Nina - Connecticut Yankee

This past week and this week I have been doing some major organizing of my things.   I have taken all of the craft type things from the spare room upstairs and hauled it all downstairs.  I have rearranged the storage closets and have put stuff away.  That part is done and now I am working on sorting out the paper stuff and all of the photos.  As you can see by the picture I posted it is one from a long time ago.  I think it is way cute.   I have been working with around a couple of thousand pictures that need to be sorted and some thrown away and others to get ready for photo albums.  I have spent many hours doing this.  It has been much more fun then I thought it would be.    One of the best parts is I have discovered the scanner and I am now scanning in photos.   I now want to hurry and get the rest of the stuff done so I can get more scanned in.  It is too much fun.   I love that i can scann in a photo and then treat it as a picture which it is,  Then I can send it off to where ever.  I so enjoy doing this.   So look for older photos for the next little while.   It will take me another 2-3 weeks to finish the photo project as far as sorting and throwing away.  Then comes putting them into albums.  The writing part will take the longest.  The best part is the memories.  So many faces and places that bring a memory back to me.   I like being in the basement except for the fact that it is cold.  It nice to have a place to work with my things.  I like having stuff in one place.  I like being more organized.   Have a great day….

We have just gotten back from a 3 week trip from Idaho to Georgia and back.  It was a busy 3 weeks and we saw and did so many things.  As I have mentioned before it is amazing to me at how large our country is and how much open space there is and how much farm land there is.  One of the things that we saw pretty much each day as we drove was old machinery or old buildings.  When we had the time we would stop and take pictures.   I tend to like the older buildings and machinery.   This picture is one of my favorite machines.  It was just on the side of the road.  Love the size and the large wheel to me  is great.  It is an old steam engine tractor.    It is good to be back home.   Busy trying to get the yard ready for winter and ready to get winter projects in the house started.   Enjoy your day.

We arrived home about an hour or so ago.  We left Colorado Springs at 7 and arrived home at 7.   A pretty alright 12 hour drive.   The part that both of likes the least is the unloading of the camper.  After being on the road all day long neither one of us feels like unloading.  It is however easier to do then as tomorrow we will really not feel like doing it.   I still need to put stuff away and get something to eat but that is all easy.  It is nice to have my computer up and running.  I pretty much used my i-phone the whole trip and continue to marvel at that phone.     The last three weeks have been packed full and it has been a great vacation.  Seeing Daryl and Laura getting married and being a part of all that goes with it was the highlight of course.  Having all of our children there and all but one of our grandchildren there and having my sisters there was wonderful.  Missed Kendra very much and my brother.  Great to meet all of Laura’s wonderful family.   In the next coming days I will get some pictures up and recount the hightlights of the things we have seen and done.  Having a week with James and Steven was also wonderful.  Every grandparent needs to have that kind of experience with their grandchildren.   I am very glad to be home.   Off to get a bite to eat.

Last night was the start of the 2008-2009 Idaho State Civic Symphony season.   It was also the debut of the new music director/conductor Chung Park.    He was born in Korea and came to the US when he was young.  I do not know how we were able to manage to get such an amazing conductor to our town.   He has a long list of accomplishments.    We have been attending the Symphony here for awhile and I must say this man did a fabuloous job last night.   I am amazed at the difference in the sound and quality of the concert compared to last season.  There are more members of the orchestra now and it makes a fully sound.  One of the nice things is that they do a pre-concert get together where you can listen to him talk about the music and the guest artist and you can ask questions.  They have desserts and drinks you can buy before hand and the idea is to create a feeling of togetherness.  That part was also so nice.  I love the changes.

The artist was Corey Cerovsek,who is a violinist.  He is 36 years old, a native of Canada.  He graduated at age 15 from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and music and a masters degree in both at age 16 and completed his doctoral course in both at age 18.  During this time he also studied piano.He played the Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 by Beethoven.   This was an amazing piece of music and watching him play and listeningn to him was soul touching.  Such beautiful sounds, such mastery of the violin.  It was so beautiful I did not want the night to end.    We are very happy to have season tickets ! Well done Symphony !

Yesterday on our drive home to Pocatello we decided to take the more scenic ride. It was part of one of the scenic byways that Oregon has to offer. This one is called The Journey Through Time. It proved to be a very enjoyable drive. One of the places that we stopped at was a Ghost Town and it was just off of the road. Whitney was the prime station on the 80 mile long narrow gauge Sumpter Valley Railroad. The town had around 100 people. It was strictly a logging town. When the railway was abandoned in 1947 the town closed down. There were a number of old buildings and I love each one of them. No surprise there. This picture is of one of the houses. Pretty awesome. A trip to a Ghost Town would not be complete without a barn. This barn is rather large and in pretty good condition. I have been trying to get a collection of barns and this picture will be used in a photo collection with other old buildings and old forms of transportation. I want to hang it up somewhere, where I will be able to enjoy it all of the time. After we left Whitney we headed to Sumpter where the narrow gauge railroad is and today you can can take a 6 mile roundtrip ride on a train in the summer months. Also in Sumpter is the Gold Dredge. The one that is now there is the third one that they used. It has been undergoing restoration and looks really good to me. It had to of been an interesting process to see it in action. It is good that there are people who want to keep the past alive in the present. The town itself was all pretty old looking and fun to see. Having the guide to follow the Scenic Byways was indeed fun. I would enjoy seeing some of the other byways in Oregon.

This is a picture of Crater Lake, which is in Crater Lake National Park. We took the whole day to go down there to see it. Crater Lake was formed after the collapse of an ancient volcano, Mount Mazama. This violent eruption 7,700 years ago was 42 times as powerful as Mount St. Helen. The basin was formed after the top 5,000 feet of the volcano collapsed. The lava flows sealed the bottom, allowing it to fill up with about 4.6 trillion gallons of water. It is the deepest lake in the United State and 7th deepest in the world. This information is straight from the guide book! It is a very deep blue color and was so pretty. You can only drive around the rim of the crater. So we stopped and took many pictures at many different stops. This one is my favorite. It was a nice day. At one stop there were lots of chipmunks and I happened to have had a piece of bread in the trunk that Linda brought out from breakfast to feed chipmunks. It came in handy for this trip. They were willing participants and this little fellow was not afraid of me at all. It seemed as though there was a whole colony of them.

It was a chilly day and never really got very warm until we were almost ready to head home. The wind was blowing and it was in the 40’s for a good part of the day. We had fortunately remembered our sweaters and me my socks. This is a good time to visit National parks as there are not many people there and that was very nice. The next picture is of Roland with the lake in the background.

He matches the lake ! He has been the GPS guide while I drive. Something he discovered was that 2 GPS systems work better then one. Imagine that ! The one on the i-phone is more detailed and easier to find restaurants and such. We have used it twice for that. We think of a restaurant and type it in and it tells us where it is. Pretty clever. We actually have 3 in the car if you count mine but that would really be way too much. Tomorrow we are going to start heading home. We will take the scenic route which I believe I already mentioned. There is a ghost town on the route and hopefully we will have time to stop and get some pictures. This last picture is of pinnacles that were formed from gases coming up from the ground from the volcano. I can’t remember the type of sediment or mineral that caused it. The paper is in the car. They were amazing. A volcano leaves behind many things to amaze people. I found these pinnacles very interesting. It is hard to get a good idea as to how large they are. They are very tall. So this ends this little trip. There are more pictures but I need to size them and will put them up after I get home. Enjoy.

This is my cousin Linda.   This past Thursday she drove from California to Bend, Oregon and Roland and I drove from Pocatello, Idaho to Bend, Oregon so we could have get together and have some fun.  I have not seen my cousin for a very long time.   It was a wonderful visit for me and I am more then ever determined to be in touch with my two cousins more .   Family is everything in this world.   Life is just too short not to be involved with family more often.  Even if it is only e-mails, letters, phone calls or texting.  It all works.   We had fun seeing the sights in this area,   The drive here was not so pretty, probably one of the ugliest drives I have taken.  We will be going home another way.  We took two scenic drives on two different days and had a great time.  This is a picture of LInda at a waterfall on one of the drives.   I had her posing different ways.  I like this one.  We saw a lot of lakes and also a lot of lava flow areas and that was so interesting.    I wish we had more time to have done more.    She needed to leave this morning and I truly have missed her chit chat.    Today Roland and I took a drive after church and we drove past a field of old farm equipment and buildings that a man gathers from around the states and puts it on his property.   We took lots of pictures and I will get some up later on this week.  Roland will for sure have his done way before me !!!   He is fast and I am slow !   It is fun to see what each one of us have taken a picture of.   We had a good time.    It is nice to be in the room and have some down time this evening.    Tomorrow we are headed to Crater Lake and will leave here early in the morning to go South to where it is.  It will be a day long journey and I am looking forward to it.   We are then leaving on Tuesday to start heading home. We do not know if we will go the whole way or not.   We are leaving the option open as to whether or not we go straight home or spend another night on the road.   It has been worth the trip especially to meet up with Linda.   Stay tuned for picture coming to you in the next day or two.

Where is Tinker Bell, Tigger, and Buzz Light Year when you need them.   I could use a bit of pixie dust this morning !!!   Instead I will have to settle for sugar free peach jello and forge ahead.   I have my own built in Pooh Bear with his wit.   I have some pictures that need blogging today but I will leave with you all a bit of his ( that would be ROLAND K SMITH) wisdom from two days ago.   We are driving along the road headed to Montplier, Id.  I say ” I should sell the ooey gooey cake at the Farmers Market.”  He says ” You would not make any money”   I ask why.   He says “Because I would buy it all !”  So there you have it folks.  If you want to make Roland K. Smith, a happy man make him an Ooey, Gooey Yellow cake.   It is comforting to know that I can make him happy with such a simple thing.

This afternoon I was looking at my pinky fingers. Why you ask ? Good question. I found out that each pinky has a red bump on it and in the exact same place. Both bumps are hard. It is more then likely arthritis. I am thinking that this is not so clever. How is it that they just appeared and at the same time, same place ? A mystery to me. I will need to do some sleuthing to see what I can find out. I am sure there is some fancy cure for this….like eat more lasagna or have a root beer float or go to the beach something soothing and healing for body and soul…..Sigh.

This is a picture taken in Canada from this summer. It is pretty up there and I like this flowing, mini brook. I don’t have any pictures that would go along with the prison at the moment.

Today I had the chance to give a talk today, something I do usually about once a month on Sundays. The topic I chose for today was Trust. I used the story in Daniel chapter 3. It is the one about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. How they would not fall down and worship the golden idol and because of that they were thrown into the “fiery” furnace. They were not burned but walked out of the furnace untouched. They had trust in God. They were willing not to compromise their standards no matter what. It was alright with them to suffer death if they had to in order to keep their integrity. It is a good message in today’s world. Do what is right in all areas. If we put our trust in God he will never let us down. I have completer Trust in God to guide me and direct me. He will never give me something to handle that is wrong for me. He loves me and cares about me. It is a comfort for me to know this.

We had great attendance today. In Unit four they had to turn a couple away due to the fact that the room cannot have so many people in there. We had great talks by others and all in all they were all great meetings. Roland is in his assigned ward today for the first time and in a few minutes I will go down and attend their Sacrament meeting so I can be with him. He also needs to be at a Single’s Fireside this evening at 6 and I will go with him to that as well. It is nice to be able to do that.

It is a bright, sunny day with a perfect temperature of 70 degrees. Enjoy your day.