Christmas is Over

Matthew and I had a very enjoyable 1st married Christmas together.  Down here in Price it still hasn't snowed, well correction.. it still hasn't snowed and stuck.  Up in Utah valley, however, we noticed that there was plenty of snow to be found.  We got lots of nice things from friends and family and lots of cash.  We were told that the cash was to be spent on gifts not groceries or... our big gift that is coming about 2-3 weeks late... our house.  So Matthew purchased us some cross country ski's which I am super excited to try out.  We went cross country skiing last year up Payson canyon and it was super fun.  There are lots of places to try these skii's out at here in the Price area.  Here are a few pictures from our skiing adventure last year.  Enjoy!

Flooding in St. George

Back in the Summer of 2009 I was sent on a detail down to St. George area to help with some reconstruction and protective work in the area of Gunlock, Utah.  Back in 2005 there were massive floods that inundated many homes and washed out several bridges.  Again in 2007 just the town of Gunlock was affected my more flooding on the Santa Clara River.  While I was down there I spent all of my time helping with the reconstruction of rock rip rap walls to protect homes, reconstructing the river, and installing grouted rip rap around bridges that had washed out previously.

Today Saint George area is again affected by mass flooding.  They say that the floods that they are currently experiencing are expected to be higher and greater than the flood back in 2005.  A bridge has already been wiped out between Veyo and Gunlock and many roads are closed.  I heard that Gunlock is completely isolated.  I am interested to see and hear if all of the structures and protective measures that I helped with met this challenge.

Tobin Wash Concrete Culvert Structure w/ grouted rip rap

Track Hoe Places Rip Rap

Me on the job Site wearing my hard hat

Video Clip taken today of a Bridge in danger in Santa Clara

Hopefully I will be able to go back down and help after this storm ends.  

- the little engineer

Starting a Blog

Isn't it the thing to do these days?  Blog about your life to people that probably don't care too much to know what is going on but... want to kinda "facebook stalk" your life?  Well, here it goes.  I have created a blog.  When the blog asked me what I wanted to name my blog I figured I would name it "Rachel's Blog." But that seemed pretty boring.  What is the point of my blog going to be?  Me?  Well... that can get old pretty quick.  Now I know the name that I actually settled on is not as great as the first, but at least its something.  Something different.  I hope that this blog can show not just my boring day to day life but show the different, boring, exciting, and strange things about living in this Rural Area, and who better to talk about it than someone that meets with farmers or "producers" as I call them and help them help the land.

-City Girl in a Small Town