At Long Last

Three and a half years ago I planted a mimosa tree in my yard. There are several of them in my neighborhood and I love the feathery pink blossoms. The first summer that I had the tree it grew from about 4 feet to about 6 feet but it didn't bloom. The next spring I waited in anticipation for it to do something but it never did. April and May passed by without any sign of it putting forth leaves and by June I admitted that it wasn't just a late bloomer, it was dead. I decided to cut the tree down before I dug up the root ball. When I unwrapped the tape at the base of the trunk I found several tiny green shoots growing out of it. I decided that since the tree was trying to live I would give it a chance. I cut it down to about 6 inches from the ground and I watched it grow. It grew really fast, about 5 or 6 feet that summer, so I was hoping that it would make it. The next spring I found that it had died down to about 3 feet, so I trimmed it back and decided to give it another chance. It grew several feet again last summer, but it never bloomed. This spring I found that it had again died back somewhat, but not nearly as much as it had in the past. Still, I was getting really irritated with the tree. I told it that it had better do something besides look weedy this year or I was done with it. Again, it has grown quite a bit this summer, but there have been no blossoms until I went out yesterday to mow the lawn and found six blossoms. Today there are nine. My poor little weedy tree is finally starting to look like a real mimosa, so I guess I will keep it around.

Fall Colors

I took my camera on my hike this evening so I could capture some of the great fall colors out there. It's amazing how much they have changed just in the last week. Nothing exciting to report. I did try to take a picture of Shady carrying a 3 foot branch in her mouth but she was always moving so fast that I couldn't get a photo to turn out. She carried that branch for about 10 minutes and she was clearly thrilled with herself.

Fernwood Trail

Shady and I hiked the Fernwood Trail in Layton this afternoon.

This is the view from the bottom of the trail.
Later we got to a spot that was burned a few years ago.

One happy coonhound enjoying the trail.

These are the tops of the mountains. We got close but we didn't quite make it all the way to the top today.

Here we are at the top looking down.

Here are a few statistics courtesy of the cool GPS unit Mom and Rick gave me.

Elevation at the trail head: 5228ft

Elevation at the point where I'd had enough: 7792ft

Total gain in elevation: 2567ft

Total miles round trip: 4.1

Trip duration 2 hrs 56 minutes

First Week of School

Well the first week of school is behind me now, and there are only about 41 weeks left until summer break. Just kidding!

Wednesday was our first day with kids, and by the end of that day I was seriously wondering if I sold everything I owned and drained my bank accounts how long could I live in Mexico? Thursday and Friday were much better days, so I guess that I will stick it out for now.

I seem to have good students for the most part and so far the kids are happy and doing well. I have a lot of new kids this year so it will take some time to really get to know them.

Anyway, between working and hiking with the coonhound I don't seem to have much time for anything else, so at least I am keeping busy. I will actually be glad when the weather gets cooler so we can go hiking right after work and I might actually feel like I have time for something else in the evenings. I have found a new trail in Layton that I am really enjoying right now.

Coonhound Update

After a week of hoping that Shady's wound would heal I finally gave in and took her over to Eric's for some stitches. Because the wound was so old he had to give her anesthesia and trim the edges before he could close it. He didn't find a pellet, so unless she licked it out it was just some kind of a puncture wound.

I had to work that afternoon, but I wanted to keep an eye on her because she was so doped up, so I took her to work with me. She slept for about an hour before she got up and wandered groggily around my classroom. After a few minutes she managed to find a stuffed fish baby toy. It is made of several fabric textures and it has rubber fins and a squeaker inside. She spent the next two hours just standing there looking dazed with that fish in her mouth. Occasionally she would bite it hard enough to make it squeak, but mostly she just stood there. I wish I had taken a picture of her but I didn't think to do it.

I have definitely learned my lesson about taking her to other vets. The one in Kaysville charged me $120 to look at her and give her antibiotics. He told me that if I wanted him to stitch the wound it would cost me about $350. Eric gives me a nice discount, but before the discount his price to look at her wound, give her anesthesia, stitch her up, give her a rattlesnake vaccine and antibiotics was only $180. Enjoy the vet bills, Mom!

Jef, there is a waterfall about 2 miles up Farmington Canyon. I've been going to Adams canyon which is between my house and Grandpa's house and it has a waterfall 1.3 miles up. I also just found out that there is another waterfall in Adams canyon just above the car park. I wish I had known that when I took Mom and Rick up there a couple of weeks ago.

Don't Shoot the Coonhound!

Last week when Mom and Rick came up they brought me a hand-held GPS unit that I can use for hiking. I am thrilled to now be able to statistically quantify my hiking experiences.

This morning I tried the unit out for the first time. Unfortunately it doesn't come with a topographical map, so it just charts my course on a white background. I did find that the trip up to the waterfall in Adams Canyon is 1.35 miles and I gain 400 feet in elevation. I am disappointed that my round trip is only 2.7 miles. It feels like I should be covering a lot more ground in 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Back in June I went to pet Shady one day and discovered a hole in her side. Tuesday night it happened again. I ended up taking her to the vet here in Kaysville this time because Eric isn't in his clinic on Wednesdays. The vet and the vet tech argued over whether or not it looked like she had been shot with a pellet gun. The tech thought that it looked like she'd been shot, but the vet said that if she had been shot the pellet would have driven her fur into the wound. The tech argued that since Shady had been licking her wound she would have licked the hair out of it. The vet said that even if she had been shot it would do more damage to dig around for the pellet so the best thing to do was just give her antibiotics and let it heal on its own. She's a very quiet dog so I doubt that she bothers any of the neighbors and since the hoodlum moved out last year I can't imagine any of my neighbors doing something like that. I also can't figure out what she could be cutting herself on around my house or yard. I don't want the wound to get infected and Tick was never good about keeping a bandage on, so I decided to put a T shirt on her when we go hiking.

Check out this sexy beast! She does look good sporting a T shirt.

She also enjoys making friends along the trail. These two were having such a good time playing together.

Anybody Want Some Wheat?

I have a ton of wheat if anyone wants it. 200 lbs. of wheat from 1985 and 250 lbs. of wheat from 1998. I don't know if any of it still has any nutritional value, but as of last week I was still using it to make tasty bread. Call me if you want any of it. 801-660-5367