WEEK 15: An equal and opposite reaction

This week went by so fast! It seems it was just conference yesterday, and today we were at church, doing the practice for our Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation, which is in 2 weeks! The children sing beautifully! This week, Sister Foy and I scanned and finished the pages for the records in the office, and I went on some ministering appointments a couple of mornings.  Steve and I also planned our Activity Days topic for next week, so we are prepared.  We have been re-listening to conference all week too, and I;m highlighting all of the references to our Savior in the Book of Mormon as I read it this time, as suggested by our Prophet.  I found over 90 references in just the first 19 chapters of 1 Nephi!  Another reason we should read it every day, is to remember Our Savior, and what He has done for us.
We also have some visitors from UT this week, the Rasmussen's.  They were here before, Brother Rasmussen is an Agriculture expert and shared some ideas about better crop production etc.  We had them over for dinner this week too. Nice couple!  Saturday, Steve and I ventured out alone, and didn't even get lost!! (Thank you, GPS!) We went to Woolsthorpe, the birthplace of Sir Isaac Newton.  We saw the descendant apple tree from the original one, that dropped an apple down near younger Newton, helping him to conclude his thoughts on gravity.  A very interesting, odd man.  He was a great thinker!  The place was fascinating though, and in a very beautiful part of the country.  The Foys were preparing for their daughter, husband and 5 children who came Sunday night to visit for the week. Their 16 yr. old grand daughter is staying in our spare room  nights, so she has a better chance of sleeping.  :)  Steve and I will be working together this week, while the Foys are going on holiday with their sweet family.

WEEK 14: Conference Weekend

Fall has arrived in great color here in England.  It is so beautiful!  We live in such a beautiful world!

We have had a busy week. Sister Foy has been making spread sheets for Agreserves, and though I’m not much help with the typing and entering, I’ve been helping go through the dozens of books onto various farms and helping find the info. I also was able to scan the needed info to a thumb drive, so we worked through it! I prefer being outside, so while Pat was setting it all up, I painted the outside of a weighing station the guys finished putting a roof on. They also helped finish paint the black trim work on the building, so I will go over and touch up the “oopsies” the next dry day we get. We have been getting some actual rain lately! 

Steve and Elder Foy have also been working on big sign boards, where they will be posting safety signs for the various farms. I also helped paint them when Pat was working on her office help. I’d much rather be outside! They put up signs saying, ‘watch out for heavy equipment’, even ‘mud on road’! I asked why they needed that, as it’s quite obvious! They said a young man was riding a motorcycle on a farm, slipped on mud, was killed, and the family sued the farmer that owned the land for not posting there was mud. And they won! So, this is to protect ourselves. If it’s listed, we don’t have liability!  Steve and Elder Foy also went to repair a fence at a farm this week, because someone broke through, and people have been “fly tipping there. Any guesses on what that means??

We saw a sign for “no fly tipping” when we were in Preston a few weeks ago. Found out, it means “No dumping rubbish”!  😊 Clever name! Haha! I love all of the fun words I’m learning.

The guys have also been making signs to place at the 6 ponds around various farms, stating the water is deep, keep away. Steve also found orange life preservers and ropes to place on the signs, in case of accidents. Again, liability.  They look pretty good though! It’s a big deal digging the post holes though, as there is a lot of clay in the soil. They come home pretty tired.  Speaking of clay in the soil, in our back yard, where they are renovating the old barn into two apartments (flats) to rent, they dug big holes for sewer/water etc, and I got some clay and made a little pot! Just to see if I could. It’s great clay! 

We also had a fun Relief Society get together the other night, and they made food with a ‘Fall Harvest’ theme, and it was great! Best part was getting to know the sisters in the ward. They are good women, with the same concerns we have everywhere, but they say it with a cool accent!

We didn’t venture out this rainy weekend, but stayed home and listened to conference. It is on at 5-7 pm, and second sessions 9-11pm, both days. We watched the women’s session Sunday afternoon between the other sessions, rather than staying up till 1:00 am to see it live! They were great though! We even stayed awake through them all! Love hearing our dear prophets speak, and all of the other inspired general authorities.  We are hastening the work for sure, and there is still much to do. What a great time to be alive!

WEEK 12: A visit to Scotland!

September 24 – 30, 2018

How the weeks are cruising by! Sister Foy and I did a lot of mowing this week, and there was more roofing, trouble shooting, and sign building for the men.  I also Did some more painting, while Sister Foy went on her Ministering one day.  Our adventure this weekend was fabulous!  We traveled by train to Edinburgh, Scotland, spent the night and returned the next day.  Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and is more than 900 years old.  In fact, the castle site has been a place of defense since 74 AD!  The volcanic Castle Rock offers a naturally defended position, with sheer cliffs on the north and south, and a steep ascent from the west. The castle dominates the skyline of the city from its position on Castle Rock and is awesome to behold! I took lots of pictures,but we’re having trouble posting them here, so look to Facebook and Instagram for the cool pics!

From the Edinburgh Castle gates to the Holyrood Palace gates,the street is almost exa mile long and runs downhill between these two significant locations.  We enjoyed a guided walking tour of the city along the Royal Mile learning of Edinburgh's history and architecture.  We met the tour outside St. Giles’ Cathedral near Mercat Cross where we heard of many famous people that called the city home over the centuries, such as David Hume, Adam Smith, Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson, John Knox, Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Carlyle and surprisingly Alexander Graham Bell plus many, many others.  Next we took the bus tour around the city.  There, we heard stories of how the medical school acquired cadavers (grave robbers!)  for teaching purposes since a premium was paid for providing dead bodies. The medical school of Edinburgh is the oldest medical school in the UK, one of the oldest medical schools in the English-speaking world.  We learned about the Scottish chemist, Joseph Black who discovered CO2,  James Young Simpson who first used anesthetics and Joseph Lister, who  developed antiseptic surgical practices but only has a mouthwash to memorialize his name!  Because Edinburgh was geographically contained on three sides by a wall and water to the north (the firth of forth), the rapidly increasing population had nowhere new to build, so the houses grew higher and higher.  Edinburgh claims to have the world’s first high-rise housing where some structures reached nine stories or more by the late 1600s.  The architecture is amazing!  By the end of the 18th century, “New Town” was built on farmland to the north.  Bridges were built over the deep ravines created by glaciers and the medieval town now blends nicely with the new town.

Someone named Billy Connolly said, “Scotland has two seasons, June and winter!"  Friday we were there in "June",  and fought to stay warm on Saturday as we toured the castle.  Being high up on a rock precipice has its disadvantages when the wind blows!  But with the hundreds of Scottish wool items being marketed all around us, it would have been easy to purchase lovely, soft warmth! I'm allergic to wool though, so we didn't.  Our ride back home was interesting as we were soon joined by 7 middle aged gents from Yorkshire, who were "out for a night on the town", and had a bit to drink,  We chatted with them, and invited them to church, which made the time pass quickly. 
This is another beautiful area, full of lush green meadows, flocks of sheep and a beautiful river winding through it.  Hopefully I can figure out the pictures, so you can see how beautiful it is!

WEEK 13: Fall is in the air!

October 1 – 7, 2018

What a great weekend we are having and we didn’t even go exploring this time!  We are looking forward to General Conference. Sister Foy and I went with our ministering sisters to the city of March to tour the Parish of March St. Wendreda—the Church of 120 angels.  This church was dedicated to a woman who lived at March in the 7th century.  The famous angel roof has 120 carved angels depicting martyrs and saints with emblems while the lowest tier is of angels holding musical instruments, which is actually a bit creepy.  One expert said, “the roof is so very fine that it is, in our opinion, very much more than a roof, it is a great national possession.  It truly is one of the finest church roofs in England, perhaps the very finest!” After our exploring the church, our ministering sisters provided a delicious snack of egg custard tarts with nutmeg, grapes, and savory flapjack.  Fun treats for us to experience!

Back at the farm, Sister Foy and I spent mornings working in the office, indexing land purchasing records.  It is a tedious task involving a lot of reading and deciphering what in the world we are looking at!  Sister Foy enjoys office work,but even for her it becomes a mind-numbing experience after a few hours. I told her that this was my definition of what Hell would be like, so I found other things that needed to be done!  I made some large number templates, to use in painting reference point grids in the grain storage barns.  Then I cleaned an oven for a rental and continued painting the weight bridge over at Hungary Hall as the men finished up the gable end siding.  These jobs were preferable to reading those pages!!!!

The men were very productive this week, getting many small jobs completed.  They mowed at Salmons Farm, Salmons Shed, Grunty Fen and White Cross and while at Salmons Farm, replaced the door on the electric substation and repaired the rain gutter on a grain storage barn.  They were able to complete and install three of the six sign boards requested for the farm entrances.  An oven was replaced in Grange Cottage #2.  This involved cutting the cooktop out along with the built-in oven and installing a stand-alone range.  The garage door locks we couldn’t find keys for were replaced.  A storage shed for one of the tenants at Moat was re-roofed after the wind tore the original one.  While there, they did a burn and helped a tenant with all the large moving boxes the recycle facility wouldn’t take.  When they installed the farm sign at Hamerton,they also completed the high up painting we girls didn’t want to do on the farmhouse.  At Nook farm, a panel had come loose on the middle barn and was bent damaged.  They were able to fix and reattach it.  Then at the weight bridge at Hungary Hall, they put the finishing touches on the gable ends of the roof, caulked the door and windows, painted some of the eves, and cleaned up the interior dry wall that had been damaged by the water leaks.  It’s a significantly better building even though we haven’t finished the painting!  

Oh, we had he young elders over again this week for dinner and I finally remembered to take pictures.  Elder Henrie is from Canada and Elder Stock is from Cache Valley, UT. Great Elders! We love having them over!

WEEK 11: Visit to Preston

September 17 – 23, 2018

Steve and Elder Foy continue to be in high demand for projects all over the farm.  They are a good team and come up with some inventive ways to solve problems.  Their best quality is that they are production oriented and love to complete projects.  Exactly why they are collecting more and more things to add to their to-do list!

Oh!! I learned how the hay/straw gets stacked so high!! I asked one of the farm hands, and he told me (with a straight face) they use a ‘teleporter’!  I KNEW it must be magic! 

Then, on further discussion, I found out that they call those fork lifts that move up and out, teleporters! No ‘beam me up Scotty’ teleporter here.  😢

This week was wet and extremely windy so the guys couldn’t put the tile on the weight station bridge roof they have been working on, but they purchased materials and are ready to move forward when the weather breaks.  They insulated water pipes and replaced the lock at the Hungary Hall electrical substation, pulled the leaking rear seal on the Hinomoto tractor, replaced the chain saw gas line, sharpened the chain, got my John Deere tractor tire replaced, (which had an untimely death while I was riding it) then they made a temporary repair on one of the shed roofs at Moat Farm and repaired and strengthened the sprayer platform on the Kabota tractor, and found materials, cut them out, and applied the first coat of paint to sign boards needed at each farm for notices and deep water warning.  It was a busy week!

Sister Foy and I have finished our other projects and are back to mowing the lawns around all of the farm’s housing areas.  With the “unseasonably warm “ weather all summer, the grass growth has slowed way down so we haven’t had as much to do! We have been getting moisture lately so it’s been growing again! We mowed 5 farms, and somehow I got a flat tire on my tractor. 
The places we mow are so bumpy that I didn’t even notice till I was done, and ruined my poor tire! ☹️ So we couldn’t mow the last 2 days. But that was ok, because with all of the new housing renovations going in, the Elders have been involved with a lot of soil preparation for new lawns. They have been doing a good job with equipment available but Steve found a reasonably priced, used rotavater (rototiller) that would be a great help to their projects, in Preston. So, we had to go to Preston to pick it up.  Since we were in the area, we also did a temple session and did the work for a relative from England! So we brought her back ‘home’ to do her work!  

We spent the night at temple accommodations, which is a service available for out-of-town guests, and was only 24 pounds for the night.

 Near the temple is a restaurant called Goodwin’s where we stopped for lunch prior to the temple session.  It was delicious food for a reasonable price, so we went back for dinner!  The same cute waiter was there, and we enjoyed talking to him about America and President Trump!  On Saturday, we had a good time going on the church history tour of Preston. We visited the place where Gordon B Hinckley stayed, and also walked to the River Ribble, where the first saints in England were baptized.  I could feel the Spirit really strong in the square where the missionaries stood to share the Gospel with those early saints. It was so sweet.

We planned to tour Liverpool on our way home, to see where our ancestors from that area set sail for America.  We stopped at the Liverpool Costco for lunch and a little shopping, then walked to the docks but couldn’t find a parking place.  A parking garage wouldn’t work because the rotavator’s length necessitated leaving the tailgate down, so we looked for a parking structure.  Then there appeared to be some type of large organized march, rally or protest going on, closing streets where we could have parked.  We tried to get around it but finally gave up and just called it a day. We were a bit tired anyway from all of the walking!!  We were disappointed, but we will experience the sights at Liverpool another day. 

Sundays are always fun for us, as Steve and I co-teach the 10-12 yr olds for primary, and we are studying the Old Testament right now. And I volunteered to lead the music 🎶, since they didn’t have a Primary chorister, so I’m loving that!! We have 22 kids. They are so cute!!! After the meeting block, we both attended choir practice as Sister Hubbard specifically invited Us to participate.  We are beginning to practice for Armistice Sunday.  All the churches in England have a big celebration on the Sunday closest to November 11th and ours is no exception! We love the great people we work with here!!

WEEK 10: It gets busier...

This week has gone by SO fast!! We continue to work at the various farms, repairing, painting, mowing lawns/weeds, and While the Elders are busy with bigger repairs, we Sisters hurry home around 2-3:00 in the afternoon to continue to preserve the fruit we pick up around the farms. Drying apples is our now favorite choice, but I make an apple pie a week for Steve to eat.  I'm trying not to eat all the goodies, but Steve really likes them!  I made extra pie crust dough this week, so just for fun made a banana cream pie.  I thought we would find someone to share the pies with, but Steve took care of them both! He works so hard during the day, he's not even gaining any weight! Great metabolism!!

This Saturday we went to visit Oxford University.  There are 39 colleges that make up the University, and the whole town of Qxford is amazing!  We took the walking tour of the town, with a nice young guide named Stephan, so we would know what we were looking at.  He even showed us the spot where 3  priests were beheaded due to the changing of religions.  Depending which King or Queen was in power, and their belief, they all started out Catholic, then because of marriage problems, King Henry VIII started the "Church of England," a Protestant faith. Then with Queen Mary, it was back to Catholicism, etc... and of course they had to get rid of everyone that didn't agree with them during their reigns. That is an over simplified explanation, but it was too sad for me to dwell on.

There are remnants of old Roman walls surrounding parts of the town.  I love all of the old, ancient buildings!  I know they have been living and building there for centuries, but I am still amazed at the complexity of the brick and stone use.  They were built 1 brick/stone at a time! Wow.  It's amazing to see how they integrate the modern buildings (and conveniences) into the old, and mostly they try to make them compatible.  There are libraries and museums EVERYWHERE!  It is home to the largest library in the world, I think is what our guide said, which goes underneath the road.

Doctorate Graduate

This was also Graduation Day for all of the colleges. They have it all the same day, and all of the colleges graduate together, on the same day!

After our fabulous tour, we went to The Eagle and Child Pub for lunch. This is a pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkein  would meet weekly to discuss the books they were working on. They wrote the Lion, Witch and Wardrobe series and Lord of the Rings series while they were at Oxford.  Next, we took another drive to  Blenheim Palace, a beautiful, HUGE palace, where Winston Churchill was born.  It belonged to his grandfather.  His parents were there visiting when mom decided to deliver!  It is a very grand place, complete with a private lake and manicured gardens. Churchill stayed and played there often as a child.  It was very grand! We will have to return to see the second floor of the palace next time, as we only had an hour before the building closed, so we explored the beauty outside after the first floor.  We love visiting the historical places of this beautiful country.  I wonder where next week will take us!?!

WEEK 9: Phun With Phones! :)

As usual a lot has happened since our last post. I lost my phone while "trash mowing" with a brush hog, Here they are called flail mowers. Pretty violent machine we use on the rocky uneven ground or really tall weeds. I looked for my phone everywhere at the four farms we serviced that day and ended up buying a new phone. I got a Huawei, it has a larger screen  than my Samsung S7, is thinner, with all the same features, no contract, for 90 pounds including the first month's service. Makes me think we are being ripped off in buying phones in the USA. After a week I found my Samsung on the seat of a tractor I had parked. I also complained about the farm phone and they gave us not working, and they gave me a new Samsung S4 so now I have three phones!

Shelly and Ron Murphy came to visit this weekend on their way to a cruise. We took them to Sherwood Forest to see the "Major Oak". The picture doesn't do it justice because there is no scale. The trunk is over 12 feet across, the poles holding the limbs are 20 feet long. It is estimated to be over 900 years old. We saw lots of huge oaks and and said "this must be it" until we saw the real thing!  Wow!!! They say if Robin Hood was a real character, they would've met here!

Here again, no scale, but another huge, ancient tree. There is a four foot fence post to the right of the tree just past the white rock. The guide at the visitors center said the oaks take 300 years to grow to maturity, 300 years as a viable tree and 300 years to slowly die. I told him of a large oak I mow around that is  half rotted away. He said it would be another hundred years before it was completely gone. I still mow under it as fast as I can. 

Here are some photos I found on my lost phone. 

I bought a cheap metal detector on Amazon. When it arrived I put it together and tried it in our front yard. I immediately found a 1980 US dime, then a minute later I found a US quarter with a hole drilled in it. A few minutes later I found  a 1928 King George III penny about the size of our half dollar. 

As you can imagine, I was very excited and wished I'd bought a better machine.
 Since then, all I have found is junk. I'm sure there is lots of good stuff on the 18 farms
but it is hidden behind all the junk. 

We are still keeping really busy, there is always LOTS for us to do!  Robyn has been drying apples and making apple pies with all of the surplus apples around this area, that no one seems eager to use.  I keep telling Robyn, "you don't have to pick all the apples!"  She was taught to "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without", and has a hard time seeing the fruit go to waste.  

 We love teaching our primary class each Sunday, the kids are great! Well, that's our story for this week.Till next time.