Trip to Bennington, VT

We Drove to Bennington and visited the oldest Church in Vermont. Buried in the cemetery is Robert Frost, who in 1920, came to live in Shaftsbury, Vt., the next town north of Bennington on Historic Rte 7A. He said, “I mean to plant a new Garden of Eden with a thousand apple trees of some unforbidden variety.”
Frost lived with his family in Shaftsbury during the height of his career as a poet until 1938, when his wife Elinor suddenly died. We able to visit his home also.

We visited the The Bennington Battle Monument, dedicated to the famous Battle of Bennington that took place during the Revolutionary war in 1777. It is a 306' stone obelisk which opened to the public in 1891. It been said that this was a turning point of the war to defeat the British.

Family Visit

Several members of my family were able to visit at the same time. During the month of October. They scheduled there trip to see the New England fall colors. The locals here call them "leaf peepers". Anyway, from left to right my brother Ray and his wife Charlotte, Norman and his wife Bonnie just in front, Nephi and Ruby and my stepmom Teresa and her husband Jack Leavitt. We had a great time but had to travel south to see some color. This picture was taken at Hildene, the Lincoln Family Home. Robert Todd Lincoln, the only surviving son of President Lincoln built his home here after becoming a successful business man and Chairman of the largest manufacturing corporation in America, the Pullman Coach Company. We visited many other sites and had a great time showing them around the beautiful state of Vermont. We spent two days at the Shelburne Museum, and learned a lot of Vermont history. We also drove around the historic barn at Shelburne Farms.

This is the chapel in So. Royalton where we attend church. Tomorrow is the last Sunday we will meeting there for about 300 days, while it is being remodeled and added on to.

It is an unusal L.D.S. Chapel, more New England looking. We are hoping it will keep its distictive look after the remodel.

The beautiful fall colors were captured from the next ridge on McIntosh Pond Rd. where we live.


Tomorrow is Nephi's 60th birthday...Happy Birthday!!! Wow, how time has flown...I thought we were still 39.

Our 4 daughters sent him a GPS system for the car. He is so excited not to have me as navigatonor anymore...And so am I!!

The Vermont Country Store @ Weston, VT

Nephi's brother Greg and his wife Donna were in Vermont last week. We had a nice visit and had fun shopping at the Vermont County Store.

Fall foliage has arrived and almost gone in about 3 weeks, it has been so beautiful! This will be our only autumn in New England, so we have been taking a lot of pictures.

.

Three of the other missionaries and I entered some things in the Tunbridge Worlds Fair. I entered 2 photos and 4 paintngs. Tunbridge is about 15 min. away and is a very picturesque village, we love it.

I was pleasantly surprised when this painting received the Peoples Choice award & all 6 recieved blue ribbons. The Village Store in Tunbridge has allowed me to display some of my stuff on consignment in their store. It would be great if something would sell.

Seems like the month of September flew by. My birthday and anniversary came and went. Didn't do anything exciting, but go for a ride and take photos. We are trying to be conservative, out here on our mission. And with the economy in a noise dive, we pretty much a just spend money on our apartment, gas and food.

We walked up Patriarch Hill last week to pick wild blackberries. It is quite a hick up a steep hill which is near the foundations of Joseph Smith's grandparents home. After lots of scratched arms and tasty samples of berries, we gathered a nice size bucket full. Nephi decided he wanted to bake his very first pie, homemade crust and all. We had enough blackberries for two pies and some for the freezer. He shared one pie with the other missionaries. It turned out quite well even though wild berries are a bit seedy.

(P.S. Did I say I supervised?)

I have learned to take my camera with me everyday as we go to the Monument to work on the grounds. Early in the morning when the fog is thick and the sun is breaking through, you can get the most wonderful pictures!

Elder Jensen has been on a ladder most this week scraping and painting the visitors center. I, with the 2 other sisters, have been planting the fall mums. We are planting them early this year because we have had sooo much rain some of the plants are not looking their best. Traditionally, the mums are planted in mid to late Sept., all other annual flowers are pulled out and the perennials are cut down. Just mums and some kale, I personally did not like the looks of it, as did another one of the sisters. So we are trying an experiment this year, of course we had to get permission. Hope it works out well!!

Driving down our favorite dirt road (Dairy Hill Rd.) one day, & an older gentlemen was selling a bunch of neat stuff for a $1.00 each. So we got this old rocker. Nephi put it all back together after fixing it and I painted the back and stained & vanished and made a cushion. It is a granny rocker, but very comfy!

The road less traveled!!
Our favorite activity here is driving around on dirt roads looking at the beautiful scenery and taking photos of covered bridges, old churches and barns. We are getting quite a collection. Sometimes we even stop at a yard sale and pick up a treasure to bring home. Soon we will need a trailer to get it all back. Oh, well, it is fun. The roads in Vermont & New Hampshire are so different from out west. As you turn off the main roads, you go about half mile or less and the road turns to dirt. It can be quite a muddy mess after a good rain (which we have lots of). The other strange thing is they don't believe in road signs, so we get lost a lot~and no GPS to help us. A favorite saying in Vermont is, "You can't get there from here". I have been spending a lot of time painting after we finish serving at the memorial. I have done several pictures and Nephi has been making frames for them. We are able to use some of the equipment at the church's shop to cut wood, etc. We have lots more time away from the usual hurried life we have led in the past. Plus we don't have TV!

Traveled last week to Franklin, NH (1 & 1/2 hours journey) where we worked at the Chapel there. We packed up the church pickup and with another missionary couple, the Lambs, spent the day cleaning the building and weeding. On the way home, saw this beautiful covered bridge.