The final week-end of campers was cancelled due to the cancellation of all church gatherings.

That allowed Nancy and I to finish our assignments last Friday 3/13, 2 days earlier than planned. On that Friday winter decided to return and camp rec’d 6 inches of new snow. I had to shovel out the bed of the truck before I could load the crates Nancy had filled.

We loaded our truck with all our winter clothes and anything else that would just clutter or not fit in the limited space in our rv trailer. By only stopping for fuel and 1 drive thru burger we made it to Camarillo in a little less than 12 hours. The desert was beautiful due to the late rain.

Photo opportunity…

Us and a couple of the other oldies
We were also asked to do a special project for the camp. We snowshoesd about 30 yards from the road and cut down the only large dead aspen tree we could find. Later with help from others we pulled it out of the snow and with the skid steer placed it on the supports.

We only needed 25 slices but I got carried away.Nancy and I love the beauty and individuality of each slice.

It is nice to be home but anxiously awaiting the time when we can return to the mountain and begin serving again. The most recent communication indicates we may need to be back by May 8th. In the mean time the babies and the cats all have a place on my lap.

Happy New Year to everyone!

It has been a while since my last post but as the title of this post implies, every day & week seems a repeat just like in the movie.

Quite often on Mon and Tues, we would shovel snow to get ready for week-end campers. Wednesday is P-day. If it snows again, Thurs we would move more snow, then Fri & Sat we get to host campers who come to enjoy the snow! Hosting the campers who may be YM or YW groups, youth conferences or family groups is the highlight of our week. We enjoy serving them and associating with them and have even had the opportunity to give presentations to a few of them.

Of course, most weekday mornings we have pickleball for the men and yoga/jazzercise for the women. Then we have devotionals and leadership training. We are also developing a powerpoint presentation to show in our April Training when all the summer missionaries arrive. We are busy.

We’re getting lots of exercise and trying to stay physically fit, usually eating just 2 meals a day.

We’ve adjusted to the snow and cold and the beauty of this season, but we look forward to spring with green grass and budding trees.

The ground hogs here definitely saw their shadow. So 6 more weeks of winter. ???

It always amazes me how much work it is for these youth leaders to prepare, arrive with their group usually after dark on Friday, feed them dinner and breakfast, have devotionals with them and give them plenty of time for sledding. They then load up and are gone by noon on Saturday.

I wish I had a picture to show you of our roads covered with sledders all wearing the required head lamp so they can be seen. On Friday nights we usually have about 750 guests and most of them sled.

Guests who come in the winter can only park in our large lots. We then transport them and their gear in our buggies and trailers. It usually takes several buggy trips to get the entire group to their camp. They don’t always arrive and leave at the same time. Every Fri. PM and all day Saturday we spend a lot of time transporting.

I had a birthday here. We treated everyone here to Costco chicken pie, salad, sour dough bread and Nancy’s home made tarts. Two pies served 18 people. It was a great birthday. No one let me forget the day. That evening we all went to the Ice Castles in Midway.

Here it is Feb 23rd and we are seeing our first warm weather since early November. Skies are sunny and day time temps are rising to the 40’s. Night is still in the teens. When we go off road we still need snowshoes.

The camp is closed for the winter beginning in mid March so we hope to return to Camarillo for a couple of weeks. We have to be back here at camp around the 1st of April. We hope you are all doing well and maybe we will be able to visit some of you during our break.

Since our arrival back here in camp I will share some of our activities. A few years back a local seed company donated a large quantity of seed that is indigenous to the wasatch mountains. It had been stored carefully but was getting old so our team from last year had planned to return and place seed on the mountain, hopefully just before it would get covered by snow. All went as planned and it snowed again right after we spread the seed. We easily sowed acres of seed in places that would benefit from having desirable plants instead of noxious weeds.

We were given the assignment to locate two 20 ft christmas trees to cut down and use at our camp welcome center as well as at our cabins. It was to be a group activity that everyone would participate in. Not wanting to make the final decision of what trees looked best I decided to teach a principle. I found 2 groups of young trees that had grown too close together. I asked the group if they had ever thinned carrots… then I suggested that we could help the forest by doing a little thinning but the tree might not be perfect or we could find and cut a perfectly formed tree that would otherwise someday grow into a majestic fir tree. Everyone opted for the “Charlie Brown tree”

Trees are placed in these inverted concrete cylinders that were filled with gravel. Water was added which freezes solid and holds the tree in place

We were given a week off for the Thanksgiving Holiday Most of the couples went home. We had the good fortune to be on the mountain most of that time and three of our daughters and their families came to visit on three different days. They were spending Thanksgiving with their husbands families in Utah. Our cabin is small so we spent a few nights sleeping with grandkids in our attic while our kids with new babies slept in our tiny bedroom.

For Thanksgiving we travelled to Huntsville to spend Thanksgiving with my sister Fay and her husband Bob. Our oldest son Jeremy and his family travelled from Logan in a blizzard to be with us also. We enjoyed smoked turkey etc.

To work off dinner we moved lots of snow

For breakfast the next morning Jeremy made his famous smoked turkey omelettes complete with pili sauce he brought home from his visits to the Congo

We travelled back to the mountain to meet up with Jocelyn and her family. We were planning to meet them in Heber City for Dinner. They were travelling from Salt Lake City and were caught in a blizzard that temporarily closed I-80 just before Park City. We left N. Ogden at about the same time and approached from the other direction using I-84 to I-80 encountering little snow until Park City. We waited for what seemed forever until they finally caught up with us. We settled for Dinner at McDonalds in Park City since the kids and parents had their fill of travel on snowy roads. It only got worse but we made it up our 5 mile long camp road that was unplowed and we were the first to blaze a path thru the new snow. Their mini van did make it up the steep grade.

The next day this is what it looked like looking across the lake near our cabin.

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving with friends and family. Nancy and I are grateful for this opportunity to serve others as we serve here at Heber Valley Camp.

The locals say that this is the most early snow in a long time. I thought I might share what our days are like now that winter seems to have set in.

Our morning starts at about 7am. At 8am I go to play Pickleball with the men while Nancy does Jazzercise and Yoga with the women. Pickleball is very popular here in Utah. All the cities have built multiple courts to accommodate all the players.

New pickleball courts in Huntsville.

The game is a hybrid between tennis, racquet ball and ping pong.

Where we play at camp is a little rustic with an uneven floor with masking tape for lines but at least it is indoors

We play for an hour then return to our cabin to prepare for a 10am devotional with all the other couples. Following that we have leadership training or we discuss and plan for summer. Usually around noon we break for lunch. The remainder of the day is spent working. There are lots of chores to complete around camp. Snow removal to prepare for week-end campers is a primary focus

Once a month we have group activity. This last week our activity was a visit to the Provo Temple, then lunch at a local restaurant and then we all went and watched the Mr Roger’s movie, “A beautiful day in the neighborhood”

We wish all of you a beautiful day as you celebrate Christmas this year!

My granddaughter Brittany is also serving a mission. She faithfully posts an email every week sharing the highlights of her week. Me on the other hand, am not quite so faithful in updating this blog.

Much has happened since my last post. We finished our summer service near the end of September. Then back to Camarillo in time for Nancy’s birthday. We spent a month at home in short sleeved shirts, enjoying fresh squeezed OJ from our tree every morning and spending lots of time with family. Nancy and I then returned to camp on October 30th to temperatures near 0 deg F. A shock to the system. We missed all the big fires in Socal, near our home, by just a few hours.

As camp wound down last summer the time came to prep the camp for winter. One of the major projects was staining the log cabins. Everyone is involved. The 1st team pressure washes. Next team roughs up the existing finishes. Next the tapers mask off the doors and windows etc. Next is the sprayers who spray on the finish. Next are the brushers who brush and force the stain into the cracks in the logs, and then they chase the drips. The next day staining and brushing is repeated on the lower half of the cabins. Then the last team removes the masking. Nancy and I were brushers so we were suited up in tyvek suits, etc. to protect us from the spray. Dressed as such it was difficult to see everyone apart.

I grabbed a sharpie and made sure Nancy was identifiable!

When the staining finished early due to good weather we had time for lots of group activities. School had started and campers were few.

We traveled over the back roads to a tiny town named Hannah and on another day we rode rough trails to Daniel’s Summit on Hwy 40. Each trip was about 80 miles round trip over dirt roads with only a few miles on asphalt.

Both places had quaint restaurants for lunch.

We winterized our trailer and moved it down into Heber Valley where a kind person offered to let us park it in his pasture for the winter. We also moved into our new cabin. I was amazed how much was in our 28ft trailer. It nearly filled the small cabin we have for the winter.

On Sept 25th we headed off to our home in Camarillo where a new granddaughter awaited us. It was great to spend a month with family. My main project was to continue working on the pizza oven. With much help from my son in law the roof was completed just before returning to Utah. We did have one big pizza party with family. Below is a video of what I consider a perfect wood fire for cooking pizza.

On Oct 30th we returned to Utah. The temperature when we arrived on the Mountain was below zero and there was some snow.

Quite a shock to the system! We arrived just in time for soup with the other 8 couples. We are all commonly called the “frozen chosen” or “winter warriors.”

As we do “All things bright and beautiful” presentations to the girls and other groups here in camp we always teach them what to do and not do as they encounter and interact with the animals that reside here. We see deer every day, moose every week and few others animals now and then. Earlier this summer a missionary caught on video a mama moose defending and charging a wild turkey that she, for some reason, thought was a threat to her baby who was the size of a pony. Go figure… the Turkey fled the scene quickly and the baby moose was saved.

Nancy and I were hiking a dirt road in the outback. As we rounded a curve we heard a noise in the trees about 20 yards from us. We stopped and saw a mama moose facing us as her baby continued to browse. We stood still until mama went back to browsing.

We took one step forward and mama immediately stopped eating and turned and faced us. At that point Nancy and I had a quick discussion on which tree we would run to if mama decided to charge us. (She was still motionless and continued staring us down). We and the moose were in a small grove of Aspen trees. The surrounding area was open. It was obvious to us that the trees were our only protection. We stood still for about 10 minutes while mama and her baby (now the size of a horse) continued to browse until they decided to move on. We were so close we clearly saw and heard every munch and breath.

Here are a few moose pictures from other less threatening encounters.

As Nancy and I sit in our trailer with the furnace blasting, watching the first snow fall heavily outside our rv, I realize I need to post a few updates.

Some of you mentioned that you were unable to get thru all the pictures in my last post. Well, at the end of my last post I noted that Nancy and I had been asked to spend the winter here and be team leaders next year.

We just had a new grandbaby born yesterday. It is cold and snowing. Thankfully we have the month of October free since the camp is closed then. We are excited to head for California in a few days to get a dose of warm weather, hang out with family and friends, and meet our new grand-daughter. Also, since we left Camarillo, our daughter and her family who lived in Texas have moved back to California and now reside close to us in Ventura. A lot happened in 6 months. We had a beautiful summer and look forward to continue to serve the Lord in this capacity. I will now do a flashback post with some of the highlights since my last post.

Summer brings a whole different feel to the mountain. The flowers are in full bloom, the trails are dusty except after a rain, and the animals are preparing for winter. Since a picture is worth a thousand words here are a few of my favorites…

We hope you are having a great summer. Ours could only be better if you were here to share all the wonderful experiences we are enjoying. Last Sunday we were asked along with 8 other couples to spend the winter here and then be team leaders next summer. We will be assigned a cabin for the winter months. Those that stay for winter are called “Winter Warriors”. I guess we will be shopping for real snow shoes.

The day the pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley is celebrated with an annual State Holiday. Here in camp every day is like a holiday but on the 24th we do something different…

We all decorate our buggies and parade thru all the camps and throw candy to all the girls and their leaders. The parade ends at the lake where we all enjoy home made scones etc. Imagine almost 70 buggies all lined up and slowly looping thru each camp with spectators lining the side of the road…

This was our Pony Express buggy… I jumped out for a moment to see how my bride was doing…

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Above are examples of some of the other decorated buggies.

We do have fun times.

One of our responsibilities is to do a 30 minute nature presentation to the groups and families that sign up to participate. It is called “All Things Bright and Beautiful”. We have done as many as 4 in one day. We have a week assigned to each couple, and we fill in for each other as needed.

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The trailer contains several mounted animals, antlers, posters etc. This presentation is supposed to be light and enjoyable, not preachy. We basically talk about nature and how we relate to it. Nancy shares “advice from a tree”.

Stand tall and proud

Go out on a limb

Remember your roots

Drink plenty of water

Be content with your natural beauty

Enjoy the view.

She elaborates on each of those points. The Aspen trees are a prominent part of the presentation.

In 2014 the Aspen tree became the state tree of Utah all due to the efforts of a 4th grade class in Monroe, UT. We have actually had presentations with young women who were in that 4th grade class. The largest known living organism in the world is found right here in Utah. It is named Pando and is a giant Aspen grove all connected together by its roots and every tree having the same DNA. Adults, young women and children all enjoy listening to Sister Jenkins.

We also talk about plants such as Mullein or as it is more commonly called lambs ear or cowboy toilet paper. I get to also talk about both the animals and plants. We breathe in what the plants breathe out and what we breathe out the plants breathe in.

My favorite thing is to teach about the beavers we have here in camp and the “chocolate” trees they love.

One of the highlights last week was to have our daughter and her family visit. After church services on Sunday we hooked up the trailer and brought it to their camp so some of our grand kids could share in the experience. Right on cue nature joined in and helped us out.

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We always share our belief and testimony of this marvelous creation of which we are a part of.

It is difficult to be out in nature all day and not marvel at its beauty and complexity. Everything points to and testifies of the existence of God.

Last Sunday we were invited to dinner by the neighbors adjacent to our lake. Not just us but all 79 couples serving here.

Apparently the family that owns this home has a tradition of inviting all the missionaries serving here at camp over to dinner once every summer. They provide the meat and we all bring side dishes. The children in the families, all cousins, are there to give tours of their cabin.

It is really more than a cabin. It is a business for the families that own it. It is for rent just about anytime year round. Just get your reservation in early because it is very popular. You can read all about it at:

http://www.timbermooselodge.com

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It is not all hard labor for us here at camp. One evening we had a live band with dancing.

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Work can be fun also.

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We are always being admonished to not work harder or longer than we are capable. Along with that admonition we are also told to have fun. I can testify that serving the Lord is fun and enjoyable.