Thursday, May 5, 2016 – Visitor, Spraying, Mowing, Digging Tulips, Lily of the Valley, Play

One of the things I enjoy while I work here is the opportunity I have to visit with people who come to see the old historic Carthage Jail. This morning while I was spraying weeds a man pulled up beside me and rolled his window down. He asked me which building was the jail. I pointed it out to him and quickly struck up a conversation with him. I suggested that he step into the visitor’s center and take the tour. He said he was on his way to a business appointment and didn’t have much time. So, while he stayed in his car I continued to answer his questions and told him the story of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum.

I explained to the man in the car about the layout of the interior of the jail, which room Joseph and the others were in etc. I got to tell him why this place is so important to members of the LDS church. I also got to tell him how I felt about this very sacred hallowed place. After about 15 minutes of conversation with the man, in essence, I had given him the guided tour of the Carthage jail even though he never got out of his car. Before he left he said that next time he would plan more time to stop and take the guided tour.

Full busy day today. In addition to the regular mowing, I also sprayed weeds for most of the day. After cleaning sidewalks early this morning, Sis. Johnson spent the rest of the day pulling out tulip bulbs. The regular crew from FM is scheduled to arrive tomorrow to pull tulips but Sis. Johnson wanted to get a head start. She pulled about a quarter of the beds so far.

You might ask, what becomes of all of the tulip bulbs that are jerked out of the flower beds all over Nauvoo and Carthage. Scott, my boss at FM, told me that it is too time consuming and costly to save the bulbs, sort them by color and then warehouse them until the fall for replanting. But the biggest problem is the unreliable quality of next year’s flower and lack of consistency of stem length, head size etc. of the second year plants. FM needs to have beautiful, perfectly planned flower beds for the best visual effect. 

 FM lets everyone know that tulip bulbs are taken to the compost pile for disposal there. If anyone wants them, they are free for the taking before they are turned into mulch.

Sis. Johnson has been asked by several other Senior Missionaries if she would save out some of the bulbs she is pulling here at Carthage. She did and took some of the bulbs with her to our play performance tonight to give to the other seniors that asked for them. I found out from FM that there are, surprisingly, very few tulip bulbs that actually make it to the compost pile. Most are picked up by the senior missionaries as well as the local towns people.

Good news, in tonight’s performance of our play, “Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo” I got all of my line correct. Yahoo, it’s a first. Tonight we actually had two performances, both to packed audiences. Normally that doesn’t happen until the busy summer season. But, tonight there was a large family wedding party and their family was the entire audience of the second show.