Old and new...

come apart...                                                                May 2013

Sometimes it looks and feels as though life and the world is coming apart... and summer in these parts seems more that a way, because that's when we can get those big tear-em up and put-em back together projects can only get done with the good weather. Then on top of all that all these visitors want to be here... and this year they are all here early and in "herds & flocks".
Then ya throw a national holiday in there, Memorial Day, and they seem to flood the place. Now don't go getting me wrong i am not complaining that's the way things fly around here... and the big local shin digs are coming this next month... Quilt walk and the Balloon Festival then they are really going to tear the town up... main street redo... along with the parking lot at the red canyon visitor center.

Layla K. at ten hours old                                      May 26 2013

Then with our life and everyday concerns swirling about us along comes this pause break that makes us stop at least our life for a moment and welcome this new member into our Family...
Welcome and meet Layla K. Costigan
"She is more precious then rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her."  Proverbs 3:15

She is surely a jewel in our family and if there is any advice a grandfather might give to her and her parents at this time, it also comes from Proverbs 3 this time v.5&6.
" Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

Well it's windy and blowing and trying to rain here in Panguitch today, Levi and Bailey are home in Escalante with Layla K. trying to start a new life in more ways then they even know, yet. Mr. Deeks our dog is getting bathed and trimmed, then i get bathed, not by the groomer, and we, Jolene and I, are off to that dentist visit for me, sleep and work in Cedar City... Life goes on, weather we want it to or not... time waits for no man and change is the only constant.

Cheers

checkin-in and moving on down the road...

Just checking in... spent the morning at the dentist... lots of numbness... drilling and grinding... nothing to be saved... lots of red flags... a few green ones... but will try again next week with the oral sturgeon so if problems arise it can be taken care of there during one knock out and no traveling to fix at the end of a day...         

road check                                                                                                                                                                            April 2013

Life at Times seems like a group of three liners... some days better then others...

God the eternal Father is my Father i am his son...

Jesus is the Christ my brother and my Savior...

I am grateful to be on earth at this time and learn his lessons each day.

Cold overcast grey day... wind... tooth falling apart and out

testimony day... again i set as a bump on the bench... but write a bit

piano recital... root beer float... rest from every day labors

fish hanging on a barbed wire fence... up and down canyon drive

grey overcast day... rain showers on and off all day

front desk dance... must get to the dentist... tooth falling apart

morning hearing test... must be going deaf... ears full of wax

slow wet afternoon at the front desk dance... rain showers

end of the season visitors coming now... old and forgoing

run about town... air in tires... machine money... windshield wipers

off for a day in the "real-world" traffic and lights, fast-food and stores

great road trip with the dog... rain showers all day long wipers keeping time

rain then a coat of hail... back to sunshine... EOS apps review and rate

run 4 DEBBIE day... POV 500 south and main... images to make

i did not run or walk... but watched and images made... clear and sunny

downstairs fan on ceiling... connect and tighten screws... move air

clouds building and filling the sky... eating chips and feeding the dog

open wood fire... hot dogs on a stick... pyro grandson feeding the fire

Mothers day... i miss all the mothers in my life... what can i say

the Lord will try us till He knows what He can do with us... no other way

be of good cheer... be not disheartened... put a steak on the fire

high clouds and sunny... cool breeze blowing... yellow/orange sunrise

board meeting morning... thousand visitors today... clean restrooms go home

two dollar bill and fish on the barbed wire fence

green leaf tree day in the hood... Layla came to visit still in moms belly

below my feet and lover of the light... mumford and sons... babel

off to oblivion at the GEM... escape... soup before ice cream after 

Church meetings... noodles to eat... levi to visit

letter writing... cloudy rain day... nap away headache

too many colored pencils... sharpen and color on

weekend numbers war stories...

into slowdown monday... cool and cloudy

on to tuesday dentist... drill and pull... numb

pills and antibodies... relax don't do it... numb... read

prop me open... have your way... prick and poke

drill & grind nothing to save... extract... red flags

Well folks that wraps it up for the daze since the fourth...

back to the front desk tomorrow... change the water today

time to live and learn and see what comes my way... Cheers

Work... wanderings and other thoughts...

Soldier's waiting for orders... info inside                                           May 2013

Nine days of questions and answers... thank goodness for a good volunteer staff. No interp. panels yet... but coming soon to a visitor center in red canyon... outside benches maybe next week... then have a seat, loosen your laces, let the air out of your shoes and drink in the blue sky and red rocks. Lots of visitors coming through this past April and now May... almost looks like our normal September crowd...  lots of senior passes being sold, the best deal in the Gov.... U.S. citizen , sixty two years old and entrance into every National Park in the U.S. for the rest of your life... all for one Hamilton note or two Lincoln's !!  Cash no plastic in red canyon. Turn out construction along Hwy. 12 going on west of the VC has increased bus traffic by leaps and bounds... some for only photo ops. of the totems, others for the whole enchilada, photo's, VC, restrooms, and short hike... five to seven per day. It is going to be a very busy season by the way things are going now, come in and visit we are there seven days a week now 9AM - 6PM.

Seiver River running...                                                                    May 04 2013

The Sevier is running higher and faster with the last of the not enough snow melt from this winter... a bit higher and full of silt not good for the fishing... but good for the fields in Panguitch that needs all they can get and more.  Drive the back door  BLM road #1700 out to the mouth of Casto Canyon  and you can see how dry we are, the washes that drain the plateau are not running at all... and the road surfaces are un-rutted and in good shape even for the family sedan. Also just discovered Agate hill outside the mouth of Casto canyon... might be a good place to walk about and look for treasures if rocks are your passion or as a "token" of a place visited. I am still trying to determine agate from chert... more time and research, both have silica and i do believe can spark with steel and also be knapped into points. Do not know flint from chert or if they are the same thing, just different names... i don't know rocks very well at all. Though i have been known to collect those that i like not knowing what they are... but taking them out of the context of where they were found... like tearing the page out of a book. I am getting better though and making an image and then putting the rock back in place where i found it... more often now then in the past. 

BLM road #1700... Agate hill                           May 04 2013

?? Agate... Chert...         May 04 2013

Last but not least for this peek into my world this week... previously disturbed camping spots, Some hearty souls still want this experience even though the red canyon campground is now open... though it is a treat for the VC staff, sometimes, to smell a good campfire on visitors, this might be and age thing on my part, but it seems to be the lack of a vacation budget for the younger visitors that come seeking these sites. This is what a previously disturbed site might look like:

Previously disturbed site... nice view also.                                 May 04 2013

The up or down side of this kind of camping, if done at the last of a day and in the dark, you might not get too choose the view you have in the morning! but ya know sometimes life is best as a surprise (-;

Its great running about on these back roads watching the dust behind you in the rear view mirror, and then eating that same dust when you stop to make and image or get a closer look at something. 

"Deserts are not aberrations. They are one of the quintessential environments of the earth, a quarter of the planet's solid surface covered by them. As landscapes they are tricksters, shape shifters." Craig Childs; "Apocalyptic Planet" page 7




From my daily readings: "...ye cannot say that ye are are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who created you."   Book of Mormon; Mosiah 2: 25

 Find joy in your journey/sojourn here in southern Utah...        Cheers