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!

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.

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.

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

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?!!