The local paper out of Brigham City is printed and then delivered on Wednesday each week and of course it’s a delight to read.  Small town news is the best.  There is certainly the ugly stuff that goes without saying like someone lost a bike or someone else was picked up for public intoxication or even worse sometimes.

But then there is the good stuff about the local communities that make up the county of Box Elder.  Promontory news, Willard happenings, Perry news, Corinne stuff and Honeyville things.  I love to read about all the goings on in those towns.

How the local folks went to visit with each other or even took the ride into town to have a bite at a favorite restaurant or pizza place.  How Mable and Harry made the trip to Wendover or Gertrude finished her latest painting.  And best of all to know that all the cows got rounded up off the summer ranges and are now safe at home.

THAT my friends is true down home news.

The absolutely dedicated writers of those small town news happenings should get paid more than they do (volunteers).  It would not be easy to find out what would be interesting for people to read about their towns.  They make a ton of phone calls, visit folks, go to town meetings etc. etc.  Not a job I would want.

Last Wednesday, as I was shuffling from page to page and reading all this good stuff low and behold there is an article about a barbershop I love to go into to get my hair cut a couple times a year (and I’m do right now).  Wyatt’s Barber Shop.  The headline read “Brigham City’s Last Bastion of Manliness” by Mike Nelson.  A great story Mike!  Thanks!

But what really caught my eye was a small picture in the article of a man’s hair being cut by the owner Ralph Wyatt.  I took a double take on the man sitting in the chair.  Looks familiar…a scruffy white beard, balding head, all serious looking.  And of course having been in that chair myself, he was holding very, very still so that Ralph didn’t make a mistake on the hair cut and have to cut more than he wanted off the sides, cuz their ain’t much to be cutting off in the first place.

Here is a picture of that picture.

Well, I’ll be!  I said to myself!  That there is my friend Magpie sitting there!  Says he has been having his hair cut at this place for over 10 years!  I had no idea!

Sure enough it is Magpie, even says so under the picture…”Ralph trims Doug Eames…”  We all know Doug Eames real name is “Magpie”.

And now I know what the window sticker on my car means.

Wyatt’s BS!  Right there on top.  I always thought it meant Wyatt’s Barber Shop, but since Magpie frequents the place the BS must stand for something else.

It’s still a great place to go visit and learn what is going on in and around town.  Most of what you hear there can’t be printed and so the newspaper guys don’t go in there to get their news.  They might go in there for a hair cut, but they leave their paper and pencils in the car.

Drop in there sometime and give them a try.  They actually do a pretty good haircut.  Their number is listed on that sticker, but I don’t think anyone ever calls them, they just drop in.  Where are they located?

Oh, ya, on 7th South just a part of a block East of  Main street there in Brigham, North side of the road.

Bears Butt

Oct. 12, 2012

This one speaks for itself!

Bears Butt

Oct. 12, 2012

Last week Sherry was talking with Beth, one of her co-workers and talking about Inspiration Point, Beth said she had never been there.  That was all it took for us to plan a trip up to the top of the mountain.

Inspiration Point is the end of the road leading from Mantua into the Willard Basin and to the top of the mountain.  There is only two peaks up there that are higher in elevation, one is Ben Lomond Peak, the other Willard Peak.  You have to hike to each of those two.

The road up to Inspiration Peak is very rough!  Much like it was before they graded it three years ago.  Slow going and bumpy as the dickens.  But we made it without incident.

Normally on Oct. 11 it would be very cold and windy up on top of the mountain, but t0day it was balmy and rather calm.  If it was cold Beth would have had a bundle of coats on, here she is just wearing a blue sweater.

My picture taking prowess is terrible, I should have had Willard Peak in the background, but I missed it.  Oh well, another reason to go up there again.  You can see a small portion of Ogden in the background on this shot.

And since they both work at Smith and Edwards, here they are pointing down at the top of the store.  Trust me, it’s down there.

This is the view looking north along the Wasatch Front and Brigham City is in the background, lower left of the Wellsville Range (the farthest range out).  You can see the back and North side of Willard Canyon just beyond the pines.  A real pretty scene.

And for the duck hunters out there, you can see just how much water there is in the Bear River Bird Refuge and in the Willard Spur of the Great Salt Lake.

And here is a closer look at the Willard Spur.  Not much water fellas.  Unit 5 is beginning to fill as you can see the puddle in the middle area but just out from the dump channel of Willard Bay, there sure isn’t much in the way of ducky water.  Pretty dry.

I expected to see more wildlife than we did, but I forgot my binocs and spotting scope.  I did see a Mountain Goat, but could not get a still enough picture of it to post it up on here.  We did see a doe and fawn and a small flock of turkeys, oh ya, and a weasel!  It was a fun day.  We took a minute in the basin campground to have some lunch.

Bears Butt

Oct. 11, 2012

It’s that time of year for pumpkins, ghosts, goblins and candy!  Trick or Treat!  Smell My Feet!  Give Me Something Good to Eat!

Please enjoy the celebration responsibly!

Bears Butt

Oct. 11, 2012

I’m writing this tonight because I will be busy in the morning getting ready for a trip to the top of the mountain with Sherry and Beth.

October 11 is “National It’s My Party Day”!  YES!  What a great day!  You can celebrate with others or by yourself and it’s all OK!  It’s YOUR party day!  Go for it!

If you work in an office and need to keep the noise down you can paint a face on your finger and show it to your friends and have it dance around and make funny faces on your own face and the whole office will get a big old kick out of it.  I would suggest you not use the middle finger however and for sure, if you do use your middle finger, don’t show the boss your art work.  Just sayin!

It’s YOUR party day!  Enjoy it.  It only comes around once each year on Oct. 11 and it begins at midnight and lasts until just short of midnight.  You have 24 hours to have a blast enjoying YOUR party day!

Don’t fall for the trap of singing that stupid song from the 60’s, that is a waste of time.  Make up your own song and sing it loud and strong all the while dancing around and showing everyone your finger.  It’s YOUR party!  Go for it!

Bears Butt

Oct. 10, for Oct. 11, 2012

In my little town of Willard there are no stop lights.  The main highway through town is 45 mph and watch out for one of the two or three police officers who patrol it, they might give you one or two mph over, but then if they haven’t had their coffee they might not.  We have a barber shop in town and a mechanic, a post office and a heating and air conditioning guy.  An antique and curio shop and a few out of the home business’ but lately there has been a new store added.  A quaint little store with loads of things to eat and help you with your cooking.  Apple Creek!

They are located in the old “Blacker Furniture” store, turned “Paradise Furniture” and now “Apple Creek” and soon another business dealing with exercising.

They have a deli with meats and cheeses galore!  And some way different flavors than I have never heard of.  They sell “rolled butter” too and just for your convenience they sell eggs and milk.  But the best is all the spices and different mixes.  If I was a baker this would be my dream store!  This store is filled with so many different things you can’t see it all in one visit.

For those of you who may have never tasted pickled eggs or just want to try something different in the way of pickled eggs, they not only have plain ones, but they also have mustard pickled eggs and jalapeno pickled eggs.  They may have other flavors as well but I didn’t see them.  Also other bottled and pickled things, you will have to go in and see for yourself.

For those cooking with chocolate, I saw these ENORMOUS bars of chocolate that must weigh 5 pounds each…dark chocolate, white chocolate and also some yogurt bars just as big as the chocolate ones.

They also sell ice cream by the scoop!  Bulk salt water taffy!  All sorts of sprinkles for cupcakes and whatever else you sprinkle when you bake, flour, jerky spices and jerky!

I understand they have more to put out for all of us, but for now that is all I saw yesterday in my short visit.  Their prices are very competitive as well.  You have to go visit the place and welcome the owners to town.

WELCOME TO WILLARD APPLE CREEK!

Bears Butt

Oct. 10, 2012

Here is a site you can have a lot of fun with:

http://www.babynames.com/Names/rename.php

Not only does it give you ideas for new baby names, but you can put your own name in and it will give you a new name.  I’m really not so sure it knows what it’s doing but I had fun for a minute or two.

First off you put your real name in the blanks.  Then tell it your gender, you know boy or girl, and then you can pick from about 7 different types of people you think you are, like friendly, curious, philosopher etc.  Then click find your new name.

I entered mine under “Wild” and it came back with Chanteyukan Zundel

“Friendly” = Maconaquea (sounds Native American) and then “Creative”,  I entered that one  twice, the first time it came back with Kan-Tel and the second time “Doug”……..Creative = Doug…..Really?

Have fun with it Shi-Thead.  I think I’ll go have a slice of moldy cheese and a cold brew.

Bears Butt

Oct. 9, 2012

That’s right…MOLDY CHEESE!

And for you to know…It’s National Moldy Cheese Day!  Make yourself a cheese sandwich and enjoy the day!  What better?

I like my cheese with the blue tinted mold on it, I think that is the all time best mold to see growing on my cheese.  The white, like you see above isn’t bad, but the blue is much better.  Looked closely at through a magnifying glass the blue ends of the growing mold actually have a little hook on them.  I suppose to grab your taste buds and give you that extra special “bite” of the molds true flavor!

Enjoy your Moldy Cheese Day!

Bears Butt

Oct. 9, 2012

Always interested in what happened on certain days in history, I looked up October 9 and found quite a lot of interesting things.  Most of which don’t mean anything anymore and not much good for helping anyone out today.  Not even on a history exam because well, it’s history and you can’t go back and change it even if you wanted to.

But some of it is interesting to me.  After all, wouldn’t you think railroads in Europe would have all been in place by about the mid 1800’s?

1834 – Opening of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, the first public railway on the island of Ireland.

When you think about it I guess that is not such a big deal, the US first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869.  The men who built the one in Ireland must have learned quite a bit because a lot of Irish men came over and helped build ours.  Thanks fellas.

But, more closely to home happened today on this day (that sounds funny huh?)  A concert that I was SOOO looking forward to but now I can’t go.

http://smithstix.com/events/item/root/seether-oct-9

DANG!

Bears Butt

Oct. 9, 2012

This morning I had to go to Corinne for some business and while that close I decided to venture out to the Bear River Bird Refuge and look things over.  The river is pretty much at full stream since all of the up-stream irrigation is done for the year and the refuge manager has opted to put most of the water through to Unit 2.  It is maxed out and water flowing out into the Great Salt Lake west of the unit.

They are also letting a little water into Unit 1 and 1A and Units 3 and 4.  Nothing going into Unit 5 which is odd to me.

I saw about 1,000 ducks on Unit 1 and about 2,000 on Unit 3 (unhuntable portion).  During the summer there was only water going into 3 with a trickle going into 1 so it’s no surprise to me to see most of the birds on Unit 3, they have something to eat there.

For a Columbus Day holiday there weren’t very many hunters out but then that is understandable when you look and don’t see any birds.

Bears Butt

Oct. 8, 2012