Farm Genes Double Dose

Scientist have argued for a long time whether behavior was inherited through genes or just developed through experience. When you hear my family talk, it is almost a given that behavior is inherited.

The girls talk about the "Being late to Church gene" (not inherited from me!). Then there is the "Exquisite taste bud gene" as opposed to the "No taste gene". Then of course there is the "Annoying gene". And so on and of course implied is that these traits go back to the parents.

I have wondered, if true, is there a Farm gene in our family? Grandpa MacEntire had a 50 acre farm in Heber..my parents had two farms, one in New York and one on Redwood Road and 59th South in Salt Lake City.

The farm in New York was upstate in the Catskills near Sidney. It was 135 acres with two sets of forests, two barns,a 19th century house with no plumbing or running water or electricity. Mom stayed up there with the four kids while Dad carried on surgery in New York City. I loved that place. A war was going on and meat and certain foods were rationed so we always had some livestock on the farm that we butchered before returning back to the city.

When we moved to Salt Lake, Dad bought a 20 acre farm out in Bennion. We had a milk cow, 200 chickens, pigs, a white faced steer, rabbits, ducks etc. I hated this farm because there were so many chores that interfered with my studying. When we bought a small farm in Michigan, my sister could not believe it.

The farm in Michigan was a working farm and various people lived on it and took care of the horses. Jeff and Tammy lived there as did Al and Paul with Rob renting a room as they all went to University of Michigan. Everyone saw action on the farm. We had to take care of things on weekends, repair fences, fix the horses, cut and bale a 20 acre hayfield, cut down fallen trees etc, and weed a huge garden and is was pure pyschotherapy for me.

Now Bryan bought that farm and is fixing it up.

Rick, who did not see much farm action as I remember it, also recently bought 35 acres in Northern California near the Sierras. It has a log house with and additon, sheds and buildings and a stream running through it. It does not have livestock but there are a lot of fallen trees. Rick has been fascinated with cutting wood and recently Bryan and Scotty went out there to help Rick with some farm chores.

The picture shows a days work in cutting and stacking wood. I noticed that it was as evenly and exactly cut as any woodpile I have seen in Austria. There is Rick's devotion to exactness in full display.

Now Al and Paul are moving out to Michigan and they are talking about finding a piece of land, a small farm maybe and living there

Maybe there is a "Farm Gene" and our kids have a double dose.

Small World

I am constantly impressed by how small this world is and how one runs into people you know or once knew. I guess it is a good idea to be nice to just everyone... impressions are not forgotten.

We had a bunch of these last week. One of Mom's favorite hobbies is going to the tax department wherever we have property and contesting the rise in property tax and she is good at it.

She went down to the Salt Lake County office because they raised the value of the land our home sits on and she always checks to make sure it is fair and checks on what happened to the neighbors. Sometimes they like to give 0 information. This time the lady says, "Oh yes I know that name; we saw your husband on TV and it was good." She was helpful.

We went up to Bear Lake for a day and Mom went to the Paris Idaho county seat to check on taxes there. The lady said, "Oh yes I know you; you took some raspberry jam back to my son who was serving a mission in Michigan". She was very nice and gave Mom all the information about what was going on in the property surrounding our little farm.

A random Mexican sister came up to me in the Temple and said, "I saw you on TV; you have too many big words" I am always speechless when that happens.

Our daughter, Mary, gets a Realtor in Bloomfield Hills, MI. When he found out her maiden name, he said, "Your father operated on my father in law and saved his life. He was 81 at the time and he lived to be 94 and saw our children grow up."

More people there know Mom. It is hard to be under the radar with 17 children. I went to a restaurant with Bryan one time in Bloomfield Hills, walked past a table and the lady looked at me like she had seen a ghost. "Dr. Wirthlin...I was good friends with your wife and my kids went to school with yours" Put her back on the Xmas card list.

I guess it is so important to be nice and kind to all. Even though you might forget about a little incident... others do not.

Love, Dad

Conversion Story

Yesterday, a young girl was baptized in a deep spot in a canyon river in the Alpine area. We met her in our home three weeks ago as she attended church for the first time at our family mega baby blessing event. She came over to the house with 99 other people for lunch... her story is great.

She came up from South Africa and was hired as a chef for Rebecca's in laws in Alpine. That story also has twists and turns but she arrived and moved in with the family. They promptly left and went to Lake Powell for a week leaving her alone in the house. They gave her a Book of Mormon to read while they were gone which she did and had lots of questions when they returned. They began to teach her about the Church and Restoration. They invited the full time missionaries in and she received all the discussions and was baptized and confirmed by Becca's Father in law. This young lady contacted her family in South Africa who also visited a church there as well.

This story has another great twist. We had the three baby blessing and all the families came and we filled the Monument Park ward. Our family took up the entire right side of the chapel and Becca and Paul and their group took up a good part of the center section in the front.

We are also being watched...people count the number of cars in front of the house. Well they also looked over everyone at church that day. One older couple noticed this young lady sitting with Paul's family and somehow he and his wife were struck.

They went up to Paul's dad whom they had never met, introduced themselves and asked who the young lady was. They explained she was up here from South Africa and just started working for them and did not have many friends locally. This couple then asked if it would be alright if their son gave her a call and they got numbers. He is 24 and going to law school and the U of U.

He called.. they went out and have been together almost constantly. He was there at the baptism. That story has not ended yet but would have never happened if we did not have that combined mega baby blessing event where three daughters, their in laws and friends brought their newborns to our ward for their blessings.

Life is filled with so many twists and turns and we cross so many paths. We are brought into contact with people we need to meet and great things happen.

It would be difficult not to recognize the Hand of Providence in our lives.

Alles Gute, Dad

08 08 08

Mom and I worked an extra shift in the Salt Lake Temple yesterday. There were 102 scheduled weddings which is getting close to record proportions.

I think the brides did not want their husbands to forget their wedding date: 08/08/08. Next year it will be 09/09/09 until 12/12 and then we will have to wait for another 100 years for such combinations. There were these beautiful brides everywhere. Kristina, Bry's wife and their kids are here visiting from Michigan. They went to Temple square and saw beautiful princess brides everywhere having their pictures taken.

It was a special day in the temple and there was a great spirit there with so many families all celebrating with great joy.

I do not think those numbers have special meaning in our culture but I am told it is special in the Chinese culture and that is why the opening day of the Olympics in Beijing was on 08/08/08. There was a baby born yesterday on 08/08/08 weighing 8 pounds 8 ounces.

No large celebrations this weekend. We will go up to our place in Bear Lake in St Charles, Idaho, next weekend with Alison and some of her family. It is great to be here.

Alles Gute, Dad

Busy Summer

There seems to be a lot going on all the time.

We had another spontaneous family event Sunday. They all start out like this; since Suz and Mary are going home on Monday, let's invite Doug and his family over for dinner. We will keep it simple!

Then of course when you invite one, you must invite all and in the matter of a few days a mini reunion was organized again. It turned out that Kristina, Bryan;s wife and four of their kids were in St. George and when they heard about the get together, Kristina motored up to Salt Lake.

We ended up with seven of our eight daughters and their families, Doug and his family with the brand new baby who experienced her first extended family function, Krisitina with Sarah, Heidi, Nicki and Michelle. It was a blast!

We had 100 over the previous Sunday and this time it was 50. I did ribs again and Doug brought over some Dutch oven ribs and the usual supply of extras. This time, we had enough.

I had the parents get in the line first and then the kids. Last week it turned out that the kids were not the only ones bypassing the line as the parents learned from experience that you had to make a move to be fed. Emily says they all developed survival skills growing up on a large family.

Reminds me of the time in Michigan when Denny Kelley left a fresh Burger King Whooper on the kitchen island with a drink. Smelled so good. He left for a few seconds and when he came back, the Whooper and drink were gone. Suz said simply, "That's life in a big family!" Never leave your food alone.

It is so great to have the kids all come over. We had a ten minute family night as well. It is hard to catch the attention of all the kids (more than in our ward primary) but I thought that if President Hunter could see us, he would smile at the activities going on in the home he built.

Alles Gute, Dad



new additons including Isabelle Michelle one week old



trying to get all the kids to family night. We have a family calling: the"Sheepdog" whose job it is to herd all the kids from the basement, lawn, backyard to come to family night.

My Five Angels

Al found a cartoon drawing I did 26 years ago of my five young daughters. We had nine daughters; two were not yet born at the time. I do not remember the circumstances of the drawing; it was not done in church which was a frequent opportunity to catch an expression. This one looks too well planned. I used to do one on Valentines when Mom would get me to send a valentine.

As I look at this sketch another flood of memories are released. I do not know if some people understand the deep love a Father has for his daughters. They are precious and you want to love them and protect them. Mary said when she was in high school that I had intimidated her boy friends that would come over to the house especially on Saturday night.

"Why?"

"Because you have just come from the farm and you have that big knife on your belt. And then they look into our "African" room and see all the mounts on the wall and they know you shoot to kill!" "Yes and remind them that it was usually only one well placed shot!"

Except for photography and some enjoying horseback riding on the farm, I did not share a lot of hobbies with the daughters then. I could not stand to shop at the Gap and spend a half an hour on a decision to buy a $4.00 blouse. But still there was that tremendous feeling that a Father develops for his angel daughters that remains. I felt a little the same for our sister missionaries over in Germany and Austria. I made sure they were well taken care of, had respect they deserved and that feeling has also persisted.

And now I watch each daughter 26 years later still the apple of my eye but with families of their own. They all revel in their motherhood. They are so close to each other sometimes the husbands comment. They are all on the phone several times each day with one another. When one writes a blog, phone calls..."Did you read my blog?" They automatically help each other and are all joined at the hip.

I can't remember where Emily or Cheryl were at the time of the sketch. They were angels as well.

We honor and love our daughters. I visited Elder Wirthlin the other day and he said,"It is wonderful to have great daughters!" I agreed and added it is also wonderful to have outstanding sons. Here is to wonderful daughters,

Alles Gute, Dad