86 Candles

I had a great time celebrating my 86th (except for the fact that Ione was gone). I enjoyed listening to Conference and wondering if I am gonna still work at the temple long enough to work in the Brigham City temple. Debbie had me over for lunch, cake and ice cream with the whole family. I went over to visit Scott and Terra, and Paul and Nanci stopped in to say Happy Birthday. I even got emails from all the grandkids.

We followed up with FHE at Garths place in Mt. Sterling, Carolyn and David were there from Texas. We took them all over to see Tori and Brian's new home.

What a great year it has been this is the first Birthday in a while that we have not been on vacation together. This year just Ione went with Helen to Mississippi to visit Tami and her new son Luke Daniel Boone, who was born October 1st. This makes 38 great grandkids.

Trip With Dennis & Helen

During our temple holiday we took a trip to the Twin Falls temple with Dennis and Helen. The temple endowment room has the most beautiful paintings of any temple. It shows the falls on the back wall and deer and antalope scenes on the side walls.
Next we made a visit to our old friend Meryle Teuscher. She is 98 years old and says she is staying alive just to take care of her 4 sheep with baby lambs. We have many fond memories of the good times with Meryle & Woody.
Next We checked on our Buhl orchard and found it has been abanded just like our Perry orchard. No one wants the work anymore.
We visited our old Clear Lake country club but too late for a round of golf. All of our grand children had a chance to golf there while we were club members.
We found a cafe with good Mexican food in Jerome and then went to the county fair in Burley. There we met our old friends Cal & Rayola Crane. The Crains replaced us in Nigeria on the West Africa mission.
Dennis showed us the best selling item at the fair and we came home with a half dozen maple bars.
The early peaches are ripe just in time for Paul and family to take on the bow hunt.

Mantua happenings

While cleaning out an old suit prior to sending it to the DI, I came across this note.

The most wonderful thing happened at our home recently. How long has it been since you old foogies have had a baby come crawl in bed with you early in the morning? Well every morning at 5:30 , we have a little boy come into our bedroom to talk to us. If we pretend to be asleep , he will quietly crawl into our bed and lay quietly until someone will talk to him. We have been telling him that he should change his name to Baxter but he holds tight to the name of Nathan Lee. The other morning when his Grandma says, your Grandpa Baxter can get you a pony, he thought for a minute and then came right back. My name is Nathan Baxter.

Cache valley Events

The Baxter reunion at Garths place had a big turn out on Memorial day. Most of Debra's and Helen's family were there plus good representives from Darwin's ,Lamar's, Dean's, and Garth's family. The big highlight for me was moving the 20 herd horses to the top of the south pasture. I recruted 3 of Larry's boys plus Jordan Lee and Garth's 4wheeler . The timing was bad because we arrived at the pasture just as a thunder storm struck. The boys all got wet but they got the job done . Dennis and I closed one gate and watched the show from inside my car. The only casulity was the loss of one of Garth's halters which I hope to find next time. Larry's boys said it reminded them of the cattle drives from the Hills to Mantua. They make good cowboys.

While in Cache Valley we read the obituary of our cousin Ruth Baxter Balls. She was just one year younger than me and one of our few remaining cousins . She died in her sleep, which is a nice way to go. Lamar and I will be going to the funeral at a Logan mortuary but Garth cannot attend since he and part of his family are driving to a wedding reception in Wisconsin for Jason Baxter and Stephanie Koeing. They will be traveling in Lee's van and expect to take 3 weeks for the trip.

Since Paul took the orchard back, we will be busy this summer trying to save a few trees after several years of neglect. The 10 acres of oats and some of the peach and cherry trees may produce a fair crop. Paul's son Joe is my helper this summer so we should have fun.

We started drilling today, May 22, 2009, 0n a well in my H&S pasture. We hope to get a 1 cfs flowing well. It took 5 years to get a well permit after trading water from other water rights.

More Calves

Sold 6 more heifer calves @ 1 d0llar per pound which is good for 600 p0unders. We are now through selling for this year and have just 6 heifers left to put with the bull. Also have 6 heifers that I am pasturing for Fred. The pastures are all rented out for horses or cattle so will have more time to work on the orchard. The oates have sprouted on the 10 acres and the orchard is beautiful with the cherries and peaches in full bloom. We may be able to save about half of the trees which have been neglected for years.

I attended the funeral today for DeLoris Hill from Wellsville and Brigham city. She is a distant realative and did a lot of geneology work on the Baxter line. My brother Lamar also attended since she was his date on the South Cache High school Jr prom. We sold our Hirschi orchard to DeLoris years ago and she built a beautiful subdivision on the lower 5 acres. DeLoris became wealthy while working as a waitress at Maddox for 35 years. She was just 80 years old .

Lance made it in the Boston marathon and we all congratulated him for a great achievment. It makes my legs hurt just to think about running 26 miles.

Calves

Sold my last 7 steer calves and now have just 12 heifers left.
Paul took back the orchard after the owner removed the dead peach, apple and walnut trees. We planted 10 acres of 0ats just before the rain.
Helped Fred get his fields ready to plant and after the usual break downs we said let it rain.

Richfield, UT

Traveled to Richfield to see Nathan and Jenney's new home. Dennis doing the driving.
Nathan is now is a district director for UDOT . His area covers all of southern Utah or over 50% of the state of utah. With over 400 employees, he is very busy.
Richfield is a 4wheeler heaven with trails leading out of town in every direction.
With my herd down to 16 calves we can start to travel, after we work over the orchard, which Paul has agreed to take back. We will prune what is left of the fruit trees and plant oats in the cleared area. We are also fencing more land next to Walmart. These jobs were to keep Brad busy but he got a new Engineering job, so Paul and John have plenty to do.

Cutting Back

Sold most of my stock cows yesterday and hauled them out in three loads. Just have 21 head of calves and cull cows left plus the three bulls in Mantua.. Paul thought I was running out of work so he took over the old orchard for this year. The owner is taking out the dead trees so we will try to plant oats to clean up the place.

We will have lots of pasture so I'm taking 20 head of horses for the Cache Valley pasture and a lot more in Perry. They are a lot easier to handle than cows and the pay is better.

Last Week of Vacation

On Sunday we traveled to Lehi for the blessing of Brian George Baxter by his father Brad. The whole family was there except Ryan who flew to San Francisco on church business. Brad is still looking for work but expects to soon get started.
In the afternoon we traveled to Bear River to celebrate the birthday of Macie and Maya , the twin daughters of Jared and Angie Lee. Their Grandpa Barker gave them a remote controlled car which they can ride all over. How these babies grow .
On Monday I traveled to the Tremonton South stake house for the funeral of Ben Tanaka . He was a great auctioneer and a good friend of Garth and I. We have traded horses and cattle with Ben and he always had a funny story to tell, just like dad. All the cow buyers and cow boys were there and the stand was covered with flowers. He was taken to the cemetery in a horse drawn carriage driven by a couple of cow buyer friends. Bishop Norman Fukui conducted and ask the carriage drivers if the were not afraid to get wet in the snow storm. They said they were wearing their cowboy hats and and would be just fine. One of the outriders was Jared Parker. all decked out in his cowboy outfit. The snow got heavier as they traveled and one of the best snow storms of the year. An old timer at the funeral told me that the up coming bad times will make the great depression of the 30's seem like a picnic compared with what is coming. We both lived thru the last one.
Tomorrow we travel to Malta to watch Raft River play ShoBan in basketball. Jordan Lee is on the main team so we hope he gets lots of playing time. The ShoBan indians are expected to win , so it should be a good game. While there we will check on Ben's house to see how he is coming. His is house number 6 and we tell them they can't lose their home in the coming great depression.

Perry

At 6:30 AM on Monday 26 Jan we received a call from Scott. Can you come and get me over by your old orchard? I've had a wreck and the cop won't let me drive without a tail light. He finally prevaled and got permission to drive the wreck over to the tractor shed by the orchard house. If any of you want a ride, just give us a call.
I must know every one in Perry and Willard now because they all wave at me whenever they pass on the road to Walmart. One ask me why I don't always wave back. The traffic is so heavy now on Wallmart Bldv. that I'd be waving all the time and wouldn't get any fencing done. It's sure nice to have that road paved anyway.

Good Sale

I had so much success in selling 2 of my stock calves that I talked Fred into getting rid of some of his bull calves. The ad on KSL.com said , holstein bull calves up to one month old. $15 each. In 15 minutes we got a call from Aurora, utah saying I'll take them all. Today 10 Jan 2009 a young man got started in the cattle business with 7 of Fred's good bull calves.

We have a January thaw so skipped feeding the herd. May skip tomarrow also because it is the big day for Jeremy and Natalie to name their beautiful daughter McKell Ione Jensen.