used to work at the little post office but she finally got tired of being there every morning and one day she asked Lisa if she would want to take Saturday mornings. It worked great for us because it gave us a little extra spending money and it really didn't cut into our Saturday schedule. Our schedule had normally been a) kids get up early and watch cartoons, b) Lisa can never sleep past 8:00 so she would get up and clean up the mess the kids made and then c) I would get up around 9:00 or 10:00 and start on all the odd jobs that didn't get done during the week. The only thing that changed was that instead of cleaning up after the kids Lisa went on into work and when I got up at the same time I always did I would clean up after the kids and I started a tradition where I made pancakes every Saturday morning. By the time I had the pancakes made it was time for Lisa to come home and she would eat with us. I have many fond memories of us eating pancakes on Saturday morning (well, maybe it was closer to noon but morning to us). Once in a while I would take the kids all down to the post office to visit with mom.

Off With His Head

Fifty years ago at 3:30AM I entered into this world. That sure seems like a very long time. We decided that we would celebrate next week when Brandon and Serene are back in town. Actually, Sarah and I are going to both celebrate that day since we will be in Utah dropping off Alycia on Sarah's birthday. Knowing that we weren't celebrating today you can imagine my surprise when Lisa and Sarah walked into my office with 50 helium filled balloons. It was quite a surprise. Better yet, they brought me some lunch and we had lunch together. It was a great surprise. The balloons totally filled my office and everyone who walked by had to comment on the balloons. Pretty much everyone at work knows that I'm fifty now. Tonight some friends of ours are moving so I came home and then went over to help them move until 10:00. I then came home and Lisa had bought me a lemon meringue pie. My favorite. Ben and Sharley came by and gave me a present, the book about Henry Eyring. I can't wait to read it. I've never been bothered by a birthday before but I have to admit that it is weird to turn fifty. I don't like it.

------------------------------------------------Lisa has a welcome sign in the window by our door and you can change the decoration to match the season. The birthday cake is on it today. She also bought a sign with a big "50" on it. I like the cake. I don't like the 50.
------------------------------------------------Fifty balloons is a lot of balloons. Sarah was afraid she was going to float away. They had to tie four of the big weights on it to keep it down. They also had to put the back seats down so they would fit.
------------------------------------------------Where is Sarah???
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Sarah in our front entrance. I had no idea they were coming. Normally you can't come in without someone to escort you so Lisa had a friend of mine let them in.
--------------------------------------------Me and my baby, I can't believe my kids are all so old. I can't believe I'm so old.
--------------------------------------------Me and my sweetheart, she bought me four dozen balloons and then the big 50 balloon on top. That means she needed one more balloon to make an even fifty. Sarah talked her into getting one pink balloon (not normally my favorite color) and it could be specially from her. I like the pink balloon.
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My cubicle is full of balloons.

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Sometime after we moved to Rosemary Warren and Lynette Huber and their family moved into the ward. They moved onto their family farm out near highway36. We immediately became very good friends with them. He farmed in a big way using very modern equipment. All I remember is that he grew carrots. I'm sure he farmed other more conventional crops as well but I really remember the carrots. One year we went out to his field to pull carrots that were left behind in the dirt. Within five minutes we had pulled enough carrots out of the dirt to fill several five gallon buckets full. The carrots were monstrous. We really didn't know what to do with them all. We put a bunch of them in our root cellar and we ate a lot of carrots that year. One year Kira was very sick and she missed the ward Christmas party. It so happened that Warren was the Santa Claus that year and when he realized that Kira wasn't there he actually came over to our house after the party and gave Kira her bag of candy and went over her Christmas wish list with her. I'm sure she will never forget that wonderful act of kindness. We did a lot of things with the Hubers and probably my favorite was branding. I'll actually talk about branding in another blog, today I want to talk about chickens. We decided that between the two families we would order a hundred baby chicks. We split the cost but Warren raised them. We'd take the kids out to see them once in a while and they were very cute as little baby chicks. Not so cute when they got older. Finally the day came to slaughter them. The whole family went out there and of course the first thing you need to do is chop their heads off. When my Dad used to butcher chickens he'd just lay the head on the chopping block and "whack", off with their heads. He'd then throw the chicken on the ground and let it flop around. I remember one day one of those darned chickens got up and ran right towards me. I was convinced he was doing it on purpose. I was only four or five and it scared the living daylights out of me. We had a bit more of a controlled process. Warren had nailed two nails into a log and we would stick the chickens neck between the nails and pull. The nails were close enough that the head would not fit between them so we'd stretch out the chickens neck to give us a big target and then "whack"; off with it's head. We then held the chicken until he stopped struggling so we didn't have any wild headless chickens running around the yard. Well if any of you know Kira you can probably guess what happened when the first chicken lost it's head. She started crying and became physically sick. I know Sarah would do the same thing. So, Kira went into the house but Brandon was fascinated. He watched a few of the chickens go through the process (beheading, plucking, removal of pin feathers and then gutting) and then he decided that he wanted to try. He was old enough that I thought he might be able to handle the ax so I decided to let him try. I held the chicken and stretched out the poor creatures neck and Brandon swung the ax and "whack"; off went his beak. Brandon missed the head and cut off the poor creatures beak. I quickly grabbed the ax and put the poor guy out of his misery (the chicken not Brandon). We finished up the chickens and took our 50 chickens home but after a day of slaughtering chickens no one felt like eating them for about six months. They were big and fat chickens so when we did eat them they were very good. We spent a lot of time at the Huber's and I'm sure several of my blog entries will involve that family. They have been a major part in the lives of our family and we love them dearly.

Fire!!!

After two weeks off I am now back to work. It is really tough but you do what you have to do. Today I had a wonderful experience and a very frustrating one. The week that we had our vacation Lisa took me to a shoe store where she buys Sarah's shoes for track and cross-country. She had me tested and sized for a new pair of shoes to use for running. While I was on vacation I also took a vacation from running. It wasn't intentional but our days were so packed that when we got home I didn't have time for running and I didn't have much energy for running either. And then at Scout camp it wasn't going to happen either. Today when my Treo reminded me that it was time to go run I was tempted to skip it but I sucked it up and went and put on my new pair of shoes. That is a picture of them at the beginning of this blog. They weren't cheap but they're supposed to be good. What a wonderful experience. It was like floating on air and they are so light (compared to my old Costco specials) that I thought I was bare foot. So that was the wonderful experience, the bad one was that it was like starting all over. It is quite astonishing how out of shape you can get in two weeks. I cut my run short today and I will work my way back up to my three miles.

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As long as I can remember I've always thought it would be cool to be a fireman. After we moved to Rosemary and I learned that they had a volunteer fire department I really wanted to be a part of it. I didn't dare ask anyone until we got to know the people better. As I've mentioned before, however I'm not the most extrovertive person so it is really a good thing that I'm married to Lisa. She is the very definition of an extrovert. Once again, I can't remember everyone's names but I do remember Harold and Rick Unruh, Rudy Lepp and some Newman guy. I loved going to the meetings. We would meet at the fire hall (12) to check out the equipment and learn how everything worked and then take the fire truck out and practice with the hoses and I loved it all. The town even paid us but instead of taking the money what they did was at the end of every year the guys on the crew decided to go to a fancy restaurant in Brooks and have a big dinner and a fun time together. I loved it. And then came my first fire. It was only a small brush fire out in someones field and we put it out very quickly. I don't think it was started by any crashing hot air balloons. One night in the middle of the night the phone rang. I'm not sure why Lisa has me answer the phone at night because I don't wake up very well. We would be much better off if she answered the phone because she actually wakes up. In any case, I groggily answered the phone and the person on the phone quickly told said, "fire at someones' barn!!" (I can't remember who's) That is what she said but that is not what my brain registered. I groggily answered, "OK, thanks" and then I went back to sleep and missed the biggest fire that happened in the entire ten years that I lived in Rosemary. How said. The guys talked about that fire for months and I missed it. I wasn't there but I believe the barn was a total loss.

Scout Camp & Curling

What a great week this was. Last Sunday, right after church we loaded up the cars and headed for the mountains. Scout camp was just outside of Idylwild which is in the mountains above Palm Springs. This year we only had four scouts go so it was a real easy week for me. We'd make sure the scouts got into their classes and then it was free time for me until lunch time. We had a lot of fun. At these camps you can just pay to eat at the cafeteria so we didn't even have to worry about cooking. Saturday morning we loaded up and headed home and then I started preparing for my talk that I had to give in church today. The topic was obedience. I think I did OK. A lot of people told me I did so that always makes me feel a lot better.

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The "lake" where the kids learn canoing etc. It is full of seaweed and is quite gross to swim in.
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Flag ceremony, we did flags on Friday evening.

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When the kids get a pocket knife the first thing they do is sharpen a stick. I wanted to show them that they can do a lot more with a knife than just sharpen a stick. I took a stick and carved a heart out of it. They were all quite amazed. I'm planning on giving the heart to Sarah for her birthday. She's probably the only one of the kids who won't think it is too corny.
-----------------------------------------This is the heart that I carved out of a stick
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I took a book to read but it didn't last past Wednesday. I finished it way too soon.
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Camp Emerson has a nice pool. The weather was on the warm side so it was nice to cool off once in a while.
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Our campsite
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One scoutmaster from each troop was able to compete in a rifle competition. The highest score was a 52 and I came in fourth with a 48. We had three shots to figure out how our rifle was shooting. My gun shot about four inches high and four inches to the right. I could have done much better if I had a chance to get used to it. At least that is my excuse.
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I can't remember who it was but at one point while I lived in Rosemary someone invited me to join their curling team. I had never even dreamed of curling before but I was quite excited. I really wish I could remember who invited me but what a blast we had. I wasn't great but I wasn't bad either. Our team didn't win but we did well and gave everyone a run for their money. As I think back on it all I'm amazed at everything Rosemary has to offer. Who would have dreamed that they would have a curling rink. I'm really grateful I had that opportunity. I love it when I can tell people down here in San Diego that I curled when I lived in Rosemary.

Gopher Hunting

After church today I'm heading into the mountains for a week with my boy scouts. I'm so into this blogging thing that if I thought I would have a connection I would take my laptop with me. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. It feels like an obsession but is it bad to want to write my history and to keep a journal? I'll be back with all of you next week with lots of pictures of some 12 and 13 year old boys.
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OK, I have to make a confession about a weakness I have. A generation ago I know this wouldn't have been considered a weakness but I like to kill things. I remember when I used to car pool to Global with George Riel and I would see a gopher on the road I would try and hit it. For some reason I got a real thrill when the gopher would stand tall and motionless and I would line up my tire on the thing and "whack". A nice clean hit. It about brought George to tears when I'd do that but I couldn't help myself no matter how hard he pleaded with me. He used to tell me that I'd have to face that gopher in the next life and explain to him why it was necessary for me to take his life. I assured him that when I met that gopher I'd apologize to him. When I was young I would stick firecrackers in ant hills and throw rocks at birds. As I got older I realized that evil in my tendencies and forced myself to not kill anything that I wasn't going to eat. The only exceptions were gophers and mosquito's. I didn't figure I'd have any problem explaining to the mosquito why I needed to kill him. My rule on the road was I'd go out of my way to hit a gopher, I wouldn't dodge rabbits and cats but I wouldn't go out of my way to hit them either. I would try to safely avoid dogs and I would risk an accident to avoid a dear or cow. I tried duck hunting once but I didn't really like to eat duck so I never went again. I do love to eat moose, elk and deer so I went hunting every year. Did pretty well too. We always had meat in the freezer from the time I moved to Rosemary until we moved away. Sadly, I haven't been hunting since. My favorite activity however was gopher hunting. Lisa was a lot more willing to let me go for an afternoon of hunting if I took the kids so that is what I did. Gary Norton was more than happy if I got rid of some of his gophers so off I went with Kira and Brandon. When Kira was old enough to want to play with those cuddly little creatures I had to put the fear into her. I told her how evil gophers were because they dug holes that made the irrigation ditches leak and the cows could step into their holes and break their legs. They also ate a lot of grain and that cost the farmers money. I then warned her that if I wounded a gopher that she couldn't touch it because it would bite her. I remember one day that I was out at Gary's farm and there were gophers everywhere. I would park the van and shoot five or six and then move to another spot and shot another five or six. I was getting good enough that I would try and take out their eyeballs. Kira and Brandon were quite anxious to inspect the dead animals too. I then saw a coupe of baby gophers and took out both of them. When Kira saw them up close she got very sad and was near tears. "Why do we have to kill the babys?" she asked. I told her that the baby's would grow up to be big gophers some day. "Can't we let them grow up and then shoot them?" How do you answer that?

Vlinder

We packed a lot of stuff into one day today so even though I will try, I won't be able to do it justice. This morning we headed down to Hillcrest to see some of the historical sights that Lisa has researched. Alycia has been a working girl all of this week and so has missed out on our fun. Today being Saturday she was able to join us. Her boyfriend Craig Love also came along. Our first stop was the San Diego Deli. This restaurant has been in business continuously for over eighty years. That is quite amazing in a time when you see restaurants come and go every few years. We had lunch there and I enjoyed a very good beef dip. From there we went to see San Diego's one and only suspension bridge. Lisa read us all the history of the bridge but I've already forgotten what it was. All I know is that when Alex and I got going we had that bridge swaying pretty good. Then, just a few blocks away was a tressel bridge. Also a foot bridge. It was over a very beautiful canyon. There was a trail heading down the canyon and I so wanted to head out and see where it went but I was out voted on that one. Instead we then headed down to the bay. We saw some old antique ships and some other ships that were modern replica's of old ships. We didn't actually tour any of them because we had tickets to take the ferry over to Coronado Island so we didn't have time. I'm not sure what the point of the ferry was because they've built a nice big modern bridge that will take you to the same place for the price of the gas to drive there but the ferry ride was enjoyable and we got some pretty good views of the downtown skyline. They had a bunch of shops at the ferry terminal on Coronado. We spent some time in a Scottish store and then enjoyed a nice cold lemonade. It was a pretty hot day and a bit muggy. It sounded like a Kira day, I think Florida got to her head. It was then back to the mainland and I did manage to convince them all to go to the top of the Hyatt hotel. The view from up there is famous and although Lisa has been many times but I haven't. It was worth the trip. Right across the street from the Hyatt is the Kansas City Barbecue. This place is famous because it is where the bar scene in the movie "Top Gun" was filmed. Sadly it burned a few months ago and many priceless memorabilia were lost. Probably not priceless, but quite notable were the many bra's that woman leave hanging from the ceiling. I imagine that those will be quicly replaced. From the Kansas City barbecue it was on to Little Italy. This part of town is also famous but we've never been there either. We had planned on eating dinner at Fillipe's but when we got there the line was huge. We decided to move on and we ate a very good meal at another place that I can't remember the name of. It was spagetti and meatballs for me. We then picked up some gelato (looked a lot like ice cream to me) and then it was on home. Everyone was pretty worn out after today. Sadly it is the last day of our "Staycation" as Lisa likes to call it.

---------------------------------------left to right; Fred (me), Sarah, Lisa, Alex, Alycia, Craig
-------------------------------------The suspension bridge in Hillcrest
-------------------------------------A tressel bridge in Hillcrest
------------------------------------------The view from the Tressel bridge
---------------------------------------Some more of the views from the Tressel bridge (Sarah)
---------------------------------------------A replica sail boat. Alex has actually steered this ship during a school field trip while it was out to sea.
---------------------------------------Our Ferry
---------------------------------A couple of Aircraft Carriers that are based in San Diego
--------------------------------------Sarah and I on the bow of the ferry
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On the Ferry headed to Coronado Island
--------------------------------------The San Diego skyline from the ferry. The tall building second from the left is the Hyatt that we went to the top of.
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It's been a long day
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The view from the top of the Hyatt. The land to the left in the picture is Coronado Island.

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The Kansas City Barbecue where the bar scene in the movie Top Gun was filmed.

--------------------------------------------The sign says it all. This is Little Italy.

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Alycia and Alex behind a fountain in Little Italy. Alycia collects globes so she thought this was a pretty cool fountain.
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We were a bit naive when we decided to get ourselves a dog. They are a lot more work than we had signed up for. You picture this well behaved animal that stays outside, poops in the same place all the time and is content with the love and attention you're willing to give them. As it turns out, they poop all over the place, they want love and attention all of the time and at 2:00 in the morning they do NOT want to be outside. They also don't want to be left at home when you go on vacation. In spite of all that we grew to love Vlinder. We did eventually get her to stay out side most of the time but we had to put her on a long chain to keep her from cruising all over town. She did love to go for runs. I remember one time we were running down our street and this little white fluffy dog (11) comes running out at us yapping away. As I said, Vlinder was a Border Collie and so she had grown to a respectable size. The woman was in her yard with the little fluffy dog so I decided not to stop and harass the animal and we kept running on past the house. Well what happened next occurred so fast it took me a second to realize what had happened. Fluffy ran up to Vlinder, Vlinder snapped the little dog up in her mouth (Fluffy pretty much fit right in the mouth) and the woman in the yard cried out in anguish "Snowball". When I realized that Vlinder had Snowball in her mouth I yanked on her chain (didn't want her to swallow) and yelled at her. Vlinder spit Snowball out and we continued on running without breaking our pace. I didn't even stop to check out how Snowball was doing. One of my favorite activities was to tie the toboggan to Vlinder and have her pull the kids while we were running in the winter time. The kids were little and they didn't seem to slow Vlinder down at all. Over the years Vlinder grew up and was much more well behaved and she became a part of the family. She seemed so docile around the kids that we only ever pictured her as this very calm and easy going animal. I should have known better from the "snowball" incident. We soon found out from all of our friends that if we weren't home they couldn't even get to our back door to knock on it. She was a very protective dog and was watching out for us. Lisa also never had to worry about Arts sickly cows getting into the yard either. She didn't like Art very much or his cows. When we used to go on holidays we often left Vlinder with the Nortons on their farm or the Halls on their farm. It wasn't long before we found out that the Nortons neighbor had a pure blood Collie. What beautiful pups those were. Vlinders home was under our back porch. It was very well protected and made a good dog house. We pulled into our driveway one night and out comes Vlinder but there is a puppy half way out. We quickly brought her into the house and gave her the proper love and attention she deserved. I then decided I had better go back out and check if there were any pups under the porch. Sadly, there was one dead pup there. I don't know if it was still born or if it had died without his mothers care. In any case, we had three very healthy and beautiful pups. I no longer remember who we gave them all to but what a great experience that was for us and the kids. One time we got home from a longer vacation and when we went to collect Vlinder from the Hall's we learned that Vlinder and their dog had gone out exploring the hills one time and never came home. It was a very sad time in the Leavitt house. The interesting thing is that years later I was at work and a bunch of us were shooting the breeze talking about random things when this guy asks the rhetorical question. "If a couple of dogs were chasing my cows do you think they would ever be found if I shot them and threw them in the irrigation canal?" This guy lived just a couple of miles north-west of the Hall's so I knew right then that he had shot my dog. I never confronted him on it because first of all it had been several years and secondly, a cow is worth a lot of money and if a dog was chasing my cows I would probably shoot it too. I still never liked that guy after that. As much as I loved Vlinder I swore that we would never get another dog. I held out for a good ten years but finally I broke down in 1999 and I let Kira bring home a little Beagle who was born April 1, 1999. I had always told the kids that the city was no place for a dog. To keep them quiet I finally conceded that if they found a small dog with short hair that was free that I might consider it. I had no idea they would actually find one. Bridget is now a part of our family.

Sheldon Baxter

Today was a big day. We got the kids out of bed and headed out for breakfast burritos. Lisa found this little hole in the wall joint right on the beach so we sat on the edge of a cliff and enjoyed our burritos. We then went to the La Jolla Caves. There is this cave in La Jolla and a hundred years ago some guy got tired of climbing down the cliffs everyday to get to his boat so he dug a tunnel from the back of his cave up to the top. I guess it was very useful during the prohibition days. It was pretty cool going down the stairs and standing on the deck looking out of the cave. After the cave we went for a walk along the top of the cliffs. It is a beautiful view from up there. After we got home Lisa read up on the little hike we went on. It was an original indian path that they used to use to go hunting. In modern times it was originally called Angel's walk which is totally understandable from the "heavenly views". It is now called "La Jolla Coast Walk". We then went and rented some kayaks and signed up for a tour. Unfortunately our camera is not water proof and so we wisely chose not to take the camera with us. There for we have no pictures of our kayaking adventures. Kayaking was a blast right from the start. Lisa and I hoped in our kayak and paddled into the waves. We had a pretty good surf today so Lisa freaked when she saw this huge wave bearing down on us. Lester and I had a kayak in Waterton and even though the waves in Waterton were nothing like the surf we get here I learned early that you wanted to take big waves straight on. Lisa and I managed keep the kayak heading into the waves and after a few exhilarating moments we were out in the open water. Ironically the tour we had took us right back to the very cave we had been in. As we were paddling along the base of the cliffs (the very cliffs that we had been on top of an hour earlier) they pointed out Dr Suiss' house, some Garibaldi (California's state fish) and we even saw some Leopard Sharks. The guides also told us that the city of San Diego sent a notice to the owners of all the houses along the cliffs edge and told them that within a hundred years every one of the houses would fall into the sea. They even pointed out where a house had been that fell into the sea just last February. These houses must sell for ten or twenty million dollars. Coming back from the tour was even more exiting that starting. You got to ride the surf in and as best as I could tell Lisa and I were the only ones who didn't swamp our kayak. We then headed home and bought our traditional ice cream cone. Sarah had to go running with her cross-country team and today they ran along the Torrey Pines beach. Since I had to drive her there I decided to take my boogie board and catch some waves while I was waiting. As I said, they were great waves today.
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Lisa and I fit right into the Rosemary ward and we felt perfectly at home. I heard it said one time that the Mormons are the only people that celebrate the eighteen month birthday. That is because you can't put your kid into nursery until they are eighteen months old. Until that time you get to decide which of the parents gets to take the kids with them so both parents are quite happy when the kids turns eighteen months old. The room where the nursery was had a vent in the bottom of the door and poor Kira would sit on the floor in front of the nursery room door trying to see through the vent into the room. I thought it was funny because most kids hate to go to nursery and the parents sometimes even have to go in with the kids until they get used to it. We did not have that problem with Kira, she wanted in there right from the start. Until then however I drew the Priesthood meeting shift. Priesthood was the last meeting of the day so by then everyone was tired and cranky. I would just sit Kira on the floor and let her do her thing. Kira was content to just mind her own business but all of the sudden she started crying. I looked over at her and there was this other kid about the same age as her, hitting her. His dad would make him stop but every time we let our guard down this kid was over there again harassing Kira. The kids name was Sheldon Baxter and he really never did leave Kira alone. They stayed very good friends the whole time we were there and even after we moved. They are still good friends today.