I love living in the wilderness!

Sometimes I think I will never get used to it...

I grew up in the middle of Los Angeles, so for me, to come home and see a big beautiful buck feeding a few yards from my back door is a unique experience. Tonight Susan and I came home from a movie to see a big deer in our backyard. His buddies (seen above in a less than idea photo) were just over the fence in the pasture. In L.A. as a boy I would ride my bike to a rare empty field to see a rabbit or dove. Now I've got a herd of deer out my back window. I love it!

Mediterranean Cruise

In late October we cruised from Athens, Greece to Lisbon, Portugal as part of an incentive trip for Nature's Sunshine. We had another large group -- 680 people. Everyone seemed to have fun even though we had a few rough nights at sea.


One of the first stops was Ephesus, Turkey which has some pretty amazing ruins including this library dating back to 100 AD. Paul's New Testament Letter to the Ephesians was written to the citizens of Ephesus.


Susan somehow managed to get me agree to buy one of these oriental rugs before we got back on the ship in Ephesus. That was a costly tour!


Susan's admirers outside the Colliseum in Rome.


The famous Trevi Fountain


The prinicipality of Monaco. There's a lot of money floating around (literally) in this tiny country!


Spanish Flamenco!




We visited some amazing Catholic cathedrals.


The Gothic Cathedral in Seville, Spain was unbelievable! This is supposed to be the tomb of Christopher Columbus.


A trip highlight -- getting to know the Barberry Apes of Gibralter.

Larry Discovers Cutthroat Trout at Strawberry

I've been telling my brother Larry that he needs to come up from California in October so he can experience the great trout fishing at Strawberry Reservoir. Every year when the temperature gets cooler the Cuttroat Trout start to cruise the shallows looking for chubs to eat. Plastic tube jigs work great and it's not uncommon to catch 20-25 fish in a single afternoon. This quantity of fish is possible because the Fish and Game Department wisely established a "slot limit" regulation which requires you to release any fish that measures between 15" and 22". The result is a large population of beautiful 18-19-20-21 inch trout and fantastic fishing. If you get one over 22' you get to keep it as a trophy.

Larry loves fishing but has to settle for small "planters" he can find in lakes near his home in San Bernadino. I called him last Thursday to tell him the fishing was hot and he was on the road a few hours later. He throughly enjoyed his time on the reservoir and I think he will be coming back next fall. As you can see the weather was very coorperative.

Amazon adventure

Last spring we checked out an incentive trip possibility for my company in Brazil. It turned out be a fantastic trip--we visited Rio de Janeiro, Iguacu Falls (check out the video in an earlier post), and an eco-lodge on the Rio Negro River in the Amazon Basin. This last stop turned out to be absolutely fantastic! Lots of unique experiences as you can see in this video.

New family photo

We managed to gather together this summer for a family photo. The real trick is getting four babies to all look at the camera at the same time.

More Nate & Eva photos...

Eva steals your heart with her ever-joyful personality. Here she celebrates the blowing out of the candles.


Taking care of an ice cream cone is serious business!

Colorado Tour

Susan and I headed East on Friday for a little Fall adventure. We kind of made up the trip as we went along which is something that I enjoy a little more than Susan. She has this preocupation with where we are spending the night. Here's how the route turned out:


A few years ago an airline pilot pointed out the impressive Black Canyon of the Gunnison River from 30,000 feet. I have wanted to see it up close ever since.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, western Colorado, established as a national monument in 1933 and as a national park in 1999. The park contains the most picturesque section of the Black Canyon, the gorge of the Gunnison River. It is known as the Black Canyon because it is so deep and narrow that little light reaches its bottom. This section of the gorge is 16 km (10 mi) long and from 520 to 730 m (1,700 to 2,400 ft) deep.



The quakies were really blazing with color all through the Colorado mountains. The forests there are more dramatic--huge tracts of pines and large expanses of aspen that make the mountains look like they are on fire!

Aviation Merit Badge

Since moving to the new ward I have been helping out with the Scouts. (I think I talked a little too much about my interest in the outdoors when the Bishopric came to visit us!) Recently my partner was called into the bishopric and I was moved into the Scoutmaster slot. The boys are rambunctious, of course, but pretty good kids.

Lately we have been working on the Aviation merit badge with the help of a ward member who owns a helicopter flight school. Last week he took us on a tour of his facility and gave each boy a personalized flight about the Spanish Fork airport. It was a big thrill for all of them!

Best Ford commercial ever

This commercial for the Ford Mustang cracks me up!

Fall Colors

Susan and I drove up Payson Canyon to take a look at the fall colors. I love it when the quakies range in color from green to yellow to orange. This is a view looking north to Alpine and Mount Timpanogos.

Oak brush is the first to turn and the colors can get vibrant.

Birthday photos

Nate just celebrated his 3rd birthday. Here he is concentrating really, really hard on his birthday wish.


Eva just turned 2 so it was a joint celebration. Of course the lit candles are pretty compelling... Nathan "made me" re-light his candle about 10 times.


Here's Don Quixote and Sancho!

Iguazu Falls

One of my all-time favorite places in the world is Iguazu Falls on the border of Brazil and Argentina. There is something magical about this collection of 275 individual falls, some reaching 270 feet high. The first time I saw them was on my way home from my mission in Uruguay. Then I took Susan to see them in 2001 as part of our Cape Horn cruise. A few months ago we were on a company trip to Brazil and we got to see the falls again, this time by heliocopter. I edited some aerial footage so you can get a feel for this magnificent place:

My tribute to the Ring-necked Pheasant

Yesterday I was walking my dog in the field in front of my house and we jumped a rooster pheasant like the one pictured above. I have always been intrigued with birds of all kinds but the male pheasant, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful birds on earth. The species was imported to North America in 1857 and has been a very popular gamebird ever since.

The fact that I have a wild pheasant walking around not 20 yards from my front door is like a dream come true for me. I grew up in the middle of Los Angeles--nowhere near pheasant country. And while Salem is no Yellowstone Park, I feel blessed to be able to live where Bald Eagles fly overhead; where I can see bull elk with massive antlers on my way home from work; where trout swim in streams only minutes away; and where bears and cougars are still walking around on the majestic mountain I can see so clearly from my living room sofa. If you would have told the 15-year old Don Lehnhof in smoggy L.A. that the above statements would come true, he would have been delerious for anticipation. I am truly lucky, and I thank Nature's Sunshine for providing the financial opportunity to allow me to live here, and I thank Susan's mom for allowing us to build on her land.

Today I was able to sneak away to visit a hunting preserve in Cedar Valley to tide me and my German Shorthair Pointer Smokey over for the long hunt-less summer. The weather was warm and we had a splendid day of pheasant hunting. Hunting with a pointing dog is so fascinating because you can see when the dog catches the first scent and then begins criss-crossing excitedly in front looking for the bird. No matter how tired he or I happen to be, our pace quickens because we know the explosion of color and beating wings can occur at any instant. But no matter how prepared you think you are, the flush is ALWAYS startling. As and added punctuation, a rooster pheasant often lets out a series of crows in the midst of a flush as if to add an exclamation point to his hasty departure. Of course things don't always go this well. In many cases the pheasant has elusively run ahead and flushed out of range. But if the stars align you experience a scene like the one below:

I am aware that many think hunting is barbaric and as I grow older I find myself wishing that I could do "catch and release" hunting as I do when fishing. I would love to be able to admire the irridescent purple, blue, crimson, and gold coloring of the cock pheasant, then set him back down to run off and fly again. One of the things I love about owning a pointing dog is that we can go out anytime (except for the spring breeding season) and "hunt" birds without a gun. Watching the scene above is a reward in itself.