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.

WEEK 8 already????

This was a fun week. The Sisters had an accident with one of the mower trailers. They thought they were just in a mud puddle and tried just revving their way out- but the ramp on the trailer was stuck on a low hanging branch, and the tree won! We spent half a day straightening things, but one small piece was not repairable so we had to order it. It could take weeks to get here so we have to be creative with scheduling the remaining trailer.

Elder Foy taught me how to “tingle and tag” repair an ancient slate roof. The slate back then came in a different size than what is sold today. We salvaged original tiles from the damaged roof on the yard side and used them on the street side.  Then we cut new synthetic tiles for the yard side, I took before and after photos. While we were there I repainted the shed doors.

Some of the tiles have to be pushed up under good secure tiles and can't be nailed in place.  To hold them, we use "tingle" and "tag" pieces to repair them.  The tingle is a narrow strip of lead or copper. (About 4”x 1/2”) and is nailed to one of the stringer boards under the tile, then bent up over the bottom of the tile once it's in place. You may be able to see them in the photos. It was strange to ask the young lady clerk  at the roofing store for a tingle. 

 Saturday we drove on down to Norfolk in East Anglia and toured the Norwich Castle which now houses the Norfolk Museum. Built in 1067,  it's 70 feet tall and set on a man made hill hundreds of feet high.

In the foreground is one of the local beauties XOXO. To the right of the Keep is an addition that was added when the building was used as a prison in the 1800's.  This looks like a walk way which I guess it is but we made a wrong turn and couldn't turn around so we drove up to the top. Luckily there were other cars there and the nice greeter likes the funny Americans and told us we could park off to the left of the castle. That was fantastic because there is never any place to park and if you DO  find one there is always a charge. 

This is the door to the Keep. Our tour guide Mike is standing in front of it. It's located high on the side of the building with a narrow stair case leading to it. It is the only way in and anyone trying to attack would have to single file through a gauntlet of defenses.

We next drove to the city Great Yarmouth which is at the mouth of the River Yar.

(Clever these English!)

This a wall around the old city built in 1260. It's 2200 yards long and had a moat. 

I also found the local NHS surgery office.

From there we went to Loddon where some of Elder Foy’s ancestors came from. We visited the church they most likely attended and walked through the grave yard. We stopped at a local Fish and Chips place run by a husband and wife and their young daughter. The place was the size of our bathroom and the line was out to the street. This is the menu, very reasonable prices. Remember you have to add 33% to convert to dollars. 

We took our food to eat at the Church near the River Chet. You can moor there for free, for 24 hours and there is a nice public restroom with a shower even! There are so many beautiful little villages here. Everyone is like a post card. 

Today we spoke in church. It went okay but it's hard to tell because the people are so nice. I love hearing the Sacrament prayers in the original English tongue. There was a ton more stuff this week but this is already too long. Love you!

Steve

WEEK 7: Another Great Week!

                                     17-18 August 2018

We had a wonderful weekend!  It began on Friday after working at the Grange Farmhouse for a half day.  We traveled to the London Temple and checked in at patron accommodations as we were spending the night there.  Then we enjoyed a very small but lovely endowment session. Both the Foy's and we had more family names needing baptism, so we asked about getting them done.  President Freeman, of the temple presidency, invited us to join the youth group coming in 15 minutes to perform baptisms.  He told us that circumstances had greatly diminished the size of the group they were expecting, but he told the bishop to send whomever could come and the Lord would provide enough priesthood to complete the work.  We were quite literally provided by the Lord!

It was fun to participate in baptisms and confirmations, something we haven’t done in quite a while.  Elder Foy and I were baptized for our family names.  Then Elder Foy was voice for some baptisms and confirmations, and Steve acted as a witness. He then did some confirmations.  Sister Foy also participated in the confirmations.  We met a lovely family, the Ahmanson's from Fort Collins, CO who were just finishing their tour of England and France, and took time to come to the Temple.  They are a convert family of just three years. Daughters Asalyn 17 and Liesel 13, and brother Julian 15 and their parents. We really enjoyed hearing their conversion story, of how their mother felt the need to be baptized by a specific date in October.  It turned out they had been members for a year and a day when the Fort Collins Temple was dedicated and they were the first family to be sealed in it!  Such a delightful family. We were well fed spiritually. But since we hadn't eaten for a long time, we needed physical food too, in spite of the late hour. So we had dinner at 9:00 p.m. at the Peacock Lodge, just around the corner from the Temple.  It was delicious, and they rushed our order, as the kitchen was closing in five minutes! 

Saturday, we traveled to Canterbury to explore. The Canterbury Cathedral is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. This 1,400-year-old building is massive, beautiful and had much history there. The archbishop, Thomas Becket was martyred in 1170, by knights of King Henry II,  who had frequent conflicts with Becket and is said to have exclaimed in frustration, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" Four knights took it literally and murdered Becket in his own cathedral.  Through succeeding miracles, Becket was proclaimed a saint, which made the cathedral a place of pilgrimage. 

                                                              

On the walk from the car park to the Cathedral, we passed "The Canterbury Tales" attraction and popped in for a delightful retelling of many of Chaucer’s famous tales, set in 14th-century England and housed in the beautiful St. Margaret’s church.  

Our “extended P-day” finished up with a trip to Costco and a long ride home!  Work wise this week, Sister Foy and I were able to finish painting Grange Farmhouse, except for the master bedroom.  The 100+ yr. old structure is cracking in one corner, so the engineer needs to strap it back together.  But it’s wonderful to have so much accomplished!

Steve and Elder Foy working on the tile

Elder Foy and Steve continue to resolve problems and mend concerns.  Some corrugated cement fiber panels were replaced around the fuel tank at Grange Farm as were several on the  chemical storage barns in the office yard.  They had to make some additional repairs on the grain storage at another farm and were called out one night to cover holes in the roof of the grain storage shed, as they expected (and got!) rain the next day. That was loads of fun for them climbing up the hills of grain to repair the top!  The men also took care of some water leaks at Hungary Hall as well as replaced the garden tub surround.  They mowed more farm patches of weeds, fixed the sliding door on the van, and hung a new gate at a little cottage.  But the neatest job they did was to repair the tile at Grange Farmhouse where the plumber had ripped it out looking for the source of a leaking toilet.  They rocked that job!

WEEK 5: We still love it!

We we had another busy week! Steve and Elder Foy have been doing repairs on the floors of some of the storage barns, that hold all of the grain that has been harvested. They worked on the Safefield and Salmon farms, and did such a good job, they were asked by our boss, Ben Conway to continue doing more on Safefield, Pitt Deanne and Tibbett’s Bridge barns. The bosses were very happy with their work!The harvest is ongoing. They have finished the rapeseed, which is what they make canola oil out of, and now are working on the wheat.  I was talking to some of the farm workers, and they said the load they just placed in the barn was 17.5 tons of wheat!

Combine, mowing the wheat

They have 3 John Deer combines and 3-4 tractor/trailers going for 16-18 hours a day!  Steve and Elder Foy have also been doing some mowing of grass/weeds in between the floor repairs.

Sister Foy and I have been assigned to cleaning and painting the Grange Farmhouse, which is a very large 100+ yr old house with 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a large kitchen, 4 fireplaces, a large hallway, laundry room and 3 other smaller living areas. We are getting it ready for new renters.  The last renters left it pretty clean, but it will still take us awhile to get all of the painting done.
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Grange Farmhouse                 

 Cool pond by the house

Wednesday, we had the honor of being “judges” for the Conway girls’ annual ‘school holiday bake-off’.  They made wonderful sweet treats that we tested and they were Delicious! Strawberry shortcake with fondant frosting that Alice artfully made, and delectable brownies with a caramel layer that Esther made, and fabulous fudge that had a slight pink tint to it, made by little Cecile, and the yummy cream puffs that Eliza made.  Fortunately, we didn’t have to pick a winner, they just wanted to share the experience with us. We were definitely over sugared and decided to skip dinner.  Just drank lots of water, hoping to dilute the sugar
rush!

School Holiday Bake-off

Friday was Steve’s birthday, and the Foys treated us to a movie, “Mission Impossible: Fallout” with Tom Cruise, and it was full of excitement! We then went to dinner at Steve’s favorite Irish restaurant, McDonald’s. He’s been wanting to try it out since we got here! Yes, it tastes the same.

Us and the Foy's waiting for the movie

Saturday, we took a fun trip to Ely.  We toured the  Ely Cathedral with a good guide and learned a lot about the history of this quaint little town.  There was a large wedding there that afternoon and we enjoyed seeing the groomsmen in their tails and top hats as well as the vintage Rolls Royce looking cars parked out front for the wedding party.

Cute English Wedding Party (of course I asked! They're posing!)

We ate lunch at the nearby Minister Pub then took a short riverboat ride on the Great Ouse River.

    
Riverboat Ride

Back to Keeler Farm to get ready for a BBQ with a family in our ward, John & Pam Flattley, her sister Janet, three of their grandchildren and our local young missionaries, Elders Henrie and Stock.  We set up the BBQ grill for hamburgers and “Foy chicken”, which was yummy!! I made a potato salad and had fun finding “dill pickles”, which are called “Soured Gherkins” here. I also made some snickerdoodles for dessert.

Sunday we met our new primary class. They are the oldest Valiant class and there were 4 boys and 3 girls there today. Had a good lesson learning about Samuel the Prophet and ways we can listen to the Lord and to have the Holy Ghost with us. Great kids! We love it!!