June 19, 2016 Happy Father's Day

This is Megan Lewis from Nova Scotia, Canada.  She was riding the Pony

Express Route from St. Joseph Missouri to San Francisco California.  

She had permission to ride across the DL & L.  So on Wednesday morning she 

was on the ranch.  Elder Cowan was lucky enough to see her and get

this photo.  We didn't know she was coming thru so we are

glad he saw it and took the picture.

This is always a favorite photo for me.  I love the image of

them sleeping in the grass. With their faces covered with 

their hats and one leg up.

We trekked with Murray West Stake this week.  We have

a rule on the ranch, NO HORSES.  Like most trek groups

they didn't keep all the rules.  You can see what rule was broken

here.  Elder Cowan made a exception for Olga, the horse, he

let them keep her if they would keep her tied up at night,

keep her quiet and clean up after her.  They complied with

all our rules and Olga finished the trail with everyone else.

Also, they couldn't use Olga to pull their cart, she could only

ride.  However, there was one time they rode her all 

around the carts on the trail during a water break.

Elder Cowan had to remind them of their rules, Olga

was quickly returned to her cart.

 What a great family they were.

This is also another great photo every week, 

SLEEPING UNDER THE PORTA JOHN'S.

In their defense it was the first day of the trek so they

weren't as smelly, but really, I know shade is great

but, REALLY?

This is a new friend for Elder Cowan, they were instant

friends, they are both 69, they love to golf, 

He works with his YM's deacon group.  You are

never to old to be a scout master.

This is a new pioneer game we saw on our trek this week.

We watched it and still couldn't figure out the point.

They are blindfolded and had a rolled up newspaper in

their hands.  They say "Ready" and then they swipe

at the other person, hitting them.  Then the other one

says, "Ready" and swats the other.  They said

pioneers used sticks instead.  That sounds like it would

really hurt.  I'm not going to be using this game in

the future.

This was their Trek String band, what great fun they were.

The banjo made me think of my good friend Becky Eastmond

who also plays the banjo.

We had a good surprise this week.  This sister's brother

trekked with us two years ago!  It was our 3rd trek and

a group we truly loved.  We remembered lots of the group

and they are people they knew also.  In fact, on Saturday

night they were going to be with her brother so I told

them, "If he says we were terrible missionaries you tell him

how much we have IMPROVED!"

Check out the trailer full of dutch ovens they used.

The families did their cooking each night, so each family

needed a dutch oven.  Lots of clean-up.

Count how many youth are in this puzzle of bodies.

It was hard to figure out whose arms and legs and heads

belonged to who.

As the Sisters began their devotional before the womans pull

this eagle made a visit.  He circled the group about 

three times before flying away.  I heard one girl say,

"That has to be a good omen!"

This was a awesome moment.  At the end of the meeting they

all stood, we linked arms and they sang "Come Unto Christ"

it was beautiful and inspiring.  How lucky am I to see

these great scenes every week.  

Elder Cowan took this photo from the top of the womans pull,

These are Sisters from the Kitchen crew walking from

the top down to the YW.  When they finished they

walked back up at the end just like that. True friendship's

are developed on trek.

Seeing the Brothers on the ridge always looks great

and inspires the Sisters to finish. This was a long

walk.  They pulled the carts 1.7 miles.  They had two

big hills to climb and one big one to go down.

The top of the last hill is really steep and they have

to dig in and give it their all.

At the top of the hill the Sisters made a big circle around the

Brothers and then sang to them the song they sang at the bottom.

WOW!  What a beautiful ending to the experience.

This is one of their photographers.  He is quite a character.

We enjoyed visiting with him.  One time I asked how do you

keep a white shirt clean on trek?  He said, "It's easy to

stay clean when you don't do any work."

Then he said he learned that when he saw a thing with

three pencils, two sharp and one dull.  It's easy to stay

sharp when you don't do any work.  So for the first 

time I feel good that I am DULL!

This is a photo showing them during their solo time.

Reading and writing in their journals by themselves.

Some choose to use their thinking time sleeping in

the meadows or on the hills.

Some use the 4x4 

 This young man struggled the whole trek.  This is the

last day and he is falling behind, thinking this day will never

end.  We kept the carts together at the final 1/4 mile, he

was put back up with his family and they put him in the 

center of the pull bar and he walked in with his family.

Success at last.  We love to see everyone finish.

Thanks Murray West Stake 2016. 

June 12, 2016

Last Sunday on June 5th we went up to a rock that is called

Romance Rock.  The cowboys that worked here years ago

used to go up there to be alone with their girls.

We had never walked up there.  To be honest,

it is only reached by walking through a lot of

sage brush, which means TICKS.  We decided it 

was one of the things on our bucket list to do

before we leave the Ranch at the end of the summer.

We climbed up on the rock, not real easy, enjoyed the view and

then got looking at how we were going to get down. 

That was a bigger problem.  We talked about calling

some missionaries and have them drive a 4x4 back to us and

we could climb down on it.  Our pride came into play

and we figured out how to get down.  Just before dropping off

we thought how it would be bad if we broke an ankle two days

before trekking.  We thought about if we were Jeremiah

and his boys they would be bouncing off and down the

rock with no thought.  Yes, we did get down with

no injury.  We also agreed maybe we wouldn't

climb the rock again.

Our first trek was with the American Fork 27th Ward.

They had 20 youth and 31 adults.  They used

5 carts and that meant there was only about 6 on

each cart.  As the week progressed lots had only 4 or 5.

They were tough and finished fine.They put the flag

on different carts each day.  It looked pretty awesome

as they went down the trails.

This is a game of pick up sticks.  We saw them play this

several times during the week.

Music was used lots.  They are playing their theme song,

"Carry On, Carry On, Carry On."

This is Jeff/Charlie Decker delivering the mail on his

horse, Sliver, a real thoroboard.

The kids and adults loved his time with them.

While sitting in the 4X4 I was waiting to follow the trek

group.  We don't follow to close so they don't hear the

motor running.  I looked up from a song book I was

reading and realized I had company.  She walked down the

road toward me and then went off the the left.  What 

a great moment that was.  I was actually glad I was

in the 4x4 then.

This is the title of Liberty Brother Hall made for the

trek.  On Saturday morning he had everyone in the

camp sign their names on it.  We were invited to sign

it also.  We loved all of them, and really had a 

great time with them.

This is a piece of sage brush the Combs family used to

hold up their cart when they were stopped.

Pretty cleaver way to do it.

This family had two young men in it.  They loved their Ma

a lot so they made a mothers day gift for her. It was a old

2x4 board and a piece of a cow bone.  She, of course was thrilled.

They were upset though when Pa told them he wasn't going to take

it home to American Fork with them.  When they begged he

told them "Get used to disappointment."

So then they made a sled thing to pull behind the cart.  

Their intention was for Ma to sit on it and she wouldn't have

to walk the rest of the way, she could rest and ride.

This is the Pa testing it out first.

Here is Ma trying out the new ride.  She decided

it would be to rough and splintery to do it.  Good

decision, right?  What a great and funny family they were.

These are flowers in her hair.  The wild flowers were

absolutely amazing.  Every color and kind.

Great views on the trail we were on.  This is the

Bishop reflecting on Friday.  What a great job he did.

Check out the tall grass.  She is almost buried in it.

This is some of the things our mountain man Brother Hall

had.  He kept us entertained and educated on the

life and times of a mountain man in the 1800's.

He had made these himself.

This is a bag that was made by a mutual friend we have

Shawn Webster.  The bead work is porcupine quills. 

Really a masterpiece.

This is Brother Hall, I am wearing his coat made from

elk and deer skin.  What a cool thing it was and it had

that smell that tanned leather has.  I think I need a long dress

made of leather, I think I would look like a great Princess.  Like

the girl in "Dances With Wolves", right?  Maybe I will start

a Go Fund Me account to pay for it!

This is Syd and Garth Harward the Trek Committee

chairman for the Trek.  They also know our Ray and

Georgia.  What great fun to share stories of them and

to know we were connected.

Here is a sunset photo Elder Cowan took.  He loves

to take sunrise and sunset pictures.  This is on Murphy Ridge.

Every night in camp they would park their carts in a nice

neat row.  Elder Cowan took this picture.

 This is the finished product.  This is Brother and Sister Hall.

They helped make this a great trek.

I don't know if you can see this but there by the tank, just 

below it is our antelope friend, he is still with us.  We named

him Redick Allred.  He was a rescuer for the Willy and Martin

Handcart companies.  He was faithful and determined and never

gave up on finding them.  Because of this Captain Grant called him

"the Bulldog" Good for the Hang On"  So

because our Antelope never leaves he is now

called Redick.  

This is a nest of baby birds we have in the Christy Pavilion. I will post updated

photo's each week.  You can follow their progress.  But, you

must know, the mama bird buzzes your head when

you look in on them.  I will be brave, and take the

pictures anyway.  Carry on, carry on, carry on.

June 5, 2016

You might be wondering how we are doing?  Well, 

a picture speaks volumes!

Actually we are great.  This pic was for Candace Rowley

in Cedar City.  She had taken a selfie of her family in

their trailer they just bought.  So, I thought we should send

one to her of us, this is it!

The best part, I got up from the couch and said I must

have sat on something, it felt wet, YEP!  Jeff's

banana.  It was smashed flat, he still ate it anyway.

The little baby antelope are out and we are all getting

some photo's of them.  Soon they will be up

running with their mama's and they we see them a lot.

They lay flat when we come upon them, they

are well trained babies.  The mama's run

away from them to draw your attention to them

and away from the baby.

That doesn't work, we are looking the opposite

direction from where they are running.

On May 28, we went into Evanston in the afternoon.

Our friend Mardi, She is the Relief Society President

she drives cars in the drag races.  She wanted us to

come check her out.  Usually we can't because we are

trekking but we hadn't started yet.  So we went.

Mardi wasn't there she'd had trouble with

her car, so we missed her.  We did see an

 unusual sight.

Snowmobile drag races!  Loud and Fast is

all I can say.  It was interesting for sure.

Jeff thought he would take a spin on this motorcycle but

the little boy it belonged to said "NO"

This week we have been working on moving dirt and

rocks to repair some support roads and some trails.

This is how I work.

But, it is dangerous when the truck moves,

depending on who is driving the truck.

HANG ON

I've been telling you it has been raining lots, well

here is the proof.  That is a mushroom.

We have all enjoyed this last week, no rain, not a drop.

Soon we will be complaining it is to dry and dusty.

On Memorial Day we went into Evanston, all of the 

missionaries and we attended a Veterans Day Program

in the Train Round House.  It has been restored and

is a beautiful building.  The program was

great and two of our missionaries were actually

in the processional with the flags.  They are

both Army Veterans.  We were proud of

our Elders that day.  Afterwards we walked

the Bear River Walkway out to the State Park.

This is a bridge there in the Park.  It was

a great practice trek for the new 

missionaries.

On Friday June 3rd we went with our favorite tour guides.

Austin Moon

And her mom Colleen Moon.  We started at Fort Bridger.

This is Austin's favorite bench to sit on. 

Thanks to the Moon's for being our friends and

tour guides these past three summers.

Part of the tour takes us to a old handmade block culvert

for the train.  The train no longer goes there it was moved

several years ago closer to Evanston.  Every year

I have walked thru the tunnel out to the otherside and then 

back thru again.

It starts out you are standing but when you reach the

other side, you are crawling.  I love

doing this, (Jeff and NEVER DONE THIS).

I feel like it is my good luck charm for a great

year of trekking  So this was my third trip

thru the tunnel and I am looking forward

to another great summer of trekking.

This year was a bonus!  Besides Austin, Colleen and I,

we got 13 other missionaries to go thru it.  We 

forgot to tell them the part where it gets shorter at the

end.  And this year we had a bonus item in the 

tunnel.  A cow had been in it, and left us some

real great PIES to welcome us.

It  gets darker in there at the end and it made

it interesting avoiding the PIES.

I was so excited that many came.  I took pictures

of each one of them as they exited the culvert, and

a group shot of some of them on the other side.  

Way to go 2016  DL & L missionaries.

This is Jeff and Jim Bridger at the Fort.

Notice Jeff's eyes, he was copying the

eyes of old Jim, or maybe, just being

his normal crazed Jeff.

The loader we got from the Ranch to use was 

a great asset this week.  We found all kinds of things

to use it for.  This was a huge roll of carpet

that was donated to us to use in the upper part

of the trek center.  It was to heavy to carry up the

stairs so they decided to move it partway up

with the bucket.  Notice Jeff is not helping,

he is the official supervisor.  Luckily, no one was

hurt and the carpet is upstairs now.

We would like Santa to bring us a 

little skid loader for Christmas.

We loaded tons of gravel into flat bed trucks and

worked had to repair some bad spots.  We took it

back yesterday, all of us are sore from moving

all the rock.  But glad we did it.

This is Sister Walker.  She and Elder Walker are our

newlywed couple, six months!  She turned 80 on 

Friday.  We love them so much.  She does

cowboy poetry and has us all laughing all the 

time.  We all want to be 80 like her!

So those of you sitting at home thinking you are

to old to serve a mission, think again, you are

never to OLD. 

 Happy Birthday Sister Walker.

more pictures for May 29, 2016

I found my other pictures.  This is what the antelope left

for us next to our trailer.  What a great gift.

We are always finding mylar balloons stuck in the sage

brush.  We found this huge letter S this week.

That is the biggest balloon I've found.  So maybe

you know who sent this off?

We went for a drive in one of our little mini trucks, Chip.

It was wet and we pulled off to the side of the road, Jeff didn't want

to but I convinced him we shouldn't park in the middle of the road.

Well we went right into a badger hole.  Lucky for us

the truck has four wheel drive and we got out fine.

Either way I figured we could pick up the truck and move it,

"It's little!  Right?"