I just hate it when something that has been working for so long doing such a good job, suddenly stops working!  OOOOOOOOO!  I suppose it’s like that in real life too…if you know what I mean.  For you younger folks the saying “Use it or lose it” will pertain to you sooner or later.

Ya, my printer suddenly stopped printing!  Yesterday I was in a copying mode and putting out lots of copies.  I stopped to fold them and put them in envelopes and went back to do more copies…nutin!  No black ink would print.

Over to Hewlett Packer website for all the latest and greatest techniques to git-er-fixed and none of them have worked.  Bum deal on my side of the fence.  I even went to the printer’s own “fix it” in the setup department…nutin there either.  Put in a brand new black ink cartridge…nutin changed.

So now it looks like a junk heap is where that thing is headed.

Got any ideas for me to try?

Bears Butt

Jan. 18, 2013

For nearly the last year I have had the good fortune to be associated with one of the greatest groups of guys and gals I think I have ever had the fortune of getting to know.  Trust me, I don’t know them all, but those I have had the pleasure of working with are super!   These people are extremely dedicated to their cause and they are passionate about “getting things right”.  They are very involved with Utah’s wildlife and how to improve upon a system that has had some bumps in the road lately.  Progress is being made!

I highly recommend you join this non-profit organization, it’s free and you won’t regret being a part of saving our wildlife opportunities in Utah.

http://unitedwildlifecooperative.org/_WELCOME.html

Just copy and paste, as they say!

They are also very much concerned that our youth are not getting the exposure to the outdoors as much as they should be.  After all, it’s our youth who are our replacements in the world of hunting, fishing, trapping and all the other outdoor things we enjoy.  With that, these people have singled out a couple of events to help get kids involved with the outdoors.  One of those events is a youth guided turkey hunt held in the Spring.  The other is an ice fishing event and designed around a group of children who may or may not have ever had the opportunity to enjoy such a sport as that.

On Saturday the 26 (this month) the Utah Boys and Girls Club has been invited and sponsored by the United Wildlife Cooperative Organization (UWC) to come up to Strawberry Reservoir and enjoy a day of outdoor activities!   These kids are in for a real treat.  First the UWC is busing them up for the event and “THE UPPER BEAR RIVER TROUT UNLIMITED” organization is going to give each one of them their very own fishing pole!  They are going to have the opportunity to ice fish and hopefully pull one up through the ice.  The very real possibility to be pulled on a sled behind an ATV, sponsored by the Big Boys Toys Company out of Harrisville, Utah.  The UWC will be providing free hot dogs, hamburgers, chili and hot and cold drinks for them as well.  The meat is being provided by KSL Radio/Television and Stone’s Meats.  The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources is going to be at the event as well and will cut a large hole in the ice and give a demonstration on how to get out of a wet icy situation, as well as other safety on the ice information.  The good folks from Camp Chef are going to be on hand showing off their latest equipment and cooking prowess as well.  Fish Tech Outfitters is also planning on attending to offer ice fishing techniques to anyone willing to watch and listen.  And of course it just wouldn’t be such a great event without our local KSL Television hero Adam Eakle and his Utah Outdoors show filming the activities!

How on earth could there be more fun for a bunch of kids than that!?  But wait!  It’s for you and your kids too!  Come on up.  You might not get a free fishing pole, but everything else is there for you and your family!

There will be more sponsors than I have mentioned here and I sure hope you will come up and play.  It’s going to be a wonderful event…dress for the cold and remember it’s warmer up there than it is down here in the valley where the inversion has trapped the cold.

OH YA!  I almost forgot!  There are a TON of prizes that will be given away, and trust me some VERY BIG prizes, and LOTS of them!  Come on up and meet these terrific people I have told you about from the UWC.  Maybe even get your mug shot on the Utah Outdoors show!  But whatever else goes on, you WILL  have fun!

I suppose I should tell you where it will be held at, Strawberry Bay Marina at Strawberry Reservoir.  The big time activities begin around 8 a.m. and will continue until 2 p.m. or so.  Come on up!

Bears Butt

Jan. 17, 2013

Today we get a small piece of carpet laid in the bedroom.  The paint had to dry a few days before they could come and lay it.  Once we are able to put the bedroom back together, I can start painting in the rest of the house.  This deal is going to take a LOOOONNNNNGGGG time.  Right now the house is in such a state of disarray it’s hard to find anything.  But my sanity is being held together with this blog site.  I hope it is keeping your sanity together as well.  I will often tell stressed out people to visit this site and get away from reality for awhile.

So, did you know that the country store in Farr West called “Smith and Edwards” sells toilet paper?  Me either until the other day.  Sherry and I were down there and she said, Oh by the way, we need toilet paper.  I said, Ok then our next stop is Smiths.  She said, no I’ll go get some, they sell it here.  And off she went.

On her return I noticed the packaging of the toilet paper looked rather odd.  Not a real flashy package at all, more dull and rather plain.  I thought no more about it.

Yesterday morning, I was “doing my thing” and reached for the toilet paper…it was some of theirs.  A very dull grey paper roll hung on the bracket.  And where I usually see a nice clean squared off end, hung a jagged torn end with a second ply of paper hanging at least 3 inches below torn in the opposite direction.  HMMMM, I thought and proceeded to pull some paper off the roll.

I don’t usually think too much about this sort of event, but I was intrigued this time.  The paper rolled off just fine, but when I went to tear it on a perforation, the paper ignored the fact that it was perforated and tore  where ever it wanted.  In addition to that, the top layer of the two plys tore opposite the lower ply…take it from me, it does that every time!

Well, to change the subject “some”, Sherry and I were in Smiths the other day and cruising down the home products aisle when I noticed a very neat and orderly “new” display of “green” items.  I could not help but notice how the store management was making it very obvious that all the products in this section was “green” in some way or another…Including, of all things, “recycled toilet paper”!!!!

I pointed this out to Sherry and she looked at me and said, “That doesn’t paint a very good picture in my mind”!  I had to agree.

I told her too, that Bears Butt just might have to investigate that.

And so I have.  And if you too type in a search for “recycled toilet paper” you will find the top choice to be “Seventh Generation” recycled toilet paper.  Why have I not heard of this before?  Seven generations have been recycling their toilet paper and it has gotten by me until just recently.

There is even one in “forest green” color for you outdoorsy types!  Please don’t litter and make sure your paper is camouflaged with the surrounding area.  As for me, I would rather like to know someone “went there” so I didn’t step in it.  The next thing you know they will come out with “chameleon” toilet paper, a paper that will change color to match its surroundings.  Nuff said!

Bears Butt

Jan. 15, 2013

I keep reading about how cold it is outside….heck you have not seen anything.  Ya, I step outside without my coat and gloves and sure…it’s cold, but then I didn’t wear the right stuff to be out in it.  My bad, my fault.

If I was ice fishing I would have all the right stuff on and then I would not even feel the cold at all.  Plus I would be busy pulling in fish and it would take a heap of cold to make me feel it.

Heck I was on a dream hunt a few years back where the outside temp was MINUS 20 with a slight breeze blowing.  The kind of cold that caused you to put your open beer inside the ring of rocks when you were sitting around the fire to keep it from freezing.  When the temp rose to ZERO we were taking off our coats.  And forget about wiping your nose, you just reached up and broke off whatever was hanging down.

So, sure the temp right now outside my house reads 12 degrees..and the dog hurries out and right back in, but what the heck, it’s January for heck sakes and we need ice up at Bear Lake for the Cisco run right?

So, to help you feel a little better about your current outside environment I did a bit of research.  First off a bit of background.  I worked very closely with the US Geological Survey people and they spend a LOT of time down at Antarctica, they even brag about how they don’t need coolers down there to keep their drinks cold.  My closest associate said it was so cold, he couldn’t even “think about going out” without getting frost bitten…give me a break….sounds like a beer drinking story to me.

So here is what I found.  The highest recorded HOT temperature in the WORLD was 136.4 degrees Fahrenheit.  That is hot enough to cook a turkey in a closed dutch oven right there!  I’ll guarantee you I would not like to be in that hot of a place.  Lybia as it turned out.

But we are talking about cold here.  I’ve already told your about my experience of how the temperature rose 20 degrees and how warm it actually seemed to us, even though it was still quite cold.  The COLDEST temperature of anywhere in the world turned out to be in, where else?…Antarctica…MINUS 129 degrees!

Can you believe it?  What would it be like to step out to get the paper in 129 degree below zero temperature?  Even the dog would freeze up “thinking about going out” in that.  So, with a temperature that low, warming up to say Zero, you would be taking all your clothes off and jumping in the snow to try and get cool.

So, don’t talk to me any more about being cold.

Enjoy this global warming we have going on!

EDIT

And so that was where this story was going to end, but there is more that developed just after I posted this.

Sherry and I were enjoying each others company like we do every night, when suddenly from the direction of the garage a huge POP was heard.  What was that?  She asked.  I don’t know, but I’ll check…said I.  And out the garage door I went.

I didn’t see anything at first but then I looked down at a piece of old carpet that I removed last week while painting the bedroom….there was something that wasn’t there the last time I looked.  And then the story started to develop.

We have some soda cartons sitting out there in case the kids want a cold drink.  Usually they get cold enough to drink but never freeze…tonight one of them cans had had just about enough of the super cold it faced and exploded inside the carton!  The lid blew out the side of the box and frozen soda went flying.

Of course our little dog, MaPas enjoyed helping with the cleanup.

A closer look at the carton shows you clearly the devastating power of a POed frozen pop….

Notice the type of soda it was.  The Squirts and the Sprites can handle the cold, but not the Diet Coke…wimpy?….Or perhaps the others have more “Fat” to keep them warmer?

That was a pretty good little explosion.  I’m real glad it doesn’t happen to my kind of drinks.

I brought all of the cartons inside so the mess will be contained better.  It’s pretty cold outside folks!

Bears Butt

Jan. 13, 2013

I have been asked by the United Wildlife Cooperative (a non profit organization) to head up the volunteers at the UWC/UDWR/KSL Outdoors ice fishing day at Strawberry Reservoir on January 26 of this year.

I need volunteers who are willing to help show kids who may or may not have ever fished in their lives, how to catch a fish through the ice.

Volunteers need to have the necessary ice fishing equipment and be willing to share a pole or two with a couple of kids.

The UWC is working on getting kids through local Boys and Girls Clubs to be in attendance.

Last year we had a very good time and I believe there were about 30 kids that came to play.

There are a ton of give-a-way prizes for everyone.  There will be free food and demonstrations by the Utah DWR on ice safety and other things.

Please contact me and become a volunteer!

Thanks!

Bears Butt

Jan. 13, 2013

Yesterday was a full day of riding the toy and moving snow.  I got it all done and was making a few passes along the roadway back to the wood shed, just in case we need to drive back there.  One pass was remaining to get done when I heard the snow plow hit the ground with a thud!

What was that?  I climbed off the toy and could see the blade resting solidly against the ground and the handle was in the up position.  What the heck?  I climbed back on the machine and by pushing back real hard against the lift lever I was able to get the blade somewhat off the ground.  Enough so to allow me to drive slowly around and into the garage for a lookysee.

In the garage I could not see anything that could stop the blade from being raised enough to clear the ground.  I figured the cable must have stretched and so I removed the blade from the toy.  I detached an adjustment arm and gave it a couple of tightening cranks and then put it back together.

Back on the toy the blade would raise about an inch higher than it did before.  I shrugged my shoulders and headed for the barn with the toy and blade.  As I attempted to turn so I could back into the wood shed, the blade hit the grass and I was stopped immediately.  Dang it!

I did a 59 point turn and got turned around to head back to the garage.  Then I noticed a feeling in the steering that something wasn’t right with one of my tires.  I dismounted and took a look under the fender…..The right shock had busted off at the bottom mount and was resting against the inside of the tire!

For those of you following my posts for the past several months, this same thing happened to the left front shock back in May!  What’s with these Yamaha shocks?

Back inside the house I called the closest Yamaha toy dealer and they informed me that shocks never break and so they don’t carry them in stock.  But they could order a pair at $115 each!  Nevermind!  I’ll look on ebay.  Ebay was where I bought the one for the left side.  Surely that same seller still has the one for the right side…especially since “Shocks never break”!

Well, he didn’t have it, so someone else must have broken a shock.  I did finally find a Pair of shocks for $59, used, but the picture makes them look pretty good and since shocks never break, I should not have a problem with them when I put them on next week.

So, if any of you are on my “give me time, I’ll get to your snow as soon as I can” list, sorry!  I’m out of business for at least a week.  Hope it doesn’t snow.

Bears Butt

Jan. 12, 2013

As I look out the window from my nice warm home I have decided that tomorrow I will be pushing snow with the toy.  That means at least 4 hours of my day will be used up and depending on the depth of the snow it might take longer than that.

However, I would rather have to use my whole day up moving the snow from the neighborhood than driving to work in it.

Without a doubt, this is the biggest snow storm of the year so far and even though they have been telling us it was coming for two days, when it finally gets here it’s just not a fun thing to see.

With it comes moving it so we can get around with our vehicles, but it also might lead to the need to feed animals.  Time will tell on that one.  But at least we have our warm homes to stay secure in.

Speaking of which, as I was about to head for bed last night, I looked outside and up toward the mountain and saw a bright flashlight about half way up the red rocks near the South waterfall.  That was an odd thing to be seeing at 10 p.m.  on a very cold winter night.  I told Sherry to go on and head for bed and that I was going to call the sheriff’s office.

Dispatch answered and I said, “This is not an emergency as far as I am concerned, but my name is Bears Butt (not really, I told her my real name) and I’m from Willard and I can see a flashlight up in the canyon about half way up the red rocks.  Someone might be stranded or in some trouble way up there.  I’m just calling to make you aware.”  She responded, “We have men in the area, thank you for calling”.

HMMMM.  I wonder what was going on?

So, with all the snow coming down here we just might lose our power and so as not to disappoint those of you reading this site and ruining you day tomorrow 😉 I’m posting this up tonight as I might not be able to post anything in the morning.  I hope your day is a wonderful one!  Hot coffee is going to be the order of the day tomorrow!

Bears Butt

Jan. 11, 2013

Today I would like to introduce you to “Excellent Service” from one of the companies listed on the right side of this page.  Go ahead, scroll down past all the categories and the archives listed to a heading called “Blog Roll”.  Those are listings of companies I have personally dealt with and who also have a website of their own.

I have listed them because of various reasons and one of the most important to me is the Service and/or Product they have provided or delivered.  Both must meet some pretty stringent requirements on my behalf otherwise they would not be listed there.

So as not to be taken wrongly, there are other companies out there that provide the same services/products and do as good or perhaps better than these I have listed, but I have yet to discover them and when I do, I will include them as well.  But, why I’m writing today is about one of these listed.

Whenever I find a good, honest, reputable company, I will personally continue to frequent their establishment and I will continue to honor them by letting others know just how good they are at whatever they are in business to do.  My oldest brother “Just Bob” needed some work done on his truck.  It had a hard time starting.  Click.  Click.  Click.  Click.  Click. Click. Click…Vrooooom!  Finally it would start.  To the novice (me, him, others who don’t know much of anything about mechanics), it must be the starter solenoid or worse, the starter itself.

One always thinks of the worst of the worst when something like this happens.  A quick check at the local auto parts place, a tester put on the trucks computer to determine the issue and $150 later and new battery is in place.  The tester gives out some sort of code number to tell the trained user just what is wrong.  Is the tester perfect?  Nope.  What it does is give a code number that when referenced back to the “code book”, points to several things that could be the issue.  In this case, battery, solenoid, starter motor, ignition key, computer relay of some sort and the list goes on.

So the “trained technician” at the auto parts place, who by the way just graduated from “know it all auto mechanics and coffee shop” and got excellent grades in all categories, says the most likely thing wrong with your truck Mr. Just Bob, is your battery is not putting out enough voltage for the solenoid to engage and turn over the starter motor.  You need one of these Platinum batteries, with 750,000 cold cranking amps and a 3 year full replacement guarantee, to replace your piece of junk worn out old battery you bought last year.  Only $150!

Ok, so enough beating up the auto parts guys and place.  Did the battery fix Just Bob’s problem…nope.

Just Bob calls me up, “Where is the place you always take your cars”?  My answer is “Woodruff Auto Service!  Why, do you have a car problem”?  “Yes, my truck won’t start and it’s almost trapping season.  I need a reliable truck to go trapping.  What is their number and where are they located?”

Woodruff Auto Service

801- 782-6294

3896 N. Hwy 89, Pleasant View, Utah

I follow Just Bob down to Woodys (that’s what the owner is called, sort of the Bears Butt of the auto mechanic world) and we drop off his truck and head back home.

The next day rolls around and Just Bob calls me up and says…”Bears Butt (not exactly what he called me) you saved me a whole lot of money by telling me about Woodruff Auto Service, my trucks problem is just loose terminal connectors.  All they have to do is clean and tighten them and I’ll be good to go”!

Now folks THAT is GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE right there!  They could have put in a new starter and charged him $380, plus labor and he would not have known any difference!  There are a ton of things they could have done and his truck would not have started any better than it does right now with only the terminals cleaned and tightened.

Trust me when I say, I personally have had the same thing happen to my vehicles when dealing with Woody and the gang.  If you want a testimony about my cars just ask.  I have several!

So, for you folks living in and around the Ogden area and need some auto machanic work or maybe even just a state inspection…check out Woodruff Auto Service….Oh and tell them Bears Butt sent you.  When you do be prepared to duck, because they just might throw something at you.

Bears Butt

Jan. 10, 2013