Alvin Smith District

Last week we met with President Julander.  He asked us to be district leaders.  Today we met for the first time with our newly organized district.  We met in the Cultural Hall aka the Masonic Hall.  

Once our sacrament service was complete, we talked about district assignments.  

On a side note, when I walked into the site the first thing I noticed was all the faux grain painted on all the wood surfaces.  I've seen it again and again over the years but until this spring when I spent so much time applying faux grain to window frames and doors and door frames, it never occurred to me that it wasn't original wood grain.

We have an amazing group of missionaries in our district.  Elder and Sister Lancaster are our zone leaders, Elder and Sister Flanders and Elder and Sister Ballard.  Elder Ballard was just called to be a counselor to President Rizley.  What a great group of people we get to meet with!

HCK Porch

As Jared has been giving me work orders, I've been finishing them and then looking for other things to do.  I had my husband put in a work order for the Heber C. Kimball porch.  It was finished late last fall or maybe even earlier this spring.  It needs paint.  I thought this would be a task that wouldn't take too long.  Was I wrong!

Elder Flanders and I began working on prepping it for paint on Wednesday.  I began with filling the nail holes and then going back to sand them.  Then it was evident that caulking was in order. We spent three long days out in the sun and heat working to get things ready to paint.  The painting will be easy once everything is filled and sanded.  He says he will have about 15 more minutes of prep work up top and it will be ready for paint. 
I've been working on the lower porch.  The inside is close, but I haven't begun the outer caulking which will need to be done on a ladder.  We also have the small porch to the east to do but I have been working on that as well. 
I really want that porch finished!

Greasy Spoon

On Friday evening the FM missionaries were supposed to supply the end of the month meal in Fort Madison.  We prepared what we were assigned to do on Thursday.  On Friday, the Bailies loaded up their back seat and we loaded ours and delivered the food to the church in Fort Madison.  Knowing the Bailies, we followed them to the Fort Diner.

This place is the original greasy spoon.  There is room for about a dozen people to eat in at this place.  Elder Bailie says they have a great cheeseburger so we decided to try.

The food was pretty much like any other diner.  The burger was good but I made a better one earlier in the week.  When you talk about a dive, this place is the kind of place you picture.  We don't believe we will go back there again.  The best part was being with the Bailies.  How we love those two people!

Porter

When we showed up to feed the young oxen on Saturday morning, I saw this young blue jay standing on the top railing of the fence.  It allowed me to get very close.

Once we brought Porter and Brigham to the shed to be sprayed for flies, Porter spied that little bird.  He stuck his snout right up next to it and sniffed.  Then he lowered his head as if to "buck" that little bird.  He did that a few times.

Finally, he pushed on that little bird until he pushed it off the railing.  I checked on it later and tried to catch it and put it back on the railing.  It flew up there all on his own so I decided it would be fine.

Social Distancing?

We received an email about having ice cream at 11am on Friday in the B building.  I thought this was for the FM employees and missionaries. We had an 8am meeting via Zoom with our site president that same day.  President Rizley spoke about social distancing and wearing masks.  We've been told that when we do open our doors for in person tours, they will be conducted by the young sisters.  The senior couples will keep their distance as they are more susceptible to Covid than those who are younger.  

So we have this meeting at 8 and are reminded to keep our distance and wear masks when we can't.  Then I show up at this ice cream "social" and find all the young sisters coming and going as well as the FM employees, interns, summer help and FM missionaries.  At one point there had to be 100 people in that building.  Those serving ice cream wore masks and a half dozen others including Presidents Wadley and Julander.  I was grateful President Rizley never showed up.   

This photo what the place looked like when the social began.  It got much more crowded.  Social distancing at it's finest!  :-)

Freeze Pops

Each day Tuesday through Friday, my sweet companion goes around to all those working outside and offers them a freeze pop aka otter pop.  I got the following video sent to me by Sister Bailie.

Midwestern Storms

Yesterday about 4:15pm a storm blew in and caused a lot of damage.  We were in the Visitor's Center when it hit.  I could hear the wind blowing fiercely so I went to look out the window.  I couldn't see anything but a blur of water on the west window.  I looked to the north and noticed that the rain was blowing horizontally.

When the wind blows that hard, it causes trees to be uprooted.  These trees at the creek all pulled up in a row.

Branches were down everywhere.  Limbs down too.

Part of our backyard that I cleaned up.  

Not all the damage will be cleaned up by our missionaries and grounds people.  The city gets this one.

Some around the VC had lots of limbs down.  Amazingly, not one structure had limbs, branches or downed trees on top.  I'm always amazed by that.

The ox wagon that is pulled by the youngest oxen, was flipped on it's side.  It was a fast moving storm.  It came out of nowhere and was gone just as fast.  For me, another Midwestern storm.  For those from Utah, it is a wild ride and unbelievable! 

Temple Tour Homes

When we arrived here in Nauvoo last June, there were some home under construction.  The Hyde home was up on some beams while the foundation was being fixed.  The Gheen home was having 36" added to it's height, the Weeks home was being reduced to half it's size and the Hunter home was nothing more than a foundation.  Over the fall/winter/spring, I have had the opportunity to work in restoring these homes.  

This is the Edward Hunter home.  He was a bishop of the 5th ward here in Nauvoo.  He has a beautiful home with FOUR fireplaces.

The add-on is the bishop's storehouse.  This is quite a large two story home.  The most beautiful window in the entire place is in the attic facing east toward the temple.  No one will ever get to look out of that window.  Why didn't the Hunters have east windows?

Jared and I grained both of the first floor fireplaces.  He did the baseboards in the shop before they were installed.  He did the graining and I helped with the clean up and making it look less messy.  

Isn't is amazing what can be done with some pieces of rubber and Q-tips?  How about that wallpaper?  I am not a fan.  The carpets (wall to wall area rugs) have not shown up yet.  I'm told once they're here, the wallpaper will look good.  That's a little frightening.

This is the Edward Gheen home.  It's a small home where the tours will begin.  I painted the upstairs with Sisters Howard and Odum and did the stairwells mostly by myself.  The basement was also mine to make look good.

This is the Orson Hyde home.  It is not part of the temple tour but rather part of the apostle tour.  Last fall, I helped put the prime coat on the exterior.  Over the winter, I worked on painting interior walls and helping to get upstairs door frames ready for restoration.  This spring, I was back helping Jared paint on a Saturday.  I volunteered my sweetheart to help too. 

Here is the William Weeks home before we got here.  It was almost twice the size as it was originally.

This is what it looks like today.  I spent a lot of time in this place.  I helped Jared grain the doors, windows and door frames as well as the east fireplace.  I painted the entire basement and stairwell.  Then went back and repainted and fixed all the things that needed to be done before they could be deemed "finished."  I LOVE this little home.  I think because I spent so much time there.

I spent a lot of time with Jared graining this fireplace mantle.  I loved how the legs turned out but I wasn't crazy about the "swirl" in the face of the mantle.  Jared didn't like it either.  He called me one morning and asked me to come help him.  He had removed the grain and repainted it.

Here is the final finished product.  So much better!  Mary Howard spent hours and days and even weeks stripping this mantle and in the end, we found out it was faux grained underneath it all.

The west mantle was faux marbled.  There were a lot of flaws in it but Jared was able to take the paint off with a mixture of paint remover and using dental tools, he got the unwanted paint off.  He then created his own marble look. 
I'm so grateful that I was able to work on these homes.  I feel like I am doing the things that those early pioneer saints did.  I work every day to make this place beautiful.  This mission and these projects have filled me with a satisfaction I can't even explain.  I love it!

Fat Jimmy’s 2.0

The Gourleys showed up on Elder Bailie's birthday and he had invited us to go out to Fat Jimmy's.  We were there only a week earlier with the Fillmores. 

Adam had an enormous taco.  The dog was very interested in it too.

Cami had a pulled pork sandwich with a side of cole slaw and yams.

I had the nachos which were amazing!

Elder had the Southern.  It is a slab or cornbread with pulled pork on top with baked beans and cole slaw on top of that.  He said he was uncomfortable after eating it.

Brock had the hot dog.  

We enjoyed our meal very much and the outdoor dining was perfect.  The children informed us that this was a must do every time they come to Nauvoo.  I agree!

A Gourley Family Visit

Last Thursday our Gourley family showed up for a visit.  Little Butch was running a fever and very miserable.  Could it be a Gourley family vacation without someone being sick?

We had a lot of fun together.  I was pleasantly surprised at how friendly Eli was.  He is such a mama's boy and hasn't been with us since the end of the year.  

We took the kids to Hamilton to check out a special kind of park.  Adam found the train!

Eli enjoyed the plane for a little while but he liked the tractor better.

The airplane was pretty cool.

The best was watching these boys pretend together.

We went to the barn to find the cats.  We only found Tippy.  Tux and Shirts were nowhere to be found.

He was enjoying Butch's attention.

We also went down to the river in back of the Carlson's and hunted geodes.  There are everywhere on that beach.  

Also a lot of flat rocks for skipping.

Brock throws them like a frisbee and it works!

When did our granddaughter get as tall as her Nana?  She's beautiful inside and out!

Edward Hunter Well

Last week I finished painting the last few things in the basement of the Edward Hunter home.  When I came outside, there were my husband and Elder Carlson building up the well.  They had collected all these flat stones to do just that.  

Elder Carlson was putting the concrete on the stones and then looking for the perfect piece to fit in the space.  I spent the last part of my day finding those pieces.  It was like a puzzle and I enjoyed it very much.

Mixing the concrete with your hands takes a toll on your arm muscles.  After doing so, I had a companion with some achy arms.  They asked me to come back the second day but I was busy working on the Gheen home.  These two guys work so well together and they're such great friends!

The Ox Wagon

The work order to paint the ox wagon has been in the queue for months.  Sister Odum and I went to work scraping the lichen off of the boards.  The barrel has seen and better day and is being replaced.

The wagon itself is still very sturdy and will last many more years.  It just needs a facelift.

The bows will be replaced that hold the canvas cover in place.  The wagon seat cushions will also be replaced. 

The back steps show how many feet have traveled up and down into the wagon over the years.  I can't wait to get this project done!  I look forward to seeing the after photos!