Atticus the Giant Invades Yuba City!

So Michelle and Atticus arrived this morning and this evening we decided to build a fire and roast hot dogs for dinner. It was pretty cool (down right cold this morning), and windy all day, so the fire idea appealed to everyone - except Michelle, who just came from snow falling in Idaho and thought the 55 degrees here was balmy.

Below you see Atticus getting his fill of a teething ring, and the fire we made for the dogs (not the one you see in the photo, the ones we ate).

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A little later, after we had eaten and were enjoying the waning light of the sun along with the lowering warmth of the fire, Mom and Shelly hammed it up for the camera. Atticus is just chillin' - being Atticus.

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Wheatland Chapel Groundbreaking

We finally broke ground today for the newest building in our stake. We have tried to get another chapel in the southern portion of the stake since the days of the previous stake president. For years there was a great deal of growth in the area south of Olivehurst (called Plumas Lake) and Wheatland. There were some issues with the Army Corps of Engineers and wetlands mitigation, but after asking our Congressman (the Honorable Wally Herger, a good friend of my Dad, a member of the Church, and former resident of the Wheatland Ward in the Rio Oso area). He made things happen! So anyway, today we started, and in 11 months time we should have it done. Below is the architect's drawing (enhanced with colored pencil by me).

(The mountains in the drawing is the artist's assumption that the chapel will be built along the Wasatch front. We have no such elevations in the flood plain at the confluence of the two rivers that come together in Wheatland. A lot of people thought it was funny to see it there)

Here are a couple of photos of the crowd (we tried to keep this a small occasion in favor a bigger deal with the media and civic officials at the dedication). We had 75-80 people as seen on the left. After some of us officious types dug in the dirt, we turned it over to kids and others to have their turn. It was pretty fun - and a very good event.

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The photo on the left is of the property with a new drainage ditch already in place. The one on the right shows "the Man in the Panama Hat" talking to one of the former bishops of the ward. If you look carefully you can also see the hat in the photo above on the left.

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The Night Sky

This was a rather interesting weekend, weather-wise. It was cloudy and cool yesterday (which is odd for this time of year), and today was very cloudy. But this evening was a very different looking sky. It was just beautiful. Really, the photo below doesn't do it justice, but may give you some idea what we enjoyed Sunday evening.

The Lucy Show

One of the things Melody was looking forward to at the fair was this re-enactment they were doing (with people from the audience) of the 2nd most popular I Love Lucy show ever (after the Vita-meata-vega-mine episode). The Candy Wrapping episode. The studio actually went to the See's Candy factory to watch how it was done before creating the scene on TV. Melody even thought about volunteering to do the wrapping, but didn't get chosen. It was pretty funny - and the old gal with the flaming red hair did a great job of being Lucy. Enjoy.

Metal Man

I liked this non-hairy "pot"ter in the Art Expo.

(That's a brush, not hair on his top.)

Do I Know You?

Here are two portraits - not from the Art Exhibit, but from the Candy Display. Many of you have seen the cool Jelly Belly jelly bean pictures at their factory down here in Fairfield. The bear on the left is our famous "governator" and the bear on the right is one that they were working on at the fair. Click on it to see the detail in an enlarged version.

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Not so modern vehicles

Below are two of the odd vehicles they had on display at the fair. The one on the left is called a "snow mobile" and isn't too creative. But the one on the right is something else! I have a video of it being put through it's paces back in the 30's. Very impressive. It may be hard to see, but the two pontoons have threads like a screw. You can probably see the video on YouTube.

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Pretty Fair Art

One of the places I like to visit every year at the State Fair is the Art Pavilion. Most years there's a lot of junk and a few fun and interesting things. My favorites are usually the metal sculptures. This year, however, was an outstanding exhibit! Some very good paintings, photography, and sculpture. I really like the love-bird skeletons below (check out the name of the magazine on the table).

What's that?

These are actually bicycles. Pretty cool. They had a nice exhibit with various odd cars and some extremely weird cycles. Batman was cool, but I liked the guitar/amp bike the best.

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Animal Fair

We saw some interesting animals at the fair and each of us chose which one we would be photographed with. . . Not really, these two pic's were just kind of funny.

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