The End of August

What a great week. We had lots of great adventures this week.

Linda was home on her P-day, August 20th and as usual, she ran out to greet the visitors to the site. This time she got a special surprise!

The visitors happened to be Sister Shirley Rook and her grand-daughters. Sister Rook is the great-great grand-daughter of none other than Martin Harris! They had a wonderful visit and Sister Parkerson was able to get some more first hand knowledge of Martin from his own family. They went for a tour of our apartment and her grand-daughters went into the field stone lined cellar, which would have been the original cellar of Martin Harris. It was a moving event for all.

Yes the berries are still coming. They are coming so fast we don't have time to heal up between pickings! You know who really enjoys berry picking!!!

As you can see here many of the berries are extra-large. Sister Parkerson has made some mighty fine seedless blackberry jam.

The bushes are loaded and sometimes you have to get down and crawl under the bushes to get inside the berry patch where the big ones are.

We showed Elder Murphy, our young friend where our secret patch is. I'm not worried as he goes home in October.....

O.K. This is not enhanced or trick photography! For anyone who knows me and cannot believe - YES that is me. I got this work order this week to replace the burned out floodlight that illuminates the gold dome of the historic Fayette Chapel. The chapel is located on the grounds of the Whitmer Farm where the cabin is that the Church was organized in, in 1830.

You can zoom in on it to see that it is me up there. I had to get on a ladder to the first level, walk up a second level of roof over the visitors center, pause for a prayer, then ascend up to the top of the chapel roof to change the lamp. Somehow I made it back down. Prayer answered.

This is Brother Chapman and his family. His wife June, and son John and daughter Stephanie. They invited us to a dinner with them at a ward camp out held at the Camp Zion here at the hill. It was miserable weather but a great evening was enjoyed with Mark and his family. Really nice people and Mark is an excellent "dutch oven" chef. We had baked chicken and stuffing, steamed vegetables and an apple dump cake.

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....