The Man on the Street

After Dad and I took a bike ride Saturday morning I warmed up the whole wheat pancakes he had made and put yogurt, bananas, and warmed huckleberry jam on top. It looked so pretty I had to take a picture.

On prep day we went to a little artsy town called Galena. It used to be a lead mining town in the mid 1800's. The man on the street is your dad. (I might add: If you look closely, you will notice a box of thin mint Girl Scout cookies next to me. Best day ever.)

This week in NRI Conservation we worked on getting the 1840's dress up clothes laundered.
There is a outdoor site called Pioneer Pastimes for the children and as part of their games and activities they have these dress up clothes. This site closes in the winter.

Fall Activities

Dad kneels among a few of the hundreds of pumpkins the missionaries and the community carved for the pumpkin walk.

Dad dumps leaves that he is cleaning up around Nauvoo.


The mountain of leaves is growing to a mountain range.



Some people aren't happy with me but we had to begin our decorating before Thankisgiving. This is the tree and wreath we put up in the NRI break room. Blue is our color. We have so much to do with helping the sites get their decorations out and up that we had to get started early.

Working at the Family Living Center

Dad gives a tour of barrel making. It's complicated. It takes a 7 year apprenticeship. The good barrels are water tight.

Installing a full length mirror at the Young Sister Missionaries' home.

Ex-Pat school in Japan

More locals in his school than ex-pats.

I love the little girl with one sock up and one down. I think that was me when I was a school girl.

The Brickyard at Nauvoo

We were guides at the Brickyard today. There were 7 known brickyards in Nauvoo in the years the saints were here. They used clay from under the topsoil here and mixed it with sand from the Mississippi river and fired it at 2,000 degrees to get bricks for their homes. It took an average of 40,000 bricks for a home. It would cost them $200.00. The average wage was $1.00 per day so it took them awhile to save up enough to buy the materials for a home and most people didn't have the means to buy brick so they lived in log homes. There were about 350 brick homes in Old Nauvoo. By the time many of them finished their brick homes the time had come for them to leave on the trek to the Rocky Mountains so they only lived in the homes for a few months. There were 49 brick stuctures left standing when Nauvoo Restoration began in the 1960's.

This is a clay pit. When the clay is dug it is this tan color. There are flecks of iron oxide in the clay and when it is fired the iron oxide melts to give the bricks the beautiful red color.
There is an architectural aesthetic to these red brick homes that is so pleasing to the eye.
Could it be because they are made from the very earth where they stand?
Behind Dad in this field is the Hyrum Smith home where you will be staying next year.
The red brick part is the original home.

Fall in Nauvoo by Elder Newman

Outside the Visitors Center

Behind the wagon ride station.

From our yard

Can you find the angel Moroni?

For the beauty of the earth,

Lord of all to thee we raise,

This our hymn of grateful praise.