August 28, 2023

 It has been a crazy week, but things are settling down, it is that time of year.

School has started, for our Preston School District, but for all over the nation. This event brings families visiting one more time before their routine changes in their own locations. Kent and Tammy Beardall enjoyed some time with ttwo of their daughters. Michelle and Gary Wall and children drove up from Grand Junction, CO, Nicole and Nathan Denny timed it right to join the group, coming down from Idaho Falls with their children.

Julie and Kasey Haws and extended family were here from their California home. As empty-nesters Julie and Kasey can come and go to suit themselves, but bringing family often affects the choice of spending time in Idaho. It is a beautiful time of year.

James and Rebekah Baird and their two littles. Ruth and Reuben, came down to his parents, LaRon and Liesa Baird for a few days. They live in Heyburn. ID. The senior Bairds were baby sitting while James and Bekah celebrated an anniversary. LaRon had volunteered for some grandparenting time.

We have a new family living in the center of Mink Creek. Carl and Jenny Osborn have purchased the former home of Ramona Lower Hatchett and are getting acquainted within the community.

Stuart and Stetson Ostler, a father/son team, traveled to Alaska to do a roofing job for friends. Stetson has worked in Alaska in the past. This was combined with some fun fishing, so it wasn’t all about pounding nails.

The Relief Society enjoyed a fun end-of-summer activity this month, kayaking on the Bear River. Husband were invited and some took the ladies up on it. They drove up the Narrows and gathered at Red Point, using that spot as their headquarters. Along with the water fun some of the people went as observers and had some moments to visit, play board games, and catch-up on each others lives, comparing notes as to how the summer months are going. Of course there were refreshments, all part of the party.

The sounds of harvesting permeate the area. Third crop hay, baled and either hauled and stacked on the farm or being hauled to a buyer down the road. Grain combines are busy collecting the kernels and shaking out the straw from golden fields. To match the summer’s finish for our farmers, the kids are off to school and reconnecting with teachers and friends. Those doing home-school are getting their individual curriculum lined out and underway.

The grass hoppers are constant. Some residents report that their gardens have been totally consumed. “They have even eaten the green tops of the carrots, that I hope still exist.” If a person is outdoors doing a task that requires standing in one place, such as picking green beans, or picking berries, they soon get the feeling of attack, that pebbles are being thrown randomly at them as the hoppers come from every direction.

August 16, 2023

 

The family of Angelo and Karissa Crosland gathered at the home of his parents, Robert and Phee Crosland to celebrate the blessing of Angelo and Karissa’s first baby. This daughter was named Elsie Ann Crosland. All together there were 45 family members present, coming from Utah, Idaho, Colorado and Washington, D. C. Armando is the brother employed back east he has since returned after a couple of weeks of vacation time in Idaho.

With school days rapidly approaching nationwide, it has been a time for family connections, cousin play time, before going back to studies. Such was the case for Wynn and Cecelie Costley. Their bunch came together to celebrate a birthday for Cecelie and to have one last session with Hannah Costley Singleton and her sons, Grey and Samuel, before they returned to El Dorado, AR.

Kim and Sam Daines have been up from Lehi, UT, to spend some days with her mother, Judy Clark and other family members.  Judy may now live in Preston, but Mink Creek is still 'home.'

Drew Erickson spent the rodeo weekend with his parents, Bob and Claudia Erickson. He enjoyed the “cooler temperatures” of Idaho, compared to his current home in Tempe, AZ. Rodeo weekend is the time for many Preston High class reunions and this was the 30^th year for the Class of 1993, Erickson’s graduating class. From all reports it was well attended and it was fun reconnecting.

Kurt and Margret Iverson took their family to Mexico for a late summer get-away, timing it beofre fall sports practices kicked in for their son Conner at PHS. The Iversons have been gathering around as well. Walter and Andrew and their wives will be heading back to college soon at BYU in Provo, UT. Alexis and her husband are still located in Colorado. Johnny and Gabby are in the Rexburg area. That covers the family except for Elder Charles who is serving a mission in the Philippines.

There are reports of moose and elk showing up for spectators in our canyons. This doesn’t mean that deer aren’t seen, those sightings are on a more regular basis and cause less excitement.

4H projects are in their final stages as participants wind things up to present at the Franklin County Fair in the next few days. Kids, animals and other projects are down to the final stages.

The countryside is taking on that look and feel of Fall---tan fields that just a short time ago were green, chokecherries and huckleberries ready for picking, the meteor showers that fill the night hours. People talking about school shopping and going to the county fair. It is nice to live where the season changes.

August 9, 2023

 

It has been rodeo time in more places than Preston. Kerry and Lacey Christensen took their children, Jyllian, Greenlee, Kassidy and Timber to Cheyenne Frontier Days in Cheyenne, WY. This rodeo is known as the world’s largest outdoor rodeo and runs for several days. With the Christensen girls competing in rodeo royalty in this corner of Idaho, this was a learning experience as well as fun.

Brooke and Josh Reichman will be moving to Ohio. The couple have been hoping for and putting in the hours to achieve a goal, that of Josh being accepted to further his studies at the Northeast Ohio Medical University. It has happened! Brooke is the daughter of Shane Corbett and Sherrie Golightly. Congratulations to the Reichmans!

Mink Creek youth went to Logan Canyon for an overnighter of both camp experiences and some service projects. It was scheduled for a busy weekend so the group was small, a result of many activities within the county. There were only nine youth, total, and their leaders, all under the direction of Bishop Paul McKay. They did some canoeing in the lake at Tony’s Grove, throwing in some swimming and water fun. This was old-fashioned camping, tent-style, but they managed to watch the movie Cars on a big screen. A hike from Tony’s Grove to White Pine Lake was a challenging 8-mile climb. After collecting wild flowers for identification the girls used the blooms and leaves for a craft, pressing the flowers into picture frames to decorate and serve as a memory.The young men helped build and repair fence , clean up brush, etc. for the camping area.

The descendants of the Hannah and Perry Pearson family gathered for a reunion at the Pearson home in Mink Creek. According to the report of granddaughter Melanie Hawkes Evans there were 86 in attendance. The family of Roy Pearson was in charge this year. Preston’s rodeo provided a highlight for the group. A favorite item was the coolness of the night-time hours during this stretched out heat wave.

Gardens are doing sufficiently well that it might pay to take an inventory of how many zucchini you are able to deal with at one time due to neighbor sharing. It is pretty easy to suddenly find a stack of green at your doorstep.

There was a wreck up Strawberry Canyon a few days ago. Emergency vehicles with sirens announcing their journey kept residents alert, but there have been no results made public. That road can be dangerous, and curves don’t respond well with excessive speed.

Already, August 1, 2023

 Recent winds have brought in the next month.  It almost feels like a surprise. Won't be long before school starts.

The spring green of our valley is taking on the heat of this summer and anything not irrigated has a dried, tan appearance. Grasshoppers are invading every space available and they are eating vegetation with a vengeance. It brings to mind the pioneer stories of crickets wiping out crops and seagulls coming to the rescue.

Trek has become a summer-time word. Our Primary age children, along with some parents and leaders, took their own version of trekking last month. The group had one handcart to push as they went along, containing supplies needed for this outing and on occasion a child might be a passenger in the cart. With Anna Beth Olson as their guide they started at the Olson home on Station Creek, designated as “Iowa City” and stopped in “Nebraska,” the Olson Cabin. This was the perfect place to learn about pioneers building cabins. From here, they crossed into “Wyoming” and walked all the way to Bishop Paul McKay’s campground. A learning activity was making butter with some heavy cream in a well-shaken container, the shaking taking place while they walked. Once arriving at the campground they had lunch, using the butter on slices of bread, then played some pioneer games, danced and sang pioneer songs. The return trip took them to “Independence Rock” with some scratching of letters on sandstone, crossing the “Sweetwater”(small creek on Olson farm) and getting to the “Salt Lake valley” where they celebrated with ice cream and heard some stories of Brigham Young and the challenges faced by the pioneers. Around 30 people participated in this fun event.

Tammy Beardall had several days of fun while helping her son Shawn Beardall “hold down the fort” in Spanish Fork with his five children. Shawn’s wife, Callie, and her sister Kamey, had scheduled a sisters’ retreat so Tammy helped out.

The Worm Creek Opera House recently featured the original play, “Seeing People,” authored by Mink Creek resident, April Rasmussen. It was her first undertaking of this side of theatrical endeavor and it proved very successful. Others from the community involved in the production were April’s daughters, Emma, Kate and Annie and Hazen and Dallon Baird. The play was written as a project, part of Rasmussen’s college class.

Spotty storms have swept up our valley and canyons this past week. Some strong winds have dropped branches from some aged trees in our area. The poplar trees, thick with dry branches, got an unexpected thinning out.

Rodeo weekend brought a lot of folks ‘home’ for the tradition. More will be covered on that next week.