Yesterday Brigham returned home from scout camp with a few stowaways it appears. As Brigham was placing his tent and sleeping back in the truck of his car he noticed not one, not two but six, SIX, mice scurrying for cover. I had never heard of mice infesting cars before but we quickly tried to get rid of them. So far one mouse made his escape in the Wal-mart parking lot when Brigham stop to purchase traps, one escaped in our drive to try his luck against the neighborhood snakes and cats (we always have at least one snake in our garden which way I don't go out there as often as I should), and three has perished in the traps. One is left; one lonely mouse who stares at Brigham in defiance when he opens the trunk to check the traps.
I have nothing against mice; I like them better than snakes. But given the choice I would rather have snakes in the garden than mice in the car. Since Brigham will going camping at least once a month as Scoutmaster we have been learning how to prevent picking up more stowaways each time he goes camping. Strong scented dryer sheets and moth balls apparently repel mice. We will be putting that to the test.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
America the Beautiful
In the last five months we have driven from one end of the country to the other. Right after Brigham returned we drive from Utah to California in order to catch a flight to Hawaii. Then in April we drove from Utah to Kentucky for Brigham externship. Following the externship we visited family in Maryland and New Jersey before driving back to Utah. It was a lot of driving and somedays were hard with two little kids but I enjoyed myself. While in college I worked for an airline and except for an occasional road trip between Utah and San Diego, I mostly flew everywhere. I had forgotten how much I actually like road trips.
I like traveling through states and locations I have never been before. I like seeing the scenes and how the terrain gradually changes. It also reminded me what a beautiful, vast, and diverse country I live in. I was amazed at the wide open spaces. Any one who thinks the world is overpopulated should visit Kansas. Cities are over populated, not the world. Brigham and I often felt like we were sight seeing with an intention to move. As he will be graduated next April, we are trying to figure out where we want to live. All we know for sure is East. Neither of us like living in Utah and we don't want to move back to California. So as we drove we thought, "Would want to live in this State?"
Of the numerous states we drive through, we only ruled out three: Missouri (or at least southern Missouri), Pennsylvania, and West Virgina. Why these three states? Well, Missouri and Pennsylvania were ruled out strictly base on their billboards. Yes, we judged a state by its billboards. West Virginia, while absolutely stunning, was ruled out because of the deep ravines would make it difficult to run a hobby farm. Brigham's goal in attending law school has always been to make enough money to support a family and a hobby farm. He wants land that we can have a large garden, a fruit orchard and a few animals. Hopefully by December we will have a better idea of where we will be going and I can finally move out of limbo, i.e. Utah.
One thing that I noticed on our travels that concerned me, was the lack of wheat fields. We drove through fields of corn and soybeans galore but only a few wheat fields. Any foreigner would think Americans only ate corn and soybeans (and if you read the ingredients on most processed food, that's not far from the truth). No wonder the price of wheat has gone up.
I like traveling through states and locations I have never been before. I like seeing the scenes and how the terrain gradually changes. It also reminded me what a beautiful, vast, and diverse country I live in. I was amazed at the wide open spaces. Any one who thinks the world is overpopulated should visit Kansas. Cities are over populated, not the world. Brigham and I often felt like we were sight seeing with an intention to move. As he will be graduated next April, we are trying to figure out where we want to live. All we know for sure is East. Neither of us like living in Utah and we don't want to move back to California. So as we drove we thought, "Would want to live in this State?"
Of the numerous states we drive through, we only ruled out three: Missouri (or at least southern Missouri), Pennsylvania, and West Virgina. Why these three states? Well, Missouri and Pennsylvania were ruled out strictly base on their billboards. Yes, we judged a state by its billboards. West Virginia, while absolutely stunning, was ruled out because of the deep ravines would make it difficult to run a hobby farm. Brigham's goal in attending law school has always been to make enough money to support a family and a hobby farm. He wants land that we can have a large garden, a fruit orchard and a few animals. Hopefully by December we will have a better idea of where we will be going and I can finally move out of limbo, i.e. Utah.
One thing that I noticed on our travels that concerned me, was the lack of wheat fields. We drove through fields of corn and soybeans galore but only a few wheat fields. Any foreigner would think Americans only ate corn and soybeans (and if you read the ingredients on most processed food, that's not far from the truth). No wonder the price of wheat has gone up.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
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