Our Fire Place

Well we did something major with our living room. We were offered a wood burning insert for our open fire place. We had originally went shopping for an insert a few years ago, but never got one because they are so expensive!

This one had a price tag that could not be turned down....Free! It took dome doing, thankfully we had Anson right in the middle of everything to help us out, and we got it in.

I had a cop buddy that does rock for fire places, and he gave me a good deal on the rock. And is for the most part done. I still have a little work to do with the mantle, but it turned out great.


Our November/December bill was cut in 1/2 from 2005! So in 1 month it saved us $90.

Good finds part 1

Ok so I have taken up a new "HOBBY". I got a little extra money for Christmas, and I bought myself a Metal Detector. Do you remember the TV commercials for the "Whites" metal detector? Well I got one. It is a mid-range detector, the Prizm III.

Kay has always made fun of the people on that commercial because they she found out that I had bought one, she just rolled her eyes. So, I am going to post everything I find, along with when and where, just to show how fun it is.


I started off easy. The back yard! I found an old metal washer the size of a quarter, a folded up piece of soda can, and this, a bullet shell. It's not all that old, and I don't think I would even get 1/2 a cent for it down at the metal recycling plant, but hey, it's my first find.

On the butt end of it, it says, "SUPER-X 300 SAV." not sure what it means, but there you go. I spent about 1/2 an hour in the back yard to get it.

THE TREE 06

Well this year we decided to start our own TRADITION! Here in Utah you can buy a tree tag for $5. This will allow you to go to one of the local National Forests, and cut down your own Christmas tree!

We found our tree up Spanish Fork Canyon. There is a rest stop about a 1/2 hour into the canyon called "Tucker." although you would never know it was called "Tucker" because there are no signs to be seen stating that it is. Anyway, there is an inlet to the National Forest at this rest stop, about 15 minutes behind it. Due to the snow, he "HAD" to bring the 4 wheeler.


The first picture is of our tree out in it's own element. It was a boyz trip, Grandpa Starley, Dad, and Anson. As most of you know, Anson LOVES the outdoors, and this was no exception! From wanting to cut down the tree himself, to running the 4 wheeler, this was his thing!

At first he was a little confused that we would be cutting down a tree, and really confused when we brought it in the house.


But when we told him he could help put things on the tree, it was all over. Now if we could only keep him from taking the things off, and trying to see if certain things can float in the water reserve, or trying to light up the water reserve, I think we would be a little better off.

Merry Christmas!

The birds and the BEEZ

Well, minus the birds, I found myself plenty bees this weekend. I decided I would do some yard work. I had just gotten done mowing the lawn, and started to work on the sprinklers. Kay has been telling me about a green box in the back yard that has had bees going into it.

Granted, had I looked into the problem 3 weeks ago when I was told about it, I may not have been as engulfed in bees, as I was, when I opened the top of the box. But on the other hand, it may not have looked as cool if I got rid of it three weeks ago right? To give you some idea how big it is, it is a little smaller than a basketball.

The Storm of the Century

UPDATE:The city is now into the storm by $13,000,000 for clean up

Well it was an eventful day in provo on 8-1-06. A storm called a super cell came in with vengeance! Here are but a few photos to share. The airport got hit hard. They lost two helicopters, may airplanes, and lots of structure damage. There was even a WWII P51 Mustang that got damaged ($2,000,000 plane).

The south west part of Provo looked like
a war zone. Trees, power poles, and power
lines down everywhere!

I was one of the lucky ones, I was on a detail where I was in a home, and escaped the rath. Looking from the inside out was cool though. It came in all at once, just a wall of water and wind. They say the rain came down so fast it accumulated an inch in 15 minutes.


Thankfully there weren't any injuries with the storm, but it left lots of people without power for several days. They had to call in Spanish Fork, Payson, Lehi, Murray, and bountiful Power companies just to help them clean up the mess. One number I heard, who knows how accurate it is, but 168 poles that were affected, and provo had 40 poles in reserve.

trying to get around the city was a joke just after the storm, from poles to great big trees that blocked the streets made it impossible to get anywhere.

the third picture down is where I sat for hours blocking the road. You know how at Christmas time two or three homes would be out done in lights, and everyone in the county has got to load up the kids and go real slow past the houses, and take pictures? This was just that, but worse! Drive by 3, 4, 5 times, and everyone had a camera or a camera phone. Ridiculous! And everyone had atleast two dumb questions for the cop that knows all.












Anyway, as of today, they are still cleaning up all the trees. Some downed trees still have not been touched yet. But they are getting there.

CANCUN!

Well here are a few photos of our trio to Cancun. This was our hotel, and beach front. Every night a kid would come out to the beach and line up all the chairs. They would be perfectly inline with each other. Because drinks were free, most people sleep late, this is what we saw every morning.

The food was impeccable! The grass awning just in back of the chairs is one of 4 restaurants. That one you could eat your food as you looked out into the sea.

because of the past hurricanes, both hotels to the side were closed, and gutted. The hotel we went to the first year was nothing but rubble. I would say 3/4 or more of the hotels were destroyed, and gutted. This made life on the beach nice! For 3 or 4 hotels in each direction, the beach was ours, no people.

We went all out with this trip. It was all inclusive. All the food we wanted, with a choice of 2-3 restaurants, and 24 hour room service, that was free, tips included. We had a great big pool, two hot tubs, a game room, putt putt golf, tennis courts, free water sports, activities during the day, a show put on by our hotel, and it's sister hotel down the road (music, dance type thing, with food), and night activities.


we also went on a horse back ride along the beach. That was cool! Half way through the ride, we stopped at a private beach where we went swimming with the horses! They just walked into the water to the point that they were swimming. At first we were not too sure about the idea, but it was well worth going in with them. They made such an awful noise, because of the pressure on there ribbcages, they had to breath differently. They said it does not hurt them, but it sure sounded like they didn't care for it much.

anyway, we loved every second of it. We want to make it a habit going there, the white sand, and all-inclusive hotel is addicting! If anyone is thing of going, first of all, let us know, we just might go with ya, it would be fun to have some one there to hangout with, and go into town (that is a trip in its self). And now that we have gone twice, we have several suggestions to pass along (like DON'T go through a travel agency, it will save you money).

MANA

OK OK OK....so it has been a little while since i have updated my blog. now that we have DSL, I hope that will change for the better. Lets start with MANA. She is no longer ours. We wanted to give her away so that Anson could run and play in the back yard, without a dog that would knock him down. The Dog pound was out of the question.

long story, short; we found a place that adopts out labs. In a short few weeks, a family of 7 came to the house, asked questions like, does she like hiking, swimming, and having lots of attention. This is Mana to a "T". So they took her home that day. We have not heard from the family, but we hope she has adjusted well.