I am standing on the bridge of the Mataura River, which is the river that runs through Gore and the town of Mataura and other places then out to the ocean, which is about an hour from us. Grandpa has said several times that they don't have rivers like this iin Utah. This is wide and is not in the gully of two mountains. Formerly it has been the brown trout capital of the world but the creeping pollution from sheep and mainly dairy farms has caused it to have a rather tarnished reputation. Not just the farming industry but a small number of people have found the river convenient to dump their trash rather than drive it to the dump. That is being blamed on the increased cost of dumping prices... No one likes human trash in their river.

Grandpa's fishing buddy in Bountiful knew of the reputation of the Mataura River in New Zealand and was so happy for dad to come fishing here. He has not and probably will not. The season closes in a couople of weeks and to rent equipment would be prohibitive and he is not goin g to borrow either. So...I have encouraged him but he isn't. We thought we would see many more fishermen than we have. I have seen 3 the entire time. However, we are in the city and they could be fishing elsewhere.

We are looking up river and it flows under me and out to the town of Mataura, for which our Branch was named. It runs behind Gore and you can see the industrial part of town with the colored tin rooves and the town proper is to the right of those. Main Street has proper shops for about a block in length and 3-4 off-shoot streets 1/4 block in length with more shops. Tiny town. Just the right size.

What else do you want videos or pictures of? Assuming that I am a fabulously entertaining photographer and you want more of either...hm-m-m.

Love you Mom

This is the toy maker at the Gypsy fair. He lives in a wooden mobile home and he and his wife travel the country selling a vaariety of toys at the fairs. He is here, busy, sawing a piece of wood to turn into a toy. He had wonderful toys like pirates swords, elastic shooting guns, tops, etc, plus decorative art hangins, all from wood. Did you notice his bare feet. This machine is powered not by electricity like most things are, but it is powered by his feet rocking the pedal back and forth and the big gear spinning, moving a belt attached to the blade, to make the blade of the saw go up and down. That is how things were done in the olden days. I used to have a sewing maching when I was a girl that had a pedal like his which moved the needle up and down instead of electricity! It also had a large gear that moved a belt just like the toy makers.

This video is taken at the Cathedral Caves on the beach. The ocean is at low tide so we can walk on the beach. When it is at high tide, we would be standing in water. You can enter one cave and come out the other one because they are connected at the back, like a giant letter "U." It was fun. When the ocean is churning alot it can wash away the sand floor of the caves and reveal the big boulders at the bottom. When this happens it is dangerous for people to try to crawl over the boulders to get inside the caves so they close the caves and wait until the sand base, which is about 5' gets built up again. Interesting.

Love, Granny

Grandpa has his wood stacked according to the month it will be used. We hope we have enough for autumn and the beginning of winter plus some for the next occupants.

All of the school children whether young or old wear a school uniform. All of them are different but this the elementary school near our home. If the kids attend school in a rural elementary school there is no uniform but they wear one when they go to highschool. They are usually a wool skirt for the girls and the guys wear long wool soxx and knee shorts. I really like them. The warm weather uniform changes to something lighter.

Grandpa is raking up the clipped lavender. We are at the church; the building is to his right and Gore's Main Street is behind him.


I wish I knew a bit more about mushrooms. I remember somewhere learning that poisonous things in nature are usually red, to act as a warning. These are sure cute. We fell in love with how fun they look. The Mataura River is in back of Jack.

We love you guys,
Love, Granny

This is one of the videos from the Crankup at Edendale...it takes forever to load these, ahem. How do we do it to YOUTube, which seems so fast, anybody?

The first one is how they carry the sheep from the holding pen to the shearer or once he is shorn backk to the holding pen...

The second one is several shearings going on.

Hope these work.

Auds, you and Cam looked fabulous! and good news re: the residency! Yahoo!

Love everyone who reads this, Auds, Jax and Abe...

We attended the Crankup Festival yesterday in Edendale. It was displays of vintage tractors, Mini Coopers, VW's, cars then several live performances from pipers to Dixieland. They have bizare competitions i.e. hay rolling, tractor pulling and then the best was the vintage shearing demonstration which I have videos to show you.

It rained off and on, mostly on all the time we were there and we had a single, single-person umbrella for the 3 of us. We got a bit wet but eventually dried. Lunch was an "American Hot Dog" which wasn't too bad but it was boiled as were the accompanying onions. Then, wow, we went to the "fried bakery" and had a cherry tart which was fried dough with cherry pie filling! So good...I almost ate two. Now I wish I had another one!

We had a great day. We took Helga (burnt granny) with us and spent the day...

videos following. Actually, I will load the videos later. Mom