Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Getting ready for some things...

Well time flies when i have fun... tomorrow is all hearts day... mine has two stints in it and an ICD pacer in my chest. Better/longer living through technology and chemistry...
Wow all the way back to the week of 6 Feb... some times its hard to remember what even went on... i will be back to work in red canyon in a bit less then a month, the rush to line up volunteers for the season goes on. Because i am now in a non-pay status with the Forest Service my gov. email account has been disabled until i return to work... this makes it a bit harder to get the volunteer work done. This will be my tenth year in the canyon running the visitor center for the Forest Service. We have a facelift to the front of the center with restrooms and a new approach to the building along with a red path out to the Podunk guard station and Pink Ledges trailhead. Come visit, we open Easter weekend, Friday- Monday during the month of April and then seven days a week starting April 30 from 9-6 each day.


This past weekend i had the good fortune to attend a quilter's retreat , as a crasher, to visit with a good friend of mine, Ben Behunin, a very talented and master "mud slinger", a Potter, a profession i never quite mastered in an earlier life. Ben has also become of late a writer of books, five so far, something about visitors in his studio talking to him and telling him stories and not leaving him alone until he writes...  The retreat for Ben was to talk to/with a group of quilters about his creative process and also to sell some pottery and books on the side. My part of going for a few hours was to hear him speak, visit, he lives in Salt Lake City the retreat was in Bryce Canyon City, and it gave me an opportunity to feel of his rich spirit. His first three books, a trilogy, about an old village potter who passes and leaves his shop/studio to a just graduated pottery student and the lessons he learns from the old potter through his journals and the village residents that he meets and talks with. A very simple outline here but all three books  are a great read about life and lessons learned, great stories as well. 
    First book:  Mar 2009 Remembering Isaac The Wise and Joyful Potter of Niederbipp... Second book: Nov 2009  Discovering Isaac The Beloved Potter of Niederbipp...                                Third book:  Sept 2010 Becoming Isaac The Next Potter of Niederbipp...
Ben's newest book, Dec 2012, Borrowing Fire Rewriting the Eulogy for a Boy Named Wolf.
This book is different then the Isaac three, about a funeral crasher, with all the great insights and lessons of the other three books, and Ben does all his own research for these books! Just a note these books are not just "word" books but have images and drawings which always makes a book much more interesting for me, because i always look at the pictures before i read the book, that creates interest for me, a "snapshot maker".
You can get all the books online at Amazon... just enter authors name and title in search. 
They are a great read for both you and your children, read it with or too the younger ones!
I know that Ben test reads the books on/with his two children.

For those who have come to this blog for the preparedness information... these books would be great for your 72 hour emergency kits along with the scriptures of course. This past week i have finally got our water storage together both for long term and emergency grab and go... not a years worth but non the less a start. We have one 55 gal. drum plus two 15 gal. drums and two 6 gal. grab and go containers, total 97 gals. enough for two people for a little less then three and half weeks. It is also a good idea to pick up cases, 24 count, of bottled water when you find then on sale, for your grab and go needs. Along with the barrels we got a safe drinking water hose to fill the barrels with Panguitch city water, store barrels in a cool dry mostly dark place off the bare concrete floor. A siphon hose to get the water out. We have also got a backpacker water filter system, Katadin Vario Microfilter water filtration system along with one each of its three replaceable filters, to remove any and all water from our barrels. My though process behind this... if we filter all consumable water coming out of our barrels we will not have to be as concerned with draining and refilling the barrels. Secondly i have found that city water in Panguitch that sets for a while has a chemical taste to me and the filtration system will remove that taste. The filtration system can also be used to obtain drinkable water from lakes, rivers, streams and ponds... one tool multi-use.
Last but not least for this session... We also obtained a Volcano collapsible grill/stove with propane attachment. This takes care of emergency cooking needs and gives you three fuel options, wood, charcoal briquettes, or propane. Next step for us... locate a couple of propane tanks to fill and store, outside the house or garage, and a small supply of wood and charcoal briquettes. We found this stove on sale, much cheaper then retail price, on a recent trip to St. George a week or so ago, so keep your eyes open and have your needs list with you on your trips out of town. 
Not all of the items i  have talked about here can be taken with you if you must leave in an emergency on foot, but if we can take a car or truck, plan and choose carefully what and how much to take with you, there a lots of variables and scenarios that can influence these decisions, and we will address some of them in coming newsletters and this blog.

Well so much for this round, come back if you found something of interest, i will try to keep it relevant to life here in Panguitch in particular and the world outside in general.

Talk with you next time... Cheers


         
...along Hwy 89, Roller Mill Hill east of Panguitch, Utah                                           January 30, 2013
 




1 comment:

  1. Welcome to Niederbipp/Panguitch and feel the spirit here...
    great books... thanks for bringing Ben to Panguitch

    ReplyDelete