We always enjoy going to Nauvoo and helping with the pageant. They call it "security", but that really just means that we help people cross the road from the parking area. Of course, Kevin got to have a two-way radio, and a hand-held stop sign. And we had those cool flash lights with the long orange cone. Official!We got to be located at the spot where the "friendlies" stand and pass out their anti-Mormon tracts. Our job? To not let them impede traffic. To not engage in gospel discussions with them. To keep the pageant-goers from getting too involved.

We actually had some nice, brief chats with them.

Friendly. About the weather, or "where are you from?"-type chats.

And the weather couldn't have been more perfect.

Cool. Some sunshine. Low humidity.

I LOVED it!

And, just a bonus:

a shot of how my corn stands up now. No matter which way the wind is blowing. And tassles are coming out on top. Despite being laid down flat THREE times this season, despite having the lower leaves shredded with hail, it just might make us some ears of corn!

Maybe.

Lillies and more

For Mother's Day 2008, Catherine sent me some lilly bulbs. I planted them. They started growing. The rabbits promptly ate them.

For 2009, I put cages around the sprouts--no rabbits this time!

The lillies bloomed.

The bigger, peach-colored bloom was fragrant as well.

When we put in the fence in 2007, I had purchased 3 day lillies at a garden shop (Stein's) while visiting Catherine in West Bend. I planted them; they started growing last year and the rabbits promptly ate them all off.

2009--better protection, and this is my reward!
It has been so exciting to see the colors, because I had forgotten what I had purchased.

The yellow and the peach ones have ruffly edges.I can already envision these spreading and being able to split them and plant some in other parts of the yard.

As long as I can keep the rabbits at bay.

And one bonus--my tall phlox is doing well this year.

One of my favorite flowers!

Philmont, Part II

Maybe you noticed that I didn't include Elizabeth's favorite part in the previous post. I guess I'd have to say that the hike probably wasn't the favorite part... Nor was hanging out with the family...

Ah, here it is--hanging out with all the friends she made there!
Here, a group of the youth with President and Sister Beck
(General YM President).

In a breakfast with just the 14-and older youth, Elley got a special bolo tie as a reward--she had the furthest distance to travel to a temple and had been in the past year.

Yes, indeed, this was her favorite part!

Memories of Philmont, 2009

Alice's favorite part? The trail ride. She spent half of the week trying to finagle a way to go on a second ride. Here, the horses were being moved to a pasture. It's always fun to watch horses running.

Kevin's favorite parts? The excellent training, the rubbing shoulders with other great people, and making new friends. He enjoyed chatting with Pres. Ochoa of the General YM Presidency, who also went to Benemerito school in Mexico City, about the same time that Kevin went there.

My favorite parts? The beautiful scenery would have to be a major one. I think that the experiences in our youth really do imprint us--I feel much more serenity and joy in the mountains, especially if there are also pine trees and some form of water, either a lake, a river, or a creek.
I also enjoyed getting to know people from around the United States. Every meal at the cafeteria was an opportunity to sit by another family and chat with them.
And I really enjoyed getting to serve. Kevin and I were called as music chairmen, so we got to find or provide music for firesides and other meetings. That brought a lot of opportunities to either play the piano or be chorister. It was fun!


Another favorite part was the "looking for the perfect souvenir" at the museum's shop, or at the Boy Scout general store. Alice came away with a ring and a t-shirt. Elley got a fleece jacket. I got a t-shirt, and Kevin got a really cool hat. Like Indiana Bailey.

Aftermath

Twin tomatoes.

Planted the same time and in the same potting soil (containing time-released fertilizer). The difference? One was in a protected spot when the hail storm came.

And of course, the irises were unprotected.
I've spent the last week going through the yard and cutting down all the damaged plants. And surprisingly, most everything is making a comeback.

The pumpkins have resumed growing.

The corn is standing up (with help).

The rhubarb has new stalks coming up.

It really is amazing how nature recovers from a setback!

Flight of the Trampoline

When it got light, (before we knew about the puddling corners), I looked out the kitchen window and noticed a big blank spot where the trampoline is supposed to be.

It has never moved before in a storm--now it was gone.

It took a few minutes to find it--about 100 yards away, in the storm-water retention pit! The place where we go sledding in the winter.

(I'm standing at the top of the sledding hill for this picture).

The amazing thing is, it seemed to have fallen from the sky, landing in the soft mud and ankle-deep water; the cattails around it were not damaged. It probably picked up and flew like a UFO over the tree tops.


It must have done a somersault somewhere along the way because grass is shoved into the top of one of the poles, but it landed upright. A number of springs were lost, but it is in reasonable shape. We had just written it off, having viewed a couple of other trampolines rolled into an unrecognizable shape in our neighborhood.

On Saturday afternoon, Alice reported she saw someone jumping on it! We had thought we’d have to bring it back in pieces, and I was planning on how to landscape the bare spot it had lived on, but it is still useable. The boys were happy to help us carry it up the steep hill and across the meadow to our house. They had enjoyed jumping on it down amongst the cattails--they had made a pathway to it, then smashed down the cattails underneath it, found as many springs as possible and played for about 3 hours. They were 8th graders, so strong enough to truly be of help. And now it is back in its spot.

A stormy summer

A humdinger of a storm came through early Friday morning, (the 10th), awakening us at 3:30 a.m. with strobe-light lightening and nearly continuous thunder.

At first we thought it was just going to be another storm and an hour of lost-sleep. The heavy rain began,--almost a soothing sound as it drums on the sturdy roof (the roof that was replaced just over a year ago because of hail damage). Then came the first ping…ping, ping…pingpingpingping of hail. Oh. This was going to an above-average storm.

Then the hail sounded like it was smashing into the house from all directions at once and the wind was going like crazy. Since I couldn’t sleep, I got up to watch the storm--and noticed that the power wasn’t on. There was a noticeable absence of little glowing lights from different appliances around the house.

Then thoughts turned to the sump pump. Which runs on electricity. At first we thought, “Cedar Falls power is never out for more than 20 minutes, so we’ll be okay.” Only, the power didn’t come back on. Not until 7 pm that evening. (The Fagerstens didn’t get power until Sunday morning).

Here’s the point in the story where we were missing two vital pieces of information.

1) The storm had produced a “macroburst” of wind, probably of about 135 mph, and trees were down all over the city--indeed, all over the valley. 40% of Cedar Falls’ streets were impassable. And with all those trees, a lot of power lines came down.

2) When the sump pump well fills to the brim, although it flows over into the floor drain, it also means that all the gravel under the foundation is totally saturated, and the water will start seeking cracks and seams to relieve the pressure. If we had known this, we would have acted to get a generator, even if it meant waking people up. When the water starting pouring into the drain from the sump well, we thought we were okay.

Then we noticed a puddle of water on the opposite side of the floor. Bad news! We began checking the corners of other rooms. Same thing.

We moved furniture and pulled up the edges of carpet, and started using towels to soak up the water. All in almost-dark. How I wished for light! We used flashlights and a kerosene lamp. Still it was so gloomy. Later in the day, the sun came out which helped a great deal. As we kept reassessing, it became evident that at least the padding would need to be taken out.

By about 9 a.m., a neighbor had a generator going and allowed us to plug in our sump pump. (It took all of our outdoor extension cords to stretch across two other yards, and we had about 1 foot of cord to spare). It didn’t take long for the sump well to go down and the water draining into it from the foundation sounded like a water fall.

No more water tried to come in on the floors. Although we had to remove carpeting, they weren’t totally soaked, and so were much lighter to carry and easier to handle.

So, not only were we working in gloomy low light, the day was the hottest of the week and very humid.

No air conditioning.

No fans to start drying things out.

But we did have running water, even hot water (gas heater), so we could wash up and even shower. That made it much more bearable!

We went to bed so bone-weary, and with scrapes and bruises--those always come with that amount of furniture moving, walking on slippery cement floors and having uncovered tack strips. And it was best to work in bare feet.

I don’t know how many times I stepped back and landed on a tack strip.

Too many.

About mid-day, we found out it could be 1-4 days before the power came back on. So we borrowed a generator from the Harpers in the Waterloo ward. Finally! Fans and limited power.

By Saturday afternoon, we had taken all the padding and all the carpeting for all four rooms outside to dry in the bright sunshine.

I don’t know how many times we moved furniture back and forth from room to room to clear the way to get the carpeting out. And how many trips carrying things upstairs. (I know my calf muscles got quite a work out because by Sunday morning, it hurt to walk!)

Ward members stopped by to bring fans, or invite us to a cooked dinner, and helped carry the heaviest things. We were grateful!!