Workee, Workee, Workee

We are very happy to have Peter home for a week. We took full advantage of his good nature yesterday to begin to erect the grape arbor for our patio. Here is the final product of yesterday, and a few photos of what happened along the way. We finished the east side of the arbor yesterday as well. It looks much like this, but about twice as wide. We still need to dig the holes, place the structure so that it is all nice and in the right place, standing up straight and level, and cement it in place. We'll do that sometime in the next couple of days, so stay tuned for more posts of posts.
We began by digging the holes on the west side of the arbor, missing the irrigation pipes that run along here.
At the same time the structure was going up, the garden received some of the attention it needs. As you can see, one of the casualties of the project is the basketball hoop. It has seen better days, and needs to move on to greener (i.e., recycled) pastures. Notice the job foreman in the red shirt making sure everything is going as it should. When he wasn't looking, I snuck off to work on the horseshoe pits, the western one you can just see over the base of the basketball hoop.
And here is that guy in the red shirt working the garden. We couldn't have done it without his help.

Here is the west side as it is waiting to be set in the holes and cemented in. The cross-piece you see here is 8 feet long, with the 2 supports being 4 feet apart. The cross-piece on the east side is 16 feet long, with the middle 2 supports 4 feet apart, and the outside supports 2 feet in from the ends. The lattice work you see in the background of this photo will go between the support posts on either side of the "portal" on the east side structure, and between the two structures.

How it will look when it is all finished. ;)

Snowballs (almost) in Springtime in California

I was told that we need more pictures and less narrative on our blog, so here it is - the Snowball Bush, almost in bloom. (you weren't really expecting the white cold stuff were you?) I'll post again when all the blossoms are out.

Here's my attempt at an artistic shot of a pretty little red flower with our little pea fence in the background. We expect our bush peas to climb up on this fence.

And here is a shot of our pea garden. The plants in a row are bush peas and the ones surrounding the poles are pole peas. With the warmer weather and continuing moisture, these plants are popping up fast. We are looking forward to eating peas if the neighborhood animals don't get them first.

And here is a shot of our lilac blossoms. For the big bush we have, we think we should be getting more blossoms, but are grateful for what we get.

And finally - this is the "square foot garden plot", watched over by the Mexican Turtle we picked up in the old barn in Midway, UT at Swiss Days. "Plot" seems to be the proper designation for this little place as it seems to be the place where seeds and plants go to die. Those pretty yellow flowers might be organic headstones for the lettuce & spinach seeds we buried there a few weeks ago, never to be seen again. I guess we are better at the big gardens, not the little ones, as our square foot gardens haven't really worked out.
In other news around the back yard, the spuds we planted between the seed graveyard and the peas are doing very well. They are up and healthy.

We have squirrels! For the last few weeks we have been watching as now and then a squirrel runs back and forth along the back fence. This morning we noticed that we obviously have an entire squirrel family living in the Italian Cypress on the west side of the shed. We saw at least 4 running up and down the trunk. They are all pretty good sized, so we figure they've been there for awhile. I guess this signals the departure of cats from the area as I would assume that our previously healthy cat population would keep (& probably has kept) the squirrel population in check. While it is fun to watch them, we do fear for our crops as they appear this Summer. We'll be watching closely what happens to our peas.

Yummy Chile Relleno Cassarole

Last night we duplicated at home one of the tastiest dishes I have ever had at a pot luck affair. The recipe below came from Sister Collins, wife of the Redding Stake Executive Secretary. We were first introduced to the dish at a dinner we attended in Redding a couple of weeks ago. We hope you enjoy it too.

Chile Relleno Casserole
1- 27oz. can of mild whole green chiles
1 lb. cheddar cheese (grated)
1 lb. pepper jack cheese (grated)
4 eggs (separated)
2 TBS flour
1- 12 oz. can evaporated milk
Split chiles so they lay flat and rinse to remove seeds. In a 9 x 13 pan, spread half the chiles on the bottom of the pan in a single layer. Add the grated cheddar cheese. Use the remaining chiles to make another layer on top of the cheddar cheese. Add the grated pepper jack cheese. In a separate bowl, beat the 4 egg whites till stiff peaks form. In another bowl beat together the egg yolks, the 2 TBS of flour and the can of evaporated milk. Fold egg yolk mixture into egg whites. Spread egg mixture over the cheese and bake 1 hour at 325 degrees. This casserole is excellent with corn bread. [My note: I sprinkled the "crumbs" from a bag of corn chips over my piece & it added a nice crunch.]

Conference is a comin'

Tomorrow we will again be convened in general conference. It will be the first time for many years that we will not have Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin present to speak to us, and he will be missed. Nevertheless, to prepare us for what we may recieve this weekend, and as a tribute to Elder Wirthlin, we may wish to view again his conference address from October 2005. We will, in fact take a journey to higher ground this weekend, and this is a fitting way to prepare for the journey.

John R. Moyle

Here is a post that I actually wrote last January when I saw a video of the story of John R. Moyle. I couldn't get it to embed properly, then it mysteriously disappeared. Well, today I found it again and am embedding it here. I hope you enjoy this story about a great man who did a great work.

In April General Conference, 2000, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's sermon was entitled "As Doves To Our Windows" and has been one of my favorites. You should go here and listen to it, as it is worth hearing it in his own voice. But here is an excerpt, telling a story about John R. Moyle that was repeated by Pres. Uchtdorf this last October.

"Then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth. . . .
"Ye shall not go after other gods, . . . the gods of the people which are round about you. . . .
"For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: [he] hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself. . . .
"[He] did not . . . choose you, because ye were more in number than any [other] people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
"But because [he] loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers. . . .
"Know therefore that the Lord . . . is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations."

"John R. Moyle lived in Alpine, Utah, about 22 miles as the crow flies to the Salt Lake Temple, where he was the chief superintendent of masonry during its construction. To make certain he was always at work by 8 o'clock, Brother Moyle would start walking about 2 a.m. on Monday mornings. He would finish his work week at 5 p.m. on Friday and then start the walk home, arriving there shortly before midnight. Each week he would repeat that schedule for the entire time he served on the construction of the temple.
Once when he was home on the weekend, one of his cows bolted during milking and kicked Brother Moyle in the leg, shattering the bone just below the knee. With no better medical help than they had in such rural circumstances, his family and friends took a door off the hinges and strapped him onto that makeshift operating table. They then took the bucksaw they had been using to cut branches from a nearby tree and amputated his leg just a few inches below the knee. When against all medical likelihood the leg finally started to heal, Brother Moyle took a piece of wood and carved an artificial leg. First he walked in the house. Then he walked around the yard. Finally he ventured out about his property. When he felt he could stand the pain, he strapped on his leg, walked the 22 miles to the Salt Lake Temple, climbed the scaffolding, and with a chisel in his hand hammered out the declaration "Holiness to the Lord."


And finally, as we head into a year sure to contain "shafts in the whirlwind" for many, here is another talk by Elder Holland that you may find inspiring.