This morning finds the old Bears Butt waiting for Sherry to get home from a meeting at her work place…todays meeting is one that surprised almost all the employees of the local redneck culture store “Smith and Edwards”.  I suppose at this time I should tell you about this store, some of you might not have ever heard of it.

Smith and Edwards started out just after World War II as a War Surplus store.  A dream of one Mr. Smith and another Mr. Edwards.  After the war there were tons and tons of items that had been made in preparation to supply the troops, things like helmets, canteens, knives, uniforms, blankets, mess kits, cans of canned heat, C-rations (food), sleeping cots, medical items…the list goes on and on and on and on, and because the war was over, the government needed someplace to dispose of all this good stuff.  So along came Mr. Smith and Mr. Edwards and bought a bunch of it up and made it available for sale.  As a youngster in the middle 50’s, it was my favorite store of all.  For just a couple of bucks I could come out of there with a whole bag full of “necessary items” to meet my outdoors and scouting needs.

Smith and Edwards sign says “We have everything you want…If we can find it”, and believe me, they have a lot of things in there that makes you wonder why they have it, and if by chance you go in there for something and you can’t seem to find it, don’t give up, keep looking because somebody else may have picked one up and set it down in another department.  Just keep looking.

Today they don’t have so much war surplus, but they still have the department that carries a lot of that sort of thing, it is made up of surplus military stuff from many countries, not just the U.S.  They even have an outside lot full of old trucks and trailers used to transport troops and gear.  Plus, a ton of other stuff that they have gathered up over the years, everything from pipe to baskets.  The outside lot is worth wandering around looking at even if you have no need for any of it.  You will see some things that will make you scratch your head and wonder just what it is and what it could have possibly been used for.

A few years back, at a company party, one of the boss’ was giving a speech and said he liked to listen to the customers and when he heard a good statement he would write it down…this particular year he overheard a “one sided” conversation from a lady on a cell phone…here is how part of it went…”Well, I’m here in Smith and Edwards…what was that?….Oh, well, it’s sort of hard to say…I guess the best way to describe it is…It’s an Ikea for Rednecks”!!!!

That should give you some idea about what this store is all about.

Well, they are about to go HIGH TECH on us…yessireee bobby…they have created a new department and have hired a lady to run it…they are going “On line” and soon you will be able to purchase goods from them.  This means they will be expanding and adding a shipping department and who knows what else.

So todays meeting is about “customer service”…at least that is what Sherry has been lead to believe…we will find out when she gets back…in the meantime I have prepared a little breakfast for her when she gets home.  Sausage patties, fried potatoes from diced baked potato leftovers from the other night and when she gets home I’ll fry up an egg, pour up some milk for her and orange juice for me and there you have it…breakfast.

With some time on my hands I came in here to write up what you have been reading and I got curious just what other people eat for breakfast.  It was quite interesting what I came across…Breakfast in the South…Now I have tried Grits before and I just could not get the hankering for their taste and texture, but I won’t bad mouth them, they just were not something for me.  Most of the breakfasts I found on line include them but the most curious is some of the other things I saw that are cooked up for breakfast in the South…Biscuits and gravy…yummy to me…I could eat that!  Batter fried chicken gizzards…Oh Ya!  That would be good!  Corned Beef Hash…Had that and it’s super good, especially served with catchup!  Country fried steak…Great stuff right there…!Country ham!  That speaks for itself!  Cracklins.   Maybe for a snack.  Fatback…I’m not sure about that…never tried it.  Fried pork chops…I could do that every morning!  Hog head cheese and/or hog jowls….Naaa!  It just don’t sound right to me…especially for breakfast…I think I’d rather have a bowl of grits.

Some of the other things I found on the breakfast menu seems more to be an afternoon or evening meal to me, but I suppose if it meets your fancy go for it.

Fried chicken, fried squirrel, fried frog legs, Salmon patties and  deep fried fish….They all sound great, but I’d rather face a frog leg later in the day myself.

One thing I didn’t see on the breakfast menu for Southern style eating was pizza…That will come soon enough.

Bears Butt

June 11, 2013

A heart felt THANK YOU to Dry Dog, Wapiti and Weasel for the huge help in  finishing our task for today.  Helping hands helping out where we could.

Dry Dog, I really feel badly that you went your direction so quickly and missed our stopping at a local establishment for a bite to eat.  I owe you one.

So, we did stop into a local place today and had a cold drink and a wonderful hamburger and some home made fries!

Also met a great guy and bartender, a Mr. Lee Jensen, what a great guy and a super cook as well!  Thank you Mr. Jensen!

And the name of the place?  Mims Bar and Grill in Corinne, Utah!

I have not been in that place since it was named something else and that was over 20 years ago.  Wapiti had not been in there since they had a snake skin hanging on the North wall and Weasel hadn’t been in there all his born days.

Some things never change and that is one thing that has only changed because of necessity.  It still looks just like it did back in the day.

Thanks again Lee!

Bears Butt

June 10, 2013

Lately there has been a lot of talk about survival kits and 72 hour kits for emergency use.  Actually, the talk has been going around for many years, but for some reason just recently there seems to be a bigger push. ( Is it because of Obama?)

I went on line looking at survival kits and there is such a wide variety and it’s sort of funny what people are thinking when they put together these kits.  One kit I looked at included a whole bunch of fishing stuff…from the basic hook and line to spinners and flies…loads of different sinkers etc.  As for me, if I was building a survival kit, I “might” have a fishing set up in the kit, but probably not…why take up valuable space and weight for that, when a few more high calorie candy bars would probably get you through the amount of time it would take you to catch a fish (maybe catch a fish).  Perhaps it was that persons idea to just give you something to do while waiting to be rescued…I don’t know.

Then there was the one with the emphasis on first aid.  It has the normal bandage stuff, tape, salves and antibiotic meds, aspirins and ibuprofen etc., but it also had splints, sewing needles and official stitching material thread.  That’s not something I think I would want to be doing out in the field…sewing up someone who has been injured that badly.  I would think it would be better to just keep the wound open and clean rather than sew into it the dirt, tree bark and rocks that were around while the person was getting cut up that bad.

Sure, stop the bleeding, calm them down, keep them relaxed and wait until help arrives.  Again, the space and weight taken up by those types of items should be used for something more useful like maybe “spinners for fishing”…just kidding.  Even a joke book would be better than that…again, in my opinion.

There were several sites that had 5 gallon buckets with toilet lids on them.  I’m sorry folks, but if I was in a survival mode, I would not care one iota about squatting in the open, or finding a bush to get behind while I did my daily daily.  Besides, the weight of the bucket would be better served to be a back pack and/or more high energy bars or drinking water packets.

Survival kits for the car, survival kits for home, survival kits for airplanes, survival kits for the work site, survival kits for camping, survival kits for hiking, survival kits for back country hunting/fishing base camps, survival kits for school, survival kits for you name it.  Each one seems to have some of the same stuff, but each one again has some unique things in them that just don’t seem to make a lot of sense.  Would you rather have a shining mirror or another book of waterproof matches?  With matches you could make a smoking fire to signal with.  Would you rather have a deck of cards or another high energy candy bar and another book of waterproof matches?  You can always entertain yourself when lost by talking to yourself…besides, if you are stranded with another person and wanted to play cards, they wouldn’t because they know you cheat, and to start a game of cards would probably end up with one of you having to need the sewing kit for stitching up the battle scars.  No, give me the candy bar.

Would you rather have a disposable shaving kit and toothbrush with paste, or another roll of toilet paper?   You are supposed to come out of a survival situation looking like Si on Duck Dynasty and your breath smelling like high energy candy bars and not have burdock leaves sticking out the back of your trousers.  Besides, toilet paper makes for a very good “short term” aerial signal when spread out on the ground. (Don’t forget to gather it up just before dark, you might need it in the morning).

Speaking of survival kits, don’t forget to check out http://www.lonetreesurvival.com/

Bears Butt

June 10, 2013

Went to Tenderfoots wedding reception last night and it was a great one.  Normally I don’t really like to attend those sorts of things, but this was a very relaxed one with only a line consisted of the two groups of parents and the young married couple…the rest of the families were all laid back in their spots and greeting people they knew as they came in.  The cheesecake was super too!  Thanks to you all for pulling off a great wedding!  Empty nesters on one side for sure!

While there I talked to Lead Burn and our conversation went to the long range shooting school taught by one of the locals…His school guarantees you will hit your target after 3 days of training and that target will be sitting out at 1,000 yards!  That’s a long shot!

But, Lead Burn said the shells for the 338 rifle you will be shooting costs $5 p/shot!  OUCH!

So, I got up this morning and did some research on bullets for guns I own…my shock was that “if you can find them”, 22 shells are costing over $13 for a box of 50!!!!  WHAT?  Yes!  Over $10 for a box of 50 shells!  I better go clean out the jocky box in my truck before someone rips me off!

I used to think my friend Gattlin was crazy to go to garage sales and buy up all the ammo he could find and he didn’t even have a gun in the caliber he was buying!  A round of this, a half box of that…what the heck was he thinking?  Now I know!  I’ll bet he has enough shells to sell to buy a new 4 wheel drive truck!

I recall a few stories of his about going to a garage sale being put on by a little old lady and the old smoozer Gattlin would slide up along side her, make some kidding remark about getting older and ask her where the old man was…of course his intent was to find out if the old man had died recently and if she had any of his hunting and fishing stuff still in the house….Gattlin is sneeky like that.

When he found out that was the case he would get her to give up some of his nasty old useless guns and ammo, because we all know that guns around the grandkids is a bad deal and he would help her out by taking them all off her hands for say….(let’s not get too carried away, after all she looks like she is pretty well off)…$100…no that’s too much…say $78….And of course that was all he had in his wallet at the time.

So Gattlin would walk away with two bolt action 22’s, a 30-06, a pistol with a holster and a belt full of 45 cal rounds in it, plus since she didn’t have the guns anymore, she would toss in all the bullets she could find in the house…4 1/2 bricks of 22 shells, 1 1/2 boxes of ’06 and some 12 gauge shells kicking around in an old wood box that had written on the outside “Remington” and a flying duck painted on it….”Oh, by the way, I could use that box to carry all this stuff to the truck…do you mind?”    Of course not, deary, here take it….

Gattlin, how can you sleep at night?

Bears Butt

June 9, 2013

It’s early June and the bugs are really coming out to play in earnest.  My Bug-A-Salt is primed and ready, but more than that is my bee catcher.  I have four of these out and filled with the bee juice that attracts yellow jackets and you should have yours out as well.

I don’t like yellow jackets and this fall, when we are deer hunting you will know all too well just how annoying they can be.  They buzz into your ears and mouth and nostrils and worst of all, they get in your bowl of posole and if you don’t wait for them to drown, you might just get stung!

Right now is the time to be catching yellow jackets, because the little ones have not hatched yet and you will be catching the queens and each queen produces a nest, so in essence you are catching nests of yellow jackets right now!  Get to it!

The very best yellow jacket trap I have found to date is the yellow ones that take a small vial of attractant.  The attractant costs quite a bit considering what you are getting, but I have done some research and I believe the guys that sell it have done their homework and it’s worth the money.

Oh, and don’t be duped by the 3 in 1 catch all type of traps that are made by the same company that makes the yellow ones.  Even though the 3 in 1’s are yellow too, they DON’T WORK.  I bought some a few years back thinking how cool it would be to catch yellow jackets, hornets, flies and everything else annoying and they flat out did not work.  I even took a month and did a daily study with the yellow traps along side the 3 in 1’s and all the 3 in 1’s caught in one months time was a box elder bug and a couple of moths.  I wrote the company with my results and trusted them to do the right thing and take them off the market..instead they flooded the market with the ones they had made and have been soaking people ever since.

So, back to my story here:  That vial of attractant is a mixture that emits an odor or sexual something that gets the yellow jackets all excited to get closer to and that is why they get into the traps.  Once they are inside they can’t find the hole that they crawled up through in order to get out and they buzz around inside the trap until they dehydrate and die.  Dead yellow jackets are the best!

This trap has been out for 3 weeks and I emptied it once.  You can see a line of dead bees in the bottom and some live ones buzzing around inside.  Look closely at the size of them badboys (badgirls)….

Each queen can produce up 4,000 or more little ones…so you do the math!  Get out and put your traps out and maybe we can collectively make a dent in their population!

Bears Butt

June 3, 2013

There is a masterpiece of workmanship in Salt Lake City, Utah called the Temple.  It’s located right in the heart of downtown and can be seen for miles around.  To think of all the hard work that went into building that structure back in the late 1800’s  is mind boggling.  Huge blocks of quarts rock were quarried, chiseled and crafted into the shapes they needed and then carefully fit into place.

How those men were able to do that heavy work without today’s modern machinery amazes me to no end.  The quality of the outcome is nothing short of a miracle.

When you look closely at the Temple you can see all sorts of ornate things carved in the rock walls, each having a special meaning and all leading back to a strong belief in God and all He created.

http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/saltlake/

Rich symbolism adorns the exterior of the Salt Lake Temple, depicting mankind’s journey from mortality into the eternal realms. Perhaps Elder J. Golden Kimball expressed it best when he stated: “When I think about that building, every stone in it is a sermon to me.”¹ Following is a summary of some of the major symbolism of the Salt Lake Temple:

Angel Moroni.  The angel Moroni depicts both a messenger of the restoration of the gospel and a herald of the Second Coming: “for the Son of Man shall come, and he shall send his angels before him with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together the remainder of his elect from the four winds” (JS-M 1:37).

Towers.  The three towers on the east side represent the First Presidency of the Church and the Melchizedek Priesthood; the twelve pinnacles rising from the towers represent the Twelve Apostles. The three towers on the west side represent the Presiding Bishopric and the Aaronic Priesthood; the twelve pinnacles rising from the towers represent the High Council.

Battlements.  The castle-like battlements that surround the temple symbolize a separation from the world as well as a protection of the holy ordinances practiced within its walls.

Earthstones.  The earthstones, located at the base of each buttress, represent the earth—the “footstool of God.” Although the earth is currently a telestial kingdom, it will transition to a terrestrial kingdom at the coming of the Millennium; and at the end of one thousand years, it is destined to become a celestial kingdom.

Moonstones.  Located directly above the earthstones, the moon is depicted in its various phases around the temple. The changing moon can represent the stages of human progression from birth to resurrection or represent the patron’s journey from darkness to light.

Sunstones.  Located directly above the moonstones, the sunstones depict the sun—a symbol of the glory of the celestial kingdom.

Cloudstones.  High above the sunstones on the east center tower are two clouds with descending rays of light (originally planned to be one white and one black with descending trumpets.) The parallel of this symbolism is found in the Old Testament. Once temples were dedicated in ancient Israel, they were filled with the “cloud of the Lord.” At Mount Sinai, the children of Israel saw this cloud as both dark and bright accompanied by the blasting of a trumpet.

Starstones.  Six-pointed stars represent the actual stars in the heaven. Upside-down five-pointed stars represent morning stars, compared to the “sons of God” in the scriptures. The large upright five-pointed stars may represent the governing power of the priesthood while the small upright five-pointed stars may represent the saving power of the priesthood for those who attach themselves to it.

Big Dipper.  High on the west center tower is a depiction of the Big Dipper, a constellation used by travelers for thousands of years to find the North Star. It is an appropriate symbol for the temple where patrons come to get their bearings on the journey home.

Handclasp.  Each of the center towers features a pair of clasped right hands identified as the “right hands of fellowship” cited in Galatians 2:9. In Jeremiah 31:32, the Lord uses the handclasp to denote covenant making—an act at the very heart of temple worship.

All-Seeing Eye.  Located atop each of the center towers of the temple is the all-seeing eye of God, which represents God’s ability to see all things.²

1. J. Golden Kimball, “Elder Jonathan Golden Kimball,” Conference Report April 1915: 78–79.
2. Matthew B. Brown and Paul Thomas Smith, “The Salt Lake Temple,” Symbols in Stone: Symbolism on the Early Temples of the Restoration (American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications, Inc., 1997) 117–156.

But, it is not perfect.  And was the imperfection intentionally built into the structure, or was it an error on someones part?  I would have to say it was intentional, much like our friends the Native Americans, who, when they created something with a meaning to it, they would always put into it a flaw of some kind to symbolize that only our Creator was perfect.

I have included a picture of the Temple and in this picture you should be able to see the imperfection.  I must say, it took me quite a while to finally see it and I was given a hint from the person who told me about it.  I never would have guessed there was any flaw of any kind in this Temple’s construction.

Don’t kick yourself too hard when you don’t find it right off and for sure don’t waste your entire day trying to find it, there are far more bigger and better things to do with your life than study this picture.  I thank my friend Cody Wright for pointing this out to me!

The picture is one I downloaded from the internet and is one of hundreds found there.  Thanks to whoever took the picture and allowed it to be placed on the internet for everyone to see.

Bears Butt

June 2, 2013