Week 27 Hegsted Mission

 22-January-2023-Sunday

With the few people visiting the site in January and the hour changes from 1 to 5, we only have two couples work on Sunday, so Dede and I had the day off.  After attending church in Rutland and with our extra time, we decided to visit the South West portion of the state.  (We took our lunch and had a full tank of gas and off we went.). This area is not easy to reach from Sharon, but fairly easily reached from Rutland, by driving due south on highway 7.  We visited 5 covered bridges.  I know you are shocked.  All are very similar looking as the County of Bennington where they are located keep them painted read.  Also each has a lattice truss configuration so that makes them also look similar.  I will show pictures of the five, but want to talk about one in particular.

The third bridge we visited was the Henry Bridge.  The bridge has a nice park that allows one to take great pictures down stream from the bridge.  This is always a plus.  However, the best fact is what happened right next to this bridge.  The Bennington area is on the border of New York State.  The King of England made the colonies and put in governors.  Like all politicians, the major goal for each governor was to enrich himself and his cronies based on the land that was given to him to distribute.  For whatever reason, New Hampshire remained a small colony, but originally included both Vermont and New Hampshire, which was divided by the Connecticut River.  New York on the other side was very aggressive with its growth.  Take a look at the state of NY.  It is huge and when one considers where NY City is located and where the rest of the state is and that it goes up to the Canadian Border, it becomes obvious.  Both New Hampshire and NY claimed the area of Vermont.  New Hampshire had given out land grants and people had settled and cleared land, when NY came in a claimed the land and its NY courts declared all New Hampshire deeds null and void.  A sheriff showed up by the Henry Bridge to expel a popular local.  As he was ready to take an ax to the front door, he realized that not only were the men inside armed, but that he was surrounded by many armed Vermonters who were ready to shoot him.  He decided it was prudent to withdraw.  The Vermonters present were the start of the Green Mountain Boys.  The various Towns of Vermont got together and declared themselves an independent country in 1777.  Remember the Revolutionary War began in 1774 in Massachusetts.  Thus Vermont is engaged in the War for Independence for the colonies as well as a war for their own independence.  (They would fight the war not actually knowing if they would end up as part of what we now all the USA).  In fact the Green Mountain Boys were organized sufficiently early to take Fort Ticondoraga (actually in NY, but disputed with Vermont) and remove the cannons and deliver them to Washington on the East coast.  Interesting they did not allow these cannons to stay in NY on their border to be used against them.  At one point, the Republic of Vermont, was working with England and considered aligning with them, but when they realized the War for Independence would succeed, they noted this would be a losing proposition.  I.e. they would be surrounded on three sides by the USA with only a small border with Canada or English territory.  

Within 10 miles of the bridge is this war monument.  This commemorates, the war of Bennington, which actually took place in the state of NY.  The revolutionists had arms and supplies stored in Bennington and a British army of Hessians were assigned to take these supplies which were badly needed by the British.  The Hessians (German mercenaries) were 10 miles away in NY.  The revolutionary army comprised of VT, NH, and Mass regiments surprised the British army and defeated them and the reinforcements sent to back them up.  Without these supplies and arms, the British in the north, would shortly thereafter surrender to the colonists in Saratoga.  This was a major victory.  I think the monument was placed in Bennington for two reasons 1) they were defending the arms and supplies at Bennington where the monument is located.  2) It is not in New York.  Did I mention that VT may not have liked NY and that sentiment might still exist?

Long story short, (spoiler alert), the colonists won the war and became independent of England.  However the newly created state of New York claimed Vermont and Vermont refused to be claimed by the tyrants (my word) of New York, so they were not part of the USA and the original 13 colonies.  It was not until 1791, that New York finally settled with Vermont for $300k and defined the boundary between NY and Vermont.  Vermont was then allowed to come into the USA as the 14th state.  

I know you all love history and you can thank me for this summary of Vermont History.  I must admit that I take adverse pleasure when people from New York State come into the site in telling them that I welcome them to the former Republic of Vermont who declared independence from their state of NY.  Many upstate New Yorkers are very sympathetic to the Vermonters as they feel the same feeling of being dominated by NYC and Albany.  (My biased political opinion).   

We basically made a circle around the bottom half of Vermont.  Going west from home to Rutland, South to Bennington, East to Brattleboro, and then back North to I89 and then West to Sharon.  About 270 miles I total.  Kind of fun.  I need to add this.  Apparently we were within 15 miles of Podunk, VT, but did not realize it.  We must go back and get our a picture of Podunk.  I feel very grateful Joseph Smith was not born in Podunk.  At least for me growing up, Podunk was not a kind word.

23-January-2023-Monday

Woke up to 6 -7 inches of new snow.  I sat my alarm so I could get out and shovel early so Elder Berger would not be left with the task.  After completing the job, we got a call that our early morning meeting was cancelled so the FM group could have time to clear the parking lots before having us come up.  I got myself ready and went in shortly before 9 and shoveled snow from sidewalks and racked snow from the roofs for a couple of hours before coming home to shower and eat.  Again we were blessed with no wind so it was beautiful and it continued to snow until about 2 pm.  As the snow stopped, the wind picked up.  So sad to see the snow falling from the trees.  While I enjoyed shoveling and raking, Dede did some sewing for herself.  That is a bigger deal than it sounds.  It is rather rare that Dede sews for herself.

We did not have anyone come in.  But then who would want to travel on a day like today?  We had a devotional at 1 pm and then left the Ewers to pack as they fly out tomorrow for SLC.  We will work both shifts tomorrow and Buswells will do the same on Wednesday to allow us to have our PDays.  Should work out okay.  We will do this for the next 4 Tuesdays.  

After our shift, Sister Buswell invited us to her home to eat soup.  Dede had fixed her temple dress and she kindly fed us.  From my perspective of having done absolutely nothing, it seemed like a great return on Dede's investment.

I do feel like we are finally experiencing some of the Vermont winter we had been promised.  I know it is dumb to say, but I was actually feeling a little cheated, but with a foot of snow on the ground, my hurt is beginning to heal.  I did manage to fall again today.  I jumped out of the car at the church parking lot on my way to shovel Jody's walk and went down again.  However, it was not enough to be recorded as a fall on my watch, thus even though I distinctly remember falling, I am convinced that like steps not recorded on my devices really never happened; the same must be true of falls that are not recorded by my device.  If I die from such a fall, Dede will need to decide on the validity of the fall.

24-January-2023-Tuesday

The Ewers left for SLC this morning for their annual training and an opportunity to visit doctors and be with their family.  Works out well for them.  I hope all goes well.  They will return on 14-Feb.  It seemed strange to look at their home and realize it is empty.  It is not like we see them everyday, but we know they are there.

With the Ewers gone and the Buswells on PDAY, Dede and I worked from 10 to 5.  We actually had five people stop at the site.  I went out and talked to them and invited them inside, but they just wanted to walk up to the monument and get a picture or two and disappear.  This is always disappointing.

We had time to take 4 walks around the drive going 4 time around each time.  Four circuits equals about 1 mile, so we got in our walking goal.  I raked some snow off roofs that had slid down. and shoveled, but there was not much to do in this regard.  We are supposed to get another 6 inches Wednesday night and I will go in Thursday morning and help with snow removal.

We went into West Lebanon after our shifts to shop and buy gas.  It is $0.30 cents cheaper at BJ's (like a smaller Costco) than in VT, so it is worth the drive especially if you also need to shop for groceries.  We did not need to shop much last week, which since we were playing tourists was a good thing, so we got most of our shopping down tonight.  Tomorrow we plan on attending the Boston Temple.  With a storm coming into tomorrow night, we want to be home at or before 6 pm so that we are not driving in heavy snow.  Thus we will not shop or sight-see this week, but focus on the temple endowment and sealing.

Had a great discussion about consecration with Dede.  She always teaches me so much.  It is easy to see why we tend to focus on tithing and say little about consecration, regardless of the fact that we covenant in the temple to live the law of consecration.  Regardless, tithing is so easy to measure.  I either pay my 10% or I do not.  However consecration is more like ministering vs HT/VT.  With the later I know whether I made a visit or not, but with the newer and holier way, it is not a check list item, but an item that I need to prayerfully do and will probably always wonder if I am doing enough.  I think I feel the same about consecration.  Naively, I thought that since I was on a full time mission, I was automatically consecrating my time, talents etc. to the Lord.  But I find in being here that it is not all the different from the many weeks that I was in the temple on a daily basis.  There were many times then that I felt I was as consecrated when attending the temple as I am today serving a mission  And there are days on my mission when I think, I probably could have been more consecrate today.  It is an interesting struggle.  Thus it must come from God.  Everything God gives us to to seems to be hard to do without following the Spirit closely.  There are no check lists.  No absolute do's or don't's.  It is an attitude of trying to do everything in the way He would have me do it and that takes effort and a great deal of focus.  Such fun.

Since I write daily, it dawned on me, I should be following President Eyring's advice to think of how the Lord blessed me today.  Today is so easy.  The conversation I had with Dede today about consecration was a great blessing in my life.  As she explained her thoughts, the spirit touched my heart.  It was truly a tender mercy.

25-January-2023-Wednesday PDAY

As planned, we left at 7 am for Boston.  We had had snow when we went to Lebanon to shop, but the roads were good all the way down and we did not pick up snow until we got to the Vermont border.  I was surprised to find out that they cancelled the evening sessions at the temple with the prospect of get 3 inches of snow in Boston.  Perhaps because so many people (especially workers) drive long distances to the temple.  It will be interesting to see how much snow we get.  I track two weather apps on my phone.  One has been more accurate in the past two storms predicted up to 10 inches while the other then 4 inches.  When I just checked, they have flopped.  I rather suspect that we will be closer to 4 new inches of snow rather than 6-10 inches.  We will see in the morning.  [We got 4 inches of snow, but it rained and then froze, so it was miserable to remove.]

I was thrilled to see a very large endowment session.  We knew so many people.  McDowells (CES director) Shawna an institute teacher, 3 from Royalton, the sealer and wife, the president and his wife and 3 others that we often see on Wednesday.  It is hard to believe all the people we have come to know by regularly attending on Wednesday.  The sealing session was smaller, but we got our work done quickly and moved on.

Sam (Sara's husband) had sent us the name of a restaurant known for good soup dumplings.  It is in Cambridge next to Harvard.  We went there and the dumplings were great.  I wold like a thinner dough, but these held together well and the insides were superb.  I am a fan and will go again.  We also hit Costco.

This morning in prayer, I was thinking about Dede and my discussion about consecration and the question can I be consecrated if I feel sad for what I gave up?  As I was praying the spirit whispered "you are an idiot" (he tends to be blunt with me because I am not very bright).  "You cannot in any shape or way consecrate in your natural man fashion.  You can work toward consecration, but until I change your heart, it will not be a complete consecration.  In the meantime keep working toward your goal of consecration as I change your heart."  What a simple answer.  I am not to give up my effort, but I need to patient with my minute effort and realize God will turn it into real consecration in the future.

While shopping in Costco a lady stopped me and said "I am a member of your church."  (Badges make us so obvious.). Turns out her father was a counselor to President Ewer when he was a proselyting mission president and he and his wife had just been up to visit the Ewers when they came from California to Boston to see this daughter at Christmas time.  What a wonderful small world the church is.

What a blessing it is to receive answers to questions even while we are still on our knees.

26-January-2023-Thursday

As expected, there was not a great deal of snow this morning, about 2-inches, but oh what snow!  It had rained and then froze.  Thus there was a hard crust on top of the snow and the snow was so heavy that I could not push it.  Thus to clear the drive required scooping up a shovel load and walking to edge.  Thus a few minute task turned into an hour long task.  I then went up to the site and cleaned the walks in front of the buildings which are our responsibility and not the contractor's.  Luckily the snow blower could get under the crust and remove the snow, so I did not end up shoveling the entire way.  By my shoveling, it allowed Elder Berger to get to run the plow and the tractor with the snow blower attached.  That is always such fun.

I went home to shower and eat.  But more importantly, I took a nap.  After driving all day yesterday and then getting up early and shoveling for several hours, I was tired.  I have awarded myself, the wimp award for the day and feel like I earned it.

The morning was very nice, but since about 3 pm (we had the second shift) it began snowing and wind is really blowing.  Luckily the snow is small because if we were getting normal-sized flakes, we would be buried.  Also the temperature has remained warm.  I started raking snow off the roof of the porch areas on both the VC and president's home.  When the snow slides under these conditions and hits the sidewalk area, it immediately turns solid and is less than fun to remove.  However it is done and the mess is cleaned up.  The south facing roofs are cleared and tomorrow I will work on the north facing which have not moved at all even though we raked them after each storm.  

The excitement for today was a phone call from a sister in Rockland, Idaho.  Her husband, the seminary teacher and stake president is planning a church history tour and so called the site.  There are not many people in Rockland, so it was not surprising that Dede was able to find her and then find out they have common friends.  They plan to come to the site 19-July.

We spent and evening with the Buswells and Bergers since the others have traveled home.  We had a dinner of sloppy joes and then watch a movie called "Where's Bob" with Bill Murray and Robert Dreyfuss.  It is set in New England and was just fun to watch.  Good company and a good time had by all.

I find such joy in doing tours but also in being invited to do physical labor at the site.  I am so grateful that God has allowed me to do both.  Obviously I am grateful that the Spirit reminded me of this fact so I could count it as today's tender mercy.

27-January-2023-Friday

Today our eldest child turned 40.  She is a wonderful person and deserves all the notice and praise that I can give to her.  What a wonderful daughter and mother of children.  She is talented, kind to those around her, a loving supporter of her great husband and just an all-around nice person.  I am grateful that she is an important part of our family.  I admire her and wish her a very happy birthday.  Did I mention that I love her?  She is so much like her mother.

We awoke to a sunny and bright, but coldish day.  We went into the site early.  First to stop at the post office and pick up a package from Jon with books I wanted from our library and then to get into the site early as the missionaries from Rutland and surrounding area were coming for their weekly meetings and we had agreed to provide them a tour of the site, since some of them have never had the opportunity.  It was a great opportunity to preach Joseph Smith to young men (at the end two sisters also joined us) who have dedicated their lives at this time to preach the Savior as revealed through this great prophet.  The highlight was our time spent in the restoration room where each could pick his highlight from Joseph's life and tell us why that is such a highlight.  It is somewhat like a mini-testimony meeting.

The rest of the day was spent without visitors, with the exception of Sisters Finney and Cass, who often come an walk around the site.  There are not a lot of places that are safe to walk in the winter and they come almost daily.

After leaving the site we drove up to Northfield Falls to see (you guessed it) covered bridges.  We will soon need to find something new to do as we are locating the majority of bridges and really enjoying them.  We saw five today.  Three types of trusses.  All painted red because that is what the town of Northfield has decided to do.  The first three bridges are unique as they are all within a mile of each other on the same road.  In fact you can stand at one bridge and see the second bridge just over the railroad tracks.  We saw a cross-truss bridge, three queen post bridges, and a king post bridge.  I know you want pictures.

These are the same bridge as above; it has an cross-truss.  As you look through the bridge in the picture on the left, you can see the next covered bridge down the road.  This is the only place in Vermont where this is possible with two original bridges.  There is another place that is similar , but the one bridge was totally rebuilt and so it is not counted in actual covered bridges.

This is obviously not a covered bridge.  It is a house next to the bridge above.  Notice the snow hanging off the roof and then look at ice-cycles.  As the snow slides off the roof the ice was hanging down as as expected, but as the snow slides it curls around the edge of the roof and so the ice begins pointing in very unexpected ways.  As warm as it was yesterday there was a lot of ice sliding off roofs.

This is the next bridge down the road.  It is a queen's post bridge.  The five bridges were all on creeks that flow into the Dog River.  In the villages of Northfield and Northfield Falls there were many ruins from former mills and plants that had been built on the Dog River.  Almost every covered bridge is near the site of a dam and thus a mill pond since the bridges were usually part of a settlement and settlements were often built where there was the ability to power mills.  I.e. a falls or enough drop in the rifer to drive a water wheel.

This bridge is called slaughter house mill.  Surprisingly it was built next to the local slaughterhouse.  I included these two pictures because of the stonework in the abutments.  These are well used bridges that we visited today and the stone work for this bridge looks just like it did in the late 1800's when the bridge was built.  This is dry stone work, meaning that there is no mortar used, the rocks are stacked to be sturdy and to last.  Remember that this creek will flood and raise up to the level of the stone work.

This last bridge was a king post truss design.  I also included a picture of the creek right above the bridge.  You can see the snow is deep.  When I look at these streams, it makes me think of "Give said the Little Stream" these streams gave the early settlers water, and power and most roads were built along the streams and rivers of Vermont.  Thus they "give oh give away."

What a blessing it was today, that Dede had spoken to the Rutland Elders and invited them to come to the site today.  It has been some time since we gave a complete tour.  It was fun to listen to Dede as she gave her parts.  It was almost like hearing it for the first time since we have not given too many full tours this year.  What a blessing and my tender mercy for the day.

A second blessing.  We received a phone call from the FM missionaries who will come in June and take the places of the Bergers.  No one can replace the Bergers, but this couple seemed so excited to learn about their mission.  I tried to be as positive as I could, but encouraged him to talk to President Ewer as quickly as possible.   What a great opportunity we were given to feel the excitement of this couple from Montana.  It was so easy to remember our excitement when we were called, but also to remember how much we wanted to know every little thing so we would be prepared.  They do not come until June, but that will be here before you know it.  As of last Wednesday, we have been out for 6 months.  My how the time has flown.  

28-January-2023-Saturday

We went over to the Woodstock area to revisit covered bridges.  We had seen all of the bridges there, but it was pre-book and so we knew little about them.  There were two interesting bridges based on their truss formations and two others that are very new.

The Taftville bridge has a unique truss system that is a cross between a queen post and a multi-kin truss system..  Then they came in an re-enforced the truss with four laminated arches.  Note that the bridge has a center support, which sometimes occurs on a long span.  Most important, the arch comes down below the road bed and attaches lower into the rock base.  No other Vermont Bridge has arches that go below the road bed.  This bridge is so strong that no additional support was necessary when the transportation department inspected the bridge to insure it would handle todays traffic; although they tied in some metal into the floor to provide some side to side strength.  The foundation stonework is capped at the bottom with cement so that it is not impacted by the water flow, but the top of the rock is left as is was originally built.  This bridge receives a great deal of traffic.  This seems to be the only bridge built by the builder/designer and does not follow anyone's patents.  

Different bridge.  This truss is also unique.  It is an arch, but the supports are made of metal.  It was not used in any other wooden bridges, but there were two metal bridges within 5 miles that use the same design, but entirely made of metal.  (Without a covering.  The covering on the bridge is to prevent moisture from rotting the wood, which is not an issue with a steel bridge.)

Also unique for us.  As we were taking pictures of this bridge, we had two groups of snowmobilers cross the bridge.  Obviously sans snow on the deck.  We finally have enough snow for snow machines and one the trails uses this covered bridge as a point to cross the river.  Since the bridge is one way for traffic, there are caution signs to slow down and allow traffic only one way, so apparently it works with the snow machines as well as the cars.  The snow machines were very loud in the confines of the bridge.

We visited Middle Bridge in the center of Woodstock.  It was built in the 1960's, but built using traditional methodology and supplies.  It is rather short and has a walkway to the side.  Remember Woodstock is a tourist town and they replaced a metal bridge with a wooden bridge as a tourist attraction.  There was no parking nearby so I did not take a picture.

Finally I knew we were within 6 miles of Queechee Bridge, but it was not in the book.  I knew where it was so we drove over and looked it up on line.  By reading the WEB we discovered it is even newer than Woodstock and it also in a very touristy location.  (It was built after our book was published and thus did not make the book.). It is a double lane bridge with, I am sure steel girders holding up the roadbed and then a very convincing looking (i.e. traditional technology and supplies) covered bridge built on the steel trusses.  It crosses the river above the Simon Pearce Glass Blowing shop and sales office as well as their power plant.  I would guess many covered bridge experts would not count this as a real covered bridge (due to the time of construction and the use of steel), although I liked it and will continue recommending it to people.

We ran into Lebanon for gas and a meal at 5 Guys.  Potatoes were from Rexburg, ID.  Filled up we drove home and I took 15 minutes to wash the majority of the salt and mud off the car.  It is supposed to snow tomorrow and it will probably all be replaced on the sides of the car, but it is nice to clean the car once in a while.

We had two groups, 4 and 2 come into the site this afternoon.  What a treat.  The first group was comprised of 4 men in a family.  They were visiting in Boston and the father wanted them to come up.  Interestingly they are from the Billings, Montana area and one of them knows the FM couple that will start their mission here in June.  What a small world!

The second group was the cutest couple from the Boston area.  He is doing an internship and she is taking classes at a chef's school.  They came in a 4:30, but we gave them the 60 minute tour.  They had great questions and were just fun to visit with.  We are so lucky to serve at the JSB (Joseph Smith Birthplace.)

I had prayed today that we might have visitors.  When we arrived, Buswells had had 4 groups with 10 total people.  We thought we would probably not get anyone, but as you can see, God was so merciful and allowed us also to have the opportunity to bear testimony of the prophet whom we love and the Savior whom Joseph Smith reveals to us in a way that makes HIM so much easier to love.

And so ends another week of the Hegsted Mission.  Did I mention Jon sent me two New Testament Books, so I am in heaven.