Wednesday, September 12, 2007
It's Wednesday, and I'm at the Senior Center
Today is lunch at the Senior Center... Shredded Beef Enchilada, so Bev figured I'd might as well come spend the morning and stay for lunch.
Tonight, we're going on the Senior Citizen bus to St. George... to Tuachan, the big outdoor theater. Tonight's show is My Fair Lady, something I've never seen on stage.
There are 13 of us going, and the Enterprise Senior Center Recreation Fund pays our way. That's the group I volunteer for (did the hamburgers in August). I'm sure we'll have loads of fun.
Yesterday I got the picture gallery working at FourCountryGals.com, so you'll have to stop by. I'm loading virtually all the early pictures Bev and Cindy took as they moved from Ohio to Utah. Only a few make it into the main part of the book, but I've linked the actually gallery, so you can grab a lot more pictorial detail.
UPDATE: At lunch, I was awarded the "Volunteer of the Month" Award for Washington County Council on Aging for my work on the "Corn Fest" fund raiser... cooking all the hamburgers and hotdogs in the extreme heat... and never falling behind. Believe me, I was totally surprised. They gave me a nice certificate and rose.
Labels: About Beryl
Friday, August 31, 2007
Four Country Gals... the story of our homesteading experience
Just launched... a new blog, which is a "reality blog book".
I've been asked 1000's of times, just how did the four of us decide to move to the SW Utah Escalante Desert Valley.
Now you can join along as I write the full story at "Four Country Gals". I cover way more there than what I do here on this blog, or what Cindy covers on her blog at Country Musings.
This new project serves as inspiration to those of you who are searching for ways to re-invent your lives. Our message is "Never give up! When you plan, and things don't go quite according to plan, make adjustments and keep moving forward."
Be sure to subscribe to the feed, so you'll get the latest updates.
I'll be continuing this blog, and eventually some of the stories will overlap a bit. Take heart though, there'll be far more detail in the "Four Country Gals" than there is in this blog.
Labels: About Beryl, Around the farm
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Corn Fest! Hot hamburgers, right off the grill...
That was fun!
I got to be "the griller"... did burgers and dogs on the grill for about 120 folks who stopped by the Enterprise Senior Center, where we did our part to get folks fed at the annual Enterprise Corn Fest.
It was way hot... I was in the sun for about 7 hours. Thought I'd melt into a puddle. But oh, those burgers... they were perfect! We had 1/4 pounders. I put them on the grill (pretty high heat), and then seasoned them lightly with "California Blend" Garlic Salt. Turned them once when the juices started to rise. Seasoned them one more time and waited for the juices to run clean. Popped them onto a plate and into the kitchen, where they awaited an order.
The dogs were slowly simmered in a pan of hot water and then "striped" on the grill half dozen at a time. They had that great grill flavor, but never dried out on the steam line while they awaited an order.
All in all, I did 116 burgers and 24 dogs.
By the end of the day, my get up and go was out looking for anyone else's get and go... way gone!
What about Bev, Cindy and Mom?
Bev was in charge of assembling all the orders, as well as setting up the "lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles". Cindy was in charge of actually receiving, organizing and then taking the order to the dining area.
Mom was in her element, making sure everyone was happy, well-fed, and generally being the social butterfly.
At the end of the day, we were four very tired, but happy country gals.
Labels: About Beryl
Monday, July 23, 2007
Friday night small town rodeo...
It's "Day's of '47" time in Utah. Being a newcomers and not Mormon, we've really not totally captured the spirit. We're working on it though... starting this last Friday evening with the local rodeo.
I'm an "old hand" at rodeos having attended them for well over 50 years. I'm just one of those "good fans". Cindy was a barrel racer in her high school and young adult years. I know Bev was raised around horses, primarily sulky racing horses.
Well, this rodeo is definitely "small town" and fun for the entire family. The "rough stock" consisted of calves, young heifers, bulls, donkeys (yes, donkeys), and CHICKENS! There wasn't a bucking horse to be seen.
Ok, I could figure out the calves and the bulls... but the cows, donkeys and chickens had me going.
They started off with calf roping in a "boys" class. Some of those little fellers looked mighty tiny on top their horses. Unfortunately, it was calves 8 boys 0.
The girls did a little better with three of them actually roping their calves. This was "breakaway" so once the calf was roped... you simply released the rope and let it go.
Bull riding was pretty exciting... only one rider stayed on for 8 seconds. Now you know it's a small town... and full of pretty tough cowboys when this happens...
You're riding the bull... he bucks you off and you sail through the air, landing on your head. You're out cold for a couple of minutes while the announcer calls for the EMT's. Other cowboys get to you first, but thankfully, they don't pull you to your feet... you really hurt all over.
You come to, and tell the EMT's you can move your arms and legs... good thing as they roll you over to your back.
Now you don't want to embarrass your cowboy buddies so you get on your feet and "Cowboy Up!" even climbing up and over the fence rails...
That scene was repeated three times during the course of the evening... not sure the EMT's even had a "squad"... besides, the nearest hospital is over 30 miles away.
About those CHICKENS...
This is a family fun rodeo... so, let's have a "Chicken Chase".
First, the chickens... these are excess "free-range" roosters donated by local farmers.
Next, the participants... two different groups of kids. The first group about 100 aged six and younger. The second group, about 100 aged seven to 10.
The object of the game... catch a chicken and you get to take it home... even if your parents would just as soon you didn't catch it.
Here's a couple of the winners.
What about the donkeys? Where do they come in?
Well, picture this...
Assign two people teams to each of about 12 donkeys. Place 12 watermelons thoroughly sprayed down with "cooking spray" at the other end of the arena.
Now, the two of you have to ride the donkey to the other end, pick up the watermelon, get back on the donkey, and ride to back to the start line... yeah right!
Talk about funny! Why I saw a donkey standing still with two riders... the donkey shivered, and they both fell off!
We'd seen "breakaway" calf tying, where the object was to get your rope around the calf, and let it pull the rope from you. We'd seen the "chicken chase", and the donkey-watermelon race, as well as the bull riding... What could possibly be left?
How about "ribbon tying"... or in this case, remove the ribbon from the heifer's tail and run back to the starting line.
It starts off kind of weird as there's one cowboy on a horse, and one cowboy on foot. The heifer (a nearly grown cow) is in the chute. They turn the cow loose and the chase is on.
The guy on the horse has to lasso the cow, and then the guy on foot runs up and "bugs" the cow by holding her head as if to throw her down. The horse's job is to hold the rope until the guy on the horse gets off... and runs up the rope to grab the ribbon that is tied snug at the top of the cow's tail.
There's only a few problems here... the cow doesn't want to be here. The rodeo arena ground isn't the easiest stuff to move around in on foot, and that ribbon... well, it's in a very hard spot to reach... watch out for those hind hooves!
They grow our young teenage cowboys big, rough and tough here!
Barrel racing is a family sport here. The first class is for 8 year old and younger... girls and boys.
We saw some really slow times posted by little tiny tots on very old, gentle geldings that would trot to the barrel, and the very carefully walk around each barrel, and the kinda, sorta, lope over the finish line.
There was one little 8-year-old girl who is gonna be a star... She turned in an 18.35 second run... and that was the fastest time of the night. She was better than all the girls in the 15 and under class, and at least half the women in the "open" class.
The night was very long, and quite warm... at 10:30pm we finally said "that's enough" and headed for home, satisfied we had been to a small town rodeo.
Labels: About Beryl
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
That was exciting...
With the forecast of thunderstorms, I figured I'd feed the sheep a little early. Good thing I did as there was thunder/lightening all to the east of us.
While I was watering the sheep, I spotted a plume of smoke to the east... just over the mountain ridge and near Antelope Springs road... the other end from where we live. I immediately stopped watering and hurried to have Bev call it in.
Would you believe, the dispatcher actually asked us if we were seeing smoke from the Iron County Dump?
Pardon me, we're under extreme fire watch... there's lightening all around... we NEVER see smoke from the Iron County Dump... this smoke is rising to about 15K feet...
Surprise! Surprise! Look at what I saw to the south... of course we hadn't turned on the evening news yet. This fire took down power poles, and caused a county-wide outage in Washington County, starting about 15 miles south of us. The fire was in Dammeron Valley, about 35 miles or so south of us.
Now, our main concern was this little fire burning just east of us... Even the animals were paying attention.
When I went out to coop up the chickens, we were in the middle of what could best be termed a "pre-fire storm"... the wind was howling from the east at well over 40 mph... dust blowing HARD. And then there was the thunder, lightening, and reduced visibility from the smoke.
We took ALL the bird feeders down, the wind chimes... they weren't singing a happy song, and made sure things were stowed safe and sound. Heck, we even discussed hose placement in case we had to defend our little patch of tumbleweed.
You should have seen our dogs... at one point Mindy, the big black Lab was on the couch to my left. Sarah, my Finnish Spitz was on the couch to the right... and the other three big dogs... Koda, Coco, and Kiki were at my feet. They were SO undone!
Sure the weather was bothering them... outside trips were short and too the point.
But what they really wanted was the potato chips I had... of course, I felt sorry for them, and gave in.
That wasn't the end... the lightening continued until sometime around midnight.
Sarah snuggled as close as she could to me in my bed.
Cindy reported being unable to move in any direction in her bed... she had the other four on either side of her most of the night... including Mindy, who finds it a real challenge to haul her fat butt onto anyone's bed.
This morning we awoke to an acrid smell of "old smoke", but nothing visible all around us... and tonight, we'll get a repeat of last night.
Labels: About Beryl, Beryl Weather
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Another cold and sunny day in Utah
Here are a couple pictures of my new home. These were taken last summer. Picture this with about 3 inches of snow and you'll see what I see.
Would you believe? We may get above freezing if we hurry.
Just this morning, Cindy and I were discussing how much wood we've burned this year vs last year.
Looks like we've gone through almost 3 cords of wood... Guess I know a little about what summer brings. The guy down the road has a firewood permit and cuts enough for several of us. With about10 homes to the section here, I would imagine we can all survive on about 40 cords of wood.
She also let me know it's nearly time to go for hay again. Now, that's an adventure. This fat old lady really huffs and puffs trying to wrestle a 110# bale of hay from the stack to the truck.
Today we cleaned Dusty's stall and corral. That's Cindy's horse. At nearly 3 years of age, it's time to start training him... and he has a really strong "play drive". This could be a very interesting summer.
We still have all four of the lambs. Two have been sold and are waiting to go to market. If the guy who bought them doesn't pick them up soon, they'll be yearlings rather than lambs. We're keeping a one of the full-size ewes and also the little Merino. She's about 2/3 sized and is brown.
Pretty soon now it will be time to think about creating compost piles and then worm beds.
Labels: About Beryl
Saturday, January 20, 2007
So, where's Beryl UT?
It's in Southwestern Utah.
To be honest, I don't think I've seen Beryl (the town) yet. We're located about 6 miles north of Beryl Junction and as best I can tell, that junction is about 6 miles east of Beryl. I know we're about 17 miles north of Enterprise and about 20 miles or so from the Nevada border.
Our nearest neighbors are about 1/4 mile. We can see them, but rarely ever hear them.
Legend has it that it was named for Beryl, a class of gemstones that include the Aquamarine, Emerald, and Morganite. I've not been able to track that down yet as fact... but it sounds good enough.
Physically, we're officially in the Escalante Valley. Our elevation is just over 5300 feet, so you can imagine, I'm huffing and puffing pretty good. To get to Cedar City (about 38 miles northeast) we go over the mountains (just over 6200 feet). Same thing to get to St. George... that's about 60 miles south.
While Cedar City and St. George are among the fastest growing cities in Utah, maybe even the USA, Beryl is really a ghost town. There used to be a railroad depot, but since there are no passengers, there's no need for a depot. There's still a water tower (symbolic) and a small maintenance office.
Beryl Junction is what most folks consider to be "Beryl". That's where you'll find the elementary school, a restaurant, the power company offices, and a couple of other shops. The official Post Office is at New Castle, some 10 miles east of Beryl Junction.
In a couple of days, I'll get a photo gallery of local snapshots. Then you'll get a better idea of what my new home looks like.
Labels: About Beryl
Friday, January 19, 2007
Shari's Gone Country!
That's right... I moved a plan up a bit, and went country in December.
One of my Internet associates and I had been discussing and laying plans to join her and the rest of her family in Utah next spring.
Well, after assessing the long-term weather conditions, my personal financial responsibilities, her family's needs, I made an immediate decision to make the move. Thankfully, I already had most of my furnishings in storage.
I left on December 11, 2006 in one of the many drenching storms from late November carrying forward. Sure glad I left when I did, as I was able to outrun the storm, arriving in Beryl, UT ahead of the first of several snow storms and a long time in the deep freeze.
Got here on Dec 13 and have been incredibly busy ever since. Finally I'm able to chronicle the experience.
Now, you may ask... what about Sarah, the "Spinach Fits".. I mean Finnish Spitz? Well, she's loving it here and has her own blog called "The Itchy Dog Blog".
Be sure to grab my feed as this is where you'll be able to keep up with what I'm doing here, both on and off the 'net.
Shari
Labels: About Beryl