23º--40º

Looks like a foggy day in Joseph, at least for the morning...Not much snow in the forecast so a "White Christmas" is looking a little iffy.

Yesterday I walked to the postoffice with manilla envelopes, containing Christmas letter and photos for my sisters Loraine and Barbara...Also one for neighbors in Utah where we lived nearly forty years ago...Which brings to mind---

In 1966 Herb was transferred by the Forest Service to Duchesne, (Du sha.ne) Utah...We had been married for five years, he was thirty, I twenty four..."Bobbi Jo" was four and "Rusty" was one year old...We hired a Uhaul van and with the help of friends and family loaded it and our Volkswagon bus for the move of 500+ miles...We had communicated via snail mail (only available back then) with the FS Ranger that he would work for, when we arrived there...Forest Service housing was available and we had a pencil drawing of the house plan...It was very similar to the basic three-bedroom home that we were moving out of...Major drawback it was on the main highway forty headed to Denver, Colorado...Not the best when you have two toddlers...We would manage...Bobbi Jo and Dog, Pooh perched in the Van with her Dad and I had Rusty and Blanchie, my niece in the VW Bus... Blanchie had been visiting with Gramma and needed a ride back to Utah...She was a blessing in disguise and helped me with Rusty...Car seats for children had not been invented, seat belts just coming on the scene, so a bed had been made in the back of the van for sleeping on the trip...To be honest I don't remember much about this trip except stopping for the night in Ogden, Utah and Loraine meeting us there to get Blanchie...The next morning we proceeded on our way another one hundred fifty miles to Duchesne.

I was born and lived in Utah until I was eight years old but had never been to Duchesne... Sixty miles to the west of Duchesne we had lunch in scenic Heber City and pushed on the last sixty miles...The scenery changed as the land became more barren, with only cedars and junipers lining the road, as we dropped into the Duchesne valley... It was not a pretty sight...Almost treeless with barren flat topped hills on either side of the valley...I wondered, where is the forest?..Our new home was easy to find and the FS office only one block away...A small crew of men arrived almost immediately to help with the unloading and two girls Brenda, ten and Beverly eight (from next door) arrived on our doorstep that evening...They were an almost constant presence in our household for the seven years we lived there...Check back for photos...More blogging material...Hugs...  OWAV:)