Anazasi Ridge

There is a special place to see when you are in the St George area, called Anasazi Ridge. It is a short thirty minute hike to a location high above the Santa Clara River. The ancient Indians of approximately 2000 years ago left many petrographs in the area. they are unusual in that they are on the tops of the stones on a high cliff over looking the river, rather than on the vertical faces of rock walls.

It was a great hike. It must of been easier for the ancient people as they had seven toes.

I thought this one was cool as I think that it depicts two people in combat.

This hunter is surrounded by the game he hunts. It looks like a Big Horn Sheep, Deer, Lizard or squirrel and his faithful dog chasing the deer.

The wild flowers are still wonderful these are Desert Daises.

The Prickly Pear flowers are some of the best with coral petals with yellow centers.

This would be a great place to visit on your next trip to St George.

Mothers Day

Today is Mothers Day, a time for our wives to enjoy one day a year with out all the trials of Motherhood, or is it a time for us men keep the kids quiet and not mess up the house too much in our attempts at burnt offerings to Motherhood.

I found the perfect gift for my wife this time. Instead of giving her the traditional gift of flowers that were on sale at Kmart. I gave her something that she has wanted all year "Cash Money" and my driving her around all Saturday morning to Yard and Garage Sales. She did pretty well, a Levi Skirt, nice sweater, a small food processor, more picture frames and so on.

This last week was also a very musical time. We went to a local Mexican Restaurant Thursday Night on Ancestor Square to celebrate "Cinco De Mao". Then went to the free concert that is held there every Thursday. Ancestor Square is in the center of Town where many old pioneer buildings have been restored, it is on the same block as the Brigham Young summer home. The center of the block has been converted in to a small park like area with a rocky stream and grass to sit on.

Friday we enjoyed a concert at Tuachan with Don McClain. He is a song writer and performer. The performance was one of the best. Every one, even the old folks were standing, singing dancing and enjoying some of the older classics that he wrote.

This Monday night we will be attending the "Concert in the Park" that St George City does. We will take our lawn chairs and sit in the shade with some of our friends and enjoy some Blue Grass and Country Music.

We are looking at having new Ceramic Tile installed downstairs in the kitchen/dining room area. Marlene has been unhappy with the vinyl flooring that is in place even though it look great to me. I have had several different contractors come by and give us bids. We are learning a lot about tile. There are Quarry, Ceramic , Porcelain, and Full body type type of tiles. I told Mom that if we get some new tile that she will have to sacrifice a Cruse vacation this year. She seems to be OK with that as long as I take her to lots of concerts here in St George.

Our garden is growing well. We went by Tuesday and planted some more Water and Honeydew Melon. We will have produce coming out of our ears if only part of our efforts are successful.

Life is good here in our little home in St George.

Desert Flowers

We thought that it would be fun to take a trip to enjoy all the desert wild flowers that are so abundant in the St George area this time of year. The Red Cliff National Recreation Area is near Leeds, on the Freeway before you go up the hill to Cedar City. It was a very good choice There are several fun trails to hike. The small meandering stream makes small pools and waterfalls as it descends to the valley below.

The wild flowers were in their best as the weather has warmed and we have had several rain storms the last few days

There was a large Tree Cholla on the trail. It is rather rare in this part of Utah.

The Scarlet Hedgenette grows near the stream where it is shady and moist.

The color of the Globe Mallow is exceptional, the plant has many many flowers and loves the Heat and Sun. They grow in large groups.

If a person looks in and around the sage type of brush you will find some Desert Primrose peeking out

The Desert Marigold is very abundant and in some locations make the whole hillside turn yellow.

It is truly amazing what the desert can look like when nature's best is all dressed up at this time of year.

Lets go fly a kite, hopefully

There is a annual Kite Festival in St George, it is a great event with thousands of people involved. They stage it in a large grassy area that is normally used as a driving range and park. Many school buses are used to carry folks from the parking lots to the Kite Flying Park. It is very much like a County Fair with entertainment, rides, lots of booths selling food ect.

Marlene and I went with some of our friends, set up our camp chairs and waited and waited and waited, no wind. It was so calm that the flags at the end of the field did not stir.

There was games for the little kids, home made ice cream, Navajo Tacos. Every one waited and waited, No wind.

The kids ran around with their kites dragging behind. Mom and dads cheered them on, no wind.

Marlene and I walked over to the pavilion where the entertainment was going on and listened to groups sing and dance. There was some groups with pre-teen age girls and boys singing their hearts out while all of the mom and dads cheered them on, no wind.

There was some helium filled balloons, that some forward thinking dads tied to kites, good idea but no go!

We went and had some Pizza, had a great time talking and sitting in the shade. We had a very successful day. When we got home the kids in on our street were running up and down still trying to get kites to fly. We found that no matter how much you run around kites will still not fly unless there is some wind.

I think this is somehow how life is? We some times try to fly a kite with no wind and are frustrated and disappointed, but we can still enjoy the sun shine and then sit in the shade and eat pizza and have a wonderful time even at a Kite Festival with out any wind.

Soccer, Birthday, and donkeys

General Conference is a time to be spent with family so Marlene and I drove to California to be with Roy and Angel's. Tyler celebrated his birthday while we were there. Angel had made a special birthday cake with a monster truck on the top of it. Tyler's main gift to to go to a Monster Truck Rally in the near future. We played Conference Bingo, Mom made notes of everything that was said. Roy, I and Nathan went to the Priesthood Session. It was Nathan's first time.

The Truck was removed before the cake was consumed.

Saturday was Soccer day for the Tyler and Megan. It was great to be there and watch them play ball. Megan's team it called the Crushers and they are really good they won the game by a score of 7-2. Tyler's game was not so competitive, at that young age they don't keep the score so it was fun to fun

On the way back to St George we spent a few days at Laughlyn, Nevada which is in the Southeast corner of the state where Nevada, California and Arizona join. We visited Oatman Arizona a old ghost type of town that is about twenty miles away from Laughlyn. They stage a gun fight in the street several times a day and there are lots of small shops that Marlene likes.

Some the Mules were left when the Gold Mining was stopped and are now wild. The Mules come in to town looking for food, many of the stores sell carrots. Marlene had fun with them even though she thought that they had too many flies.

We went on a Paddle Wheel Boat up and down the Colorado River, had lots of Buffet Meals then It was back home to St George.

garden time, and exploring

We went for an exploring trip into the area know as the Arizona Strip, that area of Arizona that is north of the Grand Canyon and south of the South West Corner of Utah. It is very isolated and can only be reached by dirt roads from the St George area. Most of the Arizona Strip is now in a National Monument created by President Clinton about the same time that he made the Grand Staircase, Escalate National Monument. There is a Gipson mine on the road. The view back towards St George is wonderful. We found and picked up some very pretty and unusual rocks.

We are going to plant our garden this week. We have some friends in the Ward who have a garden spot, 100 feet long and 40 feet wide. It is huge, so we are going to share the plot. I am planting Cherry, Early Girl, and Heat Wave Tomatoes. The Heat Wave Tomatoes are very popular here in St George as they thrive in very hot weather. I also am planting Red Bell Peppers. Our Friends are going to plant Green Bell Peppers so we can share. The rest of our planting will be Cucumbers, Butter Nut Squash, Zucini and Watermelon. The Watermelon do good here as long as they are well watered. The farm has a flood irrigation system with our water turn every Tuesday so we should we alright. Most crops have two seasons with a spring planting and a early fall planting.

The weather her is turning quite warm this week. They say that we have two weeks of Spring here in St George then Summer, Hot, Summer and Cool. It is suppose to be around eighty five degrees Friday.

PIcking, Rocks and Fish

Saturday, We were driving around and and came across a sign that said that there was a "Horse Lovers Estate Sale". Mom is never one to pass a Garage, Yard, or Estate Sale so we stopped to see what was going on. Yup, it was at some Horse Barns and they were selling all kinds of gear for those large animals. I was ready go to home when Mom went out to the office in front of the barn where She found a old dirty wood carving laying on the floor. We asked what they wanted for It and they said the $ 2.00 was fair.

The piece is a hand carving of the Last Supper done in relief, every detail has been carved out by hand. It must have taken months to carve it. The wood appears to be Mahogany as the wood is reddish colored on the back where it has not been finished. We cleaned it up and it is now hanging on the wall in the Front Room.

There is a community fish pond about 3/4 miles from our home. Monday was a wonderful day Clear and warm, about 75 degrees. Mom packed a lunch and we went to find a park where could enjoy the sunshine and food. We went to several parks but they were all full, so we thought that we would go up to the pond as there are a couple to tables there. Bingo, success, a table with a cover. We sat and enjoyed the weather and watched all the families fishing. It is spring break this week. It looked like so much fun that we decided to give it a try the next day. The limit is two fish so after we got our fish and went home and had very fresh trout for dinner. They were super good. We are going to go there again soon.

Today, Wednesday, we went rock hounding. There are lots of places to go here for that kind of fun. I went on the Internet and found some promising locations. Hurricane Mesa was our choice. The Mesa is the home of a test site which was used in the 50's for acceleration test for the ejection seats in jet airplanes. The Base is still there and is restricted but there are still some locations to find Petrified Wood and Agate.

There was quite a lot of P Wood around if you looked hard enough. Mom was much better than me at finding it.

On the road back down from the Mesa We stopped to have some lunch, While Mom was still eating I thought that I would pull some of the shale apart that was on the side of the road. I found this Fossil. It is very fragile so I took some pictures of it. The flowers must have been very pretty, but you can't tell their color. I wonder if they had bees back in prehistoric times.

The Picture above is of the Agate that we found most of it is translucent and very pretty