Heber Valley Life

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  • Burger Town

    Burger Town

    It’s springtime and Heber Valley’s burger scene is alive and thriving. So get out there and sample some of our favorite “liberty steaks.”

    Fun fact: During WWI and WWII, hamburgers—which originated in Hamburg, Germany—were briefly renamed “liberty steaks” in the USA to avoid their German-sounding name.

    Chubby’s Café: Jalapeño Ranch Deluxe

    A fiery favorite featuring pepper jack and American cheese, ham, bacon, jalapeño, lettuce, onion, tomato, and jalapeño ranch.

    The Junction: SBD Burger

    A messy, juicy indulgence with bacon, bleu cheese, lettuce, onion, and tomato. Served with curly fries or a side salad. A local favorite with plenty of room for large groups.

    Holiday Lanes: The Big Will

    No trip to Heber is complete without a stop at Holiday Lanes. The late 1960s decor, orange and green motif, and wood paneling transport diners back in time. The burgers are tasty and the buns are buttery. Be sure to follow up with one of their famous malts.

    Back 40 Ranch House Grill: Back 40 Burger

    Made with local organic grass-fed beef, caramelized onions, pastrami, special sauce, and Heber Valley Creamery jalapeño bacon cheddar cheese. Comes with parmesan parsley fries, sweet potato fries, or a salad.

     

    OG Cafe: The OG

    Local seasoned beef with crispy onion rings, bourbon bacon jalapeño jam, sharp cheddar, chopped house pickles, smoked cherry chipotle BBQ sauce, and a grilled brioche bun. Comes with house-made garlic chips.

    Meg’s Cafe: House-Made Vegan Burger

    A plant-based delight made with black beans, corn, mushrooms, yellow onion, broccoli, rice, walnuts, chia seeds, and breadcrumbs. Available on a gluten-free bun.

    Lola’s Street Kitchen: Turkey Avocado Burger

    A ground turkey patty with fresh avocado, Muenster cheese, lettuce, tomato, and onion on Lola’s organic sweet potato roll. Comes with garlic parmesan fries and fry sauce.

    Blue Boar Inn: Ground Tenderloin Burger

    A massive and delicious burger with Dijon aioli and pommes frites. The Blue Boar Inn’s ambiance is second to none. Ask for a seat outdoors when the weather is nice!

    1886 Grill & Smokehouse at Homestead: 1886 Burger

    A high-end BBQ experience featuring a kaiser bun, smashed beef patty, lettuce, tomato, pickles, crispy onions, and 1886 sauce, served with fries. Located next to the golf course.

    Melvin’s Pub: Chicken Sandwich or 1/3 lb. Burger

    Start with a golden, crispy fried chicken sandwich or a 1/3 lb. beef patty and customize with your choice of toppings, served on a brioche bun with fries.

    Vintage Restaurant Bar & Grill: Vintage Sunrise Burger

    Bacon, cheddar cheese, fried egg, vintage secret sauce, garlic mayo, lettuce, tomato, and onions on a brioche bun. Comes with a side of fries.

    Dairy Keen: Train Burger

    A 1/4 lb. hamburger topped with ham, Swiss & American cheese, Thousand Island dressing, lettuce, tomato, and pickles. Their burgers are famous across Utah. Add bacon for extra indulgence!

    Granny’s Drive-In: Western Burger

    A 1/3 lb. brisket short rib patty with smoky bacon, beer-battered onion rings, BBQ sauce on a butter-glazed Salt City Baking bun. Served with lettuce, tomato, pickle, and fry sauce.

    Betty’s Cafe: Wasatch Mountain Mushroom & Swiss

    A beef patty topped with flat-grilled mushrooms and melted Swiss cheese, with lettuce, tomato, and onions on the side. Served with hand-cut fries.

    Heber Valley is a burger lover’s paradise, with options ranging from classic beef to gourmet and plant-based creations. No matter your preference, there’s a burger here for you. Get out there and taste the best of the valley’s buns!

  • Daniel Tiger’s Shopping Cart

    Daniel Tiger’s Shopping Cart

    Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood never connected with me when I was a boy. As a child born in the mid to late 1970s, I saw plenty of opportunity, as the show was regularly broadcast and Public Television was still a thing. I endured many an episode, quite simply, because it was what was on the airwaves at that moment (streaming on demand was still a couple of decades out — hard to imagine, I know). It has taken me well into the middle-aged milestone of my journey and Fred Rogers’ passing to appreciate how inspiring and visionary he was.

    Fred Rogers’ hometown of Pittsburgh and the United States went through significant growing pains between the 1960s and the 1990s. The fabric behind the nation’s social and economic status quo was being stretched to its tearing point. Local industries were changing focus, and the residents’ livelihoods were consequently placed in tenuous situations. The kind of stress this type of pressure creates generally brings out behaviors that are not characteristic of our best selves. Poor behavior on a systemic level can slingshot a community, or nation for that matter, into a downward spiral of anger, pain, negativity, and increased poor behavior compounded over and over again upon itself.

    Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was a manifesto disguised as children’s programming with low-budget hand puppets, crafty set props, and live improvisational piano work. Fred Rogers created a counter-movement to the media-incensed ugliness and divisiveness that was becoming a common tactic to increase engagement for advertising dollars. He sought to rebuild broken communities by teaching universal love, respect, and self-value — not the ‘my way, right away’ or ‘I deserve this’ kind of self-value, but the concept that every soul is unique, inherently precious, and should be treated as such. The topics the show addressed were complex, timely, and relevant. Skills traditionally taught in the home were made accessible through this television program to youth that may not have had a traditional home to call home. A generation of children learned how to be better people and more socially adjusted human beings by watching the programming Fred Rogers created.

    An interesting observation I have found with age and experience is that human nature remains constant over time. Material conveniences evolve, but our natural impulses do not. I would wager that any history student enjoys connecting past events with the present and speculating about the future based on past occurrences. Is Fred Rogers’ mission as relevant today as it was four decades ago?

    Several months ago, I came across a reboot of the ‘Trolley Problem’ or the ‘Bystander at the Switch’ dilemma originally explored in a 1967 philosophy paper by Philippa Foot. An anonymous Reddit user posted a philosophical litmus test in 2020 (a test that uses a single indicator to prompt a decision) called the ‘Shopping Cart Theory.’ The post reads as follows:

    The shopping cart is the ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing. To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping cart is objectively right. There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their cart. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart. Therefore, the shopping cart presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it. No one will punish you for not returning the shopping cart, no one will fine you or kill you for not returning the shopping cart, you gain nothing by returning the shopping cart. You must return the shopping cart out of the goodness of your own heart. You must return the shopping cart because it is the right thing to do. Because it is correct. A person who is unable to do this is no better than an animal, an absolute savage who can only be made to do what is right by threatening them with law and the force that stands behind it. The Shopping Cart is what determines whether a person is a good or bad member of society.

    Mr. Rogers once stated, “The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self.” Honesty, much like the Shopping Cart Theory scenario, is a choice. The liberty to choose what is best for oneself is a fundamental right. Mr. Rogers also stated, “There’s a world of difference between insisting on someone’s doing something and establishing an atmosphere in which that person can grow into wanting to do it.” A citizen’s ability to self-govern (without compulsion or force) is necessary for a free society and one of the noblest goals an individual can achieve. A well-adjusted adult understands that you are ultimately accountable for yourself and your decisions alone. In other words — you have the innate freedom to choose and accept the natural consequence of your choices. If honest reflections about your ‘shopping cart decisions’ make you uncomfortable, a new opportunity is presented.

    Sometimes behavior patterns become sticky. Repetitive behaviors create plastic neural pathways (or habits), which form ways that ultimately manifest as addiction. You have options if you are ready to acknowledge a problem and want to make a change. More wisdom from Fred Rogers suggests, “Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” Don’t be afraid of change — embrace it — so long as it leads to a more upright version of ‘you.’ Depending on your obstacles, various local resources and individuals can help you achieve your goal of a better self.

    The rewards are abundant to you and those around you if you can:

    1) Validate that you are precious and unique.

    2) Strive to be honest with your true self and those around you.

    3) Make good choices.

    “If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is some of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.”  
    – Fred Rogers

    When you go about your days voluntarily doing good — you will discover your genuine value and enrich the lives of those around you.

    What determines whether a person is a good or bad member of society?

    “It’s not the honors and the prizes and the fancy outsides of life which ultimately nourish our souls. It’s the knowing that we can be trusted, that we never have to fear the truth, that the bedrock of our very being is good stuff.”   – Fred Rogers

    Ugga Mugga
    Fred Rogers with Daniel Tiger

    The downward spiral of negative thought and action can be reversed. All things have their opposite. Perhaps that downward spiral could be better described as a spiraling staircase that can be traveled in both directions. Daily gratitude, empathy, compassion, and patience could be likened to climbing the staircase. Choose wisely if you want to experience joy and make your community or home life a more “beautiful day in the neighborhood.”

    “Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered,
    as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person.”      – Fred Rogers

    I am no ‘Fred Rogers,’ but I like who the guy was and what he represented to the society of my youth. Our problems today are eerily similar to many of the issues of the recent past. Real change begins at the local, even the home level. If we, as individuals, can embrace a more loving and positive outlook on everyone and everything, we can create the idyllic community that we all want Heber Valley to become.

    Thank you for your ongoing support of Heber Valley Life magazine. I hope you find the stories to follow uplifting and that they help you visualize our community in the best way possible.

  • Two Roads and a Rocking Chair

    Two Roads and a Rocking Chair

    There has been far more change going around the Heber Valley than the weather over the past few months. The Heber Valley has an identity of being a quiet, pastoral community. While our natural resources are undeniably our most glaringly apparent assets, the citizens define the true essence of this community. Frequently in the advertising world, we talk about ‘market differentiators.’ The root of a successful launch or campaign will characteristically involve identifying what makes your product different from the rest of the competition and promoting that virtue.

    Have any of you ever considered why the Heber Valley is such a special place on a level that is a higher elevation from the talking points of ‘distance to a chairlift,’ ‘proximity to a major metropolitan market,’ or ‘the majestic views?’ If you have: you are searching for the ‘soul’ of the Heber Valley. Many places in the American West offer recreational opportunities and great views. Nearly every community in the West has a history of mining or cattlemen. Most of the West, Utah in particular, can claim a heritage of the sacrifice and bravery of early settlers. None of these are unique variables defining a modern small town in the Western United States.

    I took the opportunity in my youth to travel and fly fish. I have driven across and overnighted in 42 of the 50 states; and brought a fly-caught gamefish to hand in the majority therein. My travels became more enlightening as I fixated less on the monuments, trophies, or destinations within the locale, and more on the citizens of the place I was trying to fish. There were times when I would pick the seediest dive I could find in Rural America, plop myself down on a stool and try to break the social barriers that the locals would put up to defend their way of life from outsiders (Clyde’s Billiards, the OE and Timp Tavern were not exempt from this excercise). As it turns out, many people like to catch fish, and I could always find a talker in the group regarding fishing stratagem. These experiences taught me quite a bit about respect, judgment, and earning diverse friendships. After all those travels, I landed and set root in the Heber Valley. While the Middle Provo River can produce some great trout, there is far more behind this outcome than the fishing.

    The Heber Valley is remarkable because our residents still possess a GENUINE quality. Our citizenry’s down-to-earth attributes have survived the plasticine projections of consumerism, commodification, entitlement, and the corporate value structure that has assembly-line-packaged and shrink-wrapped this Nation over the past 40 years — making the Heber Valley a non-fictional, modern-day Shangri-La. We are an honest and hard-working population that has historically earned our daily bread by the sweat of our brows. The people that we see at work are the people we see at our grocery stores, softball games, and civic events. We keep our heads up in our struggles, look each other in the eye, and offer a helping hand when we see others in need. While we may not get along all the time, we each understand that we live in the same small pond and have a unifying love of where we live. I have been amazed for nearly 20 years by the caliber of individuals I have discovered within the confines of this Mountain Valley. Many long-standing residents have chosen this life while professionally qualified to engage the rat race head-on in larger markets. If you think that the Heber Valley is nothing more than a misfit bunch of Utah hillbillies — you have sorely misread the reality of where you stand.

    The change that immediately concerns me in the Heber Valley is not what you might suspect. I am not afraid of growth or new people moving to the HV. I welcome those who wish to become invested citizens in our community. I believe this is a natural and necessary process that is healthy. A few antonyms of growth would be stagnation and decay. Life marches forward. Given a complete understanding of the implications: I think we would all prefer increase over decline. However, change without an intentional direction tends to invite chaos. The identity of the Heber Valley, unless referencing weather patterns, has nothing to do with chaotic living.

    Most of my work commute is the distance between Heber City’s Mill Road and Center to Main and Center. After 20 years of running this ‘commute,’ I encountered a first that I need to share — as an example of new attitudes in conflict with what has made the Heber Valley the desirable location it is today. There was an instance where the 25 MPH speed limit in the residential zone of Center Street was agitating the driver behind me. They elected to pass by in the center turn lane and issued a tall-fingered salute they drove past. Without any change in my speed or intensity, we caught up with each other at the stop light at Center and Main, where I politely smiled and waved back. My gesture of friendliness incensed the driver further — they peeled out and went North to whatever invented crisis their end destination entailed. Entitled aggression is not our identity in the Heber Valley. If you moved here to get away from that sort of thing, leave it where it belongs — in the past. Adopt the culture that long-standing residents have embraced for generations and perpetuate the vibe you moved here to enjoy.

    The pace of the world has been gaining intensity over the past several years. Professional and social stresses have followed the rising intensity levels. With the cooling temperatures of Autumn, I extend an invitation to cool our emotional states correspondingly. The rapid-fire assault of information, misinformation, and unveiled self-serving agendas at high levels has created systemic anger, breach of trust, indifference, and shortened attention spans at a National level. To make the case even more tenuous, it appears that there is another storm brewing on the horizon. Assume that we are humble and in tune enough to validate that this trend is accurate and that it may be affecting our general emotional condition. How do we course correct our emotional pathways?

    We all have choices. There will come a moment when we each have to decide to take the Blue Pill or the Red. I find myself reflecting on the oft-quoted passages of naturalist and celebrated American poet Robert Lee Frost found in the poem “The Road Not Taken.”

    Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

    And sorry I could not travel both

    And be one traveler, long I stood

    And looked down one as far as I could

    To where it bent in the undergrowth;

     

    Then took the other, as just as fair,

    And having perhaps the better claim,

    Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

    Though as for that the passing there

    Had worn them really about the same,

     

    And both that morning equally lay

    In leaves no step had trodden black.

    Oh, I kept the first for another day!

    Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

    I doubted if I should ever come back.

     

    I shall be telling this with a sigh

    Somewhere ages and ages hence:

    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

    I took the one less traveled by,

    And that has made all the difference.

    Outside of the autumnal reference and natural allegory, I love this journey of thought because of the conceptual exploration that we all are accountable for our decision-making. None of us is unwillingly coerced towards a fate beyond our choosing. There will always be a choice and a corresponding consequence. Before you can change a core behavioral pattern, you have to validate that there is a problem and that you have the power to change.

    Suppose you choose the Red Pill and want to explore the relationship between manipulated emotion and rational thought. In that case, I have three waypoints for your consideration that you may find helpful on your journey.

    1. The inventory of time is a construct of humankind. This construct is the heartbeat and lifeblood of the industrial complex of which you are a cog in the machine. If you want to forsake the machine creating your perceived stress, unplug it. Reconnect with the planet and the natural pace of celestial motion, tides, seasons, and storms. Abandon your devices; sever the digital umbilical cord to the machine; and explore the Heber Valley this fall. Take your shoes off and feel the Earth. Schedule an afternoon to sit under an aged tree (without a book or any other distraction). Watch the shadows, track the clouds, feel the breeze and listen to the leaves as it passes through them. Catalog the sounds of the creatures of the Earth and learn their meanings. When the sun sets, make it a priority to lie down flat on your back and stargaze. Educate yourself about our neighboring planets and constellations to appreciate our dark skies, and ponder size, scope, and futility. The pace you will find in exercises such as this is the rhythm of creation — of which you are a part. It will ground you to what is truly important, and you will find more patience and compassion for others through that change.
    1. An old-timey quote by the Internationally recognized New Zealander Cricket batsman, Glenn Turner, has been heavy on my mind as of late. He stated, “Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.” Don’t waste your precious time on this Earth fussing over variables outside your control. It is insane or illogical at best to give that thing, individual, or circumstance power over your overall emotional well-being if you cannot do anything about it.
    1.  The external circumstances around you are not causing your anxiety or frustration. Emotion generates within the self. None other than yourself is responsible for inventorying your feelings, and you can choose how you react to any situation. Let’s momentarily revisit my Center Street reckless driving encounter. I had a choice to allow the actions of the offending driver to wreck my emotional state that day. The best revenge in many cases is not to allow the offender to affect your mood and correspondingly become like them. Letting the event pass without escalating your emotional state is the road “less traveled by.” It is the high road and the path of leadership. Nobody can make you feel upset, angry, or inferior when you understand the simple truth that you have a choice. We must willfully comply with an external event for it to modify our internal condition. Dare to be non-compliant with the external stresses of your life.

    I share these thoughts out of love for my fellow citizens and the Heber Valley. If you managed to read this far, you have a choice to make. Marcus Aurelius declared, “Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.” Please accept my thoughts in the spirit that they are delivered — as it is not my intent to preach, but to provide a helping hand and a positive path to pursue. We can individually protect ourselves, our hometown, and our civic identity by embracing attitudes of tolerance, positivity, and respect. In a world where outside messengers persuade us to believe we have no choice or influence, these are actions we can take as a collective to create the future we all want to see in the Heber Valley.

    Thank you for supporting our positively focused, solution-based media voice in the Heber Valley. I hope you enjoy our 21st edition of Heber Valley Life.

  • The Truth is Out There

    The Truth is Out There

    Do we have any X-Files fans in the Heber Valley? I loved this sci-fi TV drama when it was airing. For the younger, binge and streaming-on-demand crowd — we used to have to wait until the program aired on network TV to view new episodes. I would count the days in anticipation. When that time arrived, I would make popcorn, turn off the lights and try to maximize the suspense and weirdness that each chapter seemed to unfold. All anticipation would build to a satisfying crescendo as the eerie and oddly low budget theme music and into sequence rolled out. What a fantastic TV series!

    The series’s central characters were two FBI agents assigned to work together on ‘unsolvable’ cases, often leaning towards the paranormal. Fox Mulder, portrayed by actor David Duchovny, was a brilliant FBI agent pigeonholed because he believed in aliens and paranormal phenomena. Nevertheless, he could substantiate his work enough to give himself a job with conditional oversight. That supervision came from a skeptical partner, Dana Scully, played by Gillian Anderson. She came with medical and religious backgrounds that would counterbalance Fox Mulder’s tendency to gravitate to strange and unconventional case theories.

    I always felt that the interplay between science, faith, and the unexplainable was fascinating in this series. Mulder and Scully were always trying to find the truth, even if that truth was bizarre and counterculture. Dana Scully went through an exciting transition as the cases piled up. Necessity tested her societal boundaries of commonly accepted occurrences and her dependence on factual data. She was forced, through difficult experiences, to utilize the full breadth of her imagination for problem-solving when observable variables would not align.

    Cases became X-Files because caseworkers were resistant to entertaining the improbable. They lacked the ability for unrestrained and imaginative free thought. Throughout the series, the evolution of Dana Scully illustrates the human capacity to live in a world of imagination simultaneously rooted in reality.

    Imagination is the precursor to innovation. When seemingly impossible scenarios arise, there will be two types of people: the critics and the innovators. Standalone critics generally cannot imagine new possibilities. Their perceptions stagnate in a pattern where flaws are acutely referenced, but no implementable solutions accompany the grievance. An innovator can see problems as clearly as the critic. The difference is that innovators avoid the negativity and futility of complaint patterns and embrace the creative thought process of action and problem-solving.

    The American novelist Mark Twain stated, “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” I love this quote because it can take on several meanings if you daydream about it for a moment or two. At face value, I believe Twain suggests that if individuals cannot think for themselves, they tend to believe anything they are told. The eyes alone can collect information, but it takes a mind to process it into something relevant. Deception will come very quickly to those who do not learn to filter what they see and embrace free thought.

    Free thinking is a virtue, a skill, and an attribute that is all too scarce in our modern ‘age of information’. Our days are perpetually inundated with ads and messages that tell us what we should think and believe. Instant information availability has led to a lack of another virtue, patience. It is common to buy into a brand and accept the product as absolute without consideration of the motivation behind the message. Between the hectic pace of our daily tasks and the perpetual noise from the almighty messengers, there is little time for peace, meditation, and the free flow of creative thought.

    The truth is out there — but it is reserved for those willing to search for it. Many of the problems that we face today are as absurd and improbable as a storyline from the X-Files. It will take the honest effort of a creative mind to navigate the minefields of agendas and half-truths set by those that would like to tell you how to think.

    Spring is a time for rebirth. I challenge the Heber Valley to prioritize time every day for quiet and calm. Use that peace to think deeply about whatever issue ails you. In that quiet space, you will recover your capacity to think with clarity. The truths you seek will more readily come to focus as your eyes, mind, and heart align.

    Thank you for being so supportive of Heber Valley Life magazine. I hope you find this edition as uplifting and inspiring as the landscape we call home.

  • Heber Valley Heritage Initiative

    Heber Valley Heritage Initiative

    How fortunate we are to live in this valley of breathtaking beauty and wonderful people, both present and past. The history of the greater Heber valley is rich and varied, including individuals and families who have exhibited qualities of courage, faith and determination.

    An organization has been formed called the “Heber Valley Heritage Foundation”, led by Michael Moulton along with a team committed to the preservation of the history and stories of the great people who settled here. Current technology is making this dream more achievable than in years past.

    We are pleased to announce work is well underway to digitize the significant heroic opus of work by Dr. Raymond R. Green, complied over 40 years. This collection of documents, photos, articles, certificates, personal and family histories, and stories will now be available for all to reference. It is a treasure for all to enjoy.

    “The Dr. Raymond R. Green Community Digitization Center” has been established and will offer free digitalization of documents, photos, and other memorabilia to our community. It will be walk-in center. Look for more information in the coming weeks.

    The center will operate entirely with volunteer help. Resources are needed in terms of volunteer hours and funding, to preserve the historical documents and stories that are being assembled, but it will be a wonderful opportunity to serve the community. We encourage those who are willing to help this work in any way, to contact Michael Moulton at [email protected]

    It has been said that we must make it possible to easily seek counsel from past generations. We feel this project will preserve treasured information and history to both current and future residents of this very special and beautiful place.

  • It’s a Wonderful Life, A Live Radio Play Comes to Heber Valley

    It’s a Wonderful Life, A Live Radio Play Comes to Heber Valley

    Fill in the blanks: “Every time a ______ rings, an angel gets his _________”. If you were thinking bell and wings then you must be familiar with the classic Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”.

    Timpanogos Valley Theater will be performing “It’s a Wonderful Life, A Live Radio Play” this holiday season. The timeless George Bailey and his wife Mary; Clarence the angel, and the antagonistic Mr. Potter; and all the other beloved characters of Bedford Falls will be brought to life to share this inspiring story of life, hope, and friendship. The production is a little different than just a regular stage play. This radio style script will transport the audience back to the entertainment era known as the “The Golden Age of Radio”.

    Director Kristen Hughes enthusiastically explains, “The ensemble members do the voices for every character in the story. So, they are constantly switching! It’s a blast to watch. It is like a really fun reader’s theater complete with advertising jingles and Christmas carols from the post WWII era.”

    The show encompasses two different casts. Kevin and Felicia Siggard, Cevin Carr, David Burrow, and Cary Hobbs are the main characters in one cast while Nathan Moulton, Jessica Wall, Tom Hughes, Gary Harter, and Bo Walker make up the second. Both sets include three jazz musicians and a foley artist. Foley artists recreate an array of everyday sounds in real time, rather than pulling pre-recorded sounds, for film and theater to enhance the overall experience. “Our foley artist is a gentleman by the name of Jared Wright. He’s a local musician. He built a wind machine for the show and has been having a ball experimenting with all kinds of sounds. It’s amazing to hear! One sound we were having a problem getting right was a car door. And one day he showed up with an antique metal tool box. When he opened and closed it, it sounded just like an old car door,” Hughes explains.

    Another local touch to the play will be the commercials. The radio show will feature ‘live commercials’ tailored to some of our valley’s businesses, and arranged using the jingle style of the late 1940’s. Set in 1946; the play’s production team, led by Gary Harter, have added touches that were authentic to a real radio station, including electric art deco “on air” and “applause” signs, glass windows, and vintage doors.

    Hughes encourages everyone to come, “I hope people come see the show during the holidays with their families. It is only an hour and fifteen minutes long, perfect for an outing, and has something for everyone. It is nostalgic, warm and inviting. It will leave you feeling hopeful and happy and ready to really enjoy the Christmas season.”

    A good story reminds us to be our best selves, and inspires us to find the best in others. “It’s a Wonderful Life, A Live Radio Show” aims to do just that. To quote Clarence, the guardian angel, “Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends”.

     

    The show opens *November 29th, and runs through Saturday, December 18th with performances on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:00 pm.

    *Dec. 3: 9pm following Heber’s tree lighting ceremony and *Dec. 18: 5:00 pm and 7:00 pm

    Timpanogos Valley Theatre is located at 90 North 100 West, Heber. Ticket prices are: $10.00 and $8.00 for groups of six or more. Purchase tickets at the door or online at timpvalleytheatre.com

  • Vernon Murdock

    Vernon Murdock

    “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”

    – Pablo Picasso

    Vernon Murdock began creating art from the moment he first figured out how to hold a pencil. As a very young child, he loved nature; he loved the mountains and the fields that surrounded his home — so he drew them. He enjoyed looking at and watching cartoons — and sketched those too. Vernon’s curiosity about how things worked was no different — he illustrated all the stationary and moving parts. He adored and loved his family and treasured his ancestor’s stories of the past — and eventually depicted his favorite scenes with pencil in hand. He loved and revered his God and his Savior — and in time, he would create a full-color 230-page piece of art to honor them — a gift for his posterity. It hasn’t been an easy road, but Vernon has done his very best to remain an artist as he grew up.

     

    “The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.”
    – Auguste Rodin

    Vernon L. Murdock was born in 1928 to Thomas and Millie Murdock of Heber City, Utah. Vernon and his siblings grew up in what he describes as, “a tiny three-room house with a path, not a bath but a path,” he laughs as he shares his fondness for his childhood home. “I was born in the house next door and as kids, we were just children of nature. There wasn’t room in the house for more than one or two people to be comfortable, so us [sic] kids lived outside all the time. But we had a good time and we enjoyed life. We grew up not knowing any better; it’s a good thing, a year after I was born the depression hit, so I’m a child of the great depression — I lived through that. We were raised on nothing and didn’t know the difference.”

    Vernon’s childhood was full of trepidation, hard work, loss, hope, joy, love, a little bit of mischief, and of course, art. His voice is soft and reserved as he shares some of his memories. “My father was a minor and mother was an excellent cook. She made do with whatever she had. We didn’t have any land, except this little square that this house sits on, and it scared my father really bad to know how to feed us kids because the mines shut down during the depression. The miners were out of work and so in his attempt to feed us, we plowed up every square inch of ground that was available in this block and planted it with vegetables. That was our job as kids; weeding and watering and taking care of the vegetables while dad was out looking for work.”

    “Dad found work with the CCC, the Civilian Conservation Corps, which was part of the Roosevelt (FDR) administration’s effort to provide work for men. Dad was sent to California to work on parks and other projects. He was paid $30 a month and sent $26 and something home for mom and us kids.”

    “There was[sic] seven of us kids. My older brother, who I adored, he was my hero. He contracted polio and died when he was only seven and I was only five. That was tough because we couldn’t have a normal funeral with polio. They put his casket by the window inside the house, so we were all outside. We had the funeral on the lawn. We put boards on logs and those were the seats. We sat on the logs for the funeral and looked into the window and that was …” Vernon’s voice drifts off for a moment deep in thought. In the quiet, I silently empathize with his loss. He continues with a smile, “My siblings, with one exception, are still alive. My older sister died when she was 97, my next older sister is 96, and I’m 93. My brother is 91; he lives next door to me. So, here we are, all long in the tooth and all of us still alive. We’ve been blessed that way. [We] always had a great family relationship with each other. [We] loved our brothers and sisters — always have. [We’ve] always been good to each other, which is a great blessing.”

     

    “Every artist was first an amateur.”
    – Ralph Waldo Emerson

    The Murdock family was blessed and they enjoyed many delightful moments together through the years. Whatever life dished out — good or bad — Vernon was always focused on art. “I was always an artist from the time I was able to hold a pencil and that was just what I was. It was a natural gift, I guess, and so I tried to be an artist, become an artist.” He attended BYU for a few years, taking as many art classes as he could, before serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He spent three years in Argentina and fell in love with the culture, language, and people. While in Argentina the Korean War broke out. When Vernon returned from his mission he joined the Air Force ROTC, graduated from BYU, and received his commission in the Air Force. He went through pilot training and became a pilot. He reminisces, “It was quite an experience flying airplanes and helicopters. My favorite was the F86. It was a premier fighter; it was a Korean War-era fighter. It was a good aircraft, it was the last of the old type airplanes that you had direct control of, there was no electrical or pneumatic interference between you and the airplane — you were part of the aircraft.”

    After the war ended Vernon went back to BYU. He had been promised an assistantship to teach art. “I went to BYU and ran up the stairs to the dean’s office and said, ‘Here I am’ and lo and behold there was Pharaoh who knew not Joseph. The Dean said, ‘Who are you’ so that was my big balloon burst and I came floating down and hit the ground. So, I got married,” he chuckles and smiles.

    Vernon met Elizabeth Joan Vance while attending BYU, “Elizabeth worked at the BYU health center as a nurse and I met her when I went into the BYU health center. I was working as an electrician for the University putting myself through school. I was there fixing the lights at the health center and in walks this little nurse with her pretty little uniform — in those days they wore a white uniform with a white cap — and I said alright I guess that’ll work.” Vernon ended up dating Elizabeth’s sister and not her. Four years later, after returning from the war, he ran into her again and was like WOW! Part of the attraction Vernon shared was, “Knowing she was from a small town in Northern Mexico was kind of an attractive thing for me. I spoke Spanish and loved the culture and all that stuff so it worked great.” A while after they’d been dating Elizabeth and her dorm mates invited Vernon and his dorm mates over for a home-cooked Mexican supper. Vernon shared, “I went over and got heartburn from the Mexican food and I thought it was love so I proposed to her.” That’s what I call heartburn with a happy ending!

    Vernon and Elizabeth were married in 1958 and raised four beautiful children together. Vernon designed and built their house on the ‘square’ plot where he used to weed and tend the family’s garden. He and Elizabeth hauled every stone for the gorgeous floor-to-ceiling fireplace and hearth that warmed their family home and a loft that would eventually become his art studio. For the first part of their life together Vernon worked as an art teacher at Wasatch High and Granger High. After two years at each school, he’d had enough and decided to take a leap of faith and work full-time as a free-lance artist — and the journey began.

     

    “Creativity takes courage.”
    – Henri Matisse

    Working as a freelancer can be tough but it is also incredibly rewarding. Vernon shared, “It was alright if you don’t mind missing a few meals and if your wife doesn’t divorce you for not being a good provider. I did the best I could. So, now I guess I’m known as an old free-lance artist working up in the garret.” Over the next few decades, Vernon would create thousands of images and hundreds of commissions. He worked for the LDS church illustrating Seminary and Institute manuals, a 16-volume Book of Mormon series on church history, and ten volumes of Bible stories. For the Bible series, Vernon illustrated every page in addition to compiling, layout, and type. Pursuing his love of cartoons Vernon also worked for several of the animation studios in California and discovered something he didn’t expect. “I think that the worst job in the world is animation because there’s no creativity there. You’re putting down what somebody else thought of. I did Smurfs, and the Green Hulk, and Spider-Man, and other stuff. You sit there with an animation disk in front of you that you work on and try to get different angles and stuff like that. It was extremely tedious but I had to make money. Now it doesn’t matter because it’s all on computers, now they do beautiful, marvelous, things with computers. I look at them and I can’t believe the effects that they get. I watch these new things that they come out with and I’m amazed but it’s not the same, the creativity is in the way they manipulate the computer.”

    Everything changes. Everything is in a constant state of flux and the world of art is no different. As our communities, lives, jobs, families, and talents transform it is important to remember, honor, and learn from the past. Honoring our heritage is an integral part of the creative process for Vernon. Anyone who has seen his historical illustrations and paintings can attest to his attention to detail and uncanny way of capturing the emotions of days gone by. In 2009 The Way It Was: Greater Wasatch County First Events and Historical Commentary compiled by Raymond Green, M.D. and Illustrated by Vernon LeRoy Murdock was published. It is beautiful. The illustrations and full-color paintings are so realistic that one feels like they could pick them up off the page or walk right into a scene. When asked about his experience creating the book Vernon shared, “I wanted to build a bridge to that time. I didn’t want to describe it with my words, which are lacking, to show how it was. There’s only one way to describe the way it was and that’s through artwork because people can’t identify it otherwise. This is all being lost now. The generations now don’t understand at all the processes and so forth that we used in those days to put up hay or to farm or to mine or dig canals, any of that.”

    Teaching the new generation about what it took to make Wasatch County what it is today is something Vernon worries about losing. “This valley was totally different than it is now, just a small square of town, without any outbuildings outside the perimeter of town. When I moved into this house I could look out the east window and there wasn’t a house that I could see anywhere. It’s hard for me to drive around the valley now to see all the buildings that are here it’s not the same. It just changed the complexion of the valley entirely, all the Red Ledges buildings, and multi-million dollar homes that are being built up on the hills. It’s just amazing. You go up there and look and you see whole new towns practically everywhere you go where it used to be a pretty rural town now it’s just a huge bedroom community. The people that are moving in are mostly wonderful people but it’s no more a farming town.” When asked what he would say to the community he responded with, “Well . . . it would just be that in order to really appreciate this valley and what it’s about they need to look into the history. They need to at least try and understand how it [Wasatch County] came about and some of the things that created this place. If they don’t then they are missing out on a lot. If they don’t they can’t really appreciate where they are because this valley has a lot of history and it’s all interesting. It was created by sweat, tears, sacrifice, hard work, and courage.”

     

    Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.” – Leonardo da Vinci

    Connecting our community’s past to our future is secondary to Vernon’s true love and passion — his God, his Savior, his children, and posterity. During these past few years, Vernon has worked tirelessly on a book written for his children titled: Because He Loves Us. The book is a history of Christianity from before the earth was created to the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in 1830. In the introduction, Vernon wrote, “I am writing especially to my children and grandchildren with the hope that this view of the history of God’s dealings with his children will give them a better understanding of the true nature of God, which in turn, will give them a better understanding of who they really are, and what they are really worth.” A sentiment I believe we could all benefit from.

    Both books are true works of art, inspiration, hard work, and love. “In working on these books I find that if I work hard enough and long enough, I begin to feel some promptings, promptings from heaven — but it doesn’t come easy. It wasn’t meant to be. The lord intended us to do our very very very[sic] best and work our hardest and then he kind of steps in and inspires us sometimes.”

    Inspiration doesn’t seem to be something that Vernon lacks. From his illustrations to his historical paintings to the commissions he’s asked to create, Vernon captures the vision and increases it beyond his patron’s imaginations. Michael Moulton, Chairman of the Heber City Historic Preservation Commission, commissioned Vernon to create a painting of the Center Creek Cemetery for the LDS church and shared this about his experience, “I took him there [Center Creek Cemetery] and said this is what I see and a few months later he came back with what I had described enhanced at least 200%! It is the most gorgeous, beautiful, inspiring, painting . . . it stands in the Heber East Stake Center now. As far as I’m concerned he is one of the best historical painters out there. I just love everything that he does . . . they’re all marvelous!”

     

    “The richness I achieve comes from nature, the source of my inspiration.”
    – Claude Monet

    When asked about his inspiration Vernon shared, “Usually I have an emotional connection to something. I remember it and go, ya, I need to do that, record that. Nature inspires me. Timpanogos inspires me. I made a trip up to the mountains a few days ago just to get back in the hills and you know every time you get up into the mountains, up into the forest, it’s good for the soul. Those are the things I like to paint, stuff that is good for the soul . . . any creating process kind of connects you with the joy that our Father in heaven had of creation. You begin to understand that in creating things you get joy and that doesn’t mean just the visual arts or music or anything like that, it can be creating anything. You know the work of creation is something that everyone needs to experience.”

    Vernon has experienced an incredible life over the last 93 years; from being a child of the depression to sneaking peas on the vine from the back of a wagon on its way to the pea cannery, to losing a beloved brother, to learning to cherish family. From schooling to war and flying, to work, marriage, and children, to the fulfilling of dreams and the loss of others, and through it all, Vernon captured his childhood love of art and figured out how to “remain an artist once he grew up.”

     

    Vernon Murdock

    “Everyone talks about the creative process but I always start with a pencil first — you’ve got to get it as right as you can. At 93 years of age, everything I do is old fashion [but] I hope my talents are still needed for something.”

  • Next man up!

    Next man up!

    Once there was a delicious soup. It was created with homemade recipes, and people loved it. They loved it so much that a big factory was built to make more of it. As people ate more and more soup, the factory tried to keep up with the demand. Finally, Bear Creek Country Kitchens moved the soup production elsewhere.

    What would happen to the enormous soup factory that had housed the facilities? According to Amaria Scovil, Director of Wasatch County’s Joyce & M. Anthony Burns Recreation Center, “When they decided to sell the soup business, it was sold to an organization back East, and of course, they couldn’t move the building. So, everything inside went.”

    Located in the small town of Heber City, Utah, the factory sat vacant for about four years. Until someone had the brilliant idea to retrofit the vast space into a recreation center.

    It would be unique and would turn the old soup factory into a factory for physical fitness.

    The Wasatch County Recreation Center was officially opened in 2010. Additional offices and a private gym called, The Fit Stop was added to the building. The new recreation center was still housed in the original soup factory. Scovil shared, “I was with the department before we had a rec center. Being able to offer the variety of programming and open play to the community, since we’ve had this facility, is an incredible difference.” Scovil continued, “It’s not just athletics or sports. It’s a lot of enrichment activities too, so there’s something for everyone. And I know that sounds a little cliché, but I think it’s important for everybody to feel like they can participate in something and learn something new and do something different. Especially in today’s day and age where it’s easy just to get sucked into the electronics and not look beyond your little phone.”

    A Unique Taste

    The Recreation Center offers a host of innovative and distinctive opportunities.

    The most noticeable are the three huge turf fields! These fields provide endless possibilities. “There are 12’ soccer goals on the fields, but the fields can also be used for non-tackle football, golf, or any number of other activities,” according to the website. Some people even use them during the frozen winters to let kids run around in the park-like atmosphere. “We do see a lot of soccer [on the fields],” explained Scovil, “but kids also come practice lacrosse or rugby, or they throw frisbees. A lot of Spikeball has become popular. There are plenty of other things as well.”

    And there is so much more! A .2 mile track surrounds the turf for those who want a place to run or walk indoors. In addition, there are six full-size basketball/volleyball courts. These courts also provide a place for pickleball, dodgeball, futsal, and many other activities. Additionally, there are three batting cages next to four full-size racquetball courts. The courts can also be used for wallyball or handball.

    On top of everything else, there are three full-size tennis courts, gymnastics equipment, two large classrooms, a party room, a putting green, and two state-of-the-art golf simulators! “It’s an amazing program,” said Scovil. “The screen is huge, and it has the sounds of birds and everything, and it makes you feel like you’re there. You have 150 courses to choose from that are actual courses in the world.” Equipment for most activities is available to rent as well, for a small additional fee. The recreation center also has a contracted tennis pro who runs lessons from September through May for adults and youth.

    Adding Some Extra Spice

    “Gymnastics runs throughout the year,” said Scovil.  “We run it in sessions, so it’s not a huge commitment for anybody. It’s more designed to be an introductory program. We do have different levels, but we run it on a 4-week basis.” The rec center provides all the gymnastics apparatus, except the special floors used in routines.

    This year, the rec center held two gymnastics meets. “It was amazing,” according to Scovil. “[The] gymnastics meets were not a part of our program, but they were part of a larger program in Utah. And it was incredible to see the talent that we have here. It was so fun to have the event here, and it brought a lot of revenue to the community and us.”

    Another fun activity provided at the center is Toddler Time. “Toddler time is something we offer Monday through Friday from 10:00 am until noon, only on the days that school is in, just so that we don’t get a lot of bigger kids running around with toddlers,” explained Scovil. “We let the toddlers bring in their bicycles or their scooters or whatever toys they want to bring in. And then we have some toys too, so a mom and all of her kids can get in for just $4 and play.”

    Heber Valley resident Rachel Bolos enjoys walking the track at the rec center while her baby sleeps in the stroller. “It’s fun, it’s open, it’s clean, and everyone here is always nice,” said Bolos. “My older kids come and play sports here. They love it. There needs to be somewhere for families to go to just have fun.”

    There are many opportunities here for kids to be kids and play. The Wasatch County Recreation Center also provides sports teams and other activities. “I think kids need athletics that they can just enjoy, that isn’t super competitive, and that they can just have fun,” explained Scovil.

    Amaria Scovil wants to encourage the community to take advantage of this incredible factory, where body, mind, and soul are amply fed.

    “Come play!” she welcomes. “It’s an amazing place; winter, spring, summer, and fall. I know a lot of people like to be outside in the summer, but it stays cool in here, and it’s sometimes nice to get out from under the sun and play. It’s great. We love to have people here!”

    The people love to be here too. And the production of soup for the soul continues.

     

    MORE INFORMATION

    345 W 600 S, #500, Heber

    435-657-3240

    wasatchparksandrec.com

  • Girls Rule

    Girls Rule

    Several winters back, Jennifer Thorne climbed the north ridge of Mount Nebo through waist-deep snow until she crested its 11,861-foot-high summit. During a time of year when most folks are cuddled up in front of a fire with a good book; Jennifer and two of her friends stood atop the highest mountain in the Wasatch enjoying the priceless 360-degree view of snowy mountains and grassy valleys. Removing skis from their backs they tackled a technical ski descent down one of Utah’s most imposing mountains. Would anyone believe that only a few weeks prior, Jennifer was teaching others how to make their first ski turns on the slushy spring snow of Park City Mountain Resort? Maybe one day one of those students will take in the same view. Everyone has to begin somewhere.

    In 2008, Jennifer and her long-time friends, Jen Dorius and Anna Cox, were all busy with life, kids, and jobs and needed a break! Passionate about the outdoors, they decided to carve out a few days for a ladies weekend bike trip. During this time, it became abundantly clear to them how quality time outside with other women augmented their ability to, not only be more present in life, but approach its challenges with confidence. Over the years, the three have garnered extensive experience, and regardless of the activity, they’re invariably asked, “How did you learn to do that?” Knowing it would be more fun and useful to show than tell — the adventurous women began a new journey.

    Jennifer, Jen, and Anna decided to combine their knowledge and love of sharing outdoor adventures with their families and others by establishing a place where women from all walks of life, and all skill levels, could connect with each other in nature. Taking on the mantle of outdoor recreation mentors, the trio created Ignite Movement. They soon discovered that many women in the community sought to learn how to participate in various activities within a climate of direct coaching, positive feedback, and emotional support from other women.

    A Learning Space

    The name, Ignite Movement, is not random; it represents lighting the fire to get you moving. It is for women who have been looking for a way to expand on, or learn new, outdoor activities but did not know where or how to learn the skills and gain confidence. With many free or low-cost clinics, the challenge for women is to prioritize time for themselves and get outside.

    Thorne shared that one of the driving factors for Ignite is to make the connection between “being outside in nature and the benefits of it. It is not just a fitness or wellness program [taking place] inside. It’s really about getting outside. We’re promoting getting women out and having adventures, an active lifestyle, [learning] wellness, and gathering and learning with other women.”

    All three women describe nature as a “place of perfect order,” and because of this Thorne says, “You can put away the chaos of this world and connect with something.” If you’re seeking a bit more balance, this connection may be what is missing. Adapting life to include outdoor adventure is fundamental to all their clinics and retreats.

    Anna was recently featured in a Women of Ambition podcast; she spoke about the effect of getting women together in such a learning space and described it as “Powerful!”

    Some Science on Being in the Natural Environment

    This connection is not anecdotal. In multiple studies from universities to non-profit wellness clinics, the connection between human health and being outside in a natural environment is unmistakable. An article published by the Harvard Medical School suggests that getting outside is good for your health, from boosting immune systems to healing faster from injury or surgery, not to mention just feeling better about life.1

    A review published on Pubmed.gov reports some “promising effects on self-reported mental wellbeing immediately following exercise in nature which are not seen following the same exercise indoors.”2

    If hiking a trail in a shady, wooded grove makes us feel better, that experience is reinforced by natural processes in our bodies and brains. The effect can foster the desire to cultivate more uplifting experiences. This simple formula can lead one through a lifetime of activity on the water, in forests, mountains, and deserts. They can be pivotal experiences that change the course of our lives. One caveat newcomers stand to face; if you don’t know what you’re doing out there, you might not be poised to have a great experience. You could find yourself injured and saying, “Never again.”

    Shortening the Learning Curve

    With complimentary but different backgrounds in coaching and teaching (check out the “About” page on their website) and decades of experience between them, Jennifer, Jen, and Anna offer instruction and techniques that some might not have considered. With gentle nudges here and encouragement there, everyone from the newcomer to old-hat will quickly find their stride and feel assured they’re being guided by sound advice.

    The mentors of Ignite Movement will also shed light on the other aspects of maintaining an outdoor fitness lifestyle. This comes down to foundational points like day-to-day diet and nutrition, mental fortitude, emotional discipline, and even taking care of your gear. Some readers may have taken notes on Jen Dorius’s recent instructional clinic on bicycle maintenance.

    The knowledge they offer will shortcut the rough experiences of trial and error while attempting to learn it on your own. Mountain biking, for example, is a very cognitive sport. Not only must you learn to manipulate your body, but also the two wheels below as you ride over variable terrain; now pair that with learning to locate trails and repair a flat tire, and your heart rate may just go through the roof! It’s not easy! With the help of other women just starting out and some, who’ve been-there-done-that, one will be on their way to mountain biking independence and confidence to hit the trail with or without the group.

    Ignite Movement helps answer these questions and more: How do you plan your next outing? Where are the trails? How does one navigate with landmarks and a map? What are my post-activity recovery steps to recoup my energy and soften my stiff muscles? How do I do all this so I can focus on the fun?

    Rest and Recharge at a Seasonal Retreat

    Sometimes the best thing you can do is concentrate the learning into a weekend retreat and soak in everything, all while being surrounded by other like-minded women. The quarterly retreats offered by Ignite Movement are pinnacle events. Their summer retreat is scheduled for June 24 thru 26. Looking forward, the next retreat will take place in the fall.

    These retreats feature seasonal outdoor sports, along with a host of other wellness clinics. Jennifer explains, “Not only will you be mentored through amazing outdoor experiences — but you will also be inspired and educated with a variety of uplifting classes. All abilities are welcome! Activities will include hiking, paddle-boarding, kayaking, cooking demonstrations, inspiring mini-classes, yoga, campfires, meditation, amazing women, crater floating, food, fun, and an all-around uplifting weekend with new friends, new challenges, and new ideas!”

    This trio wants to light your torch with their knowledge, give you confidence in an active lifestyle outside, and show you how to fuel the fire with your passion. Thorne talked about engaging in challenging activities outside and incorporating structured reinforcement with other women. This is just one way that Ignite Movement can help accomplish new challenges. It will not seem obvious at first, but accomplishment breeds thirst for other challenges. It can become a cycle, and you may just find yourself trying and learning new activities in other parts of your personal and family life.

    To the women out there who have been looking for the means to get moving outside, Jennifer, Jen, and Anna want you to know that there’s no better time than now! They invite you to come out and join them and make this part of your life. “As you fill your own bucket, you’re better equipped to serve others.” Whether it is to be a better partner or spouse, parent or person, finding rejuvenation in outdoor adventure will truly revitalize the soul.

     

    July 08                   INTRO TO OPEN WATER SWIMMING

    July 10                   group ride to Woodland Biscuit Co.

    July 27 – 28          Mountain Bike Retreat

    August 14            Mountain Bike Clinic

    FOR MORE INFORMATION visit:
    ignitemovementnow.com

     

    1 https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/a-prescription-for-better-health-go-alfresco)

    2 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21291246

  • Defending Wasatch Back – Wasatch County 2A Sanctuary Initiative

    Defending Wasatch Back – Wasatch County 2A Sanctuary Initiative

    If you’ve driven by the Wasatch County Administration Building on Main Street in recent weeks you may have seen a bunch of people holding signs, and flourishing American Flags while waving at passersby; perhaps you wondered, “What in the world is going on over there?” The answer would be – a lot!

    Defending Wasatch Back began as a group of moms sharing their concerns while at different events with their children. As they told two friends, and they told two friends, the word got out and soon there were citizens from all over Wasatch County joining them.

    Cheryl Karl, one of the two founders of Defending Wasatch Back, shared that they started holding Monday rallies in front of the Wasatch County Administration building as a way for people to express their concerns to the public and County Council. “We asked people to leave their president flags supporting whoever they were voting for at home. We said no Trump flags, no Biden flags. This is just an American thing. We asked that members of the community bring their American flags, and any signs supporting whatever they felt strongly about.”

    The group meets every Monday during the general County Council meetings to offer support for those presenting before the council; they ask for cars to honk, as a reminder that the people of Wasatch County are here, want to be represented, and involved in decision-making processes. The goal of Defending Wasatch Back is, “. . . to gather like-minded people who are willing to take action.” Cheryl shared that, “We don’t want to sit around just shaking our heads, saying someone should do something, [we] want to make sure that people who join us are willing to write emails, got to rallies, go to peaceful protests, do something about the problem; not just shake their heads.”

    Currently, Defending Wasatch Back has combined forces with the Wasatch 2A Sanctuary group in support of making Wasatch County a Second Amendment Sanctuary. What does that mean? In a nutshell, a Second Amendment sanctuary is a state, county, or locality in the United States that has adopted laws or resolutions that oppose the enforcement of certain gun control measures. As of March 1, 2021, sanctuarycounties.com reports that there are 1,188 2A sanctuary counties, either through resolutions or ordinances, across more than 20 states. Noah Davis states on their site, “As politicians attempt to use tragedies to take rights away from law-abiding citizens, more than 37% of U.S. counties have been declared Second Amendment Sanctuaries. The Second Amendment Sanctuary Movement has kicked into high gear since the election and shows no signs of slowing down.” In Utah, Uinta County was the first to become a 2A Sanctuary county, followed by several others like; Utah, Wayne, and Weber, just to name a few.

    Gary Hughes a member of both Defending Wasatch Back and Wasatch 2A Sanctuary explained, “What the whole Second Amendment Sanctuary Movement is about, nationally, is sending a message to Washington that the Second Amendment is still important to us, we still want it, we still need it, and we’re not going to tolerate infringement of it. It’s a way for citizens of Wasatch County who largely feel ignored by their representatives at the federal level – their congressmen and senators – to be heard.”

    In August of 2020, Sandra Hughes and Ryan Hobbs started the Wasatch 2A Sanctuary group and approached City Council regarding Wasatch County adopting and putting into place a 2A ordinance. According to Sandra, the meeting went really well, there was no opposition from anyone present, and they were asked to put together a committee of council members and citizens. She explained that “the purpose of the committee is not to decide whether or not there should be a 2A ordinance – that is for the vote. The purpose of the committee is to decide on the verbiage of the ordinance.” Kendall Crittenden is the head of the committee and has worked closely with Sherriff Rigby, Mark Nelson – the County Attorney’s Representative, and committee members to create a draft that will be presented and read to the public during the County Council’s general meeting on Wednesday, April 21st at 3:00 pm. You can jump onto Wasatch County’s site: https://docs.wasatch.utah.gov/OnBaseAgendaOnline/Meetings/ViewMeeting and download a PDF of the proposed ordinance.

    Gary explained the difference between an Ordinance and a Resolution and why the wording of the document put forth for a vote is important. An Ordinance has the force and effect of a law whereas a resolution is simply a formal expression of an opinion and holds no weight. There are a lot of misconceptions out there as to what the 2A ordinance would do. Many people believe it is a way to try and get around state gun laws. That is not true. Hughes describes it quite succinctly, “As Sherriff Rigby, and the citizen’s committee has written it. The ordinance prevents county money from being spent in any enforcement of federal law as it pertains to the Second Amendment. It also prevents the county in the future from entering into a written agreement with any federal agency to do that same thing. That’s it.” He continued by stating “The ordinance also states that this does not preclude the Sherriff’s office from enforcing state law in any form. So every state-level gun law is enforceable and will be enforced by the Sherriff’s office. There is no one; the Sherriff’s office, the county, the committee, anyone that does not want people who commit a crime with a gun to be prosecuted. What we don’t want is for people to become criminals simply because they own a gun. The ordinance is clearly written with the direction of the Sherriff to specifically included state enforcement and prosecution of anyone who violates the law and uses a firearm in a criminal matter.”

    So what does all this have to do with what is going on in front of the administration building? Well . . .  in defense of protecting the Second Amendment, and adding their support for Wasatch County to become a 2A Sanctuary, Defending Wasatch Back has been encouraging citizens to join their rallies, and educate themselves on the matter. Cheryl stated that when Sherriff Rigby was asked, “When was the last time you saw 100 moms standing outside Main Street on a Monday to fight for their gun rights. He said, ‘I’ve never seen this in my entire life.’” Sandra shared that, “. . . having the group out front rallying for us or just demonstrating their support, made me bolder as I went into the meetings,” and Gary, who’s been involved in the gun right fight for nearly 30 years, stated, “I’ve never seen a group of men willing to go out and do something about their rights and individual liberties, as these women are. So, you might say I’m a fan!”

    For those who are not fans – that’s okay too! The world would be a boring place if we all thought the same. Having the privilege of living in a free country though takes work and right now, regardless of individual convictions, no one can deny that our freedoms are under attack. It is important to protect the rights of all and we do that by protecting the Second Amendment which protects the First. If the Second Amendment falls the Bill of Rights and the Constitution will follow. It is up to all of us, as citizens of the United State of America, and as citizens of Wasatch County to bring our differing opinions to the table and come to unifying agreements (even if that means agreeing to disagree) through respectful, free, and open debate.

    Hughes, I believe says it best, “I think that people who oppose this, you know they think that we’re a bunch of antigovernment wackjobs, that we’re militia people, that we’re domestic terrorists. You know all these things that the media has labeled anyone who doesn’t agree with [their narrative] . . . people have been conditioned to dehumanize us. . .  I mean it’s scary . . . all we are asking for with this ordinance is for the county to tell the world that we won’t participate in this. And that we believe in the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment is for everyone! It’s for the left, it’s for the right, it’s for brown people, it’s for white people, it’s for gays, it’s for straights, transgendered, it’s for everybody. The Bill of Rights is universal. It’s not selective. I want to protect all people’s rights just as much as my own.  I’ve always kind of taken this position in my life that if I allow the government to do something to someone just because I disagree with them, then they’re going to do it to me too. And I don’t want that. I’ll stand up for those causes, but for some reason, we’ve been conditioned to think that every infringement is okay as long as it’s for guns, and that’s really a sad thing. I wouldn’t dream of taking someone’s First Amendment rights. That seems to be the domain of other people, the silencing of other’s opinions and all that, I find it amazing that some people consider the Second Amendment or the Bill of Rights a divisive issue because it’s not to me – it’s a universal right – it’s for everyone.”

    Join other community members this Wednesday, April 21st at 3:00 pm at the Wasatch County Administration Building, 25 N Main Street Heber City, to learn more about Wasatch County becoming a 2A sanctuary and to have your voice be heard. After all in Cheryl’s words, “When we say that someone has to do something, that person is me, and you, and everyone around us, we have to look in the mirror and say no one is going to do this for us. We have to do it!”

    Interested in learning more? Visit the following: Wasatch County 2A Sanctuary Facebook page, Utah Business Revival Facebook Page, www.takeactionforfreedom.com, www.sanctuarycounties.com, and www.defendingutah.com. You can also join one of over 50 Thursday groups that meet, every Thursday all over the state to talk about concerns. Information for these groups can be found on several of the above sites.

  • Utah Governor Announces Vaccine Eligibility for All Adults

    Utah Governor Announces Vaccine Eligibility for All Adults

    Utah Governor Spencer Cox has announced that adults throughout Utah will be able to schedule Covid-19 vaccinations beginning on March 24th. In addition, the Pfizer vaccine will be available to those ages 16 to 18. It is the only vaccine approved so far for the younger age group.

    The vaccination expansion was announced sooner than expected. This was partly due to requests from local health departments. As the state races to provide vaccinations to underserved populations, such as the homeless and other groups, mobile units often provide those vaccines.

    According to Cox, the process is slowed in those areas by requiring eligibility factors. Furthermore, about 15% of appointments for next week have not yet been filled. Expanding the offerings to all adults will allow faster and less complicated vaccinations.

    To achieve “herd immunity,” where vaccinated individuals can provide significant protection for those who are unvaccinated, 70% to 90% of the population must receive the vaccine. Herd immunity through vaccinations have already successfully controlled diseases such as smallpox, polio, and many others.

    Cox mentioned that Utah is 6th in the nation for giving vaccinations and has currently given over one million vaccinations. “I want to encourage people that are eligible right now . . . to continue to schedule those vaccines,” he said.

    “As always,” Cox continued, “I want to encourage people to please be patient. The phone lines might be jammed, and servers might be backed up. And again, there won’t be enough doses in the state for everyone for a few weeks. But we are heading in the right direction.”

    He also discussed Covid counts and that numbers are going down drastically overall. The Governor reemphasized that the State mask mandate will continue until April 10th. Mask wearing will still be required in schools beyond that date. “The good news for everyone is case counts are really low,” he said.

  • Heber City Mayor gives State of the City Address

    Heber City Mayor gives State of the City Address

    Heber City Mayor Kelleen Potter gave her State of the City address in a live broadcast on March 10, 2021. Beginning with a short video, she displayed a quote from the Salt Lake Tribune that stated, ‘For the second year in a row, Heber ranked No. 1 for growth among the country’s smaller ‘micropolitan areas,’ with populations between 10,000  and 50,000.” 2020 estimates put Heber’s population just above 18,500. By 2050, projections have over 30,000 people living within Heber City’s limits.

    Mayor Potter started out by discussing Heber’s history. She told the story of Chief Tabby and settler Joseph Murdock, who signed a treaty of friendship in 1867.

    An overview of Heber’s current financial state was presented and several challenges were mentioned. These included Covid and the significant increase in cost of living. According to Potter, the MLS showed only two Heber City active listings under $600,000. “This is a significant challenge. As housing prices continue to increase faster than salaries, we have to consider what happens in the future when our workforce can’t afford to live here,” she said.

    Potter also discussed dealing with growth, traffic, and the demand for homes in Heber City.

    In addition, the mayor explained some issues and solutions for the North Village area, parks and the cemetery, and local trails, the airport, and the bypass.

    She quoted Stephen R. Covey, saying, ‘The best way to predict your future is to create it.’ “Our solutions to these problems are not reactive. We’re not waiting for things to happen to us, but we are being proactive and planning for the future,” she stated.

    The mayor mentioned several requirements the City would like to include for developments annexing in from the North Village. These include cluster development, more open space, dark sky requirements, parks and trails, and a required donation to help preserve the North Fields.

    Mayor Potter also announced a new citizen leadership program to teach about how the City functions. The program is planned to start in the fall, with more information to come.

    “In following the earliest Heber example set by our original local and move-in, Chief Tabby and Bishop Murdock, we must continue to welcome newcomers, find common ground in our shared humanity and deep love of the Heber Valley, and work through our differences to coexist in peace and prosperity,” she stated.

    A video of the entire speech is available at https://www.heberut.gov/321/State-of-Heber-City.

  • Food of the Gods

    Food of the Gods

    Chocolate (n.)
    A delicious cure for a bad day.

    What is it about chocolate? According to Robbie Stout and Anna Davies, owners of Ritual Chocolate in Charleston, it’s a lot of things! The two business partners recently moved their chocolate-making factory and café to the Heber Valley. And they want to invite everyone to experience their unique flavors and chocolate-making process.

    The café opened for business in October of 2020 and was the culmination of a 10-year journey. Stout is originally from Midway, UT, and Davies comes from Essex, England, although her mother is American. After Anna finished University she went to Colorado to spend time with her mom. “I met Robbie, and we started talking about chocolate,” she said. “I think really it was just a progression. We had the idea in Boulder, but neither of us really knew much about chocolate.”

    Stout shared, “The first motivation was we wanted to start a chocolate company and have our own brand and have chocolate bars — because it sounded like fun. But then, immediately, when we were looking into it, we learned about how difficult the process is to make it, and how important single origin can be, and [the importance of] where you get your cacao from. We could’ve just made a brand and had somebody else make it, but there was just so much opportunity to do something different if we made it ourselves.”

    They decided to learn how to source their own cacao and create something totally different from anything else out there. “So, that’s the path we chose,” Robbie explained, “which is the difficult path, because it’s expensive to have the machinery, it’s expensive to make it, and it’s hard to source the cacao from everywhere and trust that supply.”

    Anna recalled, “We just started really small . . . in a tiny little studio, we bought some equipment, and we were just making it in our studio. It was really fun in the beginning to just have random beans that we’d mess around with.” They began with a $5.00 budget, and grew from there, eventually renting a small chocolate factory in Denver. A man at the factory taught them some basics about the process and the equipment. They have since modified the experience into their own original process.

    Stout and Davies moved to Utah because they both loved the mountains and enjoy activities such as mountain biking, Nordic skiing, hiking, and backcountry skiing. They opened a successful café and factory in Park City but outgrew it. Although the café in Park City remains open and is currently being expanded, Ritual Chocolate has moved the entire production facility to its Heber Valley location, along with a second café.

    The chocolate produced at Ritual is shipped to over 800 stores around the country, with about 1,000 bars a day heading out from the Heber Valley. The delicacies include such varied flavors as Honeycomb Toffee, Juniper Lavender, and Pine Nut Chocolate. And for a pure chocolate experience, there are single-origin bars, which allow the different flavors of regional cacao beans to shine through, such as Ecuador, Belize, and Mexico bars. Each region’s cacao beans have evolved into a distinctive taste. The Madagascar bar, for example, has natural “tasting notes” of raspberry, citrus, and peanut. The Peru bar has a floral, herbal, toasted peanuts, and stone fruit taste.

    Stout explained why the chocolate tastes are so different. “Obviously cacao doesn’t know national boundaries, but depending on where you are, the local cacao will have had its own history and relationship to people. Like in Mexico, that area was farmed for about 4,000 years with cacao, so there was selective breeding happening just through what people wanted to eat. [They would] pick from that tree and not the others because it tasted better, and [they would] plant seeds from that tree because they tasted better.” He continued, “Over time, some regions got better just because of the amount of time that people were eating cacao. Some of the more wild areas, that haven’t had as much time, still have good cacao, but it hasn’t been through that same process. And there’s been a lot of breeding now through selective breeding. There are hundreds of varieties now.”

    The owners work with several carefully selected farms to ensure that they are purchasing quality cacao from heirloom trees. They also are particular about the farming practices, using only those farms that harvest, ferment, and dry their beans properly.

    There are only about four companies making 70% of the world’s chocolate. These large companies use high quantity, but poor-quality, beans. To hide the bad flavor, the beans are over-roasted. Any nuances in the beans are then gone, so the companies will add artificial vanilla, cheap oils, emulsifiers, sugar, and milk to disguise the taste of bad cacao. This cacao generally comes from West Africa, and the only thing that matters is the weight. The farms will harvest it early, ferment and dry it quickly, and ship it off to keep the price low. The entire business model is to strip out as much bad flavor as possible using high heat and a lot of processing.

    Ritual Chocolate, on the other hand, tries to maintain the flavor of their high-quality beans. “We definitely push to have the smoothest texture that we can. . . . If anything, our process is very gentle because we’re really not trying to take flavors out, were trying to keep it all in and keep the chocolate really smooth,” said Davies. “We barely even roast the beans. It’s more like a light toasting.”

    “Our definition of success with the product itself is we want to get as much of that original flavor through our whole process into the final bar.”

    “We’re trying to not lose any of that so that people can actually taste what the cacao tastes like — which is the complete opposite goal from these bigger brands,” explained Stout.

    The name Ritual Chocolate is a reminder of history. “It was a bit of a call back to the history of cacao, and how it ties into the ceremonies and rituals that the Mayans and Aztecs used chocolate in,” said Davies. The Mayans and Aztecs made a drink with the cacao, after adding spices, maize, and water. “It was considered this really powerful drink that could give you strength and would sustain you all day,” added Stout. “When they used it in ceremonies it was also symbolic of lifeblood.” The cacao beans were even used as currency! The Latin classification name means “food of the Gods.”

    Davies and Stout want to share their love of chocolate through the new café and shop. Customers can get coffee, lunch, or a light breakfast for now. “Once Covid is not as big of a threat, we’ll open up our private tasting room here for classes and tours, where we can actually bring people in. We hope that this will be another destination in the Heber Valley for families and everyone from around the area,” said Stout.

    “We hope people will come out here to check the café out, because really we want it to be a community space,” offered Davies. “Our vision and our hope is that tours aside, in the summer if people come up here to go to the lake or they have a Saturday free that they’ll pop in and have sort of a different experience. We have fun, different offerings, and this is somewhere people can bring friends. We want it to be a destination for people.”

    What is it about chocolate? Head on over to Ritual Chocolate and discover for yourself how it’s a lot of things!

  • 2020 Year-End Real Estate Market Recap

    2020 Year-End Real Estate Market Recap

    I know, I know! Why would we want to revisit 2020 when we are so glad to be over it and pushing ahead for a better 2021? I don’t know about you, but I want my rear-view mirror to have cute little bobbles dangling from it instead of my assortment of face masks.

    Regardless, 2020 as it pertains to Utah Real Estate is something to marvel at. It’s nothing like we have ever seen. Low available inventory, record home sales, record sold prices, and exponential homebuilding increases.

    Utah has had the fastest growth rate over the last decade (April 2010 thru July 2020) per the U.S. Census, and 2020 didn’t slow us down.

    Have you noticed an influx of California license plates? Well, our new neighbors are coming from places like California, New York, and Chicago. I myself am a transplant. I was a Broker in Brentwood, California, lived in LA and Orange counties for over 13 years, then Uptown Dallas for 4.5 years before making my permanent home in our beautiful state of Utah. I have to admit that when I would hear about Utah, I didn’t understand the attraction. Then I spent more and more time here and realized it is addicting! I am all about lifestyle. I sell homes but more importantly, if I am doing my job well, I pinpoint my client’s vision of what their perfect way of life looks like as it pertains to their new sought-after surroundings. We can be attracted to many styles of living, but new areas open up unique possibilities with more ways to dream.

    For those that have lived in Utah a long time, especially here in the Wasatch Back, you may be asking yourself, “How do we co-exist with these transplants moving in droves to our state?” How will they change the dynamics here? Well, I hope they do what I did; learn to appreciate the rich history of our area. Strive to preserve it, its legacy, and the incredible men and women who shaped it. Don’t try to change it. It’s so cliché-ish for a big city person to see a local mom-and-pop shop on Main Street in Heber and maybe snicker a little or wonder why Target hasn’t bought it out yet! Okay, maybe I have even done that. However, when you get to know the local business owners and their incredible stories, that’s when the magic really happens. That’s when you grow a bit of pride in your new home. There are so many nuggets of gold to discover if you allow yourself to explore and see your new home with less judgment and more appreciation.

    HIGHLIGHTS

    • U.S. homebuilding and permits increased solidly in November
    • Housing starts rose 1.2% in November
    • Single-family starts have increased for 7 straight months & hit the highest level since April 2007
    • Building permits increased 6.2% in November with multi-family housing projects rising 19.2%
    • Homebuilding has surged 12.8% on a year-over-year basis
    • The housing market is defying showing economic growth, thanks to pent-up demand & historically low mortgage rates

    Information provided by: https://www.cnbc.com

  • Painting With Inspiration

    Painting With Inspiration

    When talent is cultivated and risks are taken masterpieces are created. When those masterpieces are discovered and treasured by millions worldwide – that is something truly extraordinary. Greg Olsen knows what it is to cultivate and take risks – to create his own inimitable path. Sharing his talent for art Greg Olsen has created something truly extraordinary as his masterpieces continue to inspire lives around the world.

    ARTISTIC FOUNDATIONS

    Olsen grew up in the rural town of Iona, Idaho. There were no art galleries or museums there, so he credits some of his artistic talents to the family genes. His mom painted landscapes, and his dad worked with graphics. He also has uncles, cousins, and a brother who are artists. Olsen enjoyed being in the outdoors. He lived next to his grandparents’ farm and would spend his time sketching the barn and the animals. “Because there was not a lot of stuff to do for entertainment, I think drawing just became a form of entertaining myself,” he said. In high school, he had an exceptional art teacher who was very influential for many students. “He was really impactful, and I was lucky to have him,” Olsen remembered. After high school, he attended Utah State University and studied illustration. While at USU he met his wife, Sydnie Cazier. Eventually, he left school and took a job as an in-house artist, creating signs and murals and whatever else was needed.

    A casual lunch with an old friend one day would leave a lasting influence. The friend asked him, “If you could do whatever you wanted to do, what would that be?” Olsen replied, “Really, I’d like to just quit my job and paint whatever I want.” His friend inquired how much the Olsen’s rent was. When he stated that his rent was only $197 a month, the friend told him that it would never get any easier to focus on art. Realizing they’d never have rent that low again Greg and Sydnie made a life-changing decision. “He kind of got us psyched up, and I quit my job and just started painting. We’d saved enough to live for maybe a couple of months without income.”

    This friend’s father was a wealthy doctor, who also wanted to encourage Olsen’s art. He offered to host an art show for him. “I painted like crazy, and I framed up all my old college art assignments,” Olsen said. “They got all their friends and neighbors, you know, ‘please show up for this poor kid. You don’t have to buy anything, just come and be a body here!’ And it was a really nice show.” Olsen recalled that they printed up some nice invitations and had refreshments catered. “We sold enough to pay for those nice refreshments and nice invitations, and that was it,” he laughed. “I probably had 40 or 50 things, but they were weird things, like school assignments. Not something most people would want to put above their sofa in their house! It was a depressing week after that show. I thought, ‘What have I done? I’ve quit my job!’”

    But, unbeknownst to Olsen, the wheels were already turning. A week or so later, he received a call from someone who had seen his work at the art show. The man offered him a commission. Olsen took it on, and that sent him down a new path for the next decade. He did commissions and all sorts of paintings. He moved to Arizona for five years and spent some time painting western art. Eventually, he partnered with a publisher and began doing prints. “That helped because our income wasn’t dependent upon just selling every original that I painted,” explained Olsen.

    One of his biggest motivations to get through the first part of his career was the fact that there was absolutely no backup plan. He told of a time when nothing was selling, and his house was nearing foreclosure. He considered getting a “real job.” He and his wife went to the grocery store to buy a newspaper, and they looked through the want ads. “After about half an hour doing that, we realized I wasn’t qualified to do anything! So, Syd said, ‘Well, get back in there and paint something that will sell.’
    Somehow it worked out, but, you know, those were scary times,” he recalled.

    He laughed; however when talking about his beginnings. “My first studio at home, after I was married, was the kitchen table. And then it progressed to the baby’s bedroom. I built a partition 7 feet high in the middle of the bedroom, and I painted a fairy tale scene on one side for the baby. The other side was a 4×8 foot cubicle that was my studio. And if I was working late hours at night, and the baby was asleep, I had a giant quilt that I’d put over the top so the light wouldn’t wake the baby. So, I was in this little fort, like I’d make as a kid. And that was my studio!”

    DIVINE OPPORTUNITIES

    In 1988, another influential moment transpired. The couple now had four children; the youngest was 6 months old. A friend, who had purchased some paintings, asked if Olsen could get a babysitter. He said he could, thinking the friend wanted to go to dinner. Instead, Olsen and his wife were invited to go to Israel with the other couple. “They wanted to take Sydnie and me with them, and they would pay for the whole thing,” said Olsen. “We couldn’t have afforded to go. My friend said, ‘I think you need to see that part of the world. It might influence your art,’” Olsen remembered. “Going over there really did have an influence on me.”

    While on the trip, Olsen climbed the Mount of Olives. This sparked the idea for one of his most popular paintings, ‘O Jerusalem.’ “I painted it in our windowless, unfinished basement in Provo. There were cobwebs and stuff, and I had little light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. And I was okay there,” he said. “But then I had a collector come to see some paintings. He was a big Amway rich guy from Alpine, and he had gold chains and rings and drove a huge Cadillac, and he wanted to see some work. So, I took him downstairs into this basement. The ceiling was low, and our oldest daughter had just been given a rabbit from her boyfriend . . .  and if you don’t change a rabbit cage every day . . . so there’s this rabbit hutch in our basement with this,” he laughed. “Anyway, I took him down to look at some paintings, and he asked how much one was, and he just looked around like ‘what do you do with the money, buddy, cause this is like a dungeon.’ He didn’t buy anything. He left, and afterward, Syd said, ‘Greg, maybe you need to think about looking a little more professional.’” After that, they built a studio behind the house in Provo.

    Although Olsen knew his galleries wouldn’t carry religious paintings, he painted them anyway. “It kind of took on a life of its own. I didn’t say, ‘I want to be a Christian artist,’ but it was just fascinating subject matter to me.”

    Olsen also continued to create Western art, in addition to paintings of families and children, based on his own life at the time.

    On a whim, his publisher selected one of Olsen’s Christian “inspirational pieces” to print – and it sold out. The publisher was thrilled and started a whole new division to produce Christian art! That first successful Christian painting set Olsen on a path to touch the lives of people around the globe. “I grew up with images of Jesus that were a little harsh, and that just wasn’t my concept. So, I was trying to do something that was a little more approachable, and maybe that resonated with some people,” Olsen explained. “I’ve used 10 or 12 different models as a starting point. You know, someone I can dress in a costume and pose and light a certain way. And then, I use my own thoughts and feelings, and creativity to morph that model into what I think of as a symbol of, in this case, Jesus. So, I don’t consider myself portraying him even accurately,” he continued. “I try to capture my feelings about that subject and hope that other people won’t get too caught up in the definiteness of my brush strokes. I hope it will just be a springboard. If they’re a Christian, they can still think of Him [Jesus] in their own personal way.”

    Olsen admitted that his spiritual subject matter can be a bit overwhelming at times. “It’s so daunting. How do you do justice to what people think of as a divine subject matter?” He told about a time he felt “paralyzed” from attempting to portray something that was so beyond the capabilities of his regular tools and supplies from the art store. “And then I had this real peaceful thought come to me one day, which was like, ‘Greg, just relax about it. Just have fun. Give it your best shot. You’re never going to create the perfect painting, so you might as well just have fun each day when you stand in front of that easel. And if you’re enjoying it, there will be somebody somewhere who might also enjoy it.’ And that was enough for me. And since then, I’ve tried to just enjoy what I do.”

    Fortunately, there are people everywhere who also enjoy his art. But Olsen doesn’t take credit for the emotions his paintings evoke. “In this genre, you get extremes. Some people are irate that you would try to portray Jesus, and it’s really gratifying if someone connects to it. But I’ve learned a long time ago to try not to take criticism too personally, or praise too personally,” he said. “My mom would like everything I did, and half the time she’d be wrong, you know, it just wasn’t that good. And then there are people who will never like what you do. I’ve had to separate myself a little bit from that.” Olsen continued, “We all like a pat on the back or to hear a nice story that something’s been helpful, and I really do appreciate those. But I think sometimes, especially with pieces with Jesus in them, people bring a lot more to the piece than I could actually put into it. In other words, it may just trigger a special experience in them that maybe has more to do with them, than the image they’re looking at. Because someone else can look at the same image, and it has a totally different effect.”

    He explained further. “Music, for example, kind of just sweeps you away and takes you wherever it wants you to go. I mean it’s so immediate. In painting, I’ve noticed, the person has to slow down. They kind of have to give something to the piece, their time, some mental energy, some thoughts, ponder it a little bit. And if people are willing to do that, then it often gives back in some way. Or it is a vehicle to have a unique experience. But I think that often says as much about the viewer as the artwork.”

    His personal favorite is a painting he created for himself of his wife, Sydnie. “It’s kind of a sentimental favorite because, as well as I knew her, I hadn’t ever spent days painting her and just looking at her. She posed for me live, and it was an intimate thing to just stare at her all day long, and we had nice conversations. Modeling’s hard, so she’s actually painted as though she’s asleep because she was asleep some of the time,” he laughed.

    ART AS LIFE

    Through the years the Olsen family has grown. They now have 6 children and 17 grandchildren. After raising their family in Provo, they wanted to find a new place to call home. While searching for their perfect place, Sydnie told Greg she’d ‘know it when she sees it’. It’s no surprise they chose the Heber Valley. They have lived here for several years now, and they love it. “We’ve just thoroughly enjoyed it here,” Olsen said. “Everyone’s been so nice. And the energy is different. If you drive up the canyon from Provo, which has become so busy, and you come out of the canyon, it’s like my blood pressure goes down. It’s just felt wonderful to be here.”

    Our valley’s unique environment has seeped into his artwork. “Moving into this studio has kind of changed my color palette because I have more light here than I’ve had before,” he explained. “In Provo, we were right up against the mountains, but so close that we didn’t see a sunrise for 30 years. We had trees, and I could never really see the sky. . . . Here it’s changed that. I’ve noticed my color palette has changed from kind of earthy, Rembrandt tones to brighter.”

    His innovative studio also includes one special feature that is a favorite of the grandkids. “When I was a little kid, we had big cottonwood trees, and we always had a rope swing in them,” he said. “When I was planning this studio, I knew it would have really high ceilings,” Olsen added a swing in the middle of the studio that stretches down from the over-25-foot-high ceiling. “We made the swing high enough to clear the furniture, and I put in this little step. And I do get in it occasionally. It just releases endorphins, ‘cause I just start grinning and feel goofy, like a kid. And I can look at my paintings, and it allows me to get close, and then far back.” He even has a little bucket swing he can swap in when the youngest grandkids visit.

    Olsen is appreciative of all those who have helped him to achieve success, especially his wife, Sydnie. “Syd has been wonderful!” he said. “If I would be down, she would be up, and we helped each other. We’ve had lots of people be very helpful and generous, and collectors have been so supportive. I still pinch myself; because nobody needs art like they need food or anything like that, so I kind of marvel that they’ll spend their hard-earned dollars to help my family.”

    When asked if he has any advice for young artists, Olsen said, “I think I’ve had the most enjoyment just kind of following my heart, doing what I like to do. So, if someone has artistic interests, pick a subject matter you enjoy that’s fulfilling for you. Try to learn your craft as best you can, but then just do it,” he encouraged. “I mean, I was not always great at art. The first grade I got in my high school art class was a C minus. And I was all depressed about that, but I just stuck with it and just always believed that if I worked hard, that some good things might happen. So, practice, practice, practice. Get sketchbooks and fill them up and find some heroes in the artistic field . . . and practice emulating them.”

    So where does he go from here? Greg Olsen has already achieved the kind of accomplishments that most artists only dream about. “I spent one summer,” he said, “where I’d get up early and start working on something, and I’d say at the end of the day I’m going to sign my name, and it’s done. And I did a whole series of pieces like that, and I had a blast that summer. I’m thinking now I might like to try something just for fun again.”

  • Goochy Goo BBQ

    Goochy Goo BBQ

    Ten years ago Heatherly Stanley bought her husband Steve a smoker — because smoking meat was a bit of a hobby — and he wanted to see what he could do. And, oh boy, did he discover what he could do! Steve became a master of the BBQ! Fast forward to today and you’ll find Steve and Heatherly are still smoking up a storm. The dynamic duo’s restaurant, Goochy Goo BBQ, is a local favorite right on Main. But it didn’t happen overnight.

    What do a hobby, an intuitive wife, a grandchild, and the desire to serve, have to do with one of the most popular restaurants in Wasatch County? Put your feet up, kick back, and let me tell you.

    Steve Stanley loved smoking meats as a hobby. Smoking is a similar process to barbequing — if you were to take your thirty-minute meal and turn it into an all-day event. The process involves cooking the meat at a lower temperature for a longer time over a specific wood. Steve explained, “You can use any wood, but we use fruit woods like cherry or apple to create a sweeter flavor.” The longer you smoke it the more flavorful the meat is. “That’s why it says on our sign, ‘smoked low and slow.’ It’s a process.”

    Heatherly understood Steve’s desire to experiment and do more with his passion, so she intuitively bought him a smoker. Now Steve would be able to go ‘hog wild’ with his meat-creations. You know the saying, “If you bake it — they will come”? Well, Steve ‘smoked it — and they came!” At first, the Stanley’s were asked to cater a few events, but you can’t keep that much goodness to yourself, and word travels fast in our small town. Things were about to get busy for this hardworking couple. While participating in the Heber Valley Market Steve and Heatherly were asked if they’d like to cook for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Pioneer Trek. They said yes, of course, and packed up their smoker for its first service project.

    Pioneer Trek is a summer activity where Latter-Day Saint youth, leaders, and families, reenact the journey of the Pioneer hand-cart companies in the late fall and winter of 1856. Dressed in Pioneer clothing, they pull, push, and trek their way through various landscapes, in rain, shine, or the occasional snowstorm, for several days to a week. It is not an easy, laid-back vacation; it’s a lot of work, and there are moments of literal blood, sweat, and tears. And not just for those walking. Just visualizing the Stanley’s doing all the prepping, cooking, and clean up of full hearty meals three times a day for 100+ people for a week makes me tired! The Stanley’s loved their experience! Their sweet service-oriented souls even drove into town one particularly hot and windy day to purchase fifteen watermelons for their Trek family. This commitment, desire to serve, and genuine love for others, is easy for anyone who knows them to see and is probably the unseen extra ‘ingredient’ that helped them as they began their next Trek into the unknown world of ‘restauranteers’.

    After Trek the Stanley’s jumped right back into the ‘smoke of things’ catering large events, feeding school districts and employees of Home Depot, and attending local events, just to name a few. Speaking of names. By this time it became apparent that the next step for the Stanley’s was to go into the business of BBQ. Neither of them had any experience in this arena. Heatherly was and still is an Early Childhood Special Education Teacher for Wasatch County School District, and Steve was an Assistant Director of Engineering in the field of Hospitality. Steve decided to quit his full-time job and the two of them created Goochy Goo BBQ. The name holds a special place in the Stanley family’s hearts. When Steve’s grandson, Tyson, was three years old he would tickle his grandpa under his chin, and giggle while saying, “Goochy goochy goo!” Steve laughs as he shares, “My kids and grandkids started calling me Daddy Goochy and Grandpa Goochy. When it was time to name the business, it was really simple. Goochy Goo rhymes with BBQ, so it was a natural fit!”

    The couple invested in a trailer and created their first menu and home for Goochy Goo BBQ. “We had to find a place to prep all the food for the trailer. We created a partnership with Ridley’s to produce and sell out of their Midway location. We got so busy there that we had no time to take the trailer out.” Steve said. In a short time, the Stanley’s went from attending Swiss Days to moving into their new space, connected to the Chevron on Main, in August of 2020. “It’s one of the things that just fell into place,” Steve says.

    Steve and Heatherly now create meals for thousands. Steve is living his dream barbequing all day long and into the evening. “I smoke meat for fourteen hours a day. I’m usually at the restaurant from seven in the morning until nine in the evening.” Everything is made in-house and the recipes are created by Steve himself. “We make our own meats, rubs, sauces — I don’t make the ketchup though,” Steve laughs. “We usually smoke our meats overnight and they are ready for the next day,” says Steve. “When we sell out, we’re out — it’s not like I can go in the back freezer and cook more up.” At times they do sell out, and it happens more often than not. This is because each item on their menu features Steve’s meats: from his nacho-like Scoops to the Hot Mess to his Signature Sandwich, each one is created by hand using the freshest ingredients. The servings are also huge and most of the time people will eat half and the rest will go home for a midnight snack.

    Steve and Heatherly have created a name and reputation for themselves and not just here in Utah. Steve shared a story about a couple of ‘foodies’ who visited Goochy Goo from Idaho and Texas. They told him that they had stopped for a bite to eat after reading some of the stellar reviews the restaurant had received. Steve sat down with them and chatted, like he tries to do with every customer, and got to know them. “People really love his personality,” Heatherly says, “One of my nephews said, ‘did you know Steve has a six-hour aura? Like, you just feel really good after you’ve been around him and it continues with you for the next six hours.’” If they could bottle up Steve’s personality and make it into a restaurant — they’ve done it. Steve says their goal is for people to feel comfortable with coming over, getting a good meal, and relaxing. “We want to create a fun, nice place where people feel at home the moment [customer’s] walk through the door of our restaurant…that’s one of the things we love about this place,” Steve said about his new location.

    The location has been great and the restaurant has grown rapidly from its grand opening in August to now. This has created amazing learning opportunities and developments for growth for the business and the menu. The couple has learned so much about how to run their business while offering an evolving menu at a reasonable price. “It can be difficult smoking meats. If you’re doing it for your home, you can babysit and play with it. However, when you take it to a commercial level, it’s more complicated. It’s a constant challenge to keep the quality up while making it profitable. We are still new to it and hope people are understanding. Our goal is to keep moving along, improving, and making our customers happy.”

    Steve and Heatherly have a lot of ideas and goals for Goochy Goo BBQ. They recently started expanding their menu by adding street tacos, and continue to ensure they create a menu that caters to everyone; including options of gluten-free to keto. In the near future expect to see a breakfast menu featuring all of the smoked meats mixed with your breakfast favorites, and a drive-thru to optimize guest convenience. “One day at a time, one idea at a time,” Steve says about their upcoming changes. When asked what the big-picture future of Goochy Goo BBQ is, Steve’s response was quick: “Everyone’s dream is to have a big…whatever. I don’t care if I have three hundred Goochy Goo’s out there. My dream is to have something to leave my kids.”

    TAILGATING SEASON

    In case you’re wondering what happened to the food trailer, well — as soon as the weather turns warm and Steve sets up his outdoor grill, people come from near and far to get one of his gourmet burgers.

    Alongside his hype-worthy burgers, his BBQ menu is in full swing. Goochy Goo draws events that are worth stopping by; including many exotic car shows and other community events throughout the summer.

    MUST TRY

    Goochy Goo’s most popular burger is the Goochy’s Peanut Butter Burger. Loaded with pickled onions, bacon, cheese, peanut butter, and a few extra special and secret ingredients, it’s a specialty people have claimed to dream about.

  • Golf in the Wasatch

    Golf in the Wasatch

    Once again, it’s that time of year. The remnants of the black snow are melting leaving odds and ends of buried treasures, or bits of trash on the curbs. The birds chirp a little louder in the mornings. And blades of grass are popping up along the fairways. It’s Spring. It’s golf. It’s time.

    “Golf…is the infallible test. The man who can go into a patch of rough alone, with the knowledge that only God is watching him, and play his ball where it lies, is the man who will serve you faithfully and well”. – P.G.Wodehouse

    Perhaps you were lucky enough to spend the winter with John Paupore, the Director of Golf at Red Ledges. While Red Ledges is a private course, the winter indoor school he runs is open to everyone. The school offers both group and private instruction, and a variety of clinic programs. During the colder months you can stay warm and enjoy the scenery while you practice your shots inside; hitting balls through two garage doors that are open to the snow-covered course.

    John, a golfer since his dad put a putter in his hands at the age of seven, is feeling the opening day magic start to build. While a day on the course in spring is particularly weather-dependent, John has a smile in his voice as he talks about the start of a new season as a “rebirth of everything.” February is when everyone starts to get ready for it all to begin again. He is ready.

    There will be a concern about carts this Spring. As sanitation and safety have come to the top of everyone’s list, the four golf courses in the Heber Valley — Red Ledges, Soldier Hollow, Wasatch State Park Golf Course, and The Homestead — have all adopted special procedures to ensure golfers are comfortable.

    Chris Stover, the golf pro at Wasatch Park, knows golfers are concerned about COVID. He emphasizes Wasatch is in compliance with all state guidelines. He believes “going down the rabbit hole” to revamp his business model during last year’s pandemic season has paid off for both patrons and staff. Masks are on when in the building but not mandatory on the course. Carts are washed and sanitized; tee times are spread out to allow golfers to be at safe distances while waiting to tee off.

    Spring brings a new crop of golfers to the Heber Valley courses. While there are always familiar returning golfers, Chris Newson, pro at Soldier Hollow, thinks he will see more golfers this season as everyone has spent the winter cooped up. While the courses in Wasatch County regularly see destination-oriented golfers and those coming from Salt Lake City, Chris anticipates welcoming a new crop of golfers looking to escape the indoors. Work will be starting soon to get both the Gold and Silver courses at Soldier Hollow in shape. For those unfamiliar with the courses; Soldier Hollows Gold Course is a mountain course with significant elevation change throughout the course and within each hole. The Silver Course is a more open, parkland-style course with shorter and wider fairways, and an amazing view of Mount Timpanogos.

    Not only is spring a time to work on your swing, but it is also a time to see old friends and do a little of everyone’s favorite winter sport “bench golfing”. Spring fever ramps up as the PGA Tour starts, and once the winter weather breaks it is full speed ahead.

    Soldier Hollow is a public State-run facility and follows all guidelines and mandates issued by the State for a safe and fun environment. While 2020 was a year in flux, Chris is confident that his teams are well-prepared to meet the new season.

    The start of the golfing season provides a wonderful opportunity to go shopping for: new shirts, new clubs, new shoes and of course a new golf hat. Mike Jurca, head golf pro at The Homestead, is looking forward to the pro shop, cart barn, and locker rooms, receiving a face-lift in the near future. New ownership in the last 15 months has committed to setting The Homestead apart from other public courses. Their goal is to create a high-end experience at a reasonable price for the public course golfer as well as provide a high-end resort experience for guests.

    Even though the weather is hit and miss, Mike says the phone starts ringing towards the latter part of winter. Golfers are looking for opening dates or trying to secure that first tee time before the spring green has sprung.

    How do those greens stay so beautiful? While many of us are still on the ski slopes, the golf courses are getting ready for a spring opening. The main ingredient is not the grass seed. It is the fertilizer and, of course, Mother Nature’s contribution — water. Lots of water. Should everything turn brown, they can always paint. Yes, paint. Many golf courses use paint to deliver better fairway playing conditions while avoiding overseeding and reducing their consumption of water, fertilizer, fuel, and other resources.

    “As you walk down the fairway of life, you must stop and smell the roses, for you only get to play one round.” – Ben Hogan

    You don’t have to go to the Masters in Augusta, GA to smell the roses or view one of the greatest landscaping gifts we’ve ever been given. Each year the majesty and natural landscape of Wasatch County becomes a mecca, drawing thousands of golfers from around the world — this is their place of choice.

    Golf is a game of integrity. And bonding. Friendships made on the green have lasted for decades and lifelong golfing partners have been created on every course. Business deals are solidified. And special bonds between family members are formed.

    It’s Spring. It’s golf. It’s time.

    Time to reconnect and renew. Time to take a lesson. Time to get out on the fairways, take off that mask, and shout “I love this game!”

  • Relationship Renewal

    Relationship Renewal

    Remember the falling? The times you couldn’t wait one more second to see each other. The conversations and hanging on to every word shared. The feeling that there’s no way you’ve known one another for just a couple of months because you feel you’ve known this person forever. Take a moment and remember.

    Falling in love is exhilarating. There’s nothing else like it. Staying in love? Staying in love can sometimes feel more exhausting than exhilarating; however, it can provide an incomparable foundation to build from. A strong relationship can be the source of pushing you to reach your individual potential; it allows great joy in one another and in building a family. And, it promotes growth as you let someone into the innermost workings of your mind and heart. While falling in love may come easy, staying in love and nurturing your relationship takes resilience, trust, and vulnerability. It may not sound romantic, but like anything that’s worthwhile, staying in love takes work.

    While renewing marriage vows on a tropical beach may sound like the best way to boost your relationship, the truth is that the real magic and progress lie in the daily upkeep. Many of you may have found that you had more time than ever together this last year, but time doesn’t always equate to connection and closeness. With a degree in Marriage, Family, and Human Development, here are some ideas I’ve learned along the way to reignite that spark and help your relationship be a renewed source of joy in your life.

    CREATE VISION

    When marriage feels mundane, sometimes all you need is renewed vision. Do you remember when you were dating and had so many dreams for the future? The dating period is such an exciting time to create goals and ideas for what the years ahead will look like. Some of those plans may include children, careers, travel, and contribution. As a relationship matures and many of those initial goals are accomplished or change, it’s easy to lose sight of what you want the future to look like. It also may feel more difficult to accomplish what you want to do. There are likely more pressures and more people counting on you. It’s important as a couple to have some future plans that excite and rejuvenate you. There are several fun ways to create vision as a couple:

    Make a bucket list together. What are some trips you want to take? What are some house projects you want to work on? What are some books you want to read together? What are some financial goals you have? Make your list and hang it up where you can see it often. Take time to review it together periodically.

    • CREATE A VISION BOARD
      Maybe you aren’t the pen-to-paper type and you want more of a visual way to dream for the years ahead. Take magazine cut-outs and print off pictures to represent all of your goals and ideals. Pick a place to display it where you can both look at it regularly.
    • WORK BACKWARD
      Create a statement together of what you want to be said about you at the end of your lives. What accomplishments, traits, and relationships are the most important to you? What do you need to do now to live the life you’ve described? Revisit this statement together each year on your anniversary to see your progress and to set new goals.

    START A NEW HOBBY TOGETHER

    Doing something new is good for the soul and mind. Take a painting class. Arrange a weekly tee time or private golf lesson together. Become workout buddies. Write a book together. Join a bowling league. Make a list of hikes in the area that you want to do. If the first thing you try isn’t a good fit, try something different. Here are some local resources to help you get started:

    • EDUCATE
      Many continuing education courses are offered at the UVU Wasatch Campus. You can do anything from getting scuba certified to learning to garden. Explore their website to find something that interests both of you: uvu.edu/ce/discover.
    • EXPLORE
      The Heber Valley Tourism website has several hiking and biking trails listed by skill level: gohebervalley.com/Trails
    • TEE TIME
      Golf is a great sport for spending time together in a beautiful setting. You can work on your golf game year-round at the Jim McLean Golf School at Red Ledges or sign up for a clinic or lesson at our public courses.

    HAVE A MEANINGFUL CONVERSATION

    When you’ve been together a while, a couple of problems are likely to arise when it comes to communication. The first is that it’s easy to assume you know everything about your partner. It’s important to stay curious and to continue to learn about each other. There’s always more to learn if we ask the right questions and take time to really listen. A second problem is finding time to have a good uninterrupted conversation. I have been frustrated more than once when I’ve been trying to talk to my husband and haven’t been able to finish a conversation over the noise and interference of our kids. Finding time to talk each day is an important part of a connection. Here are some ideas:

    • USE YOUR WORDS
      Set a time aside to talk without distractions. Maybe it’s a chat over morning coffee, a phone call on your lunch break, a few minutes on the couch right after the kids are in bed, or maybe on an evening walk. The time doesn’t matter just so long as both partners are in a mental state where they can engage.
    • GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER, AGAIN
      Need something to talk about? You can find questions tied to intimacy in the New York Times article, “The 36 Questions that Lead to Love.” nytimes.com. Or pick up this great book: Questions for Couples Journal: 400 Questions to Enjoy, Reflect, and Connect with Your Partner by Maggie Reyes.
    • DEVELOP AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE
      Express what you are thankful for each day to your partner. Always be on the lookout for what you appreciate in each other. It’s like the old saying goes, “Water the flowers, not the weeds.”

    GET TOUCHY
    You know those couples that make you cringe with their public displays of affection. Chances are you were once one of them. Thank goodness that the PDA wears off a bit, but you still need to have a physical connection with your partner, and not just in bed. There’s no need to return to making others around you uncomfortable. Small gestures go a long way.

    • HOLD HANDS
      Hold hands while you’re watching TV. Hold hands while you’re walking. Holding hands, though a small gesture, speaks volumes. It helps you know you have someone by your side to face the world with.
    • GIVE HUGS
      Coming? Going? Give a hug. And the comings and goings aren’t where it should stop. Find other opportunities throughout the day to give a hug. There’s research that claims that hugs can improve heart health, boost the immune system, and relieve stress. Spend more time hugging!
    • TREAT EACH OTHER TO A MASSAGE
      Maybe your partner loves a foot rub, head massage, or back scratch. Learn some massage techniques and spoil each other. This book is a great place to start: Massage for Couples: “Heal, Soothe, and Connect with the One You Love” by Ashley Dwyer.

    Taking time to tend your marriage with small daily acts will pay great dividends. Be proactive in connecting with your spouse. Vision, hobbies, conversation, and physical touch can build your relationship and take you to the next level. Shake it up a little by trying something new. Who knows? You may find yourself falling all over again.

     

    LOCAL DATE IDEAS

  • Ready. Aim. Shoot.

    Ready. Aim. Shoot.

    Schoolhouse Archery

    Traditional school sports may not resonate with all youth — for those who find passion in drawing a bow and arrow — they’re in luck. Wasatch County School District offers Archery through physical education classes and an Archery Club. Archery is a skill that requires focus and discipline, something competing students know a lot about. In the past eight years, archers from Wasatch High and Rocky Mountain Middle School have collectively won eleven (WHS 5, RMM 6) state championship titles. That’s pretty impressive!

    The district’s archery program begins in the 4th grade. In keeping with the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP), students engage in after-school clubs where the sole focus is on archery and technique. Matthew Zierenberg, former long-time Archery instructor, said that despite the extra time away from home, Archery Club programs have made a profound difference in students’ confidence and help create social opportunities for them. These students come together several times every week to collectively refine their cleanest shots.

    What sparks a student’s interest in shooting using a bow and arrow? You might be surprised to learn that for the majority it’s not hunting. Matthew has found that most of the youth in the program don’t come from hunting families and aren’t there to learn archery for bowhunting. Most of the students are there because they love the sport and it’s a lot of fun!

    One dynamic unique to the district’s Archery Club is that students can become certified as peer instructors. Zierenberg said, to his knowledge, it has not been done anywhere else. With up to 300 students participating in archery each year, these student instructors have the opportunity to learn valuable leadership skills, as well as other character traits highlighted by Olympic Archers.

    TARGET PRACTICE

    Wasatch School District also offers Scholastic 3D Archery (S3DA) and Olympic Archery in the Schools (OAD). Each program focuses on a different style of archery.

    • NASP participants use one type of bow and one type of arrow, so the competition is based solely on technique shooting targets.
    • S3DA employs compound bows, with sights and equipment more tuned to the archer shooting foam animals (3 dimensional) as well as standard targets. Ethical bowhunting and wildlife conservation.
    • OAD has the young archer shooting from an Olympic recurve bow, the focus on archery and character development.

    Peer instruction is a model of genuine sportsmanship also described by local competitive archer, Dustin Pyper (owner of Pyper Archery). At any level of archery competition, “If one competitor broke their bow, an opponent would lend his or her personal equipment to finish the tournament.” This is not a coerced or obligatory kindness. It is just how the archery community behaves and it plays into the daily actions of these young archers.

    BOWHUNTERS ARE RECREATIONAL ARCHERY

    Our iconic valley community is rooted in mountain life — connected to the virtuous people and natural world around us. Within that culture is a tradition of bowhunting. There was even a local archery shop, iBowhunt, that closed just a few years ago. Bowhunting is not competitive in the athletic sense; it is driven by a primordial desire to be part of the ecosystem. A bowhunter practices precision at the range. To keep up their skill many local bowhunters also shoot recreationally. For some this means taking practice shots on their property or that of a friend, but for most that’s not an option. For those wanting to practice on 3-dimensional foam animal targets set on a hiking trail, known as a 3D course, or participate in festivals or competitions, they would need to travel outside the valley. As of this writing, there is only one archery event that comes to Heber; the Timpanogos Archery Competition at the fairgrounds in mid-March. However, archers across the county are hoping that that is all about to change with the opening of an Archery range in Wasatch Mountain State Park.

    THE PLACE TO SHOOT

    Tracy See, Manager of Wasatch Mountain State Park, explained that a group of local archers came to her expressing their desires for a range. Tracy began to have a vision of what our state park could offer archers and went to work. Funding came from a series of state grants, with one of those derived through the Pittman-Roberston Act. With the generosity of a local contractor, Lance Epperson, the first phase of the range was completed in the spring of 2020.

    There are currently six shooting lanes with adjustable distances and target bags. Archers can hang their bow before and after shots on racks between lanes. There are benches for friends, tables for equipment, and a specific target for shooting broadheads. Plans to expand with a 3D walking course will likely come to fruition this spring. In addition to standard targets, NASP certified targets are readily deployed so students can take advantage of the range according to NASP guidelines.

    The range can be used by clubs and private instructors.  If you look you might just find Dustin Pyper there offering tips to help you shoot better. He expressed that it is great to have a place to shoot. According to the Archery Trade Association, simply having a place to shoot increases the possibility of more interest in the sport. The association also reports steady growth in archery across the nation from all walks of life. Ranges and archery parks have been part of that growth. The growth transcends local businesses as well. Locally, there has been a strong demand for new bows from Pyper Archery, especially before and after archery hunting season, and around Christmas.

    Pyper Archery in Heber opened for service and sales in August of 2020. Dustin Pyper is a seasoned archer, shooting on PSE Archery’s staff for the last 4 years and has been an avid archer for 24 years. He knows the ins-and-outs of bows. He spends a lot of time with his patrons helping them understand the dynamics of the bow and how that translates to shooting it.

    With the new range come new opportunities for archery enthusiasts, bowhunters, students, and the community to come together and share their talents and ideas. Maybe, just maybe our community of archers will coalesce into an Archery Club or two — aside from the school clubs. Walking and shooting the 3D course will undoubtedly be a fun family hike. Parents might find themselves trying to keep up with their kids who are frequently practicing archery among their peers at school. Bowhunters and other archers will surely meet, while other individuals and groups may take up a bow for the first time. Who knows, maybe the Heber Valley will hold its own archery events.

    One thing’s for sure — if we learn from the example of our local archery students — we’ll understand that shooting and competing together not only makes a difference in our skills but in the fellowship of our community.

    GET THE GEAR

    READY TO JOIN IN THE SPORT? Pyper Archery sells PSE bows, accessories, and service. Whether you are a bowhunter or a middle school archer, or just getting started, they can help: 435-640-1713.

    SAVE THE DATE

    May 8th, 2021 is National Archery Day. National Archery Day recognizes one of the oldest sports still in existence. Archery has been around since before 2800 BC when bows were being used for hunting and battle.

    HOME ON THE RANGE

    DID YOU KNOW WE HAVE A RANGE RIGHT HERE IN THE VALLEY? Wasatch Mountain State Park Archery range is located on the north side of Snake Creek Road, near the western reaches of the golf course. Info: 435-654-1791.

  • Riveted to the American Dream

    Riveted to the American Dream

    If you’re an adventurer or lover of the open road, you’ll like this story. It’s the story of one man who dared to dream beyond the berm, and then made a brilliant discovery during his journey back home.

    In 2009, Gene Magre (MAH-GREE) was living well, remodeling high-end homes in southern California, when a midnight wildfire swept through his affluent neighborhood and burned his home to the ground. “It was crazy, pretty overwhelming, fighting fifty-foot flames with a hose.   But it worked out good.  I’m here now,” Gene adds with a grin. Back in Utah – a place where Gene’s previous work in real estate and construction somewhat prepared him for his next life-changing event.

    “I was traveling, and I came across a small abandoned trailer on the side of a road behind some bushes. So I called, bought it, and pulled it back home.” It was an Airstream travel trailer. “I knew nothing about Airstreams. So I studied it. I started going through it and learning what Airstreams were about. They’re not steel. They’re not wood.  They’re aluminum!” Like a silver bullet. American-made. Gene was riveted.

    It was winter time, and Gene decided to turn the trailer into an office on the side of his house.  He added electricity and a heater. Then one day, when the temperature was only nine degrees outside, someone knocked on the door and asked, “Is this for sale?” Gene thought, It’s winter. People don’t travel in trailers until summertime. So, why was this person asking now?

    Gene soon realized he had stumbled onto something. The next big thing maybe?  Opportunity had literally knocked on his door.

    AIRSTREAM DREAMS

    Gene and his wife, Jacqueline, were soon enjoying weekend trips chasing down used Airstream trailers around the country. “We found them in the tall brush, under tarps, behind barns, everywhere! Because at that time, everyone was discarding Airstreams!” So, the Magres bought hundreds.

    The next challenge was learning how to bring these trailers back to life. “It starts with safety. Safety is the most important thing I do. I want something that protects the kids who are going to be going down the highway at 70 mph, with mom and dad pulling that trailer that’s been sitting in a field for 60 years!” Gene explains. “So, we take it all apart. We take every rivet out, replace wiring, add new heating components, new everything. We make the tables, cabinetry, redo the floor. Whatever they want, they can have it!”

    The goal is to upgrade the trailers, so they last for another 50 years. “You can’t do that with a Ford pickup truck!” says Gene. Airstream’s really are an amazing creation.

    Wally Byam, who built the world’s first Airstream in 1929, was an aeronautical engineer by trade. His innovative design minimized wind resistance. “I mean, look at the way it’s built! It’s like a rocket ship or an airliner,” Gene proclaims.

    How hard is it to get that 60-year-old aluminum exterior to shine again? According to Gene, it takes about 400 man hours of buffing. That’s fifty Saturdays! (DIYers, beware!)

    “We’re building everything you can think of that can be housed inside a trailer. Some people want to live in them, while others enjoy family travel. Others use them to run businesses,” Gene says. “We can design the trailer with any theme you’d like to see: a beach theme, snow theme, whatever you want.”

    And the demand is not slowing down. “We’re answering hundreds of phone calls every month.  I think people want to be able to get out of their house, get into the mountains, and enjoy this great country,” adds Gene.

    OH, THE PLACES WE’VE BEEN!

    As you tour through Gene’s collection of restored masterpieces, it’s hard not to wonder what stories these trailers would tell if only they could talk. Airstreams have played a huge role in American history.  For example, did you know:

    • NASA often uses Airstreams to transport astronauts to the launch pad.
    • After landing on the moon, the flight crew of Apollo 11 was quarantined for three weeks in a specially-built Airstream, for fear they may have been carrying “lunar pathogens” back to Earth.
    • In 1955, the US military used an Airstream while testing atomic bombs in the Nevada desert.

    Fun fact: Airstreams are so American, their inventor was actually born on the Fourth of July!

    IT’S NOT A FAD. IT’S A LIFESTYLE!

    “People will stop and get out of their vehicles to take pictures of our Airstreams. I thought it was a fad, but it’s really a lifestyle,” says Gene. “Baby boomers are now boondocking with Airstream trailers and bringing mom and dad to see America! It’s a beautiful thing. They just seem to keep getting more and more popular.”

    So, are you ready to be an “Airstreamer?”

    A MOST INTERESTING MAN IN HEBER

    “I am who I am, and I’m OK with that,” admits Gene. “I enjoy helping people. When an eighty-year-young lady says to me, `We’re so glad we found you,’ that’s really what matters. I enjoy my existence, and I try to do the best things in life I can. The journey’s pretty short, and hopefully, we can stay healthy and get through all the tall weeds.”

    Speaking of weeds, Gene has recently purchased an open field next to his historic building located on Heber’s Main Street.  With this additional space, Gene hopes to contribute to Heber’s many tourist attractions. His dream is to provide curious tourists with a beautiful stroll through Airstream’s unique history.

    His passion is contagious. His story remarkable. And he’s quickly becoming a Utah legend. “People come and visit me from all over the world. They come here, and they can’t believe what they’re seeing.” `Airstream Gene’ rebuilt his dream here in the Heber Valley and is now on a mission to rebuild others’ dreams — one Airstream at a time.

  • Let Us Anew

    Let Us Anew

    The transition that occurs in the Rocky Mountain spring season is miraculous. Our historic winter weather pattern has created an ecosystem adapted to periodic dormancy. The miracle is that after enduring all of the climatic harshnesses, the native flora and fauna can turn a blind eye to the past and march forward into a new stage of life.

    Winter can be insulting. The potential for extreme cold, periodic warming trends followed by more cold temperatures, wind, drought, snow accumulation, and icy precipitation concocts a regular recipe for confusion, disillusionment, stress, and even mortality of indigenous inhabitants. I find the natural world’s adaptation to these diverse trials nothing short of awe-inspiring.

    A unique characteristic shared by these plants and animals is that they shelter themselves during the most extreme climatic events and emerge anew without bitterness or guile when the trend passes. Regardless of the trials faced — they accept the reality of the moment, forgive any past infractions, and move forward with an unbiased zeal for the future.

    Human hubris will often distance itself from the patterns set in our environmental surroundings. Rooted firmly in the ground of spring 2021, I would propose the question, “is our reality that different from the spring reemergence in the Nevada-Utah Mountains Semidesert – Coniferous Forest – Alpine Meadow Province?”

    A fundamental behavioral divergence of our genus and species from the natural world is that the other life forms tend to forgive innately. Human beings intrinsically hold grudges. However, our sentience and ability to take cognizance will also provide us the capacity for choice. ‘To forgive’ is a verb in the same light as ‘to offend’ or ‘to be offended.’ All of these actions require implementation from the individual — which means that, whether aware of it or not, one may actively choose their reaction to any given trial or circumstance.

    The renowned English poet Alexander Pope explored this concept in this oft-quoted heroic couplet:

    Ah ne’er so dire a Thirst of Glory boast,

    Nor in the Critick let the Man be lost!

    Good-Nature and Good-Sense must ever join;

    To err is Humane; to Forgive, Divine.

    (Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, Part II, 1711)

    While a certain level of subjectivity exists amongst the definition of divinity, all will agree that it is a standard that exists well above our natural-born ‘human’ state. The difference between ability and skill is that abilities are innate, while skills require development. In the human experience, one must proactively choose forgiveness as a path and learn how to develop this skill and virtue throughout a lifetime.

    Forgiveness is a concept as old as humanity. Nearly every significant culture and religion in human history have recorded a definition for this action, and most are very similar. If we once again consider the transition from winter dormancy to spring awakening: should the dormant tree choose to dwell on the events of the winter past, then it will fail to leaf out in the spring, and its demise will quickly follow. Unfortunate circumstances and less than ideal life events outside of one’s control are inevitable. Forgiveness is the fundamental skill behind recovery, the state of positivity, optimism, and ultimately, happiness.

    The challenge I issue to the Heber Valley for the spring of 2021 is not a light one. Inventory the top three offenses harbored in your life (you know, the big ones held close to your identity) — and choose to let them go without qualifications. Engage positivity and optimism. Think bigger than yourself. Create the future that we all want to live. Let us anew. If you do this, you will change yourself at your core, find happiness, and brighten the lives of all those you encounter.

    Thank you, once again, for your support of Heber Valley Life magazine. The feedback we have received from the Heber Valley has kept us buoyant in the past year’s storm. I hope you find the contents of this spring 2021 release as genuine and uplifting as the Heber Valley is today.

  • Soldier Hollow Hosts Utah’s Annual Skijoring Competition

    Soldier Hollow Hosts Utah’s Annual Skijoring Competition

    Utah’s annual skijoring competition was held on Saturday at Soldier Hollow. Skijoring is an event where a skier or snowboarder is pulled by a horse and rider. The group races through a course including jumps, gates, and rings.

    Skijoring is not a new sport. Reindeer skijoring occurred in the Nordic Games of 1901, and it was used as transportation for hundreds of years before that. Skijoring behind horses made its way to North America in the early 1900’s.

    Brian Gardner and his friend, Joe Loveridge, had seen the sport in Colorado and decided to introduce it to Utah. According to Gardner’s nephew Gavan, “It’s popular out in Colorado where [Brian] used to work, so they kind of took things that they saw out in Colorado and brought a little bit of that back here.” In 2017, the first Utah Skijoring competition occurred in Midway. Its popularity has grown since then, and tickets available for this year’s event sold out in 24 hours!

    The Skijoring Utah website explains that it “combines Utah’s signature ski heritage with its cowboy roots, creating a wild, fast-paced, and spectacular event.” Aside from racing, the competition also includes a “big air contest,” where participants try to jump the farthest. Winners of the annual event receive belt buckles, cash, and other prizes.

    Park City locals James and Ed Clissold both participated as skiers. “I think competing is fun and the atmosphere here, just hanging out and having everybody here cheering everybody on. It doesn’t matter if it’s the 12-year-old or somebody cruising, it’s just fun to cheer them on,” said James. Ed added, “To combine my two favorite sports of horses and skiing is just an awesome way to spend the day.”

    Competitor Cub Keller, from Lehi, was participating with his three boys, including his 4-year-old. “It’s the outdoors, it’s cowboys, it’s skiing, it’s competition, it’s everything all packaged into one event,” he commented.

    A full list of 2021 winners, along with photos of the event, can be found at https://www.facebook.com/skijoringutah.

  • Nutcracker Tea Raises Money for Children’s Justice Center

    Nutcracker Tea Raises Money for Children’s Justice Center

    The Wasatch Dance Center Foundation’s Nutcracker Tea was held December 3–5 as a fundraiser for the Children’s Justice Center (CJC). The foundation normally puts on several benefit performances of the Nutcracker each December. They brought in $14,500 for the CJC in 2019. This year, the full-length show was unable to be performed because of Covid-19 restrictions.

    Instead, the Nutcracker Tea became a bigger, more involved production, with Zermatt Resort donating their Bernese Event Center. The group performed a 35-minute Nutcracker ballet with narration. The Nutcracker Tea also included sweets and a fun Christmas atmosphere for the four performances. Approximately 800 people attended.

    Accommodations were made at the event to protect against Covid-19. Tables were spaced apart, and patrons were able to purchase seating for an entire table to keep familiar groups together.

    Several sponsors participated in staging the event, including Lee’s, Kneaders, Suss Cookies, and Spin Café, along with many others. “We’re so grateful for the sponsors to be able to make it happen like it did,” said parent volunteer Corine Cook. “The community came through for us and helped us make it pretty awesome. This year’s event raised even more money than usual for the Wasatch County CJC.

    The Children’s Justice Center is a child-friendly interviewing facility set aside for abused or otherwise mistreated children. Interviews are recorded and given to law enforcement and child protection workers. Referrals are made for follow-up services. Aid is also considered for those in need of aftercare services.

    According to Kenna Jones, Director of the Wasatch County CJC, “It’s just a team effort to help the kids through that process. . . . It’s a one-time thing, where everyone comes to the child, instead of the child going a whole bunch of places to relive the trauma.” Last year, the CJC interviewed about 100 children. Currently this year, about 160 cases have already been processed through the Wasatch County center.

    The Children’s Justice Center cancelled their popular gingerbread fundraiser this year. However, in addition to the Nutcracker Tea donations, the center also received a grant from the Heber City CARES funds to help with operating costs for this year.

  • Heber Valley Tree Lightings are Set to Kick Off the Holidays this Weekend

    Heber Valley Tree Lightings are Set to Kick Off the Holidays this Weekend

    It’s been a long year for everyone, but the 2020 Christmas Season has finally arrived. Midway City and Heber City have both announced their tree lighting ceremonies. All are invited to attend.

    Midway City’s tree lighting event is on Saturday, December 5th. It is held annually at the Midway Town Square. There will be ice skating all day, beginning at noon. Patrons can skate for $5.00 by bringing a donation of 2 cans of food for the local food bank. Children 5 and under are free with a paying adult, according to the ice rink website. Food trucks open at 6:00 p.m. for those wanting to purchase a meal. Peanut and candy bags will be distributed from the gazebo at the event. At 6:30 p.m., the tree lighting and fireworks will begin.

    The Heber City Tree Lighting Event and Old-Fashioned Christmas Celebration is scheduled the day before, on Friday, December 4th. It is a free event and will include Christmas music, food trucks, caroling, a special guest, and the tree lighting. All activities begin at 6:00 p.m., and the tree lighting occurs at 6:15 p.m. It is held annually at the Heber Bank block and around the City Building.

    “The tree lighting is a magical setting that brings our families and communities together. It has become a family tradition for us to kick off the holiday season,” said Heber Valley resident, Steve Anderson. “Throughout December, we have this magnificent icon that I love seeing as I drive into the valley at night. It really sets the mood for a Heber Valley Christmas.”

    Both city events are held outside, and warm dress is strongly encouraged, as the weather is expected to have highs in the 40’s and lows in the teens. Masks are also requested.

  • Make That Change

    Make That Change

    I am a stubborn individual. Many times I have pondered whether this character attribute is, in fact, a virtue or a vice. I can see how being persistent in certain circumstances has led me to personal success. I can also see instances where my refusal to alter a course has brought unnecessary hardship to my life. I suppose the answer lies somewhere within the fabled words of Kenny Rogers in that you need to “know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away and know when to run.”

    Life is a gamble these days. The status quo that we knew — even one year ago — no longer exists. The paradigm is shifting to an undefined end. In our current social, political, and economic environment: victories are most often rewarded to those with the most flexibility. However, change is intimidating; and just like a game of cards, making the wrong choice can set you back farther than where you started. The weight of deciding how and when to change any variable of your life can be paralyzing. How does one determine when it is most prudent to stay the course or make a change?

    Start by prioritizing regular time for personal introspection. Quiet and meditative time can open windows into your deeper self. I believe that there is a light within our consciousness that (being unaffected by all things temporal) can help us see how things are instead of how they appear. All you have to do is slow yourself down and detach from the world enough to catch a glimpse of that wisdom and light.

    Ponder your situation and derive an implementable solution. There is little good in taking on problems that are outside of your sphere of influence. I turn to the oft-quoted ‘Serenity Prayer’ when mitigating stress or anxiety created by things that “I cannot change.”

    God grant me the SERENITY to accept the things I cannot change, COURAGE to change the things I can, and WISDOM to know the difference.

    Reinhold Niebuhr, American Theologian, 1951

    Sins of omission are real. With that stated: it is imperative to recognize that you, as an individual, have little to no control over certain things. Understanding this will help in prioritizing what an implementable change is and what it is not. If the ailment is something that you cannot do anything about — emotionally letting go of that thing could be the exact change needed to find your center again.

    When looking to make the world a better place, it is imperative to get your foundation in order first. Make those changes in your own life that will allow you to be a shining example to others first. If you can define your unique personal values: you develop a base of support that will enable you to share yourself with others.

    Strength and leadership principles originate in the home. The next place to implement change is at the family level. Strive to create harmony within the relationships that matter most. When outside personal and professional networks see a caring and confident human being with all of their personal affairs in order — they will be more inclined to hear your message.

    My challenge to the Heber Valley is to make 2021 a better year than it’s predecessor. We have virtually no control over natural disasters, disease, or pestilence. We may not have much influence at the Federal or State levels of government. However, every individual CAN make changes that will affect their strength and happiness. You can choose to find gratitude in an environment ripe with fear and disaster. We can all positively influence those people that we interact with daily. That is within our control.

    Thank you for supporting Heber Valley Life magazine. We live in the best mountain community in the American West. It is my genuine pleasure to highlight those that make it so every season of the year.

  • Home Decor

    Home Decor

    Be honest. Is there anyone out there who hasn’t watched HGTV and wished they could work the same magic in their own home?

    Can you identify your home’s style? Is it Modern, Contemporary, Rustic, or Traditional? Whether you live in a charming dollhouse, a mansion, or buying or building a new home — we can all use a little help.

    For most of us, the thought of hiring an interior designer is a daunting task. We do not want to hear what is wrong with our palace or how much it will cost to create our vision. Choosing the furniture, the carpet, or the right accent pieces takes time, which we don’t have. And talent — which can only come from years of experience.

    If you’re looking to create “living that reflects your own personality” or “a breathtaking home,” the Heber Valley offers two unique opportunities: Spruce Personalized Décor and Mountain Refined Interior Design Furniture and Flooring. You can refresh or redo without breaking the bank and with the confidence of working with experienced design professionals.

    Mountain Refined has owner Nicole Ferguson at the helm, doubling as head designer. She credits her parents with her business acumen and her interest in design, having spent hours at the store as a child. The Heber furniture store has been her family’s business for over 30 years.

    Newcomer, Jennifer Mangum, opened Spruce Personalized Décor, located in a restored 1872 home in Midway, two years ago — offering her design services as well as furniture and accent pieces. While the COVID crisis played havoc, forcing many local retailers to close, Jenn is quick to point out that her saving grace was the ability to continue her work as an interior designer.

    During COVID, many furniture and fabric pieces have been difficult to secure due to problems with offshore production, adding a new set of challenges. Careful planning has provided Mountain Refined’s Nicole with the ability to sell off the floor, bypassing the typical 6-12 week wait. The addition of a large warehouse allows a choice of pieces for customers looking for a quick turnaround as the holiday seasons approach.

    Mountain Refined has increased the number of cash and carry accessories; and offers fun seasonal items available for a quick, happy pick-me-up. Nicole and her team are focused on making your home your sanctuary. A 15,000 square foot show-room, filled with a curated selection of high-quality home furniture, makes Mountain Refined the largest retail store in the Heber/Park City area. Nicole also credits the blessing of strong community support and the tremendous love that helped her get through the three months she was closed due to COVID.

    Whether one is purchasing a bedroom suite or a dining table, Mountain Refined’s team of talented designers share the common goal of working together. Their goal is “to create living that reflects your unique personality.” Take a virtual tour and be enthralled with the variety of offerings.

    Jenn Mangum, an East Coast transplant most recently from Arlington, Virginia, believes her bright yellow business is one of the anchors at the top of Midway’s Main Street. One of the oldest homes in Midway, Spruce’s transformation to a retail space, included refinishing original floors as well as the original shiplap. It is full of eye-catching treasures easy to imagine in your home. Jenn calls the corner, where the 2,000 square foot house sits near the Bakery and the Corner restaurant, a “happy place.”

    Aside from a wide selection of furniture in a beautiful showroom, Spruce Personalized Design features not only Jenn’s years of design expertise but that of an additional three designers. “It all comes down to trust,” when discussing the relationship between client and designer. When asked where Spruce starts with a new client, Jennifer explains how she begins with a design questionnaire, which allows her to get into what people want. Spruce’s website showcases designs that can be translated into any style of home.

    Jenn is adding a new addition to the fourth corner of her happy place. Kringle, a 1,500 square foot store, promises to be Christmas all the time — a “shoppe” designed as a Christmas wonderland. When the opportunity to purchase the building across the street presented itself, Jenn’s vision for a Christmas store became a reality. Planned to be filled with fun, and good wishes, Kringle will not only be a destination for December needs but will also carry merchandise specific to holidays like Easter, Thanksgiving, and Valentine’s. It’s where every day is a holiday. Kringle is soon to become a year-round destination shopping treat for both locals and visitors.

    We’ve spent enough time in our homes during 2020. Just a little change may brighten up the rooms we’ve stared at for months. Two ladies, two stores, a multitude of ideas. Who needs HGTV?

  • A Legacy Lived and Loved

    A Legacy Lived and Loved

    On a sunny August morning, Renee Fitzgerald Johnson sat outside the house she was born in while passersby honked and shouted at her. I know it sounds horrible, but it wasn’t. It was quite the opposite. Renee was celebrating her 95th Birthday! Her children and grandchildren had decorated her front lawn with brightly colored letters, numbers, and balloons. Announcing to all that today was a special day, and the beautiful woman waving was an amazing lady who’s lived an extraordinary life.

    Ida Renee Fitzgerald was born to Avis Luella Bonner and Benjamin Athel Fitzgerald on August 14, 1925. She was two when Charles Lindbergh made the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight, four when the great depression began, and fourteen at the start of World War Two. As a young woman, she witnessed the inauguration of John F. Kennedy, Rev. Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech, and man’s first steps on the moon. And, she has watched the transformation of Wasatch County through the years. When asked about how much our valley has changed, Renee responded with a simple, “Not a lot.” Her sweet answer testifies to the fact that, for Renee, the important things haven’t changed that much. Although much-loved grand-parents, parents, siblings, spouses, and friends may have passed, Renee is surrounded by friends, family, and memories, and they are what hold her heart.

    Bonner Corners

    Renee’s earliest memories of family and friends are centered on living with her maternal grandmother, Sarah Eliza Bronson Bonner, or Ma Bonner — as everyone called her. Ma’s husband, Renee’s grandfather, was William Bonner, the son of Margaret Edmondston and George Bonner who found their way from Ireland/Scotland to Provo Valley (now Midway), Utah around 1861. William and his older brother, George, were taught how to work from a young age. When ore was found in the nearby mountains, the two of them obtained a contract to supply timber for the Ontario Mine. Their business grew quickly and was very prosperous. The two boys shared their success with their parents and future families by building three beautiful homes. One for their parents (completed in 1876), and one for each of them and their brides-to-be (completed in 1878). Built on three corners of Midway’s first East and Main streets, the area became known as Bonner Corners.

    On January 24, 1878 William married Sarah Eliza Bronson and George married Phoebe Annette Alexander in a double wedding ceremony in the home they built for George and Margaret. Afterwards each couple walked across the street to their respective homes to continue the celebration. According to family history it was quite the shin-dig. “Many guests were present and after the ceremony an elaborate banquet was served at both homes that had been built and completely furnished [as a wedding gift] for their brides, [and] dancing filled the evening.” 1

    Designed and built by local master builder and architect, John Watkins, the three homes — with their red brick exterior and ornate white Gothic revival trim — quickly became known as the Gingerbread Houses. In 1879 the brothers built Bonner Brothers Mercantile (now Midway Mercantile Restaurant) on the corner across from George’s home to the west of their parents — completing the four Bonner Corners.

    Renee shared, “I remember going over to the store [Midway Mercantile] with Ma [Bonner] nearly every day. We’d go over and Ma would visit with everyone in town.” Renee’s grand-daughter, Kim Powell, interjects, “So you were there forever!” The two laugh, apparently Ma Bonner liked to talk — a lot. Still chuckling Renee told her, “I would just get so tired, and I’d say, ‘Ma, is it alright if I go home and she’d say yes you can.’” Like most young girls growing up in the 1920’s Renee enjoyed playing dolls with friends, but she also liked helping Ma Bonner around the house. She preferred to stay inside rather than explore outside. Renee loved Ma’s house. She explained, “It was a nice home, and it was always clean, and I enjoyed that.” Her son, Jeff Johnson, and Kim both add that as Renee grew and started her own family she was an impeccable housekeeper and kept an immaculate home.

    The mercantile remained one of Renee’s favorite places to be throughout her young life. “I liked it because there were always people there that I knew. They were always so friendly and we would talk and talk — even though I couldn’t get Ma out of the store and I’d go home — it was fun.” Her voice is full of emotion as she expresses, “I enjoyed Ma’s place so much.”

    Going Home

    When Renee was five years old, it was time to go back home to Heber, her parents, siblings, and school. She attended Central Elementary School, built in 1892; the school was open for 110 years — closing its doors in 2002. The school was demolished in 2016, and the Heber Valley Police and Public Works building now occupies the ground where the school once stood. Renee’s school years are full of fond memories. “I loved school. I just loved it. I worked hard but it was all fun. I remember [one of my teachers] Mr. Giles, and he was pretty strict. He didn’t put up with any nonsense. He was the only one like that, but I really liked him. I had some good teachers, and they helped me a lot.” Renee liked all of her classes and said that she couldn’t recall having a favorite.

    Renee was the fourth of seven children (five boys and two girls) Luella and Athel raised in the Heber home Renee lives in now. There were three bedrooms and one bathroom, Renee’s voice is cheerful as she shares, “But you know, it worked out well, I don’t know how we did — but we made it work.” When Kim asked Renee if she got along with her siblings she said, “I never remember a fight.” Jeff replied, “I don’t think I’m buying that.” I say if after 95 years you don’t remember sibling squabbles you’re remembering the right stuff. Renee remembers never wanting for anything. Kim shared, “I think [the] family was not incredibly wealthy but they were well off, with the store and the sheep — they owned a lot of property — and ran the livestock.” William operated the livestock business full-time — raising purebred horses and cattle, while George ran the Mercantile.

    Renee and Kim both shared stories that Luella passed down to her posterity. Stories of traveling to school in a horse-drawn sleigh, wrapped in thick blankets with hot bricks at her feet, gliding over snow so high the sled went right over fence lines. Or when Luella was fourteen, and they cleaned the house for weeks and wore their Sunday best, in preparation for the night when they would turn the lights on in Midway for the first time during the fall of 1909, are treasured memories that continue to link generations. When Kim relates Luella’s words, “At the moment all of the lights came on in the house, [I] felt that heaven could not possibly be as beautiful and bright,” Renee becomes emotional remembering her mother and the heavenly, magical feelings her story always evokes.

    Renee reflects on her time in Midway and Heber with affection, “Those were happy days,” happy days making a life. Renee recalls waiting to eat till the men came in from taking care of livestock and being one of the first families to own a car in the valley. She remembers making fudge and penuche, dancing and singing around the Christmas tree that sat in the middle of the room — lighted by real candles, and Christmas Pageants with cousins. She talks about spending time at the Ranch House in Woodland engaging in water fights (no one was immune including Luella — everyone got wet) and herding sheep. These are just a few of the life events Renee has experienced. Perhaps one of her favorite memories is ironing day. Luella did all the laundry on Mondays, and on Tuesdays she did all the ironing. Athel would always buy her a box of chocolates for ironing day. “If we would come in [the house] on Tuesday when she was ironing, we’d all sit down and have chocolate.” You can hear the fondness in Renee’s voice as she reminisces about her time growing up in the valley, “I loved those days — it was special.”

    Then one day Renee met a boy.

    World War II and Life with Dean

    Dean Johnson was a year older than Renee and at first she didn’t think too much of him other than he was a good friend of her brother, Don. When World War II began Dean and all five of Renee’s brothers left to join the war effort. Renee’s father, Athel, was sick with fear and anxiety, years later when he succumbed to Cancer, Luella said that it was the war and the worry over his boys that made him ill and caused the cancer. Renee remembers her father fondly as she shares, “I wanted a Junior Prom dress, so Mother and Dad and I went down to Salt Lake to get it. I picked the most expensive one.” She laughs, “[Mother] said no, but dad said yes, and [we] got it. It [the trip] was so fun.” Renee loved her dress. “The dress had strawberries on it. It was really unusual, no one else had one.” She pauses for a moment before continuing, “Oh, I take that back. One other girl had strawberries on her dress and I was quite upset.” Renee, Jeff, and Kim all laugh together as they remember and imagine better days during the war.

    After the war Dean returned to Heber and he and Renee started dating. They soon fell in love and when Dean finished his service in the Navy, the two tied the knot on June 28, 1946. They had three children; Valerie, Wesley (Wes), and Jeffrey. “They are very nice kids, of course this is a mother speaking.”

    Both Dean and Renee come from big sheep herding families; soon after they were married the couple moved to Fountain Green in Sanpete County to run sheep. Like everyone, Dean and Renee experienced both ups and downs throughout their marriage but they found their rhythm and worked well together. Renee took pleasure in cleaning, while Dean enjoyed cooking. “Dean was the cook and never used a recipe. He was a phenomenal cook . . . and Renee made the best candy.” Dean loved gardening and Renee loved Japanese Bunka Embroidery. They were both hard workers and wanted to create a loving home for their children. Jeff shared that his parents’ support always meant so much to him and his siblings. “Mom and Dad always supported us in everything . . . every football game, every rodeo, everything . . . no matter how far away.” That support extended to their grandchildren as well. “They would be to everything they possibly could; concerts, soccer games, even if it meant sitting in the car as they got older.” Kim said. Renee added, “We loved it! We loved going to those games.” Jeff chuckles, “You could always tell where Renee was sitting, she was the loudest, and she always let the refs know if they made a mistake.”

    Through the years the family has lived in Fountain Green, Orem, and Mountain Green. Renee worked for Browning Arms for 20 years, she also worked at ZCMI and did a little tutoring at the schools. Jeff recalls watching the moon landing on their black and white TV in their Orem home. When he asked his mom what she thought when man landed on the moon, Renee quipped one of the best responses I’ve heard, “Oh, I thought that was a pretty exceptional thing, how often does that happen!”

    Renee’s personality draws you in from the get-go and like Ma Bonner, Renee loves to talk to people. Kim said, “Funny thing about her [recent] birthday; I took her out so she could see the sign, and she was having so much fun waving at people that she didn’t want to come in.” Renee waved and visited with neighbors from 10:00 – 8:00 Friday and Saturday. “It was fun! You don’t get many experiences like that and I’m just fortunate to have good grandkids.”

    Coming Home

    When Luella passed away in 1990 she left the house to Renee. In 1993 Dean and Renee’s lives came full circle as they returned home to Heber. Renee still lives in the house she was born in, the house she grew up in, the house she loves. On February 23, 2015, her beloved Dean passed away. Most of the neighbors she knew who used to live here have all passed away — Jeff and Kim believe that there are only two others from Renee’s class that are still living. Kim says, “She’s got really good neighbors who look after her.” Renee feels blessed and grateful to have such great neighbors, children, and grand-children. “My kids are so good. Kim [my grand-daughter] lives right here, my son Jeff is sitting right now with me on the couch — it is wonderful. I have a lot of really good grandchildren, they keep me up on things, and it helps a lot.” Kim and Jeff agree with Renee’s sentiment, “We always have so much fun when we get together.”

    “Everyone always asks what Renee’s secret to longevity is.” Kim chuckles. “I always attribute it to just eating as much chocolate as you want, because Renee inherited her mother’s love of all things chocolate!” When asked what her favorite kind is; Renee sweetly says, “Chocolate Chocolate, not the dark stuff, I want the good stuff.” Renee has lived a beautiful, fulfilling 95 years, and looks forward to many more. In three simple sentences, Renee sums up what I think we all hope for, “It was a really fun life. I just enjoyed every bit of it, and even now I enjoy talking about it. Talking to you kids about it — it’s just delightful!”

  • Take It Outside

    Take It Outside

    In 2010, Allison Page had an epiphany. When stressed or overwhelmed, a day on the trails with her girlfriends or a walk outside on her own was what helped her most. Realizing her best thinking and problem solving was done when she was outside walking, she began formulating a business plan, and TrailTalk® was born. The idea and now one of the company’s leading taglines is this: “taking therapy off the couch and onto the trail.”

    On the other side of the country, in Baltimore, therapist Megan Perry was sitting in a dark office with no windows, wondering what other options were out there. She began searching and discovered an innovative idea out of Park City: the opportunity to own a TrailTalk affiliate. After one trip, her first-ever visit to Utah, Megan was in. She and her husband moved across the country from Baltimore to call Heber home. When asked what drew her to TrailTalk, Megan stated, “This idea of walking and talking, not just being outdoors, but having that movement piece, could really elevate people’s experience with therapy and maybe make it even more productive than just sitting on the couch.”

    Megan had often wondered why we tend to compartmentalize physical health from mental health. Incorporating the outdoors and movement with mental health sessions just seemed to make sense. Combining the two has the power to enhance the whole therapy experience. Megan shares, “The theory and concept behind TrailTalk is to increase the integration of physical health with mental health . . . to give people more access to mental health therapy, and to take the stigma away from it.”

    How does taking therapy to the trail promote physical and mental health?

    Bilateral stimulation: Walking creates a rhythmic left-right motion that helps process traumatic memories or events and feelings. Walking can help us generate new ideas.

    Vitamin D: Getting out in the sunshine provides your body with the much-needed benefits of Vitamin D. In addition to numerous health benefits, Vitamin D is vital for regulating absorption of calcium and phosphorus; it promotes a healthy immune system, protects your teeth and bones, and improves the body’s resistance against certain diseases.

    Exercise: Activity and movement improve mood and burn calories.

    New Experience: Being in a different or fresh environment helps us stay curious and explorative.

    Practicing Mindfulness: Hearing birds chirping, leaves rustling in the breeze, and a stream gurgling down the hill provides an enjoyable scenario to practice being present and grounded.

    While hitting the trail is an excellent option for many, it’s not the right fit for every person or every kind of therapy. If an office visit is more conducive to a client’s needs, TrailTalk also has an office-on-wheels option. Their TrailTalk vans are equipped with a comfortable, quiet space to sit and converse.

    You may wonder if TrailTalk could be a good fit for you. Therapy is a wonderful option for people dealing with life crises: grief, life transitions, anxiety and depression, trauma, etc. However, therapy can also be largely preventative in nature. We see a doctor for our yearly health exam and a dentist for our biannual cleanings. We might visit with a financial planner to get our budget figured out and retirement in order, or a personal trainer to get our exercise regimen just right. Why not make a tune-up visit with a therapist to consider the state of your relationships or your progress on personal goals? Therapy is great for those who need to repair and heal, but it can also be approached from a wellness model to help people “thrive rather than just survive.” It’s for people who are working to be more authentic. It’s for people who feel stuck and can’t quite pinpoint why. It’s for people who find the same problems continually resurfacing in their relationships. Really, it’s for people seeking personal wellness in all aspects of life. Megan shares, “If you just feel like you’re not making the progress that you want, that’s when it’s time to come in and have someone who’s trained to see those patterns take a look.”

    How can trained professionals help? A therapist can help you identify where you may be stuck. They can offer ideas and resources, steps you can take, and areas where you might want to try a different approach. They can help you to see something from a new perspective and give you the tools you need to problem-solve in your own life. Sometimes all it takes is a couple of sessions to empower clients to move forward with clarity in an area they find challenging.

    One area that many of us find challenging is gracefully getting through the long winter months. Winter can genuinely challenge our mental health. Megan has several ideas that promote prime mental wellness during the coldest season:

    Get sunlight and Vitamin D: Even though Utah gets cold, we still get a lot of days with sunshine. Make an effort to get outside and catch some rays, even if it means bundling up. Getting sun is our most important natural source of Vitamin D. You may want to talk to your doctor about supplementing with Vitamin D as it can be difficult to get enough during the winter months. Megan says, “People think they have to go out and do a 10-mile hike. You just need to walk around the block.” Any outdoor activity is fine; just get outside every day!

    Socially engage: If we start feeling a little depressed, it’s easy to isolate ourselves socially. We have to push against that. Megan’s advice: “Send that text. Do that game night. Go to that dinner. Sometimes when you get depressed, you don’t feel like it, but doing something is always better than doing nothing.” She adds that our efforts to socially engage are critical to preventing or decreasing the severity or intensity of depression.

    Exercise and sleep: Getting your heart rate up and blood pumping can boost your mood and improve your mental state. A good wind-down routine at night can help set you up for a good night’s sleep, especially if you suffer from anxiety. Megan uses a cell phone analogy: “If you leave all your apps open all day, your battery is dead. You have to close out all the different apps constantly, so your phone stays charged. And your brain is the same way. If you go through your whole day and do no processing, by the end of the day, you’re on complete overload; then, you’re going to just sit there and think about stuff.” If this describes you, this next tip can be incredibly helpful.

    Take mini mental breaks: Try to take little pauses throughout your day. When you feel an emotion, pause and recognize what caused that feeling. Confront it. It’s easy to live our days completely over stimulated and constantly multi-tasking. Sometimes it’s helpful to slow down and do something mindfully without distraction. Doing this allows us to quiet the mind. Megan shares an example of how to do this, “If you’re washing the dishes, just wash the dishes. What does it smell like? What does it look like? What does it feel like?” If mindfulness feels foreign, it may be helpful to be guided through it a few times. Headspace is a great app to help you get started.

    This year of uncertainty is almost over. It has given us an incredible opportunity to lean in rather than resist. Megan shares some pertinent advice as we contemplate the changes we want to make in the coming year, “Go ahead and take that step. If people are anxious about making a change, perhaps that’s a sign that they need to back up and make it smaller and . . . more manageable.” Her closing words of advice to carry you through the new year, “Take your values and vision and align it with action. Actions don’t have to be grand, and they don’t have to be huge. It’s just picking something. Something is better than nothing.”

  • Wasatch Community Foundation

    Wasatch Community Foundation

    In recent years Wasatch County has undergone a tremendous amount of change. As the people who live in this beautiful valley we’ve had to take a deeper look at what we, the community, care about. American author, and huge proponent for community, Margaret J. Wheatley once said, “There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.” I believe, during this ever-changing process of discovery, one thing has remained consistent; we care about each other. We care about community. Because we know what we care about — we, the community of Wasatch County, are capable of great change! We are capable of lifting others up regardless of our differences. We are capable of building a community that is better each day than it was the day before. We are capable of being the good we want to see in the world.

    Our community has always strived to serve, so — it’s no wonder that for years Wasatch County had numerous organizations trying to fill the needs of our residents. It’s also no surprise that so many would want to volunteer; donating their time, services, goods, and money; but to which organization? And how did one make sure that their donations were going to help those within Wasatch County? What if you wanted your donations to go towards supporting a specific group or project? And, what if you were the one that needed assistance — which organization did you go to for help? The process seemed overwhelming for many donors and confusing for recipients. In 2005 a group of dedicated volunteers set out to create an easier path, forming the Wasatch Community Foundation. The foundation’s goal is to connect residents who want to donate, to residents in need — from the community, for the community.

    According to their website, “Wasatch Community Foundation is . . . the largest all-volunteer, non-profit organization in Heber Valley.” Cassandra Smith, Director of Marketing, shared, “This is an all volunteer organization. We all live in Heber Valley; we all handpicked Wasatch County as our destination for living, we are all very committed to keeping our community as a place where people feel welcomed and can enjoy and feel safe and happy, and that goes for everyone that lives here.” Cassandra’s voice is full of emotion as she expresses the passion board members share for those living in Wasatch County, “We know that healthy families make happy communities and we want . . . the people in our community to feel welcome, and heard, and lifted, and loved . . . this foundation is a way for us to help, a way for us to give back.”

    The mission of Wasatch Community Foundation is to advance the well-being of Wasatch County residents by uniting community resources and programs through the following pillars: Human Services, Health, Education, Recreation, and Arts. According to Tom Fowler, Board Chair and Health Pillar Chair, “There is a chair for each one of those pillars. They each have their own committee that has established their own vision and mission statement to establish their objectives.” Over the last fifteen years WCF has grown and changed to better serve the community’s needs. One of those changes is the implementation of the five pillars. Cassandra explained that, “These pillars were not decided on a whim. We spent a lot of time discussing and researching, and made our decision very carefully. [Using the philosophy of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs] we started at the very bottom; everyone needs food and shelter; moving up you need an education and a job, and we have those things covered in our education and human resources pillars; then continuing to entertainment [the Recreation and Art pillars], which actually helps to self actualize people as they move up Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. We use the pillars to match each of those stages as your developing into a self actualized individual and a happy healthy family.”

    If you visit the Wasatch Community Foundation’s website (ourwcf.org) the first thing that greets you are the words; “Happy, Healthy Families Make Extraordinary Communities” written in bold letters and scrolled across a photo of two smiling faces. This simple sentence conveys the ethos of the foundation and everything WCF strives to do. In their earlier years, Jim Richie (one of WCF’s founders) and the foundation were instrumental in spearheading the UVU satellite campus, and helping to fund the Heber Valley Dialysis Center, and the Recreation Center. Through the years the foundation has also played an integral part ensuring that everyone who lives in Wasatch County has the basic necessities to be healthy. WCF partners with groups like Friends for Sight, Community in Action, CCPC, CCPC Heber Valley, St. Mary’s of the Assumption, St. Lawrence Church, Wasatch County School District, and others to provide dental, vision, hearing, and wellness exams and follow-ups to children who are returning to school without health insurance, food services to community members, students and their families, and cold-weather clothing to those in need. Recently the foundation brought together three of five different Christmas gift programs and created one program. Marilyn Fowler, Director and Admin, shared; “What it did was stop redundancy and competition for funds, allowing those events and programs to be more successful and more unified.”

    Unification is the goal and perhaps one of the best examples of this is Wasatch Community Foundation’s Thanksgiving Dinner. This annual event strives to bring everyone in the community together — and they mean every one! From the Mayor to the current Rodeo Queen, to the police and banjo strumming cowboy bands, to senior citizens and your neighbor, your next-of-kin, and you! WCF works together with the hospital, health clinic, and high school to provide a free hot meal and fun-filled evening to anyone in the community who wants to join in. The dinner is held in the high school auditorium and the amazing high school chefs cook all the food. The foundation takes care of all expenses involved so that there is no cost to the high school. Tom gives the run-down; “We have the police there, giving away stuffed animals so that the kids become familiar with them. We have a photo booth to take pictures. The hospital provides shots, blood pressure testing, and other tests. We have a coat and glove drive for people to bring in coats, pants, gloves, hats, and it’s all separated by size. People can come in and get supplies for their kids. It’s a huge success. We have one or two of the Cowboy Poetry bands come and play the whole time, people get up and dance and have a lot of fun.” At first, the idea was to provide a meal for residents unable to enjoy a family Thanksgiving dinner but as plans progressed the foundation decided they wanted it to be “a celebration so that people from all walks of life would come.” A celebration where anyone, regardless of their situation, could feel welcomed, heard, lifted, and loved.

    Ending on that note would be lovely; but much like the Grinch in the children’s story by Dr. Seuss who took, “. . . the Who’s feast . . . pudding . . . roast beast . . . cleaned out the ice box as quick as a flash [and] even took their last can of Who hash.” COVID crept into our community and quick as a flash our lives changed. Many of our residents lost jobs or had to close their businesses, our children could no longer attend school, we were told to stay away from our elderly, and eventually each other. The necessities of life were suddenly in short supply; many questioned how they were going to pay their mortgage or rent, how were they going to purchase food. While the run on toilet paper may have provided comic relief to some — the reality was — most were nervous about what this pandemic meant and what the future would hold. Everyone in our community suddenly became in need of something. Along with other organizations and individuals, Wasatch Community Foundation did what they do best — they went to work making connections with those in the community who could give and those in our community who needed to receive. The foundation partnered with CCPC and St. Mary’s to raise over $130,000 for Wasatch County residents needing help to pay rent, mortgages, utilities, etc. Marilyn had a huge impact on the program as she worked tirelessly finding families (through the school district and other sources) and helping connect them with St. Mary’s. Families were vetted, and lenders were asked to reduce payments, a one-time payment of $500 was then sent directly to the business. Over 200 families in Wasatch County were served through this collaboration. As COVID continued into the summer months the schools were concerned about the logistics of getting lunches to those students, using the school lunch program, who lived far away. The foundation stepped in and as Marilyn described, “We said, ‘Okay — we’re going to take care of that!’ [With the help of many volunteers] we distributed over 2,200 lunches to students that couldn’t make it to the schools. Our [local] restaurants got involved too. John Platt owner of Midway Mercantile Restaurant and our Human Services Chair, Renee [Burkley] worked together; John called the restaurants and every week one or two restaurants would provide hot meals for fifty families! Each of these restaurants would make the food and deliver it to the food pantry, families had to have a card, and they would pick up their food. This program was a great help to our valley.”

    Helping our valley is what Wasatch Community Foundation is all about and although some events, like the Thanksgiving dinner, have gone the way of the ‘Who hash’ for a season; they will return. This year the foundation will be collaborating with CCPC to provide turkeys and a bag of additional Thanksgiving dinner items to families in our valley. Moving forward the foundation has great things planned. Tom stated, “The foundation can do big things for this valley and I think that we have the right board and structure to allow us to focus on projects, programs, and events in specific areas in this valley.” Projects like developing new trail systems, building an art center and an ice-rink, programs like developing a Trade School opportunity for High School students in collaboration with UVU, or a yearly community meet-and-greet event for businesses, non-profits, and community members, are just a few of the ideas residents have shared they’d like to see within our valley. Wasatch Community Foundation’s goal is to bring the people and organizations needed to make these desires a reality together. Tom explains, “The foundation helps with unifying groups and helping in whatever capacity is needed. We support all of Wasatch County — we have a broad approach as to how we meet our mission through our pillars.”

    Wasatch Community Foundation’s motto says it best; “Happy, healthy families create extraordinary communities.” Wasatch County is extraordinary because as a community we know what we care about — we care about each other.

  • Serendipity

    Serendipity

    There is something magical about the Heber Valley. It draws people. Visitors, unintentionally searching, find their way here and stay. They become a part of what makes this community so distinctive.

    Angelo Querciali and Carolina De Martino, owners of the Northland store on heber city’s Main Street, were settled in Patagonia, Argentina, a region at the southernmost tip of South America. Now, through their own amazing and unique path, they also have become part of the story of Heber Valley.

    Retail and Relationship Beginnings

    Growing up in Carolina’s family, outdoor retail was life. Carolina’s mother owned an outdoor retail store, and her father had his own brand. Her mother suggested a good friend and client who lived in Tierra de Fuego to help grow the brand. Carolina tried to make an appointment with the business owner. When she finally arranged the appointment, Angelo didn’t even show up! Instead, he sent his brother. Carolina was frustrated and called Angelo again to arrange a meeting. He didn’t want to meet, and she recalled telling him, “Tell me when, because I have the ticket in my hand.” Finally, they met and then started dating soon after. Just six months into their relationship, Carolina got a job in Angelo’s factory and moved to his city. After a year, they were married.

    They had a nice life in Argentina. “We had a lot of things we don’t have here — like our farm. Every weekend we went to the farm. We have a house there, horses, ATV’s, everything to play around with,” said Angelo. The couple was growing a very successful business together, with 15 locations in Argentina, another in Chile, and several franchises.

    Wandering Home

    “Because we had the business, we started coming for the outdoor retail show that used to be in Salt Lake City for the last 12 years. And every time we came up here for work, we took a few weeks to drive all over the Northwest.”

    “We flew to Seattle,” said Angelo, “and then we drove down here, and, honestly, we stopped in Park City by accident for lunch. We started walking . . . and I was telling my wife, ‘This looks like the land where I lived when I was a kid’ . . . We felt so comfortable.”

    They were a day ahead of schedule, so they spent the night in Park City. The next night, they had a hotel reservation in Salt Lake. But they didn’t want to leave. So, they called the Salt Lake hotel, canceled the reservation, and then drove to the convention from Park City each day.

    The couple began traveling to Utah every summer and winter for different retailer shows. “We loved Park City,” said Angelo, “so we started staying there for months every time we came. One day, we came [to Wasatch County] through the mountains and ended up in Midway.”

    While driving around Midway, they came across an open house. “We stopped to look at the house, you know, we were just curious,” said Angelo, “and then we just started looking for houses. In two weeks, we bought the one across the street!”

    “We fell in love with Midway. We bought the house seven years ago,” Carolina added.

    The Midway house served as their vacation home. But each time they came back, their children would beg them to extend the trip. Angelo was regularly rescheduling the airplane tickets to allow for more time here. “We tried to go home [to Argentina] but would end up extending the tickets,” explained Angelo. “Every time we changed the tickets, it was harder to go back. Nobody wanted to go back.” The family decided to move to their Midway vacation home, so they put their papers into the Embassy.

    Expanding the Operations

    While they were waiting, they participated in a show with Northland, which was their leading brand. They mentioned their upcoming move to the owner, and he was excited to have them represent the brand in the U.S. The Northland store in Heber City is now the only location for Northland products in the United States.

    Carolina and Angelo have known the family behind the Northland brand for a long time. “They are owned by a father, son, and daughter,” said Angelo. “They play around in the Alps in Austria all the time . . . It’s a unique brand, very European, with extremely good prices and quality. The prices are really affordable.”

    “Northland is a super complete brand because, on the one hand, they offer very technical apparel for high-performance mountaineering [and other sports]. They also have fashion outdoor apparel for every day,” Carolina explained. “Northland has all these beautiful things that transition super well.”

    They planned to open a small showroom in Midway to start a national distribution for Northland. But then they began considering opening a retail shop. They looked in Heber, but they couldn’t find a store they liked. They eventually found a location in Park City at Redstone. “We had all the papers ready,” recalled Angelo. “Our architect had already done all the plans for the store.”

    Persistent Providence

    A year before, Carolina had found a house on Heber City’s Main Street that she wanted to rent. But it wasn’t available. “It might happen,” she’d said hopefully. Right before signing the Redstone contract, Angelo was driving down Heber’s Main Street and noticed a man putting a sign on the house to announce its availability. Angelo chased the man as he drove off. When he caught up to him, he told him to take the sign off because they wanted the house. “The next day, I called the [Park City] guy and said, ‘You know what? Let’s cancel.”

    Angelo explained the decision. “This is the place we like. This is the kind of life we wanted when we moved here. I think we’re a very lucky couple because sometimes you move because you have to leave your country or because you need to move for a job. You cannot really pick the place. I think we’re very lucky we have the chance to really pick out the place we want to be, and not because we have to.”

    Angelo, Carolina, and their kids are enjoying their new life in the Heber Valley. “We feel super comfortable,” said Carolina. “We love the people, and they are super nice. There are also a lot of options in this valley to have fun, like mountains, lakes . . . we really love it.”

    “We’ve been here for a year already, and we have friends and people that have always helped us from day one,” said Angelo.

    Growing the Community

    Being a part of the community is important to them. One of their main goals is to help develop Main Street in Heber. “I think our main challenge is to try to change the minds of the people to know that they can shop local now. They are not used to it,” said Carolina. “In the next month, I know more stores are coming, and we all have to see what we can do to remind the people [to shop local]. Of course, you can always buy Amazon, but at least give us a chance first.”

    They are excited about the direction Main Street is taking. “If everyone contributes to that goal that the Mayor and the people in the city government are working towards, it will be great. It’s going to be an amazing Main Street,” said Angelo. “I think they have a great plan, and we want to be a part of it.” Carolina agreed. “We really feel part of the community. We are very into taking care of the valley.”

    Although the Heber Northland store is up and running, the couple’s 15 stores in Argentina, and additional stores in Chile are still open. They have 120 employees there, and over 50% have been with the company for at least 20 years. “We are a family business,” said Angelo. “We take care of our employees and our customers very well.” Angelo spends 7-12 hours a day keeping everything running smoothly in Argentina, while Carolina runs the store here. Although he used to alternate spending two weeks here and two weeks there, COVID required that he learn to run the business remotely, for which he is thankful. He enjoys spending much more time now with his wife and children. His future plan is to visit only four times a year and keep the house in Argentina for holidays.

    Quality Offerings

    Whether here or in South America, Angelo and Carolina want their business to be about quality. “It’s going to be quality, and it’s going to be affordable for the quality,” explained Angelo. “We try to give the best price we can.” And after 35 years in the outdoor industry, they know what they are talking about.

    “One difference between other companies and us is that we spend our lives at the stores. We’re proud of what we do. We’re very picky, and we have good, close relationships with the brands. Everything we get, we buy it ourselves,” said Angelo.

    Some of the other brands sold at the Northland store include Birkenstock, Roxy, Quiksilver, 686, and Dare2B Skiwear. They also offer smaller, unique brands, such as Dakota Grizzly, Vela, and Sherpani. Overall, the store mostly sells outdoor apparel, with lots of casual fashion. They like products that can be worn in multiple environments. “This valley is very open to that. You can go to a super high-end restaurant, and you’re still a little outdoorsy,” said Carolina.

    Store manager Thom Chamberlain, who decided to sell his house and move to the valley after a 3-day vacation here, explained that the Heber store focuses on an “active outdoor lifestyle — not only just full activity — but also après fashion. So, after you get done with hiking, skiing, biking, you can still wear our clothing for the bar or club or whatever.”

    Angelo and Carolina are pleased with their brands and their store. They are excited to bring these products to the people in Utah and, eventually, distribute them all across the U.S. But they plan to stay here. Even with all their worldwide travels, they feel very thankful to be here in the Heber Valley. As Angelo put it, “It’s an amazing place to live. There are not too many places like this in the world. Believe me. We’ve been everywhere.”

  • Things to Do in 2021

    Things to Do in 2021

    Covid restrictions may change the way we gather and participate in events, but that shouldn’t stop us from living our best lives in 2021. When in doubt, get outside!

    It’s never been more important to support our friends and neighbors that operate small businesses. Not sure if they are open to the public or holding that special event you like to attend each year? Check in with them to see what requirements they may have for attendance. After all, we’re in this together. Let’s show each other how much we care.

    Best selling author, Gretchen Rubin and her sister and screen-writer, Elizabeth Craft, offer tips on being happy in their top-rated podcast “Happier.” Years back, this witty twosome offered up a whimsical way to celebrate goal setting and living your best life throughout the year. They challenged listeners with a fun spin on a bucket list and New Year’s resolution. The approach was this, create a list of things you would like to accomplish in the upcoming year — or conveniently check the boxes here that interest you. When you write it down you become more committed. I have had these yearly lists for awhile now and have to admit, they have stretched me in my adventures.

    I hope to become a runner, purchase a few pieces of jewelry symbolic to me, begin my Masters program, take more walks, carefully consider nature and my surroundings, and take more one-on-one outings with my children.

    The world we live in today may feel a bit different than it did just a year ago. Lucky for us, we live in an amazing place!

    Now go get started!

     

    Family-Friendly Things To Do

    Eat Out:
    or eat in with curbside pickup. Try a new restaurant monthly or even weekly. There are more than 52 places to eat in the Heber Valley!

    Bowl A Strike:
    visit holiday lanes for a game night out.

    Take A Hike:
    did you know that we have year-round beginner, intermediate, and expert hike and bike options all around the valley?

    Ice castles:
    Bundle up and celebrate the magic of glowing ice sculptures and structures.

    Small Town Christmas:
     The holidays get festive each year with Swiss Christmas, The Creche, and the Christmas Festival for the Children.

    Ice Skating:
    Visit Midway’s small-town outdoor ice rink and sip a cup of hot cocoa.

    Light Hunting:
    Kick-off holiday seasons in the warmth of your car and see festive light displays.

    Ride The Rails:
    Themed train rides on the Heber Valley Railroad are always a big hit with the family or visitors from out of town.

    Local Flicks:
    Enjoy a night out at the movies with real movie theatre popcorn. We have two historical theatres here in Heber.

    Friday Night Lights:
    Attend a local high school sporting event. Go Wasps!

    The Show Must Go On:
    Theatre productions happen year-round in the valley. Check out Timpanogos Valley Theater and High Valley Arts for their schedule.

    Sleepover In The Outdoors:
    You don’t need to travel far to spend the night in the great outdoors. Visit one of our local campgrounds and be sure to reserve in advance.

    Stargazing:
    Celebrate our dark skies at Wasatch Mountain State Park.

    Visit A Working Dairy:
    From autumn hay mazes and pumpkin patches, to cheese making classes and baby animal days, there is always something engaging happening at Heber Valley Artisan Cheese.

    Heber Market On Main:
    Thursday evenings all summer long you’ll find friends and neighbors at the Heber City Park for live music, vendors and food.

    Boots, Chaps And Cowboy Hats:
    The Wasatch County Fair, Demolition Derby, and Rodeo are some of the biggest events in the valley each August. No cowboy hat required.

    Swiss Tacos Anyone?
    Midway’s Swiss Heritage is celebrated each Labor Day weekend with Swiss Days. Pageants, craft booths, food, live music and a parade.

    Sheepdogs:
    K-9 athletes and competitors flock to the valley each Labor Day weekend for the Soldier Hollow Classic Sheepdog Competition.

    Salmon Run:
    Did you know that we have Kokanee salmon in our local Strawberry Reservoir? In the fall, you can see them spawning right next to the board walk at the north end.

    Cascade Springs:
    Take the short drive up to a natural spring. There is a beautiful hiking path, boardwalk and tons of photo ops!

    Wagon Or Sleigh Ride:
    Haunted wagons and horse-drawn sleighs are so much fun with the whole family.

     

    Service-Minded Things To Do

    Yard Cleanup:
    Help out a neighbor in need. Rake their leaves, mow their lawn, shovel their snow. You never know how much it may matter to them.

    Take Out The Trash:
     A full trash bin can be extremely heavy for an injured or elderly neighbor to move. Lend a hand and take it out to the curb and/or back in from the street.

    Share Your Love For Nature:
    Invite a friend or neighbor to go for a walk along the river and breathe in a little fresh air and perspective.

    Donate:
    Some of our incredible opportunities include: Sub 4 Santa, Shop With A Cop (Christmas).

    Food Drive:
    Hold a food drive and donate to the local food pantry to help fight hunger in our community.

    Read To A Child:
    Open their world to new possibilities through literature.

    Get Involved:
    There are plenty of good causes to affiliate with in the valley. Choose one!

    Perform:
    Play an instrument or read for the elderly in our local rest homes or care facilities and scatter a bit of sunshine.

    Write A Thank You:
    Heartfelt thank you cards, written to local service providers can bring joy in an otherwise stressful day.

    Foster Or Adopt:
     Our local shelter, Paws for Life is a no-kill shelter and is always looking to find fur-ever homes or temporary homes for their animals.

    Babysit:
    Volunteer to babysit for a young couple so they can get out on a much-needed date night.

    Relief Supply Drive:
    Gather and donate materials for a Native American community. (Lynn Epperson: 435-671-5839).

    Beautify:
    You don’t need to adopt a highway to clean up trash along a road or street. See something? Take action.

    Climb:
    Hike Memorial Hill and pay respect to those who sacrificed in service of our country.

    Give Blood:
    Sign up with the American Red Cross and donate at a local blood drive.

     

    With A Friend Or A Date

    Moonlight Snowshoeing:
     There are organized hikes throughout the winter. Check out Friends of Wasatch State Park for a schedule.

    Romantic Train Rides:
    Hop aboard one of Heber Valley Railroad’s finest cars and revel in the Chocolate Lover Train or Hot Summer Night Ride.

    Staycation:
    You don’t have to go far to feel like a tourist. Spend a night at one of our local resorts, get room service and sleep in.

    Horseback Riding:
    Local outfitters offer riding opportunities year-round. Saddle up and take to the trails.

    Treasure Hunting:
    Rise early and scour yard sales and thrift shops for treasures.

    Visit The Library:
    Discover a great novel, movie, or a magazine, get hot chocolate on the way home and cozy up in your favorite blanket.

    Break Out The Lederhosen:
    Bottoms up at the annual Oktoberfest hosted by Heber Valley Brewing Company.

    Paddle Into The Sunset:
    Pick up a paddle board, canoe or rental boat and head to our local reservoirs for a day out on the water.

    Namaste:
    Perform sun salutations in the fragrance of sage brush hills with an early morning yoga trek.

    Hot Air Balloon Ride:
    Elevate your perspective and see Heber Valley from 4,000 feet. It’s amazing!

    Plein Air Paradise:
    Feast your eyes at the summer’s most beautiful event, hosted by the Midway Art Association with a painting contest, art exhibition, and sale.

    Sunrise On Timp:
    Set out early to summit Mt. Timpanogos and watch the sun come up over the grandeur of our little valley.

     

    Adventure Junkie

    Soldier Hollow Biathlon Experience:
    Discover the thrill and challenge of firing a precision rifle on an Olympic-calibre range. Private group sessions are available, winter and summer.

    Mountain Bike:
    Spin your wheels on one of our year-round trails! Rentals and sales are available at local outfitters.

    Fly Fishing:
    The fish eat all year so the fishing’s on! Book a local guide to show you the sweet spots.

    Tee Time:
    With over 90 holes of golf in the valley, you have no excuse but to get out and hit a few balls.

    Ski/Snowboard:
    New to winter? Take a lesson and learn to enjoy one of Utah’s most popular winter sports.

    Snowmobile:
    Safety first! Learn how to get outside and enjoy winter in the Wasatch with one of our local guided tours.

    ATV/RZR Rides:
     Go for a drive on a back country dirt road to explore our local mountains.

    Rock Climbing:
    A dangerous sport in the outdoors, or you can keep it safe and visit our indoor climbing wall — The Crag.

    Scuba Dive:
    The only warm U.S. destination to dive is right here at the Homestead Crater. Learn to dive and get certified!

    A River Runs Through It:
    Provo River is a great place to raft. We recommend a local outfitter for safety’s sake.

    Tubing:
    Snow is a fast, slippery surface for rocketing down the hill. Visit Soldier Hollow for rope-towed access to the best slopes in the valley.

    Ready? Aim. Fire!
    Big Hollow Shooting Range is open to the public at no charge. They specialize in pistol and rifle range shooting.

    Zipline:
    Glide through the fresh air on Zipline Utah at Deer Creek State Park.

  • Memorable Michael McLean

    Memorable Michael McLean

    Michael McLean is an extremely-gifted, world-renowned composer, musician, playwright, author, and filmmaker. His larger-than-life personality and life experiences surely make him one of a kind. He’s spontaneous, funny, gracious — and he calls the Heber Valley home.

    “I wasn’t born in Heber, but I got here as soon as I could,” explains McLean, who partnered with a good friend in 1984 to acquire 21 acres in Daniel. “People who’ve lived here, I’m convinced, when they die and go to heaven, nothing’s changed except they can have all the Trainburgers and shakes they want, and they won’t put on weight,” he proclaims.

    A Christmas Classic

    Of all his many accomplishments, McLean is best known for creating the enduring and powerful Christmas musical The Forgotten Carols. This story was created right here in the Heber Valley 29 years ago and has grown and evolved, only getting bigger and better over the years with performances across the country.

    “The Forgotten Carols has always been, for me, the gift that keeps on giving,” says McLean. Last year he was excited because of the rewrite and reimagined changes that were made. “It’s given me a new reason to get up every morning and learn how to tell this story in a way that’s deeper, more hopeful, more fun, and more relevant in these times where so many are crying, ‘I cannot find my way at all.’”

    The show seems to resonate with people because of its real-life application and truth. The story is about a nurse who hasn’t felt much of anything for a very long time and meets a patient who claims to have been around for thousands of years. This patient goes on to share personal stories of various people not typically remembered in the nativity story.

    McLean reflects, “I see myself in the characters and their ‘forgotten carols.’

    “I’m like the innkeeper who turned away Joseph and Mary. I’m not a bad guy; I’m just so busy that I miss things that truly matter.

    “I’m like the shepherd who fell asleep that first Christmas and missed everything — and the only way I know about it is the feeling I get from hearing others tell me about it.”

    Because the characters and their stories are so relatable, this Christmas classic makes audiences truly connect and reflect on the holiday’s true meaning.

    “I think that might be happening for those who have made The Forgotten Carols a tradition. They see themselves in the story, and it helps them remember what they’ve forgotten about the holiday,” McLean supposes. “I also think that the response to The Forgotten Carols is that it is unapologetically about Jesus — about seeing His birth and feeling ‘the magic in the air’ that comes when this story is told.”

    “I’ve got to say, I don’t know how it’s possible to tell the same story so differently and have it feel more familiar than ever.”

    A Tradition Saved

    Because of the current conditions of COVID, this year’s performance of The Forgotten Carols will be more memorable than ever. Through miracles of timing, venues, grants, positive COVID tests, among others, The Forgotten Carols can still be a part of many family Christmas traditions. Last year’s script changes were inspired for that time and even more so for today. It will be shown at movie theaters across the country as a recorded live production of one of the most touching performances ever done at Heritage Theater in Cedar City, Utah, with a masked live socially distanced audience. Because it was filmed using 15 camera angles, The Forgotten Carols will be better than ever. Think of it in the same category as Disney+’s debut of Hamilton. Michael McLean calls this the “No excuses” tour as it will be more accessible than before — something that defies the pandemic.

    A Different Kind of Christmas Star

    Throughout McLean’s storied career, he has had countless memorable moments and special performances. However, one of his most treasured experiences was working with Jimmy Stewart, the legendary actor who played George Bailey in the Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life.

    In his own words, McLean tells what he learned from the star:

    “Back in 1980, I was lucky enough to produce a television show called Mr. Krueger’s Christmas starring a truly world-famous person: James Stewart, Academy Award-winning actor, and my hero. In the time I worked with him, I noticed how he handled his fame.

    People came up to him out of nowhere to meet him, shake his hand, get an autograph, tell him their story, and their connection to him or one of his legendary films. It was utterly amazing how gracious and kind and personal he was with everyone who interrupted his day. I asked him how he was able to do it, and he told me that he believed every one of those people were his partners.

    They had paid for his house in Beverly Hills, got his kids through college, gave him a chance to do the work he loved — and that he owed it to them to show his gratitude for their encouragement and support of him. He then added, ‘If I’m not up to treating everyone that way . . . I stay home.’

    I never forgot that, and when somebody recognizes me and wants to make a connection, I think of the most famous person I ever worked with and try to follow his example.”

    It’s a Wonderful Life in Heber valley

    Just like everyone, McLean’s life has not been without challenges and trials. He’s endured failures and frustration; tackled fears and hopelessness. He battles depression. He’s grateful to have survived a nine-year faith crisis, and for the lessons he wouldn’t have learned any other way. He knows it’s the people around you that make life wonderful.

    There’s a little piece of the Heber Valley in everything he does. He explains, “I am crazy about Wasatch County. I love, love, love living here and want who I am and my work to reflect positively on the gift I’ve been given of being among you. As much as the spectacular surroundings fill my soul and inspire me every day, it’s the people I’m lucky enough to live around that remind me who I hope to become.”

    The Forgotten Carols film will be released starting November 19 and playing at The Avon Theatre in Heber. Find more info online at forgottencarols.com.

  • Tourism in Heber Valley

    Tourism in Heber Valley

    Paul and Cameron Phillips are a father and son duo who own and operate Strawberry Bay Marina on Strawberry Reservoir. They represent the second and third generation of the Phillips family to run the family-owned business. Since the mid-1970s, when Paul’s father started the company, the father and son team have grown the business to serve the over 2 million visitors that come to recreate at Strawberry Reservoir each year. Today, the Phillips operate a fleet of boat rentals, guided hunting and fishing trips, a 21-room lodge, snowmobiles, and maintain four marinas on the lake. For them, running a business in the tourism industry is about sharing their love for the outdoors with their guests.

    “My father instilled a love for the outdoors in me,” said Paul. “I am an entrepreneur at heart, and we created a business around the things we love to do. I love helping our guests create memories.”

    Operating a family business that has spanned multiple generations has its tough spots, but for Cameron Phillips, Paul’s oldest son, working at the marina has become a passion that started when he was just 14 years old. “I started as a boat boy, cleaning the boats as they came in, and now I love to work with the public and help solve problems around the business,” said Cam.

    The father and son team love working together; their example seems to be contagious as a few more of Paul’s boys have decided to follow in the family’s footsteps, along with Paul’s brother, Jon, and a few of his sons. The Phillips hope is to keep the company in the family and continue giving their guests and new visitors that authentic outdoor experience.

    Before a business can become multigenerational like the Phillips’, it has to start with an idea, an entrepreneurial spirit, and a passion for the experience. Wilderness Access Outfitters is a relatively new business in the Heber Valley tourism sphere. Bryan and Kate Silvey have just completed their fourth summer. Like the Phillips, the Silvey’s had a passion for the outdoors and took the leap to make their passion a business. Bryan said Heber Valley became the perfect location for them to start their business because of the valley’s convenient access to many outdoor experiences.

    “It took us ten years to find the perfect spot, but the Heber Valley is the perfect location with the right climate, community feel, and access to the outdoors for us to open our business,” said Bryan.

    The Silveys and the Phillips’ experiences are just two examples of the hundreds in the tourism industry working hard to share their passion. Whether it’s the outdoors, history, art, food, or any of the plethora of things that draw visitors to the Heber Valley, these business owners want to share their love for their passion with others.

    From single-person startups to large-scale hotels, all these players in the Heber Valley tourism industry add up to create a substantial positive benefit for Wasatch County residents.

    Tourism is one of Wasatch County’s major commodities. According to the Kem C. Gardner Institute, in 2018, visitor spending reached $109 million in Wasatch County. That spending generated $16.6 million in local taxes with an additional $4 million in taxes in indirect spending. This represents sales, restaurant, hotel, and other tax revenue to the cities and county. That equates to about $1800 in tax relief per household in Wasatch County.

    As an industry sector, tourism accounts for nearly nine percent of the labor force in the county. Wasatch County saw the value of tourism on our local economy this year as the COVID pandemic wreaked havoc. During the height of the economic shutdown, Wasatch County unemployment skyrocketed to 17 percent during April, more than double the unemployment rate during the recession a decade earlier. Many of those jobs were in the leisure and hospitality industry. Those were families who lost employment as visitors didn’t feel safe to travel. However, as things improved, many were able to go back to work and even had a successful summer. As of August 2020, Wasatch County’s unemployment dropped down to just over five percent, only a few percentage points above the three percent unemployment in February 2020.

    Heber Valley attracts millions of visitors every year. With a beautiful landscape and easy access to three state parks, national forest land, Strawberry Reservoir, and much more, people come from all around Utah and from across the country to visit. Between community events such as the Sheepdog Championship, Swiss Days, Cowboy Poetry, the state parks, and Strawberry, Wasatch County sees about four million visitors annually. With a population of 35,000, the community needs this visitation to help sustain the businesses, restaurants, and activities the residents enjoy. For the Silveys, Phillips, and many restaurants, most of their guests are from outside the county, which brings in new dollars to the economy.

    As the Heber Valley continues to evolve, so will tourism. This industry isn’t without its challenges. Different regions around the state are experiencing an abundance of visitors in which tourism has created congestion, infrastructure issues, and strain on resources. As more people come to experience the great outdoors, it will take collaboration, open conversations, and a strong vision to help protect what makes this place a tourism draw to avoid and mitigate these future obstacles. The future of tourism is bright, and if done correctly, Heber Valley will continue to be an exciting place for visitors and residents alike.

  • Avalanche

    Avalanche

    Avalanche, it’s a sleeping giant in the snow, waiting below the surface like a troll under the bridge. Be on top of your game this winter. Avoid avalanche danger at all costs, and be prepared.

    You need to be “street smart” and “snow smart” in the backcountry. Tyler St Jeor, professional Ski Patrolman and current patroller with Wasatch County Search and Rescue filled me in on the conditions that lead to avalanches. What happens is this; the snowpack gets grumpy with rapid temperature change. Strong winds can also move tremendous amounts of snow, stripping it from windward slopes and depositing it on the mountain’s leeward side, forming dense, stiff slabs of snow. Imagine a precarious stack of folded laundry or a house of cards. The wrong shift of weight or misplaced addition, and it all comes toppling down!

    Some of the most likely days for avalanches to occur are those following heavy snowstorms. The snow needs time “to become comfortable in its own skin.” St Jeor understands waiting can be challenging. “As an individual who enjoys snowmobiling, I realize how tempting those beautiful days following the big storms are. The air is crystal clear, and the snow looks amazing. However, consider the new weight load the snowpack is trying to adjust to. Be smart and give it a little time.”

    Early season snow or infrequent storms also lead to potentially unstable layering; as thin snowpacks tend to be structurally weak, the snow turns into a pile of sugary crystals, or what avalanche experts call facets. The slope angle defines avalanche terrain. Slopes 30°- 45° are considered avalanche territory. As the slope increases, so does the danger. The gravitational force increases with the slope (Weed, T. (n.d.) Steepness. Utah Avalanche Center. utahavalanchecenter.org/blog/16386). Don’t forget, the area below these slopes is not always safe either; they may be connected to other dangerous slopes above or adjacent to where you’re riding. Having the ability to identify avalanche terrain and the knowledge to travel through that terrain safely becomes imperative to survival in the backcountry, even on a “low danger” day. There is always danger in certain areas. Avoiding those areas entirely on high hazard days becomes the best practice for survival and safety.

    How can you learn to identify avalanche terrain? The best and most responsible level of instruction is hands-on, intensive training held right on the mountain. The most responsible thing to do is to spend time with a professional on-site. To find local offerings check the utahavalanchecenter.org.

    Craig Gordon has been a forecaster with the Utah Avalanche Center for 20 years. He explains, “Avalanche accidents don’t happen randomly; it’s not like getting struck by lightning. There’s a great deal of science involved . . . before loading up your gear, check-in with the Utah Avalanche Center and get the latest forecast. Remember — avalanches are incredibly violent events, and nearly 1 in 4 people are killed by trauma — getting slammed into trees or carried over cliff bands. Even if you’re prepared, if you trigger a slide and need to use your rescue gear, it means you screwed up. If you’re caught and buried, you can’t just pop out of the snow because avalanche debris sets up like concrete in just a second or two; you can’t even wiggle your fingers. That means you’ve got to have all the rescue gear, and you have to know how to use it. It’s the only chance to find your partner under the snow.” Gordon continued with, “Let’s face it, even the best rescues have sad endings. So your best offense is a good defense; simply avoid getting caught in the first place. Your local avalanche forecast gives you all the tools you need to safely navigate the mountains and get a great day of riding in. But avalanche avoidance — that’s the big-ticket item.” Before heading to the backcountry, always ask yourself this question; what is today’s avalanche forecast in my area? And discover the answer first before going out on your winter excursion.

    Take someone with you! Four is a good, reliable number. If the group gets too big, risks increase, and communication becomes difficult. Buried alone, you won’t stand a chance. Be smart and take a partner or two that are trained. Remember, in the event you end up on the bottom of the pile, you’re entrusting your life to your buddies. Choose wisely.

    Absolute MUST HAVES:

    • Shovel
    • Avalanche Transceiver
    • Probe

    It is IMPERATIVE that you wear these items ON YOUR BODY. The avalanche transceiver must be worn under your coat, close to your chest. The shovel and probe should be in a sturdy backpack. Too often, snowmobilers will store their gear in their tunnel compartment. During the event of an avalanche, they may become separated from their sled. At that point, the tools are of no use.

    Avalanche Transceiver: A transceiver, also referred to as a beacon, is a device worn on each person in a party that continuously emits a radio signal. If an individual becomes a searcher, they switch their transceiver to the receiving setting. This action stops their transceiver from emitting a signal, and it now becomes a receiver for radio signals of victims in the vicinity. Transceivers should be checked for functionality, both as receivers and emitters, before every ride. Be sure to change out your transceiver’s batteries once they reach 50%. The transceiver’s search function drains batteries fast. Lithium batteries are an absolute NO GO! Only alkaline batteries should be used. Extra batteries should be part of your avalanche essentials included for every ride.

    Shovel: This is an essential tool with multiple options. Consider the style of your shovel as you invest. It should always be metal. St Jeor is emphatic that plastic isn’t allowed on the hill with his Search and Rescue crew. They break. It’s like trying to dig yourself out of jail with a plastic spoon! Shovels must fit entirely in your pack. If it is not a good fit, you risk losing it during your ride; especially in case of an avalanche, this life-saving tool could be torn from your pack (Delatado, N. (2020, January 13). The Best Avalanche Shovels for Portable Use. Retrieved October 09, 2020, from backyardboss.net/best-avalanche-shovel-reviews). You may feel that a shovel is too cumbersome and heavy to haul with you. However, the weight range is generally between 1-2 pounds, not a considerable burden at all when the cost of saving a life is in the balance (evo (n.d.). How to Choose an Avalanche Shovel. Retrieved October 10, 2020, fromevo.com/guides/how-to-choose-avalanche-shovel).

    Probe: This is the tool that determines the exact location of an avalanche victim. According to the Utah Avalanche Center, the most popular length is 279 cm long. This also happens to be the minimum length of probe you should ever invest in. Probes come in various lengths and are either aluminum or carbon. Remember, speed is the most critical factor. Be sure you can use your probe effectively (evo. (n.d.). How to Choose an Avalanche Probe. Retrieved October 16, 2020, from evo.com/guides/how-to-choose-avalanche-probe).

     Good to HAVES:

    •  Air Bag
    • Personal Locator
    • 2-Way Radio
    • Basic First Aid Kit
    • Food
    • Water

    Wear appropriate outdoor winter clothing! Shovels, probes, and beacons may save you if you’re buried, but they won’t protect you from the elements of the winter climate. The cold is real. The cold and wet may be unrelenting, and hypothermia can become your next problem, avalanche or not.

    Airbag: This handy device has a ripcord attached to a pack. If you hear that unmistakable rumble, the airbag can be deployed. Large airbags help bodies stay near the top of the rubble. St. Jeor compares it to being a “big chip in the bag.” Just as the big potato chips stay close to the surface of your chip bag, you stand a better chance of rising to the top of the debris and chunks of snow when attached to a deployed airbag.

    Personal Locator: Personal locators have direct locator technology and are a much faster and more reliable way of signaling for help than making a phone call. Pushing the SOS button sends an exact geo-tagged location directly to local search personnel.

    2-Way Radio: Good old walkie-talkies may be the best way to communicate with your party. Communication is paramount when working together in locating and accounting for your crew.

    Basic First Aid Kit: Knowledge of basic first aid skills and a simple set of first aid tools come in handy in countless situations. Materials for splinting are important must-haves as breaks and fractures are common. The top medical needs to address in avalanche rescues are airways and bleeding.

    Food and Water: Calorie boosting foods and water are always vital to have on hand when traveling or participating in outdoor recreational activities. Remember, once victims are secured, keeping them in the best condition possible for retrieval and travel is essential. This includes being well nourished and having sources of hydration.

    If you hear that distinct whoomph and the earth feels like it’s falling away from you — you’ll only have a nanosecond to do some quick thinking. Instantly, you are at the mercy of Mother Nature. Ideally, you have a game plan playing in your head before you even step foot on the slopes. Trees can be your best friend or worst enemy, depending on the stage of the game you encounter them. If you’re lucky enough to be next to a tree, immediately grab a hold. It is very likely to secure you through the slide and save your life. However, if you are moving with the avalanche and come in contact with a tree at the force of the slide, that tree is likely to be your demise. Experienced riders may be able to “ride it out” or make it to the side, out of the avalanche’s path. St Jeor says to deploy your airbag at once and do everything in your power to stay on top. “Fight like hell, swim, keep your head on top of the snow.”

    Here are the facts:

    In the event you’re lucky enough to escape the destruction yourself, you should know that right away, a clock begins to tick. In most cases, without an air pocket, you have about 10 minutes of survival time to save individuals buried.

    1.  One person take charge.
    2.  Get a headcount. How many searchers and how many victims do you have.
    3.  It now becomes a “resource management game.”

    Searchers MUST switch their transceivers to search mode. Otherwise, their signal emission will interfere with the search, and they cannot receive a signal for the victims.

    Use your personal locator now! DO NOT go call for help. The ugly truth is that unless rescuers are on the mountain with you, they will not make it in time to retrieve a live body. You are the rescuer! Search and Rescue can help get you off the mountain once you have located and unburied the victims. They will not be there in the crucial 10 minutes you have to find survivors.

    Quickly scan the area for visual clues. You may see a glove, a ski, a sled. Check to see if any of the items are still connected to a person. If the person is not with the item, leave it where it is to document the scene. Keep searchers paraphernalia from cluttering the search area. Items not belonging to the victim can confuse the hunt.

    Be aware that avalanches flow like water. Follow the “flow line” after the last seen point to find your victim. Immediately begin a beacon search to pinpoint your person. If the area to search is small, have others in the search party ready probes and shovels. If you have a vast area to cover, get several transceivers in a pattern to search simultaneously. Systematic searches where muscle memory can kick in and searchers are familiar with their gear are far more successful than unpracticed searches, which is why it is imperative to have training and practice. Practice keeps you prepared. Practice saves lives.

    Once the beacons do their job, it’s time for probes. Begin probing until you have a strike. When you have a strike, LEAVE THE PROBE IN and get shoveling. Shoveling is the most time-consuming step. Once your buddy’s out, if they are unconscious, the first thing you need to check is that you are in a safe location, preferably out of the snow, then check their airway. If they are wearing a helmet, get it off, and clear their mouth of any snow packed in by the force of the slide. Breathing and bleeding are going to be your top priorities to address — in that order. CPR is a back-pocket skill you may need. At this point, it is time to make that phone call, if you didn’t already push a button on a personal locator. Remember, your friend will probably be in shock and need to be kept as warm and dry as possible.

    Be on top of your game this winter and remember: Prevention is paramount. Get trained. Get supplied. Get a plan. Then, get out there and have fun!

  • Booming Real Estate

    Booming Real Estate

    Utah ranked number one in Best Economies Nationwide.

    Utah has the highest Employment growth in the Nation.

    (https://247wallst.com/special-report/2020/08/25/the-states-with-the-best-and-worst-economics-4/1/)

    Utah ranked as the second happiest state and ranked number one for community and environment and work environment.

    (https://wallethub.com/edu/happiest-states/6959)

    The questions over the housing market linger, but the fact of the matter is there has never been a better time to sell, buy, or refinance.

    In early March 2020, we all received a crash course on COVID, whether we liked it or not. As quarantine, business shutdowns, and required masks became the new norm; it became abundantly clear how reliant we all truly are on each other. Assessing the four necessities of life became front and center: food, water, clothing, and shelter (and apparently toilet paper).

    For most, the worry of whether their job would be considered “essential” was front and center. For me, as a Real Estate Agent, I certainly had this concern. In an industry that already ebbs and flows, a pandemic could have unheard-of consequences for the industry. Initially, early Spring Real Estate went on hold. All phone calls stopped, sellers began to take their homes off the market, and renters stopped paying their rent. Clients pulled out of escrows, deeming it a win to walk away from $10,000-$15,000 earnest money rather than risk the possibility of losing out on a lower price point later. Everyone was trying to predict the future to know what the housing market would do. In my industry, though, we don’t predict the future; we just do the best with what’s happening to the market at the moment.

    And for that moment, it paused. However, when Utah moved from Red to Orange, the Real Estate Market, especially that of the Wasatch Front, was an unforeseen boom.

    Some of the “consequences” of COVID actually brought about some amazing silver linings for the state of Utah. These silver linings led to a housing market perfect for buyers and sellers:

    There was a new realization that people could productively work virtually from anywhere. Avoiding other people and crowded areas was the new norm. Many in big metro cities saw Utah, with its booming economy, historically low unemployment rates, a backdrop that rivals the best in the world — and according to a recent article in Utah Business, a now cleaner air quality — as a top spot to relocate to. (https://www.utahbusiness.com/air-apparent-improving-utahs-air-quality)

    Interest rates dropped to an all-time low. Interest rates on a typical 30- year mortgage dropped (and currently remain) well below 3%. Many areas are seeing a record decrease in inventory, which creates a very competitive market. If you are purchasing a home, expect to be one of multiple competitive offers and expect your closing to be longer than usual. Some lenders are asking for 45 plus days to close a new loan. Lenders are flooded with business, and many are focusing primarily on refinancing existing loans versus new loans. However, there are competitive lenders out there. Ask a Real Estate professional for assistance in locating them.

    Many Utah schools planned to reopen come fall, which perked a lot of interest in the late summer months! Schools reopening became especially attractive to residents of states like IL, NY, and CA who have stricter COVID policies in place. Even within our own state, people in the more congested areas of Utah had Wasatch and Summit Counties on their radar for potential moves.

    There is no doubt that the events of 2020 will go down in history books and the suffering that COVID caused right along with it. However, one thing that never fails is Utah’s resilience.

  • Taste The World At Global Grill

    Taste The World At Global Grill

    In a time when people are traveling less, the Heber Valley has a new little gem providing a huge variety of worldwide flavors. Global Grill is just that — a global food experience unmatched in the area. Their slogan “Come Taste the World” says it all.

    The unique menu is listed by the type of food, but also by origin. Patrons can order a bowl from Japan, India, Indonesia, or Cuba. Pasta dishes are available from Italy, Argentina, Thailand, and Mexico. Burritos are listed from four different areas of Mexico: Cancun, Zacatecas, Michoacán, and Sonora. Burgers celebrate ingredients from Korea, America, Mexico, and Persia. And there is a variety of multicultural kids’ meals and desserts too. There are even daily specials to add a little more flavor, from Polynesia, Greece, and the Gulf Coast!

    Owners, Rick and Elizabeth Moreno created the concept, and the menu, specifically for the Heber Valley. They looked at what was already available in the area, and they decided to create something entirely different. “I created the menu this way because I can see people two to three times a week,” explained Rick Moreno. “Today, you may want an authentic Mexican burrito, but tomorrow you may want Indian food.” The same idea applies to an office lunch setting. “They come in, and they can get a burger, and they can get pasta, and everyone’s happy,” said Moreno.

    The Moreno’s are well-versed in the restaurant business. “I’m a chef,” said Rick. “My background is in restaurant executive management. My family has had restaurants since 1951 back in California.” Moreno also worked for large companies, such as Hilton Corporation, to gain even more experience. He also created restaurants, menus, and bars for casinos in Montana before moving here.

    Elizabeth has been working in restaurants since 1999. She was a sous-chef at the former Mayan restaurant in Sandy. In fact, that’s where they met. Rick was creating recipes and consulting for the massive, cliff-diver restaurant.

    “[The Mayan] could seat a thousand people, and had three levels of kitchens,” Rick recalled.

    One night, Elizabeth was the kitchen supervisor over multiple cook lines. The restaurant was so big that they had eight cooks for each line, so 24 cooks total. The servers were complaining that the food service was getting slow. Finally, Elizabeth went to the cook line, moved all the cooks out, and started preparing the food by herself. Rick shared, “The servers were saying, ‘tell her to slow down. We can’t keep up with her!’”

    “They needed their food right away, so that was my mission,” laughed Elizabeth. Originally from Sonora, Mexico, Elizabeth learned from Rick’s mother, who ran a restaurant in California, and shared her recipes with Elizabeth. She has also worked for Chevy’s and Café Rio.

    The couple lived in Utah during the 2002 Olympics, and during that time, Rick created the restaurant Guru’s Cafe with two partners in Salt Lake. They eventually had four locations. His original recipes were used at the restaurants. The Food Network even did a show on Guru’s, where they showcased one of Rick’s recipes.

    Recently, the Moreno Family was living in Montana until they unexpectedly relocated to the Heber Valley last year. They had planned to move to Texas, moved their RV there, and then went back to Montana to pack. The couple’s older daughter was already living in the Heber Valley, and they decided to stop for a visit on the drive back to Texas. While visiting here, the Moreno’s found their current restaurant location and decided to stay. They created the Global Grill, opened in December 2019, and then the COVID pandemic hit. While it has slowed down the business, Global Grill is going strong. The food is full of variety and flavor, and the portion sizes are huge. Rick explained, “I did [large portion sizes] purposely because I wanted to make sure that,  everyone’s getting the value for their money. And most people take part of it home.”

    He continued, “We also have family meals. People can call us every day and ask for an Indian family meal, burrito, or whatever. We have two sizes; small is for four to six people, and large will feed ten to twelve.”

    “Just like our portions for our bowls,” Rick said, “We made sure that our family meals are huge.” Value for the money is a priority for the Morenos. “I hate to go somewhere and get a little disappointed with the food portions.”

    It’s not only the portion sizes that keep bringing people back. The food is all made fresh, in-house. And many of the recipes can be modified for those with dietary concerns. 90% of the menu can be served gluten-free, and 50% can be made vegan. They will also have alcohol available soon.

    The food variety found at the Global Grill is unmatched. “Besides our core menu, we feature other countries as specials,” Rick explained. “We do Russia one day, and we do stroganoff, and then we do Swedish meatballs. On Saturdays, we do Polynesian. Every Tuesday is Taco Salad, and Thursdays is the Greek Gyro Platter…Fridays is the Captain’s Platter.” said Rick.

    In addition to the meals, the Global Grill has two core desserts; tiramisu and tres leches cake. However, they also have other desserts available, such as chocolate tres leches, cheesecake, carrot cake, and tropical bread pudding. “The main ones are always tres leches and tiramisu, but I change sometimes,” explains Elizabeth. One day, Rick suggested that Elizabeth offer to make whole cakes, and “now she makes so many of those cakes!” said Rick. “It’s like a bakery too!”

    The Global Grill also does catering, but not just this menu. “Because of my background in large casinos, I can do anything. Literally, we can do carving stations or whatever. We can do any country and anything that they want,” Rick explained. “I’ve catered from 15 people to 1000 people.”

    The Global Grill fills a niche that the Heber Valley has been missing. And the Morenos are confident that the concept would be a success in other places too. They are preparing to create additional locations for the unique restaurant. Rick shared, “Right now, we’re ready to license them. If someone wanted to do one in Park City, or somewhere else, they could.”

    “We’re still trying to do that uphill climb because of COVID, but we see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Rick. “We are very thankful for the support they’ve given us here in Heber. Everyone’s responded really well to the food, and the locals here have been good to us. They keep coming in and supporting us, and we want to say thank you. We appreciate that. Especially being the new guys.”

  • Wasatch Women in Business

    Wasatch Women in Business

    When Ida Sapp was a new mother, her daughter became very sick. She was underweight, experienced severe allergies, and her skin was raw from eczema. Ida took her to numerous doctors, naturopaths, and homeopaths, begging each to determine what was wrong with her child. “She just got sicker and sicker,” Ida explains. “At one point, she couldn’t walk because she didn’t have skin on her legs. When she was seven, she started showing memory problems, which was really concerning.” Discouraged and desperate, Ida took her daughter to a chiropractor who also worked with energy healing. The chiropractor pushed on her daughter’s belly and rubbed his hands over her head — then he sent them on their way. What happened next felt miraculous. Almost immediately, Ida’s daughter could walk again, and within ten days, her skin was completely clear. Her digestion improved, and Ida’s seven-year struggle was finally over as her daughter’s health began to improve consistently.

    Whatever this was that healed her child, Ida had to find out more about it. What she discovered was the deep and fascinating world of energy work. After delving into her research and exploration, Ida felt called to work in the field, helping others who were struggling, just like her family had been for so long. She researched several modalities, ultimately finding that what resonated with her the most was The Body Code technique.

    The Body Code is a particular form of energy work that relies on the principle that everything is energy. We are supposed to experience emotions, learn from them, and then let them go. Sometimes, these emotions become “stuck,” and these unprocessed emotional energies manifest in real problems with our health, relationships, and careers. Anyone who has ever experienced stress headaches or gotten an upset stomach from nervousness knows how emotions can appear as physical problems in the body. The Body Code focuses on correcting imbalances in our subconscious that create barriers to moving forward in our lives. Ida found her passion in helping people break through those barriers to become the best version of themselves. After a few years of studying and practicing, Ida became a certified Body Code Coach.

    We have all wanted to make significant strides in life. We yearn for better health, more enriching relationships, and a stronger sense of balance in our lives. Yet, for many of us, these goals frequently feel like dreams on the horizon, just out of reach, and we don’t know how to make them a reality. If you’ve ever felt like you’ve had unmet expectations (oooooh, me!) or like you’re a bit stuck where you are (also me!!), you may be struggling with breaking past blocks in your subconscious that are holding you back from reaching your potential. If given the opportunity to have someone step in and give you the boost you need to correct your energy imbalances and live a more empowered life, would you take it?

    Well, I did! Despite my skepticism for anything that falls heavily into what I call the “woo-woo, New Agey stuff,” I agreed to let Ida work on me — and you know what — it works! In the year since I began doing Ida’s Body Code sessions, I have made some pretty significant changes. Here are just a few; I was able to unload a project taking a great deal of energy and causing a large amount of stress in my life. I broke through some financial barriers that I couldn’t have imagined a short time ago — I bought a bigger house, doubled my income, and got out of debt. And I found more clarity about what I want — and what I don’t want — in my life.

    I’m not the only client of Ida’s who has had success; another client of Ida’s had been suffering for almost twenty years from back pain and severe arthritis due to two broken vertebrae that hadn’t healed properly. She worked with Ida for two months, and, in that time, her back pain decreased tremendously. Her mobility increased to a point where she finally felt like she had her quality of life back.

    When another client’s marriage was affected by her chronic headaches, insomnia, heavy feelings of despair, and deep emotional anguish, she began taking the Body Code sessions. After working with Ida, she finally started sleeping again, her headaches subsided, her marriage improved, she found a new job, and has a newfound joy for life. Now her husband is working with Ida, too! These are the stories that inspire Ida every day and make her excited about her work.

    One of the reasons why I believe Ida is so good at what she does is because, as fulfilling as her job is, balancing her work with raising a family is something that she struggles with too. She gets her clients. She understands them. Ida works out of a shed in their yard that her husband converted into an office, and she tries to fit all her hours in while the children are at school. “There are also the normal daily requirements of cooking, cleaning, shopping, and running the kids around,” she says. “Some days, I feel like a taskmaster instead of an ally and champion to my children. I have had to work hard to build intentional, relaxed time with my children into my day.”

    Seeing her clients make radical transformations is what keeps Ida going. She loves being able to watch people make positive changes in their lives due to her work. Knowing how hard it is to look for answers and come up empty-handed, she is excited to offer people an opportunity to affect real change in their lives. Ida has expanded her business to include coaching, which allows her to increase her Body Code sessions and use her breadth of knowledge to support clients in moving forward and achieving significant growth. “I love seeing people empowered,” Ida says. “Lately, I have been working with several women who are at a crossroads in their lives. The transformation that takes place and the sense of empowerment that they gain over a short period of time has been very rewarding.”

    To learn more about Ida Sapp and her work, visit idasapp.com.

  • Holiday Traditions

    Holiday Traditions

    The crisp fall air brushes against our mountains, painting them with vivid oranges, yellows, and reds. Cornstalks rustle, and the nutty smell of squash, burning ditches, and cinnamon awaken our senses. Autumn arrives, ushering in anticipation for the Holidays — and the foods that come with them.

    Food sustains life and nourishes our bodies, but food also sustains cultures and nourishes our identities. Food is generally at the center of all we do. Foods are symbolic in our religious rituals and associated with specific celebrations. Our food preparation can be sacred, an exact science, a lesson in chemistry, or just some good ole’ fashioned fun — with a pinch here and a dash there! Creating delicious dishes binds friends and families together — or, if you’re on a cooking show, it can turn into a hellish-battle!

    Conversations, stories, history, and heritage are shared — traditions are passed down, and new ones are created — all while we gather around food.

    As we prepare to enter the Holiday chaos, it might be fun to learn a bit about the foods used in celebrations around the world. We invite you to sit back, relax, read for a moment — or two — then take a deep breath, exhale, and prepare to dive into whatever your Winter season looks like (don’t forget to pack a snack).

    While some people carve pumpkins for their October 31 celebrations, residents of Oaxaca, Mexico, are preparing to celebrate Noche de Rabanos (Night of the Radishes). This tradition takes place on December 23 and has been practiced for over a century. Large radishes (upwards of six pounds) are grown and harvested specifically for the event. The radish artists can spend days creating and carving their masterpieces, many of which display nativity scenes, animals, or Mayan imagery. The best radish carver can receive a cash prize worth thousands of pesos (hundreds of USD).(https://www.wvpublic.org/news/2018-12-20/holiday-food-traditions-are-as-much-about-connection-as-eatin)

    The week-long celebration of Kwanzaa (December 26-January 1) is full of dancing, singing, gift exchanging, and culminates in a large feast. Catfish, collards, macaroni and cheese, jerk chicken, gumbo, and accras (Caribbean fritters), have become traditional foods used during the festivities. (https://www.africa.upenn.edu/K-12/Kwanzaa_What_16661.html)

    The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a Southern Italian tradition celebrated on December 24. Whether you’re celebrating in North America or Italy, you won’t find seven specific types of fish being served. Think of it more as a seafood celebration. Typical fish used include: baccala (salt cod), frutti di mare (shellfish), capitone (eel), calamari (squid), scungilli (conch meat) and vongole (clams). Fried vegetables are also a popular accompaniment to the fish. Traditionally, the feast takes place in the morning’s early hours, after midnight mass. “Then it’s time for dessert, which may include biscotti, panforte, pandoro, and panettone.” (https://www.italiarail.com/food/feast-of-the-seven-fishes)

    Worldwide, it is Jewish tradition to eat matzah on Passover, and apples dipped in honey on Rosh Hashanah. During Chanukah (Hanukkah), eating traditional oily foods such as latkes (fried potato pancakes) topped with applesauce or sour cream, and sufganiyot (deep-fried doughnuts) or other kinds of fritters, is in homage to the miracle of the oil that burned for eight nights instead of one. (https://www.chabad.org/holidays)

    Midnight snacking takes on a whole new meaning if you are celebrating New Year’s Eve in Spain. Apparently, eating one dozen grapes at midnight isn’t just a tradition — it’s a serious superstition. On Noche Vieja (Old Night), it is customary to stay at home until the clock strikes twelve. Families and friends gather around their bowl of lucky grapes (uvas de suerte) and wait to hear the chimes ringing from the Real Casa de Correos in Madrid (broadcasted via television across the country). The bells toll twelve times — one for each month. With each chime, you ‘pop’ a grape into your mouth — and probably try not to choke — or laugh. If you eat them all, you will have good luck in the new year. (https://www.donquijote.org/spanish-culture/holidays/nochevieja/)

    This next dish sounds delish! Lechón (Spanish for roasted suckling pig) is one of the most popular dishes in the Philippines and many Latin American countries. The pig is usually stuffed with lemongrass, tamarind, garlic, onions, and chives; it is roasted on a large bamboo spit over an open fire. Lechón is traditionally served whole on a platter at celebrations like weddings and Christmas. It is often served with a thick, rich liver sauce cooked with sugar, fresh herbs, and vinegar. (https://www.tasteatlas.com/lechon) I don’t know about you, but all this talk of food is making me hungry!

    If you need to stop reading and make a food run — go for it — I get it! There are a few more unique victuals to share, but then I think we should go to work on creating our own traditional cuisine and get some food in our bellies!

    Onward — we go!

    In many European countries, you will see processions of girls dressed in a white dress with a red sash, wearing a wreath with candles upon their heads, singing, and carrying Saffron Buns in celebration of St. Lucia on December 13. In Greece, many fast before the holidays, and when Christmas arrives — they go all out — after they break their fast. One of the more popular traditional foods served is Melomakarona, a sweet, honey-soaked cookie topped with ground walnuts. Of course, there’s always the traditional Plum or Figgy Pudding from the UK, Danish Kransekake or Almond Wreath Cake, and all the marzipan, chocolate, red cabbage, and roasted goose from Germany. In Australia, Christmas and New Years are smack dab in the middle of Summer! They celebrate by throwing whatever they feel like on the barbie (grill for the rest of us mates) and enjoying seafood, cold cuts, alcohol, pavlova, and trifle, just to name a few, along with a challenging game of cricket. Here’s an interesting tidbit. According to BBC, for 40 plus years, many Japanese families have gathered around a KFC ‘Party Barell’ for some finger-licking-good chicken as part of their Christmas celebrations — bet you didn’t see that one coming.

    Food is an extension of who we are. Regardless of culture or religion, food is an integral part of life celebrations across this beautiful globe we call home. Food unites. Where ever you are in the world, and whatever you celebrate or don’t celebrate, whether you’re honoring a generations-old tradition or creating new ones; this winter season, we invite you to come, gather — eat and enjoy!

    Gather your kids, friends, and family to discover different cultures and the food they eat. Try out a few new recipes, and prepare them together. Participate in a festivity you’ve never celebrated before. Eat new foods. Share and create a new tradition!

  • A Different Look at Healing

    A Different Look at Healing

    A community is a place for people with common interests. Being a part of a community can give validation and support to its members. The Sacred Nature Apothecary is striving to create its own community in the Wasatch Back. This group centers around a search for wellness and an interest in alternative medicines, such as cannabidiol (CBD). For Elena Yanez, the owner of the apothecary, this new community is a way to help others find relief.

    The shop held its grand opening in September of 2020. It takes the place of a previous CBD store, but Yanez plans to create much more than just a store. “I hope that we can create a community around hemp and CBD, and people can really get relief and joy from the products that they’re using.”

    Yanez has plenty of other things on her plate too. Aside from opening the store, she works in mortgages and refinances, she also runs a down payment assistance fund. She grew up with parents who were real estate investors. When her stepdad joined her family, she learned a lot about the retail business. Yanez followed in the family footsteps with real estate and retail. Then, about 15 years ago, her parents got into the dispensary business in Northern California, and she started learning more about alternative medicines, especially hemp.

    Although some might believe hemp is the same as the marijuana plant, Yanez explained that there are two different plants, although they are cousins. THC is what can induce psychotropic or euphoric effects. While THC is high in marijuana, the hemp plant has only a .03 THC level, which is much lower. In fact, hemp is not known to cause the negative effects of its cousin plant. Yanez explained, “There are no negative side effects with CBD. You’re just totally clear. There’s not that cloud that you can sometimes get with other things, like you could with another pain medication even.”

    Members of Elena’s family run the first hemp lab licensed in Utah, so it was a natural discussion for Yanez and other family members to talk about the possibility of creating a business around CBD when the hemp bill was passed in Utah in 2018.  Elena has always wanted to live in the Heber Valley. She has a lot of family here in Heber, her son was born in Wasatch County, so having her business here was a perfect fit.

    Although she spent most of her childhood living in Sugarhouse, in the Salt Lake area, Yanez moved to Northern California during the summer before her 9th grade year. “Most people, you’d think, would really feel connected with where they went to high school. No, I’ve always tried to get back here,” explained Yanez. “So, the minute I could, I did. Right out of college, I moved back here with a friend on a whim. No matter where I go, I always want to be back here.”

    That’s one reason she chose the name “Sacred Nature Apothecary.” According to Yanez, “That’s how we feel when we come to Heber . . . I remember the first time I drove into Heber. I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh. I feel like I’m driving into the commercials from the Hidden Valley Ranch [salad dressing]. It’s an amazingly beautiful place. There’s nowhere else really like it. Everyone is just so nice and connected. And I feel like there’s such a sense of community.”

    That’s her plan with the Sacred Nature Apothecary — to create a community within a community. “I feel like there are so many people out there that are in the same boat that suffer from anxiety or pain or something to do with their neurological system . . . It’s just kind of overwhelming for people to go through this and feel like they’re not being heard or that they have to jump through hoops for care,” she said. “What I really was focused on was creating a welcoming environment for people to come in and learn about products. Maybe they didn’t even know something like CBD would benefit them.” She even carries hemp products to help dogs with health issues.

    Many of her customers come in for pain management, looking for an alternative to prescription medication. “They don’t want to be on the prescription medicines anymore. They’re not working for them anymore, or they just don’t like how they make them feel.” According to Yanez, CBD products can help ease pain without the side effects found in many prescription medications.

    Yanez has so much confidence in the products she sells, that she guarantees everything. “If something doesn’t work for them, they can come in and find something that does,” she said.

    What Is CBD?

    Cannabidiol (CBD) is extracted from the hemp or cannabis plant. It does not produce intoxication.

    Is It Legal?

    House Bill 3001, also known as the Utah Medical Cannabis Act, was passed in 2018, and legalized CBD oil containing 0.3% THC or less.

    The Sacred Nature Apothecary focuses on local companies and products. Yanez explained that hemp is heavily regulated in Utah. “In Utah, everything has to be sent to a lab to get third-party tested, so everyone can see what exactly is in the product and how strong the CBD is. Sometimes, in other markets, there are products that are coming from overseas, and maybe it’s not fully regulated by the FDA or they don’t know what farms the plants are coming from.” Yanez has personal relationships with all her brands, and she knows where they are grown and processed. “Pretty much every product that we carry in this store is locally grown, sourced, processed, and the owners are actually local to Utah.”

    The apothecary also carries Native American jewelry with turquoise and semi-precious earth stones from a tribe in New Mexico and metal art from local artist Rob Palmer. “It looks like something out of Restoration Hardware,” added Yanez. For Christmas, she will have additional items such as other herbs and teas, tea sets, books, golden milk, turmeric, and crystals.

    Elena is grateful to all those who’ve helped her on her journey, “The apothecary wouldn’t be without my mom Elena Larson, and my Step Dad Vince Lera, they’ve always been so supportive and confident in my wild ideas. From a young age they taught us about business, markets, and investments. My Dad, John, and Stepmom, Ramona, who always managed to teach my siblings and I to never forget who we are and why we’re here, Karin and Jeff Mounteer of Heber, are my bonus parents, who have always been there for my son Maverick and I — our rock through thick and thin. And all of our amazing CBD and Brand partnerships, whom together through compassion, education, and using high quality natural plant ingredients and processes, are helping to build a community dedicated to creating alternative and holistic medicines. We are so excited to share our products and knowledge with others.”

  • Local Grant Provides Discounts to Customers

    Local Grant Provides Discounts to Customers

    The Shop in Heber Valley grant program was opened last week to businesses in Wasatch County. Not only will it help local businesses, but it benefits the general public as well. Businesses can apply for up to $5,000. These funds, however, must be used to reimburse huge discounts passed on to customers.

    The grant is the result of the combined efforts of Wasatch County, Heber City, and Midway City. These government entities are utilizing their CARES Act funds for the grant. It is aimed at supporting Heber Valley businesses with economic hardships, as a result of the COVID pandemic.

    According to Dallin Koecher, Director of Heber Valley Tourism and Economic Development, “We created this grant to help our businesses recover. The best way we thought we could do that would be to help share the load. If all of us are doing a little bit to help our businesses by shopping locally, then we’ll keep money here locally, and we’ll help those businesses thrive and survive through this pandemic.” The money received from this grant is intended to offer a “compelling discount” to customers. Businesses will then be reimbursed for the discounted amount.

    The Shop in Heber Valley grant has already been awarded to several businesses in the area. These include Spin Café, Heber City Theatre, Northland Professional, and others. Although all local shopping is encouraged, “these are folks that have had a significant economic impact due to the pandemic,” Koecher explained. These businesses and others are now offering large discounts to customers, using the grant money. A list of deals can be found here: https://www.gohebervalley.com/shopinhebervalley.

    By including the discounts on the website, more people can become “aware that maybe some of their favorite businesses are offering deals and discounts. . . . We’re trying to get that word out far and wide, using marketing efforts from both our own internal efforts and from those businesses’ efforts,” said Koecher.

    Other resources are also available on the Go Heber Valley website. A partnership with the Utah Valley University Business Resource Center provides business coaching and consulting. Additionally, a new grant using CARES Act funds will be available on the website soon. This future grant will be distributed in larger amounts. It can be used for things like payroll, rent, and COVID-related expenses.

    Grant applications and additional business help can be found at this website: https://www.gohebervalley.com/Local_Resources

  • Wasatch School District Approves Plan for Reopening

    Wasatch School District Approves Plan for Reopening

    Wasatch School District approved their plan for reopening schools at a meeting on July 21, 2020. District plans have been evolving since last March, when kids were sent home unexpectedly due to the coronavirus pandemic.

    “We have worked very closely with [the County Health Department] to put things in place,” Garrick Peterson, Director of Academics, explained. “We’ve put measures in place that make it safe to come back to school for our teachers, our staff, and our students.”

    Parent survey results showed 50% of parents desire full-day, traditional school. About 30% of parents chose a hybrid schedule. The remainder preferred online or home-schooling. In addition to parent surveys, the district also met with the district PTA, school PTA boards, teacher’s union representatives, principals, and a working group of teachers, administrators, and parents.

    Wasatch County’s school reopening plan gives parents three full-time options.

    1. Full-Day Traditional – This option will include a traditional schedule, increased cleaning, increased hygiene, and masks.
    2. Half-Day/Hybrid – There will be am/pm schedules, increased cleaning & hygiene, and social distancing. Students will continue to work at home for half of the time. High school and middle school students will attend core classes for 2 days a week. They will then watch an online stream from home for 2 days. This will allow for social distancing in those classrooms.
    3. Online – Wasatch Learning Academy (Harmony Educational Services) will provide online learning for K-8, and Edgenuity will be the district partner for Wasatch High School.

    Peterson said that the different options, “allow families to assess where they are and how they are prioritizing academics, physical safety, and social/emotional well-being, and make decisions for their families.”

    Face coverings are a necessity because of the Governor’s executive order and will be required in classes and on buses. According to Director of Operations Shawn Kelley, the schools will have plenty of masks available. Face shields will be provided for preschool and kindergarten children. Older students will receive “Utah” face masks with adjustable ear straps, custom “Wasatch High School” masks, or “Wasatch” masks. The district has plenty of hand sanitizer, and they even have N95 masks if a child requires one. Students could also choose to alternate masks and face shields if desired.

    Students riding on the bus will sanitize their hands upon entrance and exit and wear face coverings. They will also have assigned seating. This will allow for easier contact tracing.

    New cleaning and hygiene protocols request that students bring their own water bottles. Students and faculty will also need to stay home if sick, and they must be symptom-free for 24 hours before returning to school. If someone in a class tests positive, he or she must quarantine for 72 hours after symptoms are gone.

    Currently, if a person has been within 6 feet of someone with Covid for more than 15 minutes, that person should quarantine for two weeks. However, the health departments statewide believe that wearing face coverings will mitigate the risk of exposure, and so the 2-week quarantine won’t be required for students with a positive-testing classmate. In this situation, parents will be informed and instructed to watch their students for any symptoms.

    Blaik Baird, Wasatch School Board President, thanked everyone for their hard work. He also stated, “I think it will be a learning curve in all aspects of this school year. I’m confident we’ll do it to the best of our ability.”

    The full plan can be found here: https://www.wasatch.edu/Page/16346.

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