September Camping

It's our annual camping trip with Jon's parents to the Uinta's. Normally we go fishing at least five times but this year we didn't even go once. Jon and I were both sick and sitting by the fire just sounded like more fun. In order to enjoy the fire we had to cut down a tree for more firewood. It's okay, Jon has a permit. It was rainy most of the time (of course) and even hailed, but we had a great time and as always it is just nice to get away and enjoy the great outdoors.

The poor tree has no idea what's coming to it

Timber!!!!

Zach taking a swing with the ax

Jon's turn

It's Hailing

The weight of the hail on the tarp busted the pole

Zach and Megan trying to fix the pole

New Landscape

Our backyard has a new landscape thanks to Jon. We had a few trees on the north edge of our property that hung over the neighbors driveway and garage that could become questionable during the winter months. Our neighbor told us that last winter he was a little nervous that one of the trees would topple on top of his motor home. We didn't really want to buy a damaged motorhome and decided that it would be cheaper to just cut down the troublesome trees. Jon was able to use some equipment from work and cut down two trees and trimmed another one. Now that the trees are gone it has dramatically changed the scenery. We can rest easy knowing that our trees won't cause damage to our neighbors property.

Ferron Reservoir

Recently we went camping near Ferron Reservoir with the Sweeney's, our rock crawling buddies. We were able to go fishing, ride 4-wheelers and even watch the dogs scare some sheep away. I caught five fish but I had to resort to bait fishing instead of my preferred spinner fishing. It seems as of late the fish just aren't taking to the spinners like they used to. We had a great relaxing weekend, and the scenery wasn't that bad either.

MacGyver a.k.a. Jon

A couple of weeks ago I decided that I wanted to have a picnic and drive the Alpine Loop. Jon and I took off in the 4-Runner for an adventure. It was great to get away in the mountains even if it was for just an evening. We took our time and drove on little side roads just to see what was there. We decided to stop for dinner on a dirt road where we used to ride the 4-wheelers when we were dating. It brought back a lot of memories. When we stopped we ended up with a little trouble.



From the picture you might think that we had car troubles but that was not the case. The car was running perfectly. In packing everything for dinner I had failed include the matches for the BBQ. Jon and I searched all over the car for a matchbook or lighter or anything that would start the BBQ but no such luck. Jon had a brilliant idea that one would only see on MacGyver (that is if MacGyver was hungry and forgot matches for the BBQ). Jon decided that if he took of the spark plug wire and held it up the BBQ while I started the vehicle the spark from the wire would light the BBQ. Stroke of genius he was right. I now have my own MacGyver.

Family Campout 2009

Recently we had our annual family campout. Each year one of the siblings is in charge and gets to pick the location of the campout. This year it was my sister Angie's turn and we ended up going to the Tifie Ranch near Morgan, UT. The Tifie Ranch is part of a non-profit organization, you can find out more about it here. Their facilities are amazing. It doesn't really feel like camping. We occupied the small pavilion which inlcuded a full kitchen, two bathrooms (with showers), BBQ grill, folding tables and chairs. At the ranch there is a playground, archery range, teepee village, and paintball course (you have to bring your own paintball equipment though). We didn't have as large a group as in previous years but those who came had a great time and I really enjoyed just hanging out, playing games and just being away from work for a couple of days. Here is a picture of my cute mom humoring me. We saw this face on the tree by the teepee village and I made her pose for the camera - she is such a good sport.



Here is a picture of the small pavilion. There were screens that you could roll down and hooked to the ground so when the wind blew it wouldn't blow in the pavilion.




At the Tifie Ranch they use alternate sources of energy. Here is a picture of some of the solar panels and windmills, they also have hydro electric energy.

Poor Beth

A few weeks ago I was involved in an accident on the freeway on my way home. Traffic had come to a hault and I was stopped in my lane. I looked in my rear-view mirror and see a truck come barreling towards me trying to swerve to miss me. He was traveling too fast and too close to miss me but instead of hitting me straigt on he only hit my driver side rear bumber. Fortunately nobody was hurt, but it did do quite some damage to my little Beth. You may remember my tribute to Beth when she turned 200,000 miles. Now 3,500 miles later she has been totaled out.





The other driver's insurance decided that my little Beth wasn't worth fixing. Part of the problem was that not only did the driver smash in the rear driver side when he did so it bent the frame, which can be costly to fix. After reviewing the pictures that the adjuster took our claims specialist decided that our vehicle was worth $2,200.

WHAT?!?

Our vehicle was worth more than that and there is now way we can replace our vehicle for $2,200 dollars. After much discussion back and forth I forwarded comparables from our area. They came back with $2,600.

SERIOUSLY?!?

About this time Jon and I getting very frustrated. Beth never had any major problems and we weren't planning on getting rid of her anytime in the near future. Jon spoke to our claims lady and told her that $2,600 was unacceptable and they needed to reevaluate the valuation of our car. She told Jon that in my comparables that I had included dealer sales and as we all know dealers make more money on car sales that "for sale by owner" vehicles. She explained that our car was not dealer ready. Jon responded with "of course it's not dealer ready, you client rear ended our vehicle and if you want we will vacuum our car and spray new car smell into it to be dealer ready." That was basically the end of their conversation. The next day I wrote our claims lady a lengthy fax stating our position again and that had we not been so carelessly rammed into we wouldn't be in this situation and wouldn't have to spend our time dealing with this. I included more comparables this time they were all "for sale by owner." The claims lady called me back the next day and said that they had done another valuation based on my comparables and they were ready to offer $3,800 - now that was more like it. We accepted their offer with the option to buy the vehicle back for $400 and are now glad to have it settled. We hope to be able to sell Beth in the near future and hope she can make someone else as happy as we were with her.

Summer Trips

Amongst all the remodeling going on at our new home we have managed to get away for a couple of weekends.

Father's Day weekend we headed up the our favorite mountain area (the Uinta's)for some camping and fishing. It was a rainy weekend (much like the rest of June) but we made the best of it and we still had a great time. It was nice to get away from the mess that was our house and just enjoy each others company. We pulled into the Provo River Falls area where we found a friend from our old neighborhood who was having car troubles. We weren't able to help fix it but we were able to offer some assistance in getting it back home. We were just glad that we were able to offer some sort of help for them. Hopefully if we are ever in the same situation someone will offer to help us.







Then over the 4th of July we were able to go to the other end of the state and spend some time in Moab. It was hot but I expected worse. We spent time rock crawling, playing in the river and watching fireworks. It was a great weekend.