Israel Day 1

I was hoping to be able to do this while we were actually in Israel, but internet access was not what we'd hoped it would be.  I have hundreds of pictures, so I will post them by place.

The first place we visited was Har-Meggido, which is often mistranslated as Armegeddon.  Har means mountain, and I don't know if it was always a mountain or if it has just been built up so many times that it is now a mountain (and by mountain I mean hill).  Meggido was first built in 4000 B.C.  It was destroyed and rebuilt 22 times, the last time being in 400 A.D.  Here are some pictures of the ruined city.

This shot is looking out over the valley of Amegeddon.  It is a very fertile valley and has been a crossroads for thousands of years, and because of that it has been the scene of many wars.

This is a grain silo.  Instead of building them up, they dug huge pits and filled them with grain.  Being under ground kept the grain cool and prevented rotting.

This was the site of an ancient stable, and they have put a horse figure there to show where they were kept.

This is a trough in the stable.

All of these ancient cities have been built on top of previous cities because of their location near a water source.  This shaft and the tunnel below were excavated thousands of years ago so the people within the city could get to the spring even when the city was surrounded by enemies.  The spring was walled off and covered from the outside so that invading armies wouldn't have a water source.

This is the spring at the end of the tunnel.  More to come....

Philadelphia

It's taken me a little while to get this blogged.  Because of course, when you have a trip planned, win a trip, and have several other major expenses come up, the best thing that can happen is that your computer dies.  The desk top is dead and I am now trying to get used to the new lap top.  Anyway, now that the lap top is up and running, here are a few pictures.

Here we are at I-Hop on our first morning together.

After breakfast we headed over to the historic section of Philadelphia.  

We saw the Liberty Bell.

And this guy in the Visitor's Center.

We explored a cool old grave yard where Ben Franklin and several other Founding Fathers are buried.

Then we visited some of the other buildings in the area.

On day 2 we explored Valley Forge.  This was a really cool old chapel.

This is a monument to the only soldier buried at Valley Forge whose grave was actually marked.

Outside of the chapel.

Another cool monument at Valley Forge.

As pretty much everyone now knows, I won a trip to Israel a couple of days before we left for Valley Forge.  I knew that I was going to win this trip as soon as I qualified for it.  On the morning of the drawing I snapped this picture.  You can't really tell from the picture, but the rainbow ends right at my car.  As I took this picture I wished for a pot of gold, but if not I would take a trip to Israel.

This is the trail head to Baer Canyon.  Some idiot set the area on fire a few days ago.  I can't believe they were able to put it out before it spread any farther.

We were hiking up the canyon when I found Shady standing at attention just looking at this little bird.  I was so proud of her for not eating it.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find it's nest and I'm sure it died or was eaten by something else. 

Checking In

Well,  so far my summer has not exactly gone as planned.  I had high hopes for making some extra money this summer.  I'm able to put in  some extra hours on the geneology project, but that money is limited.  I was planning on donating plasma.  You can earn up to $50 per week if you donate twice in a week.  I donated twice, but when I showed up for my third appointment I was told that the results of my initial blood tests had shown that I have "antibodies" in my blood, and I am therefore banned for life from giving plasma.  The nurse explained that antibodies can be transmitted from fetus to mother, or can develop in response to a past infection such as chicken pox.  Given that, I am wondering how anyone can qualify to give plasma, since I don't know anyone who hasn't had an infection in the past.

My other money-making scheme for the summer was to do some dog hiking.  I put up fliers in a couple of vet offices and an ad on ksl.com, but I've had no interest in it.  It's just me and Shady battling the occasional rattle snake.

I was also hoping to expand my social circle by attending a single's institute class and activities in the Centerville area.  I've made it to class every Wednesday night and I've met a couple of people there, but I am having no luck with the other activities.  They were supposed to meet for a hike at Mueller Park a few weeks ago.  I showed up at the designated time and waited for 20 minutes without seeing a single other soul show up.  I finally just went on the hike, and as I was going down I passed the group on their way up.  Apparently I was supposed to meet at the church near the park, not at the park itself.  As it turns out there were about 4 men and over 20 women in the group, so my chances of meeting men weren't great there anyway.  There was also supposed to be an activity at Davis High on the 4th of July.  This time I read the meeting directions closely and I went to the south-west corner of the DATC field kitty corner from the LDS church on Main Street and I looked for the Colonial American flag.  I wandered through the crowd of thousands for about 10 minute without seeing the flag or anyone that I recognized, so I gave up and left.  Oh well.

On the brighter side I have finished my rock garden!

Thanks to the generous donation of rock from Cindy and Brent I didn't have to carry all of these rocks in my backpack.  Their rocks filled in about a 6 foot section of the flower bed.  My backpack lasted through this whole ordeal but it finally gave out on the last trip.  This looks much better than the old weed-pile surrounded by chicken wire.

And, of course, there has been a lot of hiking.  We are hiking every morning and every evening.  So far we have seen 3 rattlesnakes and I have killed one.  If I ever chance to kill another one I will remember to take pictures for the blog.

Most of the time we are hiking Bair or Adams Canyons, but we have done a few other hikes too.  This one is just north of Adams Canyon.  It heads straight up the mountain and after about 2 hors you come to a little cabin.  It is much further up and a little nicer than the one above Fernwood.  There was also a pretty field of flowers that day.

It's a great hike but at the moment it is too dang hot to do it again.  We spent all of June waiting for warm weather and it is finally here with a vengance.  Up above my house there is a spot on the mountain where, as the snow melts, it forms the shape of a horse.  Apparently the old Indian saying is that if the snow horse is visible on June 1st there will be enough water to last through the summer.  This year the snow horse wasn't distinguishable until the last week in June, and it was still visible on July 5th.  Right now you can still make out the body but the face has melted.

So, that's what I have been up to.  I'm looking forward to meeting the Barnes family in Philadelphia in a couple of weeks, then it will almost be time to get ready to go back to school.  Nooooooooo!

Memorial Day 2011

Well, Memorial Day 2011 has turned out to be a lot like Spring Break 2011 - cold and snowy.  This is what I woke up to this morning.

I tried to take the coonhound for a hike up Baer Canyon this morning.  We didn't even make it to the bridge before I gave up.  The trees were all weighed down with snow and had flopped down onto the path.  Within about 10 minutes I was soaked to the skin and freezing from trying to fight my way through them.  It is now 1 pm and the snow has not melted, so we may not be going back there this evening  According to the KSL weather page we've hit an all-time record for wettest spring. During March, April, and May so far, we have receieved OVER 10.26 inches of water in SLC. That's the most in at LEAST 150 years. We hit the record for May as well- over 4.76 inches.  Our current snow pack total for the state is 381% of average.  Many areas of the state are around 450% of average, and the Toole mountains are at 750% of average.  I think it is safe to say that we don't have to worry about drought this summer!  IF WE EVER GET A SUMMER!

Yesterday my slinky weasle discovered a duck nest near the bridge.  She managed to steal an egg and carry it for several minutes in her mouth.  When she put it down and I realized what it was I tried to take it to put it back but she quickly ate it.

Bad slinky weasle!

All of this rain and snow has made for some nice waterfalls.   

Since I enjoy hiking so much I am going to try to start up a little dog hiking business this summer.  If I could get just one client a week it would pay for my hiking shoes.  And since I go through a lot of hiking shoes I could really use it!  I've found at least one person in Salt Lake County who does this, and another up in the Park City area, so apparently there are people who will pay for this.  If you know of anyone in the Davis County area who would pay me to hike their dogs check out my web page at www.adoggonegoodtime.blogspot.com.

A Little Excitement

I went hiking up Baer Canyon today in the pouring rain, because I am an idiot and because my dog is incapable of understanding that we don't hike in the rain.  On my way back down the canyon I noticed a camp site that I had first noticed on Saturday.  I noticed it because it is a little bit off the trail and in a place where I have not seen campers before.  You can't see it from the trail if you are on your way up the canyon, but it is clearly visible as you are going down.  I took particular notice of it today because even though the rain was pouring down it looked like there was a lot of gear strewn around the camp site.  It didn't seem like a rational person would leave all of their gear out in the rain and most people would be back to work or school on a Monday so I decided to go up and take a closer look to make sure that everything was alright. 

When I got to the camp site I could see that there was a bunch of food, towels, dishes, backpacks and other miscellaneous gear strewn all over the place.  Some of it, especially the food, was clearly being ruined by the rain.  I called out and when no one answered I decided to check the tent.  The tent had a little padlock, not through the holes in the zipper pulls themselves, but through the strings that go through the holes in the zipper pulls.  I got it open enough to see that there was no one in the tent, just a couple of big stacks of books and sleeping gear.  The site is at the base of some cliffs, and it concerned me that possibly some kid had gone climbing around on those cliffs and had fallen and was hurt somewhere, but I couldn't see anyone nearby so I decided I had done my duty to check around and I went home. 

Once I got home I knew that it was going to continue to bother me that someone could be out there hurt in the rain.  I decided to hike back up and break into the tent to see if I could find some identification before I went to the police.  I got back up to the site and untied the strings holding the padlock in place (not the smartest way to secure a tent) and went inside.  I thumbed through a couple of books and peeked into a duffle bag but didn't see anything that might identify the person.  As I was about to leave I noticed 2 composition books hanging in a little net up near the top of the tent.  The first notebook contained some really bad poetry, but the second note book was a journal.  On the first page of the journal I read that this guy was planning on spending the next 4 months living in the wilderness on a spiritual journey, and that he was planning to support himself by selling drugs.  He hoped to make around $10,000 this summer.  I thumbed to the last entry which was for Saturday, in which he mentioned that he had just come back from a hike and was drunk.  Again, I worried that he might be hurt somewhere, especially if he was hiking around under the influence of drugs and or alcohol.  I also decided that I should probably get out of there fast if there were a chance that a drug dealer might come back and find me rifling through his things.  I tied the padlock back on and hurried back to my car. 

I drove over to the Fruit Heights City Building only to find that it was closed for the night.  I wasn't sure what to do, since it wasn't an emergency and I didn't want to call 911.  As I was headed back to my house to look up non-emergency numbers in the phone book I saw a Kaysville cop pulled over on the side of the road.  I pulled over behind him and waved him over to my car.  I explained what had happened, and that I was worried that since it didn't look like this person had been back to camp for a couple of days he may be out hurt somewhere.  The cop thought it was more likely that he could be out tending the spot where he is growing his drugs.  Apparently they have been dealing with quite a bit of that in these mountains lately.  He put me in touch with the deputy who was on call tonight.  I explained what I had found and she told me that they would head up and check it out.  She called me back a little while ago to let me know that they hadn't found anyone around the camp, but that they would keep it under surveilance for the next week, and if he hasn't come back by the first of next week they will send out search and rescue to see if they can find him.

I worry about snakes when I hike in the summer.  I vaguely worry about mountain lions in the winter, but mostly I worry about slipping on the ice and breaking something.  It never occured to me to worry that I might run into drug dealers and/or drug growing operations up there in the middle of nowhere.  It may be time for me to at least invest in some pepper spray to take with me when I'm hiking.

Projects

Now that spring is theoretically here it is time to do some work on the yard.  In my back yard I have a little flower bed that has been fenced off with chicken wire since I got Shady because she is a digger.  I have planted some Rose of Sharon's and a butterfly bush and I've wanted to fill the rest of the bed in with rocks, but I haven't wanted to spend the money on it.  Mom suggested that every time I go hiking I put a few rocks in my pocket, but that would take forever.  However, my cheaper side has won out and I am taking her advice.  Every time I go hiking I bring my backpack and when I am done with my hike I find somewhere close to my car that I can go to gather rocks.  I fill my backpack with rocks, then I dump them into a big box in my trunk.  It takes 4 or 5 backpack loads to fill the box, then I take them home and dump them in the bed.  I have been doing this for about three weeks, weather permitting, and my bed is about half full. 

The rocks are all fist size or bigger, and they are all different shapes, colors, and types.  Ideally I would have loved to fill it with all river rocks, but I don't know of a source close enough to a parking spot where I could gather enough of them.  Once I've got it all filled in with bigger rocks I will start collecting pebbles to fill in the holes.  Hopefully by June I will be finished with this project.

This is my hanging garden.  I have 2 zucchinis, 2 heirloom tomatoes, one cherry tomato, assorted hot peppers and some strawberries.  The pepper planter has 2 bell pepper plants that will have to be pulled out when they get bigger.  The markers fell out of 2 of my pony packs and I couldn't tell which ones were the bell peppers and which ones were the Cayenne peppers, so I put in 2 of each then planted the other 2 in my ground bed.  I bought a couple of brackets for the strawberry and pepper planters to hold them out to the side of the frame, but I can't find them anywhere so I had to improvise with some temporary hooks.  It's driving me crazy that I can't figure out what I did with them!

I have also planted lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, some pole beans and a few onions in what used to be a flower bed.  My lettuce seedlings just started poking through the soil today, so I am happy about that.  Marie gave me lettuce from her garden last fall, and I have never tasted lettuce so good in my life.  I am hoping that my lettuce turns out as well.  And yes, the fence behind the planters definitely needs paint. 

Here in the foreground you can see my mimosa.  It is officially dead.  Technically the roots may still be alive, but I am not going to give it the chance to grow back this year.  I am sick of it dying down to the ground every year, and you can see the pear tree in the background that will be taking its place.  I talked to the guy at the nursery about the mimosa, and he said that mine is a common problem.  Some people have great luck growing them, and others have them die back every year.  He said it doesn't seem to matter how you fertilize or care for them, some of them do well and some of them just don't.  Mine didn't.  I'm sad because it could be such a pretty tree, but lately I have been obsessed with eating pears, so I am looking forward to having my own source.

Spring Break 2011 - PARTY!

Or not.  It really wasn't much of a party

. 

On Saturday I did yard work - mowing the lawn for the first time this season and weeding the flower beds. 

On Monday I borrowed Jo's truck and went to the dump for some compost.  I didn't think that I could use a whole pickup truck full of compost, and I was worried about what to do with the leftovers.  As it turned out, I went back to the dump for a second load and I could really use a little more.

Tuesday was a rainy day, so it was devoted to housework.  I scrubbed all of my floors on my hands and knees, which only happens about once a year.  Tuesday night I went out to dinner with Julee, and upon parking I noticed that my front driver's side tire was completely bald on the inside.

Wednesday was devoted to getting new front tires and a front end alignment on my car, and fertilizing the lawn.  Later that evening Shady and I explored a new trail up above the shooting range.

Can you find the coonhound in this picture?  She is well camouflaged.

This is what I woke up to on Thursday morning.  I was NOT happy about having to take a hike in this.  I managed to do it all winter long and I didn't mind it, but I really can't take it anymore!  That afternoon I took my taxes into an accountant. I get a $23 refund this year - woohoo! That evening I joined the Thompson's at Cracker Barrel for Ashlyn's birthday dinner.

Friday morning after once again hiking through the snow, I ran some errands then I picked-up Ava from day care and we went to see Hop.  I am not a fan of mixing live action with animation, so I found it to be kind of creepy.  Ava seemed to enjoy it.

It is now Saturday and it is still snowing steadily for the third day in a row.  What happened to spring?!  I've spent the whole day doing geneology, and now I'm at the end of my spring break.  It's back to school again on Monday, and in case you are wondering there are 39 days of school left.