December in Wikieup

We finally are on our way South. We stayed at my uncle's home (Terry & Nancy Imlay) for a night in Plain City, Ut. We were going to stay a couple of days, but a big storm was coming in, so we only spent the night and then headed for St. George.

We stayed three nights in St. George. We went to Beaver Dam and saw my Dad's brother, Dan and Joyce Fisher. They used to spend part of the winter in Wikieup, but now have a winter home in Beaver Dam. They took us to lunch and then to his grandson, Jared's home. It was really nice. The next day we went and ate dinner at my High School friend's (Ruth and John Lunt) home and they took us to a Christmas nativity scene show where there were over 300 nativity scenes set up in an LDS Church building. It was really something to see.

We decided to go play card bingo at the clubhouse at the campground one night. We met two couples from Horsehoe Bend who were on their way south! Then when we went to church the next day, Terry met a brother-in-law of Don Fluckiger. His wife was Don's sister. I met a "Howard" whose husband was from the Rexburg area where Terry's dad was raised. We decided that we were probably related and she told me that most of the Howards were buried in Woodruff cemetery and not the Chester Cemetery, where we had looked earlier. It sure is a small world!

We were a little worried about the little house on the desert in Wikieup because in September someone broke into it. We knew that they had stollen a couple of air conditions and had left the door open for a couple of weeks before some friends went in and closed them for us and patched the holes where the air conditioners were. We were afraid about varmints getting into the house.

When we got there, we found that they had also taken our little microwave and a big aluminum ladder. The worse thing was, they had stripped all of the wiring for the solar panels. I guess they wanted the copper wire. We ended up having to go into Kingman and buy all new wiring, and then with a few calls to my brother, Dave, we got it all wired back.

Terry sent me up on the roof of the porch to wire the solar panels because the sun had baked the old wires (for the past 14 years). It was a little scary, but Terry guided me through it.

We were really glad to find no varmints in the house--not even very much sign of any ever being there. We had left a lot of poison around before we left last year. But, as Terry was wiriing in the solar battery box, we heard some crunching going on under a little wooden step on the porch. Sure enough, when we raised the step, there was a pack rat. Terry grabbed a piece of lath and stabbed him! He is a great hunter! Other than that, we haven't seen anything else but a friendly lizzard and a hummingbird around the house.

We have been having mostly nice weather. It gets pretty cold if the wind blows. But, it has been nice enough to have a few meals out on the picnic table.

We are now busy getting things ready for Christmas. Shay and Travis and their families will be here with us during the holidays. I am scubbing, mopping, washing bedding, and sanitizing everything, especially the outhouse. Some of them are not too used to anything but modern conveniences. We are hoping they all have a good time, anyway.