January Snow Days, Part II

Continuing with the story of our snowy weather last month…

So Tony’s and my expedition through the snow to get supplies in town was ill-fated. Three miles from home, and a mile and a half from the highway (plus another four miles into town), the truck got stuck in a snow bank.

Tony tried to dig his truck out, but beneath the snow was a scum of fresh mud from the rains that came before the snow. His tires spun fruitlessly, and we knew that there was no way out.

We made the decision to walk home, based on an arrangement that my younger brother Lehi would get Tony’s other 4x4 vehicle and meet us as we walked towards home. The fact that someone would meet us at least half way was comforting.

For the first ten minutes, the walk was easy. We walked in the truck’s tire tracks. But the wind shortly blew snow over ruts, and we were trudging through knee deep snow.

This was very strenuous activity for me. I had not done much physical activity since I was diagnosed with a blood clot in my leg last August. In fact, as my heart rate shot up and I got short of breath, I started wondering how all of this physical activity was going to affect my clot.

A few minutes after we started walking, the sun dipped below the horizon, and the cold settled in. I had to stop and pant every few steps, and soon Tony was ahead of me. As it grew dark, we got a phone call from my brother Lehi. He had got the other vehicle running, but he got stuck on a half a mile away from our house.

It sunk in – there was no one coming for us. I would have to walk all the way home in the dark, in the snow. Tony disappeared over the horizon, and I was alone. Exhaustion was starting to overwhelm me. It is one thing to walk three miles. It is quite another to walk that far in over two feet of snow.

I felt like stopping to rest, but the cold would start seeping into me every time I stopped. I knew that if I stopped, I would freeze to death, so I pushed on.

One of the most frustrating moments was when my oldest brother called to see how I was doing. I told him that I was tired, but pushing on. He wished me luck and then hung up. To me, it felt like someone telling me, “I hope you make it.”

My hands were numb. I couldn’t feel my feet, and there were a few minutes where I started to actually get worried. I started to pray out loud.

I followed the trail that Tony blazed. He left the road and began to cut across a large meadow that would take us more directly to our house. On the horizon, I could see the flicker of headlights where my brother Lehi was stuck. I started to walk towards that point of light. A fog rolled in, and soon I couldn’t see the headlights. I couldn’t see anything. I was walking blind through the snow. I kept heading in the same direction, and soon I could see the headlights again. But there was this weird phenomenon where it seemed that no matter how much I walked, the headlights seemed to be getting further and further away.

After what seemed forever, I arrived at the truck. Tony and Lehi were trying to dig it out. I got into the truck and sat down. My muscles were buzzing. My head felt numb, and the warm air from the heater hit my lungs. I started coughing and coughing until I gagged and nearly threw up.

Tony got the car going, and we started for home. We got stuck again, but only one hundred yards away from the house. So I walked home, where I was greeted by Martha, Temple and the worried kids.

They sat me down by the fire and wrapped a blanket around me. I didn’t want the food or hot chocolate that they had prepared. All I wanted was tepid water. I immediately went to bed and fell into a deep sleep. I woke up a couple of hours later, and both of my legs were cramping up very badly. I writhed in pain for a while until the cramps went away.

But the next day, when I woke up, I felt better than I had in months.

That Saturday, my brother-in-law David returned home in his four-wheel drive truck, bringing some of our food with him. He got stuck in almost the same spot that we did and had to walk home.

Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day. The sun glistened off of the white landscape. I made a decision. I had survived the other night. I was tired of being afraid of physical activity due to the blood clot. I don’t know what came over me, but I decided to hike back out to David’s truck and get the food. Temple decided to go with me. So did my children Sophie and Christian. This time we were better equipped. It way daytime, and we took Gatorade with us.

We set off in the tracks that I had made previously. Tony joined up with us, determined to get his truck. I let them get ahead of me. I set my own pace and enjoyed the walk. We made it to David’s truck, and then decided to push on to Tony’s truck. We managed to get unstuck, drove into town, got supplies, but on the return trip, we got stuck again. And had to make the trip back. But I felt good after this walk.

We were snowed in for close to a week, and the kids had to stay home. After the county sent snow plows, we were finally able to get the car out. But then we were forced to stay in Concho for close to another week, because the mud was so horrible that our poor sedan couldn’t make it home.

What a joy it was to finally make it home. And what a joy it was to experience such a snowfall. Still, I will be glad once the summer is here.

Hot For Teacher - Temple Gets a Job

I have been out of work since I came back from South Carolina at the beginning of December. I can blame the economy. I can also blame my health, since I still suffered from DVT during this time.

Even though it was one of the toughest times economically for us ever, my latino machismo prevented me from asking my wives to look for work. Temple decided on her own to look for work. After applying at several locations, she was asked by the principal of the elementary school to apply for a teacher’s aide position.

First, a word about Temple – since her children have started school, she has been the epitome of a good mom. She helps the kids with their homework. She is very involved with the school. When the kids have issues, she is not afraid to go and talk to the teachers or principal. She is involved with the PTA. (I think there are only four, or so, members.) She will go to school board members to listen in and discuss issues that she feels strongly about.

And I think that she has made an impression on the principal and on the teachers. I believe that there is a stereotype about polygamous mothers – that they are weak, have no thoughts of their own, that they are controlled, suppressed, that they are afraid of government and schools, that they are incapable of handling problems on their own. Temple (and Martha for that matter) has shown that she is not afraid to get involved, and, more importantly, that she is not afraid to express her opinion.

So it came as no surprise that they offered her a job.

Next, a word about the school my kids attend – I have always said that we were blessed to have our kids go there. The whole region where we live is predominantly LDS – except Concho. It is an island of Gentiles in the sea of Mormondom. Our awkward transition from fundamentalist homeschoolers to public school would have been very difficult if we were dealing with a Mormon staff. At the school in Concho, everybody knows. We have kids from different mothers in the same class. Nobody says anything. We get compliments on our kids all the time. In other words, we have felt very welcome, in spite of our non-traditional lifestyle.

That’s not to say that there has not been some awkwardness. I have left Martha and Temple to deal with the school. Sometimes when I go to the school, I get strange looks from the teachers and the staff. I catch them staring at me from the corner of my eye. I know why they are staring at me. I almost feel like if my wives are the ones dealing with the school, they are considered to be more innocuous than me. Throw the husband into the mix, and they feel threatened. I am the dangerous one. I am the alpha male.

So as a result, I try to stay minimally involved when it comes to the school…

So the principal offered Temple a job as a teacher’s aide. This was the perfect job for her. In a situation where she was forced to get a job, there could be no better job than working closely with our children. She took the PARA Professional test, and – even though she was very nervous – she scored high.

She started a couple of weeks ago. Temple’s take-charge attitude and German efficiency has benefited her well. She takes no nonsense from the children and takes pride in what she does.

However, she noticed some peculiar behavior from some of the staff. We know enough to guess that this is because of the rumors of polygamy. But no one has mentioned anything to her, and by and large, everyone has treated her with dignity and respect.

Temple commented that there was one aide who seemed particularly bothered by Temple’s presence at the school. This aide worked in one of my son’s classes. Temple would catch this woman shooting daggers at her, and, on one occasion, Temple tried to strike up a conversation with this woman, and the woman not only refused to answer, but walked the other way. I told Temple to not let it bug her.

On Valentine’s Day, the 2nd Grade class had a party. Both Martha and Temple have children in the class, so both of them attended the party. As they were walking out the door, Martha asked her sisterwife, “Would you like me to take the kids home? Or would you?”

Temple answered, “I would like you to. I’m kind of burned out on the kids at the moment.”

Temple looked up to see that the aide had been party to this discussion. The lady wore such a look of revulsion and disgust. Usually, we don’t flaunt our lifestyle in front of other people. They didn’t say enough to cause a scene. It wasn’t something as obvious as, “Who is Moroni sleeping with tonight?” But it was enough that this lady showed – by nonverbal means – her feelings towards plural marriage, and to us.

Still, I don’t have a problem with that – as long as it remains nonverbal.

The other day, I went to pick up the kids from school, and the first thing that my daughter Sara did was announce that the teacher’s aide had confided in her that my son was misbehaving that day and had been punished for spitting on another student. Sara said that the aide also told her that if that behavior continued that my son would find himself kicked out of school.

Now, as a parent, I believe in discipline. I grew up in the days when teachers would rap me on the head with a ruler when I misbehaved, and I think that it is a shame that this kind of discipline no longer exists in schools. When my kids misbehave, I am glad that they are disciplined and punished for their behavior.

What I did take an issue with is that the aide went to my daughter with a behavioral issue involving my son – and didn’t come to us.

The first thing I did was to reprimand Sara for being such a busybody. I told her that it was none of her business to check on the wellbeing of her brother.

Then in private, I told Temple that she ought to talk to the teacher quietly and let her know that we did not approve of the aide sharing the details with another sibling.

The next day, I got a text from Temple. She told me that she was so upset that we was shaking.

As I suggested, she went to talk to the teacher. The teacher assured her that she would look into it. As Temple was going into the bathroom, the aide in question rounded on Temple and proceeded to chew her out severely. The aide was livid that Temple went over her head to the teacher, and she essentially called Sara a liar.

At one point, the aide said, “I don’t want to get involved with your FAMILY ISSUES!”

Family issues??? What “family issues” could she be referring to? Oh, I guess that we are a plural family. Although she was careful not to say it, she told us that her problem with us is that we are a polygamous family.

Later on, I found out that this woman is LDS – which came as a surprise to me, because she has a latino last name. Generally, most latinos in our area are not Mormon. But I shouldn’t be surprised, because I am a latino AND LDS.

Temple later expressed regret for handling things the way she did, for getting the aide upset. I told her that she did the right thing.

You see, this aide thought that she wasn’t doing anything wrong, because rules of civility, niceness, good manners, etc., don’t apply to polygamists. You can treat them anyway that you want, and it’s okay, because they are despicable. Furthermore, plural wives are weak, submissive, cannot think for themselves, etc. I am sure that it came as quite a surprise to learn that Temple has teeth and is not afraid to bite.

She asked me if she should do anything else, like go to the principal. I told her no. Let it slide. Let them know that they can’t f*** with us and get away with it.

I posted a little bit about it on FaceBook, and my brother asked me, “Were you surprised?”

I responded that – yes! – I am surprised. Every time it happens. I cannot wrap my mind about why this woman would CARE that we are polygamists. It does not hurt her. It does not affect her. Why should she care that there are polygamist children in her school? Or that a plural wife works as an aide at the same school? I cannot comprehend why someone would go out of their way to be mean or nasty or even give us a second thought.

But the reality – there are some that do…

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January Snow Days

Okay, once again, I have been away. Computer problems. Have you ever seen a laptop cord literally fry? Not a pleasant sight. Nor a pleasant smell.

I thought that I would talk a little bit about the weather, which has been unusual. As I type, I am looking out the window on a sunny February day, and the temperature is anticipated to get to a balmy 57 degrees. But January was not so nice…

When we first moved to the ranch, we moved from Mesa, Arizona – which is hot desert summer that experiences snow once a decade. By contrast, our ranch was located at a high elevation, high up on the Colorado Plateau. Our first two winters were harsh, and on several occasions we saw the snow bad enough that they shut down all the mountain passes between Phoenix and our ranch.

I remember that it was a challenge to get to work a couple of times. I bought an old Ford pickup since we live down five miles of dirt road, most of it not maintained. There were times when the snow was deep enough that I thought I would get stuck.

Still, everyone was talking that we were at the start of a twenty-year drought. The truth of this soon became evident. Little Ortega Lake provided me with some spectacular vistas as I drove home, with bald eagles perched in the trees at its shore. It soon dried up. In addition, the snows stopped. Typically, a winter snow brought only a few inches, and it was gone within a day or two. There were some winters where we almost got now snow at all.

The old-timers told stories of bad winters. In 1967, there was a snow storm so bad in Concho that some road engineers got trapped in their truck. Snow buried them, and they ran the heater until they ran out of gas. The only way they were located was that a snow plow saw their tail lights beneath a mound of snow. They were taken to someone’s home in Concho where they recuperated from hypothermia, because the nearest hospital back then was in McNary, almost 60 miles away.

The only evidence we saw of this was a storm in March, 2006. We got three feet of snow. The drifts were up to eight feet high. My younger brother jumped off of the roof of my mother’s house into the drifts, and the huge piles of snow cushioned his fall. The morning after the snow, we had to dig our animals out of the snow. We had to forage for firewood, and we ran out of food within three days. Someone had to hike some food to us.

We realized that we were not prepared for such a storm and spoke of winterizing a little better for the next year. But after a hot summer, it is kind of easy to forget that.

In December, we got about a foot of snow. The only thing that was different about this snow was that, instead of melting in about a day or two, it stuck on the ground for about a month. It was a cold month, only made better by our plumbing freezing up.

JANUARY 19

On January 19, we had snow starting to fall. The radio reports were saying that we would be hit with storm after storm over the next several days. They were saying that we could expect up to three feet of snow. After the dry winters we have experienced, it was easy to react to this with skepticism.

Nonetheless, we decided to prepare. Since we live off the grid, we keep a freezer plugged in at the house of some relatives. Generally, as needed, Martha, Temple or I will stop by the freezer to get food. That evening, we got some food. (It was not enough.) We got some gas for our generator, and then we went home to hunker down. The radio was stating that there was a Winter Storm Advisory for the White Mountains starting at 7PM.

We went home, got the fire going and watched a movie. The sound of the rain pelting our house woke me up that night – rain, not snow. It rained all night.

JANUARY 20


When I got up at 5AM, I noticed that the rain had given way to snow. I turned the radio on and listened for the school closure updates. After a few country songs, the radio announced that the school had closed due to the weather. The kids were jumping up and down for joy. A snow day!

As the morning wore on, the snow kept coming. There several inches on the ground, but that did not stop the garbage truck from plowing down the road for his weekly visit.

I spent the day preparing for taxes, and then watched movies with the kids. No one was venturing outside.

By the evening, the sky had cleared up, and there was no more snow. We watched the sun set in a clear sky. But the radio reports were stating that there was more snow on the way.

JANUARY 21

On Thursday, even though the skies were clear all night, by the time I got up, it was snowing again. The radio announced another snow day. Again, the floorboards were shaking from the kids jumping for joy.

The kids were begging to go outside and play. So out they went, making snow angels and building snowmen. Indoors, the hot cocoa was brewing all day.

I went down to my mother’s house with my kids to get some wood, since we were running low. The snow was already up to my calves, and I discovered that there was slick mud underneath it. The snow had settled on top of the rainwater, making a very mushy situation.

JANUARY 22

Friday morning, the snow was still falling, and the wind kicked in, making drifts that were up to three feet high.

The kids had a blast and started digging tunnels under the drifts and crawling into them.

Our food supplies were running low, and so my brother Tony called me and asked if I wanted to venture out to Concho to get some supplies. At about 4PM, he came and picked me up. The sky was clear. His truck was in 4x4. Even though the road was hidden by the drifts, we started to blaze a trail towards town. He was doing really good. We slipped and slid. The snow bogged us down, but every time we got stuck, he would throw the truck into reverse, and that would do the trick. We would continue down the road.

About three miles down the road, the drifts got incredibly deep, and Tony’s truck came to a stop. Throwing it into reverse did not work. I was not dressed for the cold, wearing only a light jacket and no gloves. So I sat in the truck while Tony took a shovel and tried to dig us out. All to no avail. He even dug some sagebrush out of the snow and put it under the tires to try and give us traction. It did not work.

We sat there for a while. I watched the sun get lower on the horizon. I also watched another storm brewing up from the south. I started thinking of the stories of men getting hypothermia in their trucks – right in the same region I live.

Tony finally admitted we were stuck, and we discussed what to do. We considered walking to the highway about a mile and a half away. But then we would have to try to hitchhike somewhere safe.

Tony called my younger brother and asked him if he could bring Tony’s other 4x4 and meet us. We decided to start walking. We left the truck, and the icy wind cut right through my jacket.

I was really worried. It was three miles to my house – through the snow. I wondered vaguely how this would affect the blood clot in my leg.

I’ll finish the story of our trek home in the next installment…

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