Dear Elder Roper

Letter #7 April 16, 2007 Dear Elder Roper,

When do I get to call you just Devan again? How’s the work? Marvelous and a Wonder? I guess it’s a wonder to some as well as marvelous to others, right?! Well, now for the breaking news… (I told Jessica she’s better get a letter off before me, because I was going to spill the beans.) Yes, you guessed it. Jessica and Golden are engaged!! Can you believe it!! We all really like Golden and couldn’t be happier for them. (Funny how you like someone when he likes your daughter and then when their relationship was struggling, you wondered…) I know Golden will take care of Jessica, love her always, and return her home to Heavenly Father. What more could a father ask for?! I guess that will be your assignment and destiny someday - - - but not right now!! Anyway, the wedding date is set for Friday, June 22. This date works for everyone but Liz and Jared who have tickets for Hawaii. Linda is trying to get the date moved up to the 16th, but we’ll have to see. Holly is due on the 15th and it might be too hard for Benjamin to come them. Actually, with as many people involved as there are, I’m really surprised that Liz is the only one. Still, it would be wonderful to have her there as well, so stay tuned… A few things… I think we have misunderstood each other over the “flash” and “memory” cards. I’m assuming you have received the 1 gig memory cards for your camera, right? We never have sent any “flash” cards (Spanish stuff), so I believe you’ve received everything we’ve sent. Please let me know

immediately if you haven’t received the camera memory sticks, ok? Well, what’s been happening this past week? Monday I was up late writing your last letter, so come Tuesday morning, I was pretty tired. That must have been my problem and it was a disastrous day! In my CS 124 class, I tried and tried to program on the fly, in front of the students, a routine to insert a node alphabetically into a linked list! Arggg… After class, I hurried over to the Marriot Center as Gina’s quartet was playing for devotional. You have an amazing sister!! They played a beautiful Mozart piece – wish you could have heard them. Linda found devotional on digital channel 11.4. (High Definition is the only way to go now!) That afternoon for my CS 404 class, I took a table down and set up for the last class press conference. Well, I started the class, but was confused as to why there weren’t any students up front ready to go for the conference. It was then I learned (from the students) that we had canceled the press conference and moved those kids to other conferences. So, there I was, no class plans, nothing prepared, and a room full of students. Luckily, I had a “spare” lecture on the “Home of the Future”, so I quickly went back to my office, rounded up the material, and was able to make something out of nothing. Actually, it turned out pretty good, so all was not lost, but… That evening, I taught a help session for CS 345 and it wasn’t until almost 9:00 pm that Gina and I arrived home. I quickly got the popcorn out and began popping bowls of popcorn for Marie’s popcorn ball. Linda had purchased a Visa gift certificate for her which we put in a balloon intended for the middle of the ball. I doubled the recipe and it took for every to come to the right temperature. Well, finally, after 10:00 pm, we all worked to put the ball together with the balloon inside. Everything was going well until I turned it over and we heard a “pop”. (I think the card punctured the balloon!) Still, it kept it’s shape, so we just finished it up, put a ribbon around it, and headed for Marie’s. A center street, I remembered my camera, so we turned around and headed back to the house. Linda called and left a message on Marie’s phone hoping she hadn’t gone to bed yet. Just before we arrived at our house, Marie called and said she’d wait up for us. So, after getting the camera, we headed off again to Marie’s house. Seems everyone was still up and so they invited us in and we had a good long visit. (Probably should have cut it short as we learned Marie had try-outs at 7:00 am the next morning!) Her mother and sister were there (Benji had gone to bed,) and it was really fun. Marie is such a wonder girl – but I guess I’m not telling you anything. We gave her hugs for you and we hope shed enjoyed the birthday gift! Wednesday was a normal day for once. For mutual, we had the boys put together humanitarian kits consisting of 2 towels, 4 toothbrushes, 2 bars of soap, and some toothpaste. Afterwards, we went over to Bishop’s house for chocolate sundaes. The young women were upstairs in our music room and I let the young men play around in the back yard for awhile. Amanda took Linda to the airport Thursday morning and then it was that evening that Golden asked to speak with me for a minute. Jessica had gone downstairs, so we went into the living room and Golden asked me if I would give my consent for him to marry Jessica. He said he had already purchased the ring and was going to ask Jessica on Saturday during their planned 4-wheeling trip up near Deer Creek. But, before I could really answer, Jessica came up and so I had to leave Golden with just a big grin. Linda called from Texas and said the flight have been uneventful and it was good to see Benjamin and Holly and the kids. (Ben and Holly had a trip planned to Las Vegas to see Celine Dion.) Friday afternoon, I picked Christina up from school and then after a short nap, we headed up Spanish Fork Canyon to Spring Haven for our annual faculty party/dinner. We both really had a good time. We sat by Brother and Sister Embley and were able to catch up on all the Orem High soccer news. I guess Orem played Springville on Tuesday in very cold and wet weather. Orem prevailed 2-1. I talked with Scott Woodfield (another professor here who has a son plays on Springville’s team) and he was quite disgruntled about the game. One of Orem’s goals resulted when the Springville goaly slipped down, but then Springville’s only goal was on a PK. I guess I’m going to have to go see one of the games – maybe tomorrow. I believe Provo is coming to Orem. After the meal, Christina and I stopped at Shauna’s for a bit. Boy, Ayden really is a handful. What a happy kid though and I always enjoy Harley and Shaelyn. Gina was playing in a concert that night and Amanda and Jeff took the girls to Heaps Brick Oven for dinner (or was that Thursday night?) Saturday morning I met with Phil Bunker and we discussed the plans for our future SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) products. Who knows, maybe we’ll have something people will actually want to buy. We should have this month an end-to-end SCADA solution. We plan to through our “line” in the water and see if anyone takes the bait. (Right now, our radio is like a hook without any bait!) Christina worked all afternoon and into the evening. Harmon’s had strawberries on a really good sale, so Amanda and I went over a couple of times (as there was a limit on how many you could buy at a time) and bought quite a few flats. So, guess what I did for the rest of the day? Golden and Jessica came back from their little outing – Jessica as light as a feather and a huge smile. Her ring is beautiful! Sunday morning, I attended the first part of Jessica and Gina’s ward as Jessica was speaking. I sat by Golden and really enjoyed Jessica’s talk. I guess she lost her place in her written talk and so she just talked – turned out so very much better than if she had just read her paper. I really was touched and proud of her. I had to teach the lesson in Priest’s quorum. I talked about the challenge the church faces with the question, “Are Mormon’s Christian”. Interesting to see how silly to us this question is, but to others who believe you can’t call yourself a Christian unless you believe in the same Christ that they believe in, it’s a real offense issue. I tried to draw from the young men what they understand out Jesus Christ and how they would answer this question. You know, the biggest problem people have with our view of Christ is that “as man is, God once was, and as God is, man may become”. This literally was what Joseph Smith was murdered for. To many this is so distasteful and blasphemous that they will do everything in their power to eradicate this truth from the earth. The problem is that it is true and very sacred. It doesn’t demean God at all and gives so much hope and meaning to life, doesn’t it?!! After church, I stayed for BYC and youth conference meetings. Just as soon as I returned home, we packed up and headed for Shauna’s for dinner. We had purchased some baby backed ribs at Harmon’s on Saturday as well and Amanda had boiled two of the racks and baked the third. When we arrived at Shauna’s, Rich put the ribs on his grill – boy, were they ever good!! After dinner, we played “In a Pickle” and then I left for Salt Lake to pick Linda up at the airport. Well, that’s life here at home. We are heading to Arizona on Wednesday to see Liz and Jared. Amanda and the kids are going along with Derek and Kelly. Jessica has to work and Jeff has work and school. It should be fun and I’m looking forward to the trip. I think Liz is really excited as well. Derek is struggling a bit trying to figure out what to do about school. He’s not sure accounting is for him, especially if it’s going to take another two years to graduate. My advice to him (for what it’s worth), is to pursue what he wants to do professionally for the rest of his life. After that decision is made, then, if it takes one year or four more years of school, so be it. I hope when you get home, you choose a profession that you will enjoy doing for 30 years and not what is convenient, lucrative, or just easy school wise. I really think it is a real tragedy to spend 30 to 40 years of your life doing something you really don’t enjoy doing. I’m trying to finish up taxes tonight. We all went to Lon’s for supper tonight. They didn’t like accepting 3 punches on my “Starving Student Card”, but they did “just this once.” Next week I guess I’m going with the priests to Moab on a biking expedition. Bruce Riddle is a real fan of bike riding – maybe I’ll just drive the support vehicle. Needless to say with you gone, my interests lie elsewhere. We pray you are healthy, enthused, and eager to leave for Mexico. What a great and wonderful calling. You are an ordained messenger with the most important message those people will ever receive. Prepare well and the Lord will go before you, literally, and bring happiness to many of our brothers and sisters. I too know the work you are doing is true. I’m very grateful for my testimony. I love you so very much and pray for you always.

Love, Dad

Milking cows

Our main family income on the farm came from selling milk. We had an average size herd of cows – usually from 30 to 50 milking cows. Our cow barn and milk house were on the south-east side of the barn. The cow barn had changed considerably from the time Dad took over the farm from my Grandpa Harding. I don’t remember what it was like before, but you could see where the changes had been made. The early barn had only about twenty cow stalls. The cows would actually spend most of their time in their stall during the winter. Dad had taken the stall dividers out and installed more modern stanchions so that the barn held about thirty cows during milking time. In the middle of the stanchions, was a gated isle and two levers that would let fifteen cows loose at a time, those to the right and those to the left. So, we would bring thirty cows in, milk half of them, turn that half out and bring in fifteen more while the other fifteen were being milked. At the front of the barn was a four foot wide raised cement walkway. I would roll the grain filled wheel barrow up and down the path and give each cow a scoop of grain according to how well they were producing milk. (The producers were given more grain.) I remember playing with the cow’s noses and petting them on their foreheads between their eyes. The grain bin was to the south end of the barn and would have to be filled every month or so from the outside by the grain truck. My first memories of automation was the old Surge milkers. These were powered by a compressor and a single suction pipe line that ran the length of the barn. The milker would hang from the cow’s utter by the suction cups while a strap over the cow’s back held up the milk can. The milk would flow from the suction cups through black hoses into the large milk can that held about three gallons. Sometimes it would have to be emptied before the cow’s utter was empty. From there, the can would be carried into the milk house and dumped into a strainer over a larger milk can. Full cans were capped and placed in a cold water trough to cool the milk. Twice a week, the milk company would come around and pick up the milk cans. The biggest problem was when the power would go out! Dad would have to back the tractor up to the barn and hook up some mechanical suction pump driven by the tractor that would enable us to finish the milking. Not long after I started working at the barn, Dad purchased a DeLaValve (pipe line) milking system. Not only was there a suction line running the length of the barn, but also a two inch glass pipe ran down to the end of the barn and back. From there, the glass pipe crossed east into the milk house and into a large glass bowl which released the milk from the vacuum. The milk then ran through a long stainless steel pipe and into the strainer. The old mild cans were replaced by a large (maybe 500 gallon), refrigerated, stainless steel milk tank. Twice a week, a large tanker milk truck would come and pump the milk out of the tank. This was a costly change for Dad but it made milking a whole lot more pleasant. There were several times when after cleaning the milk tank, we would forget to close the valve at the bottom of the tank. After spending an hour and a half milking, it was very disheartening to go in the milk house and discover that all the milk had run down the drain! There were times when the power went out and the milk in the tank soured as well. It the stirrer didn’t cycle correctly, it would churn the milk to butter. The milk inspector would come often to sample the milk and if the bacteria count was too high, the milk would have to be poured down the drain. So, milking was a risky business. The cows had to be milked twice a day, come rain or shine. In the winter, it was particularly tough to get out of bed and head to the barn in the dark. The frost was heavy on the inside of the barn because of the cold and we would hurry to close the door as we exchanged each wave of cows. I can imagine how the cows felt after having their udder washed in warm water, massaged, milked, and then turned out in the cold. Getting a new cow trained in the system was always an unpleasant challenge. This was one of the few times I heard my father swear but I believe cows and swearing go together and the Lord knows that. A kicking cow was also something to watch out for and many times we would have to put hobbles on the back of their legs. We often had to shave the cows to help keep them clean. I remember getting a little carried away on the tails and one of them about knocked Dad out with its bare tail club! The barn yard had a large water tank that had fresh water constantly running into it for the cows to drink from. We enjoyed looking in the water for hours. I had a friend who helped me catch sucker fish and we put them in the tank. We usually found them dead the next day because they would jump out. The only life in the tank that was constant was the snails and the moss. I remember walking in back of the cows during a milking when one of them unloaded on me from behind – a big humph! I was covered from head to toe with manure and had to go out to the trough and jump in. After milking, the cleanup consisted of running hydrochloric acid and soap through the milk lines and cleaning the muck out of the center trough. Then I would get the hose out and wash the floors and the walls. I guess we were a pretty smelly bunch when we got done but we always bathed before going anywhere. It really didn’t matter because most of the people living in Vineyard where also farmers and probably smelled just as bad. Quite often, one of the cows would pick up some pick of metal wire from purchased hay and it would lodge in one of their stomachs. Usually, a large magnet pellet inserted down their throat would pick up the wire and hold it harmlessly in their stomach for the rest of their life. However, surgery would sometimes be required. This was done right there in the milk barn while they quietly munched on some grain or hay. I was fascinated by this process. We really had to live around the cows all the time, especially to watch when the cows would come into ‘heat’. When we noticed this, we would bring them into the barn and hang a sign out front by the road. The breeder would drive by, notice the sign, stop, breed the cow, turn her loose, and be on his way. It was exciting to watch this process. I guess I never had a talk with Dad and Mom about the birds and the bees - never needed to. The only thing I ever remember my Dad saying about sex was that it was the same with the cows. I guess I knew what was going on from a very early age.