040316

Catching up a bit...

Remember my last entry and the prairie grass burn?  Well, here is what it looks like the day after.

Taken from the opposite corner in a South West direction.

It'll look like this for a month or so till the grass starts to grow back again.

This "Tulip Tree" is a couple hundred feet from our apartment.  They are really pretty this time of year as they blossom and show their spring colors.

This is the Riser Boot Shop.  This missionary was demonstrating how they made boots for those living in Nauvoo in the 1840s.  Riser believed that if you made a great boot a bit better then people would buy them more.  He made a boot/shoe that you could wear on either foot.  Apparently, he was pretty successful.

Some of the necessary tools of the trade.

So, the price of a pair of shoes was not too ridiculous, was it?  Consider that to build the temple was in the neighborhood of a million dollars, you can appreciate how expensive that was at the time.

We also decided to go on a wagon ride that day because...

...Sister Joines (one of our Sunday ride alongs to Burlington Ward) was narrating the ride that morning...it was 45 degrees and the wind was blowing 20 MPH with gusts up to 30 MPH.  Even with blankets and double coats it was colder than a witches....

This is what Nauvoo looked like before they drained the swamps and cleared the land.  Inviting, no?  Note the little geese in the picture.  Nope, I can't spell that correctly...

Cold day on temple hill as we head back to the barn and end of the ride.

So, this was conference weekend.  We had Sisters Joines and Webb over for dinner between conference sessions and sat and watched the Sunday sessions the rest of the time.  They are truly delightful site missionaries and we enjoy their companionship on the Sunday drives up to Burlington Ward for our assignment there.

Sister Seger, Sister Webb, and Sister Joines.  I'm taking the picture, of course.  This is the kitchen/dinning room in our apartment.  The laundry room is the louvered door behind the two Sister missionaries and I am standing in the living room.  The rest of the kitchen is just to the left of Arlene.  Cozy, huh?

We got our schedule for the summer missionaries today.  All 30+ of them due to arrive April 29/30th and then the fun begins.  Training and so much else to get them up to speed.  We will actually be doing training while the temple is in session.  Now, that is going to be fun and exciting!

We have a new engineer starting the end of April.  They haven't announced him yet but he's a local and, apparently, he has told everyone that he got the job.  That ought to be pretty interesting when he shows up for work.  He starts after one week into shutdown.  Hmmmm...that's going to be tough.  We have so much to do and he's starting out at a disadvantage already...well, it does not matter to me.  We have less than 7 months left and we will be heading home.  So, Harold, it is what it is....