"Until Next Time, Enjoy Our Wild America!"

As a young boy, I often spent Sunday evenings watching quality PBS programs such as NATURE, NOVA, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, and of course MARTY STOUFFER'S WILD AMERICA. My brother Jacob and I had such a great time watching and learning all about nature and wildlife. It became a comforting tradition to watch nature shows. Of particular interest to us was WILD AMERICA since it focused on our own turf, usually right in the rockies themselves. We loved Marty Stouffer's soothing narration, placid and homey sweaters, and of course his awesome beard. Dad contributed to PBS pretty regularly and we got as a pledge gift 2 Wild America specials, a 10 year best of, and my favorite- Great Escapes. I had that Great Escapes video completely committed to memory, my favorite part was the snowhare escaping the lynx. If any of you have seen it, you know the one I'm talking about. I wanted to be Marty Stouffer and was dissappointed when my 2 older brothers could grow these massive full bears at 16 and I couldn't even get fuzz until I was 23. For my last birthday, my sweet wife bought me the complete Wild America on DVD!! All 12 seasons! This has re-sparked a new sunday afternoon tradition and I love watching his show again.I recently found out that Marty got into film making as a teenager and he took off alone to Alaska to film wildife. He became trapped by snowfall in a remote valley, but survived by hunting and trapping local wildlife. A modern day Jeremiah Johnson

I remember hearing about some legal troubles with Marty Stouffer, how he had been accused of staging scenes in his documentaries and even claims of animal cruelty. He was hit with some heavy fines for making illegal trails and for poaching Elk near his home in Aspen, Colorado (I wonder if he and John were pals??), and that opened up a flood of accusations and testimony from people who had worked on the set of Wild America. The accusations ranged from staging attacks, to using tamed animals. PBS investigated the show and found fault in 15 of the 110 episodes. It hit me pretty hard and I still get a little upset when I think of that warm friendly face lying to America. But I've dug into it a little deeper, wanting to hear Marty's side of the story. Stouffer denies the charges. "I am not ashamed of anything I have done;' he said, adding, "My conscience is clear. I love animals." PBS even cleared him of any wrongdoin, but due to his damaged reputation he was unable to secure the needed funding to continue the show. Wild America was discontinued in 1996.

It would really shock you to hear how many nature shows are guilty of "setups" and other falsifications. Even Walt Disney himself apparently dumped a whole pack of lemmings off a cliff into a river to film their "mass suicide" as part of his nature show. Also, 15 of 110 episodes means there are still 95 quality honest episodes of Wild America. So in the end, Marty made some good TV and I love watching his show!

Just a couple things

So first off - The first picture is a warning of what can happen if you forget you have a bottle of carmex in your pocket and try to roll around playing with kids. ouch




The next picture is of Grand Teton National Park early this morning. It was really pretty, and if you look really closely you just might see some elk.



Lastly, on the way home from GTNP, I stopped at the DI and found a great game that's really old and pretty hard to find, and it was still in the shrink wrap! score dan! That is all, have a good day!

This is a random post with a few random updates/happenings

Well, We had scout camp which was fun, but soooo hot. Thanks mom and dad for the canopy! I've been back and forth to Grand Teton National Park the last few weeks for work, which has been lots of fun, but lots of work and no leisure time whatsoever. I had been originally hired as an intern for a 3 month period and as that period is winding down I've been talking with my boss and he seems anxious to keep me around, so that's great news! I just need to find enough to do that i can keep myself busy (our business really slows down during the winter months as one might imagine). Angie and i proved to the world that Ping Pong knows no economic or spacial limits when we bought a net and some paddles at the DI and converted her sewing table into a hobbit-sized ping pong table. It actually works really well and is lots of fun. As for the Mike Leavitt picture, well our story isn't quite jake's Mit Romney story, but Angie and i spoke in sacrament meeting today and who should be in attendance but the very governor and his wife (he must have heard who was speaking). Anyways, we both did great and it was fun to see him in person. The last picture is of my geeky Boardgame convention i went to in salt lake. It's called A Gathering Of Strangers, it's an annual event and usually draws around 300 die-hard boardgame geeks. I was one of them. It was awesome! I won the Dominion tournament (that's a game) and got a lot of sweet games in trades and as prizes and stuff. It was a ball. Well, that's enough for now, until next time

-Dangie

Re: Re: Beard Pics

Okay, the bottom one's not me :). Looking at these pictures I'm amazed that angie let my beard get that long. Anytime I shave it's purely because she's complained enough. I hope everyone enjoys the "hairy mole" picture in the middle, you may have to enlarge the image to find the prize.

what we've been up to

A picture is worth a thousand words, so in leau of several thousand words, please enjoy this pictoral representation of the last month or so in our lives.

Ya Come Far, Pilgrim

Happy Birthday Jacob! May your 30s be as eventful as your 20s... good events, I mean. 

In honor of my brother, I'd like to share a story:

Jacob once took me along with him, Trent Johnson, and some other friends of his swimming at the spa. I was probably 8 or 9 and was having a hard time keeping up with the 12 or 13 year olds. We had ventured to the deep end and we all were swimming across to the other side. It’s a pretty long distance for just a little guy and I remember everyone being at the far side already while I was still smack in the middle with 30 feet or so left to go. I was so tired I couldn’t get my arms to move. Fearing I might not make it, I called for Jacob. He heard and I vividly remember his instant response to launch from the side of the pool. Before long he reached me and helped me to the edge of the pool. After that he was very careful to keep a close eye on me. He was a good brother. 

Thanks for the good times, jake and for being a great example and an awesome guy! 

For everyone who's not jake- I made a collage of some of jacob's favorite and most inspiring artists. See how many of them you can identify. If you get them all, I'm sure jacob will appreciate you more :)

Employed!!

The search is over (at least for the summer). I finally landed a job working for a Richmond, UT company called PROVIDIA. They "assist land owners in the management of land health, from monitoring land use to weed management and reclamation." From what I could gather during my interview, they do a lot of GPS work plotting points in fields and rangelands using these really nifty $3,000 units - my job is to "make the maps", and manage and organize existing and future data. It's an internship that will give me some awesome experience and hopefully make me more hirable for future positions. They mentioned that after September there is a possibility of being hired full time. Angie and I are way excited to have something finally and we're glad we get to stay in Logan for at least a little while longer. 

Here's a link to their webpage if anyone's interested in checking them out:

http://providiaprecision.com/index.asp