My Mom

My Mom is still with us and I am very grateful for this, she lives with us part time and is returning to be with us in a few weeks. She turned 86 this year and still drives.  She stays active in her California Church and has a church family here. She loves our Savior Jesus Christ and has tremendous faith.

Mom grew up on a farm in Idaho and later in Oregon. She experienced the Great Depression and speaks of it as something that shaped her character. She has fond memories of her youth despite the hardships.

I got to experience what her life was like when I was allowed to visit her parents during several summers when I was young. I love the farming life and still think this is what I would be doing today had she not moved to California.

I think this picture is from one of her first jobs she had in the Southern California area.

Mom and Dad taught me many things but one of the greatest attributes they instilled in me is a strong work ethic. They both worked full time to provide for my brother and I. Living in So Cal is not for the faint of heart due to the high cost of living. 

My fondest memories growing up were our frequent trips to the beach. Seal Beach was the destination of choice for them and it is where I gained my great love of the ocean. It seems like we would make a dozen or more trips to the ocean every summer. I would spent hours in the ocean body surfing and later took up Scuba diving. I also love deep sea fishing. I am grateful that her and Dad gave me these opportunities of great enjoyment playing at the beach.

My Dad

Bobby Ray Shaw is not my birth Dad but he is my true earthly father. He was born in 1933 and grew up in the eastern part of Tennessee. He passed away in 1994 at the young age of 61. I miss him a lot, he was a quite man and while we did not talk all that much when I was growing up my love for him has grown over the years.

Dad was a veteran and served in the Korean War. He was wounded in that war when he was shot in the shoulder. He never talked about it with me but Mom has told me the story. He was part of a tank crew and they had stopped to have a smoke and were ambushed by a sniper. His injury was pretty bad and left him with a badly damaged left arm and hand. He spent two weeks aboard a ship on his return trip from Korea and was sea sick the entire time. I talked him into going on a deep sea fishing trip one time and he got sea sick on that trip.  My guess is he never got over the experience as that was the last time we fished on the ocean but he was willing to try one more time for me.

He loved my children and was always so good to them. He was always so kind and loving to my Mom. He set a wonderful example to me and my brother on how to treat the women in your life. He would buy my mom clothes to include some very nice dresses.

My Dad loved to go camping and fishing and taught me how to fish at an early age. I loved to get away on our camping and fishing trips. He would also take my brother and I to sporting events. I must say that his love of professional and college sports did not take with me. I still am glad we had the opportunity to be together during these times.

My teenage years were hard on my Dad as I was very rebellious and gave both him and Mom much trouble. I regret having been this way with all my heart but feel like things got so much better between us once I grew up and started acting like a man. Once I left home for the Air Force and got married to Teri things really got so much better. Talking with each other became so much easier and I felt a great bond between us.

I have so  much more I want to say about my Dad and this post will grow with time. I have some great pictures to post here of him and will do so in the coming months.

My Home Town

I was born at Rio Hondo Memorial Hospital in Pico Rivera California. If you were to look closely at my birth certificates you would see that one of them lists my birth city as Downey. So I decided to do a Google Search for the address listed on my second birth certificate. It does show that address as being in Downey. The picture below shows the hospital being between Pico Rivera and Downey. When asked where I was born I have always stated I was born in Pico Rivera so I will continue to do so.

The home that holds the most memories for me was located in West Covina, CA. It was a modest 1500 square foot home in a sea of homes in the Southern California area. My earliest memory of living at this house was on my fifth birthday. My birth dad Joe Sattler came by the house to give me a birthday gift. We stood at the front door of the house and he handed me a box that contained a brand new transistorized radio. That was the last time I ever saw him. 

I lived in this house till I left for the U.S.A.F basic training at the age of 22. My parents sold the house in 1990. 

There were so many homes in this area it was not too hard to make friends since there were a lot of kids my age on my street. My friends lived across the street and in the house next door to ours. Now that I think back my early childhood was a very small world compared to how many people that lived around us.

I did have other friends that did not live on my street but did not really get involved with them until I started Jr. High. 

The summers in Southern California were hot and very smoggy. As a kid we would go swimming at my friend Bob Hillenburg's house. Bob lived right across the street from us. After swimming our lungs and eyes would be burning from all the smog. The mountain range to east was only about 10 miles away yet was normally shrouded by the air pollution. When the Santa Anna winds would blow and after a winter rain storm the smog would clear and the mountain range would become vibrant and really stand out.

My Birth Name

The church that I belong to encourages up to keep a journal for our descendants to know a little something about us. They have made it easy for us to do this by giving us a list of 52 questions to answer on the Church web site.

I will attempt to answer one question  a week for the next year so that my future posterity can know who I was and what my life was like. So here goes with the week one question.

What is your full name? Why did your parents give you that name?

I have two birth certificates that  shows that I was given the name of Douglas Phillip Sattler on one and Douglas Phillip Shaw on the other:

As you can see I was born with last name of Sattler. I can only assume that my middle name comes from my birth father Joseph Phillip. My mom had another birth certificate made in 1967 that shows my last name to be Shaw. Joseph was my birth father but Bobby was my real father. 

When asked my Mom stated she liked the name Douglas and and so I was named Douglas Phillip. 

Update

Been a long time since I posted to this blog. So much has happened in the last 4 years. We moved again and live in Arlington TN. We like the place loads of privacy and wildlife, just last night we saw 4 deer.

My job as an aircraft instructor for FedEx has taken me all over the country this year and two times to Paris.

Paris Crew

I am scheduled to go to Manila in December. I don't mind the travel and even get to take Teri with me from time to time. We are going back to the Gulf Coast in a few weeks.

 Ryan and Ashley had another child, a sweet granddaughter. Got to see Laura and her girls twice so far this year and had a wonderful vacation with them this summer. I am so blessed to have such wonderful children and grandchildren. Wish we were closer.

Abby and Lily

Ryan's Tribe

Earlier this year I learned about another brother and sister of mine. Teri and I were able to visit them last month and get to know them and their families. My only regret is not getting to know them much sooner than this but am grateful to have them in my life now.

One very sad event happened this year. My buddy Argos got out and made it to the road and was hit by a car.

He was a great friend and helped me through a very dark period in my life.I miss him dearly.

New Garden Plans

Finally have an idea for the garden out front. Will be based on the picture above. Will have a double fence surrounding it. This will be the chicken moat (run). Will place a chicken coop in the back corner and place the bees in another corner. This design should keep out the deer and coons. Might use an electrified net for the inner fence this will ensure that the chickens and coons will stay out of the interior of the garden.

Plan right now is to have 8 to 10 4 by 8 ft boxes. Will repeat grape trellis on the west side of the garden much like we had in Greensboro.

Feeding Bees 7-4-11

Last weekend I was able to harvest about six gallons of honey from two medium supers. I put up 18 quarts and have started to give the rest back to the bees. This top feeder seems to work the best as the bees will line up like cattle at a feed trough.