Joseph Smith Birthplace Monument~July 2008

Moxely Covered Bridge in Tunbridge, Vermont.

June 26, Picked up Heather & Cassie at Amtrack Station ~Westport, NY.

The grounds around the Monument are really looking great now that the flowers have grown. There are many bus loads of folks visiting this time of year. Many of the people like to stop and ask questions, we try to stay out of the way of them taking photos, and sometimes we offer to take their picture. They always ask where we are from and say they would love to go on a mission to take care of the grounds.

June 22, Heather & Cassie rode Amtrak from Montreal to visit us, after being in Philidelphia, New York and Canada. We picked fresh strawberries, went to yard sales, checked out a couple thrift stores and went to the Christmas Tree Store (in July?). Heather was here just overnight, but Cassie was able to stay 5 days. We had a good time and visited many of the area attractions and did lots of hiking. I was able to a take a few days off, so felt like a mini vacation. Even went shopping without Nephi. Cassie & I found a great sale!!

Also had a nice visit from Rick & Rhonda Schroeder, our past bishop in Evanston, now living in Pennsylvania.

Last weekend was 4th of July. I wanted to find the 6 covered bridges we heard where in Tunbridge. It is a small village about 20 minutes from were we live. After a bit of searching we found and photographed all 6 of them. We had a picnic dinner with the other 6 missionary couples that evening, it was a nice time.

This weekend we traveled about 20 miles to Chelsea to go to their annual flea market. It was fun, but had an even better time at the yard sales on the way there. An old rocker for a dollar (needs lot of TLC), an old highchair (what are we going to do with that?), and some old license plates. Other peoples junk.....our treasure!

Rainy days in Vermont

Today is Sunday and it has been raining most of the day. The humidity was at 97%. We had many visitors at church and it's exciting to visited each week with them. We have been called to teach in the primary. Ruby is working on a painting and trying to organize our little apartment to find a home for more stuff then we have room for. We have been going on long walks in the nearby woods. Our landlord took us to some very old stone chambers or root cellars and some have even call them calender sites. But they are very old and usually have old stone walls nearby and old stone foundations where homes once stood. I was told that National Geographic did an article on the the ones near our house. I took a walk around McIntosh Pond today while Ruby worked on her landscape painting. She is making bread and will be cooking it long past bedtime tonight.

Ruby got a new camera and so is happily taking pictures again after I lost her other one. She is designated to document the flowers and garden for the yearly history book of the Memorial Site gardens. We are enjoying the other missionary couples. We work with the Lamb's from AZ, and the Sanford's from Maine on the grounds. The Mckinnon's from Orem, the Vorwallor's from Urda (Toolle), and the Slade's from Star, Idaho work in the visitors center to welcome guest and give tours.

We are blessed to work at the Joseph Smith Memorial Site and can understand why it has designated as a sacred site. The Vermont countryside is so beautiful and green. I'll bet it was hard for many of the early saints to leave this area. Due to the hard times and the inability for many to make a living here, they left for New York. I am sure the Lord had a hand in each of their lives so that would be directed to move on to other areas so that they would be instrumental in the restoration of the gospel. We miss being home in Midway and hope all is well there. We also missed visiting with family and friends who attend the wedding of my sister's son Peter Bell to Jen Green who's family lives in Midway this week end. Wish we could have been there to enjoy the activities

This is the kitchen of our Tree House. Not much room for anything. Not much to cleanup either!

Sorry about the quality of the photos, this is why we bought a new camera. And why we are so sad we lost it yesterday.