Birthday at the Fort

 On Monday, I posted a brief blog about the visit of the Barretts and Tringalis to Cove Fort last Sunday.  It was such a pleasure to see them and to hear news of the ward and their families.

Last Sunday I woke up with a “Charlie horse” in one of my legs.  After trying to rub it and make it go away, I finally got up in hopes of walking it out.  As I walked into the living room I was immediately aware of an unusual smell.  I thought it smelled like gas and when I got to the kitchen I noticed that one of the burners was on enough for gas to be leaking out.  Luckily for us, we had left the windows open during the night to try to stay cool.  On my walk to the fort, I had time to think and realized what a blessing that “Charlie horse” was.  It is nice to know that the Lord does watch over us.

On Monday, I was able to take a tour with a single woman from Australia who was riding across the United States on a motorcycle.  It was amazing to listen to her talk about all the places in the world that she has been and the things that she has learned as she has observed people.  It made me feel like my life was rather boring, but then I remembered that I had something that she didn’t have.  She was interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon but didn’t have room to take one with her so she said she’d download it onto her iPad.  The other tour that day was with a very senior couple who had bought their property for their home from Gordon B. Hinckley.  Their family grew up in his ward and were surrounding by his children and their families.

Cory wrote this week and mentioned a project that he is working on to digitize the story of E. E. Kane who is the grandson of Thomas and Elizabeth Kane who wrote about their visit to Cove Fort in the 1870s.  E. E. Kane made the same trip in the 1930s with Heber J. Grant.  I am very excited to be able to read/see the project when it is available to the general public.

We found out some disturbing news at Family Home Evening this week.  Before the meeting there were three original Hinckley artifacts in the fort.  By the end of the meeting, we were informed that the bellows in the blacksmith shop did NOT belong to Ira Hinckley and that the Hinckley clock in Angeline’s room did not work when it was given to the church.  I had a hard time giving tours this week without mentioning the changes in the status of things. 

We had former Cove Fort missionaries stop by this week.  They requested to just see the film so that is what I did.  During our conversation, I mentioned that I was from Clovis, California.  The other couple that they were traveling with used to live in Fresno.  It turned out that these couples were the aunts and uncles of Scott Olsen.  Another case of small world.

It was a stormy day on Tuesday and we almost had to cancel our plans for the evening but the rain finally let up.  We drove over to Monroe with the Hemmerts (from Reno, NV) to have dinner and then go to the community Broadway Review.  It was held in the high school auditorium – they have VERY nice high school auditoriums in Utah.  There were twenty-five acts, some better than others, but a good way to spend an evening.  We were a little worried after the opening act of “New York, New York” where the guy was actually hurting our ears.  Then there was the boy that might have been in my school class singing/talking “Sixteen Tons”.  How great to see the support this young man received from friends and neighbors.  Then, the best act was a teenage girl singing, “You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun” from Annie Get Your Gun.  We were glad that we went.

Pioneer Day, July 24^th, started out making us feel like the pioneers.  There was no water in the trailer and when we looked out the window, we saw two of the elders out by the pump area.  I ran out to see what was up and confirmed that the pump at stopped.  Our landlord spent his holiday working on the pump and by the time we got home in the evening there was water. 

We were part of the Pioneer Day parade in Kanosh on the 24^th.  We rode in a modern-day covered wagon pulled by two draft horses.  Our job was to wave to the people and throw candy out to the kids.  We had to be relatively quick since the parade route was just four blocks long (pretty much the entire length of Kanosh) and then we turned around and came back the same way.  Today was the first day that we were allowed to wear period dress and we spent the entire day in long skirts and bonnets.   

After the parade we hung around Kanosh to watch their celebration.  They had a community lunch in the city park.  They cooked everything in dutch ovens -- about fifty of them.  The lines for lunch went all the way to the street.  It was a good lunch with roast beef, potatoes and vegetables.  The other neat thing that they served was homemade root beer that they had made in plastic 30-gallon garbage cans and stirred it with canoe paddles.  Very interesting.

I worked on the Book of Mormon display at the fort this week.  The old labels were all different fonts and sizes and were not in alphabetical order.  The labels were easy but the alphabetizing became a major problem when I realized about a quarter of them had been screwed into the display and at least half of them were velcroed.  It took most of my shift to get the thing finished.  We wanted to make it look a little nicer for Cove Fort Days.

Thursday we went to St. George to celebrate Stephen’s 64^th birthday.  He was able to have a nice dinner and then was pleasantly surprised to find that fulltime missionaries in St. George receive free ice cream at Cold Stone.  We had the opportunity to Skype with Ashley and Kevin from our hotel and then Jenny called Stephen to wish him “Happy Birthday”. 

Friday we spent time at Grafton, a ghost town just west of Zion National Park.  It is interesting to go and learn the history of those who gave their lives in these remote places.  In the cemetery there were the graves of a family (husband, wife, brother) who had been killed by Native Americans in retaliation for murders committed by pioneers in northern Arizona.  This was also the place where part of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was filmed.

 

In Zion NP we drove up to and through the tunnel that was built in the 1920s that went all the way through and connects to Highway 89.  It was a cool tunnel.  I hiked the Canyon Lookout Trail on the other side of the tunnel – I could see down the whole mountain side where the road climbed up.  On the way home we stopped at Kolob Canyon and drove to the overview and then I walked another mile to the lookout where I could see the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  

We got back in time for a game night that we had announced.  It was better attended than last week’ with seven couples showing up.  It was nice to be able to get out of the trailer and have some fun with the other missionaries.

The week ended with one more thunderstorm on Saturday.  It seems like we had heavy rains almost every afternoon. 

Today our speaker, the Richfield Stake President, told the story behind Hymn #325.  He referred to us as the “lower lights” who are responsible for leading people back to Christ who is the lighthouse.  I liked the analogy.

Ward Visitors

I know it hasn't been a week since I last wrote, but yesterday was so exceptional that I thought it required a special post.  I was just starting a tour yesterday when someone tapped me on the shoulder.  When I turned around, I was surprised to see Terri Barrett and her family standing in front of me.  We were able to take them on a tour through the fort.  It was good to get information about Book Club and share the excitement over the release of Ender's Game.




Less than two hours later, I was just finishing a tour when Stephen walked through the fort accompanied by Sharlene Tringali and her children.  She was on her way to visit Tammy who is living in Ephraim.  It was fun to share the history of the fort with them.

That's it -- but it was great seeing people from the ward.

Life at the Fort

             We have now been at Cove Fort for over three months.  I only mention this because during that time I have walked to the fort along the highway almost every day.  During that time there had only been one car stop to ask me if I needed a ride.  That is until this past week, when a Utah State Trooper pulled over to see if I was walking by choice or if I needed a ride.  I told him that I was impressed that he stopped since he was the first male to have done so.  And who says that chivalry isn’t dead?

  

            Cove Fort Days is soon to be upon us.  Preparations are starting to go into full swing with new signs and posters popping up around the fort.  Stephen had made the suggestion that they should send out notices about it to all the non-LDS churches in the area.  Our director really liked the idea so all of a sudden I found myself implementing it and sending out thirty flyers to churches between Fillmore and Manti south to Panguitch.  It will be interesting to see how many people actually show up.  Sis. C., with all of the advertising that they are doing, ordered another thousand hot dogs to make sure that there will be enough for everyone.  She is hoping that there will be five thousand people here over the two-day event. 

            Family Home Evening was different than in the past.  We actually got to have a little fun as we had a game night.  We played a card game called Five Crowns.  It seems to be very popular in Utah as they had a lot of the people here who had the decks to play with.  We played a couple of rounds and then we changed tables so we were able to play with various people during the evening.  They had a closing prayer at 8:30 thinking that most of the people might want to go home to bed, but they were surprised that most everyone stayed to finish the game.

            It was nice to have a game night, so we tried to do an impromptu one on Friday evening at the Twig.  Stephen and I set up a table and pulled out all the games that we could find.  We were a bit disappointed in the turnout that was zero.  I guess people don’t function as well as we do on the spur of the moment, but we’ll try it again and give them a little more notice.  We may have to wait until after Cove Fort Days are over to get it going.

            Stephen’s sister, Shelley, and a friend of hers drove down for a visit on Tuesday morning.  They were here visiting historical sites, the friend was a recent convert and wanted to see all the sites in SLC, so we said that they should come see our historical fort.  Stephen gave them a tour of the fort and the outbuildings before it was time to go home for lunch and see them off on their way.  It was nice that they took the time to come and visit since it really isn’t all that close to SLC.

            Our P-day adventure this week was relatively close to home as we spent it in Beaver and Beaver Canyon.  We visited the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum that is housed in the Old County Courthouse.  They had some interesting displays many of which I will have to go back later to see since Stephen really isn’t much of a museum guy.  We did get to see the large flag that had been on the Battleship Utah in Pearl Harbor.  I was impressed to see it at this little museum so I asked how they had got it.  The Utah Senator at that time, Abe Murdock, was given the flag.  Since he was from Beaver County, he donated the flag to Beaver High School who then gave it to the County Museum.  The ladies there were very excited to tell me all that they could about the things on display.  The first one I spoke to asked me where home was and I said Clovis, California.  She said that her daughter just went into the mission field and was serving in New Mexico (?) and that her trainer was a Sis. Burnett from Clovis?  Anyone know if that is Jeannie Burnett’s daughter?

            While we were at the public library (I was looking up geocaches for later in the day) I saw a lady that I had taken on a tour a couple of weeks ago.  She was asking to use the library computer and the librarian wanted to charge her to do so.  She didn’t have any money so I asked Stephen to give her some money since he was using one of their computers and hadn’t been asked to pay.  I’d really like to know why they were charging her and not Stephen.  Anyway, the lady was happy to be able to get on and check her email.  If all went well yesterday, she should have been baptized into the church.

            One of the best tours I had this week were with a LDS mother and a grown daughter.  They were on a genealogy/family history trip looking for information on Amasa Lyman, an early Mormon pioneer.  I was so impressed that they were traveling together working on such a great project.  The mom was a convert so she was struggling to get the work done for the ancestors on her side.  I told her how lucky she was to have a daughter working with her.  I mentioned that I too was a convert.  I mentioned that my children were not all that interested in helping search for people on my lines.  I even told them how one of my sons actually has an interest but he spends his time researching information on his wife’s family.  I just can’t seem to catch a break.

           Next week we will post the pictures from this afternoon's visitors.

History of Millard County

  

           We had some thunderstorms this week that were rocking the trailers so much so that many of the missionaries commented on their lack of sleep because of it.

            When I first started writing this I was a little concerned that I could not think of very much to write about.  Then I reviewed in my journal the events of the week and I was surprised at how quickly I forget the good things that happen in my life.

            A week ago today, while I was in the fort giving a tour, a lady who I had taken on a tour a month or so ago stopped to drop off a book for me.  It was the about the life of Nicholas Paul who was the head stone mason here at Cove Fort.  I think that I wrote about him when the lady first stopped here.  Anyway, I’m rather fascinated about his life and death so I was very happy to have a chance to read the updated version of the book.  The author has been adding to the original work for thirty years and there were more than two hundred additional pages.  Nicholas Paul was the 2^nd convert to the church in South Africa and then immigrated to Utah.  He built a lot of the buildings that are still standing in Millard County, bridges, and kilns.  At one point he became displeased with the way two of his daughters, who had married polygamous men, were being treated by their husbands so he began to turn in the polygamists in his town when the federal marshals came hunting them.  You may surmise that he was not well liked by his neighbors for that.  He died a mysterious death on his way to visit two of his daughters living just over the border in Nevada.  He was traveling alone by horse and buggy.  Anyway, his horse returned but he did not.  They sent out search parties to look for him but no one could find him.  This happened May/June 1901 and his “body” wasn’t found until the following January by some sheepherders.  In actuality, they only found a few of his bones and the remnants of his clothing which held papers that identified him as Nicholas Paul – very odd.  Anyway, the lady returned on Thursday and I had to give it back but I’ve got Cory looking for a CD copy at the BYU archives for me.

            Monday night we had a great Family Home Evening. 

Instead of having our typical lesson format, we had a lesson on how to put a tire on a wheel.  That is an iron/steel tire on a wooden wheel.  The Pratt brothers live between our trailer park and the fort and they are blacksmiths and makers of restorations (such as the Granville Press in Palmyra).  So they came to the fort and taught us all the steps about how to make the tire fit the wheel.  I had imagined that building the wheel was no big thing but after listening to these two men talk, I know that I was definitely wrong.  They had built two wheels for a trek wagon that someone had ordered.  So here are the steps to get the wheel and the tire together.

1. Measure the outside of the wooden wheel around the fellows.
2. Measure the inside of the tire.
3. Tighten down the wheel using a hub nut.
4. Build a bonfire and put in the tire.
5. Push the coals up and around the tire.
6. When a hardwood handle will just slide along the tire then it is hot enough
7. Lift tire out of fire and put on wheel.
8. Hammer down the tire on the wheel to make sure it is even.
9. Pour water on the tire (not the wheel) to cool it down so the wood doesn’t catch on fire.
10. Release the hub nut and take off the finished wheel/tire.

At the end one of the brothers bore his testimony how all of these things we had talked about are just things.  What is important at the fort and in life is how things relate to the gospel and how we utilize them for good in our lives.  I’m very glad that I was there.  Some of our missionaries that have served in Nauvoo said that they never saw anything like this back there.  When all of the work was done, we broke out the wienies and marshmallows and had a very pleasant late dinner of hot dogs, chips, watermelon, and s’mores.

  

     We did a historical tour of the area on our P-day on Tuesday.  I’m not sure that Stephen was all that excited about what we did, but he still went along with it.  We stayed in Millard County but drove north and west to some of the smaller towns.  We started in Deseret so that I could see the remains of the Deseret Fort that was built there.  The walls were made from adobe so that were not as durable as our volcanic rock at Cove Fort.  There were some of the walls still standing but a lot of them had crumbled.  Then it was off to Hinckley.  How could we serve a mission at Cove Fort and not make a trek to the town named after the Millard State presidents who served for fifty years (I’d read that it was named after Ira Hinckley, but then saw something while we were out and about that claimed it had been named after Ira’s son Alonzo who had served as stake president after Ira).  Other than the Post Office and the Sinclair station and mini-mart, we couldn’t see any other businesses in town.  When I stopped at the Post Office, I mentioned that we were serving at Cove Fort and that it had been built in the middle of nowhere.  The lady corrected me and said that the actual middle of  nowhere was Hinckley, Utah. I almost had to agree with her.  From there we drove up to look at the remains of the Topaz Internment Camp.  It was easy to see why the government picked this spot for the camp as it is desert (OK it is really dry grazing land – although I don’t remember seeing any cattle) and there is nothing around it for miles.  All that was left were a bunch of signs (placed as part of an Eagle Scout project) and some foundations.  We had to drive into Delta to get more information about the camp.  There was supposed to be a former barracks in the town but since they are in the process of rebuilding/enlarging the Great Basin Museum it was not available.  We went in and looked around the museum anyway.  They had it set up with little scenarios that I really liked so I got to pretend that I was a telephone operator and a dental patient.  Way too fun.

This was a great week for getting news from our kids.  Cory and his family stopped by on Tuesday on their way home after a visit to Suzanne’s mom in San Luis Obispo.  They wanted to get home before dark so we only had time for dinner and a short visit.  The grandkids were excited to be able to pick their own piece of obsidian to take home.  Ashley wrote a long, informative email that caught us up on what they had been doing this summer.  Then yesterday we were pleasantly surprised to find a letter from Jared and Clara in our mailbox.  It was a very happy day because they even sent us pictures of Elise and Andrew that we can put on our refrigerator.  It is actually beginning to feel like home here as we begin to get an assortment of family pictures on display.

            There were several good tours this week.  Probably my favorite was with a family who had just dropped off a son at the Missionary Training Center in Provo.  I was amazed that all three of their sons had challenges in their lives.  His two oldest sons were hearing impaired and the one boy they had with them had Downs Syndrome.  For a little while, it made me feel like I was back in my classroom teaching.  It made me realize I miss associating with people with special needs.  We were sitting in the Missionary Prep Room, when a couple stopped by that had a service dog.  I was so surprised when the missionary asked if they could take the dog into the cabin and even more surprised by the comments made by the other missionaries.  They thought that she could probably leave the dog outside – WOW!  I was ready to jump up and advocate for the woman if they tried to separate her from her dog. 

            Friday, while I was waiting for my tour, I overheard a woman say that she was from Visalia so I started paying attention.  Then I looked at the guy who was sitting next to her on the bench and thought he looked familiar.  He walked away to make a call and I heard him speaking to “Jackson” on his phone.  After a moment or two something clicked and I asked the woman if she happened to know Jaxon and Becky Shiner from Clovis.  I was pleasantly surprised when she said yes, in fact, she had just married Jaxon’s brother, Gates, two months ago.  No wonder he looked so familiar. 

            Then there was the tour with a senior couple who were not members of the church and were on an extended trip to visit several of the presidential libraries.  He was a docent at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley.  As they were leaving he gave me some money as a donation.  I thanked him kindly but returned it .

            I drove up to the fort by myself one evening to help Sis. Christensen with a problem she was having with the internet.  I offered to drop off a package to our next-door neighbors that had been sitting in the office for a day or two.  My evident mistake was not going into the house first and alerting Stephen that I was back.  Instead I marched over to the neighbors’ trailer to deliver the package because he was sitting outside as I drove by.  I somehow got caught up in a conversation with him and his wife and the time passed.  Before not too long, I noticed that Stephen was driving off in the Prius.  It clicked after a few moments that he was probably going down to the fort to look for me.  I had to sprint from the trailer next to ours to the far end of the court to be able to catch him before he left.  What I have learned from the experience is that I must always check in before doing anything else.

            What started out as only half a page has now morphed into something longer than I intended.  Sorry to have kept you for so long.  We are still loving what we are doing and trying to do it better with each passing day.

Fourth of July

 We hope that all of you had a great 4^th of July with family and friends.  There were no fireworks and Cove Fort, but seemingly they had them in a lot of the towns around us (Beaver, Fillmore, Richfield) with no expense spared.  Our thanks go out to Lenora Birchfield, Curtis Nelson, and Josh Burrow for helping Stephen and I get the recipe for oven-baked eggs to use at our 4^th of July breakfast.  We were in charge of it along with another couple.  We got a letter from Jared, our son, this past week and he commented that the Clovis 7^th Ward was thinking about breaking with tradition and NOT serving eggs, sausage, and pancakes.  Funny he should mention that since Stephen pushed through the idea of having Breakfast Burritos here.  No one seemed too disappointed that there were no pancakes.  The best part of the plan was that there was no sticky syrup to clean up afterwards.  It was actually raining when we were setting up outside, but it stopped just in time for us to serve everyone outside.

Probably the biggest excitement this week was the arrival of Jenny and Matt and their girls, Samantha and Kelsie.  They spent from Sunday afternoon to Tuesday lunch with us.  We took them down to the fort after dinner on Sunday.  The girls were not as interested in the fort as I would have liked them to be, but then perhaps I might be the only person that excited about it.  

Monday we split our time between the Fremont Indian Village and the Miners’ Park near Marysvale.  Sam found the dresses made from buckskin in the pit house and spent her time at the discovery center wearing one.  We also took them to the Cave of a Hundred Hands.  We were looking at the handprints when the next thing we realized was that Kelsie was on the other side of the bar fencing which was supposed to keep people out of the cave.  I guess the state needs to revamp their fences to federal guidelines for cribs so that the bars/slats are closer together.  We actually learned more this time going to the Miners’ Park because there were brochures in the box that gave explanations of what we were seeing. 

We put the girls to bed on the hide-a-bed in the front room Monday night.  As soon as Stephen and I went to our bedroom in they both came wanting to read and play games.  It really was fun to have them here and to enjoy being grandparents again.  

Before Jenny had to head back, we made a trip north to show them the obsidian beds west of Kanosh.  We took one wrong turn that took us on a dirt road where the dust/dirt was pouring down the back windshield and the dust was pouring into the car.  It certainly gave me a new appreciation for the “improved” roads around here.  I thought that we would only be there a short time, but both Jenny and Matt got into the hunt for the perfect pieces of obsidian.  We even found some pieces of mahogany obsidian.  Jenny took home enough to give to all of her students this year when they talk about rocks and minerals.  Our last stop for the day was at the hot springs outside of Meadow.  The girls seemed to like the pool with all of the small fish in it better than the deep blue one. 

This week I spent quite a bit of time in the office inputting bishops and stake presidents so we could put them into contact groups to send out emails.  Whenever I would go over there, I would have to ask “the chair” permission to leave and had to take a radio with me so they could call me back in case they needed me.  I love helping out and doing different things, but it was a little irritating when I would have someone come to the office and tell me that I was needed.  At times I think there may be too many bosses in the Missionary Prep Room (MPR) – I guess I can understand how that could happen when the room is filled with former bishops, high councilors, Relief Society presidents and others.  The bottom line is that the Church is true no matter what the members do.

Things at the fort have been a little slow this week with numbers averaging between 200 and 300.  I don’t even think that we broke 200 on the 4^th of July.  I did, however, give the first gospel tour of the day on the 4^th at 6:45 in the morning.  There was a big semi-truck parked out by the north fence so I thought I would be nice and go put an invitation to breakfast on his window. Just as I was taping it on the driver emerged from his sleeping compartment.  Anyway, it was fun to tell him a little about the fort and why it was built here.  I was surprised when he said that he was a little scared to park here last night because it was so isolated.  I always picture these truck drivers as the big, burly type who aren’t afraid of anything.  Plus the fact, that I love where we are at because it is so peaceful and isolated.  I guess it is all about perspective and expectations.  I did such a good job with the driver that he actually came over and had some breakfast before he got back on the road. 

My best tour of the week came on the day after the 4^th.  Kathy and Bill and their granddaughter Molly were passing through on their way to Colorado.  They had plenty of time and wanted to do the entire tour including film and outbuildings.  They seemed to have some good background about Mormonism and some of the history of the period.  I was thrilled when I asked if they would like a copy of the Book of Mormon and they said YES.  Now I need to follow-up with them on the internet, answer their questions, and see if we can get them to accept having the missionaries stop by for a visit.

Stephen and I had a chance yesterday to go to the movies in Richfield after our shift.  We raced over there only to find that the showing had been sold out.  We decided to wait for the 6:00 showing and I’m glad that we did.  We watched Disney’s The Lone Ranger which turned out to be a really fun show.  Speaking of entertainment, I finished reading the book Welcome to the World, Baby Girl by Fannie Flagg.  I loaned the book to another sister and it has been fun talking about it with her – it almost makes me think that I’m back at Book Club.

Stephen in middle of horseshoe throw