Wednesday, Apr. 19, 2017 – Rainy day Cleaning, Unload Stone House, Mower from Carthage, Cleaning up after Storm, Lilacs limb at Orson Hyde’s Home, Letter from Eldon

This morning dawned with lightning, thunder and an inch and a half of rain. It all came down in two hours, it was torrential! So, what do we do on a rainy morning? We clean, clean, clean; Sis. Johnson, the interns Emilie & Constance and I cleaned the propagation room and then all of the greenhouses. 

Next Richard had us and other grounds keeping staff unload the basement of the “Stone House” were all of the excess dormant plants wintered-over because there wasn’t room in the greenhouses. Back on November 15^th we loaded the “Stone House” basement with all of the plants that were outdoors on the shaded benches. The Stone House basement kept them safe from subfreezing temperatures all winter. Now it is safe to bring them back out so they will revive and be ready for planting on the grounds of Old Nauvoo.

Elder Barker & I made a quick run to Carthage to bring the riding lawn mower in to Nauvoo for maintenance & repair. While I was gone Sis. Johnson and the interns blew all of the storm debris on the sidewalks of the visitor’s center and the Women’s Garden.

 

In the Women’s Garden, some of the older Tulips were badly damaged from the storm. But that’s OK because they will be removed this evening as service project.  The missionaries, FM staff and the youth of the Nauvoo 1^st Ward were invited to a service project this evening to start pulling all of the older Tulip plants. It’s a shame to see them go but after this morning’s storm they were pretty badly beaten up.

Sis. Johnson made a fortunate discovery while we were blowing debris left by the storm on Old Main Street and other locations. Sis. Johnson was cleaning broken limbs left by the storm behind the Orson Hyde Home and she discovered a large branch was broken away from a Lilac bush. The Lilacs in Old Nauvoo are in full bloom and are very fragrant. We brought the limb home with us after work. Now we have a beautiful Lilac blossom bouquet on our dining table. It is very sweet smelling and very pretty. Lilac are one of Sis. Johnson’s favorite flowers.

We received a letter in the mail from our grandson, Eldon Johnson. He is only four and he wrote it all by himself. He did a great job writing the letter and drawing pictures. We love to get mail from our grandchildren.

Tonight was the farewell performances of our good friends, Elder & Sis. Lee Master. They performed the vignette, “Noah & Sophia” for the very last time tonight in “Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo.” This is their final week of their mission and we will miss them and wish them safe travels home.