Seeding by helicopter.

Part of recovering from the fire includes reseeding the mountainside.

This is the base camp of the reseeding crew.  

You can see it is near Dave and Linda Shepherd's house. 

A close up shows the fuel truck and the trailer that hauls the seed spreader and straw nets. 

The mechanic is checking everything out before take off.  He said this is a
1964 model. The best model ever! It guzzles 80 gallons of fuel per hour.

He was super thorough.  The chopper comes back every 1 1/2

 hours to fuel and the mechanic checks it all out again. 

This is the seed spreader.  It holds 1100 pounds of a variety of grass seeds and works 

much like a HUGE broadcast spreader. It hangs underneath the helicopter when at work. 

The seeding process was completed 10/8/14, one 40 foot swath at a time.

This the the pilot getting ready to take off after fueling. (10/9/14) Notice the big net.  

He is now taking nets full of shredded straw and dropping it onto the seeded area.  

This stack of straw is small compared to the one in Nephi Canyon that is being used today.  (10/9/14)

ADDENDUM!

Malea wondered how they got the straw in the net soooo.......

.........first chance, Dad/Grandpa got some pictures. This is the straw shredding machine.

This the first still shot showing how the mountain of shredded straw gets into the net.

Still shot number 2 suggests it is just one load at a time.

Still shot number three.  Each net will hold three of these BIG fork loads.
  The turn-around time on the helicopter is about 7 minutes.
The group crew has to have the next net spread,
 loaded and ready to hook up when it returns.

The helicopter can pick up 3000 pounds of straw in each net.
So what happens if the net is too heavy?
 The pilot has to hover while the ground crew takes some of the straw out!

New Windows! 10/8/14

We got new vinyl windows on Oct. 8, 2014.  The following photos

 are among the very last taken with the old windows in the back ground.

 LUKE, ,LEIA, and KATIE. We decorated these pumpkins 

while the guys were at the Priesthood session of conference. 10/4/14

We also made these little paper witch shoes that hold candy. 

The installers were a bit late, but they finally arrived.  (10/8/14/)

Our new windows were tucked inside the trailer. 

Here's the entire installation crew:  Chris (inside) and James (outside). 

 Chris did all the hard work, and James did the technical stuff.

James has the new window in! 

 Looks great!  Clean, clear, quiet, excellent energy conservation rating, attractive.

Chris in the kitchen window above the stair case.  I was more nervous that he was. 

Chris tearing out the BIG kitchen window. 

Even without glass it's a picture window. :)

A similar shot with the new glass panels in. 

The new windows in back.  Frost on the inside of the windows should be history! 

Andrea's new window.

Nebo Loop Drive 9/28/14

Autumn in Utah doesn't look a lot different than summer in some places.

Many of the maple leaves simply faded and fell off.

An aspen glow on the hillside.

The wild rose bushes are loaded.  The Indians said that is the sign of a hard winter. ):

This is about as autumn looking as it gets.  This is on the Nebo Loop drive.

The most fantastic part of the season is the blue skies and amazing clouds.

This shot features the first snow fall of the season on the back side of Nebo.

The Aspens are the most gorgeous this year.

I love this back shot from the top of Payson Canyon towards Nebo.

This is the over look of Utah Lake from the top of Payson Canyon.  

It has green algae this year that is toxic so water play has been restricted. 

 It actually killed a little dog that drank the water.

This is the lower Payson Reservoir.

Wow! When I was a kid there were so many little peep toads that we had to watch for them

 so we didn't step on them!  I played with little toads for many hours at Payson Reservoir.

This is the dam at the main Payson Reservoir.

This shows how low the reservoir is and how vacant.  It has scary bacteria this year too.

Here we are at Maple Lake. The best thing about our 

visit is that Malea called and I had cell service.

The leaves have fallen but the memories of a picnic with Grandma Marvin here remains.

We saw some deer and got a picture of one.

Flood Number Three 9/27/2014

Our  THIRD Flood: Sept. 27, 2014

We did 76 quarts of applesauce today.  Rain drizzled and/or poured off and on throughout 

the day.  The puddles got bigger as local runoff gathered on the already saturated ground.  

Our corral was one BIG puddle and contributed to the run off. 

Just before I had to leave for the General Women's Conference, the water 

began to rise by the minute filling the little culverts at the bottom of our hill. .

 Rain was falling as the stream got wider.  Our culvert was
inadequate for the flood stream and water poured over the road. 

 After I left, Dad promised to document the rising water.

Within minutes the culvert dipped out of sight.  (Love Dad's finger in the corner:)

This is the stream leaving our yard into the Uncle's hay field. 

It was clear that approximately 95% of the water was coming from North of Powell Lane 

from this enormous stream racing around and below our neighbor to the east's house.

Dad headed home, stopping to document the silt laden flood water pouring 

from the north of Powell Lane under the road and out on the south side. 

  This is the head of the stream from the culvert as it races towards our property.

It dipped onto to our property and around the bend. 

This is what Dad saw as he headed south towards home. 

Taken by Dad while driving through the stream.