Hobbies and Humor

Ever since Grandpa Johnson passed away this last June, the family has been working to tie up the loose ends of he and Grandma's estate. Part of the estate is a piece of property in Nibley my Grandpa has owned for years and years. He used the land primarily for raising horses and has a stable/riding arena/storage unit/workshop there. The family is now in the process of selling the land and some members of the family have been cleaning out the building, gathering anything that anyone might want before the sale happens.

I decided to take the kids up to Cache Valley Thursday for a last visit to Grandpa's Ranch (as some of us fondly call it). It turned out to be quite the nostalgic day. I walked through the building and around the property snapping pictures of everything that reminded me of Grandpa and listened while Aunt Kathy told hilarious stories about Grandpa and the "stuff" that fills the spaces.

Grandpa had many endearing quirks. One of them was his obsessive drive to find a deal. The building at the ranch is packed to the gills with Grandpa's "deals." Many years ago, Salmon's, an old hardware store in Logan had a "going out of business" sale. Grandpa went in to that store and bought everything, yes everything, including the bins and shelves that the store used for display purposes. He got it all for a song. He brought his purchases to the ranch and painstaking stored and labeled everything, thinking that for sure he would use it all eventually. Most of it is still there. We all got a chuckle opening the bins and laughing about how absolutely delighted Grandpa was with his incredible luck. My cousin Jon Paul loaded up his truck bed with all the hardware and headed off to the scrap metal yard to make some easy cash. He got $65 for all of it. I wonder if that's what Grandpa paid in the first place?



Grandpa was a dentist by trade, but he had many hobbies that he relished. He built houses, did wood work, raised Arabian horses, fiddled with tractors, took computer classes, found deals, traveled everywhere, and made friends with all kinds of people who needed a friend. Grandpa definitely got the most out of his life, something I would like to emulate more.



Someone is buying Grandpa's old, trusty tractor, the one he used to plow the neighborhood driveways after all the Cache Valley snow storms. We took the kids for a last ride. Jeffrey was thrilled to death with this. On our drive home, he exclaimed, "We sure had a long, fun time on the tractor this day, huh mom!" Yep Jeffrey, it was a long, fun day.

What do you do for fun on Grandpa's ranch? Click the video below.