This commandment that the Savior gave to his disciples is the key to true happiness. The Commandment to love our Neighbor as our selves is to help us fill the great basic need of all humanity. This basic need is to love and be loved. This is also the basis for happiness in this life and through eternity.

We were very happy when two of our daughters, Mary and Claudia came down on Tuesday to spend the rest of the week with us. We enjoyed the days they were here finding every excuse to go around together doing errands and some of the things that needed to be done. I realize that the fun and good feelings that we had were caused by our being together and enjoying each other's company.

We look forward to the visits of our family anticipating their coming for Christmas and especially for our family reunion. I thank our Heavenly Father for placing within us the desire to be with our families. I have often wondered at the wisdom of the great creator of heaven and earth in placing within the creatures of the world the mothering instinct and the inherent desire to gather together for companionship and protection.

I remember Yagui and I were going to the Cebadilla to gather the horses and mules and get them ready for a pack trip that we were planning with family and friends. We had traveled from Dublan up into the Sierra Madre Mountains. We had gone through Garcia and over the Continental Divide. We descended down the west side of the divide into the Gavilan Basin. As we came down the mountain and quietly entered a beautiful little meadow with a clear mountain stream trickling through it, we slowly coasted into a big flock of Wild Turkeys. They were all peacefully feeding slowly along the green banks of the stream and extended all across the meadow. I stopped the van and turned off the motor and sat in wonder, enjoying the beautiful sight of those beautiful birds wandering peacefully around. They did not pay any attention to the van or us. We sat there enjoying the beautiful sight and even counted as near as we could the Turkeys that were in sight from where we sat in the van. We stopped counting when we got up to 80 seeing that we could not get an accurate account of all of those moving Turkeys. They slowly moved around the van in back and front wandering on down the stream and the meadow. They filled the meadow and the hillside in front of us. We watched for over a half and hour until the last of the big flock moved on down the meadow and hillside leaving the road clear in front of us. As we talked about it we decided that it must have been 15 or 20 mother Turkeys with their grown chicks that had gathered together for protection and companionship. They were so peaceful and content that they paid no attention to us even though we had come right into the middle of the flock. They didn't even bother to get out of the way and we stopped to avoid hitting the ones that were on the road ahead of us.

I have seen many other big flocks of Turkeys in my wanderings in the mountains but usually they were on the run fleeing from the van or from us when we were horseback. I have often wondered at this singular experience and I have thought that we saw the Turkeys that day, as they are when they are not frightened or trying to escape.

We went on over the north end of the Blues and down into the Cebadilla. We lucked out and found a horse and a couple of mules in the Cebadilla corral licking salt. We caught them and saddled up two of them and packed our camp on one of our pack mules that was in the corral with the others.

We traveled down the trail through the beautiful canyon that runs down toward the Gavilan River. We soon climbed out as the trail left the canyon and wound along the side hill down to the bench above the cliffed-up river. We followed the rim until the trail descended the steep cliff in a well-worn switchback trail into the river. We crossed the river into the big beautiful meadows with big Pine Trees along the river and dotting the big meadow.

We chose a good spot near the river and set up our camp in the shade of several Pine trees that grew close together. We unpacked the Pack-mule and tied her in the shade to await our return. I set up my little three men J. C. Penny Tent and put my bed inside and opened the widow flaps. I was careful as usual to zip up the screen on the door of the tent so nothing could get in.

We went down river looking for tracks of the animals that we were looking for. We soon found the tracks where they had come down to water not too long before since it was still wet where they had come out of the river. We located the animals and found that they were all there that we would need for the trip. We decided to come and get them in the morning since it was late and we could take them back up in the morning to get them shod and ready.

When we got back to our camp I was surprised to see my tent completely covered with thousands of Daddy Long Legs Spiders. I walked over to brush some of them off the tent. Many of them were mashed in the process. Wow!!! what a smell. I had never smelled that crushed spider smell before and I decided that I didn't want to crush anymore of them. Yagui and I both stood looking at the singular sight of thousands of those spiders all over the tent and surrounding it. Where had they come from and why had they gotten on the blue tent? I noticed that they were all close together but they were each in its own space and none were on top of another. The body of the spiders was a little brown soft body about 1/8 of an inch in diameter. The legs were hair-like extensions that curved up and out to the ground leaving the little brown body suspended where it swung and bounced up and down as the spider walked. Each spider's legs formed a circle of about 11/2 inches in diameter with the little brown body swaying in the middle of the lacey circle. They all formed a lacey net all over the tent with little brown dots evenly spaced through it. Their legs easily held onto the smooth fabric of the tent. Again I wondered what had brought them all here together and why had they covered the tent so evenly/ I could not see any space on the whole tent that was not occupied by the spiders. The place where I had tried to brush them off was again evenly filled with no space to spare. It seemed that these almost invisible creatures were trying to be more visible against the blue background of the fabric of the tent.

We left them alone and went back to have some supper around the campfire. We could not discover any spiders anyplace but around the tent. We knew that they were harmless so we decided to not to disturb them and see if they would go away as it got dark. We had belled our horse and hobbled him and turned him loose with the mules to feed for the night. We could hear the tinkle of the bell in quiet peaceful night. My thoughts always turned home to my wife and family at this time of evening around the campfire. I thought of what they might have thought of if they had seen the thousands of spiders on and around the tent. I wondered if they would believe me when I told them of this experience.

I went to my tent and slowly unzipped the tent door. I held it to one side while I quickly crawled in and zipped it up tight again. I didn't feel any spiders crawling on me in the night so I supposed that none had gotten in with me.

The next morning I looked out the screen door of the little tent and discovered that there were no spiders on it. When I went out and looked around I could only see a straggler or two left. They had all disappeared during the night. Where had they gone? They could not fly or run fast but walked slowly along on their long bouncy legs. I supposed that they had finished their purpose of gathering together in that vast get together. Even after all of the intervening years I have not learned enough about those spiders to be able to answer my questions about them. While I was watching General Conference I wondered if those spiders had gathered for a similar purpose so long ago. I feel blessed for having witnessed such a singular experience. As far as I know that has never happened to anyone before or since.

In the Lords creations I have been impressed with the profusion of every creation. I am reminded that the Lord has said that the earth is full and to spare. I certainly saw that there are plenty of spiders that are hardly seen in their natural environment until they get on a background that makes them very visible.

Many animals congregate and seem to enjoy being together as the large herds of Buffalo, Caribou and the large flocks of geese and ducks. I have seen flocks of Geese that seem like a blanket of white that covers most of the lake and the shore out on the Ranch. Even in these big flocks each individual does not lose his identity. The geese even mate for life and do not lose track of each other no matter how large the flock. Even the spiders respected each other's space and did not pile one on top of the other.

On a trip to Trout Creek Jenene, Claudia, Anthony and I took Ken Storm and his Father on weeklong pack trip around the country. One morning we were all fishing along the Trout Stream when Ken came around and asked us what the little animals were that had a long tail and a snout like a pig. Anthony heard what he said and dropped his fishing pole and began to run around the bend in the Creek shouting, CHOLUGOS!!! As he was dashing away I called to him telling him to catch them by the tail so they could not bite him. Anthony later described his experience. I ran a round the bend and saw what seemed like hundreds of Cholugos big and little running toward a cliff on the side of the creek canyon. There were many little ones squeaking and following after their mother as fast as they could run. Most of them escaped up the face of the cliff but some of them climbed up some pine trees that were near the cliff. I climbed up after those little ones that were climbing the pine tree. I caught two of them holding them by their tails and carefully climbed down the tree holding them at arms length.

I watched as Anthony came proudly back with two little Cholugos hanging from his hand by their tails. He handed one to Jenene and he and Jenene went fishing along the stream towards camp with a fishing pole in one hand and a Cholugo in the other.

Anthony gave one little Cholugo to Claudia and he began to tame the other one. We put them each in a pack box and covered them with the lid leaving a crack for air. We saddled up and went riding through the country just enjoying the country and showing Ken Storm and his Father a lot of old terraces; many of these were well preserved and beautifully constructed.

When we got back we discovered that Claudia's little Cholugo had pushed aside the lid of the pack box and had escaped. Anthony asked me to make a little harness for his Cholugo so he could not get away. I made a little harness with a piece of leather. I cut holes in it for put the front legs through bringing it around his body with a leash tied on the top of his shoulders. We fed him some bread and milk which he ate eagerly after Anthony dipped his nose in it. Soon he was being cuddled by Claudia, Anthony and Ken Storm. By the time we got him home he was pretty well domesticated and a loving little pet.

That night as we sat around the campfire we heard Claudia's little Cholugo crying his squeaky little cry into the lonely night. We took a flashlight and went in search of the lonely little fellow but we could not find him. We looked on the ground and in the trees but we could not see him. Again we heard his lonely cry and again we looked without success. Finally after a few more times of looking for that poor lost Cholugo he stopped crying and we gave up the search. It made me sad to think of that poor little baby Cholugo lost and far from the love of his mother and the rest of his group. I thought that surely these animals group bond together in love and companionship. Raising their young as one big family.

When we got home Anthony made his little pet a little house and he lived in our yard wandering freely around the whole lot. He supplemented the food Anthony gave him with grubs and insects that he dug up around y8ard and garden. in a few months he had grown quite a bit and was beginning to be quite a little pest.

One morning Jenene went out of the house and Cholugo came to meet her with one of Karl's baby chicks in his mouth. Jenene ordered him sternly to bring her the chick. When Jenene reached to take it from him he jumped forward and scratched Jenene hand with his long claws of his front paws. In anger Jenene grabbed him by the tail and tossed him into the van and drove him down to the river and turned him out of his happy home. We never saw him again.