End of Summer slow down

Rare Nauvoo site - 6 horses pulling the wagon.  The teamsters had time to have a little fun. 

This post covers two weeks, because my phone wouldn't let go of last weeks photos.  Besides, not much new is going on right now. This is sort of a down period in the grounds.  The beds are pretty much weeded.  We haven't had any major storms, so the branches are staying attached to the trees.   We've had lots of young sisters to help us, which we very much appreciated.  That is all going to change next month.  They either go home, or go to their outbound assignments.  About the time they leave, we start pulling up beds of the annuals in order to get the beds ready for bulbs.  So plant pulling, bulb planting, and leaf raking is in my future, but for these last weeks of summer, things are kind of mellow.
I am excited that 4 young sisters have been assigned to the Raleigh NC mission.  We will be home before they come back to Nauvoo.  So be watching for Sisters Bloxham, Decker, Taylor, and Baldwin.  I doubt they will be assigned to Sanford, but we will find them wherever they are sent.

Weeding at Land and Records

Hibiscus

One sure sign that summer is ending is the bringing in of the pots from the streets of Nauvoo. We lifted most of the pots into the trailer, but some were just too big.

Dumped pots in the compost. 

Cleaning pots. 

Senior privileges

There are a lot of things that senior missionaries can do that young missionaries are not allowed to do.  We can talk to our children and friends whenever we need to.  We can watch whatever we want to on the computer and the TV.  TVs were even on our things to bring, although I don't know anyone who brought theirs.  We can fish and hunt, and many do.  The Hayhursts even brought their canoe.
And we can buy cars! So we did.  Before the snow flies we wanted a 4 wheel drive, and we needed something a little bigger to get our stuff home.  As things slowed down from a busy summer, we went car shopping.

I really loved our little blue fusion,
but we didn't need two cars.  

Introducing our new Highlander. 

Visitors

Some welcomed, like Ann's next door neighbors from Utah, The Tuckers.

And some not.  This marmot goes by many names: Mr. Woodchuck, Groundhog, Whistle Pig None of them make him a welcomed guest.  He only stayed a day or two and then moved on, thank goodness.  Better than the skunk we had for several weeks.

On Saturday we went down to Frontier Days at Quinsippi Island, just west of Quincy.  The friends of  Log Cabin Village are gathering log cabins from around the state to create a frontier village.  Abe was there showing us old fashion penmanship, but I didn't ask for a  photo this time.

A Civil war nurse explains her wares. 

A walking spinning wheel.

The End of an Era

When I came a year ago there were 5 sisters on the grounds crew.  I made #6.  This week the last of those  5, Sister Grigsby, went home.  I couldn't have been trained with a better group of sisters. People often say that our crew works harder than anyone in Nauvoo.  I don't know about that, knowing what my husband has had to do while here, but they did set a high standard of attention to detail, not stopping until the job was done, and did it with kindness and co-operation.   I miss them, but I am looking forward to what seems like a brand new mission.  Sister Bailey has been here almost 3 months and we are getting new sisters in October.  I will be the "experienced" one - and at least I can drive the van and trailer and I have Richard's phone number if we have a question - which we will.  I'm excited for the fall and all the work we have to do.  Last year I dragged myself home each day after work.  That doesn't happen so often now, but when it does, I know I will get up the next day ready to go.

The Grigsbys receive their  FM flag. 

Just a few more things

Just a couple more things.  Lyon Drug gardens brought in some very, very hot peppers.  I'm told they make jalapenos seem like sugar.   One day I spied these temple stones down in the FM compound.  They are from the original temple and have been in storage in the building behind them.  Some women are cleaning them.  My guess is that they will be on display when the new section of historic Nauvoo opens next summer.

Temple stones

We ended the week with a mission dinner to say good-by to a few more departing missionarires.  We don't always have a dinner when missionaries leave, but because there are so many young sisters leaving we give them a proper send-off.  Complete with a chance to march in the Sunset band.

I looked back at what we were doing last year - and on the very same P-Day, we washed our windows.  This year we understand why they needed washed.  The mayflies are disgusting.  Plus we had a collection of dead wasps in our south window.  So now our windows are sparkling clean and I will be able to open them if it ever gets cool enough.  This year is suppose to be warmer than last fall, so it may be awhile before I want to open them.  But I'm ready.