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 

Shoulder work... information... and other stuff...

Summer work ahead...                                                                   04/22/2013

Summer is here if by nothing but the date on the calendar, along with the start of road work in the canyon and about the State of Utah... but the weather always has the last say in the matter no matter what the paper on the wall says. Two of the most favored turn-outs in the canyon are being closed for the coming of a new look and feel... granted the views will be the same but for those returning the configuration and what can and can't stop and park at these turn-outs will be different. So the only constant in this world... change, continues to come to the canyon, and in this case with safety for the traveling public in mind. Most all of us that work in the tourist information world realize the visitors leave their brains home in a jar on the kitchen counter... but they still bring their cell phones and expect them to work all the time!! Everyone wants a map but still depends on the talking magic voice in the box on the dashboard to tell them where and how to get there (GPS)... this device is the best sure way to get lost out here, so turn off GPS and learn to read a map, mark it up with circles arrows and lines, then take it home and use it in your scrapbook. We can help you really well with the marking it up task at the VC in the red canyon, come in we have markers of many colors. And some of us can't talk very well without making lots of marks on something!! 

First day of construction...                                                                 04/22/2013

 So the bottom line of all this...
slow down, watch the road, read the signs, look at the sights, and don't stop in the middle of the highway to take pictures cause you don't know whats coming around that corner behind you not paying attention to whats in front of them, and remember our shoulders are being worked on.
Slow down and give the workers a break, they got a job to get through, and don't need to be looking out for you, as you look and drive through their work site. Cruse on into the Visitor Center stop, take a minute, let the "air" out of your shoes, re-group, look around the center, take a hike, mark up a new map, and joke with the volunteers and staff. If you have to get to Bryce and then on to Zion and catch a plane in Vegas or Salt Lake... today... then get on down the road !
We are building steam on/in this season, new volunteers arriving, opening seven (7) days a week April 30, campground opening in May, a new line of red canyon T-shirts and a Thunder Mt. bike trail "sport shirt" coming along. And with the next round of construction coming to our parking lot in June! And you thought this was a vacation!

Random parking lot...                                                                               04/2013

Right now our parking lot is random, where ever you want... or follow the leader... just and open lot, but don't get too creative... we have been known to ask people to move! We have to have 60 degrees of warm temperatures for twenty-four hours before we can chip-seal, stripe, and finish the lot with purpose and direction, so you can park without having to think too much, and that usually does not happen till June, temps i mean not your thinking! So watch out for that one coming soon, as another distraction to the great looking landscape that we always have. We also have eight blank interpretative panel frames standing at attention waiting for orders... sixteen total interpretative panels will explain who, what, and where to go, all coming before the Memorial weekend... so if ya don't like talking with folks or we're closed, we can still tell ya where to go and how to get there! Don't forget your map, shut down the GPS, all of this can be found while your on the way to where everyone else is going... the restrooms, and the panels will all be there when you come out... aha!! Then come into the visitor center... that's where a lot of the fun of discovery starts at...  but for now that's another story for another day. 

I have got to get back to work for the next eight days or so... 
Stop by if your in the neighborhood or wave as you pass through...
Some day you will stop... and we can show you the wonders of red canyon...

CHEERS till then...

Deer toes... snow... back to bright light... once again.

Box of deer toes...                                      2013

Wee...   here we go again, this is my "project box" at work, you might remember the box from an earlier post, the deer toes been hanging out on the back deck all winter drying out so to speak... the neighbor dogs took off with some of em', but they left me ten. The white pan is to catch the soil i been sifting for the silt, for a display i want to put together. Have just about completed the "dino fossil box" just have to pack it with excelsior and attach the Plexiglas top and all is good to go. Hope the box with a fossil inside rather then a just a big chunk of stone attracts more attention on the counter top. Folks look up to read the poster but don't look down at the fossil... 

The weather is/was the big deal this past weekend,  then it snowed big time this week, like all day long one day, have not seen a day like that all winter. Looking at the seven day forecast, partly cloudy, sunny and warming up this coming weekend. 

I have two sets of volunteers in the center now so that frees me up for more project time...
deer hoof/toe rattle along with the legs so folks don't have to go catch the deer and hold it down to get a good look... only kidding. The box will also have other animal parts... ya could call it a parts box. Hides, bones, antlers, scat in a jar, a fauna box. Ya know work has got to be fun or why do it... other then feeding the money habit/need that takes care of the other mundane things we have to do in this life. Went to the GEM the other night to see escape from planet earth... what a hoot and an escape from cable TV!
Well all that's left now is back to work and wait for the new storm door handle to arrive.

In a Hebrew proverb, God is said to have made the desert so there'd be a place he could walk in peace.

Tuesday 16 April 2013

 " We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us." 
"... even in the absence of climate change, even without human contribution of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, mega-droughts happen in the normal course of events. "
" The fertile American High Plains are sitting on top of a desert... The last full-dune episode across the High Plains was six hundred years ago."
We live in an ephemeral landscape.

Thursday 18 April 2013

 y

Field Support Unit... 18 April 2013

I have started and am reading "Apocalyptic Planet" 

by Craig Childs... it's not the hoot that escape form planet earth was at the GEM... but it sure makes more sense then what i hear from my government and big business concerns about climate change...

Childs says: "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... and are one of the drivers of global climate patterns... As landscapes, they are tricksters, shape-shifters."

Good book so far... if ya want a different slant on things pick it up, a good read and digest and apply it to your own beliefs... remember that we here in Panguitch live in/on one of those deserts.

Well for now that's about all i can put into words... or better yet want too, because with everything going on in this country and the world my personal opinions are best kept close to my faulty heart.

D&C 38: 29&30

 Thanks for coming to visit me in my part of this great world we all live in...  tomorrow back to my other world of visitor's questions and answers, along with my own... continue to read the scriptures every day... pray, trust, hope, and believe in the Lord, who's brother i am.

Cheers till we meet again.

Snow... more boards... wind & oreo's...

12:38pm                                  4/8/2013

 "...imperfect people are all God  has ever had to work with.
That must be terribly frustrating to him, but he deals with it. So should we."   
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland April 7, 2013

With that in mind have another oreo and let's get to work...
With two weekends of visitor center work tucked into my belt... the changing weather, light, and the variety of people that walk through the door is amazing !! The new comfort station works well and people speak of the new smell, they are only two weeks old.  

1:36pm                                     4/8/2013

With the next few days off, the delta disaster folks were here to complete their work on restoring the once flooded bedroom to its pre-flood state. Now it's time to unwind and get to work on the 84 million year old fossil's display box/crate... off to the saw mill for two more 1x10x 8' boards to get this project started... i have all the other materials on hand. 
It appears that it is still snowing to the east of here in the red canyon area... as the images show from this past Monday...
wind blowing all day here in Pnaguitch with all the loose vagrant plastic bags caught in trees and on fences to act as wind socks... the wind is blowing from the north by the way and can stop anytime now.  I continue to hit wrong keys to make this whole thing work and want at times to kick myself... as i wander about in this cyber-space of un-reality... except for these words.

4:03pm                                     4/8/2013

i do believe i am done with this post for today 

the sun has cmoe out and work beckons so i will depart with this one final thought and image...

i am one of those imperfect peolpe that Elder Holland refers to in his conference talk... and some days i know it more then ever...

as Elder Holland also stated... "hold to the ground you have already won, be true to the faith you have... fan the flame of your faith."  i struggle with this each day...
now is the time to get away from the words and get my hands dirty and my body tired.

This image from easter 2012........

see ya later... 
love ya... 
bye>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>







CHEERs 1!2!!3!!!

Red Canyon... rocks, light, and wonder...

Red Canyon... new restrooms                    31 March 2013

Well it looks like a good season has started... we have a moon over the new comfort station... rather then a half moon on each door. After a week of getting the visitor center reheated, cleaned, and a lot of work going on outside to complete the restrooms, clean-up the grounds and install the interpretation panel frames... the red canyon visitor center opened for question and answer sessions on March 29th. We also had the final walk through of this past winters construction/facelift of the center front yard, not all without some complications, on opening day, we had port-o-potties the first day open to lend to the air'e of wilderness experience... and just to let visitors know they were on "vacation". The following morning we opened the new restrooms for public use... there are still a few odds and ends to do... benches to set on are still coming and a series of interpretation panels still to come... as the frames are now "blank" as i felt moving toward the completion of this project at sometimes. I was glad to have my own punch list to keep me busy inside the center to get ready to open this center for the tenth time in as many years.  There is lots of show and tell inside as well, a most wonderful show of plain aire paintings by Cedar City artist Brad Holt, who worked all winter painting in the canyon, along with an eighty-four million year old Hadrosaur mandible still incased in stone, along with all of our usual display's and gift/book store, come on in if your in the area, and we have an answer for most everything relating to the area.
The center is open Fridays through Mondays, 9am-6pm, for the month of April, then starting April 30 we will be open seven days a week same 9-6 times daily.

Red Canyon, Dixie National Forest                                                                                                                                March 2013

YES we're OPEN                                         2013

Lots to do hiking trails, biking trails paved and dirt, single track, and the best single track bike trail in Utah... Thunder Mountain!  This is a great place to get away from the crowds of the surrounding national parks. Red canyon is a canyon by definition, it is "V" shaped, has two sides and in our case a dry wash, most of the time, running through it. The canyon runs east to west and is cut into the western edge of the Paunsaugant Plateau. As one, of eight, persons that spends seven plus months of each year working in the canyon it is comfortable and makes me feel at home because the canyon "wraps" its arms/walls about me. We operate/work in the bottom of the canyon and look up to "see" the warm red rocks surround us. Most visitors like this canyon for that feeling of being "in" a canyon, unlike Bryce, where you stand at the top and look down into it like a god. Bryce Canyon is miss named, it was called Bryce's Canyon by the early pioneers. Bryce is not a canyon at all, but a series of horseshoe-shaped amphitheaters carved from a break on the eastern edge of the Paunsagunt Plateau. The marvel for me of red canyon is to watch the weather move over, through, and up and down the canyon, and as an Artist/photographer watching the change in the "light" and shadow move through the canyon hour by hour, day by day for months at a time, this is something visitors rarely experience when they visit, because they don't stay long enough. Come and experience the canyon and also know that there are people here that watch over and care for one of the special places on earth.

" Man in the rock..."                                                                                                                                                              April 2013

Come and we will show you windows, coyote sleeping on the rocks, faces in the rocks and even this guy trying to escape from the rock... bring your sense of wonder and imagination... and see what you may find. This is my tenth year in the canyon and i still see/discover new things each day, and always look forward to tomorrow... with a smile.

Cheers...  till you come again.