Monday, September 18, 2006

End of the Season


Well, the season is over. Here is a picture taken on our storage lot about 3 weeks ago. We have placed 2 more full loads (16 foot trailer) of wood on it since. This is what is left after a summer of taking down barns and sheds, etc. On the back left there is 750 board feet of barnwood that we took and sold today as our last load of the season.


This is a small pile of old tin and posts that you couldn't see in the first picture. These in the picture are about 8-10 feet long. The posts are great and the load we just put on the lot was all beams and posts from Holden, Utah. We have a bunch of really great posts and beams now. You can see some of that load of beams on the next picture. Some of those are 20 feet long and quite heavy. Got us sweating, that's for sure.


This is a barn site - what's left of the barn. You can see the large rocks that served as part of the foundation here. This is in Holden Utah. Boy, we want to tear down the one in the background. It is a great barn, but the old lady isn't ready to get rid of it yet. Maybe next year. There are a few others in town that we might get next year. The wood you see here on the ground is still on site, but will be picked up soon. We are going to Scipio soon to pick up a bunch of stuff at a guy's property, so we will pick this all up as well and be done for the Winter.

It's been an interesting Summer. We learned a lot in our first season and look forward to really expanding this business next year as we travel out of state beginning in April. We might do some in warmer areas (arizona, Texas, etc) during the winter if we can get a nice group of buildings that will make it worth the travel time and expense.

We also just partnered with a great designer who is going to help us design custom sheds and barns for people. We are excited next year to add that to our services. We are putting together a "catalog" of sorts and will advertsie beginning in January (we think - maybe sooner, we'll see).

Nice to be home more now and to be out of the hot sun!

Saturday, September 16, 2006

A Nice Night Out















Thursday night, Amy and I finally took advantage of a very generous gift certificate from Nate (Amy's brother) and went up to Sundance. It was raining all night, but it was still very beautiful as you can see from the pictures I took up there. We had a very nice dinner at the Foundry Grill.
It was a nice night. We wanted to go up the ski lift to see the colors, but because of the rain, didn't. I'm not sure it was even open. Boy, where was our business when they built that place up there? The whole place is made of reclaimed wood - lots of it. There is probably over a million dollars in beams alone in that place. Anyway, it was a nice atmosphere, a nice meal, and overall, a nice night out.

Thanks to Mom and Dad Clark for watching Henry for us while we were gone.

Friday, September 15, 2006

Henry's Progress

Well, it's always fun to watch Henry these days. He is learning so fast. It seems each day he learns new sounds, gets faster on his little knees, and surprises us with what he picks up on.

Here he is showing us how he knows where socks are supposed to go. He kept trying to figure out how they worked. He knows they came off his feet, but isn't sure how to get them back on.

He's a funny kid and we love him.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Stake Conference...

Well, we went to stake conference this last Sunday. I must say, the talks were great, what we heard of them...

This stake conference was a huge one where lots of stakes were invited to attend from the county and I think even from a few other counties. Most stakes watched the event from their respective stake buildings. However, we were told in our ward that we were to go to the Marriott Center to attend. That was all the information we received. Our Relief Society president even told us that it wouldn't be broadcast in our stake building or anywhere else in Provo...hmmm.

Anyway, we leave our house a little late (about 10 minutes till the hour). I knew we were running a little behind, but that is the nature of things sometimes. We drive up to the Marriott Center, not sure how many people (at the time) had been invited, etc. There was obviously no parking anywhere near, so we kept wandering around till we found the nearest spot to park - south of the Law School building, which is more than 1/2 mile away from the Marriott Center (i have measured that with my bike before).

Well, we start walking, which isn't all that fun since we hadn't prepared to walk that far. I have on Sunday shoes that don't do well with a badly in-grown toe nail. Amy has on some shoes that give her blisters. We have Henry to carry and it's about 90 degrees out.

We got over half way to the Marriott Center and noticed a bunch of people walking towards us, away from the MC. No one says anything to us, so I ask if there is any room in the Marriott Center. They say no and that they were told to go to the Wilkinson Center. So we turn around and go back to the Wilk, which is basically where we began walking from. We go into the theatre there and there is essentially no room. So we head to the ballroom, where there is plenty of room. Of course it is now 20 minutes past the hour and we have missed most of the first talk (President Samuelson).

Then, at the half-way break/song, apparently a bunch of people at the Marriott Center were told to go to the Wilk. By the time they left and showed up in the ballroom, the break was over and President Monson's talk was in progress. Of course about 100 people walking past you over wooden floors and with sunday shoes on isn't exactly quiet.

Finally things settled down and we were enjoying the talks...until 20 minutes till the end, and the video machine and sound both died. Logically there was no one there to fix the problem, so we all sat there hoping that it would turn back on, which it didn't. The official ushers and the Wilk manager on duty just stood outside the ballroom and laughed/stared, doing nothing. Everyone, including us, got up and left.

So, we missed 40 minutes of the conference and I was sufficiently annoyed. I did love the portions of the conference that we were able to hear and we did beat all the traffic going home.

It is hard for me to understand how dumb that whole situation was because I have done event planning for a number of years and know that BYU and Church Admin people know better. Even if we had left 1 hour before it began, it wouldn't have mattered - it might have changed things for us, but others would have still had to bother with it all. After all, there was obviously not enough room for all they invited. If we had all shown up an hour early, there still wouldn't have been room for everyone - both in terms of seats and parking.

Well, it was a strange, frustrating, but nice all in one experience. An odd day, for sure.

I guess it is a lot like our lives these days. Frustating, inconvenient, and difficult, but overall, worth the bother. right?!

Adam

Friday, September 01, 2006

Henry Makes Progress


It's always so fun to watch Henry as he learns new things. He has been a little slow with a few things, like crawling, but yesterday he crawled for the first time! Of course it was only a few movements at a time, but he did it. He was a little wobbly when he did it and one time fell over and looked a little scared. Today he moved forward a little, but I think he forgot mostly how he did it. He is super cute!

Henry also got his first haircut from his mom...He looks great, don't you think?!!

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Our first sale!

Well, we have officially made our first sale on our business ebay site. We have been getting good traffic. The more we put up, the more traffic we get. We have bids on a few items as well, so we are excited to see this take off. We have purchased a very nice web package with cart, hosting, etc. Tomorrow we will begin the design process with my old roomate, Bob Craig doing the design. Tonight Matt and I had a great meeting and are really starting to mold our business nicely. It's fun to take steps forward.

Adam

Monday, August 28, 2006

The Fall is Coming!!

Well, the Fall is coming! good and bad with that. Amy says it is nice, but it reminds her that Winter is close and she doesn't like the winter. However, we both love the Fall temperatures, colors, and the idea that holidays are on the way. This will be the first Fall in a while that Adam hasn't been a student at some level or extent. It's kind of crazy.

We went to a mission reunion tonight and Amy got to meet people from Adam's mission. It was interesting to see some of them have 3-4 children, Phds, and careers. It's still hard to consider ourselves adults of some kind. The reunion was in Alpine at the park, where Henry got to have his first taste of the swing and the slide. He loved them both. We had to pry his hands off the chains on the swing. Henry is getting to the point where he hates having things taken away from him. He's a funny little guy.

One funny thing from the reunion was that Adam was the only one there that hadn't worked in the office at some point in the mission. Lucky Him!

Adam has been spending time golfing these days whenever he gets a chance. He loves the challenge, talking with friends on the course, and the exercise from walking.

Amy sold her first projects! - a small beadboard shelf and a magnent board. She did a great job of painting them and giving them a nice vintage/rustic feeling.

Adam is busy working on his business. They are working on the new ebay store called "Trashology" and will have a website up soon as well (trashologyonline.com). Go to ebay and see his store - it's only a few days old right now. http://stores.ebay.com/Trashology

Anyway, life is good. Pictures to come soon.

Be good, all.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Graduation



Adam has finally finished his masters degree. He graduated this last week (August 17-18). It's nice to have this segment of life through. The Brundage family (Amy's parents) were in town for the week and helped us celebrate. We had a nice family dinner with Clarks and Brundages all together at Los Hermanos on Thursday. Then Friday night we had a nice open house. It's been a good week, but it'll be nice to have things calm down a bit.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Stat...Clear....beep, beep, beep....It's ALIVE!!!

Yes, our blog is revived. I have decided to do better with this thing. If nothing else, I will make an entry once a week. Seriously.

Here is a fun recap of everything since the last post...

Adam lost the election 35% to 65% in November.

We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with the Clark family in Elk Ridge. Both were fun times.

Adam had his own business, started a second one, added a partner, then a second partner...Adam quit all his businesses and dropped a partner...Adam started a new business with partner, Matt Chantry. It is called Wasatch Barn Company...There is now three people in the business and 2 new organizations (1 for profit business and 1 non-profit). If you are confused, well, call Adam and he'll be glad to talk your ear off about it.

We spent time in California in January at the Brundages. We went to Disneyland and California Adventure. It was pretty fun, but Adam was sick. Adam went home and Amy stayed for a bit longer.

We went to Iowa and visited Adam's brother, Jason, and his family. We babysat their 6 kids while Jason and Michelle went on a cruise. We got to visit nauvoo and Carthage. We had a good time.

Henry is growing slowly and is lots of fun. He's just a little guy with a full head of red hair. We love him tons. He might be the cutest kid ever.

Amy is still working out and looks great. She works on fun in-home projects and especially enjoys decorating and re-decorating the house.

Adam works long hours on his business and has spent a lot of time out of town working on Barn projects. He has a great tan (in some places) and is slowly losing weight. He sports a shaved (buzzed) head and occasionally a beard (if you can call it that).

Adam is graduating from BYU with a Masters in Education: Comparative and International Development Education. Graduation is Thursday August 17 and 18. He just turned 32 and is having fun being an entrepreneur.

We finally re-landscaped our front yard (Adam did it while Amy was in California for 2 weeks). It has been nice to have a landscaped front.

Well, that's probably enough. If you want details, call us, email us, or if you are into 8-tracks and things like that, you can mail us.

Overall, life is great. We are extremely blessed.