All In A Good Days Work!

Went back to school today to volunteer at the Kindergarten.  I really do enjoy it and I am even getting hugs from some of the kids.  It will have to do since I miss my own children and grandchildren so much!

Reading time and then games…………………………………………………

More birthdays, I seem to get one every time I go.

So the woman wearing this “dress” is the little girl’s grandmother???? Where have I gone wrong?

She sings the Happy Birthday song and dips the children.  It really is cute.  She also puts colored squares on the floor for show and tell and they have to answer a question on each square.

So on to nuts!  Across from the Brigham Young House are these chestnuts. I am trying to show you that my pockets are full. Maybe this is what is adding to my hay fever.   I have actually been peeling them and eating them raw.  They are pretty good.  This is what they look like on the tree and in the pod….

.

This is what they look like out of the pod but still in the shell.  I can peel them with my fingernail.  I guess you can roast them and then put them in butter and salt.  Some people boil them and add sugar…………………………I know one thing for sure, the squirrels are having a hay day here.  I saw at least 8 little squirrels running in and out of a hole in the tree at the post office.  They will have a good winter for sure.

H-A-R-L-E-Y………………………..

I am telling you that there are more motorcycles in this state than in the rest of the country!  You see them everywhere and most of the time the women are on the backs being very supportive wives, or tough women! We went to Fort Madison and I asked these guys if I could take their pictures.  They thought it was pretty funny. I told them they were going to be on my blog and they thought that might be dangerous for a few of them (I wonder if they were wanted?)

So these pictures are for my son.  Maybe someday Sonshine!

A DAY WITH JEANNE………………

So Jeanne and I were serving together at the Brigham Young House, we opened the door to let a little air in.  I mean if you were over 180 years old you might smell a little musty as well.  So with the fresh air came the flies. But beware Sister Openshaw is quick to the draw!!! I sure love her.

BBBBBRRRRRRRRR…………….

“Fred!”  “Turn up the fire, I am freezing!!!” “Alright, Wilma…………”

Old Fort Madison…..1808-1813

Yesterday we went with the Openshaws for our preparation day.  We decided to go to Fort Madison which is right across the river.  There is an old fort there that was built in 1808 and was basically a trading fort with the Sac and Fox Indians.

It was during the Jacksonian period in American history and they felt they would get the Indians to side with them instead of the British by trading goods with them. (A form of control)

Things were going pretty well until unprincipled  others came in with alcohol and undermined the government.  Ah, don’t we have those kinds of wonderful folks running around in the world today!

There was a wonderful guide there.  He actually had a PHD! Dressed like an old infantry soldier, working in this little fort, making $35,000 a year! He did his doctoral dissertation on the War of 1812.

Anyway, he knew everything about this time period.  He was talking about the conditions of the men at that time.  I guess in order for you to be in the infantry you had to have among other things FOUR GOOD TEETH! Honest to Pete, you needed teeth to be able to load you gun with gunpowder!  I guess that was hard to find in those days.  Delete mental picture

He loaded and fired this old French gun for us!  Pretty loud.  He said that the secret to being able to survive was to be in rank during a battle at all times.  Indians preferred to not attack if they were in one big unit, very tight knit together.  If they got separated at all, then the Indians were pretty dominant.  SO they actually would fire over one another’s shoulders. I think he said that they could get three rounds off in a minute.  The bayonet was very important. It was actually three sided, which caused mortal wounds. 

Flogging was a punishment for disobedience.  Like getting drunk or rowdy. They would be beaten with these whips. For more punishments they would put them in the stocks or make them sit on a sawhorse type of thing with weights on their feet!!!! And to think that these men usually enlisted!!!!

Doesn’t this remind you of the movies???

Where the men sat that were on guard duty.

The look out tower.  The windows could be closed by lowering the wood.

Barracks where the enlisted men lived.

Wooden canteens.

Crops grown inside fort walls.

Old Glory flying from a tree trunk.

Platforms that they stood up on to fire over the fence.

Big gates leading out to the river.

So many things we take for granted. They had displays of medicines used in those days, medical instruments for amputation, etc. They said halitosis was a common ailment! I can’t remember what herb was used for that!!

The fort itself and the layout was pretty fascinating.  It made you feel like you were actually living in that day.  Crops were grown inside the walls, animals were held inside as well.  It sure made me feel like I was sitting down with my Dad watching old western movies.  This was a real fort.  AND I MISS MY DADDY!

Right Down the Street

Right down the street across from the temple is the Clark Store.  It houses the new family research program.  So last night Richard and I went to take our first class.  New.familysearch.org is being replaced by a program entitled Family Tree.  It is totally new and not even all up yet.  It is supposed to make sharing family lines much easier.  The church is going to the side of, Our Tree, instead of my tree.  Anyway, I will keep you posted.  We have a month worth of classes and then hopefully I will be able to get my family history up to date as far as I can. 

There are at least 18 computers in the lab and some really smart people, Elder and Sister Price that have been trained in SLC.

So my new slogan, “You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide!”

Aren’t We Lucky, Don’t Tell Anyone!

So, my friend, Jill and her husband Kyle work in the temple here in Nauvoo.  They are temple missionaries, a very coveted, (we are not supposed to covet, so I meant really desirable) position to have.  Not to mention they are the ones with the amazing homes, television, dish washer, garbage disposal, pretty furniture and all. So when her sister Jann was here visiting for their birthday, we all went through a temple session together.  Jill and Kyle were the officiators, and Jann and Emery were the witness couple.  Amazing for all of us to be together after all of these years.  What a sweet tender mercy for me. 

So after our session, Kyle, with President Condie’s permission, got the keys to the temple and took us all through it. Bottom to top! I wish we would have been able to take pictures.

We climbed over 100 stairs going up to the clock tower, the bell tower, and then finally to the very top, touching the bolts that hold the Angel Moroni on to the very top of the temple!!!

Looking out over the Mississippi was breath taking.  You can actually see that Nauvoo is a peninsula!  It reminds me of Kansas City here. The Midwest is so green and rolling hills, farmland as far as the eye can see.

Sun stones on the corners of the temple. Notice the stars in the circular windows, but underneath the ledges as well.  Imagine the pioneers cutting the stone, shaping it, then building this temple, only to leave it and have it  destroyed.

I am blessed to live two blocks from this beautiful, sacred place.