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Show " ' • . > • • , -N 1 • ^ ' v " ^ Spanish Fork Precious grain Personalization Covering what matters most There and Back Again Shirlene R. Ottcsen Good-bye July and hello August! Now that the July 24 is past, it seems that summer is almost gone. The stores have been advertising their summer clearance sales for a while, but the big push now will be the annual back to school shopping. Stores already have huge supplies of pencils, note books, markers, colored pencils, crayons, backpacks and all kinds of clothing, shoes and other supplies. Here in our area, farmers are working in the second crop hay and others have started the grain harvest. The grain harvest is so interesting to me. Maybe it's because the grain harvest was so important to my grandparents. It meant feed for the animals and a plentiful supply of flour to the families. Years ago every farm had a granary. It was one of the most important out buildings. The goal of every fanner was to have the granary filled to capacity for the coming winter. Nowadays, mostly because of volume, probably all of the harvested grain is stored at local mills. If you take a good look around town, you will still see some old granary in a backyard of a home. A couple of years ago we relocated my parents' old granary in order to make room for a new shop. I remember how happy my dad was when he built the granary because it was the first building he built with all new lumber. Up until that time, sheds and corrals were made with whatever was available. Sheds were built from lumber from an unused or abandoned structure and then for the roof, a few timbers were laid across from side to side in a criss-cross fashion and then topped with tree limbs or branches with straw blown on top for the finished layer. This kind of roof served it's purpose, but if the straw layer was rather skimpy, it wasn't all that good when it got soaked with rain. Anyone milking a cow had to pick a place in the shed where the rain wasn't dripping through the straw. Grain was important because it was taken to a mill and traded for flour — our pioneer grandparents used lots of flour! My Grandma Roach baked eight loaves of bread every other day. That sounds like a lot of bread, but in those days the main stay of their meals was meat, potatoes, homemade jams, home canned fruits and bread. When there are 10 seated at the dinner table, a loaf of bread could disappear in a hurry. Of course, there were the pies made with lard and always a chocolate cake for Sunday dinner. In the history of one of Hy's grandparents, it tells how they had no granary to store their precious wheat and so they built a grain bin in one corner of their already too small log cabin. At night, they would put quilts on top of the grain and some of the older children would use it as their bed. The grain trucks are passing our home each day taking this life-sustaining grain to the mills. Now those trucks are another story. Every farmer has at least one, old, old, cattle truck that he uses for a grain truck. It used to be that farmers hauled cattle in trucks with a cattle bed on it, but in order to load the cattle, they had to use a loading chute. Now, farmers use stock trailers that are much lower to the ground. A trailer can be backed up into a corral and the cattle take a step up and they are in the trailer. Most loading chutes stand idle today. So, what happened to the old cattle trucks? They are taken out of standby service once a year to haul grain from the combine to the mill. Some look pretty good while others have seen better days. I looked at our truck that was parked in the yard the other day and noticed that there had been some damage- control on it. You know where the sides of the truck bed meets the floor of the truck — well, there were a few holes that had rusted out and so Paul or one of the boys had taken a can of that spray foam stuff and filled the holes so the grain couldn't drain out. Sometimes, you can follow a trail of grain from the field to the mill ,and that's not good. Some trucks look bad enough that you wonder if they are going to make the trip back home or not. I'm sure the folks at the mill get a chuckle now and then about these "vintage vehicles." So the next time you buy or make a loaf of bread, consider what has gone in to growing this wonderful and versatile grain that has been a part of this planet for centuries. Parting thought for the week: What happen's at Grandma's stays at Grandma's. PORTER'S HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING •Sales • Service All That Jazz Jazlyn Crandail If I were some kind of writing utensil, I'would be a crayon. And if I could pick what color of crayon I would be, that color would definitely be red-orange. Red is the color of dominance, of a quick temper and the color of a leader. Orange is spontaneous, fun-loving and happy. I think that both of those colors describe me. The hard thing about being a "red" is when you can't possibly be the leader of something. Take crosscountry for instance. I always wanted to be captain, but there were people who were more qualified than I who were placed in that position. Being a red person also stinks when you get a bunch of people following you around and asking too many questions. If there is one thing I don't like, it's answering too many questions. That's where the reds have to be careful ofv their pride. And boy, do I have a pride issue. One positive aspect of having the personality of a red color is the fact that you are able to make sound judgments and decisions in most situations. I love it when I wake up and I'm just a plain orange personality. That way, no one gets offended by you and you're stripped of pride. Jf you're prideful, you don't have much fun and that's that. Oranges like happiness and good times. What color are you? Are you a ,deep blue or the color of a sunrise? If you want to know, I would suggest going online and typing into a Yahoo! search: personality color. If you want a quiz instead of just reading the dominant features of certain hues, add "quiz" or "test" to your search keywords. Youth: From YOUTH • A2 sponsored tour of eastern church sites. They landed at the JFK airport and traveled to Rochester, NY. From there they visited Palmyra, the Sacred Grove, and the Hill Cumorah where they viewed the first evening of this year's pageant. Still in the area they traveled to Fayette to the Peter Whitmer farm and visitors' center. They visited Niagra Falls and traveled on to Kirtland, Ohio, where they saw the recently restored sites there and toured the Kirtland temple. They also visited the Morley farm and the John Johnson farm. The tour guides were excellent and gave the travelers great insight to each of the stops along the way. They returned home from Cincinnati, Ohio, having had a fast, but wonderful, trip. Joel and Maren Chandler and their family had the unsettling experience of having to be evacuated from the fire in Salt Creek Canyon between Nephi and Fountain Green. They were attending a family reunion and were camped in one of the camping grounds in the canyon when they were advisedtoleave immediately. That meant leaving their trailer which they supposed would be a casualty of the devastating fire. Happily, a few days later, they were informed their trailer had been spared and they were able to retrieve it. That's one reunion they will definitely v remember. ••• Bernice Woffinden has returned home after a three week stay with her daughter, Sharlene, in Paris, Idaho, where Sharlene works for the Idaho Extension Service. Bernice had theopportunity to bring out her 4-H leadership skills as she helped a local 4—H club sew pajamas prior to their sleep over. ••• Congratulations to Jim and Denise Bartholomew on the arrival of their first grandchild. The little girl was born on July 14, 2007, to Anthony Kent and Shari Anne Bartholomew Hunter. ••• Participating in the recent Utah County Fair held at Thanksgiving Point, were Jenna Anderson and Jody Lundell. Both girls showed market steers. ••• Thanks go to all the Primary children and their leaders who were in the Children's Parade on Saturday, July 21, as part of Spanish Fork's Fiesta Days. ••• Coming events include the Ward Summer Party for Benjamin 1st Ward scheduled for Wednesday, August 15, at the Benjamin Park. The supper will include hamburgers and hot dogs, and the trimmings and supplements by potluck from ward members. Benjamin 2nd Ward's Pool Party will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2007, with dinner at 5:30 p.m. ••• This week's question of 'where in Benjamin?' Which area seems to be busier than even the church? WEDNESbA^AUGLISTI, 2007 Voucher: From VOUCHER-A2 The legislation would protect government schools even further by setting aside $9.2million from the general fund to offset any negative impact schools might experience for five years after a student transfers to a private school. (The state spent nearly 10 times that amount to educate children of illegal aliens during the 2005-2006 school year.) Pioneers took risks, but under Utah's voucher law, there are no risks — not to students and not to schools. And given the superior test scores of students attending Utah's private schools, there isn't any risk either to parents who take their children out of government schools. Vouchers, however, do pose a threat to the power of the public school monopoly and the controlling authority of bureaucrats who fear parental agency. You don't need to be a straight-A student to figure out that despite all the propaganda by public school apologists, there's really only one thing at stake with vouchers — the power of the educational elite to compel the populace and control the funding. To paraphrase Gandalf the Grey: "There is only one lord of the purse strings, and he does not share power." If educational bureaucrats really believed in government schools and wanted what is best for children, they would have nothing to fear. They would accept competition, embrace parental involvement, and welcome the prospect of fewer students in public school classrooms. Instead, fearful for their fiefdom. they cower behind their monopoly, spreading ; lies about vouchers and contriving frightful scenarios to scare parents, who might venture off t h e public education plantation. ' Rather than fear the restoration of parental agency, we should fear the status quo, with its unchecked secularization and growing centralization. And rather than demonize parents who support vouchers, let's praise them as pioneers who want to do more for their children's education than bake cookies for the PTA. The eyes of the nation are on Utah. We can vote • yes on vouchers and blaze a trail through an educational desert that is increasingly barren (both academically and spiritually), or we can vote no and continue to grovel before a selfappointed pedagogical politburo, content with a system that does not and cannot meet the needs of all children. Do we really believe in agency, or is that something we espouse only on Sunday? Do we really believe in the admonition parents have been given "to bring up [their] children in light and truth," or do we suppose we can abdicate that heavenly directive to the government? Do we really believe Gordon B. Hinckley's warning regarding the ongoing "war between agency and compulsion," or do we think the outcome of that war won't affect the souls of our children? We'll find out come November. Michael Morris Spanish Fork LARRY D. VEST Associate Broker/BSB/ABR List or buy your home with the "VEST" realtor in Utah County. BONUS! Free truck to move (in-State only - three days max) 212 South Main • Spanish Fork Dance Connection Fall Registration MAIN PLAZA T**M* Downtown retail opportunity • Installation • Green Sticker • Financing OAC WHflTEVM IT TAKES' 798-1700 f Faintly! eg/n September 4th |