More than sump pumps for Christmas. . .

     DeRay and I spent 3-1/2 hours installing the new hood over the new stove. Well, DeRay spent 3-1/2 hours. I was on call, working nearby for whenever I was needed. I ran up to get my camera, was way-laid a bit and when I went back down with my camera, the "installed" hood was on the floor. DeRay was nowhere to be found. Ed wouldn't tell me what happened. Our phones were out so I couldn't call his cell. Much later when Amy came up, she said it had fallen down while he was trying to secure it with more screws. It was a little more complicated than that. The screws went through to the cupboard above so he decided to put them in slanted. Instead of putting additional ones in, he took three out and the last one slipped so it fell on his head. He gave up and went grocery shopping.

 This is our old hood.

Hardly a match for our brand-new stove.

It never entered my mind that you could buy a new hood.

I thought it came with the house and we'd have to completely

redo the kitchen.

New ones only cost around $100.

 Gross.

Yaw. We've been living with that for 30 years.

This is our old glass-top stove.

Not a thing wrong with it.

It's the first stove we've ever discarded that all the burners worked.

They told us when we bought it that it wasn't good for canning.

We messed the flat top up early on.

RCWilley's delivers the new gas stove.

Goodbye old friend.

A hitch?

Of course.

They couldn't install the new stove,

because the gas line had been taken out

and the electricity was directly wired.

So it sat on our front porch

for a week or two

while Brooke and DeRay put in gas and 

a plug for the electricity.

RC Willey's comes again.

And we have a new gas stove.

Hood? DeRay.

Hood.

By now, I know they are available.

Eventually, he buys a hood for $134 from Home Depot.

For the second day in a row,

I hold the hood up with my head

while he puts the screws in.

(First day, 1/2 hour. Yes.)

He has thought about it all night

and figured out a solution.
I was on call while DeRay attempted
to install the hood in the afternoon.
I held it up with my head while
he drilled and tried to mount it.
When it was up, I ran upstairs to get my camera.
When I got back down,
the “installed” hood was on the floor
and DeRay was gone.
Ed wouldn’t tell me what happened.
Our phones were out so I couldn’t call DeRay.
Finally Amy and K’Leena came up
and said that while he was trying to put the screws in sideways
so they wouldn’t poke up in the cabinet,
it fell on his head.
So now we both have brain damage.

 And this, my friends, is what "under the hood"

is supposed to look like.

  

 GOOD JOB, DeRAY.

Check out that spiffy hood!

Meanwhile, it just keeps snowing and snowing and snowing.

A Dustpan for Christmas

     I couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7 or even younger when Daddy got a dustpan for Christmas. That’s all. Just a dustpan. I remember thinking what a disappointment that must be for him. We children were never disenchanted at Christmastime. We probably didn’t expect much but we always were thrilled and excited. Daddy wasn’t home for Christmas every year. Sometimes he had to stay out with his sheep. If he came home, it would be just before Christmas and then he would have to go back out. The two years before he died, he was out on the Arizona Strip all winter. That’s how I sort of know how old I was when he got a dustpan for Christmas.  I was 10 when he died, 9 and 8 when he was on the Arizona Strip so I couldn’t have been more than seven years old. It seemed to my young mind that when he was home for Christmas so seldom that he should get something he really wanted. Funny thing, Mama probably didn’t get anything for Christmas and I don’t remember being concerned about that.

Every Christmas since, I think about Daddy getting only a dustpan for Christmas.

When our basement was flooded for the umpteenth time in September and we decided to throw the carpet squares away, Amy put foam pads down in the basement. She took my only dustpan downstairs. I’ve got vacuums large and small but sometimes I like to sweep the floor and use a dustpan to pick up the crumbs and dirt. I asked for a new dustpan for my birthday, for Thanksgiving, and finally for Christmas. Santa Claus let me down.

That’s when I openly started telling the story about my sheepherder daddy getting a dustpan for Christmas those many years ago. Now it didn’t seem like such a gloomy gift. It became a coveted entity, worth more than silver or gold. Maybe Daddy loved it. I don’t know what he would do with a dustpan in a tent or sheep wagon. It probably was something Mama needed.

I was young and didn’t know much about sacrifice then. It was just before World War II ended. The economy would pick up later but things were pretty grim during the war, following the Great Depression. The sheep business was faltering. Mama and Daddy had secretly talked about selling out and moving to Idaho where their cousin and sister had bought a dairy farm. Daddy’s brother, married to Mama’s sister, sold his sheep and bought cattle.

In 1947, Daddy was killed while herding his sheep. He had been sick with pneumonia and was very weak but felt he had to tend his sheep. Gathering his sheep on a Sunday morning, he slipped and fell in the Orderville Gulch area of the Zion Narrows.

This is not a story about a dustpan. DeRay ordered my dustpan on Amazon and it came today. This is a story about a father who took his responsibilities so seriously that he would not let his family down. The dustpan is our common bond and helps me remember to honor him and try to be more like him. Even 70 years later.

Not Again

We’re gettin’ a new bigger wet vac for Christmas

Mommy and Daddy, Amy, Brooke, and Karlton are mad.

Rain/snow water flooding into the basement

Ain’t nuttin’ but BAD.

amy barely got the new foam pads laid

from the September flood; we prayed.

Rain all day Saturday on top of snow

Two sump pumps faulty

Wouldn’t you know?

Amy awoke at 3 in the morning

She tried to awaken me

“It’s time to start bailing!”

She tried to awaken me

“I can’t keep up

Water’s flowing too fast

Hurry! Hurry! I’m outclassed”

She tried to awaken me.

Seven hours we wet vacced and dumped

If only the sumps had pumped

Water spouting from everywhere.

Allow us to whine ‘cause it’s so unfair.

“Please may we borrow your big wet vac?”

We can’t keep up. Everything’s out of whack.

RaJean and Alan stayed for more than two hours

Frantically fighting before water devours.

Brooke & Karlton bought a new sump pump

The old ones go straight to the dump.

Except for the one kind Alan revived.

Without good neighbors we may not have survived.

(Years ago,

RaJean spent all day cleaning up beet juice, exacting no fee

When the pressure cooker exploded, burning me.)

We’re doing laundry, drying things out

We’re hungry and tired; ready for a drought.

The sad end of this Christmas song -

Come on sing along -

We’re getting a wet vac for Christmas

And two water alarms

‘cause flooding ain’t nuttin’ but bad.

And we’re mad.

Oh yes, DeRay is conveniently out of town

Leaving us alone to drown.

Three sump pumps later, 

DeRay and Brooke finally got a system 

that moves the water away from the house.

Pipe with holes to drain water. 

End of pipe where water drains on lawn. 

This is our view of the mountains

the day I took the pictures of the pipes.

Normal view.

Christmas 2015

Christmas Eve fun with Carol & Melissa

Carol told Amy that we missed her putting the puzzle together on Christmas Eve.

Of course, she forgot to mention that I put the last piece in! She worked on it all evening with Melissa helping at the end. One piece was missing. I found it on the floor Christmas morning and put it in! Who says I'm not good at puzzles?

Forgot to get a picture of the turkey. Will the scraps do? OK, it's not the same.

This year only one stocking hung by the chimney with care.

Sparse. 

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten

and children listen

To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white.--Irving Berlin

Christmas morn - a blanket of new snow.

  

  

  

 Meanwhile, Amy is back in snowless Maine celebrating Christmas, her birthday and New Year's Eve; riding her bike, watercoloring, cooking with K'Leena.

Watercolor

Spring Rolls

I wanted to get a picture of everyone lined up youngest to oldest to see what Santa brought, but one didn't seem like much of a line; especially compared to eight of us when I was growing up.

Hugh children at Christmas 1975

Pretty quiet at our house, eh Ed? 

If only there were sunglasses somewhere around here, Christmas would be complete.

Ah-ha!

Afternoon family visit.

Klarissa's Roxys.

Eighteen years old today at this very moment.
Yea Isaak!

Isaak Brooke Hugh born December 25, 1997

  

Brigitte's Roxys.

What do you expect? Karlton woke up at 4:30 AM.
Brigitte, being in college, is used to sleep deprivation.
She's also Relief Society President in her student ward.

  

Full moon for Christmas. Hasn't happened for nearly 40 years.

Courtesy of Jan and FOX4 News Kansas City

Shirts with the five of them "2015 World Champions" --Kansas City Royals, you know-- (they live within walking distance of the Stadium--especially if you walk on the railroad tracks); and a clock with Amanda and me hiking at Duck Creek, from our Raytown family. We visited with them on the phone while opening gifts.

Finally got DeRay to smile.

Brent also sent this non-fiction book, written by a Kaysville son. He actually graduated with Jeanne. After Brooke mentioned it, I remembered the news story--about 30 years ago.

   And back in Missouri on Christmas day . . .

Is this your favorite gift, Jan?

Tall guy.

Jonathan, Amanda, & Naomi

Santa Claus no less!

Treasures from Brooke and Elizabeth.

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Goodnight.