The Second Day

The crew told me that they would be there at 6AM. I woke up at 5:30 AM and beat them to the punch. I got up and straightened up the house a bit. They arrived, did some shots of the spectacular sunrise, and Dawn crawled into her sleeping bag as if she had spent the night. They filmed me waking up the whole family. Dawn helped the kids get dressed & ready for school while Martha made some chorizo for breakfast.

When it was time for Dawn to get out of her pajamas, she asked where she could change. The bathroom was full, so she asked me to step out of Martha’s room so that she could change in private – with the camera guys in the room with her. Don’t ask me what that was all about.

I left for a while to take the kids to school. When I got back, they were doing a one-on-one interview with Temple. They went for a walk to the eastern edge of property. Temple told me later that the questions were a bit edgier – a lot sex-related questions. Temple was pretty smooth about answering those. Dawn told her, “Oh, you are clever.”

After that, Pascal (the director) came up with an idea to have Dawn go shopping with Martha. He asked where we usually go shopping, and I said that we usually shop at Wal-Mart in Show Low. We decided on Wilbur’s IGA in St. Johns for a couple of reasons. First, it is a quaint grocery store in a small town. Second, the people in St. Johns know who we are and are usually a little circumspect about us. I relished the thought that people would see Dawn with Martha and think that she was a prospective wife. So they loaded up the car with the cameras, and the two girls headed off for town with the crew’s van in tow.

I took advantage of the break to take a much-needed nap. They were gone a long time, and Temple started to get worried that we would not be able to go pick up the kids from school. So I called Hank, but they were already pulling up to the house. Dawn told me with a big grin how much she enjoyed her time with Martha. When they got to the grocery store, Hank had spoken with the manager, but they were not allowed in. Dawn said that the grocery store felt very oppressive, and that she felt like everyone was watching her.

They next wanted to do a one-on-one with me. They picked a spot on the hill right behind my house. It was a little rocky area sheltered from the wind (which was ever-present and causing problems for the microphones.) Our neighbors (also polygamists) kept driving by and checking us out.

Dawn asked me some very pointed questions – many of them about sex. They really didn’t bother me. They were mainly about how I can get away with having sex with my wives in a house hold of kids. That’s easy; you just have to be an opportunist. Next came the questions about whether I think I am really fair, if I really treat them well and whether or not I think I could really handle having another wife. Those questions are a little tougher. Because the truth is – no matter how fair I try to be, I am not always going to be fair. But I can say that I answered her questions honestly.

When I got back, I found Martha upset about her questions. She felt that they had focused way too much on sex. What is funny – my questions were basically the same as Martha’s, but Martha was very uncomfortable about the questions. We called Hank, Charlie and Pascal into the room, and they calmed Martha’s fears.

We wrapped things up, and I gave Books of Mormon to all the crew. Earlier, I had spoken about how I have begun to approach my religion from a Torah-based standpoint. Joel, the cameraman said, “I will read your book, because you have read mine (the Old Testament).”

I also burned a few CDs, because Hank was going on about how much he liked my ringback tone (“A Little Piece of Heaven” by Avenged Sevenfold).

Sandy also entertained the girls with his catalogue of celebrities that he has met.

Charlie had to get going for another shoot this week, and Hank had to get all the equipment loaded. So they had the family stand outside in the cold wind while we repeatedly did shots of us waving goodbye to Dawn. After the filming was done, we said goodbye for real. Dawn told me a little bit about the project. She went last week to San Diego to film a polyamorous family.

“I spent one entire night being rubbed,” she said. Whatever that means. This is my daughter Sophie & Dawn.

Anyway, they are going to Japan to do a shoot later this month. They are excited about that.
We said goodbye to Dawn, Charlie and Hank. It is really sad to say goodbye to these people. Pascal, Joe and Sandy will be back tomorrow to do the shoot for History Channel. The whole family is really excited about Sandy coming back.

The whole family was able to eat a dinner undisturbed, and we all went to be exhausted.