Leaf Peeping on "The Hill"

I love watching the Hill Cumorah change colors.  This first picture was taken from the south end at the top of Hill Cumorah looking north.  You can't see it, but the Admin Building that we are inventorying is behind this bank of trees at the foot of "The Hill".

This one is taken from the same spot on "The Hill" but looking more south.

This one is taken from the same spot looking west across State Route 21.  All the property in the foreground on both sides of the road belong to the church.

We went down the hill to take this last one.  Now we're looking up at Moroni and the place the other pictures were taken from.  He's hard to see, but Moroni is in the very center of the picture.

What we are really doing here

Okay, I've put so much about what we are "seeing" here that it's time to add what we're "doing" here.

This first picture is a building just south of the Visitors Center at the Hill Cumorah (VCHC).   It's called the Administration Building or Admin Building for short.  I love the fall colors surrounding the building.

This building is the center/brain of the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  It's where it all gets put together.  It' full of costumes, wigs, and all sorts of equipment and management "stuff" for the pageant.  Elder Poulson and I have been assigned to take an inventory of the Administration Building.  We don't need to inventory the items IN the building, but we are to inventory the building itself.  FUN, and I'm glad I have Elder Poulson to help me.  We count and measure and document the walls, flooring, mill work, lights, etc. everything that is part of the actual building.  I'm learning a lot. 

I took the second picture on our way to fix a rope on the door of the thrashing barn.  There is a large barn that was moved onto the Smith Farm from the John Young Farm (John was Brigham's father).  They took the barn apart and moved it here and put it back together again.  It's the original Young thrashing barn.  It has large barn doors on each end of the barn and they close the doors every evening at closing time.  There are large hemp ropes to pull the doors closed and they wear out frequently.  Elder Poulson was assigned to replace the frayed ropes and I went with him. 

These pictures were taken while Elder Poulson and I worked at the Welcome Center where the tours start for the Smith Farm and the Sacred Grove.  We had the assignment to calk the expansion joints in the sidewalk in front of the Welcome Center.  I wasn't too much help but I played "go-fer" and helped move benches and set up barricades to keep visitors from stepping in the goop that filled the cracks.  I didn't take pictures of the job, but I did snap some pictures of the fall colors at the entrance to the Smith Farm.

To summarize and to answer the questions about "what do you do as FM missionaries", I'll list some of our assignments here.

We've painted the pole barn doors....We've planted vinca on "The Hill"....We've fixed broken locks on a few doors (did I mention that we both have master keys that will get us into ANY door owned by the Church here in the Finger Lakes area?)....Bill has done "cold patch" work on pot holes in the blacktop on the road to Moroni....and he just finished "winterizing" all (and there are a lot) of the toilets in the pageant bathrooms.  That involved taking the toilets all apart to get every drop of water out and replacing it with anti-freeze....He has replaced lights in the parking lot of the church in Fairport and the Palmyra Temple....He is in the process of cleaning and organizing one of the work stations used for woodworking....If I can't find him, he's usually in the Pole Barn helping the auto mechanic get the golf carts (lots of those too) ready to store for the winter and the snow blowers (a dozen +) ready to work in the winter.  At one time or another, I've cleaned every sacred site except the Whitmer Farm.  That entails cleaning the log cabin, the frame home and Welcome Center and the Hill Comorah Visitors Center and the Grandin Building.  Bill helps if he's available and right now he's helping me, when he can,with the Christmas lights for the Smith Farm.  I've worked 2 full days and he has helped about half that time.  It involves testing every string of 100 lights to be sure they are working.  About half of them are NOT working and require trouble shooting to get them going.  We have about half of them done, I think.  There are 110 working strings with that many more to trouble shoot.  I'm learning patience and Bill is teaching me patience.

We love it here.  We love our mission and we love the work we do.  It is a spiritual work we are doing in a sacred place.  We are so blessed. 

Moses 6:63

• And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me.

Seneca Lake Camp

Last Friday and Saturday we were invited to be "kitchen help" at our stake YM "Duty to God Campout".  It was held at the church's girls camp at Lake Seneca.  Our "boss" at work is also the Palmyra Stake YM President, thus the "invitation".  It was a good experience and gave us time to really see the camp and the surrounding area. 

The Finger Lakes region where we are serving is a beautiful area and we love, love living here.

This first picture is of the entrance to "Seneca Lake Camp".  The church has owned it for about 10 years we are told.  When they purchased it, it was a farm with 2 homes on it

The second picture is a close-up of the barn at the camp. The church has built it up to be a wonderful camp ground with cabins and a large gathering building   Newly installed are spaces for RV camping and there is room for tent camping too. 

In the third picture you will see some men installing a roof on a newly constructed restroom/shower and patio area where meals can be prepared. 

The fourth picture is looking from the driveway of the camp toward Lake Seneca.  The camp is right across the road from the lake and the church also owns a dock right on the lake.  In the summer the girls swim in the lake and use the dock.

Just by chance, the missionary managers of Seneca Lake Camp are also my sister's brother and sister-in-law.  They live in one of the homes on at the camp and the other large home is rented out for family reunions, etc.  That home sleeps about 17-18 people. 

Here are views of Lake Seneca.  It is one of the largest of the Finger Lakes and it is beautiful.  The water, when we were there, was crystal clear.  It was a bit chilly but I'm sure it is an amazing place to play in the hot, humid summer.  We might just try it out.

First picture is of the dock from the road directly across from the camp.

Second picture is Bill on the dock.  I told you it was chilly.  Bill wore his winter hat.

Third picture is looking north from the dock and the fourth picture is looking south from the dock.  The finger lakes are loooonnnng and comparatively skinny.  You can see the west bank across the lake if you look closely.  We are told that this lake is 600 feet deep.  During WWII, the U.S. Navy used this lake to train on submarines.  Another interesting trivia piece to remember. 

So Much Water

There is so much water here.  There are lakes, rivers, streams and ponds everywhere.  The Erie Canal is my favorite.  Well, it's my favorite man-made water way.  The Finger Lakes are amazing too and I'll journal about them in my next entry.  This picture is of Elder Poulson (Bill) standing by a waterway that is right next to the Erie Canal at lock #29 right here in Palmyra.  Notice the lock tender's office in the background.  After we took this picture, we crossed this waterway on a bridge and hiked up the hill in the background.

Here are some information signs we found near the canal.  It's pretty interesting and hard to imagine how they built this canal system so many years ago.  Lucy Mack Smith led a party of Saints from Palmyra to Kirtland using the Erie Canal and the boats which in those days were pulled by mules along the canal bank.

When we got to the canal bank lock #29 was at its low point.  The west gate (the higher water) was closed and the east gate (the lower water) was open making the water in the lock the same as the low water on the east side.  These pictures show what the canal looks like from the edge.

As we were looking around, the lock tender came out of his office and I ask if it was okay to walk across the lock to take some pictures.  He assured me that it was okay.  I gingerly walked out on the closed, west lock (it has handrails) and took this picture looking east straight down the center of the canal.  I was excited to see this boat coming into view just as I took the picture. 

I was excited to see how the lock works.  I tried to take enough pictures to get the "action" of it all.  This is the boat just entering the east end of lock #29.  The lock tender went to that end of the lock to give direction to the people on board.  As they came into the lock, they tied the boat to one of many hanging tie-downs.  The tie-downs are up fairly high and had to be reached with a long pole.  There is a reason they are high up on the wall of the lock.

Once the boat was safely in and tied down, the lock tender closed the east gate.  I got 4 pictures of that as it closed.

The lock tender walked back past us and I asked, "How long will it take to fill the lock?".  To our surprise his reply was, "Seven minutes".  WOW, that's a lot of water in just seven minutes.  I began to take pictures as the water began flooding in.  It comes in under gravity flow, no pumps involved, amazing.  There are several, I didn't count them, pipes feeding the water into the lock.  They are on the south side of the lock where we were standing and feed in from very near the bottom.  We couldn't see the pipes but we sure could see the water as it poured in. Watch the boat rise by comparing the waterline to where the boat sits.

The boat continued to rise fairly rapidly.  I  was wishing I had my camera on video.

Isn't it amazing how this works....or am I just over the top on this?  I admit I'm so interested in this mode of traveling.  By the way,  I've asked several "locals" whom we work with this question:  "Which way does the water flow in the Erie Canal?".  Do you know?  I didn't and some of the "locals" said east and some said west.  The real answer is it doesn't flow.  The Erie Canal is more like a lake.  It flows which ever way the locks are opened and shut.  Now you have the answer to a trivia question if you ever need one.

 

Hope you find this fun.  As you can surely tell, I did and do.  The boat came up to the level of the Erie Canal to our west and begin to move along the canal.  As the pictures show, it moved right through the now open west gate.  The gate is open and below the yellow handrails which, when the gate was closed, I held on to as I took some of the first pictures from the center of the canal.  Notice the gate and handrails in the second picture where the boat is leaving lock #29.

Here you can see the boat moving away from lock #29 and the west gate is again closed.  You can see the "bridge" with handrails from where I took the first pictures in this journaling. 

After watching the boat move through the lock, we walked down to the east lock and took some pictures.  On the far side looking north there are always lots and lots of geese.  If you look closely, you can see a few of them.  I've added a picture I took by zooming in.  These are Canadian Geese like "our" Goose-goose we have at the office.

The last picture is of Bill at the east end of lock #29.  The gate is again closed,  I took this picture from the same place I took the previous 2 pictures, only this time I'm looking west up the stairs.

New Ward

We spoke in our new ward today. We’ve been assigned to attend the Canandaigua Ward. The Bishop of that ward just happens to be one of our bosses at the Facilities Management Office. So, when he learned that we’ve been assigned to that ward, he called us into his office and “changed his hat to Bishop” and asked us to speak in church this week. We were happy to do it and now the ward “knows” us. Seems like a good ward but here we go, learning new faces and names again. I was going to take a picture of the building, but it was raining ‘cats and dogs’ when we left, so I left the camera home. It takes us about 40 minutes to get to church along forest lined country roads which have little towns founded over 200 years ago and homes from the same era. I love looking at every home and wondering what they would say, if they could talk.

We live about 1 mile from the Erie Canal and cross over it at least twice every day. We’ve wanted to do some exploring along the canal, but just have not found the time and the weather right to do it. Yesterday was COLD and today started out raining but when we came out of church it was 70 degrees, weird changes in weather this week. So, after lunch we drove over to a place along the Erie where we thought we could see a lock from where we cross over every day. There was indeed lock #29. We walked along a waterway which is adjacent to the canal and then discovered the lock. It was so interesting and then, as we were taking pictures, along comes a tour boat that needed to get through the lock. YAY! We watched and learned and took pictures. Hope you find this as fun as we did.

 

 

When the water began flooding into the lock, we asked the lock tender how long it would take. His reply was surprising....7 minues. Bill estimates it's about enought water to fill 100 good sized swimming pools. Water is not pumped, but is gravity flow. It flows through pipes on the south side of the lock from the bottom. Bill estimates that it's enough water to fill about 100 good sized swimming pools....WOW