Montpelier, VT...The Capital

We went to Montpelier today to go to the Wal Mart, because the one in Lebanon was closed due to the flood. This is a beautiful little city. The capitol building is topped with gold!!! Did you notice?

Hurricane Irene

We have been hit with the rainfall that was brought in by Irene. It rained solid for 18 hours and the river was up to the bottom of the bridges here in this area. I didn't have my camera when I could have taken some great pictures and was at the site while the river subsided. We were told that some houses went into the water. One family in the ward we attend lost theirs and they will be staying upstairs with us. Some businesses along the river were flooded and will not re-open. There were houses as old as the one in the last blog that were close enough to be destroyed by the floods. That tells us that this hasn't happened in over 200 years. This picture shows the height that the water was up on the abutment for the freeway overpass. Notice the log on ledge...the water was above that!

This is on the house in the last post. It is the year the house was built. Amazing!!

House on Dairy Hill Rd.

We live in an old part of our country. This is a house that was built in 1797. It is a little saggy in spots, but people still live in it and keep the lawns mowed to excellence...as do most people here in this part of the country.

What keeps Vermont green!

This is Hurricane Irene as we experience it here in Vermont. The rain is torrential and has been for hours. They tell us it will continue for another day. We are predicted to get from 4-6" from it. We are up on a knoll and won't likely be affected other than a little mud on our rain washed car!

This is Hurricane Irene as we experience it here in Vermont. The rain is torrential and has been for hours. They tell us it will continue for another day. We are predicted to get from 4-6"

Each day whether we go in at 9:00 or 12:00 or 2:00, we still get to drive down roads like this either on our way to the site or driving to see the surrounding countryside. We consider ourselves very blessed to be able to do this.

This is a little critter that found his way onto our front lawn. He is a groundhog or as is talked about in the tongue twister...how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Today wasn't the most crowded we've had, but the tours were great. I had only two tours and they were both with members. It's more exciting when we get non-members and give them a referal card.
We are priming up for the storm that is hitting the east coast right now. We are supposed to get 40 mph winds and about 4 to 6 inches of rain during the next two days. We are ready for it, but most likely won't get many...if any visitors to the site. We'll see.
Fantastic news today the elder closest to the camera is Elder Craig. He just found out today that he is a direct descendent of Hiram Smith and therefore his ancestors came over on the Mayflower as did all the Smith's. He is so excited about it and we are expecting he and his comp. to show up later tonight to celebrate with us.

I am finally learning how to do the blog thing. It is fun and I love to let you see what we see everyday and sometimes just on our "P" day. We have seen a lot of the state of Vermont and a little of the state of New Hampshire. Some of the pictures are not too good because the photographer isn't that good. Last P day we went to Manchester, Vermont to the summer home of the son of President Lincoln...Robert Lincoln. His wife used to drive around in this car and Robert, the son, was at one time the CEO of Pullman Co. which was the largest manufacturer in the world. They made train cars. That was in the early 1900's.

Goat farm at the Robert Lincoln estate called Hildene in Vermont. They milk 28 goats a day and get about 20 gallons of milk to make cheese. It was a fun site. Brittney would love it here.

Monument

Joseph Smith Birthplace Monument...where we serve everyday.

How beautiful can it get. This is where we get to be every day!

This is the beautiful monument to Joseph Smith. This is where we serve.

Hard at it!!!!

Hey Family,
We are hard at it and I have just yesterday got the internet. We have had a phone for a few days longer than that and our phone number is 1-802-763-8493. Remember for those of you in Utah there is a two hour difference so if you call at 10:00 pm there it is midnight here and I will call you back at 7:00 in the morning here which will be 5:00 am there. That's not a threat, just a suggestion for when to call. At the latest we will be off work at 7:00 here, so that means a call at 7:30 would be fantastic.
We have been giving a lot of tours and some of them have been very spiritual and fun. A lady called today that had been here a week ago and wanted some more information on Joseph Smith's childhood from what I had told her. It was exciting to tell it again over the phone and I even had her call the apartment where Mom was so she could give her more information.
We have had the Elders over a few times for meals and they have sort of latched on to us and we love it. We took them to a place in the far reaches of the district for them and we went to a cheese making place and maple syrup farm. Fantastic samples and we bought some maple syrup. It is very expensive, but when we learned that it takes over 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.
The cheeses were fantastic and we sampled them all.
Yesterday we went to the Barre Quarry where they got the granite for the monument. I took a few pictures and Elder Craig is coming over tonight to show me how to get the pictures from my Droid to the computer. I will load them on the blog when I learn how to do that.
Mom and I love all of you. Blog to you later.