March 21, 2012

Today is my beloved Joshua's birthday. He would have been thirty-five years old. How grateful I am for temple covenants.

It is forty degrees above the norm here in Michigan. The highest temp so far is eighty-six. As a result, "spring has sprung." People say, "You ain't seen nothin' yet!"

We have had a busy week. Last Thursday we had training from President Hess and Elder Dehart and Elder Hill, his assistants, in Grand Rapids. It was wonderful. President Hess is an amazing man. He has such insight and such great love of the Lord. He is like a father to these young missionaries. The assistants really impress me. They give presentations way beyond their years, confident and filled with the Spirit.

It was fun to see Elder Ferons, Sister Thatcher, Sister Keyes, and Sister Jones. I must say that we get attached to these young elders and sisters. We love them.

We got out in time to have a quick sandwich at Steak & Shake and head to the stake center in Kalamazoo. We were both speaking in the high priest department at stake priesthood meeting on senior missions. I told the brethren that I was probably going to have to be shot, now that I have heard the "secret" priesthood talks. I did that because years past, when I would quiz Paul about priesthood meeting, he would tell me that if the Lord wanted me to know, I would have been invited. It was all in good fun. He was not disrespectful at all. I could not resist the comment, though.

On Friday, we spent the day visting people. It was a pretty normal day. That night we met Karen and Brad Lewis at Captain Louey's, a Calabash restaurant, for dinner. They came back to the apartment and we all played Uno Attack! and laughed and laughed.

On Saturday Elder H went to help the Quintano's friend and neighbors move. We took off to go to Kalamazoo for the annual Maple Syrup Festival. It is normally snowing when this takes place. We enjoyed greatly the warm outdoors. It was over eighty degrees. It was lovely to walk. I have really needed that lately. We walked and walked. Normally, we walk to the car. Walk to the door. Walk back to the car. You get the picture. But I had no idea about what it took to get maple syrup. No wonder the real thing is expensive.

The traditional bucket on the tree. A stand of maple trees is called the sugar bush.

Plastic works well, because you can see if it needs to be emptied from away, without lifting off every lid. A down side is that deer can bite it when it is eating and puncture it, causing loss of the precious sap. Who would guess that it is clear???

See the tubing? This is a modern way to collect the sap. The tubing can stay out all winter. It is not in the tree though.

The sap cooks for a long, long time to get rid of the water that is in it. This is when it becomes brown.

It takes forty gallons of sap to get one gallon of maple syrup.

Early spiels that might have been the type Native American's used. There are fun legends about them.

Giant Michigan dragonflies

Elder H at the sugar shack

We had ice cream with maple syrup on it here.

The hole where the spiel goes in is called the belly button. It heals over when it is removed. That hole is only used once.