Our New Home!

We have finally received official notice of our transfer to Kirtland. Our move will be on May 21. We will be living in the Joel Hills Johnson home right by the Visitor's Center. No more "commuting" for an hour to the site! We are excited to make the move but at the same time a little nostalgic realizing the calm, peaceful and beautiful surroundings that we will be leaving behind. Our stay the the Johnson farm has been a wonderful experience! Serving out here with Elder and Sister Leavitt and the sister missionaries, testifying of our Savior Jesus Christ, has been the best! We have met so many guests from all over the world while we have been out here.

I am sure our stay at Kirtland will be a growing experience for us also for the last half of our mission so we are looking forward to new horizons. The home where we will be living is very intersting. It is from the early 1800s and has settled a bit........(a noticeable "bit") =o)

When our daughter Kristen and her family visited with us last month, we showed them our new "quarters" and when she got home she wrote back and said that all she could think of was the poem.....

There was a crooked man, who walked a crooked mile
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked style
He bought a crooked cat who caught a crooked mouse
And they all lived together in a little crooked house!

We are enclosing some pictures to show what she was talking about. But nevertheless, it is very nice inside and big! We are excited!

Dr. Seuss's Magical Orchard

The orchards by the Johnson Farm are really unusual. They have been pruned to look like they could be right out of a Dr. Seuss story. These are apple trees that have been purposely pruned somewhat like a Christmas tree in shape. The central leader goes straight up and is narrow on top so that every apple on the tree has equal exposure to the sun. Every apple from the tree is pristine quality.

When we first saw these trees I thought they looked a little like a hob goblin (whatever that is!) They are so unusual looking that many visitors ask us about them and just what kind of trees they are. We finally stopped at the home of Roger Monroe and had him explain the whole system to us. They have 140 acres of apples and pears. There are 22 different varieties of apples on the farm and each row is a different variety so that cross polination can take place with every variety. Whatever they do and however they accomplish their goal, we had the opportunity to enjoy many of these varieties last Fall. They have a little store in back of their home on Pioneer Trail that is right by the Johnson Home so we pass it every day.

Unwanted Visitor

When we got to the farm a week or so ago, Elder and Sister Leavitt told us about something getting into the home and really destroying some of the old artifacts. They took pictures of the damage and then reported it to Elder Butterfield. The summer kitchen had a broken barrel, animal droppings, chewed carpet. John's office was all messed up with tipped chair, part of the artifacts on the floor, the East parlor had the Book of Mormon open and pages flapping,the pantry had things scattered on the floor......All in all, it was a sorry sight to see.

When the Leavitts left and we took over, we could hear a banging noise like an animal trying to break out. I had a tour at that time so told the two visitors that if they saw anything to let me know. It was at the end of the tour, coming back down the stairs to the main floor when our visitor saw the varmint in the East Parlor. It ran around behind the china cupboard. In the meantime, Doyle had called the Leavitts to come back to help us try to get it out of the house. Now there were six of us!

I found an old broom, closed the door to the West Parlor and to the kitchen, opened the front door and took some of the boards from the destroyed barrel to try to block the stairway. Doyle took the broom handle and tried to poke it to force it out from behind the china cupboard. It took a lot of prodding.. Bro Hensley (one of our visitors) cautioned us that it could perhaps be rabid, especially if it entered a house. Here were, the six of us...me behind the kitchen door, Leavitt behind the front door, Doyle and Hensleys in the East Parlor and Sister Leavitt shooting pictures as fast as she could with her new camera!

All of the sudden it ran out from behind the cupboard and under the couch. A little more prodding and it bounded out the front door and ran into the field. It was a big ball of gray fur, a fuzzy tail with a black tip. Pretty good sized ground hog! That was pretty much the excitement for our time on the site that day. After cleaning up the mess all over the first floor, we finally left the farm an hour and half late.

Alarm Clock!

Lately we have been visited by a beautiful bird sound outside our window at the same time every day. For the first few days we looked and looked to see what kind of bird was out there. We never could see it. Then one day Doyle was outside going to the car and he heard the sound. Up high on the TV antennae on top of our building was this most beautiful red bird. At last we found the source of our alarm clock. What a great way to wake up every morning!

Walking on Water!

Just had to show you frozen Lake Erie! We visited there yesterday with Elder and Sister Christensen...It is so amazing that the lake is so frozen. I have always seen ponds and lakes in Utah frozen with a smooth surface - here, Lake Erie looks like it is frozen in time with the waves frozen just as they were when they were breaking.

This was at Fairport Harbor where the early saints arrived from New York when they were called to "Go to the Ohio". From here they walked to Kirtland which is about 12 miles south.

Somewhere It's Spring?

What a difference a few days makes! A couple of weeks ago we were showing the deep snow cover that we have been under in our last posting and two weeks later this is what we are enjoying! The snow is gone! (at least for now)! The weather has been very tolerable and we can even get by with a short sleeve sweater under our winter coats!

The days are still very quiet out here at the farm--but we are reading many histories of the key players out here and are learning so much. We had a family come through the other day who has made it a tradition to bring their son/daughter who will be leaving for their own mission to the church historic sites to help build upon their testimony before they leave. To take them through the home here and tell of the history was a great experience for us. This particular young man was going to the MTC three days later. He is going to the Baltic States mission and will study Latvian language. When you think of everywhere the church has missionaries and see the enthusiasm in these new missionaries...we are so blessed to be a part of the work!






We were out driving the other day and noticed all of the buckets hanging on the trees...It's syrup time! What is amazing to me is to see these poor old dead looking trees that are still giving! Some of them are so old their trunks are split open..you wonder if they have anything left to give =o) but then you see the happy face on this tree and you know they take great pleasure on fulfilling their assignment! The maple syrup here is so delicious and very expensive but then I heard that it's a 10 to 1 ratio for final production.

Winter Wonderland

We sure have had a lot of snow lately! This past week has been super cold also, like a -6 but felt like -23. I thought we were going to freeze to death but fortunately, with dressing appropriately for the weather, i.e. hats, scarfs, wool coats, layered sweaters etc. we made it through! Our car has held up amazingly well too. One day the washer fluid froze on the window but now it has warmed up to 1 degree as I speak so we will make it!!!=o) Several times this winter we have gone out to warm up the car the the doors would be frozen shut. That's a fun experience to try to get them open.

Just thought I would post some pictures of our snow experience. They told us if Lake Erie would just freeze over, we would have some blue skies and days would try to look normal. (not so much gray all the time) Well, today is beginning to be one of those blue sky days and it is so beautiful! Every morning we wake up, no matter how cold it is, the birds are singing outside our window. This is a wonderful place to be right now. The Johnson Farm is quiet and peaceful with an occasional visitor.

The other day we had two young ladies come out. They were sisters and the elder sister suggested that the Johnson Home would be a good historical subject for a term paper. She had been out with a history class from Hiram College earlier in the spring and felt that her younger sister could learn a lot and get some good information for her AP history class. Elder Buckwalter bore strong testimony to them of the restoration and that the Lord has blessed us with all of the ordinances, principles and priesthool powers. It was fun to share the site with them. Even though they didn't know much about the LDS church, we feel they both went away feeling the spirit that is so prevalent in this home.