Village Inn #9

We moved from the Condos to Village Inn #9 last March.  I did some painting and Pat did a lot of upgrading before/during the time we moved in.  The Mensels had lived here and we moved over when they left due to the pandemic.  This home has an upstairs where we could put Tom when he came to stay.  Let's be totally honest, it has all that space upstairs for our family to camp out when they come to visit.  We both loved having that extra space.  Bonus!  There is another bathroom up there.

               

Our bathroom is quite small and the door opened into the room which was a real pain since you had to get in past the door in order to close it to use the toilet.  So, my smart companion took the door off and made it swing out into the hallway instead.  Another honest moment, we rarely closed the door.

Behind the door in our bedroom was this wonderful light bar and mirror.  I picked out the table to put my cosmetics and hair "things" on.  Then I had shelves for linens and other stuff that didn't have a specific place.  I LOVE this space!

                      

The rest of our bedroom is nothing too special.

Our desk is in the bedroom as well but the little alcove made a place for it that wasn't useful for anything else.  It is the perfect set up.

The living room was bright and cheerful!  Although the windows faced the north, the scenery was that of the state park so it was actually very nice.  I painted the west wall Quicksilver which we both really liked.  When we had very cold weather, we brought in a portable heater as the ceramic floor in that space radiated the cold.

I really liked the kitchen as it had actually drawers unlike the Condo.  The fridge in the corner was tough if we were both trying to navigate that space at the same time.  Mostly, I loved this space.

I also loved the view out of the south facing window.  I put up a bird feeder and even put seed on the window sill.  Birds loved to come sit there and eat off of that space.

We had a much larger table and we could even put an extra leaf in to expand it.  

I also picked out that book shelf and filled it with family pictures.  I liked that a lot.

When entering the back door from the garage, there was this pantry/laundry/mud/music room.    It was messy as we were in the midst of packing when I took this photo.

It is a great room to remove shoes and coats.

I absolutely LOVED living in this space.  It was the perfect size for us except when family visited.  Then it was quite small.  Still, I'm very thankful that Trischa allowed us to make the move.  

Without the garage I don't know where my husband would have gone with all his treasures.

Socializing Again

We really wanted to have one final dinner and game night with those we are closest to before we leave.  I told the Carlsons, Binghams and Ballards that we were having a "Help the Plesheks pack their things" party at the Carlson home.

I felt really bad putting President Ballard in that position knowing that we didn't have official permission to do it.  He texted a few days later and said that they would not be attending but that we should enjoy ourselves.

He always "pushed" the idea of letting the seniors get together with President Rizley.  He finally said that if the YSMs were able to do it then why not the seniors?  Most of us have either had Covid or been vaccinated.  He agreed and the Ballard let us know they were in.  We had a great time together dining, visiting and gaming.  How I will miss these three couples!
 

The Carter House

Sister Chestnut was given the Carter house as her own project for painting.  She started with the Main apartment and soon Sister Cochran and Koop and I helped.  Everything was painted the same color and she decided that the woodwork should be a pale yellow.

I think it looks fantastic!

Once the lower was finished, Jared asked us to start the upper one.  This time Sister Cochran and I started the project and Sisters Chestnut and Koop finished it.  Both places look really great.  Once the new flooring is installed upstairs it will be ready for new occupants.

 

Back Yard Visitors

I love to feed and watch the birds.  When we moved into Village Inn there was a feeder in the backyard and there was still some seed in the garage.  Fred Mensel made sure I knew I needed to feed the birds.

I bought a second feeder as the old one really was broken and needed to be replaced.  This winter I noticed that every morning the feeder was completely empty.  I thought I had some birds that were absolute pigs.  Then I descovered one day that it wasn't the birds eating every last seed.

It was the deer!  I began bringing in my feeder every evening.

I didn't mind the squirrels eating what was dropped.  It took many weeks before they even found the dropped seed.

One day on the way home from Carthage my husband noticed some seed corn on the ground in several piles.  He stopped and scooped it up and brought it home.  Then he put our firepit in the backyard to feed the deer.  The squirrels and raccoons found it so he hung it from the tree.  That didn't make a difference.  They could still get in it.

But the deer found it.  Only on two occasions have we had bucks come to feed.

On this day there were three bucks.  I thought perhaps they would get their antlers stuck in the ropes.  They didn't.

Each day there are several young does that come to eat.

Now the larger does come as well.

I decided to put some birdseed on the ledge outside the window.  The birds love it.  Every day the seed is gone by evening.

Most nights I have 8 moms and younger does that come and eat.  It is interesting to watch the hierarchy of these deer.  I have one large and one smaller female that are bullies.  It proves that in some ways the animal world isn't very much different than the human world.

Tours

Back in October we began giving tours of a few of the sites.  

There was a great need since there were so few missionaries who knew the sites.  We had a bunch of YSMs leaving to go home and/or outbound and the new ones weren't here yet or were just learning.  

So we decided that we would learn some places and give some tours.

We began with the Riser Boot and then went to the Browning Home and Gun shop.

Then we learned the temple city which is three homes and Carthage.  Finally we learned the Tinsmith but that wasn't our favorite.

When we began doing temple city, we did the entire thing by ourselves.  Now it is done with three companionships with one in each home.  We gather and share the screen as hosts.

Two weeks ago we were able to join the Hokansons and Binghams in doing temple city.  We chose to give the Edward and Ann Hunter part of the tour.  After the first one, Sister Bingham contacted all the other seniors to tell them to get on our next tour so they could get a demonstration on how the Plesheks do a tour.  Apparently we were quite good.

It was fun doing the tour with them.  At the end, one couple closes the tour with their testimony or whatever they want to say.  Since we knew people in some of the tours, we were able to do that.  I did miss not being able to give the entire tour.  There are so many things that I love in each of those spaces and I missed that.  

This was a wonderful part of our mission!  I'm so thankful that my husband volunteered us host tours.  I feel like we've had the best of both worlds in being able to work in the sites and then go back and give tours.  I will miss this part of being a missionary.
 

Carthage Visitors’ Center Refresh

 A new project!  A new coat of paint for the Carthage Visitors' Center.  I took all the artwork down and Tom removed all of the switch plates.  

My sweetheart took all of the track lighting down and I climbed on the scaffolding to remove as much of the caulk on the ceiling as I could.

Sister Koop and I and then Sister Cochran worked on the back doors.  We pulled a lot of cauling out and then had sanding to do.  I think Sister Koop worked on that door for a week!

There were ceiling tiles in the entry room except for the center where the chandelier is.  Pat worked on pulling all the tiles down and removing the glue behind them.  New sheetrock will be installed over the old to give it a fresh new look.

I worked on all of the corners removing the old caulking as it was cracked.  This project is not merely a missionary apartment but must be done "museum quality" according to Jared.

Elder Koop came out one day and helped remove ceiling tiles.  I think we havc worked there for most of three weeks and the only painting we have done is on the ceiling of the large room.

Last week Jared and I started caulking all the places that need it.  I was hoping at the beginning of this project that it would be completed before I go home.  Not a chance!  I'm going to have to send my photos to one of the others so they know where to put the artwork.  I look forward to being able to come back and tour it once it is finished and open.

Exodus Reenactment

The first Saturday in February is always the Exodus re-enactment ending at the Mississippi River at the end of Parley Street.  With the pandemic, that was impossible.  We couldn't have hundreds of people gathering here when we are not even open.

So the next best thing was to do it on a smaller version with just the senior missionaries.

There was someone there from the area public relations who was making a recording of us walking toward the river.

It was pretty cold outside so we had Tom ride in the back of the Bowman's wagon.

I recall doing this last year but this year I really felt a bit how those early saints must have felt leaving their homes and traveling to an unknown place in the cold.

I love this photo of the Rizleys

The Ballards let us while we walked beside our wagon.

The teams are so huge!  I've always been a bit leary of horses but these guys are so large that they are a bit scary to me.

I wrapped myself in a shawl to cover my jacket and look more realistic.  It also hid my ear muffs.

Not all the seniors participated and none of the young sisters.

I suppose in 1946, the early saints were just as cold as we were on this day.  Probably colder.

At one point I found a blanket in the wagon and put it around Tom.  That made him a little warmer and hid his modern clothing.

The hymn, Come, Come, Ye Saints played in my head as I thought about this event.

I'm sure most of them walked rather than rode on a wagon.  They had to be so cold.  We were cold and we had warm jackets.  We didn't have to think about pitching a tent or finding a place to camp that night.

Of course most of them traveled by ox team rather than horses.

I don't know if I could have done it.  Leave my home and take only what I could pack.  I admire them so much and I'm very grateful I didn't have to do what they did.