Good morning!! Welcome back!! I hope you are ready for today's adventures. In this episode, we will be tackling June 2021, 2022, and 2023. There were lots things afoot so sit back and enjoy the ride.
JUNE 2021
We did a LOT of house hunting. I saw this awesome porch swing at one of the houses we looked at and had to take a picture to remember for later.
Meow-meow turned 8 and was baptized!!
Meow-meow with Mom and Dad
With Grandma and Grandpa Deem
With two of his brothers. I think Jacen was sick, which is why he wasn't there.
With his sisters
With his mommy
With his Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Richard.
Grandma Debbie gave a talk about the Armor of God and had Meow-meow dress up in all of the pieces of armor.
It's great to be eight!
Blow them candles out.
Richard turned 17. I love how Jimmy is blowing out his candles.
Packing to move was in full swing. Seven kids who all collected stuffed animals equals a ton of stuffed animals.
These are the ones they didn't want and this became the D.I. pile
Nathan's sister and family came down from Oregon. She is a photographer, so we arranged an afternoon to do a family photo shoot. Naturally shenanigans ensued.
Jacen trying to get the kids to smile.
Our family.
Oldest to youngest.
Tallest to shortest.
This was Jacen's photo pose.
Da boys
Da girls
Meow-meow
Eilee
Tiger Lily
Jimmy
Jaina
Richard
Siblings being siblings
Gaaar, take him down!!
That's a wrap for June 2021. Next up, June 2022.
JUNE 2022
Jimmy went outside to help me cut some wood, and his thumb tried to pretend to be a piece of wood. I think he ended up with five stitches. Fingers aren't wood.
Meow-meow turned 9 and had some of his school friends over for a birthday party.
My favorite place in the yard to relax!!
The June birthday people! Richard turned 18, Tiger lily, 15, and Meow-meow, 9.
I decided to tear out some grass in the front yard to make some flower beds and walk ways that I could line with some of the rocks that I had brought back from Goblin Valley. A neighbor let me borrow his nifty sifter thing, which made breaking up the grass clumps so much easier.
This is Bastet. So, the first two barn cats we got, Oreo and Bugs disappeared (we have since found out that some neighbors assumed they were stray cats and they took them). I looked for both of those cats for weeks and weeks before giving up. We found Bastet on KSL Classifieds. She was very pregnant and her previous owners said that if they couldn't find someone to take her that they would take her to the shelter and have her put down. Well, my original plan was to have a pregnant kitty so I could raise some barn cats from birth (that was Oreo, but she was stolen two days after she got pregnant). Bastet was a very skittish kitty and barely let me get close to her kittens. She had seven little babies. There are two white ones, Puff-puff and Leche.
Snuggling a Sugar baby
Don't ask me how I manage to get this bruise.
Sweet little kittens. I planned on keeping the two white ones and then selling the others.
Hill Air Force Base put on an airshow.
We don't live close to Hill, but we live close enough that quite often the jets fly right over my house, and we are close enough that we can hear when the jets are out flying around. Personally I love it, because I love watching and hearing the jets. We had prime viewing of the airshow from the roof of our house.
Birds eye view.
I spent my days out digging around in the yard. This head gate was buried under a lot of dirt and it took me a while to clean it up. And you know you have seen way too many crime videos when you start digging up tarp with carpet wrapped in it and you start worrying if you are going to find a body next.
I think this one is Puff-puff
And I think this is Leche.
That brings us to the end of June 2022 and the beginning of June 2023
JUNE 2023
I know, I know this picture is from April 2022 and I already posted it in my April blog post, but it's the only picture I can find so that I can set up the story for the next several pictures. Our focus for this picture is going to be on that white fence. That fence goes from the front yard up to the edge of that white barn, where it stops. The length of the barn is some very old and rusty barbed wire fencing. On the other side of the barn, my yard jogs off in a diagonal angle. This white fencing starts again just a little past the other end of the barn, which you can't see in this picture. We had some neighbors on the other side of that white fencing in the back. Now, as you can see, that fencing won't keep dogs out. The people who were living in the house at the time had two dogs. When we first moved in, we learned rather quickly that those two dogs weren't very nice and the neighbors just gave them free reign, which meant that they could come into my yard whenever they wanted to, and did, frequently. They chased after Richard one day. In my cleaning up of the yard, I found tons of old chicken wire fencing, barbed wire fencing, and chain link fencing. It was ugly, but I put it up along the fencing to stop the dogs from being able to come into my yard, and it worked beautifully. I could then work in my yard in safety and peace. The dogs would run up to the fence and bark, snarl, and snap at me, but I was able to ignore them and go about my business, knowing that there was a safe barrier between me and them, which is very important to me, as you will find out.
Earlier into 2023 we found out that those particular neighbors would be moving and from what we understood, they would be gone sometime in May. I was very excited for this because it meant that I could take down all of that ugly fencing, and those stupid dogs would be gone and I would not have to deal with nor worry about them again. The day came when the neighbors moved, and for quite some time I did not see any dogs. So, I figured it was safe to start taking down the fencing, and had only managed to take down a small section of it before I had my surgery. What I did know was the people who had lived in that house were only renting it from some family members, and those family members would be moving back home, which is why they had to move. What I didn't know is that the oldest daughter of the previous neighbors had stayed behind because she was attending Weber State (If I remember correctly) and that the meanest of the dogs was hers and had stayed with her.
This one particular beautiful, sunny, warm afternoon, I was out in my yard, minding my own business, weed whacking down some weeds, when this dog came charging into my yard and bit me on my leg. It was completely unprovoked on my part, I was in MY yard, minding MY own business. But because I had taken down a small section of the fencing because I had thought the dogs were gone, that stupid dog was able to have free access to MY yard, and it came into MY yard and bit me. It's not a horrible bite by any means, but no one should ever have to be bitten by a dog, EVER! Being bit by a dog doesn't just leave physical wounds, it can leave psychological wounds, and those are harder to deal with. There's a reason why I don't like dogs, that wasn't the first time I've been bit by one. If I see a big dog, I will panic, and don't let my outward appearance fool you. I may look like a cool cucumber on the outside, but on the inside, I am far, FAR from doing okay. It has taken me many years to get over my fear of big dogs, and now I've got to do it all over again. I'm not a happy camper about this!
The first thing we did was to call the police to make a report. The police referred us to animal control as they would have to be the ones to come out and deal with the animal. Whether or not animal control put the dog down or not, I did not care, I just wanted the dog gone!! So, we called animal control. Animal control said that they would send someone out to talk to me and document it. NO ONE FROM ANIMAL CONTROL EVER CAME!! We called them again, they said that someone would call me to get my statement. NO ONE FROM ANIMAL CONTROL EVER CALLED ME! The dog remained at that house until the owners of the house came back and made the girl send it up to her family in Utah. By the way, animal control is a joke, and I really do not like dog owners who won't be responsible for their dogs.
So, why the animosity directed towards animal control? Well, as I have mentioned a few times in my previous posts, I have a couple of neighbors who caused a bit of a ruckus about two weeks ago, and they threatened to call animal control. Well, I figured that if animal control couldn't be bothered to come out for a dog bite, that they certainly wouldn't come out for some stupid cats. However I was wrong on that score. I do find it odd that it took them two weeks to show up, and can only guess that it's because they were called over and over again to the point that they came out just to get the calls to stop. I do feel bad for the poor animal control lady because she didn't know the hornets nest she would be stepping into. I may or may not have lost my temper at her. Poor thing showed up on my doorstep and said she was there to talk about some cats and I unleashed (and I feel rightfully so) my anger at their audacity of showing up for cats but not showing up when someone was bit by a dog. This is pretty much what I told the lady, "Last summer, I was in my backyard when a neighbor's dog came into my yard and bit me on my leg. It bit me hard enough to break the skin and draw blood. We called you guys SEVERAL times and you never came, and now you are here to talk about some stupid cats!! I HAVE SCARS ON MY LEG!! (Even though the bite wasn't that big or deep, I do indeed have scars as I scar very easily). You need to leave NOW!" I was shaking at this point and decided the best course of action would be for me to walk away. Nathan had been the one who answered the door and so after I stormed off, he told the lady that if they wanted to talk to us that they would have to come back with a warrant." I guess time will tell to see if they come back with one. I think anyone would be highly upset to be in my situation. That 40 acres looks better and better with every passing day. Like I said, it's the perfect property. It has a road going right through the middle of it, which to some may be a drawback, but to me, perfection. I could build my house right smack dab in the middle of that 40 acres, right up next to the road, and then have a 40 acre buffer between me and any potential people that might buy up property around me. It's perfect. Now before you think I'm being way too dramatic over one incident with a couple of neighbors, let me tell you, I've had way too many awful neighbors in my life (remember April 2021's blog post about Aaron's house?) and that just added to it. I'm dead serious when I say that if Nathan and I had the money, we would have already purchased that property and this house would be going up for sale. As a matter of fact, I'm going out to Vernon this Friday to go see the property with my own two eyes. Don't anybody panic!! We don't have the money to buy it!! But I am a creature of curiosity and I have to satisfy my curiosity about it because Google Maps just doesn't do it justice.
On a happier note, our June birthday kids turned 19, 16, and 10
This amazing angel in our ward gave Henry some swimming lessons in preparation for our river rafting trip which we will talk about tomorrow.
I made a bridge to the island
When we dug the pond, we just put the excess dirt onto my island and so I had to move it all off the island.
June 2023 was full of traumatic events. That, my friends, is our neighbors house, and it was on fire.
Meow-meow had been outside in the back 40 and were making our way back up to the house. Well Meow-meow stopped to jump on the trampoline for a moment, and I was standing next to the trampoline.
Meow-meow watering our wooden fence in an effort to keep it from going up in flames
As Meow-meow was jumping up and down, he could see into the neighbors back yard. He said to me, "mom, it looks like the neighbors have a fire in their firepit." I said something along the lines of, "that's nice."
He then said, "MOM, THE FIRE IS GETTING BIGGER!" That's when I looked over and saw huge flames shooting up the back of the house. I immediately grabbed my phone and called 911. It was my first every 911 call and it was very nerve wracking. I didn't know the address to the house on fire and could only tell her where I lived. Unbeknownst to me, our other (we have 9 next door neighbors), neighbor who is a police officer, was just coming home from his shift. He saw the smoke and radioed it in. I think it was his wife who ran and pounded on the door, and all of the people were able to make it out safely. They had been downstairs and had no idea their house was on fire. They had three dogs which sadly perished in the fire. From what I understand, they were smoking some meat in the smoker which was out on the back porch and I guess the grease from the meat caught fire. Once a fire starts, it gets big FAST!
I think I saw five fire trucks and at least two ambulances.
Thankfully they arrived quickly and were able to get the fire out quickly
That was a terrifying experience that I hope to never experience again.
There was extensive damage to the house.
and to the fence between those two houses
Even my house took some damage. The fire marshal, when he looked at our house, said that if it had been even moments longer, our house could have caught fire. That's a sobering thought. I am so very thankful that Meow-meow and I were outside when we were, and saw the fire start when we did, and were able to quickly call 911. I am also thankful that our neighbor was coming home when he did and was able to radio it in as quickly as he did. I am thankful for the quick response of the fire trucks, and I am VERY thankful that everyone made it out of the house alive. I am very sad that their dogs didn't make it.
More photo shoots to put on his KSL Classified profile. Thankfully we did find his furever home.
So stinking cute.
Leche and her boys. The would not stop knocking over the trash can and spilling everything around!! Silly but adorable kittens. It was not long after this photo that I was able to find them their furever homes.
For the boys and girls activity days, we took them on a day camp where they learned how to shoot a bow and arrow
And learned how to shoot a B.B. Gun.
Even I got to shoot the B.B. Gun, and I didn't do too bad either.
And hey got to go boating on a lake.
I decided that I wanted to turn my back 40 (I have named the sections of my back yard. The part up by the house is the back yard, the middle section is what I call the pasture, and the back part I jokingly call the back 40) into the garden and the orchard. That meant I had to move dirt to get the water to flow in the directions I want it to flow. So, I built my own little drag.
Choppy did a fairly decent job, but it took me all summer, and I still didn't have it quite how I wanted it before it got too cold. So, I have my work cut out for me this spring.
Well, there you have it! That's officially a wrap for June 2021, 2022, and 2023. Stay tuned for tomorrow.
