21 Nov 2004 #0447.html

Barker Reservoir

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Dear Family and Friends,

Welcome to this week's "Thoughtlet."

These words are my personal diary and a weekly review of ideas, beliefs, thoughts, or words that will hopefully be of some benefit to you: my children, my family, and my friends.

"My bike ride on the new Barker Reservoir bike and hike trail last Saturday (0446.html) kind of set the tone for my thoughts this week. So as the first week where my Thoughtlet is actually written to be an on-line diary entry, rather than an e-mail to children and family, this is my chosen theme.

The next day, on Sunday at the Regional Conference (0446.html), Matt moved a folding chair across an aisle to sit by John Farmer. I sat next to the blank space where he moved the chair from. In front of the Farmer family was Bill and Leslie Hagen. We had got there early to get a good seat, and still ended up in the folding chairs, and Andrea was in Salt Lake with Audrey. So while we were waiting I pulled Bill Hagen aside, since I know he runs cattle on his ranch out past Columbus (../0004.html and ../0115.html), I asked him:

`How much would a lease where you could run 130 head of cattle in Barker Reservoir be worth?'


His response was:

`Roice, that's a lot of cattle? What do want to do this for?'


I said:

`Well, there are two plots in Barker Reservoir which are up for a 5 year lease this coming Thursday. One is for 745 acres and one is for 600 acres. I see that these plots could be used for camping for our scout troops, they could be used by someone like you interested in running cattle on them, and if I had control of them I could study the weather, as well as animal and plant life on them, and use the collected data to accurately create a virtual representation of the area, including a prototype new kind of city built around people instead of around cars.'


His response was:

`Run that last part by me again!'


And after I did, he basically said it was a bad business idea, and there are a lot cheaper ways to collect the kind of data I am interested in collecting. Sounds like Andrea. In fact, since Andrea was in Utah visiting Audrey and Josh over the weekend, I ended up writing a song about Barker Reservoir on Sunday:

`Barker Reservoir, 14 Nov 2004, HRN C. Barker Reservoir Picked in nineteen eight-four A place to prototype the plan Barker Reservoir For flood control and more Harris County's play land 1. As a man I have my dream But my wife sees it a scheme Wanting to improve the lot of man She sees my efforts a distraction I want to build a new city She wants to strengthen our family Why can't we work on both at once? I'm told I won't listen to her hunch I still pursue the city plan Risking an angry reaction Believing man was born to dream Even when loved ones arn't on the team C. Barker Reservoir Picked in nineteen eight-four A place to prototype the plan Barker Reservoir For flood control and more Harris County's play land 2. Back in ninteen ninty Was Walden 3-D's first plan The intelligent habitat A mixed use development Attacking the waste of sprawl Providing much more to all Designing responsive environments Built around people instead of cars With an ifastructure core for utilities and much more Where one can wal to the store Living in the door to Barker Reservoir C. Barker Reservoir Picked in nineteen eight-four A place to prototype the plan Barker Reservoir For flood control and more Harris County's play land 3. Now it's two thousand four There are hike & bike trails and more Thirteen hundred fourty-five Acres are for lease Thursday I don't have the money To bid and gain control Of access and the surface For grazing cattle and horses And time for detailed planning For tree houses blended in the scenery Creating a new kind of city Where families live with nature C. Barker Reservoir Picked in nineteen eight-four A place to prototype the plan Barker Reservoir For flood control and more Harris County's play land


So I start the week off on Monday morning, driving past the Barker Reservoir on I-10, and thinking that my ideas are nothing more than daydreams, castles in the sky that will never be realized. And that again set the tone for my week. There seems to be plenty to do at work these days, and so I have been buckling down and working on whatever e-mail or project is placed in front of me, putting aside my dreams and schemes. At 2:00 we had a meeting on the West Cameron Tile 2. I had completed my maps, and needed to do a few more displays and to edit sections 2, 4, and 5. I finished up my displays and work on Tile-02 by Tuesday evening.

Tuesday morning I I called Sara at 5:00. Turns out I had called her last week on Monday, and did not write about it in the Thoughtlet (but did write about it in the Benin letters (http://www.walden3d.com/benin/letters/041108.html). Sara was hit by a motorcycle and knocked down and out, and she seems to be recovering fine. Although the Doctors kept her in Benin for two weeks of observation and recovery. On Tuesday morning, I told Sara about the times I landed on my head. First there was the time when I was very young, probably younger than 8, and I was staying at the ranch with Uncle Glenn and Aunt Connie. We were taking the cattle to the north field, and something spooked the horse I was riding, it ran away, and Uncle Glenn found me next to the fence on the east side of the property, where the horse had stopped, I'd gone over it's head, and landed on a flat volcanic rock on my head. I was knocked out. They drove me the 40 miles to Cedar, where I woke up and drank a glass of orange juice in the hospital then went back to sleep. The next time I woke up I was at home on the farm.

Then there was the time the horse I was breaking ran away with me. I was on him bareback, and again I could not stop the horse, even though I was a lot older this time. He ran down the road from the Meat Packing Plant to the byproducts plant and grainery. When he got to the grainery he stopped, since it was a 6 foot tall cement wall, and I went over his head and landed on my head on the hard packed gravel road. Steve Lovell, the hired hand that lived in my room for a long time, saw it all, and came running over to help. I got up, and he said, `Well you certainly do have a hard head!' This was the same horse that ran away with me, someone had closed the gate into the feed yard, and he hit the gate at a full gallop. His head went back into my head, and broke my glasses, and I ended up with about 5 stitches in my eyebrow. Oh well!

The third example was when I was on my mission in Ipswitch. I was in Ipswitch for 9 months and 4 companions, which is quite a while in one area. The accident happened with Elder Barnhurst. He was a greenie. We were working in the far western part of town, and were riding our bikes down a big hill by the city park on our way to our area. It was rush hour and there were cars backed up all the way up the hill. Remember they drive on the left side of the road. I was riding down the hill between the cars and the curb, and going at a pretty good clip. A white Volkswagen turned to a small side street without signaling, just as I reached him. I hit the back side of his front bumper and went over the car and landed on my hands and chin. I ended up with a half a dozen stitches in my chin. I also ruined my suit. Oh well! At least I have a hard head. Although, as I said to Sara, head injuries are very dangerous, and maybe this is why I sometimes think so much different than anyone else around me. I also told Sara Ellyn that we do not have the money to bring her home right now, that I am not going to get in the middle of Roice's wedding plans, and that I hoped to be able to visit here, if GDC does send me to Libya as they have said they are going to do. Sara does sound like she is doing OK after being knocked down and out by the motorcycle. At least it wasn't a car.

I left home about 8:30, instead of the normal time between 6:00 and 7:00 AM. I went to Dr. Solis' Katy Office at 8:45 AM to have blood drawn as the final step on last week's physical. I also presented him with the information I had got from the Center for Disease Control on the Internet concerning travel to Libya and Benin. He told me who to go and see to get my shots. Hopefully I get this taken care of next week.

Wednesday I received a nice Plaque from SWLGS for my talk last week (0446.html). It read:

`Louisiana Map with * and Lafayette Southwest Louisiana Geophysical Society Special Merit This award of special merit presented to Roice Nelson Guest Speaker Exploring for Hidden Pay with Rock Properties President: Brian Brennam date: November 9, 2004'


As I drove home Wednesday I called my friend in the Ward Choir (0445.html). Last Sunday when I asked his thoughts on the material we had gone over, he said he had been traveling and hadn't had time to think about it, nor time to show it to his friends. He also told me I should call him, so I called to find his thoughts on the Barker Reservoir. I would describe his reaction to my call as glib. I reminded him that Lot 3, which is 600 acres, is at a current lease $600/year and Lot 4, which is 745 acres, is at a current lease $1,192/year. He basically told me it was a bad idea, and he will get back to me on the Cedar City property after he talks to his friends.

I then called Joe Roberts and he asked me to come by the house. So I drove over to his house on the way home. I did not pull out the computer and give him a presentation. We talked. He is still hurting a lot regarding Jennifer. When I described my tree house concept for Barker Reservoir he got very interested. In fact, he called back on Friday to talk some more about it, and to see if it would be applicable to another piece of property he is aware of. We will have a lunch with the owner to follow-up on this. However, regarding Barker Reservoir and the cattle/horse leases, his response was `Roice, that's a tough deal.' Anyway, the bottom line is he strongly discouraged me from pursuing bidding on a lease for any of the property in Barker Reservoir. Everyone but me seems convinced this is not something I should pursue.

Thursday morning I called Brad Schmutz in Cedar City to find out the status on my appraisal of the property up Cedar Canyon. He can not find a comparable piece of property in Iron County. He says lots in Cedar City are selling for $50K-75K for 1/4 acre, and the closest example is $80-100K for 3 acres in Cross Hollow, which is on the west side of the Leigh Hill. In the valley it costs $500-$2,500 per acre. There was an example up Parrowan Canyon. I 1991 a guy purchased 80 acres, and built a house back into one of the steep slopes. The land is now valued at $500,000. Brad said he is going to think about it for another couple of weeks and will get me something early in December. I look forward to this data. Thursday at lunch I was suppose to fill in for Mike Dunn at a meeting with a small independent downtown, I think it was Houston Exploration, if he did not make it back from Mexico. He made it back. Dave Johnson was with him and he had several things he wanted to review. Dave finished at about 12:15, and so I took my lunch and drove out to the Addicks-Barker Ranger Office on Highway 6 for the bid opening for bids on two tracks in Addicks Reservoir (parcels 1 & 2) and two tracks in Barker Reservoir (parcel 3 [600 acres leased the last five years for $600 per year] and parcel 4 [745 acres leased the last five years for $1,192 per year]), which were the ones I wanted to bid on. . Joy Smith from the Galveston Regional Office was responsible for the meeting, and Ranger Kenneth McDonald opened the envelopes for her. I recorded the following in my green notebook (palm pilot):

Parcel 1 Parcel 2 Parcel 3 Parcel 4 600 acres 745 acres - Mark Wilcox $200. - Mark Whitliff $55. $55. $55.00 $55. - Carl Risley $1,869.95 - Mr. Rusley $1506. - Tim Bennett $5,244. - Brent Glover $4,103.00


As I write this, I think there was some confusion as to which block Brent Glover bid on. He said he wanted to bid on the 745 acre plot in the meeting, and I wrote down that he bid on the 600 acre plot. The bids by Mark Wilcox and Mark Whitliff were thrown out because they were less than the value of the property as determined by the Army Corps of Engineers. According to my notes, if I would have used $1600. of the $2,600. in the Walden 3-D account I would now have a lease on 745 acres in Barker Reservoir. However, based on my conversations with Joe Roberts and Bill Hagen, it was a dumb business idea to bid on leasing this property. The bottom line is I left the room feeling like I had made the right decision regarding bidding to lease property in Barker Reservoir. I got back to the office about 2:00.

I worked late with Tony Traweek. He was going to load the wells for Tile-02. However, Scott Burns had requested a well and the 4 small 3-D seismic surveys from Unocal in Indonesia. Tony can load this data in a quarter of the time I can, so I had him do this. It took him 4 hours to load the 4 small subsets of the 3-D surveys, and the well and the logs.

I got home about 9:00. It was not the best evening Andrea and I have had. Oh well! Matt wanted to know what we were disagreeing about. So we talked about it. He seemed OK about it. However, I got a phone call at work about 4:30 on Friday from Matt. He has had a kid calling him names and giving him a bad time all year, and was particularly aggressive on Friday, actually hitting him in the back of the head. Matt turned around and decked him, and ended up with three days off campus detention. This means he will not be able to go to the Madrigal Dinner practices, and so he will not be able to be the Jester. He will still be able to be in the choir and participate. But it has been a pretty hard lesson for Matt. I spent all day working on the Unocal well project. I think the results are pretty good, and it will be interesting to see what Scott Burns thinks. When I got home we just spent the evening watching TV: Enterprise and JAG. Saturday Andrea and I talked through the things that had been bugging each of us and got back on track. I also decided to stop e-mailing these Thoughtlets, and sent out the following e-mail to current recipients of the Thoughtlets:

`Dear Family, I've decided to just post the Thoughtlets instead of e-mail them. This way those interested can review them, and those not interested don't have to delete them. I realize there is an issue with out of sight out of mind, and yet the Thoughtlets will always be there when someone remembers that maybe I learned some things that they could use to help them cope with their own struggles in life. One outstanding issue is I have not yet got a search engine tied to this site yet. Another issue is those who do not have regular access to the Internet, like Aunt Sara and Sara Ellyn. Oh well! I'm interested in dialog and always wanted the Thoughtlets to be more of a two-way communication channel than they ever become. So send me comments. The address is http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets, and I just posted the three Thoughtlets that I had not e-mailed to you yet. With all my love, Dad (H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)'


Saturday, after posting the three outstanding Thoughtlets, and sending the above, I went on a bike ride. I took a copy of `The Trial Furnace' (Morris and Kathryn Shirts' book about the Iron Mission in Cedar City) to Alan Peterson, and then rode over through Barker Reservoir. It had been raining for several days, and the trail was flooded on the other side of the boardwalk. On this bike ride I realized I can use access to the bike trail portion of Barker Reservoir to do the inventory and data collection and virtual modeling I wanted to do on the cattle/horse lease. It will be interesting to see how everything turns out and what ends up happening.

Saturday night we went to see National Treasure. It was an OK action film, with a semi-plausable premise. And I left the theater feeling like it was missing the punch it could have had with the plot they had put together. Guess we just get too caught up in the magic of today's movies and expect them all to be as new to us as Star Wars was.

Today's sacrament meeting was very good. I wrote the following three possible stanzas for Prime Words:

`When we consider Our attitude We should remember To be full of gratitude (a)' (a) Maiya Perich, NCW Sacrament Meeting, 21 Nov 2004, quoting from a talk by Thomas S. Monson `Commandments are simply Guidance and instruction To make our lives easier to follow Keeping us from destruction (b)' (b) Masako Perich, NCW Sacrament Meeting, 21 Nov 2004 `Heavenly Father wants us To succeed beyond our bounds To fly higher and faster And see what will be found (c)' (c) Michael Bartlett, NCW Sacrament Meeting, 21 Nov 2004


So today is Mom's second birthday on the other side of the veil. I hope she has found more peace than she found on this side, particularly the last few years of her life. Maybe she has finally found the peace I hope to help create in a place like Barker Reservoir."

Since the 38th week of 1996 I have written a weekly "Thoughtlet" (little statements of big thoughts which mean a lot to me). Until the 43rd week of 2004 I sent these out as an e-mail. They were intended to be big thoughts which mean a lot to me. Over time the process evolved into a personal diary. These notes were shared with my family because I know how important the written word can be. Concerned about how easy it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all of distractions of daily life, I thought this was a good way to reach those I love. It no longer feels right to send out an e-mail and "force" my kids and my family to be aware of my life and struggles. Everyone has their own life to lead, and their own struggles to work through. I will continue this effort, and will continue to make my notes publicly accessible (unless I learn of misuse by someone who finds out about them, and then will aggressively pursue a legal remedy to copyright infringement and I will put the Thoughtlets behind a password). The index to download any of these Thoughtlets is at http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets, or you can e-mail me with questions or requests at rnelson@walden3d.com (note if you are not on my e-mail "whitelist" you must send 2 e-mails within 24 hours of each other in order for your e-mail to not be trashed).

With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)

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Copyright © 2004 H. Roice Nelson, Jr.