Keeping Busy

We have really been busy this month. I told you about the huge packing box that Elder Charchenko and Elder Starley built. Here is a picture of it. Are you surprised how BIG it is?

As soon as they got the box finished they began taking down Christmas lights. They built a metal cage that looks like the basket on the lift. They made it so the forklift on the tractor can slide under it, attach to it, and lift it up. They spent several weeks using their home-made lift to take down all of the lights they could reach. The very hour that they had taken down the last set of lights they could reach, the lift arrived and they began using it. They set a very lofty goal to get the lights down in one week. On previous years the lift has been rented for one month. By getting the lights down so quickly they saved nearly $2,000. It was pretty amazing. They worked until dark on Tuesday and until 5:15 on Wednesday (last night) and got it all done. On the last couple of days Sister Patsy Starley and I went down and picked up lights and piled them into totes for them.

In this picture we are in the shop checking lights. Since this picture was taken we have added about 40 more containers of lights. They are stacked almost to the ceiling behind the tractor and 4 totes high in front of the tractor. The light strings have to be untangled, checked, repaired as needed, burned bulbs replaced, and then we wrap them up and pack them in totes ready for next year. We have finished about 20 totes full of lights, but that is only about a third or fourth of them. (The stuff on the right is paper goods and supplies for chapels in Vermont and New Hampshire. Everything is delivered to our shop and then it goes out from here to the various church buildings.

In one of our earlier blogs we talked about this amazing stuff that Mike called a "fungus" but it looks a lot like the formations in a cave. I wish we could have gotten pictures earlier in the year, before we had rain, but we are very grateful for Sister Starley for taking these. We have a lot of springs around here. There are places where the water just runs out of the rocks. It freezes in bubbles and mounds and sometimes even looks fuzzy. Then as we have warmer days and cold nights, large icicles form. It is a very beautiful sight.

We are late getting our blog out this week. I am teaching Primary now, and lessons take time to prepare. Saturday I needed to practice because I sang in a trio for church, and then I was asked to play the piano for Zone Conference (4 songs). I am not a confident piano player, so I spent every free minute practicing. It was a wonderful experience to play "How Great Thou Art" and have about 200 young men and women (missionaries) singing. It sounded absolutely beautiful!

Hope you are all keeping busy with good things, and having fun as you go.

MAKE IT A GREAT DAY! WE LOVE YOU!