1-January-2023-Sunday-NewYear's Day
Started the New Year off with a very different day. The site was closed and so we made our normal trek to Rutland, but did not need to hurry back. Pretty normal at church, with me playing the organ, Dede doing music in Primary and my teaching the youth in SS. I thought the SS class went well. I had a larger class and while three boys sat in the corner talking among themselves, I had a great discussion with the remaining members of the class and feel good about the start of a new year.
After church, we rode out to a members home. She is solid as a rock but her husband had his records removed from the church. We left a treat and departed. She had reached out to Dede earlier, but it has been hard to do anything because Rutland is an hour away from the site. We then went over to the Shelton's home (he is Branch President) for dinner. Dede took everything with her to cook the meal (a pork tender-loin dish) with mashed potatoes and fruit and vegetables. The kids enjoyed it and we enjoyed learning to know the Sheltons. He is a radiologist that can do interventive procedures. He came out to Dartmouth for residency and took the job in Rutland Vermont, because he works two weeks each month, thus getting 26 weeks off each year. What a gig. She is a PA and is getting her certificate back and will begin working 3 days a week. She is a great woman and he a great man. Not sure he will ever be released as branch president. They have great children with the oldest on a mission. He laughingly said they wanted to return to the West, but realizes that his children have grown up in the East and would feel out of place in the West. He gave us a different flavor for moving to Vermont as an outsider. Hard to find a home as here are no sub divisions and little building along with an attitude from natives that one should live in an older home and spend $200k fixing it up, but still having an old home that is not well designed. The family will never be considered Vermonters until the second generation. The drug problems are very high as well as drinking. Taxes are sky high as they are very progressive and want to tax anyone with money, which is probably many of the "non-Vermonters" from their view point and thus okay to tax highly. It was a great day with them.
2-January-2023-Monday
An interesting day, with New Years on a Sunday, there were New Year's bowl games today. The FM missionaries were scheduled for a day off, although Elder Wilcox worked the entire day except time when he went to the dentist. The Bergers were taking a daughter to catch a flight so they were out. We started the day with our Monday meeting and were edified on the meaning of endless punishment and eternal punishment being God's punishment. I really enjoyed the discussion, but I think it was so new to others that it was confusing. Elder Buswell was not there as he was home sick, perhaps he would have added some light to those who were confuse. I have thought about this before, so I enjoyed the conversation and Dede did well also.
I stayed at the site and began taking down Christmas lights at the church building. Dede then came an got me to eat and change and we went back to the site. First on tap was giving Elder Buswell a blessing at his home. He truly looked poor, but I trust he will recover quickly according to his blessing. (He was feeling better by morning. God is good.) We then put away the Christmas trees in the VC and residence buildings. After that it was taking down the lights on the VC. It really helped this afternoon as Dede rolled the lights as I took them down and so we have all but one string down from the VC. This is hanging on the end gable, and it was too dark to see how to get it down. Always tomorrow. We have the early shift tomorrow and hope to get the lights down from the residence building.
At 4:45 we had 4 young people come into the site. They had seen the sign. We gave them a short tour, unfortunately they were supposed to be at an engagement so it was limited, but hopefully they might come back some time.
We ended the day by walking around the site's circle twice. I am beat, my arms ache from unused muscle action. I am such a wimp.
3-January-2023-Tuesday
Went in to the site early so we could take down Christmas lights again. We finished the church, the Gabel on the VC and everything on the residence building and stairway up to the monument. This is the majority of the lights that we put up. With the exception of a few strings Brother Wilcox grabbed, they are all rolled. However, I would not be surprised if they unroll them. I would be against this, but it gives the FM missionaries something to do all winter. Tomorrow the Bergers return and will also start taking down lights. Brother Wilcox did so today. However, Bob will also return and he might have other plans for them. Regardless, it will take time and I suppose I will get to take down lights for a week or perhaps more. It just takes time.
We had no visitors today, so I was glad to be putting down lights. We left before 2 pm as we had a Walmart order in Barre. We then went to downtown to see the granite statures there. I will show pictures below, since I have gone two days without pictures.
Recognizes first Boy Scout troop in the USA.
World's largest zipper
The lunch counter. Lunch pails.
Forgot the name
The compilation.
Made it to the Boston Temple to do an endowment and a sealing session. Until we got 30 minutes out from home had great weather and then it started to rain. Yes I know we are in Vermont, but it is raining in January and raining hard.
We made an appointment at the Boston Tea Party Museum and ship. It in a tour/play of the day the Bostonians pitched tea into the harbor rather than pay taxes to Britain, which would ultimately lead to the revolutionary war. It was fun as we first met "as a fiery mob in a church" and made the decision to dump the tea in the bay. We then went aboard a small boat, but it was a copy of one of the boats that had tea dumped from it and the helped us relive that experience. Then we went inside to learn about the battle at Lexington/Concord. It was really well done and I would recommend it.
The museum and trading vessel from the wharf.
The entrance.
My favorite coconspirator who help throw in the tea. Looking from the boat back to the museum.
One of the actresses on the boat. I really cannot imagine sailing across the Atlantic on this small vessel. Ten people on the crew total.
My wonderful wife took pictures of me pitching bales of tea into the bay. As we were an unruly mob, the fury of the mob obviously was helpful to me as we were informed that a bale of tea (which was compressed to a great degree of the size I am pitching into the harbor would weigh 100 pounds. In my excitement, I make it look so easy. I then got to use the attached rope to pull it back in for the next person to try. You can think of me as a beast!. 😂
Since I am adding pictures, I want to add some of the granite rocks along the highways. The rocks are full of cracks and the ground is full of water and thus the water pushes though the cracks and forms delightful ice falls along the road. Despite the warm weather we are having, there is still a great amount of ice especially in the shadier regions.
I do not know if you can appreciate this barn. Itis very nice, and not atypical of the area. It is several stories high and built on a hillside so that one can drive into the various levels of the barn and thus utilize it well without lifting hay or items to be stored in the upper levels. Thus this barn has four entrance levels. Many have three. We have a barn foundation on our site property that probably had three levels. That would make it post Joseph Smith time, but still fascinating. Also, typically either the barn is neglected to the point of ready to fall down or it is kept up better than the house nearby. Very interesting.
5-January-2023-Thursday
Lazy day. We slept in until 8 am. I was tired from driving yesterday and taking down lights. I still feel like I could sleep all day. I actually made it through the week's reading assignment. It was only two chapters, but I took a great deal of time commenting on every verse. Makes a difference to read more carefully. Dede then began cooking and I even helped a little by grating cheese and peeling carrots. We then wiped down the car. It was totally soaked from the rains of the past 24 hours and we were able to get off the majority of the dirt. I next drove to the Sharon trading post and used their free vacuum to clean out the inside. With all the dirt and mud, it gets filthy inside and outside. We had a great meal for lunch and are now getting ready to head for the site.
We did not have anyone come into the site again today. Yesterday afternoon apparently they had two groups. We first walked and then I began taking Christmas lights down from trees. They had gotten the lane done and many tree trunks and bushes and now the hard part remains, the trees, many of which were decorated using a lift. I would guess they will eventually bring the lift back to work on it, but that we will try to get all the lower lights off as we can using poles and pulling them.
Wilcox's are coming over for dinner. Dede wants Brother Wilcox to look at our dryer and see if he can fix it or at least convince us it is not going to die immediately. Actually he determined it is a pulley that keeps the drive belt tight. He will contact the mission and see what they want to do. The mission being the Manchester Mission who keeps missionary supplies and takes care of all the rentals for the area. We should know shortly and in the mean time listen to a very noisy dryer.
6-January-2023-Friday
Another day at the site without a visitor. (It snowed most of the shift and was stunningly beautiful.) Well not totally without a visitor, we had a driver's trainer car pull in the parking lot and change drivers, so we had "boots on the ground" but we did not count them. 😅. We picked up the lights I had taken off two small trees last night and after walking for a bit around the site to get in our steps I removed about half of the lights on a larger tree. It just takes time to remove the lights from the trees, and I am grateful for the warmish weather. Hopefully tomorrow I can finish the tree I started today and get another. Actually hopefully we have visitors and I have little time to remove lights.
After our shift, we came home and took down some of our lights at the house and put up some others so that we can claim they are January lights and not Christmas lights. We then met the Buswells at the Tunbridge General Store to enjoy prime rib dinner. It was great. And the company was fun. Such fun to think of eating in a general store.
Sara called and they are talking about coming out in April. It was fun talking with Sara and her kids. We are planning to make another covered bridge tour tomorrow morning before our afternoon shift.
7-January-2023-Saturday.
With the afternoon shift, we went to the area of Grafton, VT and visited five more covered bridges during the morning. Credit our new book which puts them together in tours so it is easy to get all that are in one area. The bridges were great. The village of Grafton reminded me a small Woodstock. A very nice village with very well kept homes. They were having some kind of gathering today, so we were glad to get out before it became too crowded. Obviously you are expecting pictures. I shall not disappoint.
The Bartonville bridge.
Above is the interior of the bridge. Loved the sunlight. The bridge is supported by the hatched crossing (lattice). This supports both the floor and the covered bridge. Each joint is held in place by several wooden pegs. The Christmas balls in the windows were fun. There were also wreaths at the entrance. The bridge opens onto a railway.
This smaller bridge was nearby. It had a different design. The cross trusses but also posts.
This next bridge no longer spans water, but is an advertisement along with a mill for the Vermont Country store. In the book it was called the Victorian bridge, but as you can see it is called the Vermont Kissing Bridge and we did not let a great opportunity go to waste.
This is the narrowest bridge in VT. It was rebuilt at the same dimensions as the original. The inside is unique. It reminded me of a train bridge in NH, but was not built as strong.
This little bridge on Kidder road was interesting in design. Hard to see from the picture, but they basically put large laminated boards down each side (4-inches thick and about 20 inches tall. They are not bowed and lose the strength of an arch, but for a small span do well. This bridge is somewhat narrow and the wood on the sides had been dinged up numerous times.
This final bridge is near the Grafton Cheese Factory. The book had the wrong name and so we could not find it on the GPS, and there was a cheese factory store which the GPS sent us to but we finally succeeded. Not the fanciest bridge, but the two pictures out the windows look like paintings on a wall, so I wanted to share them with you.
As we were driving home, Danielle told us they were taking Hailey and Lyndee to the temple to do baptisms. As Lyndee turned 11 last year, this was her first opportunity to go to the temple. With all the business in the Larsen home, I am so proud of them for getting her to the temple. When she walked in and smelled the chlorine, she told her mom, this is a good place.
We had the late shift. Buswells had 5 people (2 groups) come in and they were leaving as we came in. We did not get anyone to visit with. However we got down more Christmas lights from the trees. This is rather time consuming as they are wound on the branches. Dede also moved names from the kids and grandkids temple area to our shared area so that us adults can try and keep up with the baptisms the grandkids are doing. Another great day in the books.
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