Johnalden

New Blog

2010-12-14T09:55:00.000-08:00

http://aldenbx.blogspot.com

Book of Mormon land tour

2010-07-11T02:43:00.000-07:00

On June 18 ,201o we were to begin a tour of Book of Mormon lands with John Lund and his wife Bonnie. At our departure time, Delta cancelled the flight because of an oil leak, which left 61 people stranded at the Salt Lake air port. The president of Fun For Less went to work and reschuled all of us for flights to any where that could get us to Mexico city. We ended up flying to Dallas Tx. on American air lines. After a free nite in the Dallas Hilton we finally flew to Mexico city, just one day late and all our baggage lost at the Mexico city airport.

From Mexico city we flew to Villahermosa, then by bus to Palenque, to Usumacinta River and into Guatemala at Tikal. Next to Rio Dulee and Amitque Bay. We then crossed into Hondorus and the city of Copan. Then back to Guatemala City where we spent the nite after a visit to the Guatemala City temple. Our last travel day was to Kaminal Juyu and Lake Atitlan or the Waters of Mormon. A heavy rain stopped us at the half way point so we turned around and visited another city. With just one day of rain and sunshine as we visited all the ruins, it was a very sucessful trip. Garth and Maydene lost their baggage twice twice but in the end we arrived back in Salt Lake in fine condition.

2010-03-13T18:18:00.000-08:00

WITH THE NEWS OF A NEW BRIGHAM CITY TEMPLE, WE DECIDED TO HANG ON UNTIL IT IS BUILT. IN THE MEANTIME THEY ANNOUNCED THE RENOVATION OF THE OGDEN TEMPLE SO OUR TIME MAY BE LIMITED TO THE END OF THE YEAR.

WE AND THE WHOLE FAMILY ARE DOING GREAT WITH MORE GRAND CHILDREN COMING EACH YEAR. OUR BIG EVENT THIS MONTH WAS PAUL BEING CALLED AS BISHOP OF THE MANTUA FIRST WARD.

WHILE WATCHING OUR GREAT GRANDDAUGHTER MCKELL, I STARTED COMPARING BABIES WITH OLD PEOPLE.
1.AT ABOUT ONE YEAR OLD, THEY BEGIN TO WALK. AT ABOUT 80 WE STILL WALK BUT MAY NEED A CANE.
2. AT ABOUT ONE YEAR OLD BABIES START GETTING TEETH. AT 85 , WE COUNT OUR REMAINING TEETH.
3. A NEW BABY IS CUTE WITH A FULL HEAD OF HAIR. OLD MEN ARE LUCKY IF THEY HAVE ANY HAIR.
4. A BABY LEARNS NEW THINGS EACH DAY. OLD PEOPLE CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT THEY LEARNED YESTERDAY.
5. AT TWO , BABIES BEGIN TO TALK. AT 85 WE ASK. WHAT DID YOU SAY.
6. AT TWO OR THREE, BABIES ARE TRAINED TO STOP NEEDING DIAPERS. AT 80 OR SO, WE CHANGE FROM SHORTS TO DEPENDS.

NBA on Yahoo! Sports - News, Scores, Standings, Rumors, Fantasy Games

2009-10-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

NBA on Yahoo! Sports - News, Scores, Standings, Rumors, Fantasy Games

Brothers

2009-10-06T08:47:00.000-07:00

My brother Darwin and wife Margie came in from California so we had them all down for dinner, and pictures. Man aren't we a good looking bunch.

86 Candles

2009-10-06T08:36:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-09-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

We lined the resivoir in the South Pasture up in Cache Valley, and hope we have water all summer next year.

2009-08-31T13:59:00.000-07:00

We finished our new well in the H&S pasture on the 28 of August 2009.

It has a 300 GPM Artesian flow and 450 GPM if pumped. It has an 8" steel casing down 250 + feet. Rod Mund was the driller and it took 2 months to complete.

2009-08-28T12:52:00.000-07:00

new well

2009-08-28T12:47:00.001-07:00

Summer Fun

2009-08-15T18:39:00.000-07:00

Brian Hansen pool party after his graduation from BYU. At the private swimming pool of John Heaton in Prove, UT. With Brians family, Dennis Lee family and Grandma Baxter and me.

2009-08-15T18:30:00.000-07:00

2009-08-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

Brian Hansen (Lisa's Husband) had a great graduation party down in Provo at John Heaton private pool.

2009-08-12T21:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-08T15:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-27T19:54:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-04-23T17:12:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-04-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

14 April 2009
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.

2009-03-20T12:57:00.000-07:00

19 march 2009
Traveled to Richfield to see Nathan and Jenneys 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.

2009-03-01T15:10:00.000-08:00

1march2009

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.

9 Feb 2009 Last week of vacation

2009-02-09T20:03:00.000-08:00

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 depresion 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 Bens 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 depresion.

gg

2009-01-28T19:18:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-01-10T10:54:00.000-08:00

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 0f Freds 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.

2008-12-29T12:43:00.000-08:00

a quiet christmas at home watching the blizard out side.

Sunday nite Dec 28 :after dinner with Fred , Debbie and family we received a call from the Perry police that all my cattle were out . Sure enough the whole herd was down on Walmart Bldv. feasting on Edwardo's horse hay. With help from the police and a passing couple in a red pickup, we were able to head them back to my pasture. Then grandma and I got on the tractor and with lights flashing we rounded up a bale of hay and lead the herd back to their right place. It was very dark by then and the only lights that work on my new tractor are the flasher. Just one more item to fix on my MF before I trade it in. We found the gate wide open on my new Olie pasture west of Walmart . Hunters or someone had opened the gate and let the herd out.
The only damage was about half of Edwardo's horse hay was consumed. I told him that highway was a dangerous place to leave good alfalfa hay.

After all the excitement my neighbor Maurice stopped by and said I had better check my fenses on Maddox lane. Since we don't use that road in winter, we hadn't been that way since snowfall. On each corner someone had plowed through my fence in four places. The most damage was by the yellow shed where they plowed through the fence and about wiped out my buck rake. It was about new when I parked it there several years ago but after two wrecks its just scrap now.

2008-12-07T22:35:00.001-08:00

It looks like a big week for these old folks.
o
On Saturday 6 December we attended the temple group christmas party at Maddox but before that happened Natalie made a surprise visit to the Ogden hospital and delivered a healthy 8 pound baby girl. Rumers are that she may name her Ione after grandma Baxter.

Sunday-We with Fred and Debbie visited Natalie at the hospital. Jermey has camped in the room as a proud father and welcomes the visitors. The mother and baby intend to come home tomarrow.

Monday-Family home evening at Garths place in cache valley after we move a load of cows from Freds pasture. Garth reports we are pasturing 10 more horses in the South pasture until snow fall. We already have 12 mares and colts in the Perry pasture.

Tuesday-Rula and Grant will come to our place for a christmas dinner

Wednesday-Attend the SUP christmas party in Brigham.

Thursday-Our usual night at the Ogden temple

Friday-Lisa will be endowed at the Ogden temple with us officating. After that a dinner party will be held at our home.

Saturday-After an early morning Perry ward christmas party we will attend Dawson's baptism in Logan. The Lee family christmas party will follow.

Sunday-Grandma Barkers christmas party will be held in the afternoon at the Willard city hall with all her family puting on the Christmas pagent and a welcome to Santa Clause.

On the following Friday 19 December we will attend the wedding ceremony at the Logan temple for Lisa and Brian. A reception will follow at the Malta church. A long hard day for the newly weds.

2008-11-29T16:29:00.000-08:00

Paul, Brad, Edwardo and I fenced in another 10 or 15 acres West of Walmart. Dawson (Tori's boy) and I fenced out a corner of my old pasture to give the horses access to ditch water for the winter. Dawson built a bridge across the ditch but fell in the water on the first try. After that he became more brave and could walk across easily'. Dawson needs to come back to help me finish the fence and remove a large Russian olive tree from the ditch bank.

I tried out a rotary mower to use behind our little green tractor. It will be used to cut the bad weeds in my pastures and also the weeds in Pauls orchard.. The orchard had too many rocks so Grandma and I spent a few hours hauling them off. Grandma is an experienced rock picker from our days on the Shoshone ranch. The 5 foot mower is a little too small so the dealer is bringing me a 6 footer next week. If it works in the orchard, I expect that Feed will be borrowing it next year.

We spent Thanksgiving in Clinton with Rula and her Sons family. Her son Stan is a retired highway patrol officer and now working for the Clearfield police department. Stan knows how to catch hawks and train them to hunt. I want him to capture a large goshawk in my pasture which keeps wiping out my tame ducks.It must be hard on phesants also because they have almost disappered from from the Perry area.

Our trip to Ukraine

2008-11-10T17:16:00.000-08:00

Oct. 4 2008
I spent my 85th birthday on a Delta Airline plane heading for a Ukraine River Cruise down the Dieper River. With stops in New York and Paris we finally arrived in the capital city of Kiev. After a city tour we collapsed from jet lag, and slept through our free time. The Kiev temple is about half completed but we didn't have time to visit it.
We passed thru 5 locks going down the river, but it seemed most of the cruise was thru large lakes created by power dams along the river.
The highlights of our shore tours was watching the Cossack riders perform at Zaporozhye, visiting the white palace at Yalta on the Crimea and touring the port city of Odessa. At the white palace we saw where Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin divided up Europe after world war 2.
At Odessa we met 2 Mormon missonaries, Elder Lloyd from Kaysville, UT and a German companion. They took us to the Odessa branch chapel which is in a rented building . The church is renting most of their meeting places in Ukraine. The missionaries are having great success in proselyting and teaching English to the youth. Since Ukraine didn't gain their independence from Russia until 1991 it is slow in breaking away and has a lot of Russian influence in their mouments and language.
The exchange rate was 5 UAH for 1 dollar with prices about the same as at home. The streets are crowded with newer mid size cars. The fuel prices are high through out Europe, at least 5 dollars per gallon. Parking places are at a premium in all the large cities.
The 18 hour flight time was almost too much for us and we expect to cut back on future travels.

2008-11-06T13:14:00.001-08:00

Bryan George Baxter

2008-11-04T11:05:00.000-08:00

Activites this week
Moved 10 cows to Freds unused pasture, they are doing great.
With Pauls crew we fenced in 5 more acres near Walmart. The 12 mares and colts moved right in. We may have to move out in a month because pasture has been sold. Have received a request to fence in much more but may be running out of fence material.
V
Thursday,nov 6,2008 After a half hour probe Dr Larsen declared me cancer free for a year. By then I will be 86 and may be ready to retire..

Brad announced the arrival of our 36th great grand child on 5Nov2008. His name to be Bryan
George Baxter. Thank you Brad for the pictures of a beautiful baby.