Cove Fort Days

             One of the drawbacks for serving a mission is that you sometimes have to miss family milestones.  Jared blessed Andrew Hyrum Nimer in Clovis 7^th Ward last Sunday.  It was the first blessing that we have missed (we’ve missed quite a few births), but were happy to know that Curtis was able to be there for support as well as Clara’s brother and Richard Larsen.  I’m hoping for some pictures of the day.

           

There were still a few problems this week with water in “the Holler”, but they were finally resolved.  It included the owner/manager using a backhoe to dig a large hole to reach the pipes.  He got it fixed, and then the very next morning there was
some sort of electrical problem (never did find out what it was) so when we got up there was no water again – funny thing about being on well-water is that when there is no electricity there is no water.

           
 For Family Home Evening this week, we did a service project in preparation for the Cove Fort Days.  The missionaries cleaned up the road in front of the fort from the I-70 intersection to the I-15 intersection.  The road   While we were cleaning the roadside, I came across an intact skeleton.  Once we counted the number of upper leg bones (4) we knew we didn’t need to call in CSI or anyone.  One of our farmer missionaries identified it as a deer.  All the bones were there except for the skull.  The missionary pointed out this round mound of dirt in the middle of the bones as the deer’s stomach. It was probably the most exciting thing found that night.

looks a lot better especially at the on and off ramps.

           The mission office dropped off copies of the August Ensign this week, so we had a chance to read through some of the articles.  Stephen and I both enjoyed the ones called “Ten Dollars” and “Mother Duck”.  They were good reminders of what we need to be doing and of the great gift that Jesus Christ gave to us through His atonement.  If you haven’t read them yet, be sure to make some time to do so.

            Our one visitor from home this week was Anna Lisa Barrus.  She was just stopping to show the fort to their youngest daughter and had no idea that the Nimers were serving here.  She mentioned that they’d been traveling for a few weeks and actually had the opportunity to spend time together with all of her children and grandchildren.  I’d post a picture but we took it on her phone and she hasn’t sent it yet.

  

          Tuesday night we decided to check out some of the local culture and drove over to Junction in Paiute County for their Butch Cassidy Days celebration.  It was like there county fair so they had community activities everyday of the week, including swimming pool activities (lined up all along Main Street), sports, rodeo, exhibits.  We didn’t do any of those things. Instead, we took the Taylors with us and went to watch their Outhouse Races.  How fun

is that?  I’d never seen anything like it before.  They had six entries and so they ran five heats so each team raced all of the other ones.  They seemed a bit tired by the end of the races.  Besides it just being a speed race, they had three stops that they had to make: 1) exchange toilet paper rolls; 2) search for a corn cob in the middle of a kids’ pool filled with mucky brown water; and 3) a bean bag toss into a toilet seat.  It was fun to watch and to see all the people who turned out for it.  They had a nice community BBQ rib dinner after that and then entertainment by a band called Muddy Boots.  They were very entertaining and good compared to some of the performers we’ve heard.  I was willing to stay until they stopped playing, but we left so we could return the Taylors so they could get to bed before midnight.

          

  Our directors have been busy this week getting ready for our big event, so they put up a notice asking if anyone wanted to go up to Fish Lake and use their cabin.  We were fortunate to have our P-day fall at the right time.  We left here early on Wednesday and met up with the Rodockers and Hansens for breakfast at the lake.  We had time for a walk along the lakeshore and some games before they all left to come back to Cove Fort.  The lake sits at about 9000 feet and the temperature was wonderful.  At 9:00 p.m. I was sitting out on the porch and it was so pleasant without the need of a coat or anything.  The next morning I was out on the porch at 7:00 and again I didn’t need a sweatshirt or anything.  It was wonderful being nestled up amongst all the aspen and pine trees.  We feel very
blessed to have been able to spend time at Fish Lake.

            We got home from P-day just in time to report to the fort.  There wasn’t time to walk so I hopped on the bike and rode down.  I learned a valuable lesson from that experience.  One should always check the strength and direction of the wind before going on a bike ride.  I was tired and sweaty by the time I arrived at the fort after pedaling into a strong headwind all the way.  I rode the bike home in the evening, but took the Hemmerts up on their offer when they stopped part way home to see if I wanted a ride.  I was so glad that they stopped.  

            So Cove Fort Days finally arrived this weekend.  Things were hopping most of the time.   We haven’t gotten a final count, but I think it will be a little less than 4,000.  Not bad for just two days.  I think that we will need to come back some time in the future to actually experience Cove Fort Days from a visitor’s standpoint and get to go to all the booths and listen to the entertainment.  We were stationed at various rooms around the fort and site and shared information about that room with our guests rather than taking the same group all the way through the fort.  Luckily, we changed rooms every hour or two so we didn’t get too tired of saying the same things over and over again.  Our director mentioned today that one of Gordon B. Hinckley’s sons was there on Saturday and was impressed with what he saw and heard.  Pres. Hinckley’s son asked the director to tell the missionaries that his father would be very proud of the way the fort was being cared for and staffed.  I thought that was pretty nice.