Week 35 - Hegsted Mission

 19-March-2023-Sunday

We left by 8:30 to be back in Essex Junction to attend the general session of the Montpelior, Vermont Stake Conference.  It is always interesting to attend a stake conference where you do not know very many people, especially the leadership.  It is easier to be detached and just look at logistics.  At least for me.  When they announced the number of speakers, I thought, wow!  When the stake president stood up at 11:55, I am sure he was thinking the same thing.  He did not let it bother him and just talked not looking at the clock again.  They also have a new patriarch.   Oh well, I am just an observer.  The many who spoke did a great job and I enjoyed the conference and was glad we attended.

After conference we decided to head north and find the monument for Heber C Kimball.  The monument is in the Sheldon Cemetery which was much larger than I expected.  Luckily, I knew that it was near the only building in the cemetery and so I looked for the newest stone and found it quickly so we did not need to traipse through the snow and cold.  And today was cold and windy.  As stated on the monument, he was born about a mile outside of the village on the river.  The area is beautiful.  I think Northern Vermont is much more open than central Vermont with large open farms and fields and rolling hills.  I know it will be hard for the reader to believe, but since we were near the Vermont Canadian border we decided to look at the covered bridges up there.  There are a number and in the first area not far from Sheldon, the majority were built by two brothers with the last name Jewet (I saw two different spellings).  All were lattice truss bridges.  It seems that they owned a mill and thus prepared all the wood at their mill and built the bridges paying the patent rights.  I would say it was a good choice to follow the patent as there are several still in use.  We could not reach two bridges.  One is definitely gone.  We could see its abutments.  The second was down a steep hill which they do not plow in the winter and we were not dressed to walk in our Sunday clothes.  A third bridge we looked at from a distance as again the road to the bridge is not plowed as it is a dead end on the other side and the bridge remains just for its historic value.  Note also that we saw five bridges from a second tour.  Four of the five had had heavy equipment break through the flooring and had to be refurbished.  I would guess there were several equipment operators who had that sinking feeling in the heart on those particular days.

I will show a few pictures.  It was amazing how close together these bridges are to each other.

20-March-2023-Monday 

Started the day with the normal weekly meeting and discussed the importance of using past tense verbs in our tours and introducing both ourselves and various tour stories.  Afterwards spent time with the Buswell’s planning times planning for when our children f will come to visit and how we will cover shifts. Always fun to think of our children coming to see us. 

Was able to work on my paper before Anna called wanting to use my computer to do her taxes. That seemed to work well for her.  Sam has shared using his Mac but we have not tried it using a Windows machine. Interesting to watch your computer screens move without moving a mouse or touching a key. 

When we arrived for our shift Buswell’s had a guest and so we split the tour with them, thus we both had a teaching experience. We actually had another couple come but they only had time for a picture before running off to complete their honeymoon. The first couple were also members but appeared to be dating since he was from FL and she from NH. They were both kind and attentive. He had never been this far north while she had come and camped  here as a youth. Obviously she had forgotten much assuming she actually had a full tour as a youth.

Finally, Dede and Sister Buswell are collaborating on the back of quilts they hope to make from Vermont Flannel pieces. This flannel is heavier than other flannels I have felt, so it should be a very cozy quilt. 

Another great day with only my less than stellar attitude causing any dark clouds resulting from my less than humble attitude.  

This is another sugar shack on Dairy Hill Road which takes us to the site.  It is a little closer to the road.  Note two things in the picture.  There is smoke coming from the chimney, but much more steam raising from the cupola on the roof.  This has doors which open and shut so that they open them when cooking, but they can shut them to keep the snow out.  In this case they do a similar thing with the chimney top.  This is a wood burning stove.  You can just make out the wood pile where  they used old (darker) wood from last year to create a Christmas tree surrounded by the lighter (newer) wood as part of their wood pile at the side.  Not sure how much they do.  This was the first time we saw it running.  Over the next few days, it should be prime sugaring weather with freezing night time temperatures and daytime temperatures in the 40's.  We are losing snow at an amazing rate.

21-March-2023-Tuesday

Yesterday was the official start of spring, but today spring found itself in Sharon Vermont.  We had first shift and arrived early, which was a blessing as we met a young woman who had come up to the area to advocate for a child in Chelsea.  She had a few minutes and so she stopped at the site.  I think she was surprised to see anyone there, but we were able to give her a 15 minute tour and send her on her way.  She had a smile that lights up the world and was kind to us oldsters.

While I was out walking, I saw a tree trimming truck come in and so I walked down to the church to see if they needed to contact Bob, the FM manager.  They did not, but while I was there I was able to speak to a family from St. Albans which is in Northwestern VT.  They were traveling to Maine and had stopped for a break.  I was telling them about the Heber C Kimball monument which is actually within their ward boundaries, but he had never heard of it.  I thought I was going to talk to the arborists, but apparently God wanted me to talk to the family.  What a blessing.  To further top it off, I spent time with the arborists watching them prune maple trees and learning from them.  They were kind enough to answer my questions.

We still have more snow coming, but I am ready for it to be gone so I can begin tramping the woods.  I am getting a rough draft written about he site and I want to be able to make measurements and prepare more maps and photos for this work, which I am probably enjoying way too much.  

After our shift, we drove up to Randolph to the Silloway Maple Farm.  They were "cooking" syrup and we spoke to three different members of the family.  They are a medium-sized operation with about 25,000 trees.  They try to run 500 gallons of finished product per day, but the sap was running well and they did 800 gallons today.  We visited two other sugar places in the past and both were great, but they were not running and it was fun to talk with them while they were in production mode.  I have several pictures I want to post from the visit.

Silloway as we approached.  The sky was beautiful and the steam and spoke rising from the building spectacular, but blown by the wind, so not as noticeable in the picture.

Below, their new "cooking" oven where the concentrated sap is caramelized and then boiled down to the correct concentration to be maple syrup.  The lady running it was pretty, and strong (loading the wood) and fun to talk to about the process.

The pipes carry off the steam as well as wood smoke.

In this room, the syrup goes through reverse osmosis before going into the boiling room.  It comes in at about 2% sugar content and leaves here at about 24%, reducing the need to cook longer.

Lot's of capital tied up in equipment.  The cooker was about $110k as was the osmosis equipment, probably another $100k in tanks and piping in the shack and then who knows about the cost of tubing that runs for miles.  

Storage silos outside of the shack.  There is another large tank inside.  Note the big blue lines running into the tanks.  These are coming directly from the trees above the shack which they harvest.  Since today was warm and it froze last night, the hoses were flowing like a garden hose.

We spoke with the person managing the operation.  He was shutting down as they would hit 800 gallons with what had gone through reverse osmosis today.  He told us his friend (turns out to be Goodrich, who is a member of the church) can do 800 gallons per hour.  Hope to get up there next week.

He also told us that the sugaring community is tight.  If someone goes down others will buy the sap, so that it is not lost and the producer does not end up dumping perfectly good sap.  You would think they were farmers with farmer attitudes and values!

Glad to meet such great people.

22-March-2023-Wednesday-PDAY

We were able to go to the temple again today.  Enjoyed both the endowment and sealing sessions.  As we were leaving the temple and looking for a place to eat, the sealer and his wife asked us if we wanted to go eat with them.  We had a marvelous time doing so.  The sealer has Greek roots although he does not speak Greek.  He met his German wife while serving in the army in Germany and they will celebrate 60+ years of marriage this Friday and she turns 80 next month.  He is an American success story.  Dropped out of High School and joined the military, but was admitted into law school without getting a college degree and worked as a lawyer for many years.  What a delightful couple.  We at at the Summer Shack and it was very good.

We then went to the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) and its museum.  I enjoyed this immensely.  Not sure how my grandkids would do with it.  I think they would do well with the ship, but after doing the Freedom Trail it might be a bit much.  The Constitution won several battles in the war of 1812 and it became a national treasure.  Also the US can claim it is the oldest navel vessel afloat.  Britain has an older ship, but it has been in dry dock for years, so it gives the US something to brag about.

I cannot imagine 500 people going to sea in this vessel.  You would definitely know your neighbor.  Our guide said you worked 20 hours and slept 4 hours in hammocks each day.  I would absolutely die.  If I had to climb the masts to rig the sails, I would not have enough hands to hold on with let alone work up there.  They could just throw me overboard and get it over with.  One sign said a sail might be larger than a basketball court and weigh a ton when dry and almost 2 tons when wet.  The sailors would be up 175 feet in all weather, night and day to run the sails.  This would be terrifying in storms and during sea battles.  They had a sign in the museum that said only 7 men fell from the rigging and all perished.  These men were amazing.  I was also surprised that a sailor signed up for 2 years and was paid more per month than a marine who signed up for 5 years.  The museum had some great models of the ship as well one made of Legos in a room where youth were invited to build their own ship.

These last two pictures are gross, but interesting to our mission.  The pictures show a surgeons medical bag and then the surgeon with a saw as amputation was common to fix shattered legs and bones. The sign reads, since the patient was awake, the surgeon tried to work fast.  I include the pictures because of our story about Joseph Smith and his leg surgery.  The first doctor who treated young Joseph, also wanted to amputate the leg and the tools would have been similar, since the Constitution was built for the war of 1812 and Joseph's operation was in 1812.  I do not think I will add these slides to my virtual video tour for the Birthplace Site.

23-March-2023-Thursday

We got to bed late after coming home late from Boston so we slept in.  That felt good.  When we awoke, I basically spent the morning working on my site report, while Dede cleaned and made a dress for a charity, made sure I was fed and everything else she does.  I feel like I am making good progress on the report, but fear it will take weeks and probably months to complete.  Still I am looking forward to the snow melting so I can get back to the areas and take pictures and make measurements.  

When we arrived, there was a family of 6, which the Buswells got through the first room.  We took over, and I overheard them say they would get ice cream.  Asked where and found they had an appointment with Ben and Jerry's for a tour.  Knowing they had to be on time, we got them out quickly so they could make it to the tour.  Hopefully they made it.  They were kind.  Young family, the oldest was 7.

It was a rainy day, but warm.  Snow should melt well, but we will get more this weekend and into next week.  However it will probably be very wet and melt quickly.  Let me back in the woods!!

24-March-2023-Friday

Another wonderful day.  I vacuumed and ironed this morning, while Dede did so much more.  She is so wonderful.  Dede had seen a post about Steve Brown, whom we knew from Pocatello.  She contacted Steve and we found out two very interesting things.  1). He is a nephew of President and Sister Ewer.  2) He had his wife Julia connected at a Single Adult outing held at my folks cabin in Island Park.  As he told Dede, we are responsible for him and his wife for being married 30 years.  It is a small world.

We had three young people come in the site today.  They are from Burlington and graduates from college. All were originally from Mass.  They had seen the sign on I-89 in the past and decided to come to the site for a day trip.  They were interested and asked so many questions.  Each took home a BoM.  I had given one to them and they all wanted their own copy.  Fun.  I find it so intriguing that there are so many people, (especially young people) searching for something.  

Another fun picture of the monument from a different direction but with the glow on the polished granite.  I would have missed this while walking but Sister Ewer was out walking and pointed it out.

Dede made her spring roll filling which we ate over rice and then she made some spring rolls.  We both made cookies for the Family Search meeting to be held at the S. Royalton ward on Saturday.  Thus we shared cookies with all the missionaries.  Dede is something special.

We are supposed to have a couple of inches of snow tomorrow, but it is supposed to remain warm, so I doubt it will last.  Spring is coming, "a robin told me so, he sat upon my window sill."  We have actually seen many robins in the area, so hopefully spring is really coming.  I wonder where the turkeys have gone?  I have not seen them for months.

25-March-2023-Saturday

Heavens another week is in the books.  We started the day by attending the Family Search Fair at the S. Royalton Chapel.  The Montpelior Stake is focused on family search.  They have Family Search centers in 4 different locations in the stake and have spent a great deal of money to fix up nice work areas with couches and chairs as well as the tools needed to be comfortable and inspired while doing Family Search.  I am amazed at this effort when I think that Pocatello with all its stakes has a single center.  In asking around, it is not apparent that other stakes around here share a smilier commitment.  Anyway, today was the second annual Family Search event.  They combined with the Concord Stake to put this on and had speakers and exhibits.  I learned about the Vermont archives and the person presenting made you want to visit there and use their facilities.  Likewise at their exhibit her boss was helpful and kind.  

Another group there preserves cemeteries in Vermont and surrounding states.  This they do for free.  They will go into a cemetery, and clean headstones and set them back up and help identify what the stones say.  This they do as a voluntary service.  There are so many cemeteries in Vermont, many are small and some are located far from major roads.  I did a google search and found 18 cemeteries within 10 miles of my apartment and another 48 between 10 and 20 miles from my apartment.  I would rather guess that some cemeteries are not known to google, but I may be wrong.  This just seemed to be a great deal.  Interestingly, they said they do not have permission to do anything at the Dewey Cemetery which is on the church's property.

Finally we met with three wonderful ladies from the Tunbridge Historical Society.  All three appeared to be retired.  They were so eager to help and I hope to meet with them again at their site and spend time going over their files.  

A quick lunch at the fair and we were early to the site to relieve the Buswells so they could spend time with their daughter and enjoy Sister Buswell's birthday.  We had three groups comprising 6 people.  The first man had been at the fair.  He is a returned missionary and is struggling to come back to church.  It was interesting to talk with him.  I hope he is successful.  We then had a family of three (daughter about 15 months was darling).  They graduated from BYU and have been in Boston working.  They leave for the West in two months and were seeing everything possible before they leave.  They were just sweet.  Finally another couple from Utah.  He had served his mission in Mass. and so was returning to the area and they came up to the Jospeh Birthplace as he had never been here.  They were so kind.  They were late and were so worried they would hold us over our closing time.  People do not realize that we want people to come so badly, we ignore the clock.  (Besides, how can one pray to have visitors and then be upset when God delivers them at the end of the shift?). What a great visit and what a great couple.  He went to school with LaChere Vawdery's sister.  What a wonderful but small world.