50 miles of Boy Scout Camp

Last week Doug and Cody embarked on an adventure together to conquer the wilderness north of Richfield, Utah in the Boulder Mountains.  Doug went along as a leader, and a base camp mover.  They left on Monday morning at 6:30 and didn't get home until Saturday around noon.  Cody and his troop hiked about ten miles a day, give or take a few, but totaled 51 miles in all.  Doug and the other "non-hiking" leaders would get the boys on their way each day and move their camp to the next station where they would have dinner and camp for the night.  A lot of the terrain was steep and rough, but most of the boys hung in and made it the whole way.  To earn the 50 mile a-foot patch they had to carry their packs (30% of their own weight) including water, food, tents, sleeping bags, etc for the whole way.  Doug said Cody was a real trooper.  He never complained and was always the first one out in the morning and the first one back from the hike.  There were swarms of mosquitoes near the small lakes and they really liked Cody because he came back with tons of bites.  Doug hauled the canoes and the four wheeler up with him so the boys could pass off other merit badges too.  Cody and his friend Carsen Bjelland were always in the canoes Doug said. 

The convoy into to camps.  Dirt roads and lots of rocks. 



This was the scenery that they got to enjoy during their week.
This is Crater Lake, the first campsite.



The roads were for four-wheelin' vehicles.  Doug and the other leaders pulled loaded trailers
as far as they could.  Doug had to drop his trailer a few times in order to get to the campsite.

Monday night at Crater Lake.  Hamburgers and home-made
 fries for dinner for dinner.

What a nice place to camp!  The leaders that went were Donald Stratton,
Doug Beutler, Jeremy Green, Ken Cahoon, Jimmy Hall, Brad Winder, and
Jason Curtis.

A postcard picture.

Tuesday morning the boys are starting on their hike.

Wednesday they camped at "Big Lake".  Here Cody and Carsen
are putting a canoe into the water for an evening float.

Camp at Big Lake.

Cody shooting a black powder rifle.  Jason Curtis brought the
guns for the rifle shooting merit badge.

Wednesday morning leaving Big Lake.

Moving base camp from Big Lake to Spectacle Lake.  They had
to cross through a small pond  to get there.

Cody and Carsen in the canoe at Spectacle Lake.

The camp at Spectacle Lake had an old cabin with only 1/2 a
wood floor.  They thought it was pretty cool.  They stayed two nights
here because it was so difficult to move the base
camp on the rocky and narrow
roads. 

Thursday morning hitting the trail.  The base camp leaders stayed here
and took the opportunity to go on a four-wheeling ride while the boys
and hiking leaders were gone.

Donald Stratton coming through a very narrow part of the trail.
Doug says the trail was very difficult to maneuver the four wheelers through,
one of the hardest they had ridden.  They were able to see Rainbow Lakes.

Doug in front of one of the Rainbow Lakes  Very pretty!

Cody came back to base camp on Thursday and crawled into Dougs bed
and slept for FOUR hours.  He was exhausted.

To earn their wilderness survival merit badge the boys had to
build a shelter out of natural materials and sleep in it.  Cody and
Carsen built this one and said it was the warmest night they
had spent on the trip yet.  This is them the next morning.

This is a fuzzy picture of the boys coming in for the final time. 
They hiked 51 miles total.  Way to go! 



Friday night Jeremy Greens brother came up to retire a military flag
with the boys.  In order to retire a flag flown on a military base it has to be
done by a military personnel  so he supervised the boys doing it.



Cody, Cameron Green, Carsen Bjelland, and Kyle Crofts performed
the ceremony and they retired the flag by burning it.  Doug said that the
spirit was really strong and everyone had tears.  Sargent Green talked about
how the American Flag is the most known symbol in the world and we need to remember
those who did fight and continue to fight for our freedoms.  He related it to the Boy Scout,
and to the priesthood.  They all agreed it was a very moving experience.  After the ceremony
they all took a turn saying what the best part of the camp was, Cody said it was working/hiking with
everyone and how everyone got along. 

Cody and Doug were exhausted on Saturday when they got home, but happy with a great experience. Most of the boys earned between six and eight merit badges as well as their 50-mile-a-foot-patch.  Good job guys!

How does my garden grow?

For years I have been trying to grow a garden here in Southern Utah and for years I have called it my "obedience" garden because the blessings I have received by growing a garden here hasn't been in the form of vegetables, until this year.  I have tried to grow corn, green beans, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, Armenian cucumbers, and onions, all of which burn up in the sweltering summer heat.  Last year I managed to get a bumper crop of cucumbers and made A LOT of bread and butter pickles, but nothing else.  Corn and beans seam to be my most difficult vegetable to grow here, and I'm told it is because it is too hot for these produce items.  I am glad to report that this year I DID IT!  I grew, and harvested corn and a few green beans!  (See pictures below)  I must say, however, that I only have gotten about 15 green beans because my chickens have found them and are eating the leaves/beans.  The fact is though, that I produced some and that is something that I haven't been able to do before.  Today for lunch we are going to have corn on the cob, and for dinner, and for lunch tomorrow, etc.  There isn't enough to pull out the canning supplies and freeze the corn so I will have to order some for freezing when it is in season up north.  But for today it feels good to finally consume what I grew.   Yeah!!

Here is the corn, the left side is as tall as I am, the beans are growing
in between the corn rows, a tip I got from a Hurricane local to
help shade them from the sun.

We also grow large sunflowers in the garden to keep the
bugs down.  There are a bunch of bee's feasting on the nectar in
this one.

I never thought I would see the day I would have a sink full
of home grown corn.  :)

Dalyon enjoying the corn.  It tastes really sweet!  yum!

Here they are!  All the beans I have been able to harvest so far (thanks
to the chickens).  At least now I know I can grow beans here. 

Austin got this shirt last year, the back of it sums it all up.

I guess I can be an FFA girl now.  (Some of the girls at school
didn't think this was so funny, but he did).  

 My next hurdle is producing tomatoes.  Wish me luck!!

"There are two seasons at our house. . ."

The past two weeks along with our family reunion we have been busy with the beginning of canning season.  Mady told me "There are two seasons at our house, canning and non-canning."  I guess she is right because I got out the canning tools last week and the apricots are ready!  Our neighbor has a large apricot tree that was ready for picking when we got back from girls camp so we picked it clean on Saturday, but I wasn't able to get to them until the Wednesday before we went to our family reunion.  It was a marathon canning day.  We made apricot everything!!  I started with bottling 29 quarts of apricots because our home teacher brought me two more boxes in addition to the 3 buckets I already had.  Then we started on jam, syrup and leather.  It took us all day but we were able to knock out 42 pints of jam, 24 bottles of syrup, and 7 trays of leather.  Whew!  I couldn't have done it without everyones help!!  (And I wish I had pictures to show you!)

14 quarts of peaches from yesterday, 12 of the bottles of syrup, and
two of the boxes of jam.  I had put away the others before I thought to
take a picture of last weeks work.

This week I ordered two boxes of California peaches from Bountiful baskets and yesterday I got them bottled.  I only got 14 quarts out of two boxes because everyone kept eating them fresh.  They are the first of the season and they were so sweet and juicy .  I'm amazed I got the fourteen quarts!  Last year my mom and I did 120 quarts of peaches and they are almost gone.  Austin and Cody like to eat them right out of the jar, and save the juice for Doug.  They are great at eating them, and working on being great at the canning then.

And so it begins, according to Mady, the canning season. . .  . . .

The Sheldon Beutler Family Reunion 2011

One of the greatest traditions for our family is the annual Sheldon Beutler family reunion held in Dayton, Idaho every year.  It is a three or four day event held over the weekend of the Fourth of July.  All of Doug's brothers and sister and their families come and "camp" on Grandma and Grandpa's lawn and enjoy each others company.  Each year one of the kids is in charge and we take turns.  This year Doug's sister Katie was in charge and we all had a great time.  The favorite things to do at the reunion is to visit and catch up for the adults, and the kids ride their motorcycles, swim in the canal, and eat.  We usually pull up and unload and I don't see my kids again until mealtime.  The farm is a dream come true for our kids.  They all have cousins their age and they can't wait to see them.  The kids will bring their own tents and get with their cousins the same age and set up "camp" down in the fields or at the hollow.  This year all the little girls had their own tent on the lawn and had a great time!  NO PARENTS ALLOWED! That is what I was told when I went to check on them.  The girls are all between six and ten and there are six of them, including Cami (8), Sammy (8), Lilly (8), Addie (7), Haley (10) and Livvy (5).  Dalyon hangs out with Parker (10) Kyle (9) and Dawson (10) so they have a lot in common with cub scouts and school.  Cody hangs out with his cousins Bracken (12) and Tanner (13)  and they are old enough to take their tents down into the field and have "privacy from the girls", which is so important at this age I'm told. Mady (14) and McKenzie (14) are best friend and opted to stay in the house this year because we were short on tents, but it worked out great.  They texted each other on Thursday during our entire trip there.  Grandma said she had no question about how we were coming because she knew every stop we made.  Funny!   Austin (17), Chandler (15), and Brody (15) are the oldest of the grandkids and they started the tradition of taking a tent down into the hollow to get away from everyone.  When Austin was in the thick of Boy Scouts he would even take his mess kit down and cook their breakfasts for them.  They soon realised that what we were cooking up at the house tasted a lot better so they only sleep down there now.  It is a fun experience to camp off the four-wheelers ride them back up in the morning.  It is such a great time for all.  The adults enjoy visiting and playing with the girls and little Beutlers while the older kids ride motorcylces and fish at Grandpa's pond all day long.  There is always plenty of food to go around and Grandma makes sure there are enough treats to satisfy every ones sweet tooth.  Here are some of the pictures of the reunion.

Grandma's house.  She just redid the outside the week of the reunion.
It looks so good and she is so happy.  She has wanted to do this
for about 40 years she says (in tears of course).   This is the back
yard where we "camp".



This is the field behind the house.  At the end of the field is the hollow
where Grandpa's pond is and the round track I showed in an earlier post. 
You can also see the block letter "P" on the hill behind the farm.  That was my high school
class gift to the school and was improved by the class of 1998.  Go Preston  Indians!!

Aunt Katie made a neat sign for the pond this year.  She also spearheaded the
boys making benches and purchasing a Rubbermaid lockable storage bin for all the fishing
supplies so Grandpa doesn't have to tote the stuff up and down every time he goes to the pond.
Thanks Katie!!  Great job!



Three generations of Beutlers. . . . standing around.  I teased them that they needed
shovels to lean on.  Doug and Austin and some of the other boys spent the day Friday
cleaning the moss out of the pond and making the benches for the improvements.  They also
came up with the idea of a floating dock and made that from an old pontoon boat Mike had stored
up in  the barn.  Grandpa didn't know what Katie was planning and it was a great surprise for him.

Austin welding the floats for the floating dock.

Grandpa trying the dock out.

Grandma and Grandpa standing on the floating dock. 

Dalyon tied a worm into a knot while waiting for his turn to fish.

Here is (L to R) Austin, Brett, Logan, Katie, Grandpa and Grandma sitting on a
new bench watching the kids fish off the floating dock. 

One of the favorites is swimming in the canal.  It is cold water and the bottom is squishy, but
 few of the kids, or grownups for that matter, care.  It is fun to cool off and get muddy.   

 Parker and Addie found toads in the bank of the canal.  There were a whole bunch of them and all the kids got to hold one or two for a while. 


Mady and McKenzie using the knee board to play in the water.
Later they hooked it to a four-wheeler and pulled
each other up and down the canal. 




Aunt Joylyn walking Whitley up to the

 canal to see how it was going. 



Austin knee boarding down the canal pulled by a four-wheeler.
He could do all kinds of tricks, 360's and even stood up and
skied down the canal.  He took his turn pulling his cousins
up and down the canal too.  Super fun!



Austin is going to attempt standing on the knee board from
the side of the bridge.  It worked!  He skied all the way to the end!

One of the attractions to the reunion is the four-wheeling.  This is Dalyon riding our Rancher around.  He is learning and had a few close calls that caught our attention, but he learned from his mistakes and was a better rider after that.  He also learned to ride a 2-wheel motorcycle this year.



Cody and Doug mudboggin'.  Out to the side of the house is what we call the calf pasture.  With a little bit of water and a lot of speed you can really dig in and get dirty.  That is exactly what the boys (and older girls) do as soon as the bikes are off the trailer.  Even the "older" boys get in on the fun.  After we clean both boys and bikes off with the hose.

This is Cody getting squirted by Logan and his other cousins.  Cody and Logan
became best friends and Logan learned a lot of "things" from Cody, including
how to shoot the water gun.  Logan squirted Grandma right in the eye!  Good thing she
wears glasses. 

Doug took Cody and Mady out in Grandpa's jeep to teach them how to drive
a stick shift.  That made Grandpa nervous especially when Mady drove by and
ground the gears.  I don't think he purchased the jeep with that in mind. 

Doug, Grandpa, Austin and Cody took a drive up to Dayton Basin while I took
a nap in the hammock.  They picked me some very pretty wild flowers.  With all the rain
this year the wild flowers are abundant and beautiful.  (Although not my best picture.)

As you can see we had a great time!  None of us would miss it for anything.  For me it is a time to relax and enjoy myself.  I usually take a book and spend time under the big trees in a comfortable chair or in the hammock reading or sleeping and most of all visiting with some of the greatest people.  Family is so important to us and it is great to get together as often as we can.   

 We traveled home on the fourth of July and got here with plenty of time to unpack and watch the fireworks from the top of Thrill Hill behind our house (Austin hooked up with friends and watched them from the "H").  We were all satisfied and happy to have had such a great experience and grateful to Grandma and Grandpa and all our family for showing up and being such a great part of our experience this week!  We love you Beutlers!!

Doug's family (R to L)
Doug, Todd, Mike, Kerry
Grandma, Grandpa, Katie

The Grandkids
Haley, Olivia, Mady, Tanner, Brody, Kyle, Parker, Dalyon
Lilly, Sammy, Mackenzie, Dawson,
Cami, Chandler, Bracken, Logan, Addie, Whitley (in Austins arms), Austin, and Cody (hanging).

This is all of us.  What a great bunch! 

Girls Camp 2011

Mady and I had the pleasure of going to girls camp together this year.  It has been a long time for me, 17 years to be exact,  since I had the pleasure of going to girls camp for the whole time.  The last time was when we lived in Pocatello, Idaho and I was 22 and the ward camp director for the Pocatello 12th ward.  I had such a difficult time then because I didn't have any other leaders go with us.  It was just me and my youth leaders, and later found out that I was pregnant with Austin and suffered from morning sickness the whole time.  (I thought I had food poisoning because Doug and I had such a hard time getting pregnant. Funny huh.)  I swore I would never do that again, but 17 years and five kids later I decided to give it a go again, this time with lots of leaders and my darling daughter with me.  It turned out to be VERY fun, and a good time to share with Mady.  We decided this was a bucket list girls camp for me, and you will see why as you read on.

The theme for the Stake camp was "Mission Possible".  Each ward was called on a mission and we were called to Africa.  We made drums, shake sticks, wrappers and head pieces to wear, and lots of signs.  Here is our main sign and our first chant for roll call.  Twice a day all the wards gather for roll call and give some sort of chant, our first one was a rain dance from a tribe in Africa.  We really hoped it didn't actually bring rain, but it was really neat to listen to. 



This is Mady and her friend Rachel Nielson.  Having your hair done at camp is a great tradition.  Rachel already had hers done, and Mady fluffed hers up to match.  This was only the beginning of the fun. 



As part of the fun the stake leaders had some high adventure activities for the girls to do.  On day one we went to Kolob reservoir and paddled around in canoes.  My neighbor Cliff Barnum was the one in charge and we had a great time with him.  They let the leaders go out after all the girl had gone and Bobette Green and I had a very peaceful, serene time paddling around the lake until Mady and Rachel came along and splashed us.  Still, we got them back and kept the canoes upright.  The girls also did some certification at each high adventure station.

Mady and Rachel Colson getting out of their canoe ride.

Back at camp we had downtime so the girls painted their nails, made necklaces and bracelets out of beads, slept, and jumped rope.  We also practiced out skit for the following morning.  Our skit was a dance called the "WACAWACA" from Africa.  It was very fun and good exercise too! 

Mady (red shirt) and me (blue shirt) practicing the WACAWACA. 

Mady and Jessica Green

Mady and Jess playing the cup game. 
Jessica is so fast at it that her hand is
a blur. 

Braiding Cami Reynolds hair with Bobette
and Cathy Reynolds.

Here are all my beehive girls getting ready for the traditional "snipe" hunt.  Mady got
to lead them this year (she is in the back).  They have toothpaste under their eyes so the snipes
won't eat them.  Some have mustard on their noses for the same reason.  Our camp saying became "Snipes
are friends, not food".   They were all good sports about the whole thing. 

The next day we had our skits and lunch before we went to our high adventure activity, which was a rock wall climb and more certification.  The girls used pocket knives to whittle on a piece of wood and did a tug of war rope activity.  After everyone had gone they let the leaders try the wall.  I'm so proud to say that I made it to the top!!!  I didn't know if I could, and I'm so proud of Mady for doing the same. 


Me at the top.  The bell didn't ring, but you can see
it just above my head.  Woohoo! 

Mady and Rachel Colson were climbing together.
Look at them go! 



This pretty much sums up how we all felt after our adventure.  Bishop Dave and Bea took a nice moment, and few of the girls played pranks on them. 

Day three was hikes in the morning and more adventure stuff in the afternoon.  For our ward we made necklaces out of a quarter and zip lined.  I took a movie of Mady coming down the zip line, but it is too high a resolution to load onto this blog, but she did get a still shot of me coming down.  It was soooo fun! 

I nearly drug the ground, but made it non-the-less.  Wooohooo! 

That night the rest of the bishopric came up and after dinner the stake had prepared for us a walk with Christ that applied parts of the atonement into our physical lives.  They gave us each two hand sized rocks, which represented our burdens, to hold and not put down while we did the walk, then had us go to four different stations where a member of the Stake Camp leaders would teach us a concept, then have us do the obstacle to apply it.  One station was about helping each other, so after her story, two of us stood on a high table and lifted two others up, then they got down and the person on the table pulled the next person up onto the  table, then got down, all with our rocks in our hands.   The second station had a concept of balance, and the obstacle was to place wooden blocks under our shoes, like stilts, holding onto ropes that were thread through them, and walking over poles, up and hill and down the other side, and around tires.  It was very difficult with our rocks in our hands, and I found going up the hill difficult, but so did everyone else.  Our girls were good to cheer each other along the whole way.  The third station was about having faith in prayer, and the obstacle was to shimmy along two boards nailed into the ground facing a partner, keeping your rocks in your hands and your hands together until you reached the end.  The only trick was that the boards got further apart as you went, so you had to lean into each other and work together.  The fourth obstacle was a wood post path that you had to walk up while holding onto a rope above your head.  Wooden posts were placed in the ground several feet apart from each other and not any order. Holding onto the rope above was helpful until the others holding on leaned, and it pulled you off the steps.  It was so great to see all the girls cheering each other on, then coming back to cheer us along as the leaders did it too.  The final obstacle was a blindfold rope path that the girls were blindfolded and told to hold onto the rope to find the heart of Christ.  It was short but difficult with the rocks in their hands, and us leaders were there to help them all along the path.  After the obstacles we went up into the high meadow where the stakees had a life size picture of Christ where we were to drop our rocks(burdens) at his feet and go back for testimony meeting at our camp.  I think it took a while for the whole experience to sink in, but by Sunday the girls understood the significance of the Walk with Christ.  Our testimony meeting on Friday was nice, and everyone was so tired because it was so late that not many shared their testimony's, but it was still a nice way to end our camp experience. 
Saturday morning we were all up early and packed up ready to head home by eight o'clock.  It was so nice to have a shower and a nap.  I think my confidence in Girls Camp has been restored.  I'm grateful to have had a lot of other leaders and priesthood up there with us this time, and some fabulous girls there too!  Mostly, it was awesome for me to share it with Mady.  She is such a great daughter, and I enjoyed seeing her with her friends and how she is with the younger girls.  Everyone loves her, and I do to.  :)