Booo-tiful Nauvoo

Each year the town has a parade and celebration of fall.  This program was started eight years ago by Pres Nelson of the Temple Presidency.  He has lived here for over 30 years and wanted to bring some life to this little town.  Now people come from all over to this Booo-tiful Nauvoo.

Look at the work this fellow went through for this outfit.

One cannot have a parade about Halloween with the original Ghost-busters here. 

This was the site missionaries entry in the parade.  They took the Nauvoo Brass Band wagon and decorated it up and all the people in the wagon had costumes.  They had fun. 

Of course the highlight of the night is the pumpkin carving contest.

Some of these pumpkins were absolutely so well done.   

The Church gave out free kettle corn, bags of candy for the children. 

A movie 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks', a haunted house that was an 'outhouse',

They had a crazy band and of course a Flash Mob.

A good time was had by all.

The Church does so much here to help this town, so much.

How's this for a surprise!

Some nice surprises from Spokane -  A few members of our old Continueing Education Class from the Tuesday mornings showed up in Nauvoo.  Along with Jenna Lake who was in Spokane forever and now resides in Boise.  Good to see them.  Yes, they were just walking down the street and we saw them.

And the Dorvals had a planned trip. 

They came to see us and the fall colors.  Great visit for sure.

We have seen several people from Spokane here this year. 

I think that is why they say the Nauvoo Temple is a temple of 'destination'.



Heartland Dairy

Who would have thought out in the middle of nowhere, in the center of Missouri there would be this 20,000 acre dairy.  It was started by a man and wife several years ago as a way to give back to society.  He was and is a very wealthy person.  He started this dairy as a rehabilitation work program for addicted people.
The individuals who come here, some are sentenced here by the courts, have to stay clean and work for their room and board and wages.  The only sad part is less than .5% make it through the drying out process.  Less than one percent.

All of his milk trucks have this on the sides.  A totally Christian work center.  By the way, we could not have found this place if it wasn't for GPS.

The dairy has 9,050 milk cows right now.  They milk about 3800 on a daily basis.  They milk three times a day.  The have about 100 calves born a week.  That's a lot of moo cows.

This picture of the round milking machine was seen by a man in New Zealand.  He knew about the dairy here and came to help this project.  He built this round milking 'machine'.  The cows face inward, eat and when they go around the circle - which takes seven minutes - the men on the outside of the corral hook up the milkers and the process is completed in seven minutes.  There is a water spray on the back side of the circle, so when the cows feel the water spray they back off the machine and another enters the empty stall.  This machine, if you will, holds 90 cows at a time.  Quite an invention for sure.  The dairy sells off six tankers of milk a day.

The dairy also has 2,200 goats.  They breed the goats for milk to produce goat cheese.

They had a cute little display of items in the eating hall.  Saw this little John Deere replica.

Abraham Lincoln Home

We visited the sites of Abraham Lincoln on our P Day this last week.  In Springfield Ill they have built up such a wonderful memorial to Mr. Lincoln.  It was very touching and reverent to visit this place.

This is his actual home that has been restored.  The last living heir sold the home to the state on condition that the home be a memorial to Abraham Lincoln.  The state has done a very good job to preserve and keep up this property.

The desk in the right side of this picture was actually Mr. Lincoln's desk that he used to write up his briefs for court while he was living here in Springfield.  Almost everything in the home was part of the family. 

Look at the pictures below and see how Abe aged so quickly in just five years.  The problems of the Union and the Confederacy were something that he lived with 24/7. 

The depictions of what was happening, and how they worked their everyday chores is so beautifully captured in these statues.  They are not done in wax as some other museums have done, I don't know what the product and materials are, but they absolutely look so real. 

This is a replica of his campaign wagon that he used to travel around from town to town. 

Rather an interesting sign that was posted in the museum.  I discovered that the political cartoons of today are milder than those of the 1860's.  They were brutal and harsh.  Way beyond what we would call civil for sure.  I didn't post them as they were way to cruel to remember.  [for me anyway]. 

This depiction of the last moments of his life were chilling. 

This is the back side of the booth that Abraham was killed in.  Again very realistic. 

Copy of the newspaper that went out the day after the assassination. 

This is the actual law office that Lincoln practised in before he was President. 

The office is in the process of being restored and renovated right now.  Will be open within a year or two they say.  

The Lincoln Tomb was much nicer, more reverent and sacred than I would have imagined. 

Lincoln's body was moved at least three times before the final resting place.  This was a temporary tomb that was used for only a few months.