Catchin up

It has been a long time since my last blog, so let's see what has been happening.

First, I have pretty much finished the USS Constitution. There are some tweaks that I might get around to sometime, but I am ready to start on something else.

Constitution trivia: the real Constitution is going into dry dock in 2015 for a 3-year overhaul. They will re-copper her hull, and do some major work on the bow and stern - hopefully to get her closer to the way she looked in 1812. They will also be doing some inspections and repairs as needed.













We have gone on several adventures in the last couple of months.  In October JoAnne and I flew to San Antonio for her Fall break, and drove out again for Thanksgiving. See Vanessa's blog for details about both trips since I don't know when we will get our blogs up to date on those trips. I did get one picture from the flight to San Antonio that I liked. I took it right after taking off from Greenville-Spartanburg airport.

So my next project (which is going very slowly) is the British tea clipper Cutty Sark. Built on the Clyde in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of design development which halted as sailing ships gave way to steam propulsion. Unlike Constitution which was made entirely of wood, Cutty Sark has an iron frame with wood planking and decking. She is preserved in Greenwich, England. She was recorded as going 17.5 knots which is faster than most of the steamships that replaced her. But she could not use the newly constructed Suez canal so the steamships could make the trip from Shanghai to London quicker. She was used for many years to haul wool from Australia, and spent some time under the Portuguese flag as a tramp cargo ship, then returned to England as a training vessel.  She is now in permanent dry dock for display as a museum ship.

Cutty Sark in Greenwich 1987

The model was a gift for Christmas last year. They don't make the kit anymore so my kids found one on eBay. It is one of the original 1959 versions. The model is in good shape. The decals may be a problem, but I scanned them so I can make new ones if I need to.

I have just started painting the hull. Here you can see the white stripe on both sides, and the copper bottom on the on the starboard side (both sides have been "coppered" now). I also have gotten the decks mostly painted.

 It is a busy time of year so this is going very slowly, but maybe I can get a little more motivated.

Family History - Outside the Box and Into the Oven

Kingdom of Bohemia
Coat of Arms

These past few weeks JoAnne and I have been working towards setting up our ward's participation in the church's pilot Billion Graves projects (program to be rolled out to the US, Canada, and Australia in 2015) I have spent some time thinking about families, and relationships we have to our ancestors. Then I read an article by Nelda McAllister, a Latina member for the church from Columbia, and her struggles to maintain her cultural ties to her home country despite innocent ignorance about her background by well meaning people around her. (Hint: Columbia is not Mexico...or Cuba or Argentina for that matter.) In it she described her efforts to keep her connections to her Raza (race) alive, much as those of us with pioneer heritage do every July.

I got to thinking about my own cultural background. I have ancestors from England, Bohemia (Czech Republic now) Denmark, Switzerland, among others. Other than the English heritage that many Americans have inherited from our nation's ties back to England, I know very little about my cultural heritage.

Grandma Turek's kitchen in Hatch

Then I remembered a pastry my Grandma Turek used to make, and the story behind it. Born in Utah, her ancestry was English and Danish, but my Grandpa Turek was born in Nebraska to emigrants from Bohemia, and grew up speaking "Bohunk." He came out to Utah in the 1930s working for the Union Pacific Railroad Utah Parks Company helping to build a water pumping station and power plant in the bottom of the Grand Canyon to supply the then-under-construction lodge and cabins on the north rim. That is where he met my grandmother. After they were married, she went out to Nebraska to meet his family. One the things she learned from my Great-Grandmother was to make kolache (singular kolach), a pastry filled with fruit or poppy seeds. (If you see a "kolach" advertised with meat in it, it is technically klobasniky and was invented by Czech immigrants in Texas. Just FYI)

My grandmother passed away years ago and I was afraid that this link to my Czech past may be lost. I called my dad, who happened to be staying at my grandmothers house in Hatch, Utah to see if there was a cookbook or recipe card at the house. Is answer did not surprise me that grandma usually cooked from memory and there was no recipe at the house. But he did say he would check with his brothers to see if any of them had the recipe.  Uncle Wynn and Aunt Shauna in Washington, Utah came through with Grandma's recipe. (Note the assumption that we all know how to make "sweet dough!" JoAnne thinks the yeast pastry she uses for her Christmas "candy cane" pastry should work just fine). While other fruit fillings could be used, this is how Grandma Turek made kolache as passed on from Great-grandmother Turek of Plzen, Bohemia.

Kolach Recipe

Ingredients: Sweet dough, dry cottage cheese (if unavailable you can use 4% large 
curd from Wal Mart, cinnamon, raisins, sugar, eggs.

Mixing the ingredients: If dry cottage cheese is available place it in a bowl (24 oz 
carton will make about two dozen kolache) If dry cottage cheese is not available 
empty the contents of a 24 oz 4% large curd carton of cottage cheese into a 
strainer where it can be washed with cold water and get the milk out of the chunks. 
After drying for a short time place the washed cottage cheese in a bowl which will 
allow you to mix the following in it. There is not a set amount of cinnamon, sugar, 
or raisins (put in as many raisins as you would like) that I mix in the cottage cheese. 
I generally put about three heaped up table spoons of sugar in the mix along with 
about 1/2 tea spoon of cinnamon. After mixing the cottage cheese, sugar, and 
cinnamon good, I taste the mixture to see how it tastes. I then add an ingredient if it 
seems to need more. You will want the mixture to taste quite sweet because some 
of the sweetness is lost in the dough as it bakes. 

After getting the taste right, mix the raisins and two whole eggs in the mixture. After the dough is prepared and can be rolled out in a thin layer, cut the dough into about 4 inch squares and place a spoon full of filling on the dough, and then bring the 4 corners of the dough together at the top of the filling and get them to stick together. Place the dough filled with your mixture in a baking pan and let them raise for a few minutes. When the dough is raised enough bake kolache at 350 degrees F in the oven until it is golden brown.

Grandpa Edward F Turek
and Grandma Julia Marie Huntington

Great-grandma Marie Houska Turek

An Adventure Out West - Part 4: The Weekend

Saturday morning, Peter, Paul and Rex (their father) all wanted to go golfing. (Brent says the Cedar City golf course is a great place to get a hole in one because of all the prairie dog holes in it. Sure enough, Peter landed in one.)  Julie and Kylie wanted to go for a hike, but Kira didn't bring any hiking shoes. So Kira, Jessi and I decided to go over to Hatch for the morning. Dad was going over there to spend the week. We would go help him open up the house and visit for a while. Dad texted us that he was leaving at about 0845. We didn't get out until nearly 0910. We tried calling him to see if he was still getting groceries. The call rolled to voicemail, so we figured he was already on his way over the mountain and was in one of the several cell phone black holes. So we started over the mountain ourselves.  Even though the leaves were out in Cedar, we didn't get very far up the mountain to the point they were not. Up on top, at the meadows at the Cedar Breaks turn off, there was still a little snow. (A week later there would be a lot of snow with a storm that dumped about 4-5 inches on Cedar City while Kira was there.) We stopped to take a couple of pictures. (Temps in Cedar during the day were in the 80s)

Meadows on Cedar Mountain - Over 9000 feet elevation

We continued our drive to Hatch, noting that things were pretty dry.

When we got to Hatch, Dad wasn't there!  Jessi was bummed because she brought her cross stitch project to work on and forgot the pattern. So we drove over to the church where we could get a  wi-fi connection so she could download it to her tablet. Then we went back to the house, planning on taking a short walk to the river. About that time, Dad drove up. His cell phone had accidentally gotten turned off which is why we could not reach him. We took his stuff in, and helped turn on the water and get him settled in. Then we just sat around and listened to him tell stories about family and stuff. Jessi had the presence of mind to get her phone out and record part of that conversation. That changed the tone for the rest of the trip. Kira took a bunch of pictures of the inside of the house at Hatch. It is pretty much the way it was when Grandma lived there.

"TV" room

Kitchen

Kitchen

There is something familiar here!

Christmas ca.1958

May 3 2014

We had to leave Hatch in time to meet Peter, Rex and Julie (and company) for a BBQ in Cedar City. But Elijah made us make one stop on the way (Malachi 4:5-6). We stopped to take some pictures at the Cedar City Cemetery on the way out of town. (These pictures will or have already been added to familysearch.org)

Grandma and Grandpa Turek

Aunt Eileen and Uncle Vince

Aunt Kay

Cemetery view

Great-great Grandma and Grandpa Barnhurst

Great Aunt Lucille and Uncle Wiley

Kira plans on going back to Hatch to get some stories and histories from Grandpa as a project we came up with on this trip.

Meanwhile, back in Cedar, Peter's family was preparing a picnic for us all. We met them at the mouth of Cedar Canyon, at Canyon Park.

We ate hamburgers and hot dogs, and had a good time. We played bocce. Peter calls it Italian field curling. So I didn't know the proper terms, so I will make them up (then give you a web site where you can get the official version - mine is more entertaining.) One team take a small yellow ball I call the snitch and tosses it out a piece. Then they take the first of their larger balls (the quaffle) to see how close they can get to the snitch. Then the other team throws their first quaffle. Which ever team is not closest to the snitch continues to throw their quaffles until all are thrown. (You can use your quaffle as a bludger to knock the opposing teams balls away from the snitch.) The team closest to the snitch at the end scores points. (For real rules, go here.)

That evening we went (singing the soundtrack to Frozen at the top of our lungs) to Paul and Kylie's house for pizza, then went to our new favorite ice cream place, The Fix. The ice cream was really good, but the service was terrific. When we went in, Paul and Rex wanted banana cream ice cream, but they didn't have any out. When they asked, the manager said, "Let me look" and went back into the back. When we came out, he told us he had the stuff to make if and would whip up a batch for us. Everyone got what they wanted, but Kira didn't see a flavor that she wanted. When the manager saw everyone had ice cream except her he asked her what was wrong. She told him. He then asked what flavor she wanted so he would have it next time. She said peanut butter. He said, "Oh! We have that!" and went and got it for her AND DIDN'T CHARGE HER FOR IT! On the way out, I asked if by chance he carried pistachio (I was perfectly happy with the chocolate chip mint I had) and he said, "Sure" and went and brought me out a small cup of it.  So if you are in Cedar City and want ice cream, go to:

The Fix

1760 North Main

Again that evening we stayed up too late talking.

Sunday, we went to church at PB&J's ward. Even though it was fast Sunday, Jessi and Peter sang a special muscial number. I actually took the time to bare my testimony. We got to meet a couple that had just moved there from Greenville. After church and lunch of leftovers, it was time for Jessi and Peter to pack up to go to Salt Lake for the summer. Peter will be working as a manager trainee at Cafe Zupas, and Jessi is an intern at the Chruch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints data center. Rex and Julie took some of their stuff in their car, and we packed up the rest in the Accord. Mid afternoon, Kira and I were on our way back to Vegas, and PB&J were on their way to SLC. I was sad to go, but with everyone leaving there was no reason to stay, plus I don't think Renee would pay me for ever long if I stayed! 

On our way home, I took Kira down to Moapa Valley (Logandale and Overton, Nevada). We stopped at the cemetery where my Grandpa and Grandma Leavitt are buried. I don't think I had been to the cemetery since the mid-60s. The valley has grown so much that I was having a hard time finding it. We drove past the old high school and the house Mom, Mike, Sherri and I lived in while waiting to go to the Philippines to join Dad in 1970-71. We also drove past Grandma Leavitt's old house.

Grandma and Grandpa Leavitt

Aunt Verna and Uncle Grant
(Uncle Grant sealed JoAnne and me at St George Temple)

Monday, Kira went back to work and I hung out with Aunt Kelly. I joined Kira for lunch at Cafe Rio (last of my pick list of places to eat along with Cafe Zupas and All American Classic Diner). I picked her up after work and we went to Krispy Kreme for donuts. 

Kira's School

Tuesday morning about 0500, Kira dropped me off at the airport for my trip home. The trip was exactly like it was supposed to be, which was a nice change from the trip out. I was pre-checked with TSA so I didn't have to get computer out or take off shoes. Flights all left on time and arrived on time. USO was open in Houston so I didn't even have to buy anything to eat. Only remarkable thing on the trip home was the plane that took me from Houston to GSP, was one of Southwest's special livery airplanes - Maryland One.

Maryland One - my ride home

Arrived at GSP on time, picked up my bag, and the Passport and headed home. Only glitch was traffic on I-85 was a parking lot right at GSP, but it opened up after about 2 miles. (Have I ever mentioned I hate I-85?)

GSP from the air

Trip started off "not so good" but ended up great. Only regret was the JoAnne couldn't go with me. I really enjoyed my time with Peter and his family, and especially with my girls.

An Adventure Out West - Part 3: Graduation Day

Friday, 2 May was graduation day for Peter who was getting his bachelors degree in Economics and Psychology.  We had to get him on campus by 0830 for the (new) traditional processional under the clock tower to the Centrum (Colosseum). (The tradition is that new freshmen walk under the tower from west to east when they start at Southern Utah University (SUU) then avoid walking under the tower until they graduate - this time walking east to west.) After dropping off Peter, we went to Uncle Brent's house to pick up dad. He had his handicapped parking tag, so we didn't have problem getting a place to park. He went on in to find a seat while we waited for the processional. Led by the faculty and drums and bagpipes, the graduates walked down, by school, to the Centrum.

Faculty lines the walkway while pipes and drums play in background

Peter in processional

Peter, and his brother Paul (who was getting his masters degree in accounting) both participated. After they went by we all went into the Centrum Special Events Center for commencement. Ann Romney gave the commencement address. She gave a good speech  and made eight points:  "1) Your friends at Southern Utah University will last a lifetime; 2) If you want to get ahead, if you want to achieve success, do someone a favor; 3) Do your present job well; 4) Parenting is probably the most important thing you'll do in life and the hardest; 5) Don't judge other people, and don't judge yourself as the only one passing through problems; 6) Live a purpose driven life; 7) Do something you love every day; 8) The Bible works, so do what it says." (from SUU website)

Ann Romney
Photo from http://suualumni.blogspot.com/2014/05/commencement-2014.html

After commencement, we all went over to this mom-and-pop restaurant that PB&J (Peter Brunett and Jessi for the uninitiated!) found last semester called the All American Classic Diner. Food was great and portions ridiculously huge!

After lunch, we took dad back to Brent's house. At 1430 we were back at the Centrum for the School of Business Convocation, where both Peter and Paul walked to get their diploma (holders.) Real diplomas are actually mailed later. Jessi used all the good pictures of Convocation, so see them at Jessi's blog. Afterwards we went to the rotunda in the student center, then outside for pictures. Here are a couple that I took in addition to Jessi's. (Some are a little fuzzy.)

Jessi and Kira at convocation

Kira and Jessi in rotundra

Taking traditional pictures

The Diploma (holder)

Afterwards, we went to PB&J's apartment where Peter opened his graduation gifts. His big gift from Jessi, Peter's parents, and JoAnne and I, was a new hybrid laptop (can be used as a laptop or a tablet - runs Windows 8.1) We all went over to Chili's for supper. After supper, PB&J and Peter's family went back to the apartment to play an SUU version of Monopoly, while Kira and I went over to Brent and Lynn's house to visit with them and Dad. We heard lots of stories about the early days of BAC/SUSC/SUU and family, too. We went back to PB&J's apartment around 2100 just as Julie (Peter's mom) was finishing up beating Jessi at Monopoly (everyone else was already out of the game.) That night after everyone left, Jessi, Kira and I stayed up way too late just visiting.

An Adventure Out West - Part 2: Vegas

Wednesday night/Thursday morning sleep was pretty short. The time change helped a little. I went to bed at 0520 Eastern DT, but that was only 0220 Pacific time. Kira had offered to come bring me her car at lunch time so I could sleep in, but I knew my body wasn't going to fooled by a little airplane ride, and sure enough I was up before 0700 PDT. Thursday is still a little fuzzy on the details. I took Kira to work, then went to visit with Dad for about an hour. He was leaving at about 1000 to go to Cedar City by way of Washington Utah for the graduation. After the visit, I had to do a little shopping. I needed to get something for both Kira and Jessi. Jessi was easy (Chromecast device), but Kira was a little complicated. I was looking for a Sodastream machine. She had been using her mothers machine the week she was in Rock Hill with me and really liked it. It was to be an early birthday present. The machine was easy. Both Walmart and Target had them. I was having some problems finding the syrup flavors she liked. Also no one had the half-liter bottles, just the 1L ones. I decided to think about it.

At lunch time, I picked up Kira at her school and we went to the first restaurant on my "pick list", Cafe Zupas. I had what she had, a  TBA (turkey, bacon, and avacado sandwich) and a red raspberry spinach salad.

I took Kira back to work. (Now after Kira reads this there may be some minor corrections - see remark above about being fuzzy!) I went back to Mike and Kelly's place and crashed. Sometime that afternoon I went and picked up the SodaStream for Kira. Dad called me from Washington saying he had forgotten his temple bag and asked if we could pick it up for him. Not a problem. Kira had packed all of her stuff so I loaded her stuff and mine in the car and made sure we had a full tank of gas. At 1800 I picked her up at her school and off we went.

Because we had a late lunch we decided we would wait to eat when we got to Mesquite. We swung by Grandpa's house and picked up the bag, headed out Nellis and on to I-15. We did grab a hamberger in Mesquite. Only issue with the trip to Cedar City was construction on I-15 in the Virgin River Gorge. They were working on some of the bridges and had it down to one lane each direction. So we had a 2-3 mile stretch at about 35mph, but other than that no problems. We got to Cedar a little after 2200.