The Colors of Fall

Roger and I made one last trip out this week for more pictures of the Fall colors. This has been a less than normal Fall, so say the locals, but it has been beautiful to us. Our pictures will never do it justice. The colors are so vibrant. I may have to stay another fall just so I can see it all again. LOL

Fall in Vermont is beautiful. Our pictures really don't do justice to all the color we have seen these past few weeks. Here in our area the color left the trees early due to a Nor-Easter that brought several inches of rain, but as we travel 40-50 miles to the south we have been blessed with alot of color.

Our Visit Accross the Border

We planned one of our P-Days to make a trip across the border into Canada to attend the Montreal LDS Temple. It was a wonderful day spent with great people. Our good friends from home serve in the mission office in Montreal and it was so good to see them again.

Another Fun P-Day

One P-Day we went to one of the local cemeteries just to look at the stones. All of these stones come from the same quarry the Joseph Smith Memorial Monument came from. Vermont has lots of cemeteries and each has many large, odd shaped stones.

"HAY" days in Killington

On a P-Day in late Sept. we decided to go west and see new areas we had never been to before. Roger can drive forever .... he enjoys seeing the areas/scenery. These cute animals were spread over about 10 miles. We passed several of these before we decided to back track and take pictures of them all. Hay in Vermont is in round bales, and for the most part hay is wrapped tight in plastic sleeve to prevent moisture from rotting the hay ...... (Vermont has alot of rain). The covered bales look like the last bales in the panda picture.

Senior Missionaries

Many of the people we love and work with daily.

Rock of Ages

Today for P-Day we went to see the Rock of Ages Quarry in Barre Vermont. It is from this quarry in Barre VT. that the granite for the Joseph Smith Memorial Birthday Site Monument was taken. Within about 20-25 miles there are a few quarry's and each has its own distinct color of stone, in Barre it is a grey speckled color, in Bethel Vt(where the stone for the Bountiful Temple came from), it is white. The Quarry in Barre VT. is thought to be about 4+ miles wide, 5+ mile long, and 10+ miles deep. At the current rate of use there is enough granite to last another 4500 years. WOW! The pictures (taken from the internet) show the method the granite is cut .... not straight down, but with ridges so as to retain strength as they cut deeper. The water at the bottom is rain/snow and water used in cutting to keep the stone dust down .... from time to time they must pump it out. The large cranes have 15 miles of guy wires to give them strength in lifting stone from the quarry floor, and to keep them standing in a high wind. They do very heavy lifts but prefer to bring up cuts of 35,000 lbs or less. NOW all that said. This is the very quarry that the stone for the monument came from in 1905 when the monument was built. It was a new quarry in 1896 so the stone would have been close to ground level .... thank goodness. Our trip there today gave us a much better appreciation for the work that was done to complete the Joseph Smith Monument. As the monument sits it is 100,000# of granite. The Obelisk is 40,000#, and the base is made up of 5 pieces and weights 60,000#. We feel so priviledged to have been called to serve in this very special, sacred place.