It's That Time!

Yup! Believe it or not, it's time to put up Christmas lights!

They put up quite a few decorations here at the Kirtland historic sites. And though it seems awfully early to be putting up lights, we have to start now to get it all done. Especially since we find ourselves dancing between raindrops in addition to just needing the time to get them all up.

And, to this point at least, I seem to have drawn the short straw and have taken the biggest burden for the lights. of course, that is really because I am so talented at it! Yah, right!

But I don't mind.  It will bring a lot of happiness to a lot of people at a very special time of year.

However, lights are not the only thing they do for Christmas.  The Visitors Center will be full of Christmas creches. About 700 of them to be exact!


Unfortunately, we won't be here to see the final result or when the lights are finally all turned on.  Hope someone will send us pictures!

And really, we are not that early with the decorations. Temple Square started over six weeks ago.

Wonderful Kirtland!

Part 1

The 124th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, verse 84 says, in part, " . . . nevertheless, I the Lord will build up Kirtland . . .".  So what, you say?  The 124th Section was received in 1841.  The saints had been forced out of Kirtland three years earlier, in 1838.  So why does the Lord say, he will build up Kirtland, after they had already left?  Easy, it is yet to happen. Or at least, it was yet to happen.

Hiram Smith, Joseph's brother, prophesied of the future building up of Kirtland, too.  But he said that the building up of Kirtland was to happen many years in the future and would be accomplished by the descendants of those who lived there in the 1830's.

Little did we know that when we came to Kirtland, it would be in direct fulfillment of prophecy!

Part 2

Fall is showing up in force, now. We've had night time lows in the 40's a few nights and the trees are really starting to turn.  Still not a majority of them but it is really getting pretty.  When Karen and Grady arrive, things ought to really be showy!

We are really looking forward to all the color that they all talk about around here.

Better late than never!

Things have been a bit hectic for us lately.

Our oldest daughter, Julie, had open heart surgery on the 9th -- unexpectedly. They had to repair an aortic aneurysm. It was something that one hopes they will never have to face. But the surgery went very well and so has her recovery. We flew home for a week to help and I was able to give her a Fathers blessing before the surgery. How grateful we are for the power of the Priesthood.

She is back home and they say she is 'way ahead of the curve' on her recovery. And we are back in Ohio.

All is well, all is well.

The End of Summer?

Let's see, today is August 25th.  Fall leaves are just around the corner but we are still dealing with hot summer temps, right?

Not so fast, Smallville!  Don't know about your part of the country but here in Ohio, Mother Nature seems to be a bit confused.  Our temps are in the 70's during the day and hover around the lower 50's at night -- most days and nights, at least.  A bit colder, we suppose, at tree top height.

And then to really mix things up, take a look at the accompanying pics.  No, this is not some sort of trick and no we didn't get them off the internet or take them a couple of years ago.  We took them a couple of hours ago on our way home from the historic sites.

Some locals have told us that this is a bit weird even for Ohio (which we think is sort of weird any way -- had to include that for some of our Ohio readers!).


So, if the weather is already fall like in August, what is it going to be like at the end of October, when we try to drive nearly 2000 miles to go home? Yikes!

We probably should mention that most trees are not like this. Just a few here and there.  But it makes a better story if we let you think all the leaves have changed and are falling from the trees.

Honesty has its draw backs.

Rain!

It rained here a day or two ago. I know what your saying. It always rains in Ohio, so what's new?!

You don't understand. It REALLY rained here a couple of days ago.

The still photo is a pic of a small brook which runs right through the historic sites here. The little trickle you see is actually a bit larger than what it sometimes is.  It is spring fed and so never runs dry, but most of the summer it is just this gentle little trickle of water running over the stony bottom.  Thus it's name, Stony Brook.

That is, it is like that most of the time. But not all.  The video shows the same section of the 'brook' after one of our major rain storms here, though this was a bit worse than most. We've never seen it quite this full.  There is about ten feet of bank there. It was lapping at the bottom of the bridge I was taking this video from. Through most of its length, it was full to the very top of its banks.

The rain continued for two days and so did the level of the creek.

Hale Historic Farm

A couple of days ago, we went with a couple of other seniors to a historic farm located south and west of here about 45 miles.  The farm is the largest and most complete operating historic farm reserve in Ohio, though there are quite a few smaller farms around, too.  It was a fun day, though it would have been even more enjoyable had the temperature been a few degrees cooler.

First, we saw this old truck.  Then, virtually right next to it was an old safe.  Nothing special looking about the safe, until you find out that it was "Joseph Smith's Safe!"  We would know it as the safe that was used in the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Bank Company.  If you look closely, you may notice that there doesn't seem to be any visible way to open the safe -- no key hole nor combination.  In fact, we couldn't figure out how it opened and the people on duty there didn't know either!  Interesting.

Later, we watched a re-enactment of the Civil War.  It was really quite a production.  Lot's of noise from cannon such as this one and muzzle loader rifles.  In fact, the whole area became hazy sometimes from the gun smoke!




We kind of wondered that with all that shooting and them at such close range, nobody seemed to get shot.  But then someone reminded us that it happens all the time in Hollywood movies!