Wood Badge--Six Months Later

Six months ago, on a very cool, rainy Monday morning, May 12th to be exact, I packed my bags, a sleeping bag and a small cot into my car and headed up Payson Canyon to spend a week at Camp Maple Dell, a campsite of The Boy Scouts of America. Destination: Wood Badge Course W7-591-05-08. By the time I reached Payson the rain had turned to snow and I was beginning to wonder what kind of a week lay ahead of me. I knew that true boy scouts don't give up, so I was pretty sure that the Wood Badge course I was to attend was not going to be canceled. Everyone was a little damp on the outside, but spirits were not dampened. The snow stopped by mid morning and things were definitely looking up. The first night was quite cold but each day was an improvement over the previous day and we enjoyed balmy weather the rest of the week. Well, not balmy enough to take off our coats until the last day or two but it was much better than Monday's forecast.

We compressed the total scouting experience into one week and learned how a boy progresses from Cub Scout to Varsity Scout and what tools we as leaders can use to help boys become successful leaders of their families, communities and nation. We cooked up quite a feast of learning seasoned with laughter, fun, delicious food, showmanship, love, and a healthy portion of the Spirit that resulted in quite an unforgettable experience.

Well, it has been six months since those fun-filled days. Although participants actually have 18 months to complete their ticket (5 goals), the staff set a target date of six months to present Wood Badge beads to those who have completed their tickets. This bead ceremony was held Saturday night, November 15th.

I am happy to say that our entire Bobwhite patrol completed our goals and received our tickets this past weekend. One person, Kristy Lamb, could not be at the bead ceremony so she received hers at Roundtable on Thursday.

I venture to say that I think we had the best staff ever to lead our Wood Badge course. I learned to love each one of them as well as those who participated in the eight patrols. It was wonderful to see them all again on Saturday night.

Maybe I have mentioned this before, but one of the highlights of my experience at Wood Badge came on Day 2 when Bro. Hansen said he felt someone that should be on our course had not signed up, and then he determined that it was Verlin Hatch who should be there. He therefore made Verlin an honorary member of the Bobwhite patrol. Throughout the week, our patrol seemed to have a little extra help as we performed extremely well in the "ropes course" challenges and we were the winning patrol in the tent pitching challenge.

Last Saturday night, after all of the patrols had received their beads, they asked me and Ammon to come forward and they presented Verlin's Wood Badge beads, neckerchief, woggle and certificate to Ammon in Verlin's behalf. As Hyrum would say, "Good job, Grandpa!"

If you double-click on the slideshow it will open up in Picasa and I believe you can view the captions associated with the slideshow so it may make more sense. You can also extend the length of the slides a couple seconds so that you have time to read the captions. I hope that works.

Time flies...

I can't believe it has been six weeks since I looked at this blog. Well, actually I used to look at it more often, but since it seemed to never change I quit looking.

Today I have a comment or two to make, and a couple pictures to share that I thought you might enjoy. First, I have enjoyed the visiting I have done in the last couple months. I have been privileged to visit with most of the children and grandchildren--with the exception of Anson, Heidi, and Aaron's families whom I hope to visit sometime in the near future. Meanwhile, I will look forward with great anticipation to the Hatch Party in December.

I enjoyed seeing pictures of everyone's Halloween celebrations. Things have really changed in this neighborhood. We only had a couple dozen trick-or-treaters. It was a pretty quiet evening at the old homestead.

I have been going through pictures that my mom and dad have collected over their lifetime. It brought back some good memories of my childhood and also of family reunions that we have attended. If you saw how my brothers and sisters and I dressed as children you might just blame it on the fact that we were just a bunch of Montana farmers (we preferred the term "ranchers")...

Did the term "redneck" occur to anyone else?

Trends of fashion, music and dance were a bit slow reaching popularity in our little community, and we looked at California as the real trendsetters. I don't remember anyone in my school looking as sophistocated in their senior picture as this California boy!

When I met Verlin (then known as Anson) he didn't wear the levi's, western shirts and cowboy boots that were typical attire for my brothers and all my friends at home so he must be a trendsetter too. After all, he was from California. I had a bit of a revelation when I found a picture of Verlin that my mom took on one of our early visits to Montana. Now here is a fashion statement!!

The hat wasn't his but the rest was all Californian!

He Was There Again Today

A few months ago while I was on my morning walk that takes me to the cemetery, I saw an older gentleman in a motorized wheelchair. He seemed to be taking the same path as I, and when I got close enough, I asked him if he had been to visit someone in the cemetery. His face was wet with tears as he confirmed that his wife was there. I asked how long ago, and he said five years. I asked if he goes there often and he said, "Yes, every day." He continued, "...sometimes two or three times (and I thought he was going to say two or three times a week) a day." Two or three times a day for five years. He must be a very lonely man. I saw him again today and offered a silent prayer of thanks that the pain is not as sharp as it was 15 months ago; thanks that I have yesterdays full of good memories and wonderful children and grandchildren to fill my todays and my tomorrows. My life is full.

A Walk in the Park

After my first morning walk in Irvine, Andrew told me there was a nice park nearby that I might enjoy. The next day, Melissa and the boys took me there for a picnic. I have walked there every morning since then.

The park is only a couple blocks past Albertsons and takes about ten minutes to get there. I wouldn't have believed it existed in this congested college community.

William R. Mason Regional Park is 345 acres that was once part of a vast 100,000 acre rancho. It has a baseball field, sand volleyball courts, playgrounds, pavilions and picnic areas, an amphitheater, a 9-acre lake, 123 acres of wilderness/natural area, and Strawberry Farms golf course. There are hiking and biking trails that traverse the park. I only saw a small portion of it, but it was a beautiful place to spend a half hour or so each day.

I took my camera with me today to preserve and share some of its beauty.

Why I Fly...

Yesterday morning I was working from my home computer. In the evening I finished up my work from my laptop in Sunny California. That is one great benefit of airplane travel. Air travel provides a savings in time, gasoline and wear and tear on both my car and my body, well maybe not my body.

This morning I discovered another reason why I fly.

I try to take a morning walk as often as possible, five to six days a week usually. I try to walk even when I am visiting the kids. I am a bit nervous the first day whether I will remember the route and get home safely. In Vegas Brian's mom gave me a little map of the streets that I could take to get in my two miles and make it back home fairly easily. No problem. Their neighborhood was pretty "square". Maybe not quite like Utah's simply amazing grid system but not bad.

Here is one of my walking routes at home.

Pretty simple, and as you can see, the directions are pretty straightforward also.

This walk takes about 35 minutes. Now Irvine is a different story!! I had been to Albertsons grocery store near Andrew's place on a previous visit and thought this would be a good direction to take my walk this morning. Here is a map of the area. (The path marked in blue was where I traveled.)

By the time I got to Albertsons I had expended less than 10 minutes of my planned 40 minutes so I decided to keep going a bit longer before heading back. Even though the streets around there are all named after colleges and universities instead of north, east, south or west something, I figured if I just did my own type of grid calculations, I could get back okay. I did a 90 degree turn and kept going. Four 90 degrees with approximate equal distances in between would bring you back to the beginning, right? Well, I don't think there is one straight street in Irvine, nor are there any 90 degree corners. In spite of that, I did make it back to Campus Drive , which is the street that Albertson's is on. I then turned right on Campus drive and thought I would soon be back at Andrew's apartment. I walked a few blocks and didn't see any familiar landmarks. I saw a lot more businesses that I hadn't noticed before. I thought I had done a pretty good job of noticing which streets I took along the way--except for the VERY FIRST STREET. After wandering a route that looked something like this...

I decided I was lost. That was hard to admit. My thoughts then turned to wondering what Andrew and Melissa were doing and thinking about my being gone so long. My half hour walk had now been stretched to over two hours.

Did I mention that I didn't take my phone with me? Since I was walking so early, I thought no one would be calling me this time of morning. That was my first mistake. After spending some time looking for a business establishment that would be open at 8:30 on Saturday morning, I finally found someone who would let me use their phone book AND phone. I called Andrew and Melissa. As I surmised, I was not really that far from home. Melissa told me that I had to go up Campus Drive to California Avenue and turn right. That was the street that intersected Campus Drive back by Albertsons. One 90 degree turn in the RIGHT direction and I was headed home. 2 1/2 hours and 6+ miles after I began my walk, Andrew found me wandering along Verano Place trying to find the laundromat that was right outside their apartment. I decided then and there that I would have been in REALLY BIG TROUBLE if I had driven to Irvine from Utah. I doubt that I would be here yet!

Baby Girl Leishman--Taylor Rain

Here are some pictures of Taylor Rain Leishman and Company. Taylor was born August 27, 2008 at 10:35 p.m. in Logan, Utah. She weighed 6 lb. 14 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long. She has lots of long black hair and the prettiest eyes with long eyelashes. Shane and Sonia are tickled pink. I have never seen so much pink in Sonia's house before. In the hospital it seemed that the staff put mostly blue blankets on Taylor, and Sonia was actually questioning where the pink was!








Taylor's Grandpa and Grandma Leishman and the Leishman aunts and uncles and cousins and Kaden had their family Labor Day campout this weekend. Even though some of them had the chance to see Taylor before they went, they came over as soon as they got home Sunday from camping so they could hold Taylor. Then they went home and cleaned up and came over a couple hours later to help celebrate Kaden's 9th birthday. Taylor was passed around again and everyone enjoyed holding her.

See more pictures.

What is missing in this picture?

Did you guess "the quilting frame"?
After about nine months I was finally able to fold it up and put it away. I set it up shortly after Audrey was born last Thanksgiving, and have now finished my seventh grandbaby quilt for this year. Last night I took Alex and Laura's off the frame. I still have to finish binding three of them, but I need to give my fingers a bit of a break.
Here are the invaluable tools that I use to make the quilts:

Cutting board, rotary cutter and straight edges. They speed up the preparation process SO much!

My invaluable sewing machine.

I enjoy the piecing process of quilting, but it is always exciting to finally get the quilt on the quilting frame.

Here are the tools necessary to do the hand quilting part. I could never survive without the thimbles.

I used to watch my mom do quilting. I know she used a metal thimble on her first or middle finger but she had nothing to protect her thumb. She used small pliers to pull the needle through when she came to a tough spot.

It didn't take very long using Mom's method to know that I needed something more. I was so thrilled when I found this leather thimble for my thumb. It not only protects the thumb but it gives great grip for pulling the needle through. You can tell by the holes in the leather thimble that it has gone through quite an ordeal. It is only good for a couple quilts and then I replace it because the needle starts to come all the way through if I push too hard.

There is a verse in the Bible that says "let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth". This is in reference to doing alms (service, charity, etc.). In a little different context, when I quilt I have to kind of keep these words in my mind. With my left hand I push the needle through the fabric, and with the right hand I check the underneath side of the quilt to make sure every stitch goes clear through all three layers of the quilt. By and large, it is the right hand that controls the stitch length and uniformity. I have tried to use a protection on my right hand but I just can't tell what is happening unless I can feel the tip of the needle. It isn't a big deal at the beginning of the project, but by the end of a quilt my right hand fingers are a bit sore. After a while the finger becomes calloused and it can bear the pain a bit longer. Since I put a time constraint on the last four quilts I just completed, I did not give my fingers adequate time to recover from the effects of one quilt. When the right hand became ever more aware of what the left hand was doing, it was love that took charge. With every stitch I think about the children and grandchildren that will receive my gifts of love, and it is so worth it! Or maybe I am just crazy!

The most recent quilts that are waiting for binding.

(P.S. Keep those babies coming)