August 30, 2016

             Naomi Wilde, our local centenarian plus 1, had a upper femur bone snap while she was chatting on the phone. That dropped her to the floor, but help arrived quickly and the ambulance was called. She has undergone surgery and is now in the hospital, entertaining the staff in Naomi's own unique way. Reports are that she is doing well.

            A good sized family group traveled to American Fork, UT, to attend a farewell meeting for Collin Nielsen, son of Carla and Mark Nielsen., who will be going on a mission to the Washington, Everett, Mission at the end of August. He will spend some time at the Training Center in Mexico City for language studies. Family members were: Grandparents Bob and Claudia Erickson, Layne and Karen Erickson, Terrie and Andy McKay, Jody and Laural Janke and their children.

            The Mink Creek Ballpark and various family parks are in use most weekends lately. Not long ago Preston 3^rd Ward camped out at the Ballpark. Egley's park has hosted the Tate Family Reunion. Garland Rasmussen's park was the site for the Harley and Lima Jepsen Family Reunion. They had some 70 people attending. The Preston 10^th Ward scouts were having a hard time finding a spot to throw their sleeping bags one weekend and ended up camping around the Erickson pond in that park. So nice to have these convenient, beautiful spots in our village.

             We are sorry to report that Elder James Baird, the son of LaRon and Liesa Baird, has been spending some time in the hospital in North Dakota. He is suffering with a MRSA infection, following an insect bite, while serving in the North Dakota, Bismarck, Mission.

            Samuel Seamons, son of Jeff and Jennifer Seamons, was ordained to the office of an Elder in the LDS Ward. Before too long Sam will be headed to BYU to begin his college years.

           Brenda and Greg Belew have been down from St. Anthony, ID, to celebrate the wedding of their daughter Mariah to Bracken Atkinson. The wedding took place in the beautiful yard of Bracken's parents in Preston. Mariah is the granddaughter of Dennis and Judy Clark. Bracken and Mariah will live in Mink Creek while making plans to build a home of their own.

            A flock of buzzards are enjoying the recent cooler air. They take advantage of the updrafts and perform an aerial dance all dressed in their somber black costumes, ever having an eye for what might be delectable down below. It is quite a performance.

            Only one day left of the month.  The weatherman has reported that we can expect a fifteen degree temperature drop in the next few days.  It has been a hot, dry summer and the change to coolness will be welcome.  It may mean that we need to wrap up the remains of our gardens at night in order to get the squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins and such to the desired maturity.  Perhaps the cooler weather will discourage our marauding skunks.  Seems like we have a larger population of those than most years.  They are really hard on a corn crop.

August 23, 2016

            Eldon and Danita Wilcox are soon bound for the Philippines, Quezon City, where they will be serving a mission for the LDS Church. They will spend some time at the Mission Training Center in Provo before departure. All of their children and grandchildren have been here to soak up some family time. Elise and Jeff Hardy and their children live in North Ogden. Ami and Tom Fenton and family are in Tooele, UT. Lesli and David Evans brought their children from Savannah,TX. Brigham and Jennifer Wilcox and children are now in Idaho Falls, ID. Brittany Durrant and her girls came up from Bountiful, UT. MaKenzie and Tyson Gunter recently moved to Spanish Fork, UT, where MaKenzie will begin her first year of teaching in the elementary schools and coach volleyball.. Jesse and Annavelyn Wilcox are here in Mink Creek.

            Sandy Wylie has friends from the days she spent driving cattle truck visiting her this summer.  Lori Muldner, aka Strawberry, is a transplant from Glendale, AZ. She and Sandy have been friends a long time and are enjoying the reunion to share the past and plan the future.

            Ramona and Jerry Hatchett managed to fit in an Alaskan vacation during our hottest weather. They stayed at the Boardwalk Lodge amidst beautiful mountain scenery and were able to visit an island village and learn of the totem poles there. The Hatchetts came home with pounds and pounds of the pink and grey salmon they had caught. They timed this getaway perfectly before Jerry was due for some surgery on his back when they got back home.

           Matthew Westerberg, son of Terry and Wendy Westerberg, was welcomed home with open arms after time well spent in a Peace Corp assignment in Ethiopia. He has been reporting his activities for the Preston Citizen. Matt's current plans include returning to the University of Wyoming in Laramie to continue his education.

            The Cub Scouts and their leaders, Elaine Larsen , Phee Crosland, Layne and Karen Erickson and Lana and Ivan McCracken spent an evening riding the Bear River. Family members who tagged along in tubes were welcome. The group was in a large rubber raft, guided and provided by Cubmaster Sharla McKay and her husband Lin McKay.

            Skunks and raccoons are raiding our gardens. They favor corn, fresh and young. The skunks are causing moments of panic for our early morning walkers Perhaps the skunk is returning home from their night of raiding and it corresponds to the cooler temps desirable for a morning stroll..

            The county fair is over, along with the pressure and the fun that go with it. Some of the projects from Mink Creek residents have been brought home, others are awaiting being entered in the Eastern Idaho State Fair that comes up in September

             Tomorrow signals the end of summer, the kids go back to school and the two yellow buses that pick up Mink Creek youth will be making their rounds.  Families will be getting back into the routine and the scheduling that goes with school activities. We have a few families that homeschool but most attend school in Preston.

August 17, 2016

          Friends and family gathered at the home of Steve and Terry Mainini to celebrate the life of their oldest son, Mario Mainini. He was killed in a motorcycle accident on July 30 as he was returning to his home in Richmond, UT, after spending the day here in Mink Creek. He was 31 years old. Relatives and friends came from Colorado, Oklahoma, California, Utah and Idaho.

        Clifford and LaDawn Jensen have had two of their children come home this past month. Jeremy and Heidi Jensen and their children live in McCammon, ID. Kristine and John Gore and family are on the East coast.

         Patti and Forrest Christensen and Linda and Clare Christensen took some days away from the heat, vacationing in Alaska. They spent the time in a cabin owned by Brad and Raone Stuart, Forrest's sister, near Ketchikan. They had a great time fishing for salmon and halibut.

         Terry and Hayes Carr and their family were up from Centerville, UT, to attend Terry's Preston High School class reunion. Terry is the daughter of Larry and Mary Jean Rasmussen.

          Cooper Janke , the son of Jody and Laural Janke, was baptized and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Out of town aunts and uncles here for the occasion were Gene and Danalee Abernethy of Alpine, UT, and Mark and Carla Nielsen of American Fork, UT.

           The Primary organization of our LDS Ward has changed leadership. Sustained as the President was Julie Egley, with Wendy Westerberg as 1^st Counselor, Lana McCracken as 2^nd Counselor, and Kasi Avery as secretary.

           Members of the Mink Creek Ward assisted at the Legacy Branch in Heritage Home during the month of July. They also filled an assignment to the cannery in Ogden early one morning.

            A herd of elk are calling our eastern mountains home these days. They lounge about in one field for a day or two and then move a bit to greener pastures. They make themselves at home, it is easy to tell they have been here before.

            Travelers passing through might be seen parked along the highway harvesting our wild chokecherries. Others might knock on the door and ask directions for finding a good patch of the fruitful trees.

           The grain combines are in action, loading up the trucks for a haul to the granary. So far it is looking pretty good in quantity, but the price is down by half from a year ago.

           The local coyotes are excited about these last few nights of the full moon stage. Way into the wee hours they are at choir practice.

August 9, 2016

           Lorraine and Royce Christensen have had a houseful of children and grandchildren. Carrie Ann and Ken Melton and their boys, Kenny and Thomas spent a week on Carrie's home ground before heading back to Lafayette, IN. Kevin Christensen brought his little daughter Lilly up from their home in Arizona for a visit, matching some of the Melton's timing. Kimberly and Joe Tracy and their children drove down from Meridian, ID. Fred and Victoria Christensen traveled from Orem, UT, to reconnect with Fred's visiting siblings.

           Todd and Julie Kunz and children spent a weekend with her parents, Layne and Karen Erickson. The Kunz family lives in Idaho Falls.

           There has been a shift in responsibilities in the Mink Creek LDS Ward. Jimmie Olson was released as the ward executive secretary and sustained to be the ward mission leader. Trevor Rasmussen will be the new ward executive secretary.

            Izac Greene, son of Chad and Dawnell Greene, was ordained to the office of a priest in the LDS Ward. His brothers, Robert and Heston, and their families were here to witness the event. His greandmother, Carol Bodily of Pocatello and other family members came down for the occasion.

Loren and Ken Nash family of Sol Vang, CA, brought some friends to enjoy time in the Haws family home on the banks of Mink Creek.

           LDS Seminary certificates and graduation awards were announced in the LDS Sacrament Meeting for the students who had been enrolled in the program during the 2015-16 school year. Registration for the coming seminary year has begun.

            There has been a Momma Moose and her calf wandering around the lower part of our community. Those critters are leggy beasts and can cover a considerable size of territory when they decide to take a stroll. A moose on the loose can go from Station Creek to Cottonwood in a very short time.

           The apricot trees this year are loaded to the point that branches are hanging down with the weight. The trees look absolutely beautiful with the golden orbs clinging amidst the green.

            Jeff and Leigh Knudson have had visits from his children. We are glad they have been here often enough so that we call them by their first names.

            The Franklin County Fair gets underway next week and our 4H youth are busy finishing up their projects. Adults are considering what they might enter and we have a good group of fancy quilters in this village so be on the lookout for those on display.

August, already, 2016

          Mike and Mary Ann Jepsen have had families of two sons visiting. All are based in the Salt Lake City area. Jared and Andra Jepsen, plus children, and Joe and Kate Jepsen with family made enough for good cousin fun.

          Johnny and Jeaninne Iverson have enjoyed the company of her brother, Allen Pack and his wife, Vilma, for a few days. The Packs live in McKinney, TX.

         Rozann and Tom Baker came home for a revisit to Rozann's roots. Although she loves her home in Los Angeles, CA, Rozann knows that coming home to Mink Creek explains much about her.. They were in this area for a family reunion in Utah and took advantage of the close proximity.

          The home of Bob and Claudia Erickson has been buzzing for several weeks with children visits lined in a row. Drew and Hilary Erickson and their three children of Tempe, AZ, took a lengthy road trip hitting California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Utah, visiting family and friends in their path. As their tail lights faded the family of Claudine and LaMar McKague arrived from Vancouver, WA, for a week's stay while they were picking up their son, Jarin, returning from his mission in Texas. During that week the Erickson home put in a new fence with the muscle and savvy of the McKagues and the Jankes. Midway, the family of Jay and Kristin Collins pulled in. Nice to overlap visits with siblings. With many cook-outs and plenty of cousin time, things are now back to normal at the Erickson household.

        Tamara Baird Taylor and her girls spent some summer days with her parents, Lana and Ivan McCracken. Tamara just needed a break from her home in Woods Cross, UT and knew that Mink Creek would be just right for Tabitha and Autumn.

           Family reunions are all over the place. Just this past weekend there have been at least three in progress. The Archibald family at Garland Rasmussen's park A Gunnell reunion on the Trevor and April Rasmussen place, plus a Girl's camp for the Preston 8^th Ward going on at Egley's park tucked down in the shade of a curve of Mink Creek.

           With two funerals on my agenda last week, one oout of town, plus a training meeting, also out of town on another day, this blog was totally overlooked.  My apologies to my readers, my mind was on overload.  As a result you get an extra long, two weeks worth of Mink Creek happenings this week.

               Raspberries, strawberries, red currants, all have come and gone, with much delicious eating and jam production while they were with us. The chokecherries are racing towards their peak, the black currants are on the march. Sad to say, so are the earwigs and the grasshoppers. A person can't take a walk anywhere without being hit by a flying hopper!

             Rita Cargill, daughter of John Warburton, has been visiting her dad for a few weeks. Besides mingling with neighbors she has been Dad's housekeeper and companion, taking him to a Warburton Family Reunion in St. George. Rita lives in California.

            Abigail Janke spent a week in Vancouver, WA, while she was attending Especially For Youth with her cousin, Sage McKague. She had lots of fun, learned many things, met new friends, and had her first solo flight when she returned home. Now it is back to soccer and softball games and her role as big sister in her family.

            The family of Vance and Connie Christensen congregated at the home where Vance grew up at the top of Mink Creek Road. Vance and Connie now live in Vernal, UT. They had more than forty family members, including children and grandchildren: some from around Vernal, others from Texas and Colorado. Connie said it looked a bit like a tent town on the old home grounds.

            The family of Basil and Molly Crane gathered here for the funeral of Molly. She has been living in an assisted living center in Colorado near her daughter Sandra. The family had planned a birthday party for her to be held the first part of September, she would have been 100 years old on August 29^th. Molly has never been one to like lots of fuss and bother and it appears she kept her own schedule. She and Basil left a positive imprint on this small community in Idaho where they grew up.

           

           The weather has taken a bit of a shift today. Overcast much of the time and a couple of intense rain showers. This was welcome by all things. Some green has been reinjected and the slightly lower temperature has made it easier for outdoor work.

           Rodeo weekend has passed and the return to normal routines is welcome. With that passing however comes the awareness of the rapidly approaching first week of school and the need for school supplies, health checkups, fee payments and all the many things that go with that coming event.