Guests Are Gone - Back to Work - Sort of :-)

Its berry picking time here in Western New York. We have a couple of great Blackberry patches. Our hands and arms make us look like a couple of drug users but the rewards are worth it.
We must have about 20 quarts by now and more are coming. Sister Parkerson has made 30 pints of seedless blackberry jam to date and has many quarts individually quick frozen.

This is my good friend Elder Huffaker giving me a little instruction on how to use the wood turning lathe. I would like to make a rolling pin. This particular piece had rot in the middle but at least gave me some experience in turning wood.

This little friend is a
three toed tree toad ( now say that real fast three times!) He joined us on a trip through the Sacred Grove. We left him there.

As part of our weight loss program we are supposed to get moooore exercise. So cheap me found that the local supermarket chain Wegman's offers a little book of walking tours that when you complete them you get a gift card for their store. So of we go. we started with a three mile trek in Savannah New York at the Audubon Society Conservation site. They have a little museum there and as you can see I can't get this stuffed bird to eat out of my hand. :-)

Sister Parkerson and Sister Huffaker have done a great job with the historical gardens at the Joseph Smith Farm.

Now this is my kind of light pole. Instead of having to climb a 20 foot ladder I just unbolt the base and it hinges down to replace the lamp. The only I gotcha is you got to watch for hornets in the base and the fixture!!!!

A certain someone got the big tractor stuck in the mud and another saved the day by pulling it out with the back hoe. However it got a broken hydraulic lone in the process. I hate working with the messy stuff but we successfully replaced the line and got her working again.

Of course I had to test it when we were done. Its a little bigger that it looks here.

We love and miss all of you and hope that catching upon our blog is interesting for you. Please either make a quick comment or drop us a quick e-mail at gaparkerson@gmail.com or if you really want a letter by snail mail.

August 5-6 with John & Kate, Gertrud & Charles

John and Syrena tickle the Ivory's at our place at the Martin Harris house in Palmyra. What a great time we had with them.

I guess we tired them all out. even the dogs needed a break...

We had a nice cookout in our back yard with all of our visitors.

Elder Parkerson, Kate, John, with Syrena on the right and behind her are Gertrud and Charles Kraut. The Krauts are from Virginia. He has been my financial advisor for some time. He put me into precious metals for which I am grateful and have proven a good place to be. He has a financial service/advice website which I strongly recommend http://www.wcandp.com. Charles has been responsible for advancing what little Linda and I have. He also has an interesting vision of our country's financial future. Again if you have any investments I strongly recommend you contact him regarding those services he has to offer.

This is Syrena standing by a 200+ year old American Beech tree in the Sacred Grove. It is one of six trees left that would have been there when Joseph Smith received a witness that God and Jesus are real for they appeared to him there.

Syrena in the Tack shop at the old frame home barn on the Joseph Smith farm in Palmyra.

Brother Kraut and his wife Gertrud in the Joseph Smith log cabin .

Elder Parkerson, Sister Parkerson and Syrena in the Joseph Smith log cabin.

Kate and Charles in the Grandin print shop bindery seeing how the Book of Mormon would have been bound together.

Charles and Gertrud in our kitchen winding down from a busy day of visiting historic sights. We were bless to receive gifts from them of a can of real, fresh Virginia peanuts and a copy of Charles new book, "Moneywise", Your Guide to Keeping Ahead of Inflation, Taxes, and the Declining Dollar". It is an excellent text and although I also recommend it I am feeling that there may not be time for folks to read it and react before what is coming hits!

Sorry for the "advertising" here but our church strongly recommends and teaches personal and family preparedness. Financial Preparedness is an integral part of that preparation and I don't know anyone more qualified than Charles in that arena.

Our Visit to Letchworth State Park

Letchworth State Park is known around these parts as the "Grand Canyon of the East". It is quite a site and a beautiful place to visit.

Here we are looking at the story board about how the park was formed. The park is about 18 miles long.

Well it took us this long to get here after the detour to the aircraft museum but it has been a most worthwell day thusfar.

Syrena getting a birds eye view of the canyon

Elder Parkerson standing on the overlook viewing the falls.

Syrena taking a break along the path that runs along much of the canyon.

John, Sister Parkerson, Syrena, and Kate pausing to view the middle falls. There are three main waterfalls along the park. Upper, lower and middle falls. They are all spectacular but the middle falls is probably more so.

Syrena by the brooklet that flows into the river that runs through the park.

The middle falls with a beautiful pair of rainbows cast by the mist from the falls. Unfortunatly the camera could only catch one of them.

Well Syrena had to teach the dog, Lilly, how to jump over the puddle. Lilly didn't want to get wet.

A somewhat rare picture of Elder & Sister Parkerson. Usually one of us is taking the picture. It was a beautiful day here at the park. The camer can not catch the beauty that the eye can see.

A quiet moment along the trail.

This is a unusual shot of Kate's John. We think he's trying to catch the rainbow to bring to Kate!

He was successful and she apppreciated the gift :-)

Kate, John and Syrena's Visit, August 2 - 6,2009

A funny thing happened on the way to the park! As we were driving on to Letchworth State Park, Kate's John could sense prop-wash! Sure enough we found an old airfield operated by the 1941 Historic Aircraft Group (HAG). It is comprised of World War II era aircraft. Here at the left is Kate and Syrena in the nose gunners space of a B-17 WW-II bomber. Yes this is the actual aircraft that was in the movie "Memphis Belle". I had a nice opportunity to converse with the pilot who took her over to England, the location where the movie was shot. Even more rare was the privilege he allowed us to actually enter the plane and look around!


Syrena and John eyeing the belts of 0.50" ( 12.7mm) rounds that were fired from the guns.

Kate in the cockpit controls of the Memphis Belle. The size of this plane is hard to capture here in the hanger.

The story here that goes with the tail lettering on this plane

is that the fellows that operate the 1941 Historic Aircraft Group decided to have some mementos manufactured for their annual fest. They had printed some tee shirts and hats with "1941 HAG" lettering. They said although popular with the guys the women weren't buying hats that said "1941 HAG" I wonder why?

They also had a 1944 (I think) Willey's Military Jeep. In my humble but correct opinion this is the WW-II vehicle which

earned Jeep its reputation. Since Willey's stopped manufacturing them the Jeep has gone down hill and the name isn't even worth the metal its printed on.



This picture gives a little more perspective as to the size of this beast. (Although I am not that big)

This is Syrena standing next to another plane. I don't remember what it is. You'd have to ask John.

Likewise..... The Blog would be to large if I were to show all of the pictures we took.....

Our group from Vermont and New Hampshire has arrived. This was supposed to be the first picture but I am still not to adept with the "blog spot" software. I know, I know its free so not to complain. Kate and John have a really nice Airstream camping trailer. We enjoyed so very much their visit and hope they got to unwind a little from their frantic paced life....

Post Pageant Activities

Our good friends Elder & Sister Huffaker got a surprise visit from their son, Mel Jr. and their grandson. They had a great couple of days roaming the Hill.

A call came in that the flagpole lights were not working on the flagpole at the Joseph Smith welcome center. So Elder Parkerson was called upon to troubleshoot and repair. You can see him here in his favorite working position. He he he.

On a quiet Saturday after Pageant was over I got to start work on a bowl. Elder Young got me started with how to do it before he left to go home. I am now going to count on Elder Huffaker ( who taught wood-shop for over 20 years) to help me create something from this block of wood. It has to be below 10% moisture before it can be turned without risk of cracking.

We got a call from a member who works for Cornell University. They had put in an experimental crop of peas. We along with a couple of wards got invited to go and pick peas! We filled two plus 5 gallon pails with peas.

And of course its raspberry time around here and the church properties abound with wild raspberry bushes. Sister Parkerson and I picked, cleaned and froze about 6 quarts of the berries. They will taste good next winter.

I discovered that the church field across from the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center had been planted in Rye. One day I was watching as this giant machine was delivered on a big truck and went out into the field. Well you know me, I just had to investigate as I have never seen anything quite like this. As I wandered out into the field to inquire as to how it does what it does, the farmer running the thing invited me in for a ride. That's me inside with the farmer.

The pictures really can't do it justice. It is huge and is called a "combine" and it has a cutterbar on the front that cuts the grain, some blowers tht blows any grain falling as it is cut into the auger, there are fingers on a big rotating arm that gather the cut grain into the auger. The auger then separates the grain from the stems. The grain gets blown into a big bin in the back of the combine and the stems are gathered and fed out the back to be bailed later for animal bedding. This machine with the "cutting head" for grain and another for corn costs over $250,000.00...

As sometimes things get delivered Elder Parkerson gets to run the fork-lift. It runs on propane and steers from the rear. This one can reach over 20' high and can shift the forks left and right. I did spend a few minutes in the yard getting used to it before actually tring to work with it. Being as heavy as it is you could do some serious damage if you are not careful.

We had a specail visit from our friends Jim and Sandy davis from Colebrook, New Hampshire. Sandy wasn't feeling well so I took Jim on a tour of the Grove. Here we are looking at one of the "adversity trees". There are many trees in the Grove that tell a story. This one has suffered much. Something struck the lower side seriously damaging the bark. Later two limbs started to grow outward from the main trunk. Then in a terrible storm the main trunk of the tree was snapped completely off. Eventaully in a rare circumstance the two limbs that had grown out sacraficed their individual growth and re-joined to form one new trunk further up. Although seriously damaged the tree lives and grows on.

Jim and Sandy davis from Colebrook, New Hampshire at the Joseph Smith Farm in Palmyra. We had a wonderful opportunity to host them overnight when they travelled through Palmyra to pick up some livestock in southwestern New York.

Hill Cumorah Pageant II

July 10, 11 and 12. We were so happy that Jon and Sheilla, Sheylina, Drake, and their friends the Shoretell family got to come to Palmyra for Pageant. They arrived on Friday, we met and went to the Joseph Smith Farm for a picnic lunch.







The weather was beautiful and we had a wonderful opportunity to walk the historic sites touring the Log Home and frame home where Joseph grew up. Here we have Grandpa (Elder Parkerson) and son, Jon, with grandchildren Sheylina and Drake.






After touring the buildings we had a special walk in the Sacred Grove where we could see the "witness trees" and this is us in front of the "Apostle tree" it is a 300 + year old iron wood tree. Brigham Young was said to have requested that all the axles for the wagons and hand carts be made from this kind of wood. This 300 year old tree would have been in the grove when Joseph went there to pray. it is said to have regionally had 12 limbs all growing upward! There are only 6 witness trees ( 200 + year old American Beech) left in the grove. They would be old enough to have been standing when Joseph went to pray and received his vision of the Lord and His son, Jesus Christ.


This is Jon & Sheilla, Sheylina and Drake on a bench just outside the Sacred Grove. The Church has placed over 50 of these benches in the now over 30 acres that comprise the Grove. There are over 9000 feet of trails in the Grove. Room enough for many people to visit, sit and feel the special Spirit that does exist in the Sacred Grove.



These are the Shoretell family who are good friends of Jon & Sheilla's. They are Dan and Jouvett, and Daniella and Andrea.
Jouvett is from Venezuela. Dan is a return missionary. They were a lot of fun to have visit.

All of our group in front of the memorial on the top of the Hill Cumorah.

The Parkerson's and the Shoretel'ls all shared a camper that they rented in New Hampshire. It was tight but all had a good time. They stayed at the "Cheerful Valley Campground" about 25 minutes from the sites.

On Sunday before everyone left we got a chance to go to church at the Fayette Chapel located on the Peter Whitmer Farm in Fayette. Jon and Sheilla at the side of the cabin where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was organized

Elder Parkerson, Jon Parkerson and Dan Shoretell in front of the Peter Whitmer log cabin home.