Catching Up

So much is going on it is almost impossible to keep up. I am feeling the same pressure that I had when we were in Ireland. Just not enough time.

I have became so bored that I have started working with Bevin and Dale building block walls and chimneys. I did take a few pictures of the chimney we were working on on Kolob mountain. BTW, we saw a huge bull elk up there, but did not get a picture.

Below you will see a few pictures of a building a rock chimney. Actually the chimney is built, we are just putting the stone on it. If you look really close you will notice that I am manning the sky lift and my brothers are working from it and on a very steep roof. My job was to raise Bevin and Dale up to the chimney and because the lift had a slow pressure leak, I would need to raise it occasionally (about every 15 minutes).

Not captured in picture or video are my brothers fighting over who was going to work in the very safe bucket that I was controlling or working on the very steep, snow covered and dangerous roof. I could tell they were both concerned about the others safety and insisting that the other stay in the bucket. It went something like this. I very carefully raised the bucket up (you have to remember this is my first time working one of these machines, but hey, how hard could it be?) to the chimney, they kept yelling and waiving frantically at me. Of course that did no good, because I could not hear anything over the sound of motor and was mostly focused on which lever I was supposed to push, pull or move side to side. I didn't have time to focus on their arm waving. I am guessing the ride up was not quite as smooth as a well oiled elevator in a five star hotel, but again for the first time I thought I did pretty good. They did mention something about a one inch sway down where I was sitting equated to about a two foot jerk up at their end. I was glad when they finally quit waiving their arms, in what appeared to be an effort to be funny or distract me, and just settled in and showed some real brotherly love by hugging each other and wrapping their free arm around the railing. Even though I could not hear what they were trying to yell at me I knew they were happy with my ability to smoothly raise and lower the boom because as soon as I had it close to the very unstable scaffolding we had nailed to the chimney they both happened to jump out off the safety cage almost at the same time. I could see they immediately became concerned for the safety of the other because once they realized they had both jumped they began to shove the other one back in to the safety of the cage, quite vigorously I might add. I have never see a display a brotherly love for the safety of the other. I could tell by their actions one was willing to sacrifice his life by working on the rickety scaffold all for the safety of the other who would be in the safety of the cage which I was controlling. When it was time to come down they did yell down the chimney at one of the carpenters who may have run this rig a few more times than me, to come out and bring them down. This didn't hurt my feelings since I felt I had mastered the controls when I raised them up. 

Here is a picture of my brothers working at the top of the chimney.

Here is a picture of me, probably showing off a little by having time to pose for a photo while raising my screaming brothers to the chimney.

Fishing at Panguitch Lake

Here is a couple of tough fisherman, fishing at Panguitch Reservoir. Tina had already headed back to the car by the time this picture was taken. By the way, you know the old saying "The worst day fishing is better than the best day at work." Well I have found that their may be a few exceptions to that rule, one would be depending on how cold it is and how hard the wind is blowing.

In this picture Grandpa Ewell is reeling in a nice fish. Notice the bend in his pole. Notice how red my face and hands are. It is not sunburn.

Here are a few of the fish we caught. The smallest was over a pound. The snow was convenient for keeping them on ice. We caught probably 10 or 11 all together, but they have a slot where you have to throw them back (14-22 inches). That only applied to cut throats. Grandpa smoked the big one.

Some Good Ol Southern Utah Scenery

I went for a little drive on Saturday around Sand Hollow Reservoir. Pine Valley Mountain in the background.

Here is a shot of the leave changing colors in downtown Toquerville. Don't you wish you were here?

A picture of the antlers of the deer Tony got this year. Kameron accused me of having Nikki holding them to make them look bigger. We did have that discussion when we took the picture, but Tony wasn't home. It was still a pretty nice set of antlers.

You mom and I went out on a horse ride last night. Out to, you guessed it, the Lone Tree (Which really doesn't exist any more. It died in the drought) It was pretty nice ride. I may make a cowboy out of your mom yet.

I almost forgot to put a picture of Grandma Ewells Veterans Day display. Not sure if Grandpa helped with this one or not. That is the moon up in the right hand corner. If you look real hard you can see the little American flags on each gate post.

As a parting note. I would like to thank Caryn for posting her surgery pictures on her blog. They really got some good ooooh's and ahhhhh's (not sure if the spelling is right on those two words, but you get the drift) not to mention it ruined some appetites (looked at them during dinner time). We do hope you are recovering quickly.

Also, it was reported to me today that Logan has two new teeth. Good for him, bad for nursing mothers...