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

October 7th…National Frappe Day…I’m not much into sweet drinks but I looked up a couple of recipes on line and some of them don’t sound too bad.  One was made with liquor which is interesting.  But most of them are made with instant coffee and vary with ice cream or whipped cream, some with crushed ice and still others with cubed ice.  Chocolate seems to be the main ingredient besides coffee and there are all sorts of different glasses that people pour the mix into.  I guess it takes one to know one, but they call themselves “Frappers”.  There is even a Frapper Society and a website dedicated to Frappe stuff including t-shirts.

I think I will pass on this one, but if you are a frapper, go for it!  Enjoy your frappe and if you put liquor into yours, remember not to drink and drive!

Enjoy!

Bears Butt

Oct. 7, 2012

Here is the scene:

Four of us were riding our horses up the side of a sage brush hill, nearing the edge of a brush filled ravine.  We were hunting deer on this morning and the sun was up but not far.  The air was colder than on any other morning since we arrived for our hunting trip.

As we rode slowly up the side of the hill and approach the edge of the ravine we can see the other side of the brush, which is about 60 or so yards away.

Suddenly, we see two buck deer.  We scramble off our horses and grab our rifles.  It takes awhile to get the guns ready as we have to place a firing cap on the nipples of the rifles.  And in order to get a cap on the nipple, you have to cock the hammer back on the rifle.  One is quicker than the rest to get the cap on his gun and then suddenly knowledge of what to do next escapes him.  Buck fever some call it and almost anything can come from such fever.  He places his finger inside the trigger guard and pulls on the trigger.    BOOOOOMMM!

The two bucks are alerted to our presence by the sound of the rifle discharging and escape unharmed.

Looking amazed, the man who fired his rifle is beside himself as to his act.  His mouth is agape and looks at us without saying any words, but goes about reloading his muzzleloader in anticipation of perhaps getting another chance to shoot a buck on this day.

In the world of mountain men we all have a name that is attributed to some grand act we may have accomplished in our life, or some really unique thing we did or a series of unique acts we may have accomplished over a long period of time.  But more often than not our names come from some really dumb thing we did.

Help name this man.

Bears Butt

Oct. 6, 2012

SAFE FIREARM HANDLING
The rules of safe firearm handling are simple and must be followed at all times.
The following material is a composite from the National Rifle Association, the National
4-H Shooting Sports Development Committee and the Utah Hunter Education staff.
1. Treat each firearm like a loaded firearm.
Consider each firearm to be loaded and treat it accordingly, even if you just
unloaded it.
2. Always control the muzzle of your firearm.
You must decide what the safest available muzzle direction is and keep your
firearm pointed in that direction. Never point your firearm at yourself or
others.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
The natural instinct when picking up a firearm is to put your finger in the
trigger guard. DON’T! This could cause an accidental discharge if the gun is
loaded.
4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond.
Never point your firearm at something you do not intend to shoot.
Make sure you positively identify what you are shooting at and know what
lies in front of and beyond it.