CHRISTMAS

In our last blog you saw a closeup of the star as we were putting it back up after repairs.  We tried several times to get a good picture of it,  but it always comes out blurry.  It is quite heavy and takes two people to hoist it up the flagpole.  This picture was taken the day after Thanksgiving, shortly after the live nativity production was finished.
Mike was in charge of the spotlights and I played the keyboard while everyone sang Silent Night.  During the two nights of the live nativity we had over 500 visitors.

The wise-men and their 'camel' pose
 after the performance.

The sheep are friendly and enjoy visitors,

 

One of our visitors is petting Annie.  The children love her.
She and the sheep stay until after New Years.

Mike decorated the red trees all around the monument.

Melanie and I decorated the green and white birch trees on the right. The birches are over 6 stories high.  We spent several days decorating them from the basket of our 65 foot lift.  We would have added more lights but we had to quit when breakers started popping.

Mike helped build the covered bridge. It is a favorite, and has become rather famous.  It was on the 6 o'clock local news this year.  We were told that one year eight wedding proposals took place under our bridge.  One of the ladies in our ward asked her friend why her son picked the bridge as a place to propose.  She explained, "Our family comes here every year.  Our kids think it's a magical place.

 Melanie and I created a new attraction this year.  We built a cozy little place to sit and visit, or take pictures.  You can walk into it from either end through an 'arbor' of lights.   You can see the post behind us in the first picture.  It is wrapped with green lights.

There is a large stone bench in the area and we made a roof over it with red lights.  We would have used more lights in the area to the right, but again we were out of power.  Mike had to unplug some of our lights because they kept popping breakers. We are hoping for more LED lights next year (even though we won't be here to enjoy them).  LED lights use 85% less power, and you can plug 40 sets end to end instead of 5.

It has been a great Christmas.  We had over 500 visitors (altogether) on the Friday and Saturday before Christmas, 660 visitors the Sunday before Christmas, and 416 on Christmas Eve.  It has been worth all the time and effort because it has brought joy to so many people.  We have a machine that counts the cars as they drive through.  We realize that many people drive by more than once, but we counted 14,616 cars from December 1st to December 24th.  The last count Mike saw was OVER 17,000! That's a lot of people who came to enjoy our lights!

WE HOPE ALL OF YOU HAD A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS.  WE DID!  WE WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Getting Ready for Christmas

Christmas is the most beautiful time of year and it's especially lovely here at the Joseph Smith Memorial.  We have the most awe inspiring paintings of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus on display in the visitor's center.  Mike's favorite is Mary looking down at baby Jesus (on the left side of the Christmas tree).

The lights are beautiful.  Each one of the large trees takes more than a day to decorate.  Melanie and I worked together in a lift on the tallest trees.

Mike decorated the red apple trees all around the monument.  He used a special basket built last year by Elder Starley.  He lifted the metal "basket" with the fork lift on the tractor, then used a long ladder to climb into it.  (Sorry I didn't get a picture.)  One morning I heard Mike holler my name and Melanie and I looked up the hill and he was hanging from the basket, holding on with his hands like someone ready to do chin-ups.  The ladder had fallen when he was climbing down, leaving him way up in the air, holding on like someone doing chin-ups.  He laughed about it later, but it was a bit scary for a minute (for all of us).

The birch trees with white trunks and green tops took several days to decorate.  They are about 70 feet tall. The green tops don't show up
well in this picture but they are one of my favorites.  Mike spent a lot of time keeping them lit because of power issues.


These beautiful statues (below) look like marble, but they are made of a special kind of plastic.  They are lovely.  At night there is a light shining on them.



Between the buildings we have a "stable" with a donkey named Annie
and two sheep.  The picture of mike was taken just after his interview with Channel 3 news.  He had just finished feeding the animals when the reporter turned the camera on him and interviewed him.  He looked great.  In the end
he didn't get on TV but the newscast was really great. There was an
interview with Elder Schuck, the director, and Brother Dunkle who was at the visitor's center, and they showed the covered bridge made out of lights.  At least we can say he ALMOST got on TV.

I have had a lot of fun making (and rebuilding) nativity scenes.  

I made two last year (keeping one) and I have given away three so far this year.  The figures in the pictures below are ones I repainted.  The transformation was amazing.  I took before and after pictures.  

This picture shows the star that I made last year (with others taking turns helping me).  Elder Shefchik and Mike took it down so I could repair it and they are just getting ready to pull it back to the top of the flagpole.  There are over 1,000 lights in the star and over 200 lights in the tail.  It took about a week to make it.  We have tried to get a good picture of it lit up, but no picture does it justice.

We had over 500 people come Saturday and Sunday.  WISH YOU COULD ALL COME AND SEE THE LIGHTS.
WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU.
WE HOPE YOU ARE HAVING AS MUCH FUN GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS AS WE ARE!  LOVE TO EVERYONE!

November 2012

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!
We love this time of year, and we have SO much to be grateful for.
We are especially grateful for our FANTASTIC FAMILY from Arizona to Washington, and from Utah to Minnesota, we love you all!!!!

Our Fall flowers were beautiful this year as you can see from the picture on the right.  The wreath (above) is one I made from grapevines that grow on the fence by our house, and fall leaves from the dollar store.
When we said GOOD BYE to fall flowers we said HELLO to Christmas Lights.  The last few weeks have been very busy, but wonderful.  As you know we had a hurricane.  We had high winds and rain which caused a power outage that lasted from Monday evening until Wednesday morning.

Since then we have had a few weeks of nice weather,  especially for November.  Since we are spending almost every day working outside, we are REALLY grateful for clear skies and sunshine.

Dressed for decorating in the snow (the week of Hurricane Sandy)
L to R Elder Shefchik, Mike, Janie & Melanie (College Student)

Friday night we previewed the lights at night and they looked great.  We will take a lot of pictures of them so you can see our work.

The picture on the right was taken the one day we worked in the snow.  We don't work in the rain because working with electricity in the rain could be an "enlightening" experience, but the snow doesn't bother us too much.  We have learned to wear layers of clothes (as you can see).  It was snowing in this picture, but I don't know if you can see the snowflakes.

View of sunset from our apartment.

Arizona is famous for sunsets, but we have had some beautiful ones here.  Mike took this picture a few days ago.

HOPE YOU ARE REMEMBERING 

TO COUNT YOUR 

BLESSINGS!!!!!!

LOVE TO EVERYONE.

Fall leaves and family visits

October has been SO much fun.  We love having visitors.

Polly (Janie's sister) and Dalen came to visit us
the first week of October.  We hiked up to Patriarch hill
so Mike could show them the work we have done.

Janie held out her i-phone to take a picture of all of us at once.
it-s pretty amazing what you can do these days.

Sara and Jess on a walk in Sharon.

Sara, Erin, and Rachel

It was really fun having everyone come to visit us.
this month.  Polly and Dalen arrived Friday evening at the end of September, and stayed until the following Wednesday.  Rachel flew into Manchester on Tuesday, October 2nd and then on Saturday, Erin (Jeremy's wife) arrived at the airport from Salt Lake, and Jess and Sara flew in from Phoenix arriving within a few hours of each other.

We took everyone to the Rauner Special Collections Library at Dartmouth College to see an original copy of the Book of Mormon.  They are very rare.
We were initially told that an original edition is worth about $180,000 but we have since heard estimates much higher.

 We visited Quechee Gorge and everyone took lots of pictures.  We went to the Quechee Antique Mall where we tasted all of the Cabot cheeses, visited the antique toy and train collections, and enjoyed looking at three floors of antiques.  It is one of our favorite places to go.

 Everyone loved the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial.  In fact you can see pictures of the girls helping with the flowers if you go to Facebook and do a search for "Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial".


We had so much fun in October that we almost forgot about our blog altogether.

We have spent the past two weeks putting up Christmas lights and this week we are waiting to see what will happen in Vermont when Hurricane Sandy hits.  We came home today after lunch (Monday) and we don't go in tomorrow unless we get a phone call that help is needed.  We are supposed to have high winds which usually means some trees down.

Hope you all have a fun Halloween.  Remember to send some pictures to Grandma and Grandpa.
Love to everyone!

Rachel on the shore in Maine.  We visited two lighthouses
and watched Mike eat twin lobsters.  Rachel and I had fish
and chips.  The weather was beautiful.

September ALREADY

These pictures are for the GRANDCHILDREN.  Can you see the little guy in this first picture.  We heard a loud noise coming from the flowers.  It sounded almost like a duck.  It surprised us how much noise this little frog made  (Click on the picture and it will open up full screen.  Then scroll through the pictures with the arrow keys. Hit escape to go back.)
This is one of the prettiest frogs I've ever seen.  He wasn't a bit shy about having his picture taken.

The next little fellow is sitting on Malanie's hand. Melanie is a young lady (about 20) who was hired to help put up Christmas lights last winter, and then after Christmas she went to BYU Idaho.  Now she is back.  She will be helping us through Christmas, after that she will head back to Idaho to school.

These little salamanders are so cute.  We have seen two different colors so far.  This dark one with yellow spots was found in the garden and he is the only one we have seen like him.  We have seen a lot of bright orange ones in the gardens.  This orange fellow in the next picture is one that Mike found when he was walking up the trail to Patriarch Hill.
We have deer, groundhogs, squirrels and chipmunks, moles and skunks, and even a beaver.  I think the salamanders are the cutest of all.  When our children were young, our son James had TWO Salamanders.  He named one Sally and the other Mander.  (I thought that was brilliant myself)

The weather is starting to cool down and fall is in the air.  It has actually been quite nice.  It is chili enough in the mornings for a sweater, but the days have been perfect.

It has been raining about once a week.  The day we took this picture of the rainbow we only had a few sprinkles.  I should have taken the picture 5 minutes sooner.  It was gorgeous, but started to fade before I shot this picture.  It is still a beautiful sky.



The same day, just a little earlier, we took the picture of the monument with the sun reflecting from it.  I have even seen the trees reflected in the monument like you would see in a clear pool of water.  The picture of the monument was taken when the sun was nearly down.  During the day the top triangle will glow from the sun is shining and it is almost too bright to look at.

There is no higher quality granite in the world than the granite from the Rock of Ages Quarry in Barre (pronounced berry)  The obelisk (that's the name for the tall shaft of the monument) is the largest in the world made of high quality granite.  Even though it was put up more than 100 years ago (1905) it still shines like glass when the sun is reflecting on it.
 This picture was taken when the sun was nearly down.  During the day the top triangle will shine.  When the sun is shining, it is too bright to look at.

This is a picture of the quarry.  We went on a tour of the Rock of Ages Quarry a week ago Saturday.  It was very interesting.  The quarry used to hire thousands of people.  In fact almost the whole town of Barre was supported by the quarry.  Now, because of modern technology, fourteen men do the same amount of work as thousands had previously done.  The one good thing about this is that the price of high quality granite has gone down to a price most people can afford.  Marble headstones do not last, but this high quality granite lasts basically forever.  All the granite from the Barre quarry goes to make headstones and monuments.  We learned an interesting thing this week.  When Junius Wells first went to the owners of the quarry looking for a perfect stone 38 1/2 feet long they could not find a piece of granite in any of their sites. About that same time they bought the next door neighbor's quarry and that very day they bought it they found the piece of granite used to make this amazing monument.

Well hope you are all enjoying September.  IT WILL BE OVER BEFORE YOU KNOW IT.
LOVE TO EVERYONE.

Fort Ticonderoga

 Saturday we traveled to New York to visit Fort Ticonderoga.  It was an interesting and amazing place.  It made us want to spend time researching our ancestors who participated in the Revolutionary War.  

There were people dressed in period costumes, like this lady knitting, and the man below standing in the tunnel-like entryway that leads into the fort.  

 We enjoyed the museum with dishes and silver, pots and kettles, candleholders and candle molds, jewelry, guns, knives, coins, maps, and many other old and very interesting items.  We loved the paintings and photographs that told the story of the fort, which was built by the French.

This is the officer who directed the troops.

It was interesting to see how the old flintlock guns worked. 

This is one of three very large buildings.

I never realized that flintlock guns, like those in this picture, actually used a piece of flint,  just like the flint we use to start fires with flint and steel.  When you cock the gun and fire it, the flint hits against something that looks like a small metal spoon causing a spark that sets off the powder and fires the gun. 

All three large buildings have three stories.  The rock-work was amazing.  There were more than 40 cannons, maybe even 50.  We didn't count them.  Some were very beautifully decorated.  

As I mentioned, the French built the fort, then the British captured it.  The British left a small garrison to hold it and the Green Mountain Boys from Vermont captured it from them.  These Americans dragged one or more of the cannons through the snow to Boston where they were used in the Revolutionary War.  History is very interesting.  We can learn from it.  We should learn from it.  We hope our children and grandchildren are keeping journals and recording the important things that are happening in your lives.  

We send our love and greetings to all.

A BIG job

The view from the top of Patriarch Hill last Fall

Years ago you could see the monument from the top of Patriarch Hill.  Over the years the trees and brush have grown up and filled in the meadow areas on top.   It was decided that it would be wonderful to be able to again see the monument from Patriarch Hill.  The project was given to Mike.  It was a big job.  For a few weeks  Jake, a young adult, was hired to help.  Jake was a hard worker and a great help.  Some days Elder Vernon or Elder Starley went on top with Mike and twice I (Janie) helped.  Mike worked several weeks all by himself using hand tools, because he could not take the chainsaw unless someone else went with him.  (It's the rule.)

This is Jake

By August the meadow on top was cleared.  Then Mike and Levoy  (Charchenko and Starley) cut down a few very large trees in the forest near the meadow (on top) and you could see the top triangle shaped part of the monument.  Next, using helium balloons, binoculars and their cell phones they were able to pin point the trees near the monument that needed to be cut.

Cutting down the first tree

In this picture on the right you can see eight pine trees 100 to 125 feet tall.  There is a little tiny orange dot to the left of the tractor.  That is Mike cutting down the first tree.  They cut down a few trees and it looked like this next picture (below).

Still had a few more trees to cut down

Elder Starley, Elder Charchenko, & Elder Vernon

It was an amazing day when the trees came down and the monument shone through.  It was a miracle the way Mike climbed up and down the steep hill carrying a chain saw as he cut down tree after tree with Elder Vernon being the spotter to let him know when the tree started to move, and Elder Starley in the tractor ready to push it over and direct where it would fall.   Elder Starley designed and built what they call the "pusher" that fit on the front of the fork lift.  It was designed so Mike could cut the tree nearly through, then scramble out of the way and let the tractor push the tree over.  Now some of you know that about 10 years ago Mike got Vertigo.  It makes it so he can't look up without getting dizzy, and it has affected his equilibrium.  When we hike through the woods, he will sometimes take my arm for balance or put his hand on my shoulder especially if the trail is steep or narrow.  This equilibrium difficulty has caused him to fall a few times this summer when he was clearing brush on the top of the mountain.  Now remember he is 68 years old now and yet he works every day like he is in his 30's .  I want to tell you that Angels helped Elder Charchenko climb up and down that steep hill ALL DAY LONG,  over rocks and brush to cut down more than a dozen trees.  It looks great now.  The picture below was taken with a zoom camera and then enlarged, so it's not as close as it looks, but it looks beautiful.

We love you all.  Can you believe it's almost September?

The view from the top of Patriarch Hill now

We did it!