Andrew's Conversion Story

Our Stake President asked us to record our conversion story - here is mine:

Andrew Brown – Conversion Story – as recorded July 22, 2016

Recently I got to help at a girls’ camp activity where we hiked to Fossil Creek’s waterfall.  We swam and jumped through the lower portions of the waterfall and could see there was another area next to the canyon wall that looked fun to explore.  As I went to investigate I felt the current pushing the hardest along this side of the stream, I braced and dove into the current trying to get to an area I might be able to pull myself up and explore.  The splashing intensified as I tried to rise above the water to breathe while reaching under the water for a surface I could secure myself to.  I had to push fairly far into the current before my hands started discovering a secure surface.  I planted my palm down and used the little bit of leverage it offered me to pull myself out of the spray and began looking for a way to get my feet in a secure location.  Found it!  I excitedly walked through the spray of the waterfall and found I could get behind the veil of the waterfall about 20 feet above the pool, with a solid hand hold I pushed my body through the veil of the fall to see the group surrounding the waterfall.  I was so coated in the water fall spray I’m not sure anyone could see me, I ventured further out and people waived.  The water beating on me was intense but made me feel alive and excited for adventure.  I withdrew from the chaos of the waterfall back into the cave and worked my way back down to the area I had originally climbed up.  There I discovered that I could sit down in the water flow above the pool of water and the water behind me would build up until it would rush under me and float me down the rocky slide in the pool of water.  As I hit the pool of water the current would push me into the canyon wall where there was a shallow shelf to walk across and begin the adventure again.  Others watched me and soon were on their way over to participate in the adventure.  Most struggled with the process and I found I could place myself in an area to encourage them and grab their hand and give them the necessary pull or instructions to get them into this pocket of adventure.  Soon the cave was full of girls exploring the area including my daughter Allie who needed a bit of coaxing before she relented.  The more we played the more I wore my palms and finger tips nearly all the way through, it was so much fun I couldn’t stop.  Some of us jumped off the water fall after piercing the veil of the waterfall, others floated down – we all had a great time.

I preface my conversion with this story to communicate what seems so unglorified and simple with being the very event that opened up the understanding and joy of life for me.  My conversion story begins with my biological parents Matthew Oman Morris and Julie Ann Broderick.  Matt as a convert met mom at BYU.  They fell in love and married having first Arick Louise Morris and then me.  By the time I was born my parents’ marriage had deteriorated resulting in divorce.  Both parents remained strong in the church an ensured I was taught Gospel principles and attended church regularly.  I grew up mostly in Provo and Grantsville, Utah except when I was spending the summer with my Broderick grandparents in Phoenix, Arizona.  I was taught the Gospel everywhere I went.  I was excited when I turned eight years old to be baptized and recognized that I’d have to clean up my act since I would be accountable after I was baptized.  While I had a lot of exposure to the Gospel, I was only eight and I was limited in what I could process.  I continued to be raised with family prayer, family home evening, and scriptures being read.  I felt like when I prayed my prayers were listened to and as I needed help or answers they came.  Probably when I was ten or eleven I started realizing that I’d need to one day have my own testimony and not rely upon my parents testimony.  I remember being proud of myself for getting myself to church when my parents were both sick one weekend.  I remembered feeling I was making good decisions on my own but still I hadn’t detected if I had my own testimony.  As I aged to twelve and thirteen after moving to Phoenix, Arizona with my family I continued to have answers to my prayers asking Heavenly Father for a testimony of the Book of Mormon and if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was true.  The answers were usually something along the lines of: “Andrew, you know it is true” and I’d respond, “but I want that spiritual confirmation”.  I continued to get these types of answers as I turned fourteen.  I was blessed to have some of the most amazing leaders in Young Men’s including Douglas Baker (Doug) and William Alexander (Bill).  My Bishop was Scott Marvin Larson and his son became my best friend.  I saw greatness in the Baker, Alexander, and Larson home similar to the greatness in my own home.  The Gospel understanding in all of these homes was strong and the way they lived their lives was a living testimony to the truths they adhered to. 

When I was fourteen, our ward had begun joining Bishop Larson’s brother’s ward in doing projects in Caborca Mexico.  Jason Alexander was a Priest at the time and had arranged for a service project to occur in Caborca (painting a Catholic school).  Jason got sick and that resulted in my getting to ride with Bishop Larson and my friend Benjamin Scott Larson (Ben).  Through the service with the church members and comradery with our host family in Caborca, singing Hymns in Spanish during the Sacrament meeting all seemed to have an effect on me.  I remembered having a chance to internalize all things Spiritual that I knew at that time that didn’t seem to be bound by country or language and I began to feel like I was close to my testimony being confirmed.  The project ended and I visited with Bishop Larson and my friend Ben as we drove back home.  Bishop Larson had a business court hearing he needed to attend in Tombstone, Arizona and so we took a detour from the church caravan returning home.  In the silence of that trip I prayed again for confirmation that the Book of Mormon was true and that the Church was true – again I got the response that I already knew it was true, I sought for the spiritual confirmation…and then it came.  I had the knowledge and exposure sufficient to know that the Church was true and the Book of Mormon was true and now I had a spiritual witness to confirm what I already knew.  This gave me new confidence and allowed me to understand that the commandments were actually the laws of happiness.  I came to know that if I wanted to have lasting happiness that I had this pattern laid out before me by my family.  I knew that I needed to become better at doing what had been taught to me to truly receive the blessings available to me from my Heavenly Father.

Similar to my experience at Fossil Creek’s waterfall, I had to dive into the current of the question “is it true” and explore the possibilities.  As I received my spiritual witness it was like my hand finding that solid hand hold that allowed me to pull myself beyond the questioning currents of life and securely plant myself in a position to explore life from a higher perspective.  I’ve been able to raise my understanding of the Gospel as I explored it through different callings and service opportunities that have come my way in life.  I pierced through the veil of the waterfall and viewed the great work that was available to me because of my mission call; with a bit of anxiousness I jumped off the top of the waterfall of life into the pool of serving all of God’s children in the Canada Winnipeg Mission.  Others saw my example and worked their way over to the waterfall and firmly grabbed my hand and allowed me to assist in their progress of becoming members and confirming their own testimonies of the truthfulness of the Gospel that they too might have the vision and understanding that is afforded to those that rise to the challenge of asking “Is it true?”

I have been blessed to continue to have great men and women in my life as I have continued the adventure of life with the perspective the Gospel offers.  I know who I am, I know God’s plan and everything in my life is now filtered through this understanding.  This understanding has driven me to strive to serve on a higher level, to face challenges both spiritually and temporally with the confidence that I am a son of God and am worth all the blessings He has to offer if I will live my life in a way that he can bestow these gifts upon me.  We are here to have a physical experience and I feel I’m able to position myself to enjoy nature, human nature, relationships, and to love and serve in ways that are heightened because of my conversion.

Am I a life-long member?  Yes.  Am I a convert to the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  Yes.  My conversion is ongoing as I explore this great pool of life and live and love and serve so when the day comes for this Earthly adventure to end I’ll have worn my palms and finger prints off, I’ll have scrapes and scratches of having lived and my eyes will sparkle with excitement for the great adventure I got to be a part of.  Finally, I’ll be expecting Jesus Christ to be waiting for me as my Savior and Redeemer to return me to my Heavenly Father if I enabled him to do this by following His teachings.  I am sharing his yoke, my burdens are light and I will continue to seek to align my will with His so that I can enjoy the great blessing of this Eternal progression.

Bradley had his Eagle Court of Honor about a week ago.  I am so proud of him.  My biological father Matt Morris is an Eagle Scout, I'm an Eagle Scout and now I have two boys that are Eagle Scouts.  Two of my three suits have an Eagle Scouts's Father's pin now.  Just waiting for Dillon to follow his brothers examples in a few years so I will be three for three. 

I'm really proud of Bradley and the growth he experienced from the process of earning his Eagle.  There was a man that night that was given several Eagle Mentor pins, a plaque of gratitude for all his efforts in helping the young men earn their Eagle Ranks over the years.  This man is now a counselor in the Bishopric and seeing his love for the young men and the appreciation he felt for being associated with such great youth was amazing.  Now I just hope that my boys can become such a man themselves.

Thanks to Grandma Broderick for sharing this photo with me.  The flag in the back ground filled the entire heigth of the cultural hall and was used for Chase's Eagle Court of Honor also.  Congratulations Bradley!

Andrew "so proud the buttons are popping off my shirt" Brown

Supai Rescue and Rewards

I got to hike and camp at Supai this last weekend as part of a GCC hiking class.  My first time going to Supai falls on this trip I was showing Chase around while others were going behing the fall and jumping through etc.  I noticed a man follow the group but I wasn't sure what he was doing as he didn't proceed with the same pace others had.  What I didn't know after watching him for awhile was that his adult daughter and his wife were looking for him.  I started noticing his movements were getting labored and so I shouted out if he was ok.  He gave me a thumbs up.  I immediately felt like that was not true, two more times I hollored out to him and two more times I got the thumbs up.  By then his daughter was by my side and I asked if she thought he was ok cause I wasn't convinced.  She couldn't tell.  I figured I could handle the embarassment if I swam out there and he was fine so I found a strong long stick, threw it out there and told my buddy Scott to help me.  I got out there really quick and went to his side and asked him if he wanted to make it to shore - he did.  I realized how tired he was as he tried to follow me.  I got a stick and pulled him while Scott was behind him making sure we had good progress.  I got him to recognize that there were underwater shelves to sit on to relax and regain his strength.  We then walked and swam him back to the shallow end until he could walk on his own and he said he could make it from there and his daughter helped him to a picnic table to rest.  His finger prints were gone and bleeding pretty well from getting worn off as he tried to hang on behind the fall and his walking was very labored.  Once I could tell he was ok I didn't want to hang out and cause him any discomfort so I went back to playing and did my first dive through the falls since 2007.  I kept playing and noticed my new friend was laying on the picnic table and hadn't moved and so I brought over my gatorade and told his wife and daugther to have him drink it all if he wanted to as he needed to get his energy level back.  I checked back on him a couple more times finally letting them know that while he could have all the gatorade he wanted, I only had that one bottle to last me the trip and since I was leaving to the next fall I'd need the bottle back.  The family was gracious and asked for my address. 

Now I'm home and today I got a letter from my friend, he lives in Ranchos Palos Verde, California - the note reads "Andrew, Hard to put into words when I realized you were by my side under Havasu Falls.  I couldn't hold on much longer.  Thanks for being there . . . Many Thanks".  How cool is that!  I can't say that anything could be more rewarding and I admire my friends graciousness.  I'm glad it worked out to meet this man and his family - we need more people like him in the world so I'm glad that we didn't lose him that day and I'm glad I can handle the embarassment of attempting to save someone who doesn't need it so I didn't let that stop me from checking up on him.

He did send me a gift card to REI - how appreciated that is and I must say the amount was quite generous as I was just grateful to be associated with someone as high caliber as him.

Andrew "has a new friend" Brown

Bradley - has earned his Eagle

It's been almost a month but Bradley has earned his Eagle Rank.  We will let folks know when he will have his Eagle Court of Honor.  For his Eagle Board, he had been pushed back a bit to allow older boys who were about to turn 18 and finally had his chance in September.  He felt like he had a great board that he felt quite prepared for.  I'm grateful for the opportunities that BSA provides as it prepares young men to do service, projects, and get exposed to a host of survival, first aid, and other life skills and carreers.  Congratulations on your journey Bradley and for arriving at this point of completing your Eagle Project and passing your Eagle Board.

Andrew "proud of my son" Brown

The Truck - I finally got mine . . .

Been wanting a full size pickup since that fateful day I got canned from Az Oxides because I wouldn't stop going to school - had to sell my 5 passenger F150 and got a small blue Mazda pickup. Been buying small pickups ever since until now - I love my new 2005 F150, 6 passenger, 4.6L V8.  Want a ride? I'm always looking for an excuse to drive it . . .

Guess who's been Elderized?

As a High Councilman I got to clear/sustain Chase recently to be presented to the stake to receive the Melchizedek priesthood and be ordained an Elder. We had stake conference yesterday and after getting sustained our Bishop was anxious to have Chase ordained . . . at the same time I had a sister in the ward that was asking for a blessing (she’s a fairly recent convert that our family was able to teach the new member discussions to and she recently obtained her endowments). I asked if she wouldn’t mind waiting for Chase to be ordained and then we could do this together and she agreed. Chase had a powerful ordination along with some of his peers that also were ordained Elders.


Afterwards, we found a room and asked the sister who she’d like to pronounce the blessing and she asked that Chase do this – how cool is that! Not even 5 minutes after being ordained he already participated in ordaining another Elder and then being the voice for a blessing. I was really excited for him and while he was pretty intimidated, he did a great job of pronouncing the blessing with the guidance of the spirit.

I don’t know about others, but I mostly anointed for the first 18 months after I was ordained an Elder before I regularly became the voice – I feel like Chase has an opportunity to jump in with both feet and in realizing the authority and the power of the priesthood.

Andrew "Excited for my Son" Brown

“Unto whom much is given” - My last ward did it better . . .

The other day I was talking to Glory telling her that I had noticed almost every interaction I had that day was initiated by me. I was approaching people I didn’t know, talking with folks I barely know, and finding that I was uncomfortable most of the time. I have lived in my ward for 4 years and I still feel like I recently moved in since I know so few people and interactions are rarely initiated by others. As I was reminiscing about my prior wards and their friendliness and missing the closeness I had with others back then I was reminded of this experience:


Many years ago we were about to have a stake road show and I was near a couple that bragged about how they used to live in California and the productions their stake put on rivaled anything that could be produced in Hollywood. As they bragged about this prior stake and the amazing things that they were a part of there, they then complained how our current stake didn’t compare.

I often reflect on this and remember thinking, “If you were part of that amazing stake, why can’t you show us how to be as amazing as they were?” Why do we always complain how amazing things used to be? To provide justification for why we complain about how horrible things are now? Why don’t we accept the role to show others the way to greatness because we were part of that greatness in the past?

Back in 1997 the Sundance ward was created. A friend joked that they took the “riff-raff” of two prominent wards and created our ward. We were a bunch of oddballs, our leadership pool was very shallow and many of us received callings that required more of us than we could currently offer. It was a great time of growth and we made the best of the situation. This small ward was so close and the members looked out for each other without prompting. I remember Dustin McCoy calling me up to say that sister X needed her weeds addressed . . . no one told him to escalate the issue to me, he just knew it needed to be done and wondered when we were going to do it – we met at her house 15 minutes later. That’s how things were done in the Sundance ward. Many of us had multiple callings. Parents would both have prominent positions that kept them at meetings and required making adjustments so the kids were not left alone. We grew close as a ward and continue to reminisce about the greatness of that time. Eventually the Sundance ward was dissolved and split down the middle. My part of Sundance ward became the Sahuaro Ranch (SR) ward. With this new infusion of people in the SR ward, we were integrated and I watched as the SR ward became even closer. When we eventually moved out of the SR ward, we left many close friends that we love to this day.

So now we are in a huge ward, it’s hard to have the same closeness and familiarity with so many people. But I look back and remember thinking “How dare I complain about how my last ward did it better . . . “, when I should be showing others the greatness that I was once a part of so we can be amazing too. I have a daunting task; I am only me and can only impact so many people at a time. I wasn’t the reason that my past wards were so great, I was just in the ward. The Sundance and SR wards were totally amazing and had many amazing qualities – I want to recreate the closeness and love that existed in my past wards.
Andrew “loves to reminisce” Brown

OMG - Guess who got his DTG

Oh my goodness, Chase has finally finished his Duty to God requirements. Since the new Duty to God Program has been introduced, Chase was a bit cloudy on what he needed to do since he had earned the Deacon and Teacher certificates for Duty to God under the old program.

Well he buckled down with his Young Men's leader and his mom to get it all figured out. He had a big push the last 3 weeks before he turned 18 and was interviewed by his YMs President and then his Bishop.

Last Sunday he was awarded in Priesthood (this award is not to be given in Sacrament meeting, though it is equivalent to the Young Woman's Personal Progress which can be awarded in Sacrament meeting) without his mom present and I had just arrived from another ward in time to watch the Bishop award this to Chase.

The Bishop mentioned that Chase was the first one to earn this award in our Ward since the new program began. The medal/coin is pretty cool . . . but not as cool as the spiritual awards I'm glad my son now has from going through the steps of earning it. Congrats Chase!

Andrew "Guess who's son is giving a talk this Sunday on earning his DTG" Brown

Shed Raising Party

My sister Deirdre is tired of clicking on my blog and seeing my bloody finger so I'm updating my blog out of obligation . . . that and we just had a Shed Raising Party!

So my neighbor moved and was willing to sell us his shed. I talked my dad into helping me figure out how to get it moved (some dis-assembly required?). He figured we'd need to remove the roof, and each of the four walls . . . my dad's a realist. I'm an optomist and figured once we removed the roof we could get enough bodies on the shed to carry the rest of the shed over.

So here's the kicker, while my neighbor has an RV gate, I do not. I don't really have the need for one and wasn't ready to add an RV gate just to move this shed into our back yard . . . so that meant that everything needed to be picked up and raised above the block fence - hence the shed RAISING party.

So we started with moving the roof off the shed and moving it over the fence and off to the side. We did this with Glory and I, Leslie and Jacob, Deirdre and Wade, my three oldest kids and my dad (10 people in all). It was pretty tough to do and so I knew we had our hands full to move the rest of the shed.

I walked around the block and found all the neighborhood kids still hanging out playing sports and asked them to come and help us . . . 6 more bodies!! Together, the 16 of us lifted and carried the shed over to the wall, hefted it up way above our heads and set one side on the wall. Quickly 4 bodies ran around the fence to our backyard and we shifted the shed a few more feet. We continued this process until we were all over in our yard and then we set the shed in place. No one was hurt and no structural damage was made.

We let the neighborhood kids leave at that point, informing them that they had each earned a chest hair for their hard work. We then carefully placed the roof back in place and screwed the roof back onto the structure.

I'm guessing that the shed weighed about 1000+ pounds without the roof. So I'm grateful to my family for helping me make this a successful move and for the 6 young men that were so willing to help a neighbor in need (a cheap neighbor no less as they didn't may any $$ for helping). I'm glad I have a dad that is a realist but it pays to be an optimistic and know that sometimes you can just get that needed help from the very folks you see every day that you call your neighbors.

Andrew "glad no one got hurt" Brown

It's not another Solar Panel post is it?!?!

Nope, my solar bill is down to $16.56 which is only the service fee and the tax on the service fee. I generated 100% plus of my own power the last month. So, in trying to stay true to this green streak in me I have decided to start purifying the air with my lungs by skating into work once a week. I'm pretty sure this exposes my lungs to polluted air far more than if I were to bike to work.

So yesterday I was doing good, skating in the dark to work and about 1/2 way there I had to jump up to a curb, caught a nasty crack on the other side and WHAM! I went sliding across the sidewalk. Besides letting out a nice UNGHH sound as my torso smacked into the sidewalk I thought it was a pretty graceful crash. Of course it had to happen amist some folks just having left a bus and folks getting there for the next bus - nothing hurts the pride like witnesses to a FAIL. So I got up and started skating off when I realized my finger was stinging.

I looked down, and saw I had a good blood flow but not at a rate that would prevent me from going the next 5 miles. I didn't have a first aid kit on me (I do now though) so I just skated through until I got to work and then patched myself up. Before I could though, my coworker Chris took a picture of my wound - enjoy!

Solar Panel Reality - My Bill!

Our September '11 bill was about $150 less than Sept '10 and here in this illustration you see that our Oct '11 bill was also about $150 less than a year before. Currently SRP is estimating that our Nov '11 bill will be $15. I'd have to say that the design and work manship of our panels and installation is amazing and will obtain ROI in less than 2 years.

As you can see we are about 10 days from the end of our billing period and we have generated credits on 13 days. We are modifying to the EZ-3 plan where the peak hours are only from 3-6pm which is when we generate power regularly from the solar panels(Currently we are on TOU - Time of Use, and so we don't generate power 5-9am or 5-9pm). Once we are crossed over we show that our bill will go down even more. I'm glad that the panels are working out so well.

Andrew "living the Green" Brown

Officer Brad Jones EOW 10/29/2011

Last night I stood in line for two hours to pay my respects to Officer Brad Jones' family. They graciously thanked me and everyone in that line for coming. The Jones family is amazing and I'm grateful I can call them my friends. The community wanted to somehow honor Officer Brad Jones and the family is allowing this intrusion into their moment of grieving so that they can participate. Thanks Jones family for allowing us all to grieve with you and to honor all that is good about your son Brad Jones.

Andrew "Honored to know Officer Brad Jones" Brown

Phoenix West Maricopa Stake - Mormon Helping Hands Project

Last January I was asked by my Stake President to work with a community within our Stake that would be willing to work with us on National Make a Difference Day (Oct 22 this year). Because we had our youth serve in Tolleson the year before I reached out to Avondale. I sent a letter to the Mayor asking to be put in contact with the appropriate person and a few days later I had an email from Gina.

From the early stages they were excited as they had never done a project of this magnitude before . . . neither had I. I had been part of a project of this size (we initially offered 500 volunteers) but had never been in charge of the entire project. Avondale soon let us know that they'd be interested in a smaller of 250 or so. With this information our Stake Relief Society President was asked to reach out to Tolleson and to make arrangements to be part of their service project on the same day.

One thing led to the next, and an Eagle Scout candidate took on early stages of one house to get it ready for our project. The week arrived and we had a HUGE dinner of 650+ people on Friday night where our Spanish speaking wards prepared an amazing meal. We had a presentation by our Mission President on Mormon Helping Hands in the Haiti earthquake aftermath and then we let the attendants know what was happening at the project the next day. Avondale and Tolleson staff spoke on the great contribution this project would have on the community and expressed their gratitude. It was a totally successful dinner with many contributing to make it all happen.

Saturday began with breakfast burritos being cooked in time for the volunteers to arrive. We fed everyone with plenty left over. We made a last minute change sending 40 of our volunteers to Tolleson as they were short a few volunteers. We then went out to complete our project and our captains working with the Avondale city staff captains was a perfect approach. Our volunteers were assigned to work to their strengths and so youth and mature volunteer's skills were combined for the perfect compliment making each of the houses look amazing and every project was completed in a few hours and people went home knowing that they had accomplished something great.

Afterwards I communicated with staff at Avondale and they were happy with our organizational skills, our ability to take a couple hundred people (380+ participated) and break them into teams, perform meticulous service and work in such a cohesive way. I was so happy to be part of such an amazing organization.

Sunday morning I woke up and had this overwhelming sense of gratitude to all of the key players that had lightened my load and made this project a success. Though I'm sure there were more that I didn't know about, I wrote thank you notes through the morning and then went to our three stake buildings finding those that had contributed to personally deliver the thank you notes.

I know that Mormon Helping Hands is a key way for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to create a positive public affairs image and to give us a way to focus our energy in serving as Christ would have us serve. Our church's image was improved in these two communities and people realize that we care and we want to help and follow Christ's example.

Yesterday I dropped some stuff off at the Avondale staff location and met one of the Avondale captains - she was so impressed and she had one of the smaller team (because we sent 40 people to Tolleson). She had my son on her team and they knocked out the project in a few hours. She just kind of gushed about the project. I was already thrilled with our success and her comments just made the impact much more intense. It's good to be remembered, but better to be remembered in a good way. Success, Success, Success! I couldn't be happier!

Andrew "couldn’t be happier” Brown

4 Decades Old

Yesterday I turned 40, it was a great day and I got to be surrounded by the people I love most. I got calls from distant family members, I got emails and cards from folks I care about.

I'm excited for this next decade as I try and make it the best decade of my life yet. That will be difficult cause I've had some amazing decades already.

Thanks to all of my amazing family for 40 great years, for my friends I've made along the way. The love and loss that has occured has made me who I am today . . . and I am a very happy person!

Andrew "gonna make this decade great" Brown

Nankoweap - Grand Canyon North Rim Hike 2011

Larry Orwig invited me on a trip many moons ago and despite my best efforts to solicit this trip to my friends, Larry and I where the only participants. Nankoweap is classified as the hardest hike in the Grand Canyon National Park but it is also listed with the most rewarding views. I've been to Thunder River and Deer Creek on the North Rim; so envisioning something more rewarding than that really appealed to me.

We started out our hike Friday AM, camping just outside of the park that night so the Saturday AM we could charge our way down into Nankoweap and see those rewarding views. While the distance is only 14 miles from the trail head to the Colorado River, the distance is deceiving since the trail is barely more than a goat trail in the best sections. This made the going slow, lots of climbing over rocks, skirting the edge of a cliff while trying not to slide off into the abyss. In short it took us 1.5 hours from truck to Park perimeter, 1.5 hours to Marion Point (Sat AM), 2 hours to the top of Tilted Mesa, 2+ hours down to Nankoweap campground. The thing is you are level with the South Rim at Tilted Mesa and then you do the complete drop down into the canyon from there, so in 2 hours and 4 miles we dropped 4,000 feet and I was absolutely drained, dehydrated (didn't bring enough water from the truck) and just short of passing out when we got to the river.

So here is the kicker, those amazing views at Nankoweap have been swept away earlier by a flashflood! The entire creek area is no longer sandy beaches and amazing views, it is all now boulders with pockets of sand trapped between them. The beaches are gone and to hike down stream is more like rock hopping. Fortunately I love rock hopping!! We stayed the night getting water from the creek/spring and trying to refuel.

Sunday we hiked down to the Colorado River (2-3 miles) making a detour to the granaries. It was supposed to be a light day since Larry and I had decided to cut our hike one day short since the side trails that we were previously thinking of hiking involved some major elevations and our promised Nankoweap views were no more. Along the Nankoweap confluence and the granaries were occupied with many rafting parties. We got down from the granaries and hung out with some boatmen (guides) refilling our water supply from them and having dinner on the beach downstream from the confluence. We then hiked up to the confluence of Nankoweap and back to camp. At camp we had one more series of refueling and hydrating in preparation of the hike out to Marion Point the next day.

Monday we got up and on the trail at 7am and charged up Tilted Mesa (yeah right). It took us 4 hours to climb (not hike, this was climbing). We got there and met a man "not feeling well" that refused our offers of water, food, minerals etc . . . we later heard back from the Park Service that he and his brother did get out safely. We were worried when he made the comment "This would be a great place to die". Yeah, that's nice for you while we all suffer from survivor’s guilt! Honestly though, we were so worried about getting our own hides out of the abyss, we didn't really know how to get him out too. Hiking from Tilted Mesa to Marion Point was more scary now cause frankly the trail doesn't exist for large portions and is very sketchy in even more places. Many times, hiking out I would step on a "secure" looking part of the trail and watch that part of the "trail" crumble and slide off into the abyss, leaving yet another void for future hikers. At Marion Point (a location that Larry had GRACIOUSLY cached 10 liters of water the weekend before, we had used 3 liters when we were going down, 2 liters was stolen by others and then we had 5 liters for meals and hydration coming out) we setup camp after having endured a slight rain from Tilted Mesa. We got our tents up just in time to dive in as it started pouring on us. After it stopped, we adjusted to ensure a drier experience if it rained again (Thanks Rachel for the suggestion to bring the Shammy - lifesaver!) and then made dinner . . . at this point I enjoyed my meal for 2 so much that I had another (feeling safe with all the water at our cache) and so I ended up eating 4 meals of freeze dried beef stew - DELICIOUS! As fate would have it, it started raining again and so we dove into our tents and then during the hardest part of the rain I heard voices asking if they could share our campsite. We got out after the rain and greeted the new arrivals - 3 men drenched, a day late from their itinerary and loving every minute of it. Shortly after salutations, it rained again and we all went to bed.

Tuesday we got up, Larry was convinced that it had hailed on us through the night but the weather was amazing. Visited with our new friends and parted ways as we hiked the last 3 hours to the truck and headed off for lunch at Marble Canyon, drove through the rain to Phoenix and got home late Tuesday night totally exhausted.

A note on my truck; we had rattled my front bumper off on the way in and I had to reattach that, my battery cable rattled out of its connection, fixed that, my vacuum ball that controls the direction of airflow in the cab had melted against my exhaust the day before the trip and so the air only blew on the windshield, my transmission had just been rebuilt and had some hard shifting, my radiator was brand new but the manufacturer had a defect in this one so it leaked and because of the transmission place, I couldn't start my car sometimes because Park was misaligned. Poor Larry had to endure all of this as I was running around with my tool box addressing everything. Progress Note: to date it's all been fixed except for the hard shifting in the transmission and that is scheduled to be fixed soon.

On a separate note, my anxiety kicked in heavily on this trip, again Larry had to deal with this. For some reason after my hike in 2004 I have had an anxiety about being able to safely hike out despite rain, snow, or darkness. In 2009 I had repeated the hike that initially caused this anxiety and felt like I had slayed my demons. For the most part I had but I guess that I will always have a streak of anxiety. I sure am grateful for Larry's understanding as he was the only person I could share this with. Larry was a great trip leader and made this hike amazing. He made great choices in preparing for the hike, scheduling the hike, and modifying the hike as needed to accommodate our abilities once the realities of the hike occurred. Thank you Larry, it was a great hike!

"I'm a Mormon"

We have . . . FREE POWER!!

Yesterday SRP came out and "blessed" the solar panel configuration and has given us (and SRSW) permission to connect the solar panels to the grid and we started generating free power around 1030am. First day we have produced only 25 kWh of power but we also only used 50 kWh of power from the grid. One of our AC units was offline due to a capacitor going bad and we got that fixed at 8am so that kind of complicated a true reading of how much power we would normally use. I'm excited and am getting a sun tan just walking out and checking the 3 displays on the side of the house trying to figure out how much power is being made and how much weight in carbon emissions I'm saving this world.

So I called the accounting deptartment of SRSW to get "squared away" and the accountant was making comments like "ah geez" when I read the line about getting reimbursed $200 per day after Aug 5th. All in all we will be getting reimbursed a hefty amount and I'm hoping they don't figure it is cheaper just to take me out - ha ha (weak laugh).

So I'm sure that I'm the only one reading my posts but I must say it feels good to be using solar power and I'm anxious to see if my $400 electric bill that SRP was predicting for my next bill actually is at the end of the month.

Bottom line, after patiently waiting for over a year, getting a solar system installed on my roof that will generate 45% of my annual power cost a one time lease fee of $1914. That ROI worked out far better than I ever anticipated but it was a pain to deal with all the delays, failures on SRSW's side to communicate with me etc - still I'd say it was worth it.

Andrwe "living green" Brown

Solar Panels - still no final approval from SRP

So my solar panels have been on the roof for about 6 weeks but Salt River Solar and Wind (SRSW) has been unable to get SRP to come and provide a final inspection. I have recieved 2 city inspections and 2 SRP inspections but to date I haven't received the final SRP inspection which would allow my Solar Panels to actually generate power. So with record temps in Phoenix, I am not receiving the subsidized power from the solar panels on my roof. What a gip!!

The good news is that SRSW is reimburing us $200 per business day that SRP hasn't given final inspection on after Aug 5th. So that means to date I have a credit of$3,200. I can't beleive that SRSW would botch this up so badly, I even emailed them reminding them of this condition in the contract and in typical fashion, I didn't even get a reply from them.

The good news is the city and SRP are really impressed with the workmanship of SRSW employees that do the work on site - that's gotta count for something right? I'm sure hoping that SRSW honors the contract and gives us back the $$ they owe us from missing the cutoff date . . . they have had our $$ since Aug 2010 and this is the best they can do after a year? Crazy!!

Andrew "just want my solar power" Brown

Solar Panels on the Roof!!

Hoot Hoot!! Well complaining to the BBB was an amazing way to go. Complaining to the ROC would have required a lot of work, but still I was about to do it when I was saved by the solar company responding. Thankfully BBB was all on-line and was simple to do. I forwarded the email from BBB stating that I logged a complaint to Salt River Solar and Wind and they suddenly had answers for me and wanted to work something out - what I wanted all along!

So what changed - I accepted an offer to lease the system paying a one-time lease instead of a purchase. The purchase would have been for about 14k out of pocket while this lease is for about $6k. The lease is for 20 years and they will keep the system working for that time period replacing expensive inverters etc as needed. I signed over all of my tax credits, state and federal, and of course the utility rebate.

Even though initially the tax benefits and rebate had the appearance to actually make me $300 more than what my out of pocket costs were, having talked to my tax person clarified that I wouldn't be able to realize all of those tax benefits . . . so best case I would have been able to use up to $4k of the benefits making the true cost about $10k for my panels.

By switching to the one-time lease (don't have to make monthly payments, just pay the approx $6k up front for the 20 year) I won't have to worry about reclaiming $$ from my taxes for the next 5 years. After 20 years we negotiated to have the panels become our property. Speaking of negotiation, we were able to get 2 more panels out of the deal to maximize the size of the system so now instead of having 40% of our power supplied we will have 43.6% of our power from solar power - not a big change but over a year it's about $100. Over the next 20 years it adds up and will help on my ROI.

So while I must say I really worked over the original contract they submitted to me, it paid off, but not as much as having complained to BBB. Yesterday they added the electrical and framework to the roof mounts and put all of the panels under my porch. Early this morning we woke up to the sweet sound of panels being installed on our roof. Now we just need to wait for SRP and the city to bless the panels and we are good to go.

I'm so excited, the excitement I felt in August of '10 is back and if I'm lucky we'll have free solar power by Aug '11. Thanks BBB.

Andrew "Squeaky will gets the grease" Brown

Solar Panels - 10 months after the purchase

Well back in August 2010 I posted that I was excited about getting solar panels for our home and they should be installed by Christmas - HA! We have only progressed to the point where 10 months later we have mounts on our roof but no solar panels. We have watched our original SRP rebate come and go, watched our SRP rebate extension come and go, and now are applying for a new SRP rebate that is about $4k less since we can no longer renew the $10,750 rebate. The good news is that we received in writing from the company that we won't be charged the difference. At the same time they have no idea when our solar panels will get here.

In their defense, solar panels have been getting installed like crazy in solar farms, for businesses, and residence like me since the government started incentivizing us with tax deductions etc. Only 10 years ago solar panels were hardly ever installed and even then it was mostly a solar water heater. So, apparently solar panels have a higher demand than supply. With this being the case and knowing that a 5Kw/h system costs about $25k it seems that customer service would make sure I'm apprised of my ongoing status right?

Well as it turns out, unless they have good news - no news is bad news. And apparently the contractor I went with (Salt River Solar and Wind) doesn't like to spread bad news and so they don't return calls, when you get someone that will respond to you they don't have answers and they are incapable of providing you answers. So I continue to not get answers on my install and just as I'm about to contact BBB and the Registrar of Contractors I get an answer of "hey, we are working on it and we understand you are frustrated" but after another week goes by, still no one can provide and answer. I just sent another inquiry to the company . . . I hope after 10 months I can get an answer. So now I’m looking at the BBB site and it shows that of the 16 solar panel installers, this is the only one with complaints and as I viewed most of the complaints I see that they are all related to delivery. Just our luck.

On the flip side, as of May 1, 2011 the state of Arizona just increased all installs to a tax deduction of $6750 from $1000 so now we can charge more off over the next 5 years so that is worth the wait. I hope the next time I post anything about the solar panels they are installed – if not I’m sure it will be full of legal entanglements we are getting into.

Andrew “hope we get panels soon” Brown