Some Catching Up

First of all Happy Birthday to my dear Mother. She turned 85 today! Still kickin, and sassy, and fun and just the best mother ever. We are so blessed to still have her and hope for many more years!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. Hard to believe we are at 2015. Seems like just yesterday we were all wondering if computers would crash at 2000. Do you believe that was 15 years ago? Sometimes I wish time could stand still and other times it doesn't go quick enough. I wish I could make up my mind. Oh well, following are some very random photos taken along our journey.

 One of our jobs was to replace 6 tiles here below a drinking fountain that had come up. This was my Michaelangelo moment. It took me 4 hours to chisel these out as I was trying to preserve them. Wouldn't you know, the last one broke. Luckily I searched the attic again after Bill was presumed to have done that and found more matching tiles. Saved the day but not the hours. I don't know why I trusted him in the first place. Men and Children are useless when it comes to looking for something. Anyway, the tile turned out great and wouldn't even know the Nagel's struck again.

 Next to our house we saw this flock of wild turkeys trooping off into the woods. It was so cool to see them.

 The branch we attend had a sister that spoke one Sunday about utilizing our talents. It was a great talk and to illustrate her message she told about an Uncle of hers that lived in the house pictured below. He was quite the recluse. It was an old school house with no electricity or running water. He got his water from the creek with the assumption that if the frogs drank the water it was ok for him.
Anyway. After he died it was discovered that he produced this amazing primitive folk art out of what ever he had handy. Most of it was on walls that had been vandalized after his death but a few items were recovered.

 These are some examples of art that she had in her possession. It has all been given to a local art society for preservation.

 He used whatever was handy. This is a bed post. He made holes with nails in shapes and then painted them. You can see the holes below.

 It was quite exciting to see these examples of folk art. His was a neat story and it sure reminded me that all our gifts are of value no matter how "primitive" we think they might be. He may have been a poor humble man but he left us with a gift.

 It was a beautiful misty morning at the farm. It had a mystic quality not captured too well in this photo. You would have thought it to be a sepia photo or a black and white but it was just a regular picture.

 For Christmas the missionaries young and old put on a program at the Joseph Smith farm. The above 2 sister missionaries were dressed as Emma Smith and  .... can't remember who else. Anyway, it was fun. About 360 people showed up so we were quite busy. My job was serving cookies and hot cocoa. Bill was all over the place helping things run smooth.

 This senior missionary dressed up as Martin Harris. The Sister that sewed the costumes was amazing. There were many more and everyone looked the part.

I know, I know. You are getting tired of my sky pictures. Well I'm not. These are a few more outside our front door. Never gets old to me.

This tree is next to the frame house. It was believed to have been planted in memory of Alvin Smith who died in his 20's. That makes the tree about 200 years old. It is an Ironwood tree. I just love the bark. It has so much character. This tree is one of my favorites here and I just never tire of seeing it.

 We had to travel down to Bath NY recently and on the way home passed several signs alerting us to possible carriages. I had no sooner said to Bill, I sure wish we could see one, then low and behold we drove up on this one. I tried to get the picture of the horse as we passed but you can see it was a bit of a blur. It was a cold nasty day so I was surprised we got to see one. There are a lot of Amish communities in and around this area. Also Mennonites and Quakers. Very diverse. We often see women and children dressed in their usual garb when we are out shopping.

 This cemetery was quite large that we passed and all the stones were very old. I just had to take a picture as many of the stones were crooked, fallen over, tipped or worn. I would have stopped to look around but it was not a nice day for it.

 Now you don't see these anymore. Yep, it's a phone booth for all you whipper snappers out there. No phone in it but a phone booth just the same. That is Canandaigua Lake behind the fence.

 We drove off to some side roads on our way back from Bath and saw this water tunnel under the road. It is very old but still functions ok. Very scenic.

 "Bearly" stopped quick enough to get this shot. Oh brother.

 Our Christmas goodies awaiting Christmas morning. Lots of fun stuff and we sure enjoyed opening all the treasures. Thank you Santa!

 I rarely build puzzles but my sister gave us this 500 piece (my limit) one to do. Actually it was quite fun and got it done with the help of anyone that came by. Namely Elder Frost, who apparently loves puzzles. We had to drag him away.

 Sister and Elder Frost gave me these beautiful flowers for my birthday. They lasted a long time and I really enjoyed them.

 Yep, more sky!

 Sister Frost and I took one last jaunt in the golf cart before the heavy snow was due. We unlocked one of the gates and drove back along the top of the hill Cumorah. We found this concrete block, very big, with carvings on it laying in the woods. Have no idea how it got there, when it got there and why it got there. A mystery we will probably never know but it was fun exploring.

 Ta da. The completed puzzle. It was Amish quilts.

 The highlight of the last week was traveling to Minnesota to be with my dear brother Ricky and his wife Sandy for their first trip to the Temple. They were sealed in the Temple Jan. 3rd. which is also our daughter-in-law Lauren's birthday. Happy Birthday Lauren! We were thinking of you that day too.

 The photo is sideways but Sandy had to make due with the floor lamp to hang his IV from. It worked. He held up really well for it all and was so happy to have been able to get to the Temple. We wish he wasn't so sick but it was a great blessing for us to be able to be with he and Sandy for this special day.

 We remembered that some ward members from GA had moved to MN so with very little effort, (he is the Stake President there, not easy to hide from anyone.) we got their number and gave them a  call. We had a wonderful visit with Martha and Jim Lash. They look great and happy and it was a very nice evening catching up. Thanks guys for letting us visit on such short notice. Hope you will come to Palmyra in 2015.

 Ricky insisted we get to see something in MN so we went to the Mall of America for a bit of walking around and some lunch before we headed back to NY. That's the indoor amusement park behind us. Our flight was supposed to leave at 6pm that day (5th) but we never left til 8 and going through Chicago were delayed again by weather. Ended up spending 16 hours in airports. Not a fun day. They had to drive home a usual 2 1/2 hour drive and it took 4 hours. We all hit terrible weather. It was all worth it though. We loved being with you Rick and Sandy. We love YOU!

 Just some of the Christmas greetings we received from you all. Thank you for that. It made for a fun holiday to hear from you. Also made our refrigerator very festive.

 Sarah made me my new favorite saying on a board...

and also a family birthday thing a ma bob. I love them both. They are both hanging in the Martin Harris house at least until Feb 2016.
So that's about it. Will keep the camera handy. Just never know what will pop up next. It's time for you secret blog stalkers to make a comment and let your presence be known. You know who you are. Besides. I would like some record that this thing isn't just roaming around in cyber-space.