Mackay Reservoir - Mackay Mine Hill - & Target Practice

This blog has a lot of pictures, but actually, not nearly as many as I took of our daily adventure.  Wednesday, May 30, 2012, Amber (daughter), Corey (son-in-law), Mike (Corey's dad), and Nelwyn (Corey's step-mother), came to visit my husband and I and to see where Amber grew up.  It was a wonderful day.  We took them on the grand tour of what we could for what little time we had.  Our first stop was the reservoir.  I was standing on top when I took this picture below the dam....so pretty and green.

After seeing the reservoir and below the dam, we wanted to go up the mine hill but first, we stopped off at Burger Time (a local drive-in) and had some hamburgers, fries, and drinks.  Pretty good food.  The mine hill was also pretty and green with a few traces of snow here and there. These first three pictures are of the aerial tramway 

And this picture is still at the aerial tramway site.  My daughter, her mother-in-law, and myself climbed up the hill to see what was on top while the boys stayed at the bottom to discuss... you know...men things, whatever that might be.

This is a picture of our little town that was taken on the way up the mine hill.

The next three pictures are remnants of homes that the miners lived in.  While looking at these homes, you can't help but wonder who lived in these little homes, did they have families, etc.  It is so beautiful up here that I actually don't think it would be a bad place to live.......except for winter... don't want to go there.

 

This photo was taken near the top by one of the old homesteads.  Ah-h-h-h-h, so pretty!

On the way down when we came to a clearing, I decided to take another picture of our little town nestled in the valley.  Home, sweet, home.

When we got down off the mountain, we decided to go target shooting.  I hadn't been target shooting since I was a teenager and went out shooting with my dad.  I literally grew up with guns and my dad taught gun smithing at a near by college in Prove, Utah.

Here is a picture of the hubby taking his aim.

And, here is daughter, sitting down to take her best shot.

And this is Nelwyn, Amber's mother-in-law, taking it all in.  It was sure nice getting to know Corey's parents.....very nice people.  The conversation was very easy and it was like we'd know them for years.

Red Shafted Woodpecker Grubbing For Food

I looked out my dining room window today to see this Northern (Red Shafted) Flicker Woodpecker just going at it,  trying to get some food.  I sat a watched for at least 15 minutes.  I was thinking the ground must be a lot softer than the trees, telephone poles and telephone transformers that they keep banging on.  A few years back, when my mother was alive, she was amazed at the early morning pounding a woodpecker would do on the metal transformer right in front of our home.  Dumb bird!  It was pretty funny to watch but at the same time, loud and annoying.  This particular bird pounded the transformer for a quite a few years before moving on.  How it moved on, I don't know, but it moved on.

The Great Pumpkin

Well-l-l-l-l-l-l-l, maybe it's not the great pumpkin as in the Charlie Brown story, but it's a fun pumpkin for me.  For the past few years, I've bought a pumpkin around September or October and keep it as an autograph pumpkin.  It started out as a joke to my visiting teacher and every month when she came to visit, I had her sign my pumpkin.  Last year, this went on until May when the pumpkin finally rotted and I threw it out.  This year, not only did I have my visiting teacher sign the pumpkin, but I've had everyone that comes to our home sign it.  It's been a fun and unusual thing to do and with this year, having everyone sign it, it was even more fun.  Where I've been doing this for the past two years, would it be safe to say it is my "NEW TRADITION"?  Tradition or not, I think it is one I will keep doing for years to come.  It's fun to see the look on people's faces when I ask them to sign my pumpkin, especially after the fall season.  As of tomorrow, I think my autographed pumpkin will have to say good-bye because as you will notice in my pictures, he's kind of looking a little puny.......and, if anyone asks, I can honestly say I know the life expectancy of a pumpkin.

Baby Animals & Ice Cream Sandwich Cameras

This post is going to start and finish with baby animals.  I needed to go to town this morning so on my way I stopped off at the neighbors to take her some egg cartons.  While there, she told me about their new baby lambs.  They were so cute so I had to take their picture.

From the neighbors, I went to town and on the way home I decided to stop off at the local green house to see what hanging plants they had.  When I pulled in, cedar wax wings flew off the ground in masses.  I thought if I just sat in the car long enough they would come back so I could get some pictures.  A few of them came back and were picking these little white balls off the ground.  I have no idea what they were eating or attempting to eat.  I say attempting because for every two they put in their beaks, every other one was pa-too-eed out.  Funny watching them.

Tonight for Young Women's, we had someone come and share their photography pictures and discuss with the girls how to use their cameras and the different features that were on their cameras.  It was a fun and informative evening.  For refreshments, we decided to make each girl a camera out of ice cream sandwiches.  We used Oreos for the lens and a little red licorice nib for the picture taking button.  They turned out really cute.  The only problem was that some of the ice cream sandwiches looked like they had been melted and re-frozen somewhere along the line but they still tasted great.

On my home from Young Women's, I noticed some colts and their momma's on the side of the road.  The momma horses were not as enthused as I was about taking their pictures and immediately led them away.