Spare no expense

As a life long outdoorsman and hunter, I have managed to hunt several species of large and small game in various parts of the world. Most hunts result in great companionship, the opportunity to see some of the more beautiful and/or desolate parts of the world, and usually the chance to harvest some wild game. As I have done this over the years I have usually shot only animals that I would be willing to eat, although there have been a few exceptions to that rule. The badger I shot in South Dakota is an example of this.

I normally enjoy the meat much more than my family, although most of them have eaten their share of venison, elk, caribou, pheasant and quail. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the next hunting season, there is still more wild game in the freezer than has been consumed. Which brings me to the point of all this. I spend a great deal of time and go to a lot of effort to bag this game, and my family doesn't appreciate the value of what it is I have been doing.

I discovered this early on in my marriage. Nancy and I had been married about a year when her uncle, Beech Adams, invited me to come to Idaho with him for the pheasant hunt. I eagerly accepted. I bought ammunition, out of state hunting licenses, travelled to and from Burley, Idaho, paid for hotels, food and gas. The resulting expense was about $150.00. This was a goodly sum for two full time college students. I was able to bring home six pheasants from the trip, which was the possession limit at that time. Rather than being excited about the fresh meat for the table, Nancy sat down with her calculator and determined that these birds cost about $17.00 per pound. It left a bad taste in her mouth and ruined the meal.

This has gone on over the years. We have fish that cost $30.00 per pound, elk that cost $15.00 per pound, South Dakota pheasant that cost $60.00 per pound. ( The cost of the house, and travel to SD escalate the cost considerably. I am not even including the Mexican doves, ducks and geese, that I don't bring home, but give to my guide and people in the village where we hunt.

You would think that if I am going to the effort of providing all of this high priced meat, my wife and family would at least show some appreciation.

These efforts aren't limited to my hunting trips. Last week was Thanksgiving and I decided to provide my family with a treat by smoking a turkey as part of our Thanksgiving dinner. We purchased a 12 pound turkey for me to put in my smoker. It only cost a few bucks because of the promotion at our local Ralph's grocery store. I bought some hickory chips, prepared some spices for a rub, and got up early Thursday morning to prepare the turkey and the smoker. It was then that I discovered that I no longer had a propane tank. It must have been given away as we moved to San Clemente. Off to Lowe's to purchase a tank with propane in it. I hooked up the propane tank to my smoker, placed the marinade and wood chips in the smoker, placed the turkey in it and fired up the smoker.

Twenty minutes later, the temperature had barely risen in the smoker. I adjusted the air valve on the smoker and within a few seconds my smoker burst into flames. After hurriedly turning off the propane I discovered that my propane hose had a leak in it. No problem. I taped it with duct tape and fired it up again. More flames, combined with the smell of burning duct tape. My only recourse was to race off to Walmart and buy a new smoker. Steve Wright and I put it together within about 45 minutes and I was able to get the turkey in it and got it cooked in time for dinner. Luckily we started dinner about 45 minutes later than we had planned it.

Cost of Turkey $8.00

Cost of Mesquite Chips $8.50

Cost of Propane Tank $51.00

Cost of New Smoker $150.81

Total Cost per Pound $18.19

Look of appreciation on my families faces: Priceless

We travelled to Utah and Idaho early this last week to attend the funeral of Harmon Tobler, Lindsey's father-in-law. Harmon was a man I admired immediately, and we have been friends since the kids were engaged. It was a wonderful funeral and it gave the honor due to such a good man. He will be long remembered by his family, friends and the many young men he sponsored and mentored over the years.

On the way back we got a phone call from Mao letting us know that Cathy had given birth to their third child. they had a baby boy on August 18th. He was about 8 lbs., 6 oz., and he was 22 1/2 inches long. They have had a difficult time deciding on a name. When we first talked to them they were going to name him Christian, but they hadn't decided on a middle name. They still were not in agreement on a name when they left the hospital, so they left the name blank on the birth certificate and referred to him as "the baby" or "the boy" for the next couple of days.

After spending a few hours with books about baby names they have seemed to conclude they will name him Landon Luca Hernandez. At least for the time being. I am not sure if we will know for certain until he is officially blessed.

Adam and I were the first members of the family to actually see him. We stopped at the hospital to visit them on our way home from Utah. It was perfect timing on their part which enabled us to see him so soon. The baby was sleeping in his isolette when we got there and Isabella had finally decided to take a nap on a chair in the room, so we did a lot of whispering and took a few pictures without disturbing anybody.

That gives us thirteen boys and thirteen girls who call us Nana & Papa. Who is going to step up and break the tie?

Utah Trip

Two weeks ago, we took a quick trip to Utah with our friends, Gary and Sue Hadley. We left on Thursday and drove straight through, stopping long enough at Mao and Cathy's to have dinner with them. Mao barbequed some steaks and we had a very enjoyable meal with them and the kids. Cathy was finally looking like she might be carrying a baby even though she is eight months along.
We drove to Park City where we stayed at the Hadley family cabin. The next morning we had breakfast in town and then drove to the base of the Uintah mountains past Oakley to the Smith and Morehouse area at the head of the weber river. We had been told of some forest service trails that were particulary nice to ride. We unloaded the four wheelers and took a beautiful ride up in the mountains where we stopped to have a little lunch before heading back down the trail.
The next day we drove to the Homestead Inn for breakfast then made our way over to Strawberry Reservoir and found some dirt roads and trails that headed up into the mountains west of the reservoir. The roads were pretty dusty and dry and not as pretty as the first day, but we had a great ride. No one managed to roll a quad on either day.
We then loaded up the quads and drove to Daniels canyon where we had booked a room at Daniels Summit Lodge. We washed a little dust off of our faces and changed shirts then hurried over to meet with a wrangler that had agreed to take us up into the mountains on his horses. All of the horses were good looking, well mannered animals and we had a great time. We rode for about two and a half hours up into the quakies and pine trees. Because it has been a relatively wet spring and summer the area was very green and lush and quite beautiful. We saw a few deer and lots of deer beds. Our only incident on the trip was when we topped out on the ride and were giving the horses a chance for a breather when suddenly Gary's horse dropped to his knees and started to roll over. Gary managed to avoid getting rolled on but the horse stepped on Gary's foot as it got up which resulted in some pain and a blackened toe nail.
We came down off the mountain, took a quick shower and then met for dinner at the dining area at the lodge. The food was great and the rooms were excellent.
Nancy and I got up fairly early the next day and drove to Sunny's where we helped make some breakfast for the kids and picked up Jade for the trip back to California. We packed a lot of activities into a couple of days and had a great time.

Falling Rocks

I got a phone call today at work. When Nellie transferred the call to my office, she informed me that the caller was my cousin, "Falling Rocks". I knew immediately that she was referring to my Navajo cousin, Larry Bennett.

Larry came into my life when I was about 12 years old. He and his brother Leslie were taken into my Uncle Bill and Aunt Ruby's home as part of the Church's Indian Placement Program. They had them every school year and then they would go home to Arizona for the summer. There finally came a time when Larry didn't want to go home for the summers so he started to stay all year round. He eventually graduated high school then went on to college and became an engineer for Utah Power and Light. He married a local girl and raised a beautiful family.

He has always been my cousin as far as I was concerned. We fished and hunted together and spent family vacations in the Uintah mountains. Larry could spot a deer further away than anyone I ever knew. Not only could he spot it, but he could tell you if it was a buck or doe before anyone could get binoculars on it to see for ourselves. One of my favorite memories was a horse back trip into the Indian lands in Arizona. His dad arranged for some horses and we spent four days and three nights exploring Anasazi ruins and old Navajo sites. We carried only what we could put in our saddlebags and slept on the ground. Larry claimed that it would be warm and that we wouldn't need a sleeping bag. He was so wrong. I spent three miserable nights trying to keep from freezing to death. Larry, on the other hand, was quite comfortable in his sleeping bag and space blanket.

Larry has never lost his Navajo accent, and he was always a little difficult to understand. When we spoke today I noticed that he was harder to understand. We exchanged greetings and then he asked, "Guess What"? I said, "You sound like you have been drinking". He said it was worse than that. He had suffered a stroke three weeks ago. He had been feeling poorly and went to see his doctor on a Friday, but was checked out and sent home. The next day he was in his home when he suddenly wasn't able to stand and fell to the floor. They got him to the hospital and they diagnosed the stroke. He has lost the use of the right side of his body. However, they have been working with him and he has already recovered the use of his leg, but his arm is still quite useless. He has made great progress, but still has a long way to go. He's working hard to try to overcome this.

We're all pulling for you Larry. We'll keep you on the prayer list until you get back to normal. At least as normal as you're capable of being.

I have the best wife!!

Yesterday mom and I were scheduled to attend the Orange County Mormon Orchestra and Choral presentation at the Segerstrom Center in Irvine. It was awesome! Afterwards we ate dinner at the Claim Jumper in the mall across the street and had a nice meal. It was a great evening, but it got a lot better.

On the way home, she asked If I wouldn't mind if we stopped by the Hadley's house because she needed to pick up some stuff that would help her on a lesson she had to prepare for church. When we got there, we were greeted at the door by Su and "her" new dog. I was excited to see that she had located an adult male Wheaten Terrier from a rescue organization and it was a real beauty. While I was playing with it Nancy informed me that it wasn't really Su's dog, but that she had finally given in to my begging for a house dog and that she and Su had been working to locate one for me. I was absolutely floored! Knowing Nancy, this isn't anything that I would have dreamed she would do for me.

He is 1 and 1/2 years old and is neutered. He is house broke and kid friendly, and best of all, he doesn't shed. I know that Nancy is not as excited about this as I am, and I will probably have a big payback that I will owe her in the future, but it will definitely be worth it. I have already decided on a name for him. I am going to call him Ed, which is short for Special Ed.

On to the Sequoias

As a continuation of our trip, we got up the next day and travelled to Sequoia National Forest. We had to go west toward Fresno then south on Hwy. 99 until we got to 190 East and went back up the mountain toward the forest. It was a beautiful day. The sun was out and the sky was cloudless, so despite the snow in the higher elevations, it was really pleasant. We made a couple of stops for photo ops and took some pictures of the wildflowers that were blooming everywhere.

We were a little higher, so the snow was quite deep. There were times it felt like we were driving through a tunnel of snow because it was five or six feet deep right next to the road. We even put some snow in our little cooler to keep our drinks cold.

The giant sequoia trees are really amazing. We saw the General Grant tree and the General Sherman tree, two of the biggest on record. They are almost 2900 years old and are immense. A person standing at the base of one of these giants is really insignificant in size. It is like a mouse looking up at a six foot tall person.

After spending some time up there we headed down the mountain taking an alternative route that brought us out in Visalia. We had a late lunch at the Black Bear Cafe in Tulare. As we went into the cafe, I noticed a sign advertising a horse sale, so I asked the waitress if she knew where it was. She told us it was at the fair grounds, so after lunch I talked Nancy into driving there to check it out. We got there for the end of the sale so we only saw about four animals auctioned off. The last ones into the sales ring was a couple of pack mules that seemed to be great animals but they only sold for about $150.00 each. Nancy was afraid that she would have to restrain me from bidding on them.

After the sale, we jumped in the car and headed home. We arrived about 8:45 pm. We were tired, but we had a great time on our little weekend adventure. I think we both decided that we would try to do this a little more often.