Big Weekend....

Busy week last week at work as we had the second annual HireVue Sales Summit in Salt Lake City.  Monday night, Red Iguana for dinner. Tuesday all day in a little room at the Hampton going through the various functions of the company including all product development (my area of responsibility).  Wednesday all day in meeting but I ducked out and did work at the office but joined them for bowling at Fat Catz...see photo with all our HireVue bowling shirts (official HireVue colors).  I wasn't excited to go but got second highest in both games...I owe that all to Paul Jenkins who showed me how to aim the ball in Scouts at Poppin Pin in Preston! More meetings on Thursday and it all ended good with everyone keyed up to go sell $6m worth of video interviews in 2011!  Here's hopin for a great year...or it could be a short trip, Chewy! 

So Friday...and the days following...have been an adventure! I've been kind of looking for a place to live closer to work and came across a condo up in Suncrest that was in foreclosure.  I met Dan at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake and after visiting with a few of the regular "fix-n-flippers" (people who buy houses at sheriff sales, fix them up and sell them), bid on the place I had been looking at.  I realized that I hadn't done a title search which most of them had on properties they were looking at but the one fellow I was talking to had the address marked in yellow and he bid against me so I assumed that it was probably ok.  I had a price ceiling that I was going to quit at and I guess he had one just lower than mine so I ended up with the house.  Several of the regulars knew the property and said it was a great deal so I felt a little better.  I had a nervous weekend as I realized that even though I had money supposedly wired to my account, it wasn't there on time and you only had one business day from the auction to get the rest of the cash to the attorney.  Thanks to Dan running around and gathering money from his banks, I was able to get it in on time and today, had the new deed recorded at the County office.

With deed in hand, I called a locksmith and had him let me in and rekey the locks.  It was kind of like Christmas wondering what I would find. I had stopped by Thursday night and happened to catch the old owner who showed me through it.  He is a self-help hypnotherapist and writer that had bought a school bus that is converted to a motorhome and is now free to roam the universe with his medium girlfriend (she said she had a good feeling about me getting it!).  Anyway, he seemed happy to be free from encumbrance.  In the end, the bank took a beating on the deal...and probably so did the tax payers.  Here's a link to a few shots from my iPhone.  I think some paint and a little cleaning will get it back in shape. The owner left quite a bit of stuff but it's mostly junk. The best part is the incredible view out over the Salt Lake valley.  Still not sure what I'm going to do with it.  I have a family possibly interested in my house here in Orem.  If they rent or buy it, I'll probably move to Draper where it's 10 minutes from work.  Otherwise, I'll put both up for rent and live in the one that doesn't rent.  

http://techmarketingink.com/photos/110321_DraperHouse/

So...between Idahome, Orehome and now Draperhome, I've got plenty to keep me busy working on stuff! We also had a talent show last night at our BYU ward.  Kind of fun to see good talent in a nice facility like the Madsen Recital Hall at BYU.  

Another exciting event occurred while in Idaho on Saturday.  Kent and fam had headed to Grays Lake for the weekend and he called to see if I could check his first year heifers as they were ready to calve.  When Dan, Erin and I got to the corral, one calf had been born dead and there was another young heifer that was having problems delivering.  We put her in the chute and as Dan ratcheted down the squeeze, mangled his finger.  So....I got to deliver the calf after reaching in and pulling out his leg that was buckled back.  He'd been struggling so long we thought he was dead as he wasn't breathing.  I pounded his chest, cleaned out his mouth and kept stroking his throat and working with him until he finally gasp a breath.  Eventually, his little breaths got deeper and stronger and he started to move his head.  We picked him up and put him in the barn with his mother and when I came back later that night, she'd cleaned him all off and they were both settled in the straw.  Kind of cool knowing that we helped the little guy bridge the gap to earth life!   

Found!!! The New Jerusalem

Driving through the neighborhood last week, I saw Kent Johnson (one of the producers for the LDS Motion Picture Studios) so rolled down the window and asked for a little more detail on exactly where the New Jerusalem was being built.  "It's two and a half miles southwest of the center of Goshen,"  he said.  Armed with that info, I took the plane up for a short flight yesterday and flew right to it (attached are shots).  I probably saw it before but was expecting something a lot larger and just assumed this was the beginnings of a new dairy or something!  It looks like a nice setting and sits on a gentle hill, similar to the real temple "mount".  

In other news this week... Frank has been stranded in Singapore due to the major earthquake in Japan! His was supposed to be back Saturday but since he connected through Japan, all flights were cancelled.  Originally, he was going to have to wait until Wednesday but was able to switch airlines and now hopefully will be home by Sunday night.  Everyone else from the company had left already so hopefully, he was able to lay by the pool, order room service and relax--since there's not really much to do in Singapore! 

It was a treat Friday night to stop at Nikki and Will's where Steve, Shannon and fam were with Brandon, Ashlee, Talmage and little Tanner.  Great to catch up with Brandon and hear about his adventures at business school in Pennsylvania.  They are looking to spend the summer in Mexico on an internship.  Darling little boys! I haven't spent any time with them since they got married and fun to see them as full fledged parents.

Video chatted with the Webbs last night and Don, Greshen and fam had spent the weekend there skiing and fooding. Gordon gave me the official word on the staff infection at the dairy and all the steps they've implemented to get it under control.  He said they have had two problems....the first was they had too many cows.  The second one was the infection which is taking care of the first problem! But, it sounds like they have been monitoring and have the known infected cows quarantined and will be selling off most of them.  The infection is possible to cure 70% of the time if the cow is a young heifer but in an older cow that's has had it for a while, it's not curable.  The infection is a bacteria called......something (I didn't write it down)...sounded liks SMACK!

Dan came down to look at some apartments with me on Thursday as I'm trying to figure out a retirement plan.  They looked good but in doing more research, I can't easily use my existing retirement as a down payment which is what I was looking to do. He then went with me to sign the papers on a living trust and a will that I had had done on the advice of my financial planner.  They took it pretty seriously as you can see by the picture where the notary put the witnesses under oath that they had seen me sign it of my own free will and choice.  So in case I die, the Idahome becomes a family retreat with an endowment to take care of it and the rest of my savings goes to mission funds and education tuition scholarships for all the descendants of Grant & Zan Clegg.  The process (while a little pricy) was very educational and if any of you have assets of over $100k (the amount that requires everything to go through probate by the State), you should look into it and I will give you copies of my documents. Dan and I then celebrated with lunch at the India Palace--an all you can eat buffet of all kinds of Indian food including vegetable cutlets, masala, tandori, etc..  

My house has been a bridal bastion all week! My friends the Mayhews from Japan have been here as their daughter Maurine got married yesterday.  Wally has been here since last week and then Glen and Vera came in Thursday night.  They live in Tokyo and missed the earthquake by a few hours.  They have been in contact with friends that say their area wasn't affected to much.  They say everyone in Japan is just used to earthquakes in general and people tend to recover rapidly.  They were headed out this morning but postponed a day as Vera's school is closed tomorrow.  It's been fun to have them here and there has been a steady stream of family and people coming and going with a full on dress production shop.  Their niece Allynn is a costume design major and brought her Juki and PAFF sewing machines and made up bridesmaid dresses for all involved. The reception was nice and they served sushi! 

Ben pulled the trigger on a plan to take the three older kids to the Holy Land before Megan gets married.  It sounds like a great time and would love to go with them.  He called yesterday to see if I thought that Petra was worth it as a side trip into Jordan.  

Just so everyone is aware of the dates: 

Nick & McKelle are getting married on June 4th

Alex & Megan are getting married on July 1st

More Cow Posting....

Cow Post - Off to Market

Cowpost

Since our last update with the Morning Moos we have heard from many of you and have been encourgaged by your concern and prayers.  Webb Basin Dairy is taking the "Bull by the Horns" and man handling the situation.  Today is sell day again and both trailers are on the move hauling cows to market to be sold for want of a few too many somatic cells in their milk.  It's confirmed that over 600 cows are infected and will have to be eliminated before the end of the year.  A slow but deliberate process of weeding out the infection but..inspite of everything, we are doing well.  There is cause for alarm but not cause for panic.  The worst that could happen as Gordon put it, "We could go broke." But I highly doubt that will happen. We have many eggs in our basket; sugar beets, hay, grain, corn, upcoming calves and heifers, and a healthy debt to asset ratio.  Gordon stresses the night before sell and has had some pretty crazy nightmares. This is going to put us back a ways but I have confidence we'll make it OK. 

 

On the happy horizon of our lives, Boston made the golf team...by default.  Several dropped out before try-outs were over and he was persistent enough to hang in there.  Yesterday was the first day on the course.  He loved the singing birds and slow moving river along the course.  But most of his hits were to the right and his walking took more of a zig-zag pattern than a straight line like his team mates.  The golf coach finally told him to take a "circle ten." He turned to his teammate to ask the definition.  It meant just walk along and watch, don't hit the ball for a while. 

 

Stuart and Larsen just came in black, sooty and tired from working on one of the WORST jobs on the farm. Cleaning out the silo. Don and Dan have already worked it and that is why they finished their education and are moving on. Cleaning out the burned silo that was plugged up with burned hay has got to be one of the worst jobs ever (next to welding in a mink tank in the middle of the hot summer). It's pitch black, little if any fresh air and work moves tediously slow.  Maybe when Don comes over tomorrow he can help (just kidding, please just come). 

 

Kendrick and Megan got an iphone.  We got to see them at their home on video chat.  It was fun.  I love video chat.  I think it's one of the seven wonders of the world and a mother and grandmother's best friend.

 

Larsen continues to work on "The Dog House" as the community calls it.  He hopes to open his windows on April first.  Meanwhile there's a lot of Mole sauce, sweet and hot sauce and hotdogs being cooked up around here. 

 

Anna finished a bench she's been working on.  She bought a stair step top and added two legs painting them black.  It's taken a while to figure out how to make it stable but she's got a mathmeticians brain and is figuring it out.    

 

Congratulations to Megan and her fiancee for getting engaged.    

Peter's Week

A very busy weekend but one that went well! 

First, other news of the family.  Talked to Paula late last week for the latest installment of Dairy Drama.  They are still culling cows for slaughter and hoping for an end to the milk reduction.  She's working on a news piece to update us all.  Paula also has her second article published in Southern Idaho Living as the #1 feature! Go take a look at: http://southernidaholiving.com/ and check out the article on Earnie Sites. Also got to visit with Jessica and Clayton for a few minutes on Google Video Chat as they are contemplating their living options in Texas this fall. They both looked great and are doing well.  

Frank is in sunny Singapore for this week.  He flew out Thursday and will be gone 10 days.  Talked to him briefly on Saturday afternoon and it was a sunny, Sunday morning there and he made the flight in good shape.

Dan was attacked by the old house monster over the weekend! (I have these dreams about my house crumbling underneath me!) The drains plugged up due to an old cast iron pipe that had completely rotted on the bottom half where water had stood (see picture).  He spent the weekend busting out concrete, putting in new pipe and mixing concrete to cover it up.  By Saturday night...he was bushed but did a good job! 

Last weekend, with all the people that come and look at my map, I decided I needed to light it up a bit.  Of course, a simple plan went haywire (or should I say drywall wire?) and I have several holes in the wall in the old study but now I have an enlightened world map!

Big news for me is that now Idahahome has a tractor!  After 9 months of looking at KSL and pricing around, I found a good deal in St. George.  Dan graciously borrowed me his truck and Saturday morning I drove down, loaded it up, then drove it to Idaho and was back to Oreahome by a little after 1 a.m.  Attached is a shot of Frank's kids clambering over it on the way through.  It came with a bucket, two scrapers, a backhoe and the trailer...much less expensive than new so all those hours browsing KSL Classifieds (the Clegg brother past time)....hopefully paid off!!! 

FW: Megan's engaged

Megan & Alex are officially engaged. It was an exciting night last night
as Alex came up and surprised Megan. He sent her on a scavenger hunt that
ended up overlooking the temple where he was waiting with, hot chocolate,
candles, dessert and evidently a ring. We are excited for them.

Ben