Fall Beauty

The view outside our bedroom window

Two winters ago these pampus grass plants were frozen
and later cut down because of the severe cold-
surprise they came back more beautiful than ever...  

The morning sunlight illuminates this stalk.

Beauty just outside our window

Blog vacation...

It really wasn't a vacation just a busy busy time last week with the St. George Book Festival-photos coming later on. I also had other activities at the same time like our Daughters of Utah Pioneers group had a field trip to local historical places and then a fun picnic in perfect cooler weather.

Enjoying the park after our auto tour of historical places in town.

Getting ready for our picnic lunches and enjoying the warm sun.

As daughters of Utah pioneers we meet monthly for lessons and fun.

Open to women of all ages interested in Utah pioneer histories.

Meeting in the historic Town Square in St. George for fellowshipping. and fun.

We are surrounded by historic buildings in every direction

In the distance is the Woodbury school-one of the first schools built here.

The tabernacle built in the late 1800s still stands.

Historic houses and stores still survive to our day and have been updated.

The original Dixie Academy housed students of all
ages and served as the first college in town.

Busy Days-Boat Report...

While I've been fully engaged 24/7 this past week with the St. George Book Festival, hubby has been making GREAT PROGRESS on the boat project. Figuring out how to soak his wood strips for the gunnels on his boat––that's the upper railing on the curved sides. He is a creative engineer who loves to figure out how to create processes for furthering this special retirement project. It's going to be beautiful and PERFECT when it's done. Probably another two more years to finish up this 16 foot wooden sail, row and solar powered motor boat. Each piece of the gunnel has to be soaked in water for two days, then steamed, then held in place with clamps and eventually epoxy glued into place. More photos when I can find them as I have a new camera and new mac mini and can't get them to work together...

It starts with soaking the strips for two days in this homemade soaking tube.

Then he has to steam the board to be able to curve it to fit the boat's shape

Clamps help keep the gunnels tight to sides of boat
to take the right shape for gluing later.

Ingenius solution for steaming with a long plastic sleeve
connected to an old coleman stove and a old gas container.

It looks easy but it's very carefully measured and attached to fit perfectly.

Another view of the steamer...

All clamped together, it will dry then be stuck on with epoxy.

Youth Poetry Contest 2015

I'm now into my sixth Youth Poetry Contest organized five years ago to give school children in my area the opportunity to try their hand at writing poetry. Each year there has been a theme to write about. This year's is "I Wonder..." Amazing the wonderful ideas that get expressed by young students from grade 1st through 12th grade from those few words. The idea started in my mind and got developed by an opportunity that developed at Tuacahn Saturday's market in Ivins, Utah. Then with support from our local Washington County School District who helped promote and publicize with their teachers as well as private and home schools in the county, we were off and running. Prizes were donated by local merchants and prize money from grants from Utah state and National Endowment for the Arts.

The first year was slow going with only 100 students participating until last year's contest had 400+ students. Organizing all the entries by email-cut and paste into a word program plus a few paper entries was time consuming and very frustrating. This year's contest sponsored now by the St George Book Festival was aided by James Duckett who designed a program for submission and also thanks to Lenore and Shane for help with judging! Photos of winners coming later this week as they read their winning entries at an awards program on Sat-Oct 24th. Trying to help others find their voices through poetry is what it's all about for me.

Time for Another Challenge....

Needing to update my old mac mini 2007 (in computer language that's almost obsolete). Though it does work for some programs, it got to the point where it wouldn't run my new QUICKEN program and download my financial bank info.

So I took the plunge, since I escaped buying a new iPhone to buy a new Mac mini 2015. Then came the challenge of transferring all my programs without glasses but new lenses in my eyes and store bought reading glasses now needed to see the computer. Can we say BIG LAUGH OUT LOUD?

Almost calls for another poem that that might put me in TEARS..oh no! My eyes are healing nicely but I won't know till a week from now if I'll need to wear NEW glasses to correct both my near and far sight. Things far away are almost 20/20 but to see my face or read or book is impossible I heard that you can fixed one eye for near vision and the other eye for far vision. BUT IT'S TOO  LATE NOW!

On to new and bigger CHALLENGES. I bought a tail-less/wireless MOUSE and its so easy to use I can't believe it. Then I cleaned off and organized my physical desk and am still attempting to organize my computer desktops now linked together through i-cloud: my new mac mini, my air laptop, my i-pad and my external hard drive.

Time for another BIG LAUGH-trying not to call my guru computer son who is boating this weekend with family. I found a local retired professor of computers who is helping me get my mail working again which is very necessary as tonight is the DEADLINE for entries to the YOUTH POETRY CONTEST that I started 6 years ago to encourage school children in 1st to 12th grades to become creative. Stay tuned for more developments...

Getting a new computer cpu means cleaning and organizing your desk!

That's my little cpu with an external dvd drive, I'm learning lots trying to
make it all work together. These photos taken with my i-pad then uploaded
to i-Cloud then downloaded to my mini...lol. I need to get an I-life!!!

Relief Society Fall Party

Poster advertises our get acquainted party for our church's women

Fall decorations were bright and colorful

Our enrichment committee did a great job of decorating/planning

Lots of goodies to enjoy and hot cider

Welcoming all our women to our activity

Special song "Getting to Know YOU!"

Meeting Sally a new member of our branch.

Fun activity of questions to answer in a group

Getting to know you was the focus of our meeting and we did!

New friendships were made and old ones renewed/strengthened

An autumn drive

Itching to see some autumn leaves isn't easy when you live in the desert where there are few trees, but I got hubby to drive me up to nearby Kolob Reservoir where there were a few aspen trees and fewer maples. I remember one fall our trip to Maine was unbelievable!1

The Saga of Texting....

Once there was a grandmother who wanted to be hip
texting her grandchildren was on top of her want list.
Already savy with computers and cell phones,
how difficult could it be to type text on a screen?

First, she needed a smart phone not a dumb one would do 
a deluxe new apple iPhone six would be nice.
How to find one wasn't easy, but a dilemma to solve
with wise advice from her guru son, the search began.

So many choices: buy a used one, buy a new one
then came the service charges and the carrier fees.
Decisions, decisions, decisions and so much money
it cost just to type a few words of text to others she knew.

Prices did vary from 700 to 300 dollars––what was best?
Then came the myriad service charges and data plans.
It's easier to buy a home, but the Internet chats did help.
Verizon and Best Buy each had offers too good to pass by.

Best Buy's new I-phone was only available in Las Vegas.
It had to be picked up in person, only 100 miles away.
That wouldn't do, then Verizon had a real discount bargain
under $300 for a new phone, but the hidden charges were many.

When added together they totaled over 800 dollars 
linked to a two year service contract. Oh, what to do? The costs
were enormous with no end in sight despite chat helpers
who labored for hours for just the right combination.

At last, a decision was made, she'd not decide today
but wait till prices went down. Then grandma discovered
the iPhone had mistakenly been ordered, while trying
to cancel this big mistake, a new chat friend was made.

A worker from Verizon was most helpful in pointing
the way, that with her old phone, granny could easily text
with just a small change of her current plan and pay less

using her old phone and saving lots of hard earned cash.

Thus our saga ends with grandma gaily texting
family and friends on her old (she thought) dumb phone
while ignoring the internet which wasn't needed for texting,
Grandmother joins the rising new generation of techies.

Good morning sunrise

So thankful for eyes that see and a cool fall sunrise and my iPad that takes photos...Unfortunately I lost my old camera at the airport on my last trip––so now it's the I-pad for photos. I'm in the process of getting a smart I-phone that will take photos also. But trying to find the best deal on it.