A Walk Back in Time

One of the things you can do when you visit the Joseph Smith Memorial is walk the trails and roads through the countryside. The old Turnpike Road, the main road through this part of the country, was built more than 200 years ago. The stone walls were built along the sides of the roads in the 1700's. There are stone walls EVERYWHERE here.

Mike loves taking pictures everywhere we go and he took a lot of pictures of this tree with the delicate pink leaves.

I like taking pictures of the rock work and the rock walls. I have taken a lot of pictures of the stone bridge too. The stone bridge was built on the Old Turnpike Road so wagons could cross the brook. (We call them streams.) Many of you have heard me talk about the Stone Bridge. The pictures just don't do it justice.















I am totally fascinated by the rocks here. The one I am sitting on is HUGE! It was moved to it's present location (as a bench) by the use of a front end loader. Someone (a very long time ago) cut it and shaped it and moved it without the help of machinery. Mike is standing by the foundation and cellar of the Solomon Mack home. Solomon was Joseph's grandfather. Because wood was so difficult to cut into boards, when people moved (in those days) they took the boards with them, leaving only the foundation. It is still pretty interesting to me.
We took these pictures last Saturday. This Saturday (last night) it started snowing and we woke up to 5-6 inches of snow this morning. It was beautiful, but melted before the days was over. Can you believe it is going to be NOVEMBER? We have been in Vermont 10 weeks. It has been amazing. We love you all. Write when you can.

October in Vermont

We are still enjoying the fall leaves. Don't you think these leaves look like flowers? Our Bishop and his family just made a quick trip to Utah for their daughter's wedding and back. They said the fall leaves were beautiful in Utah and along the way, and they wondered why Vermont is SO famous for its leaves. When they got home and saw the brilliant RED leaves they remembered why. In Utah and surrounding states, they saw beautiful yellow, gold, and orange leaves, but they didn't see red leaves (like these) until they got back home to Vermont.

We are just beginning to put up Christmas lights. The tree just to the left of the lift is the one we are decorating first. We spent all morning working on this tree, and then took these pictures right after lunch. We spent the entire day and were only half finished with it. (Of course we are still learning)


Elder Charchenko works the lift from inside the basket. In this picture he is standing right behind the controls. He enjoys working with all kinds of machinery and has had a lot of fun with this one. I guess you could say HE IS LOVING IT! It was fun to spend the day working together. The lift works like an arm. From this basket he can drive the machine around down on the ground, raise the arm, extend the arm, bend at the elbow and wrist, swivel right and left, and rotate the bucket. It's amazing how well he can operate it. Can you imagine what Suzy and Alan could do if they had one of these?

This is what we look like at work. You can see a bit of the shop behind us. It has been getting a bit cold (especially up in the air) so I am wearing thermals. We just went shopping yesterday and bought new thermals, Smart Wool Sox, gloves for Mike and an insulated sweatshirt with a hood. THE SOX ARE GREAT. Thanks Jeremy and Erin for telling us about them.

Hope everyone who reads this is well and happy, and doing great. WE ARE! Love you all.

Patriarch Hill

Mike took me on a lovely drive to the top of Patriarch Hill. We went in the big Gator. It was a fun outing for us. I took a picture of Mike in the Gator and he took a picture of me eating apples from a tree up at the top.

The small picture was taken, looking down from the top of the hill. I wish the picture was clearer, but you can get an idea of what it looks like. Vermont is a series of mountains and valleys. You can see the view in this picture because the leaves have already fallen off the tree.

Fall is a lovely time for a drive in Vermont.

(It does not matter what I do, the pictures don't go where I want them to go. Hopefully you will enjoy them anyway.)
















The bridge below was damaged by the floods after Hurricane Irene, so you can no longer drive on it, but it still makes a beautiful picture.
















The leaves have been gorgeous this year, and we feel really blessed to be here.

Thanks to all who have written to us. We love you all and hope you are having a great fall. Can you believe it is the middle of OCTOBER? We have been here two months and it is hard to believe. We have had lots of opportunities to do missionary work as we travel about and with our neighbors. We gave a birthday party for our next door neighbor Dave and invited all of the neighbors. It was great. Sharon and family who live on the other side gave a huge plant (a yellow chrysanthemum) to Dave and she brought one for us too. Dave asked if we would plant it at the Birthplace memorial. We invited him to come and see it and have a tour and he came. He LOVED the tour and he is what missionaries call "Golden". He even called his mother and told her he wanted to bring her up here. To make a long story short he is having the missionary lessons. We love you all. Hug the grandchildren for us.

Story of the Monument

The Miracle of the Joseph Smith Monument


Today was our first opportunity to hear the story of the monument.
Junius F. Wells (Son of Daniel H. Wells) began in the 1890's with the desire to find the birthplace of the prophet Joseph. He asked about buying the property, but at the time the church did not have the money. Several years later, in March 1905 Brother Wells met with a contractor regarding a granite monument for the birthplace of the Prophet. The contractor said such a monument would be feasible, so in anticipation of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Smith, Brother Wells received approval to proceed with plans to purchase the birthplace site. Wells planned to purchase the 68 acre farm of the original Solomon Mack farm (Joseph's Grandfather) but in the end, purchased the entire piece of property which consists of 400 acres (including a beautiful Stake camp called Camp Joseph - which is a story for another day).

The monument came from a marble quarry in Barre (pronounced Berry) 40 miles north of the memorial (Top Picture). Mike and I drove past it yesterday. It is the largest marble quarry in the world, and has provided some of the finest granite in the world. Brother Wells determined that the shaft of the monument should be 38 1/2 feet tall, with each foot representing a year of the Prophet's life. He wanted a "perfect shaft" from which to construct the main section of the monument. It was July 24th and he was told that it would take eight to twelve months time to have it ready, but he explained that it must be done before December 23rd or the object in view (the 100th anniversary) would be defeated.
Rush! Was the word given, and no expense was spared to finish the work. After a long search an appropriate piece was found and cut out of the mountainside. Then it was formed and polished. According to the Herald News of December 28, 1905, the shaft is the "largest single spire of polished granite in America."

It was a herculean task to convey the monument to it's present location. The entire monument weights 100 tons. The one piece shaft weighs 40 tons all by itself. The stones were carried by special railroad cars to Royalton. A new iron bridge had recently been constructed across the river, but it was not strong enouth to support the massive load, so the older wooden bridge was strengthened (practically rebuilt) with additional supports (at the church's expense). From Royalton the stone were carried by a specially built wagon that weighed ten tons with tires 20 inches wide. It was pulled by TEN pairs of draft horses. Traveling was extremely difficult because the road bed was soft and the tremendous weight of the stones frequently forced the wagon deep into the mud. To help with this problem, the wagons drove over wooden planks which were continually moved from the back of the wagon to the front. Then they came to Dairy Hill Road (a road we drive every day). The first part of that road has a 12% grade. When we drive up that part of the hill it is so steep that our car only gets 3.6 miles per gallon. Well, needless to say the horses could NOT pull it, but they did not give up. They got teams of oxen and used block and tackle to move it. The horses were still hooked up in the front but they put ropes around trees and used teams of oxen going the opposite direction to sort of "wench" the wagon forward. They would go about 30 feet and then have to stop and reset their tackle. It took them 31 days to travel the two miles up the hill.

Now remember it was winter. Wells had been told that during the prior winter there had been snow on the ground from November 13 until the middle of March. Because of this it was widely believed that the Vermont winter would prevent Wells from completing the monument before the anniversary. Well, it ALWAYS snowed in November, but NOT THIS YEAR.

There was another problem. About a quarter of a mile up Dairy Hill Road was an infamous mud hole called "Mr. Button's Mud Hole." The day before the wagons were planning to cross the mud hole, it rained, making it especially difficult. The wagon wheels sunk in the mud so deep they could scarcely be seen. Extra horses were called to pull the wagon back out of the mud, and plans were made to try again the next day. The men helping just shook their heads and said, "What are you going to do now Mr. Wells?" Brother Wells said he was going to go home and pray, and he asked them to do the same.

That night Wells recalled, "It commenced to snow, but the thermometer dropped in three and a half hours by 35 degrees, and the north wind blew the storm (snow) down to the sea." The following day the wagons traveled over FROZEN MUD, and it didn't snow until after the monument pieces reached the site. After nearly SEVEN weeks of hard labor all the sections of the monument were transported to the birthplace site.

Now can you imagine hoisting a 40 ton granite spire to a height of thirteen feet and standing it upright...in 1905? It was no easy task. special machinery was brought from Pennsylvania and on December 8th the spire was placed and the gigantic task completed, within the time set, without so much as a scratch on the polished surface, and with no serious mishap or accident. It was indeed a miracle.
This afternoon (Sunday) we drove up to the monument and our dear friend Sister Fisher told us the story and gave us a reproduction of the original newspaper from 1905. It tells the entire story, and it is amazing. The weather was perfect today and we enjoyed just being there in that beautiful and peaceful place. We miss you all, but WE DO LOVE IT HERE. We send our love and hope you are all well. Thanks to the grandchildren who have written us letters. We will write back soon. We love you all!

Fall in Vermont

The New England States are famous for their covered bridges. Vermont lost a few during Hurricane Irene, but many are still heret. Covered bridges are very important here because we get about 60 inches of snow in the winter.

The picture of the fall leaves was taken by our chapel. The road in the picture is LDS Lane coming down from the monument. It's a beautiful site, especially in the fall. Only a few trees are turning because we haven't had frost yet. Because of the heavy rainfall, many of the leaves are turning brown and falling before the frost. All my life we have prayed for rain. Since I've been here, it is the first time I have ever heard people pray for the rain to stop. We had 2-3 sunny days last week and it is raining now.

This is our apartment building. It used to be a motel. There are three apartments upstairs and three downstairs. Our apartment is downstairs in the center. We have the apartment that was once the home of the hotel manager, so it is the largest and nicest of all. You can see Mike (very tiny) standing at the door. the door just to the right of him is storage. A section was added on behind that goes clear across the back (one story) and it is all part of our apartment. We have a nice kitchen in the front with a laundry room off to the side. We are the only apartment in this complex that has a washer and dryer. WE ARE TRULY GRATEFUL! In the back we have a nice living room, office and bedroom. Because we are in the middle, it stays warm. In the morning when it is 45 degrees outside, it is a comfortable 70 degrees in our apartment without turning on any heat.

The first picture was the Sharon Trading Post but it is missing because of a problem with Blogspot. Some of the pictures were deleted.The trading Post is OVER 200 years old. It was a feed store/farm store during the time of Joseph Smith's birth (1805) and it is very probable that his grandparents (Lucy Mack's parents) went there. We have to drive about 30 minutes to shop at a larger grocery store, so we stop here frequently for things we forgot. It is amazing the things they have. Just about whatever you need. The next picture was taken from the parking lot of the Sharon Trading Post, looking east. Notice the tree starting to turn colors. People come from all around to see the fall leaves. A person from New Hampshire visiting the monument told me the colors are prettier in Vermont than in New Hampshire. As I understand it, Vermont is famous for it's brilliant fall leaves. We have tour busses that are coming this week to the monument, and they are coming now because people want to see the leaves. You know how we have "Snow Birds" in Arizona, well, the people who come here to see the fall colors are called "Leaf Peepers."

Mike and I had to laugh when we first heard the expression and it still makes us laugh. When we go for a drive and one of us will say, "Look at that tree over there," we just laugh and say, "We're Leaf Peeping."

The village of Sharon is very old and was founded in the 1700's. The pictures below show the gift shop and the Sharon Church.

We drive by these every day. It is sort of like going back in time. The church and gazebo above remind me of the movie Polyanna. Well it is time to close.

WE SEND OUR LOVE AND GREETINGS FROM SHARON VERMONT AND WISH EVERYONE WELL. To our Children we say HUG THE GRANDCHILDREN FOR US, and to our friends and family, we love and miss you, so WRITE!