March 28, 2017

         Water, if there is a level spot there is water. The recent rains of the last week have not helped the situation. Strawberry Creek has jumped its normal course in several spots and spread out over the flatter areas nearby. The culverts meant to contain the flow of more than one of our streams are insufficient for the amount of water causing overflow, causing the water to go up and over, or else around. There are a few spots where water is coming up through the pavement of the roads. One home with a lengthy paved driveway has had the entire length crumble. It is a good thing those home owners are not easily discouraged.

            Near milepost 8 and milepost 12 on Highway 36 the hillsides that border the road on the upper side are doing their best to creep out into the highway. It seems to be Nature vs. Man. In several places the water is causing the shoulder of the road to collapse. When the weather settles down there is going to be a need for much repair work.

           At least two families found their way to the NASCAR races this month. Steve and Terry Mainini went down to Las Vegas, NV, meeting family and friends in this annual family outing. Both Steve and Terry have California family and this is a good half-way spot for spending some time together. Kent and ReNae Egley and some of their children did the NASCAR thing this year for the first time and had very favorable reports.

            The Twin Lakes Canal Company has had some challenges getting the water from its source in Mink Creek over to the Twin Lakes on the west side of the valley. There have been multiple mud slides along the miles of canal that had obstructed the flow of water. It all had to be cleared out by bulldozer and trackhoe before water would be available for the coming irrigating season of the farmers. Modern equipment had its challenges, imagine what it would have been if all had to be done with teams of horses, scrapers and shovels as when the canal was begun.

            Three of our young women have recently been involved in cheerleading competitions and returned with smiles of performances well done. They are Hayden Egley, McKinley Longhurst, and Davanie Ostler. Three other teens performed in the Preston School Orchestra concert: Bracken Christensen playing a bass, Abigail Janke with her trumpet, and David Seamons on the violin.

           It is Spring Break this week for our school-age kids. The weather has indicated at least two of their vacation days having strong chances of rain and gloom. For those students living on working farms the break often means more time for spring farm work. That activity is just getting underway as our field ground is drying out enough to support the weight and action of equipment.

Day after Spring begins, 2017

           The Relief Society held their birthday celebration this year, celebrating the 175^th year of their organization with the teenage girls invited to share in the fun. They met at the LDS Recreation Hall for a dinner of taco salad with multiple trimmings, ice cream and birthday cake, assembled and made by Dana Olson. The theme of the evening was “A Few of My Favorite Things.” Each lady in attendance had brought a favorite thing in a brown paper bag, some tied up with string, all anonymous. Laural Janke led the group in singing along with Julie Andrews “These Are A Few of My Favorite Things,” the precursor to opening the brown paper packages. As each was opened there was much guessing as to which individual claimed it as a favorite. There were many surprises and it was a delightful evening of fun. The room was decorated with heirlooms from the past and a clothes line full of aprons and other domestic duty laundry. Laural's able assistants were April Rasmussen, Jasmine Erickson, Anna Beth Olson, Jennifer Seamons, Juli Egley and Margret Iverson.

            Robert and Phee Crosland and family traveled to Rigby, ID, to participate in the blessing of a new granddaughter. She was blessed and given the name Makala Kunde, the daughter of Malia and Jason Kunde.

            The members of the Young Women auxiliary invited their parents to the annual spring meeting “Young Women in Excellence.” There was a display of the various talents of the girls: love of animals, cheerleading, tumbling, music in the form of trumpet, guitar, a vocal rendition, piano, soccer and softball. The young women are Celina Crosland,Hayden Egley, Hannah Greene, Abigail Janke,Tara Jepsen, Emily Longhurst, Davanie Ostler, Liberty Stanworth and McKinley Longhurst. Their leaders are Laurel Wilde, Maryann Jepsen, and Dawnell Greene. Refreshments served were banana splits.

          There are multiple mud slides on our slopes. One of particular interest is on the north side of Birch Creek Road above the Keller fish ponds because the road is heavily used. Most of the intersections on all of the roads that join with Highway 36 have had some erosion from the heavy runoff this last month. Bear River flows at the official entrance to Mink Creek community and the river is running very high, full of brown muddy water. As we drive to Preston Foster Reservoir is noticed with its shrinking ice cover as the warming temperatures and runoff water are collected daily.

           It must really be spring. My robin count today was 2, pheasants 3, and one chukar. I spooked the chukar and the sound of his flight was wonderful. Yesterday may have been the official day of spring on the calendar, but today confirmed it.

           Farmers all over the county are getting machinery ready to hit their fields. Many are waiting and hoping for those fields to get sufficiently dry after being submerged in water a couple of weeks ago. Wonder how long it will be before we complain about how dusty things are.

March 15, 2017

         Relatives of Tawni Hall gathered round to celebrate her marriage to Tayson Reid recently. Tawni is the daughter of Kristi and Bret Hall. Her brothers, Bridger and Tyson were able to give some brotherly advice to Tayson. Tawni's gradfathers were both there, Vernon Keller of Mink Creek and Dallas Hall of Wellsville, UT. Kristi's siblings drove up; Kelton Keller and family from Alpine, UT. Chris and Karla Jensen and Karma Wood from Logan., Jeff and Kay Hill of West Jordan, UT, Clay and Nancy Torfin of Fairview, ID. Doug and Shelley Keller, Bret's sister, live in Preston.. Other out of town relatives were Rob and Kamee Summers and Brian and Cindy Gardner, all of Wellsville, and Steven and Lorene Lieshman of Logan. Tawni and Tayson will be settling into life as Mr. and Mrs. Reid in Richmond, UT.

            After making the decision to go for citizenship in the United States Mink Creek resident Pedro Gomez has spent months studying, getting ready to take the required test. This past week he and his wife, Avery, drove to Boise where the test is administered. We are happy to report that Pedro passed and those giving the test had no question as to whether or not he could speak English, since he was conversing easily with them in the language. Congratulations are in order for Pedro and his family, Later this spring there will be an official ceremony in honor of those who have achieved this goal.

             There has been a great deal of activity in our canyons at the beginning of this week while a lengthy search was being conducted by the Franklin County Search and Rescue unit and other volunteers. The young man, Kacey Hebdon, had been lost while snowmobiling with friends in the Copenhagen Basin area. A fierce winter storm moved in and he ended up spending the night and then some in the midst of snow and wind. The whole county celebrated when he was finally found and, though chilled to the bone, in relatively good shape.

              The annual Blue and Gold Banquet for the Cub Scouts was well attended. Cubmaster Sharla McKay used the theme of STEM for the evenings activities. STEM stands for S-science, T-technology, E- engineering, M- math, all areas that need strengthening in our world of today. For their feast those attending enjoyed a potato bar with all the trimmings, salads and a tasty chocolate dessert. Leaders of each den provided activities. The Bear leaders, Liesa Baird and Margret Iverson, dealt with Legos. Layne and Karen Erickson had a Weblos erupting volcano. Avery Gomez and Phee Crosland had created robotic bugs.

             It has been “that kind” of a week again and this is late. We have had a most welcome change in the weather and enjoyed several sunny, drying days. Normally this would not be worthy of report, but with the excess moisture that this winter has presented, drying is much desired for right now. Of course, before too much time passes we will be complaining about the dust. For now we are dealing in mud and reminding ourselves that winter most likely is not over.,

              Farm auctions throughout southeastern Idaho are underway, right on schedule. My guess is that the auctioneers feel fortunate when they can locate a place large enough, and dry enough, to hold their auctions and provide parking for their customers.

            Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Dust off your Irish genealogy and put on a bit o' green.

Lamb or Lion, 2017

Lamb or Lion for March?  I think it is a toss-up at this point.

           Our snowy slopes have been put to good use in more than one instance recently. The family of Johnny and Jeaninne Iverson gathered for their annual Mink Creek Snowfest. This year there were 25 attending from across the nation: Virginia, Texas, Utah, California, Colorado , even a few from Idaho. The excess water on our slopes this past month had rearranged their usual sledding hill, but other spots were located. The Iverson clan had ongoing board games over the three day event and enjoyed special Dutch-oven potatoes and the 6 batches of belated Valentine cookies that Jeannine produced. The children helped with some of the cooking for the event and that made extra fun for everyone.

         It was Winter Scout Camp time and the Copenhagen Basin area rang with the noise of young men and leaders digging their snow caves, making preparations for their overnighter in the deep snow. The numbers were good this year, about 70 scouters all told participated. Five Mink Creek scouts attended: Jonathan Seamons, Keenan Janke, Bryce Egley, Bracken Christensen, and Charles Iverson. They were accompanied by leaders Robert Crosland, Kim Rasmussen, Sheldon Longhurst, and Kurt Iverson. It snowed the whole time they were there, but the caves proved to be fairly comfy for their sleeping accommodations. The guest speaker for the occasion provided good words of advice and wisdom with his story of survival. All enjoyed the Klondike Race using sleds, snowshoes, hauling straw bales to test their mettle. Our group always enjoys the food whipped up by Kim Rasmussen; in this case it was soup bowls and eggs and sausage in the early hours. They had no need for extra refrigeration on this campout.

         We've had another moose on the loose. This one was up Birch Creek and it decided to join the little herd of horses that belong to Kerry and Lacey Christensen. The horses were not pleased, nor were the Christensens and it took patience on the part of all the neighborhood before things got settled back to normal.

         MaryAnn Jepsen had some down-time recently, down in St George, UT. It was a Ladies' Event with her daughters-in-law. Sunshine and Home Tours were two of the main events of this time for relaxation. Just the thing to help a case of the winter-blues.

         Every few days we catch a glimpse of spring, followed by snow flurries and wind. March 1^st did come in like the proverbial lamb, and judging from forecasts for much of the remainder of the month, we are going to be enduring Lion weather for most days.

         The spillway of the Twin Lakes Canal is dumping its water into the Bear River. It may not be a celebrated waterfall, but it has a charm all its own to those of us who live nearby.  Due to the winter weather and mud slides along the route of the canal the crews are working on repairing winter's damage before the annual date  arrives to have it full for irrigation purposes.