My Top Ten Stories for 2007

1. In February, we moved all of my pottery stuff out of the old Paradise post office, which I was renting into an old pig birthing building on our new property. The new building is bigger and better. It had been used as a quilting studio at one time, but it's still possible to figure out where the pigs were kept. Pigs to pots, with quilts in between seems like a pretty good use for a building.

2. In March I did some pottery teaching at an elementary school in Ogden. It went really well. I'd say the students were the best behaved of any that I've ever taught. Once or twice a year, I'm hired to teach kids how to make pots. One of the highlights of the two weeks I was there was seeing the tables and tables worth of pots, animals, and creatures. As part of my pay I always get a lot of kids telling me it was the funnest thing they've ever done, lots of smiles, and a few hugs. While I was teaching my daughter was in Central America. I got a message that she needed some extra money for scuba diving off the coast of Panama. Well, that was the last I heard from her for four days. It was a long four days until I heard from her again. (These pigs were made by 1st graders)

3. On June 21st, Trevor, his wife, Jo, and baby Isaiah came to visit. We went with long time friends Wayne and Julie Dymock to the Sun Tunnels. The cement cylinders were created in the 1970's by land artist Nancy Holt. They are aligned for the summer and winter solstice. Lovers of the earth and sun make the trek to the western desert each year. One interesting guy in his early sixties wearing a "burning man" T-shirt had been there all week to greet visitors and tell his story. We watched as a couple of young women pulled down their pants and relieved themselves in plain view. I thought that was very odd, but then noticed there wasn't much else they could've done. After we all crowded around the cement tube to watch the sun set, we finished our hot dog roast and headed to Grouse Creek. It was great fun.

4. First annual Paradise Spring Artist's Sale. We experimented with holding an art sale at the town hall on Saturday before Memorial Day and then continuing on with it Monday during our Fire Department's breakfast. We had live musicians on Saturday and hardly anyone came. On Monday however, after breakfast a lot of people walked through. Lesson learned: Only people with full stomachs are interested in art, and only if they are already in the vicinity. We'll try again this year though.

5. July 4th weekend in Grouse Creek: Ginger is home! After coming home from Central America, Ginger went to Austria and spent a couple of months there. Then she came home just in time to head out with the family to Grouse Creek, our favorite town of less than 100 full-time residents. We watched the parade, hiked, ate the annual feast, and had an overall good time. Ginger, always the statement of fashion wore a smock. I'd assured her she was too skinny for anyone to think she was pregnant, but one of our favorite older women said, "Looks like you have an announcement to make." She isn't married and I doubt she will be anytime soon.

6. July ? Also towards the end of the month we had the well on our property water witched. Dale Newbrand was over ninety years old and had been among other things, a water witch his whole life. He was a great man with as many tales to tell as years of life. First he asked Mick to find a branch from a pitted fruit tree. We had a choke cherry on our property that did fine. Mick drove Dale over the property, and apparently he could feel something through the truck floor while holding the twig. Then he got out and used straight copper rods and a twisty rod. Using these devices he could tell us where to dig, the strength of the flow, and the depth. He had us mark all this down. It may have been the last well he ever witched. He died in October. We still haven't had a chance to dig our well because we didn't get our permit until a week ago. We hope for his legacy that he was right on.

7. Also in July at the end of the month, our building permit finally came through. Trevor and Joanna had come to live us, worked for a couple of months doing odds and ends while we waited to get started on our house. It came through right after they had to co back home to Colorado. The basement was dug August 3rd! Another great thing that happened on July 14th was Isaiah learned to walk.

8. August 12th: The whole family (Mick, Ginger, and I) went to Avon, Colorado to celebrate Isaiah's first birthday. While there we had an exciting trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was beautiful.

9. My 50th Birthday Party: We thought we'd plan just a little get together to celebrate the big one. We had somewhere between 40 and 50 people in our backyard. We made a big barbeque roast and lots of people brought salads. Earlier in the day some of us went on my traditional birthday hike. We climbed to Jardine Juniper, the 3200 year old tree. My first birthday hike in Cache Valley was 12 years ago when I turned 38. How time flies. It's been a great life so far. This was also the first hike this summer of the newly formed Paradise hiking group. We also hiked Richard's Hollow, The Wind Caves, Crimson Trail, Temple Fork, and Rosie's Mine. The tarantula was on the Wind Cave's trail--posed nicely for the photo.

10. The well permit finally came through which means we can have water at our new house. A pretty nice end to a great year!

Bonus story: Ginger cut her hair! Ginger has never had really short hair. We love it.