Monday, October 9, 2017 – Blowing, Limb Hauling, Corn Stalks, Pussy Willows by Greenhouses, Locus Tree Pods, Elder Lindeburg in the Auto Mechanic’s Shop

Another beautiful morning to work, blow leaves, weed gardens and clean up limbs after Saturday’s wind storm. We did our usual Monday morning blowing of all the leaves at the Visitor’s Center and beyond. Saturday’s wind storm really left a mess everywhere. There were lots of leaves but there were also lots of downed limbs that needed to be removed too.

The annual community event, “Boo-tiful Nauvoo” will be here in only three weeks. The whole town of Nauvoo, its merchants and citizens put on a Halloween parade down the middle of town. Sis. Johnson and I got to participate last year and it was a fun and colorful event. The mission and FM gets involved too with a float, free popcorn and other fun parade entries. Today, Sis. Johnson and I were asked to harvest corn stocks that will be used to decorate the mission float/wagon. We had the permission of the local farmer to use his corn stalks. You will be hearing a lot more about “Boo-tiful Nauvoo” in the future as we get closer to the 28^th of October, the Saturday before Halloween.

Another project we did today was pruning back the hedge of Pussy Willows in front of the greenhouses on the FM Compound. The limbs on the pussy willows have gotten so long that they rub the greenhouse when the wind blows, they block the sun light from getting in to the greenhouses and they even clog the intake louvers of the fans. We didn’t have to remove too many limbs from the Pussy Willows; you can hardly tell we were there. So next spring’s big crop of Pussy Willows will still be there and stunning as ever.  

After lunch Elder Cantwell and I went back to the same sidewalks in the Women’s Garden we blew this morning and this time we blew out the hedges, lily grass and flowerbeds of all of the Locust Tree Pods that fell during last Saturday’s wind storm. There were a lot to blow out but at least we didn’t have to pick them up and haul them away. FM’s lawn mower did that for us.

The lawn mowers have their leaf bagging attachments installed for the fall season. When they mow over the locust pods they are all sucked up and bagged. The Lawn mowers made our job a lot easier this afternoon.

This afternoon after work I stopped in at the Auto Mechanic’s Shop at FM. Not surprisingly, my good friend Elder Lindeburg was still hard at work. He has over 30 years of auto mechanic experience and he does a great job. He knows what every tool is for and how to use it in the well stocked FM Auto Mechanic shop. He’s a master at his trade and he knows vehicles inside and out.