Last Week of April 2012

 Mike has been really busy on the grounds.  He has been cleaning up sand along the roadsides.  He spent several days running what they non-affectionately call the "man beater."  It is a power broom, but there are no bristles on it.  It has paddles.  They use it to get the sand (left over from winter) from off of the sides of the roads.  They have to "broom" it up onto the road, then they take a big sweeper (that's on the front of the tractor) and sweep it into piles and then shovel it into the bucket of the front end loader and drive it up to the shop and dump it.  It took about 2 weeks to get the sides of the roads clean.  He didn't take any before-and-after pictures of the lane, but he did take these awesome pictures of the bumble bee that you see here.  We have a lot of bumble bees and they love our flowers.  This bee is on the Azaleas by the church.  The next picture is a wildflower that Mike discovered this week when he was cleaning up leaves and limbs in a little grove of trees.  He came and got me and took me to see it.  We don't know the name of it, but there are several of them growing here on the property. Tim told Mike that it is protected and you can't dig or transplant them or anything.  It certainly has a beautiful color.

The most exciting thing that happened to Mike this week (though he wasn't a bit excited about it) was that he found a tick on his leg after spending a day working on the grounds.  It didn't traumatize him like it would have done me because he used to get them when he was a young kid in Minnesota.  He said they had a "tick check" every night before bed. 

Mike took the next picture of Elder Starley and me by the pulpet we have been working on.  Elder Starley built it, and I put the finish on it.  He made a stool with carpet on top. (left front of picture -but it's not as large as it looks in this picture)  The stool slides in and out so the children can stand on it and be tall enough to speak into the microphone when they say the prayer or give a talk.  As you can guess, it was made for the Primary Room at the church. Mike rode with it down to the church to keep it from tipping over.  (See picture below)

If you look to the top right corner of the picture you can see the trees in the lane.  Now that Mike, Levoy and Gene have removed all of the sand around the trees they will spend the next week or more spreading a thin layer of mulch around all of them.  There is a lane going in and a lane going out and both lanes are lined with maple trees.  As you can see they are just starting to turn green. We are all smiling about having this project finished. 

We have had a week of cold windy weather but it is supposed to be better next week.  It snowed a few flakes the day these pictures were taken. WE HOPE YOU ARE ENJOYING WHATEVER WEATHER YOU ARE HAVING AND WE SEND OUR LOVE. 

A Great Week

 I thought I would tell you a little about what we have been doing this week.  This picture on the right shows the dead grass where the donkey and sheep were stabled at Christmas time.  The men were all busy cleaning up the sand on the sides of the roads, and the dead grass was really bugging me, so I decided to tackle the job.  I dug out the sod (I had to jump on the shovel with both feet to be able to cut through the dead grass.)  I dug the dirt down 2-3 inches to get rid of the ammonia and hauled it off.  Then I started hauling in new dirt and mulch (in 5 gallon buckets with my little golf cart.)

You can't run down to Home Depot and buy sod by the piece in Vermont, so I had to drive around the property and walk the gardens looking for grass I could borrow (where no one would miss it).  I dug grass out of flower beds where it didn't belong, and cut some sod from a field near the woods where it could grow back without being seen. I found some in the field behind the cemetery (which reminds me I still need to fill that one in with dirt). This picture was taken after I finished.   The grass didn't match perfectly, but it looks a lot better. I will take pictures of Mike's projects and tell about them next week.

Today (Saturday) was an exciting day for us.  We went to the Rauner Special Collections Library at Dartmouth College to see their first edition copy of the Book of Mormon.  The man who discovered it wrote the following: "A copy of the original edition of the "Book of Mormon," is without doubt the scarcest book published in the nineteenth century which has obtained any kind of reputation. As an evidence of this, I have been in search of a copy for a great many years, and always unsuccessful till this copy, here named, came into my possession by accident among a lot of old school books." (1869)

 There is no question that First Edition copies of the Book of Mormon are rare and valuable.  Brigham Young University has one, but you can't hold it or touch it.  You can only look at it under glass.  As for it's value, an original copy was sold in 2007 for $108,000, and another one sold for $180,000.  We had one at the memorial, but many years ago it was moved to Salt Lake to be preserved in the archives. The Dartmouth library staff was great.  They told us that so many people come to see it, they keep it in a special place nearby.  They allow you to hold it, read it, and even take pictures.  It was amazing.   

This is Elder and Sister Peterson from Mesa, Arizona.  They just arrived a few weeks ago and they are great!  We invited them to go with us to the library, and they enjoyed it as much as we did.  We spent about an hour at the library and then they bought us lunch at Subway. 
Brother Peterson was a teacher and coach at Dobson High School in Mesa.  Sister Peterson is a GREAT cook.  She invited all the missionaries to her home for dinner Thursday night, and served the best Chicken Pot Pie I have ever tasted.

I took this picture of Mike at the library.  It was fun to watch him.  You could tell his feelings were tender as he very carefully turned the pages to read from this special First Edition Book of Mormon, which is now 182 years old. It was an awesome experience.  Some people might wonder how we could be so excited about an old book, but this is not just any old book.  There is only one book in the entire world that has had more copies of it printed, and that is the Bible.  In other words, more copies of the Book of Mormon have been printed than any other book, except for the Bible.  It tells of the Savior's visit to the ancient Americans more than 2,000 years ago.  It describes how he blessed the children and healed the sick among the people.  It is a very powerful testimony that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and Redeemer of the World.  We wish EVERYONE would read it and decide for themselves.  It has certainly blessed our lives.    We love you all.

Hiking the Hill

It was a beautiful day Saturday. The weather was perfect so we decided to go for a hike. Barbara, our neighbor across the street, told us we are welcome to hike up the hill behind her house. She owns to the top of the mountain (to the right in this picture) Barbara has a huge beautiful yard. The spruces you see in this picture are in her back yard. From her hill you get a beautiful view of the town of Sharon. The grass is getting green, but the maples and other deciduous trees are just starting to come out. After they get leaves you won't be able to see the town for the trees.
We hiked to the top of the knoll and down the other side where we found some really beautiful scenery. There were some amazing trees like the one I am standing by. At the bottom of the hill we discovered a little brook with wildflowers. We liked them so Mike took several pictures.

We decided to climb up to some rocks to rest and take a break. The limbs and leaves were deep and Mike lost his balance and fell. I made sure he was OK and then I took a picture of him. He was laughing. He asked me why I didn't take the picture as soon as he fell (that would have been an interesting picture) but I wanted to make sure he wasn't hurt.
As you can see in the picture below he looks quite comfortable, don't you think?

We took a lot of pictures of the trees, flowers, and an old broken down part of a wagon that was in the creek bed. (No matter how hard I try, I can't get the pictures to go where they are supposed to. The preview looks perfect, but when I post everything changes. (Oh well)

Thought for the day:
ARE YOU HAVING FUN YET?
LIFE GOES BY FAST.
SLOW DOWN AND ENJOY IT.
LOVE TO YOU ALL!

It's Getting Green

We are loving the warmer weather. As you can see the grass is getting green. Today we both worked outside all day. Mike spent the day working at the dam on the creek. The floods of hurricane Irene washed it out. They had to clean out a lot of rocks and get it ready to pour cement. The dam needs to be repaired so we can have irrigation water in the summer. Mike is standing by the big Gator. It is a lot of fun to drive.

Sister Schuck, the director's wife, took these photos at the end of the day today. I was planting flowers and Mike had just come to tell me it was time to go home. This is the golf cart I drive. I wish I had one just like it. Actually, if I could REALLY have my wish I would wish for one to give to my mother for her birthday tomorrow. It is a LOT of fun to drive. You just turn the key, and push the gas and it goes. You never have to shift. Of course there is a brake.

It was warm enough today that I didn't need a coat while I was working but I put it on for the drive back up to the shop. In my hands are blue pansies. Today I planted purple, purple and white, and blue pansies. Our spring flowers don't come until after Memorial Day. Last year at this time there was still snow on the ground. Anyway, we saw the pansies at Walmart and I called Tim and asked if we could buy some to plant so we could have some color (in the meantime). He thought that was a good idea..

I am holding up my hands so you can see how muddy they are but it's too small to see. What you CAN see, is a beautiful green hill in the background. Halfway up on the right is a teeny park bench. That is where the Smith home stood. It sure did feel great to be outside enjoying the sunshine today. The crocus and daffodils are blooming and we are loving it. Hope all of you reading this are finding joy in your days too. Like my mother always says, "Make it a great day!" Love to all.