Utah's Arch » Family

Happy Belated Birthday, Dear

Travis Grant — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:15:16 +0000

Last year I shared with you what I got my dear wife for her birthday. This year due to my overall lack of posting new content. I neglected to share this gem with you on her birthday. So, this being the week before Valentine’s Day, and only a few days after her birthday, I thought it might be appropriate to let you know how much I deeply care for her. Not to mention my general boasting about the great present I bought.

My dear wife does an excellent job cleaning the outside of our windows. It is always a great pleasure to look out of the windows and be able to see the beautiful scenery completely smudge free.

However, in her great efforts to clean our windows, she still struggles. Climbing up on the ladder to reach the second story windows, while endearing, can sometimes lead to folly. Carrying a bucket full of detergent and water, a wash cloth, and a drying towel up and down that ladder several times throughout the day is hard work. Not to mention the few times that she has fallen from way up high, and the hazard that is to the bushes.

As I watch her perform this labor, I couldn’t help but wonder what I could do to help her. Then it came to me. Why does she need to climb up and down that ladder so many times just to wash the windows. There has to be a better way.

So, I decided that this year for her birthday, I would purchase a pressure washer that attaches directly to the hose, and does most of the work for her.

It was sheer joy watching her on her birthday wash the windows for our family. The smile on her face was a picture to only imagine.

The best part of this gift is that the present has many functions. She can use it when she washes the car, the deck, and even the trailer. It’s one of those gifts that just keeps on giving.

Too bad, that after she was done cleaning the windows on her birthday, that she had to climb back up on the ladder to chip off all of those dangerous icicles from the window sills. Oh well, I guess I can wait until the next thaw before she cleans our windows again.

Happy belated birthday, Dear. Oh, and you can be sure that your Vanlentine’s present will be just as thoughtful.

The above is with respect to Walter E. Williams and his dear, departed wife, Connie, and his past Christmas presents he has shared with us on the Rush Limbaugh Show.

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Happy Birthday, Dear

Travis Grant — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:47:08 +0000

Today is my dear wife’s birthday. And I am so impressed with the wonderful gift that I got for her, that I want to toot my own horn for a minute on this site.

Having made the decision to have a fairly large family. At least, large by today’s standards. We have to cut costs where ever possible.

As part of this cost cutting venture, we don’t hire people to do any automobile repairs, unless we have to. Well, the last time that my dear wife was out rotating the tires, I was so moved by the efforts she made. Trying to remove those lug nuts with nothing more than a box wrench was tough for her.

After the first tire was removed her dear knuckles were already bloody, and she still had three more to do. It was all I could do watching her as she struggled with each nut.

I was so moved by her diligent efforts, I knew that there was something to do to help her. So, this year, I purchase for her a tire iron. Not just any old tire iron. Nope. I bought the cheapest one that money can buy. After all, we have a big family and can’t afford more.

It will be so nice to watch her remove those lug nuts with this new tool. No longer will I have to endure the pains of her screams and grunts. It will be sure pleasure to watch her rotate the tires in just over an hour compared to half a day as in years past.

I love you dear. Happy Birthday.

Oh, by the way. I think it’s time to rotate the tires on my car.

The above is with respect to Walter E. Williams and his dear, departed wife, Connie, and his past Christmas presents he has shared with us on the Rush Limbaugh Show.

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Sandy's Blog

Travis Grant — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 03:38:43 +0000

Well, after following my blog for years, my dear wife has finally given into the addiction called blogging. She followed my ill-advised advice, and used WordPress. After a brief training session, she finally has a new post. It is the talk she offered at her grand father’s funeral.

So, please take a minute to check it out.

Oh, and don’t expect much politics over there. She doesn’t find it as interesting as I do. But you will probably learn more about us through her blog, then you will through mine.

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The Octogenarian

Travis Grant — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:45:49 +0000

Last week my wife’s family lost a truly great man. I was going to post this earlier, but I couldn’t find the video that I wanted to include. I still can’t find them, but I feel a need to post about this great man anyway.

The octogenarian lived to be 82 year of age, and he served all he came in contact with well. First, he served his country during WWII as a simple galley man on a U.S. Naval ship. He wasn’t a gunner, he wasn’t a captain, he wasn’t fighter pilot. Instead, he was your simple every man working in the kitchen. The video that I wanted to share was a discription of what he did during the war.

After the War, he came home and served his community as a volunteer fire fighter. It was wonderful to see two men stand at attention by the casket during the viewings. The represented his service to the city he spent most of his adult life in.

He served his family, through his excellent example of work. Except for the last few years of his life when his health prevented it, when ever you went to Grandpa’s house he was either in the shed, garage, or garden working. He always kept himself busy with one project or another. This would often translate into something for one of his sons, or grandchildren helping harvesting the garden.

He served his church by serving his neighbors. Even though some consider the task of home teaching a menial. This octogenarian understood the value of service to those who home taught. If he home taught a widowed sister, you can garauntee that she were taken care of. A family in need was also someone who Grandpa took care of.

This octogenarian lived a good life, and service was a part of who he was. His 82 years of service in this world has left the world a better place.

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The Camp of Hikes

Travis Grant — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:54:18 +0000

Last week our family took our new-to-us tent trailer camping at Spruces Campground. While it wasn’t my first choice for campsites, it really was a good trip.

We ended up leaving on Monday afternoon about 3:30pm. That was a lot later than I had originally planned, but I could get myself moving on Saturday to get the trailer packed and ready. So, we did most of the packing on Monday.

After we got to camp, we decided to do tinfoil dinners first, because the dutch oven meals were still frozen. It was nice. We then settle in earlier than usual for camping, because we had worked hard that morning.

In the morning, I woke up before everyone else (which is typical). So, I decided that I would start the day in searching for a geocache. The is called New Name New Cache and it is located up the Days Fork Trail. It is accessible only through the Spruces campground, but you can park just outside the campground if you don’t want to pay the fee.

It was a rough hike at first, but it levels off near the end and is very pleasant. I was tempted to place another cache to attract people up there, but I really didn’t have a good container. So, I will put one up next year. Spruces seems to be an annual tradition in our family.

When I got home we had a big breakfast of biscuits, sausages, and eggs. The biscuits were done in the dutch oven, and as you would expect from the dutch oven, there were better than from a regular oven.

After breakfast, I got the geocaching but again. So, I offered to take my kids on a hike to find a geocache. We headed out in search of Health Come to Dog Lake. When I got to the trail head and saw that the trail was 2.6 miles, I should have known it was too much for my 4- and 2-year-old to handle, but when I am caching such common sense departs.

After getting about 1.5 miles into the hike, I contemplated turning around. It was a beautiful enough of a spot to call our final destination. There were hundreds of butterflies, a few bees, and thousands of beautiful flowers by the stream. It made a great resting place.

However, after eating the snacks that we had brought, I was renewed. So, we pushed on. I told my children that we would decide about turning back once we got the the fork in the trail. At the fork, it was only a half a mile left to Dog Lake, so we decided to do it. It was a lot rougher, but no more difficult than the first half of the trail. It was at this point I started to carry Capt. Z.

We finally made it to Dog Lake. It wasn’t much to see, but it was a good hike. We thought about pushing on the the cache. But realized that it was 2:30pm and that Mom would be expecting us home soon. So, we gave up on that cache, and decided to find the two that I had already found before. We found the first, but not the last.

We ended up not getting home until 5:30pm. So late, that my wife had called my dad, and was ready to send out the search teams. But my dad assured her, that I was just following in his foot steps and turning a short hike into a forever hike.

Sandy had dinner all ready to go by the time we got home, so I helped her get dessert ready. We had the Great Chicken Dinner that I have told you about again. But we finished it off with some very delicious Orange Knot Rolls. I will share the recipe with you tomorrow. After a long hike, it was very delicious and satisfying. I don’t remember ever eating that well while camping.

We started a game of cards that evening, but the younger kids were acting up, and we decided that we should call it a night.

Wednesday morning, I decided to stick around for two reasons. The first was because we were having German Pancakes in the dutch oven. The second was that I was tired from the 8 miles of hiking that I did the day before.

After breakfast, the kids relaxed and played in the nearby stream, and I didn’t do much. I did take a short nap, and played a little catch with the kids, but for the most part, I watched the trees grow.

After lunch, which was hot dogs and mac’n'cheese, we play a game of ‘May I’ (that’s pronounced like the request “may eye?”). One of these days I hope to explain it to you, because I believe that it is a Gazelem Family phenomenon.

Then for dinner we had barbecue country style pork ribs (if you need the recipe then you have never dutch oven cooked) and baked potatoes. The potatoes were done by wrapping them in tinfoil and then cooking them in the dutch oven. They were amazingly good.

I couldn’t let the day go by without some geocaching, so we decided to do some drive-by caches in the canyon. We started out with a no find, then we had a couple of easy finds by a restaurant and a trail head.

The cache by the trail head gave me an idea of where I wanted to go in the morning. So after an okay night’s rest, I started by going after perhaps the lamest virtual cache in Utah, and perhaps the reason GC.com doesn’t list virtual caches. Then, I headed back to the trail head, and head up the canyon to grab several different caches.

But the main goal to to get a possible First To Find. I knew from the description, and looking at my TOPO maps on my GPS that this wasn’t going to be a pretty hike. But I had to go for it. Because my database was a month old and it looked like a possible First Find experience. The hike up was rough. There was a couple of times that I thought about giving up. But I perservered, and I was the second to find the cache.

My only regret is that my camera batteries were dead and so there were no pictures taken of this beautiful site. I might just have to do this again for the great pictures. But I think that I saw an easier approach while I was up there, so I might try a different route next time.

Coming down was an adventure itself. I decided to follow in the steps of the person before me (not that I saw his tracks, just had the same mind set). And I headed straight down the hill. There were several times that I felt like I was going to fall and break something, but after slowing down just a hair, and keeping my eyes wide open, I managed to get to Willow Heights safely.

When I got home, we started packing up the trailer and started heading home. It was a fun week, and I am glad that despite my misgivings, that we went camping at Spruces. Next year, I will definitely place a couple of caches in the area. Because I know that I will be going often enough.

See More Pictures

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SODO: The Late Independence Day Dinner

Travis Grant — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:45:06 +0000

Like the dinner this post is a little late.

I had to work on Independence Day. Yep, I get July 5 off every year. However, the 4th is always a work day at my company.

But having to work wasn’t going to take away from my celebration. We were planning to do a Dutch Oven dinner on the 4th. But I ended up working late and not getting out of work in time to start a dutch oven meal.

So we went with something simple instead, and made plans to dutch oven on Saturday.

Those plans were pushed off too, because we realized almost too late, that we had a baptism for my niece that I needed to go to. So, again we find out selves without a nice dutch oven meal.

Finally, Sunday night we were able to fit in the preparation time and cooking time to do a dutch oven dinner. So, we started off with some Chicken Durango:

1 Medium Onion Chopped
1/4 cup of Butter
1 10oz can of Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 10oz can of Cream of Chicken Soup
1 15oz can of Mexican Style Stewed Tomatoes
8 pieces of Chicken

Sauté the the onions in the butter until tender. Then add both soups and the tomatoes. Add the chicken. Let cook for 1 hour.

While you could serve this with tortillas, we went with rice. It was very good. The rice mixed with the sauce was good enough to be a meal on its own.

We finished out meal off with a cherry cobbler. We used some of the cherries that we had just canned from our tree, and added a cake mix and and butter. I think we used too many cherries, because it was just a little over the top. But this was definitely a great meal.

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Welcome Home PandaMae

Travis Grant — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:52:22 +0000

Last year I went with my oldest daughter to Girl’s Camp. Back then I thought it was for her. I felt that it would make it easier for her to be away from the family for a whole week.

Let me explain, in the LDS Church many there is an organization for the teenage girls. It is called the Young Women’s organization. It’s primary focus is teaching the girls the gospel of Jesus Christ. But the “young women” often learn life skills and have fun.

Each year as part of the learning about Christ, and having fun, and learning life skills, each local organization hosts a camp out. It is simply called “Girl’s Camp.” However, in our local church group, girls who are 13- and 14-years old have an extra opportunity to go to Oakcrest.

This camp is filled with crafts, hikes, games, and a night out under the stars. there are lesson on life, religion, family, and more. I have never been so I have only a small figurative peak at what they do, but from most girls I get nothing but rave reviews.

Well, if you follow my twitters, then you know that PandaMae left our home for week to go to Oakcrest. She was very excited and couldn’t wait.

While I sensed some hesitation at the drop off, I knew that she was happy to go.

However, as I think it over, I suspect that the hesitation was mine. I didn’t want her to go. I miss my little girl. Even though she is very quiet, and sometimes she can be in her room for hours and no one notice she is gone, something is different in our home.

Something is missing.

Today she comes back. And I can’t wait to get home and see her. I can’t wait to hear about her adventures. See her pictures, and hopefully get a glimpse at a testimony that has grown.

It’s funny. My wife is the one who can’t stand the thought of our children growing up and leaving the house. I often comment on how much I can’t wait tell all the birds have flown the coop. Yet, it is my wife who has been stellar. She seldom comments on PandaMae’s absence. While I don’t think a day has gone by without my mentioning her as gone.

I will probably be the won crying at her wedding too.

Reflecting back to last year, and to the hesitation at the drop off for Oakcrest. I think that it is me who is more worried about these adventures. My little girl that used to wake me up with her respiratory alarm at 3 months, the little girl who used to ride her big wheel in the balcony of our apartment, the little girl who used to think that I could fix anything including the credit card in the 3.25″ floppy drive is not my little girl any more.

She’s my big little girl now.

Welcome home PandaMae, I hope you had a fun time.

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SODO: First Time Baking Bread

Travis Grant — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:25:52 +0000

For Father’s Day my wife more than took care of me. Actually, if you ask me, she went a little over board. But, I finally have some items that I have been wanting for a very long time. So, I forgive her.

I received two things that I really wanted. The first was a Camp Chef Dutch Oven Table to make it easier to cook. Now I don’t have to bend over and risk hurting my back.

The other thing that I wanted was Charcoal Lighting Basket (I didn’t get the one pictured, but you get the idea). This will hopefully help me to get my coals to cook more evenly, and thus have a better cooking experience.

Finally my wife got me something else that was on my list, but not as high as those two. She got me a second 12″ Round Dutch Oven. This will be especially nice when I want to cook two things at the same time.

So, that’s what we did. Yesterday, we cooked up a roasted chicken. Nothing special there. Just clean a whole chicken, season it (we use seasoning salt), and then cook it in your oven.

But we complemented the chicken with some fresh homemade rolls. My wife for years has been using the “refrigerator” bread dough recipe. It will keep in the fridge for up to about a week. So, you can have fresh bread almost all the time. Just let it rise, then bake it.

FRIDGE DOUGH

1 Pkg. Yeast (abt 2-3 tsp)
1 cup cool water
2 eggs
½ cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening
1 cup Hot water
About 6-7 cups flour

Mix Yeast in 1 cup cold water
Mix eggs, sugar, salt and shortening
Combine ingredients of 1 and 2 and Hot Water.
Mix in flour until dough is no longer sticky. (Dough will not be firm, but not sticky)

Store covered in a large greased container. Dough will raise some in the fridge so be sure to allow room for growth (Use within 10 days or it will get to tasting a little ripe.)
Makes about 3 recipes worth.

Sandy mixed all of the ingredients, and placed them in a tinfoil lined Dutch Oven. Then we let them rise in the heat of the sun for about a half-hour to 45 minutes.

Then we cooked them in the Dutch Oven. It should have taken around 30 minutes, but my coals were damp, and they didn’t get very hot. I think I have finally learned my lesson to bring my unused charcoals into the garage to stay dry.

I was really nervous that the rolls would be burned on the bottom. But they were, They were just shy of being perfect on the bottom. The top, however, wasn’t done as well as I would have liked. Yes, they were very edible and the flavor and texture was just fine. The only problem was that they didn’t brown on the top. They were as pale as when they were put in the oven.

So, I am going to have to research and figure out the best way to brown bread on the top in a Dutch Oven. Otherwise, the meal was fine (accept we ate late again today).

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SODO: The Great Chicken Dinner

Travis Grant — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:59:41 +0000

Okay, the title to this post is a little misleading. Because last night’s meal was nothing great.

I guess, I felt that because I had been home all day that I would have enough time to start some dutch oven. But I didn’t start until 5:00 in the evening. And we had kids that needed to be to various church activities. So, I was thinking that this would have dinner done well before 6:30pm.

I was so wrong. At 6:30, the chick was still raw and the potatoes were crunchy. It really wasn’t ready to eat. So, we fed the kids a small amount of left overs and sent them to their activities.

Pride having set in, I decided to keep them on the coals for another half hour or hour. But somewhere in there, I knew that I needed hotter coals. So, after the hour had expired, and American Idol was half over, I broke down and put them in the oven.

I know, it’s horrible. We were hungry and needed to eat.

After another half hour, it was finally good enough to eat. Still some of the potatoes and carrots weren’t fully cooked, but the were still edible.

So, after that disaster of a dinner you my be wondering why the title of this post. I call this recipe “The Great Chicken Dinner” because it was perhaps one of my first exposures to dutch oven, and the chicken usually tastes great. So, here is the recipe:

1-2 lbs. of bone in chicken (last night we did legs and thighs)
1/4 cup of butter
1/2 cup of flour
2 tbs of seasoned salt (to taste)
10-12 small potatoes cut into about 1/2 inch slices
1 lbs bag of baby carrots (medium carrots cut into baby carrot size is okay too).
1 small onion sliced
1 can of cream of chicken soup

First of all start melting the butter in the pan. Then remove the skin from the chicken. In a large bowl or plastic resealable bag mix the flour and seasoned salt. Coat the chicken with the flour mixture then brown in the melted butter. After both sides are browned, leave chicken in dutch oven and top with potatoes, carrots, onions, and cream of chicken soup.

Looking over the recipe, and after a pleasant comment from my wife, I realized that I had forgotten the cream of chicken soup. There wasn’t enough moisture to cook the potatoes and carrots properly.

Also, the charcoal that I used had been slightly moist from all of the rain that we had yesterday. Combine that with the wet ground, and I don’t think that my coals were hot enough to reach the needed 350 degrees. So, yesterday was definitely a learning experiences.

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We're Debt Free!

Travis Grant — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:26:15 +0000

Two and a half years ago, my wife and I moved into our new home. After that move, we had one goal. That was to get rid of our consumer debt.

We started out by paying $700 extra on the one consumer loan that we had. It was a student loan that totalled somewhere near $32,000. Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either. Somehow, I managed to ignore the fact that I was that deep in debt.

I also started this process by reading Dave Ramsey‘s book “The Total Money Makeover.” While reading it I felt pretty good. I had not car loans. Our credit card was paid off every month, and I felt that I was on the right track.

Then came the section on Student Loans. That when it hit me hard that I was not different than other people. Sure, my interest rate was less than most. But the reality was that it was still that terrible four-letter word, DEBT.

Eventually, through pay raises and some other tightening of the proverbial belt, we started to pay $1000 every month towards the student loan. We also used the tax refunds and part of a company bonus to help us pay down our debt.

Finally on April 15 2008, I made my last payment on the student loan. I was debt free (at least on the consumer side, I still owe on my home).

I say was, because I then did something sort of stupid. I bought a new computer that cost almost $1000 dollars. I did this because I knew that buy the time the credit card bill came due we would have the money, and because our last computer was literally on its last leg.

Thus, I am waiting until today to officially announce that I am debt free. I paid of the computer and other credit card balance (like I do every month), and I can honestly say I am debt free.

Our next step is to build our financial reserves and my wife and I are adding food storage. But we need a break from discipline. So we are buying a few wants over the next few months. These include a tent trailer (already purchased), a new computer (also purchased), a new washer and dryer, some furniture for our family room, a safe, and some other incidentals.

I just hope these next few months of “frivolity” don’t have us regretting our decision. But starting in January, we will get really serious about our financial and food stores.

Just as a final note. Dave Ramsey does not condone the use of credit cards, and for the most part I agree with him. However, after 14 years of discipline has shown, my wife and I can handle credit cards. We don’t use them, unless we have the money to back up the purchase, and we always return to a zero balance at the end of each month. I only recommend credit cards if you KNOW that you will pay them off each month, and will use them wisely.

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