Bali Duck

Yesterday Sarah was feeding ducks. An unusual one showed up with a white pom-pom on its head - actually part of its feathers. (There was a brown duck there also with a smaller pom pom on its head.) Sarah came in the house and told us about the duck "with mental derangement." We were all mystified until, through Googling, Amy found the answer to the riddle under Bali duck. It is native to Bali. How it got here we do not know. I had not seen it until yesterday - yet it seemed right at home mingling with the other ducks. I could speculate that some one got it for Easter as a little pet. Now it has grown, so they let it go in the lake. It remains to be seen how it will handle cold weather. As a side note, Sarah wanted to use my pole and go fishing last night. So I accommodated her. She was having fun catching little blue gills just off the dock. About the time it was getting dusk, and it was about time to quit, she was fishing about five or six feet off the end of the dock, and something much stronger than a bluegill took her bobber way under. When she started to reel in and pull the pole up, I could see the large bass she had hooked. So I got the net to put under him and she said, "Oh! He got off!" She was shaken for a little while, but we decided that was a good way to end our evening's fishing for he had broken the line. Sarah said she saw a big fish with line in its mouth down on the dock today. End of fish story!

Hansen Reunion - 23 August 2008

I snapped a lot of pictures. It turns out that I didn't get shots of many that were in attendance. Also it turns out that many of note were taken, and apparently many of note were not taken. If you were there and don't show up in the pictures, don't sweat it. I decided that I really missed a lot of people including some that I surely wanted. That's Murphy's Law for you - you miss a really wanted photo and end up taking a picture of some one's jeans.

From our family there were Amy, Carol, Beth, Sarah, Sheridan Hatch, Clarine and I. Carl and Margaret Van Leuven had the most representation. Anita Hill was there looking good as was her partner in kidney transplant success, Pam Alexander. Others of Lenore's family were Duane and Judy, Ralph and wife. Mary, Rick, Catherine, Jane, Nellie (and husband), from Louise's family (Pam was there - Leo's former spouse.) Christine, David, Kathy and Eric, Laura and George, Ron and Ellen, Jill and husband were there from the Dan Hansen's. (I never should have started mentioning names, because Carl and Margaret had a lot of family there, and there are others that I will forget to mention.) Any way Chris was there with his long time girl friend from Mexico. Kimball was the only one from his family that was able to be present. So quite a few people were there. A lot more were not. Please forgive me for not remembering and missing with so many pictures. (This is already getting too voluminous any way.) It was a grand chance to renew acquaintances and friendships. The next reunion, there will be some new faces and some old ones not to be seen again in this life.

Colonoscopy and picnic lunch

I'm very immodest - two snaps of me and one of Clarine. There is another of her later.

This morning Clarine and I left early for the U of U Medical Center on Redwood Road. She was scheduled for a colonoscopy at 8:45 AM. It was 11:30 when they completed. It was usual - some high risk polyps, but nothing that was unexpected. So she is good to go for another year. I worked many of the puzzles in the Deseret News while her procedure was taking place. As we drove home without a cloud in the sky, we talked about the fact that we had not gone to the Great Salt Lake Marina for a picnic for quite a while. So we formulated our menu as we drove home: BLT, chips, watermelon, grapes, candy, soda and water. It didn't take us much time to put it together when we got home. We were soon on our way to the marina. Egads! They have started charging a fee to get in there. Oh well it is just $2, so we paid it and found out as we left that we're so old that it would only be one dollar for us. We didn't even use any of their facilities for heaven's sake - just a little parking space for the car. Yes we ate lunch in the car. It was nice. As you can see from the included pictures, it was pretty all around the marina today.

The five shots of the lake are to the north, northwest and northeast.

Iron Bog Lake

Last Thursday I hiked to Iron Bog Lake in Idaho with my son, Dan, and his two sons, Clark and Justin. All three are such fine men. I enjoy being around them a lot. Our object in going to the lake was to catch fish. I caught none; the other three caught twenty. It was satisfying to see them catch those very nice fish which they released in short order.

I likely will not hike to Iron Bog lake again in this life. It is about two miles with a lot of very steep incline. This all reduced my comfort level considerably - even after Dan, Clark and Justin carried all of the food and water in their packs. I was "done in" enough that I did a lot of my fishing from a sitting position. Perhaps that explains to some degree the amount of success I had.

While we we there we heard loud gun shots from the opposite side of the lake. Looking in that direction we saw a horse flailing his legs in the air. Then there was another shot and the legs kicked some more. That seemed to end it. Clark walked to where the shooting took place after the people had left and he said that the horse's cranial matter was splattered all over. We speculated that the horse must have broken a leg bringing some riders into the lake, and there was no way to get him back out. (I'm glad I didn't break a leg although going down was as bad as going up in different ways involving different muscles. The steepest areas really jammed my toes against the front of my boots.)

I am glad I did it; I probably wouldn't do it again at my age. The other three were very kind and patient with me. They are three very wonderful men. Incidentally I have recovered quite fast for an eighty year old guy. I believe now that I will have no lasting ill effects.

While I was hiking, Clarine contacted some in-law grandchildren that live in the area and took them to lunch and had a good visit. We stayed at the Dan Hatches Wednesday and Thursday nights. They were hospitable to us to no end. We started home Friday morning. When we got to Blackfoot, I remembered that is where a longtime friend and erstwhile missionary companion, Gary Higginson, lived, so I drove to a phone booth, got his address and phone number. His phone was busy. I entered his address into the portable Garmin location finder that I play with and "Madam Garmin" vocally directed us right to Gary's house. Gary wasn't prepared for visitor's, but we had a good visit for nearly two hours. Clarine has a daughter-in-law that was raised in Blackfoot. Gary knows her and her people quite well. Gary has a son, Brent, that worked with Dan at Basic American Foods. Gary's wife, Beulah, was away attending the ceremony for a daughter receiving her PhD from BYU. So we missed seeing Beulah, but we are happy we stopped any way.

So the bottom line is that the stress and strain of the hike was offset by good family interaction and visiting with dear friends. Life is grand. gwh

08/08/08

08/08/08 That's a date that does not appear only once in perhaps 100 years. I have included a pic of how that date dawned today. There won't be another date like it until 09/09/09. That is more than a year away. Then there will be 10/10/10, 11/11/11 and 12/12/12. Then nearly another century will have to go by for a new series of twelve special dates over twelve years to crop up . If you have trouble remembering your anniversary, one of those dates is good date to get married on. Today will be one of the days in the Salt Lake temple when well over 100 marriages will be performed. They have asked for ordinance workers from other shifts to volunteer to come in today to help carry the load. The Chinese think there is something especially lucky to the number eight, so they opted to start their summer Olympics on this date. I hope this date proves to be very special for everyone. gwh

Ye Olde Rocking Chair

I did not refinish the old rocking chair. Dealing with the fumes and the intensive labor in the grooves and small places came to reason in my mind that the return was not worth the effort. So I used wire and turnbuckles and made it strong structurally, and Clarine sewed two cushions - one for the back and one for the seat. We made an outdoor chair out of it - left the old patina and finish as is. There was some structure damage that could not be replaced, so that entered into the ultimate decision as well. Now we can sit on the front porch and rock and not worry about what happens to a nice finish on a chair. The pattern in the cushion covers fit in with an old piece of furniture even though the fabric is new. Another thing has been taken from my "to do" list.

Diane and Coyote left for Tacna, AZ before seven this morning. They are likely well on their way home by now - three in the afternoon. gwh

Mobile/Fish/Hatch Clan

Diane tells me it was last January that she prepared the first version of the "mobile." I posted a blog at that time that showed the various parts hanging and scattered on the floor after the mobile disintegrated - sort of. I searched for those pictures in my files. Alas! They are not to be found anywhere - maybe some other time. During her stay this summer Diane has completed the mobile and stabilized it. There is a fish in the mobile depicting each of us in four generations of Hatches. It is sort of a dynamic thing however and changes constantly will make it out of date with births and marriages. (Mike and Emily are not shown as a family on it yet.) It is now hanging where, for many months, the Christmas Star quilt was hanging. That quilt needed to be moved for several reasons. One is that it is no longer Christmas season. Another is that the integrity of the quilt needs to be preserved and taking it down is one way to do that. It has gone back into the cedar chest to await further disposition. Diane is leaving tomorrow to go back to Tacna, Arizona to get ready for her school year. We barely got the mobile hung this morning. I have a couple of pictures of her and Coyote, her cat, which I am including in this blog. Evelyn will return to Japan in about a week to teach at the Yokosuka Naval Base, so in spite of her protests I took a picture. As you can see she did not pose.

I also posted a blog last fall that showed an old antique rocking chair that I proposed to finish, but the refinishing process was proving to be too formidable with so many little cuts and grooves, so I am just going to strengthen it physically and leave the old patina on it and keep it as the rocker out on the porch. I will post a blog when it is done. Clarine is helping by sewing some cushion covers for the seat and back it will look good (rustic) and it will be comfortable. To make it solid I had to put some wires with turnbuckles in them, so that if anything loosens all I have to do is take up a little more slack with the turnbuckle.

We had very hot weather the week of the 24th of July and the week immediately after. This week is showing some promise of starting to cool.

Well, after Diane and Evelyn leave, Clarine and I can catch our breath after a very busy summer. Our visitors will all be gone, and we can put things back in their usual order. We will keep you posted. gwh