Bell's Orchard

WHATSUMMER! San Antonio chapter

2011-09-16T13:32:00.001-07:00

On the 21st of June we left Reed and Megan at our house in Oregon and flew to San Antonio for Mike's graduation from his oral surgery residency. Here are some pix from the ceremony. Becca got long-stemmed roses and a corsage (worn by Grace).

The officers in charge mentioned their thankfulness many times for the support of the family. Mike Neilson family

Emi, Becca, Mike (holding Kate), Grace, Tyler and Jaike

Mike receving his certificate/diploma

The Mike Neilson family

Graduation

San Antonio, Texas June 2011

Looks like I got them just a little too late or a little too early

Mike and the 'brass'. The general (in the middle) was from Washington D.C.

Lloyd and I left San Antonio the next day to drive Mike's truck (and Indy the dog) to Phoenix where our next adventure would take place.

To be continued. . .

WHATASUMMER!!

2011-09-16T12:14:00.001-07:00

Summer of 2011 started with a visit from Reed, Megan and family. One of the first things we did was to go to our favorite place on the Oregon Coast

Two nights at Chuck's Cove was a fun way to start the summer!!

Setting up for the 'real' shot

Megan, Jocy, Laynie and Nate Bell

Megan, Jocy, Laynie and Nate

Gleneden Beach

Gives new meaning to group meal~

Zach and Charlotte

Reed and Charlotte in their Sunday best

Stairs at Chuck's Cove

One of the 'jellies'

Jocy at the 'petting pool'

Oregon Coast Aquarium

Our favorite beach house~Chuck's Cove

Gleneden Beach, Oreogn

Little (literally) pool time in Grandma's back yard.

Zach and Charlotte Bell

So Long!!

(to be continued. . )

Tree Planting

2011-08-24T15:22:00.001-07:00

Lloyd had been ancie for a few years to get the rest of the property planted. So, in March, he hired a few young men to dig holes and plant about 2oo more peach tress and a few miscellaneous others. We learned the hard way that the holes have to be hand dug so it was a fun day to have young legs and arms do some planting and get it done all in one day.

Lloyd and Gary taking a lunch break
the helpers gathering for lunch

planting, planting and more planting

no, we haven't forgotten that teenage boys can eat a LOT!

Mom and Dad's visit

2011-08-24T15:04:00.000-07:00

Mom and Dad came to visit us for a whole month! They flew from Idaho to Mesa and spent a few days visiting Reed and Nick and thier families then they flew up to Oregon and stayed with us the whole month of February. We did all kinds of stuff like quilting and working in the orchard and finishing the barn. Grandma (age 86) even drove the red ATV while Lloyd did some spraying. We took a few days mid visit to spend time at the beach. Paul and Maria Oldham were kind enough to let us us their beach house in Pacific City overnight. Ity had a beautiful view. Sea Lions at Newport Beach~this may have been from our October trip! oops!

View from the beach house. It is hard to tell from the pix but it was about 20 degrees that day!

Another view from the beach house of the giant dune at Cape Kiwanda

Thanksgiving 2010

2011-04-28T14:03:00.001-07:00

We had fun gathering together for Thanksgiving 2010. The Schaffners came down from Utah and Lloyd and I flew down from Portland and~of course~Nick and Lindey and Reed and Megan's families had just moved to the area that year. We missed Katie's family and Rebecca's and Jim's!

Our (Lloyd and Annette's) first house. Nick and Lindsey were kind enough to drive us over to the other side of Phoenix to check it out. It was built in 1975. We were so proud of it! The neighborhood wasn't too bad but the area had, of course, been so built up over those years.

Reed and the 'twinkies'~sounds like a singing group from the '50's

Lloyd and Annette enjoying some sunrays

Megan's lovely touch

Adam, Nate and Enoch waiting for Thanksgiving dinner

Some of the crew on our hike~Adam and the older boys were on another ridge~

Beth, Sarah and Jakob taking a ride

The Schaffner kids on one of the slides

Nick's family at a place that had lots of big inflatables

Enjoying the sun at a park nearby

Men and kids on our hike out northeast of Phoenix~

LLoyd, Nick ,Reed with Nate, Charlotte and Makenzie

Help

2011-04-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

Does anybody know how to get rid of the photobucket sign that keeps appearing on my BLOG? It keeps saying that an image has been deleted~

Better Late than Never?

2011-04-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

Very fun day of cider pressing. We got 40 gallons of the yummy stuff. We canned most of it and it found its way to Idaho, Utah and Arizona (thanx to the Intel jet!) Finished barn~it is beautiful inside and out
Cider Pressing October 2010
Craig Berrett, Jim and Mikeyla Bell

Betty and Joe Bell~cutting the apples

Gary and Carol Haroldsen with Peggy Berrett

LaRue Bell and Joe Bell in the background

We had a beautiful day!

Lloyd Bell and Craig Berrett

with the cider press

Washing the apples~

Peggy Berrett, Joe and Lloyd Bell

Sorting the apples

40 years together!

2010-09-16T21:16:00.000-07:00

We took a few days to celebrate our anniversary over Labor Day weekend. We were able to find a camping spot at Ocean City State Park at Gray's Harbor, Wa. and spent some time on the west and north side of the Olympic National Park.

We attended church at the Ocean Shores Branch. They were all so friendly to the visitors who outnumbered the locals

The tallest Sitka Spruce in the world. The co-record holder in Oregon fell down a few years ago

These beautiful hydrangeas were planted all along the front flower beds of the lodge

Lake Quinalt Lodge. I am looking at the lake which was beautiful!

Here is a totem Pole/Rain Gage on the back wall of Quinalt Lodge. The record rainfall is shown by the bar that hits just at the base of the wings~a whopping 25 feet/year!

Ruby Beach~notice how coarse the 'sand' is

Ruby Beach in Washington~somebody had stacked stones on all kinds of surfaces on the beach

Lloyd in his 'Rhine River' pose on a huge stump in the Hoh Rain Forest

The Hall of Mosses path in the Hoh Rain Forest

Hurricane Ridge outside of Port Angeles looks out onto the Olympic National Park~miles and miles of steep wooded mountains. No road goes all the way through. A handful of roads penetrate a few miles into the park

Lloyd and Annette at Hurricane Ridge

Funny, funny Forks!

2010-09-16T10:46:00.001-07:00

Lloyd and I spent some time on the Olympic Peninsula during the Labor Day weekend. On our way from the campground in Gray's Harbor to our destination of Port Angeles, we passed through Forks, Wa

For those of you who don't know the significance, Forks is the setting for the Twilight book series. It was chosen because it rains all of the time and vampires would feel more comfortable because they could avoid the sun.

It is interesting what fame does to a LITTLE town. Being shoved into the spotlight appears to have helped the economy since the place was crawling with people and tours and everyone (even the gas station) sells Twilight wares

but

you've gotta wonder if there is a down side like the shop on the little main street that looks like it was once a bank

who now sells high-end Twilight wares but definitely not owned and operated by Forks-looking natives.

Looks like they truly could be vampires

the Thriftway gorcery store (who sells most of the Twi-wares)

jumpin on the bandwagon by featuring 'Jacob' sandwiches (right along side the deep fried corn on the cob). It was rather tasty but ya gotta wonder~do werewolves like pastrami and cheddar with mayo? I guess that I never gave it much thought!

It was a brilliantly sunny day which

I am sure is rare in Forks

or maybe they have more sunny days than they let on? Could explain why the first movie-at least- was shot in Portland.

Even tho I am giving Forks a few jabs, it was fun to walk around and take in the sights and see what fame can do to a little town.

Summer Stuff

2010-07-26T07:47:00.000-07:00

The Lloyd Bell family meet at Zion's Park area for the beginning of a week of reuniting starting June 28, 2010.

We stayed at a wonderful place near the east entrance of Zion for 2 nights and then made our way up to Bryce on Wednesday.

It was so very much fun to be together but I don't know what logic caused us to think that moving 22 children around would be easy!

They did have fun and we had a huge log cabin to house all of us.

Marsha and Beck and Anthony and Alexander joined us and they stayed in a smaller cabin nearby.

Mike Neilson and Mike Smith and Adam were not able to join us down south due to work committments.

Will post the northern part of the reunion later~

Some of the monkeys at Bryce Canyon
Nick, Lindsey and Makenzie with Mikeyla's head in the foregroung

Ma and Pa Bell with children~

Nick, Katie, Beth, Jim, Becca and Reed

Anthony, Alexander and a few dusty cousins~

Jack, Jaike, Sarah and Emi?

Takin a break on the Zion's hike Trail

Pa Bell, Evelyn, Jakob and Beth

Lovely Makenzie posing for the pix

Reed with Zack

Nate, Jocy, Laynie, Charlotte and Megan Bell

only 17 out of 22

Laynie cooling off

more cooling off with Grace, Emi, Jocy, Tyler and Jaike?

feeing the masses~

Megan had prepared everthing at the house so we could all make a lunch

sisters~Becky, Marsha and Annette

Sarah and Wilford

Pa and Ma

Tyler, Kate, Becca, Jaike, Emi and Grace

Jack and Katie with Max and Evelyn

descending the trail at Zion

trying to chill at the top

this is trouble

The Barn is Red!!

2010-05-10T10:19:00.000-07:00

Lloyd and KW were able to paint the barn last Friday. It is looking great. Obviously I need to get a pix of the finished product

More Potpourri

2010-05-10T08:12:00.001-07:00

While we were in Utah for graduation, Thanksgiving Point was having their Tulip Festival in their gardens. We took the kids and enjoyed the afternoon

Jakob taking a drink break
Stylin' Jack hitching a ride with the twins

Makenzie taking the stroller for a ride. This was at a lunch that the engineering department provided for grads and their families

Instead of an Easter roll, we had a kid roll at the tulip festival . Adam was getting into the action. The kids were having fun rolling when this guy about Nick's age decided to roll down the hill also and steamrolled Jack and folded him into a taco for a second.

While we were all gasping, I hear this voice from behind me saying "why Annette Bell, my son just rolled over your grandson!" It was my childhood friend,Susan. we really laughed at the randomnes of it all and, thankfully, Jack was fine.

From L to R (kinda)

Enoch, Max, Jack, Jonny, Evelyn on Sarah's lap, Elias, Jakob and cheesy grin Wilford.

It was a beautiful day and place

Potpourri

2010-05-07T18:16:00.000-07:00

I just donwloaded a bunch of pix. Here is what we have been up to for the last 2 months

Graduation Day

Nick, Lindsey and Makenzie Bell

Notice the groovy winged sleeve on the gown.

Mike Smith's name was also on the program for a Master's but he did not walk

He just went straight into doctoral work

Nick's graduation for his Master's Degree~April 22, 2010

Makenzie seems to love the tassel

They are widening 185th and all on Dad's office side! All of the big trees are now gone on the whole side of the road and this is how close the road comes to Pike Street Place

The grandkids were unaturally impressed that I could make a bunny cake!

Nate's first Pinewood Derby~they seem kinder and gentler these days

everybody got a certificate.

Nate's was the best because he got best design

The Reed Bell family at Nate's baptism

Jocy, Mikeyla and Nate at Nate's baptism

March 27, 2010

Jocy sang "I like to Look at Rainbows "as part of the program and did VERY well

I accompanied her

If all moments could be this loving!

They're Here!

2010-05-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

That twins are here!! Born May 5th at about 6:11 pm and everybody is fine. No names as of last night but they will come soon

Baby girl was about 5# 12 oz and baby boy a little smaller at about 5# 3 oz

They were born on May 5 so we were wondering if they would be named Juan and Juanita but Megan voted that down.

Mike Scott is still stumping for Moyd (a combo of Mike and Lloyd) for the boy and Reed was stumping for Bruce for a boy's name.

Charlotte is the girl's name in the fromt of the runninig

Grandma and Grandpa were concerned that they would have to leave before the babies came. They made it by a few hours
Here we are with brand new babies

Megan has been a trooper with all that she has gone through. Hopefully she got lots of rest last night

just off the elavator from recovery

baby girl on the left and baby boy on the right

If you love 'em~tell 'em!

2010-03-14T23:47:00.000-07:00

Nate came into Sunday dinner tonight with his 'hot off the press' cub scout shirt and a fistful of patches to be sewn on. He will officially be a cub scout this week and will get baptized on the 27th.
My how time flies! That means that we have 5 grandchildren who have already been baptized and Nate and Sarah to receive this ordinance this year.
A few years ago, Elder Packer stated something to the effect that the older he gets, the thing that means the most to him is how his children treat his grandchildren. I know what he means.
So far you all are doing a wonderful job and we pray for you several times day.
There are a lot of challenges in this world for young people and they need fortification in the home.
The title of this post came from a song that a youth group sang several years ago in our stake and it has lots of meaning in just the title. If you love them ~and I know you do~tell them.
If they are makin' you crazy, stop for a minute and think of how much they mean to you and how they need every word of encouragement they can get. The world will never give them what they need in the way of positive reinforcement. They also need the strength that comes from keeping covenants~theirs and yours. Going to the Temple regularly is one of the best ways to protect your children.
I will close with a word of advice from President Dalton who knows and loves you all and prays for you. He has asked every family in our stake to work on turning the volume down in their homes so that the Spirit can penetrate. This not only means electronic devices but our voices and our passions. It is not easy but also not impossible.
Hang in there kids-you are doing a great work!
Love,
mabell

Perpetual Motion !

2010-03-14T23:33:00.001-07:00

I had been wanting a pix of the Utah grandkids for sometime now to hang in a frame to go on the bedroom wall. It has the word 'grandkids' in black wooden letters and three pix frames hang down from it.

Becca's kids go in one and the pix above goes into another and then this one of the Utah kids.

Looks like Sarah, Wilford and Elias were trying to keep the babies company in the lower one.

This was during Sunday dinner at Beth's house.

In attendance were: G&G Bell, Lloyd and Annette,Craig and Peggy, Jennifer, Jessica and Kristofer all with dates, Katie and Mike and their family, Nick and Lindsey and Makenzie, Beth and Adam all all of their ninos, Joe and Heather Bell, Cory and April Jones, and Matt and Sarah Fowler and their 2 girls.

It was so much fun but definitely SRO!

Chip Off The Old Tree~!

2010-03-01T08:08:00.000-08:00

This one was too funny to pass up! Dad and Reed were chewing the fat in a very manly type pose and Laynie did not want to be left out. Isn't it funny what children find interesting?

Reed's MBA

2010-03-01T07:56:00.000-08:00

It is always a danger to get a new camera and forget to get the pix off the old one before you put it away. Thankfully, we did not give it away!

These pix are from last September when Reed had his graduation exercises from Babson College. It culminated the efforts of 2 years of hard work and deadlines and hard to work with study groups but really good professors and a wonderful opportunity to advance his education of somebody else's dime.

we are so thankful that our sons and sons'-in-law have been able to/are getting wonderful educational opportunities and that they use those to the benifit of their families.

CONGRATULATIONS REED!!

Yakima Adventure !!

2010-02-28T09:29:00.000-08:00

On February 17, Lloyd and I had the opportunity to go to Yakima Washington to attend a pear ripening seminar.

Over the years when Lloyd worked in the banking industry we would attend conferences in New Orleans, New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles. When you are a farmer, I guess that you attend conferences in Yakima!! Yakima is in the heart of the central Washington~Oregon fruit growing country. The seminar was sponsored by Washington State University.

It was very fascinating but we were way out of our league. We just wanted to know how to get pears ripe and tell our customer how to do so. These guys were the big guns who represented big growers and big chains like Wal-Mart. They were kind enough to humor us and we made some good networking connections with the Pear Bureau of Oregon and scientists from UCDavis whose only field is to study pears and their diseases and habits.

As we have taken pix of our other conference locations over the years, we could not leave Yakima out. The most interesting thing that I could find on our way out of town was the courthouse across the street from the gas station~

Siding Party~January 16 2010

2010-01-18T14:55:00.000-08:00

Lloyd has been planning the siding party for weeks~selecting team leaders and gathering supplies and having the siding delivered.

The big day was this last Saturday and he had about 16 guys there. He promised them they would only have to work from 8 am until noon and they almost made it. Those who could stay finished about 1 pm
Look at the dust from the siding cuts!

conferring and concurring

Brother Butterfield ,our HT, left his own home remodel to help us

Reed's friend, Matt

Blaine, Aaron and Jim

More of Reed's buddies

almost done

kw norris throwing out straw to help staunch the mud

Reed

OJ and David Bennett

looking good. it will eventually be red with white trim

a lot accomplished in 5 hours!!

Corrections

2010-01-18T14:51:00.000-08:00

Hi guys,
I made several typos on the San Antone post and my apologies. The team at the Alamo Bowl was TTU (Texas Tech) and sorry for the other typos. I think that you can still get the gist of the story.
If there is a way to correct posts after they are posted, will somebody please fill me in?
thanx

San Antone !!

2010-01-18T12:28:00.000-08:00

Lloyd and I left for San Antonio on New Year's Day and we managed to pack a lot of things in while we were there. Llopyd returned home on January 8th but I stayed until the 15th. I am so lame at ordering these pix on the BLOG so you will just have to use your chronological imagination! We attended the Alamo Bowl on January 2nd. It was so much fun! You can see how high up were were. We were deep in the middle of TCU territory. This flad was carried in all folded up by lots of fols and they unfurled it on the field. Impressive!
Tyler's birthday on January 10th. By now, Becca and I were alone with all of the children since Mike had a pathology seminar in Orlando. we had also just wrangled them through their stake conference.

A little trip to the San Antonio Temple on the 9th. We also visited the Distribution Center there

Jaike and Indy being contained while Miek and Dad worked on a wood project in the garage

On January 2nd Emi was baptized and Kate was blessed in the Bishop's office after the baptism. what an eventful day~

The family pix with the Neilson's-Stan and Linda

Becca and Kate Eliza Neilson

Emi in her baptism dress

Emi and Mike just before the baptism. Mike was able to find this groovy~and I do mean Gro-o-o-o-vy jumpsuit in the baptism clothes closet. He modeled it for all of us there. Haivn the blet and not just the loops would have made it even groovier.

It was a wonderful visit and I was so glad to be able to go and stay long enough to be of some help to Becca.

we sewed 2 quilts and made numerous trips to the base for appointments, dr's visits, commisary stuff`ate some good Mexican food and just hung out and took care of kids.

Christmas Day 2009

2009-12-31T22:38:00.001-08:00

This Christmas, I had the idea to rent Chuck's Cove to save myself cooking all day and to have a place where we could all be together and have fun.

Reed and Megan and family came down for the day and the rest of us spent Christmas night there and play our banana game well into the night.

Can anyone guess who this is?

whale watching at Depoe Bay~we saw several way out into the ocean
It was a beautiful day at the beach

The whole gang

Frozen Falls

2009-12-31T22:25:00.000-08:00

In mid-December our plans to camp at Cape Lookout with the Gales were thwarted because of the frozed passes to the coast~so we took a day and drove to Multmonah Falls to see how they had frozen. We had more than a week when the temps did not get out of the 20's.

We took the hike up to the falls. This pix is the falls from the top looking donw at the parking lot!

Just beyond this point, the trail was thick with ice where the spray had frozen to the path. We had to hang on to the handrail for dear life and crawl past the ice for about 20 yards.
Only a tiniy stream could flow~the rest was frozen

Nutcracker!!

2009-12-31T22:14:00.000-08:00

On December 22, all of the Bell girls who were here in Portland went to the Nutcracker Ballet at the Keller Auditorium.

It was actually Jim's idea that I kind of scoffed at because of money concerns but as I gave it some thought, it seemed like a good idea afterall.

The little girls did so very well. They both agreed that their favorite part was when the snow princesses danced~all on pointe with snow falling on the stage

Correction

2009-12-30T14:54:00.000-08:00

Hi,
in the crab post, I need to add the word Joseph inforn of Nicholas Bell~so Joseph Lloyd Bell's father is Jospeh Nicholas Bell

Crab Bob~No Pants!

2009-12-30T09:37:00.000-08:00

This lovely ceramic piece has been in the family for years and evidentally is destined to stay with us-for now anyway. It was made by Vernie who was the second wife to Nicholas Bell who is Joseph L. Bell's dad.

I can't remember when mom and dad gave it to us but it sat in our garage storage room for years until it was time to move and then a bunch of things happened that caused Tim and Susie Wright to borrow it for a ward function where they were serving seafood of some kind and needed to use it for a decoration.

We didn't see it until the next Christmas when we almost won it back in our yearly white elephant gift game for our Empty Nesters Evening with the Wrights, Hansens, Golds and Wrzesinskis. Due to Lloyd's clever strategy in the white elephant game, the Wright's wound up taking it home with them again.

For the next couple of years, it laid in hidiing in the Wright's barn until we all forgot about it and then, due to some clever strategy and secret alliances on Susie Wright's part that were not really needed in the end, I received it again in our white elephant game!

I am sure that the look on my face was priceless

and crab Bob is back gracing our home.

When I opened it, Lloyd noticed that the lid to the crab was gone so Susie did some quick sleuthing and it was on our porch the very next day!

It is always amazing how good motivation can make geezers do things in a very expedient way!

Barn Update

2009-12-30T09:11:00.000-08:00

Laynie on the barn steps~she loves to explore

Above~you can see some of the windows in this pix. This was taken at the culmination of a Thanksgiving Day treasure hunt that ended in the barn with a box full of gold coins (chocolate) From Lto R: Jocy Bell. Mikeyla Bell, Nate Bell and Aaron Bell

Below~ Although this pix does not show it, the windows and doors are now in and siding will be in stalled on January 16

This is the day that the trench was dug for the electrical . The whole electrical system was approved after only one failed inspection. Lloyd was so happy to have that over and done!

It has been awhile since I have posted and a lot has happened on the barn so I will try to update

Saturday~Our Last Day

2009-11-04T07:44:00.000-08:00

We said good-bye to our lovely house (the square one) and headed down the middle of the island in search of the Atlantis submarine at Waikiki Beach
We found the sub pier without too much trouble . It is directly in front of the Hilton Hotel. You take a ship shuttle out into the ocean about a mile

As you approach, the sub surfaces. The Atlantis poeple are a private organization that is trying to restore the reefs all over the world. They 'install' artificial reefs like sunken ships so the coral can grow on them and invite all the critters to live and feed there

Here we are inside. It was very awesome and one of the great highlights of our trip. Each person has a porthole to view outside.

The underwater pix aren't great but here is a pretty good one of one of the sea turtles swimming around the 'reef'.

There was a family with 3 small children on the sub with us. The children were darling and so excited. The oldest one-a boy-attached himself to Dad and was so excited to show him all of the things underwater. You could fill out a checklist of everything that you saw. we even saw a shark (rare) and the little guy was so.o.o. excited!

I guess that he could tell a good grandpa anywhere!

Diamond Head from the sea shuttle. We did drive up to the other side and look out over the valley.

Pink Flamingos on the grounds of the Hilton. They are very beautiful in real life and seem much more pink.

Finishing off one of Ted's bakery chocolate pies in the parking lot of the USS Arizona Memorial

We tried several times to get on the USS Missouri~where the war ending treaty was signed. Between the Parks service and the military, we kept getting bad information. We tried to get on too late on our Wednesday trip so we stated we would come back in a few days. They forgot to mention that it wold be in dry dock in a few days.

So here it is in the background as we drove away in the bus from the Air Museum.

We were very disappointed.

This is the Punchbowl Memorial Cemetary for those who have died in military service. This is a national cemetary and we did not realize how many there are around the world. It is a huge place~

They told the story of the war in the Pacific Theater by these mosaic displays. Everything is done in little tiny colored stones

Here is part of the panel of the display. It extends to the right quite a distance

Lloyd and I at the top of the memorial.

The whole trip was so very enjoyable. After we left here, we found some excellent food in Chinatown in Honolulu and then off to the airport.

It was a wonderufull week.

Thanx to Lloyd and Peggy for planning it all!

Friday in Paradise

2009-11-01T21:56:00.000-08:00

If you turn east at Laie and head down the east side of the island on the Kam highway you come to the Valley of the Temples Memorial. It is basically a cemetary for Asian peoples~mostly non-Christian. You cross over this bridge to enter into the main grounds. The plantings and trees are absolutely gorgeous and it is so peaceful there. The architecture is very fascinating
This is a big bell standing by a big bell that is hit with the pole on the ropes in the left of the pix. You can hear it ringing all through the grounds when you strike it.

The Budda is inside the main entrance

We curved around on the Kam Highway and arrived at Kaneohe and came to Kailua Beach. It is the most gorgeous beach that I have ever seen. The water is the most brilliant aquamarine color that I have ever seen with white, fine sand beaches curving around in a graceful half oval.

I obviously did not get a very good picture of the actual beach but this catamarand sailed in on cue as if it were on a postcard

Hawaii techincally has no private beaches but the locals, many times, make it very difficult to find them. The access is hidden behind homes or is so obscure that only the clued in can find it. This beach was worth the find and they do have a nice park there but it took a lot of winding aorund and peering through every alley to get there.

Once you buy a pass to PCC, you can get it for several days after for free to see the general stuff. We revisited on Friday afternoon and saw the Tahatian Village and went to the IMAX movie about coral reefs with was very interesting.

We also took the shuttle over to the Temple and had a guided tour by one of the sister missionaries there.

There are sister missionaries at PCC much like there are on Temple Square. They conduct tours of the Temple grounds and talk to some of the any thousands of visitors each day

We are looking toward the Temple and our sister missionary photographer is looking down the Temple grounds through Laie and toward the beach. They have the most lovely hibiscus hedges called hula girl hibiscus. They have brilliant and huge yellow blossoms

She told us that when the Temple was built in 1911 that many of the island people started to leave their homelands to settle near the Temple and kind of abandon their culture.

Matthew Cowley-who had served a misison to the islands-conceived an idea to have a center where culture could be preserved.

It took quite a few years to some to fruition but it is a great place where these young people can have opportunities to have educaiton

Thursday in Hawaii Polynesian Cultural Center

2009-10-30T07:59:00.001-07:00

This is our host for the Polynesian Cultural Center~DG. He is actually from Mongolia. The young people who work and entertain here are on scholarships at BYU-H. Their work at the center is how they pay back for the education they receive. We bought the package where you get a guide/host to take you around to all of the events. This was a good thing because they is lots going on and your guide can get you to all of the good stuff in a timely manner.
Since I Had never been to PCC, I had no idea of the immensity of the place. There is a man made river that winds through recreated villages of Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Taihiti , New Zealand and Hawaii. In each village they have a presentation of some of their culture complete with native costumes and ,sometimes, native food.

In the mid-afternoon, each culture represents itself on a barge as they parade by. This is Hawaii and represents the royalty. Most of them were dancing as they went by and-although you can't see it in this pix, there is a young man guiding the barge with a pole as he stands on the back of the barge.

The Samoan group had quite a lively dance going and they pitched their 'driver' off the barge right in front of us!

When we asked if it were accidental or staged DG shook his head and said 'you never know with those Samoans~they love to play jokes!'

This is the 'show' for Tonga. There was a huge and elaborate drum show where they invited several people to come up and help. The guy with the yellow lei is from Japan and the 2 guys in the back are from Canada and Ohio respectively.

The T0ngon is the red was very fun with his demos of the drums and his working hte crowd in general. I have come to believe that all of the Polynesians are 'hams' after visiting PCC. These guys really knew how to work the room.

Peggy and I go a photo op with the Samoan presenter. He is not dirty on his legs or his abdomen. Those are tatoos made up of very fine points. Towards the end of the presentation, he had cracked a coconut with his forehead. There was an older gentleman in the background just before our pix who was questioning the demo. He said that he could detect 'scoring' on the coconut which cause it to break open easily. We were all shaking our heads because another Samoan had just climbed the coconut tree in the village and brought it down before our eyes before the guy husked it and cracked it.

This is the New Zealand Village. Do you all remember when Sister Riley taught Becca and Allison to do these dances?

This is the entertainment at the luau. There were many hundreds of people sitting behind us there all seated at tables with real dishes and table cloths and decorations .

The evening show was spectacular. So many dances and wonderful costumes. THe shoe told the story of a Polynesian couple and their journey through life. Dances and costumes from all of the cultures were used. The costumes were incredible and the dancing was wonderful. These young people really do a great job with all that they are asked to do.

Hawaii Day 3 - Pearl Harbor

2009-10-28T21:04:00.000-07:00

Our agenda for day 3 was to visit Pearl Harbor.

Having watched several movies and read many books and articles on the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 I thought it might be a little anti-climactic to visit the location. It wasn't. Many others who were there that day have written about it and only partially succeeded in describing the feelings of the place. I don't expect to have much success in describing it either. It is a very somber place. I guess you just have to go there to understand the feeling. There are many exhibits at Pearl Harbor. Here are some pictures of some of the more significant ones.

The most significant loss of life occurred on the battleship USS Arizona. She sank in less than 10 minutes and carried over 1,000 sailors down with her.

The Arizona memorial is built above the bridge of the sunken ship. A white buoy marks the bow and stern. Oil still leaks from the hull. There is an odor of diesel fuel at the memorial because of this. The majority of those killed were never recovered so the memorial is their only recognition.

Inside the memorial a wall lists the names of all those who went down with the ship. Only about 1/3 of the names are visible in the photo.

The buoy marking the bow of the Arizona is barely visible in this photo. The war in the Pacific began with the sinking of the USS Arizona. The war ended on the decks of the USS Missouri in Tokyo harbor on Sept. 2, 1945 after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The battleship berthed next to the Arizona and shown in this photo is the USS Missouri.

Besides the USS Arizona there were dozens of other ships, large and small sunk on Dec. 7. This memorial is to the sailors aboard the USS Oklahoma. It is somewhat difficult to see but the white columns each represent an individual. There are hundreds of them.

In addition to memorials honoring those killed on Dec. 7 there are also memorials honoring others who died in WW II. This memorial is to those who perished in the submarine service. The highest mortality rate of all services during WW II was among submariners. Each marble monument in this circle represents a submarine lost in the Pacific. There are about 90 of them. In most cases they were lost with the entire crew aboard.

One of the exhibits is a WW II submarine that survived the war. It is the USS Bowfin.

A self guided audio tour is provided which takes you through the ship and describes much of what life was like in the submarine service.
There were 2 aspects of the submarine that were startling. The first was how complicated a machine it is. This is just one of probably a dozen different areas of the boat that were 'control centers' for various things. The submarine is a mechanical marvel. It is amazing that they worked!

The second startling fact was how cramped it was. About 15 men slept in this space. You can see almost half the space in the photo. There were fewer bunks than men. Since the boat ran 24-7 never more than half the men were sleeping at any one time so there were only bunks for about half the number of the crew. Everywhere in the boat you could easily see how men would literally be crawling over one another all the time. It was difficult duty to say the least.

I was surprised at how much of the submarines fighting occurred on the surface. About half the ships sunk by this submarine were sunk by surface gunning without use of torpedoes. Somehow I forgot to take a picture in the torpedo room!

When all was done, it was a very interesting and sobering day. Unfortunately WW II didn't end fighting. It seems like freedom is something that requires a constant vigil to maintain and a willingness to make enormous sacrifices to enjoy.

Hawaii!! Day Two

2009-10-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

We took tons of pics of the guys surfing on the Bonzai Pipeline. It was fun to watch them catch wave after wave. They were so far out that it was hard to get a good pix. Lots of long boards and lots of boogie boards and several body surfers of all ages.

Shark's Cove at Sunset

Shark's Cove in the daytime. This is where we did some snorkeling. Craig traveled the farthest and saw the most stuff. There was a reef of somekind to the left and out to sea more in the pix. The waves would crash over the reef and a lot of young guys were out there playing in the waves on the reef. Yes, I did try snorkeling~it took me a LONG time to get used to wearing that mask and then putting my head down in the water but I did see some fun stuff. Dad was extremely patient with me. As our knees and feet passed over the coral rocks, we got the strangest little swollen cuts on our bodies. Dad got a rather long one that took a few weeks to heal.

This is Turtle Beach. Aout 11 am everyday, these big sea turtles swim up onto shore and bury themselves in the sand to 'bask' (as stated on the sign). It is fun to see them in the surf as they bob and play around before they come up. Then they use their flippers to crawl along in the sand to get to the perfect spot. The minute they are settled, the turtle protection volunteers place the red rope around them and allow NOBODY with 6 feet of the turtles.

They are very passionate about their work and know each turtle by name and how old they are. Some turtles even have little locating devices placed on their shells.

We visited here several times. One of the times, I was standing close as a turtle came up and reached my hand out to help the volunteer lady as she was scurrying around trying to place the red rope before anybody could get to the turtles. She was SO appreciative that I was her very best friend for the rest of our time there. She invited me to join their group if I was going to be in Hawaii for a while and made sure that we had the very best photo op before we left.

The volunteers were very helpful with information but very passionate about their work!

Our second day is Hawaii was beach day. We visited Turtle beach, Sunset Beach, Hukelau(sp) Beach and many more. We snorkled and swam and generally just enjoyed some of the excellent beaches on the North Shore. I believe that this was also the day that we ate shrimp from one of the shrimp farmers along the Kam Highway. As you travel along you see lots of ponds of water along the Highway with grassy banks and little ramadas with picnic tables where you can order fresh shrimp. It was delicious!

Hawaii !!! (first day~October 5)

2009-10-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the Dole Plantation which we visited in the afternoon of our first day. We are ridiing the cheesy train that takes you through the plantation. The plantation is fun. It is like the Tillamook creamery on steroids. We had the pineapple ice cream and bought souvenirs, walked through the beautiful botanical gardens and worked out way through the biggest maze in the world. The locals informed us that they had never been so hot. Evidentally, the Tradewinds neglected to show up the week that we were there. That should explain why our hair was plastered to our heads (except the Bush) and we have that wonderfully shiny characteristic to our skin!

This is the house we rented on Laie Point. The pix is taken from the balcony looking towards PCC and the BYU-Hawaii campus. It was a really nice house. Peggy did a great job of arranging things.

Here we are at Waiamea Falls Park which was a lovely botanical park/gardens with this waterfall at the back of the park. There were lots of gorgeous trees and flowers to enjoy on the 1and1/2 mile walk. You can tell it is still rather early in the day because the hair plastering effect has not yet reached it's prime.

Peaches

2009-09-24T14:33:00.000-07:00

These are the harvested peaches that we kept for ourselves to can and they are yummy! The early varieties started in mid-August with the Rising Star, StarFire, Allstar and Blushing star (a white meat peach)~then came the Veterans and Frosts and Golden Jubilee. These are Late Elberta which is still my all round favorite.
We posted our orchard on a U-pick website and the thing that people wanted most were peaches~ we had tons of calls and still are getting them.
It is amazing how a tree with a trunk no bigger around than a closet rod and not as tall as me can bear so many big fruits~
but we are not complaining!

2009-09-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

Annette said it was time to update the Fruit stand progress so here you are.

This picture was taken after standing up the last wall on the second floor. The smiles are because the blasted thing weighed a ton and we barely had enough help to get it up!

One of the biggest challenges was setting the top beam in the upper story. This is right after we got it up. And the truly amazing thing is--IT IS LEVEL!!

David Bennet has been a tremendous blessing in the last month. He has come every morning at 6:3o and helped with whatever needed doing. The project would not be nearly as far along without both his physical and mental help. He has helped me avoid several problems. (We have created a couple too but you will have to come inspect the fruit stand yourself and find them. We aren't telling where they are!!)

And we are almost ready for roofing!! We have just a little more finishing up to do and we will be ready for the roofing crew. They are supposed to be here Saturday so we are hustling to get everything ready.

Makin' Progress

2009-08-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

Lloyd Bell, David Bennett (he has helped A LOT!),
Dennis Harnsberger and Dan Butterfield

This is a pic of our reluctant (to have their pix taken-not to help!) home teachers last Tuesday Night as they came home teaching.

Tom (oops!-actually Dad) did warn them that they would be pressed into service as part of their monthy visit

This is A 10 Man Wall !!

2009-08-28T16:25:00.000-07:00

I was at Education Week when Dad got one of the long upstairs walls ready to set into place. Since I am the photo-journalist for the barn and I wasn't there, it is a good thing that our neighbors were coming home from the activity at the Kinton Grange just in time to snap this pic. It must be quite a curious sight to the neighbors and to the passers-by on Farmington Road.

Dad is probably getting a reputation as the Tom Sawyer of the neighborhood. He manages to talk a lot of people into helping him with the barn!

Woops, I just looked more closely at the pix. I only count 9. It is a motley crew of Bells, Smiths, some of Reed Bell's friends and David Bennett.

Stairway to Heaven?

2009-08-28T16:10:00.000-07:00

Dad fretted over the stairs for quite awhile. He wanted to get them just right without wasting any wood. He actually got them on his 2nd try (first cuttung try, I believe).

When they were first installed, they took you right up to the 2nd floor 'platform'. There were no walls up yet and you could see all over the neighborhood.

It did actually seem like a stairway to heaven.

White Coat Ceremony

2009-08-03T06:47:00.000-07:00

On July 17, we were invited to Jim's white coat ceremony. Each first year dental student was given a white coat with their name embroidered on it representative of their readiness to perform patient care.

It was a nice ceremony with a few brief speeches and then the presentation of the coats. The students have now been divided in different study groups named after Portland bridges with a mentor from the school assigned to each one. Bridges have a dental meaning and a reference to bridging their education to helping the community. Jim is in the Sellwood group.

Several student had mentors or family members actually placing the coats on them. You had to be a dentist to do this. In retrospect, it would have been fun to have Dr./Captain Mike Neilson there to give Jim his coat.

The ceremony was held in the 'old auditorium' on the campus which was nice for it's historic value but it had no air conditioning so it was very toasty in there. They also had a nice reception afterwards.

It was fun to be a part of the festivities.

Geezer Power !

2009-08-02T13:37:00.000-07:00

These pictures show the fruit stand progress over the last couple of weeks. The first few capture what was the biggest 'engineering' problem of the whole project. That is to get the two 500 pound glulam beams raised into place. As we went through the pictures to select the ones for the blog, Annette kept looking at me with this, "I can't believe you did this" look on her face. I just smiled and said, "It worked!" Judge for yourself!

The idea here was simple.

Borrow Joe's tractor. (our next door neighbor)
Lift the beam up on the wall of the building
Have two guys balance the beam while driving the tractor inside the building
Pick up the beam inside the building and place it on the pre-marked locations on the wall
Repeat the process for beam number 2
Take some victory photos and go home
Estimated Elapsed time 30 minutes

About the only thing that went according to the plan was item #1. From there on things started to get complicated quickly.

Problem #1-The tractor couldn't lift the beam. It was too heavy. With one of us on each end, lifting for all our might, the tractor could then lift the beam.

Problem #2-With the tractor forks at their maximum height the beam was about 12" short of the top of the wall. In this picture you can see how we solved that problem. A combination of using car ramps for the front wheels of the tractor and building what Reed would call a "contraption" on the forks we achieved the necessary height.

This is a better shot of the "fork enhancement". The smile on Gary's face could best be described as 'nervous'. You might notice the blue ties binding the tractor forks, the fork enhancement and the bean into one single unit. In spite of my reassurances, Joe is planning an escape route from the tractor just in case things get out of hand......

Fortunately, things didn't get out of hand and we somehow managed to wrangle the beam off of the tractor and onto the wall. Joe scurried around to the inside of the building and we got the beam back on the tractor forks. The plan at this point was to simply lift the beam, backup the tractor and set the beam in place. That was the plan......

By this point we were pretty familiar with things not going as planned. We again ran into a problem with elevation and decided the best solution was simply to have the tractor 'drag' the beam along the top of the wall. In this picture you'll notice the 'beam enhancements' that were installed to keep the beam from rolling onto it's side. You see the beam has very little sag in the middle when upright. However, if allowed to lay on its' side there is CONSIDERABLE sag. More than enough to have the beam slide down inside the walls. We were not certain what the result of that would be but we were ABSOLUTELY certain we didn't want to find out. Hence the 'beam enhancement' to allow it to be guided from the floor. We determined afterward that the weight of the beam was such that if it had been allowed to get past about a 20 degree angle it would have had enough weight to launch whoever was hanging onto the 'beam enhancement' in a perfect parabolic arc and landed them somewhere near the middle of Farmington Road. Gary would probably have been less willing to be the guide on the beam enhancement if we had determined that earlier.

So. . . . . . after about 2 1/2 hours work and solving a host of civil and mechanical engineering problems we had one beam in place. Now, we just had to do it again!

Fortunately, the second beam only took about 30 minutes and proceeded with no significant new problems to solve.

Here is the GQ shot of the victorious old guys with one of the beams shown in the upper center of the picture. K.W. had some lame excuse about needing to leave early! We did determine that we had used the minimum of both machine and manpower possible to get this job done. No wasted resources on this project!

After getting the beams in place all the major engineering obstacles were behind us. The purpose of the beams was to support the floor joists for the second story. They are shown here after they were installed. David Bennett and Aaron Bell were big contributors to this effort but never managed to be on site at the same time as the photographer.

Then the last step in this construction phase was to lay the subflooring for the second floor. The only problem here was having the stamina to lift each sheet of plywood to the second floor. Someone should invent a machine to do this type of work!

Blaine Andersen was the assistant on this phase. Shown here placing one of the plywood sheets on the second floor. Blaine actually volunteered for this work! Actually, it all went fine except for the 97 degree temperature that day.

In any event, we are now ready to purchase the materials and start phase 2 of the project. Building the second floor. Stay Tuned!!!

Barn Update

2009-07-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

This is how the barn looked in the evening of Saturday ,July 11 thanx to the help of Jim, Reed and Gary. Thanx guys!

Barn Raising~Bells Orchard Style

2009-07-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

Two old men, a jug of water and thou? It was so very hot on the 4th of July! Gary and Lloyd taking a break from the heat on the barn project. Lloyd is wearing the groovy neck cooler that I made for the Trek. I think that is isvery becoming and he said that it helped.

I believe that they were trying for YMCA but it turned out YCMY or YMCY if you are Hebrew. Those Bell boys are fantastic at math but spelling? Jim, Lloyd, Aaron,Reed and Nick Bell with Gary supervising~

Ready, Set, Lift

Back View

Fourth Wall almost there

First wall up~Lloyd, Gary, Rick Rose and Reed

Robin Update

2009-07-12T13:02:00.000-07:00

Just an update on the birds. We saw momma robin feeding the babies several times and they were getting bigger andbigger. Dave Andersen came over friday to drop something off, and as he was leaving Lloyd was going to lower the pot/nest down to the ground ,as we had done so many times. As he raised his hands into the air, the two babies FLEW out of the nest, hit the gound running and ran into the bushes!
Momma was hovering in front of Lloyd's face squawking with all of her might to keep him from hurting the babies. Then she landed on the ground and squawked some more just in case he didn't hear her the first time!
It was rather an unceremonious end to our little adventure and I definitely wish we had a picture of their first fledge but I am sure that they are OK becasue I saw momma patroling the area in front of our house between the 2 crabapple trees.
We wish our babies well!!

Methought 'Twas Just a Flowerpot !

2009-07-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

In April Megan and I went to Fred Meyer with our hanging baskets, bought fuschias to go in them and had the Freddy people plant them. They were coming along very well when, one day a few weeks ago, I noticed dry grss like stuff hangiing from them. I kinda picked it off and then a few days later I was saying good bye to a student's mom and a robin swooped over us and into one of the flower baskets.

After a little detective work and after taking them down to water we had some unusual discoveries. One basket had a nest made in it, the middle basket had a nest with 2 bright blue robin eggs in it and the last basket had no nest with one egg. Maybe mama robin is a first timer and didn't know how to work it all out with the nest and eggs or maybe that is their custom ~nevertheless we now have 2 baby robins in the middle pot and it has been fun to take it down occasionally (we have to water the fuschias!) and see how they are doing. Mama is always waiting in the crabapple tree and watching us but, so far, has not attacked.

Sometime we can look out the front window and see her swoop down with a worm and then see the babies' heads come up with open (and I mean wide open) mouths to get their nourishment.

We have no idea how long they will be there or when they will fledge but, for right now, they are very fun to watch.

The Orchard in June

2009-07-06T08:11:00.001-07:00

I know that it is already July but I need to post some of the pics that I took of the orchard in June. It is fun to see the fruit develop it is not so fun to thin them. That is where you take of much of the fruit so the young trees won't have too heavy a load and so the remaining fruit can get bigger without competition from all the other fruit. It is hard to throw 20 peaches off one tree after all the work of getting them there.

We just need to be patient!

Barn Raising~the Prologue

2009-06-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

Our latest and greatest is to build a barn for our fruit~actually a glorified fruit stand that will have a walk in cooler and places to store and sell fruit. It will also have an office upstairs that can double as a guest room.

Dad and Gary are going to store their beekeeper suits and supplies in there too.

Dad purchased a horse barn plan and got bids and found out about ordering materials. He also went through the arduous process of meeting with the county to get permits and approvals from the land use people and the farm use people and the water and plumbing people, etc. you get the picture. It is really quite a gauntlet

Wid Payne was chosen to do the concrete work and that was just finished yesterday. The weather cooperated for the most part. Wid was putting the cure on the first half just as our Oreogn tornado was blowing thru. Thankfully, no damage was done.

We're HAMS!!

2009-06-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

Lloyd and I (encouraged strongly by David Bennett) took the classes to become a HAM radio operator so we could be of more help in an emergency. We had 4 hours of class on Friday May 29 and then 4 hours the next morning and then we took our test. Dad and I both passed so now all we need is a radio. Brother Bennett is going to help us with that also.

Mike and Judy Morse and Michael and Sharon Painter also took the class so we can now all be HAMS together.

I learned a lot about electricity and some formulas to figure out amps and volts and ohms and watts which helped me last weekend when Dad and I took a class on how to buy a solar electric system. We are going to try to put in on the barn which is the next post

TWINS!!

2009-04-21T09:09:00.001-07:00

On March 8, our daughter, Katie gave birth to twins! I had arrived on the 2nd. Most of us were under the impression that the twins would be born that day but after the doctor visit that morning, the doctor wanted wait until Sunday, the 8th. It was pretty hard news to bear, but in the end it all worked out very well. She was induced about 8 am Sunday morning and they were born a little after noon and weighed in at: Kenneth Maxwell~6 # 12 z and Evelyn Claire~6# 1 . They were born about 3 minutes apart and were a good size to bring home on Tuesday with no complications at all. We have all been very blessed. Katie even taught a class at the gym the day before they were born!

I was able to stay several weeks and hopefully be a help. Lloyd arrived on the 26th and the Smith clan arrived on the 28th and the babies were blessed on the 29th. We had over 60 family members attend church that day and then Katie and Mike hosted a brunch at their little home after the blessing. We were hoping that the weather would be nice as it had been the week before so the guests could spill outside~but it snowed about 6 inches that day. Amazingly, we all fit in the house and had a great time.

Lloyd and I and the Smith clan minus LaFawn left on the 30th. LaFawn was able to stay until the 11th and help with the little ones.

In all, it has been quite an amazing experience. Mike and Katie are great parents and they have wonderful support from their friends in the ward.

It also reaffirms the knowledge of the wonderful 'village' we have to raise these children. In my view, it is truly what every child deserves~to be loved and valued by countless friends and family and to be taught the true Gospel of peace and love.

Best Friends

2009-04-19T21:38:00.001-07:00

Also while in Utah, I was able to connect with my best friends from high school. Cathy (My friend in the black) and I communicated over Christmas and realized that we would be in Utah at the same time in March so we planned to meet. In the meantime, I contacted Priscilla (light orange top) who lives in Orem and she told me that Susan lived in Layton so we all decided to meet at the wedding reception of Cathy's niece in Payson.
We talked for several hours and gabbed and giggled.
We all grew up in the same ward so they filled me in on the news that they knew and we talked about high school stories.
It is interesting to see that paths that we have taken. All of our parents have gone except Cathy's mother and we were commenting on how strange it seemed to be together talking about how our parents had gone. They were such a part of our lives!
Oddly, they had all known Lloyd before I came to know him in the 3rd grade. Before they built the school in our neighborhood and before I moved over to the west side, they attended Riverside School which was the school in Lloyd's neighborhood.
They had some funny stories about being in a grade school play with him at Riverside.
What a fun blast from the past!

What A Treat !

2009-04-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

While in Utah helping with the twins, I took the opportunity to travel to Salt Lake on March 21 to hear my sister Becky perform on the Tabernacle organ. She is a guest organist on the Tabernacle organ about every 6 weeks. She performs for the tour that is conducted through the Tabernacle. She generally performs on Sunday at 2 pm.
She is a professor of organ studies at BYU-Idaho.
There were quite a few more tour patrons than usual because there was a Chemical Convention nearby and many choose to attend the recital. The concert (1/2 hour) was awesome!! She played some many powerful pieces. One even used the Bombarde which in the top manual and has huge reed stops on it that nearly blast you out of the hall. The organ also has an antiphonal organ which has pipes in the back of the Tabernacle.
Each guest organist is required to do the pin drop and the paper tearing exercises at the beginning of the recital to demonstrate the acoustics. They are also required to play their own arrangement of "Come, Come Ye Saints".
A lot of people came up to talk to her afterwards, so it took a long time for me to speak to her and by the time she offered to let me sit down and play a few chords, the next tour was coming through.
But, we did get our picture taken by some nice ladies from the South.
It was such a treat to be there and listen!

addendum

2009-03-01T13:59:00.000-08:00

By the way-to add to the story.
Lloyd did not remember where in Germany he purchased the pendant or how much he paid for it from his poor missionary funds~
but we did learn that it is real gold and a real pearl.
What a fun discovery!

Something old~something new~almost lost

2009-03-01T12:59:00.000-08:00

For the last few months I have been wanting a nceklace because the arthritis in my fingers makes wearing rings uncomfortable.

Around Christmas time Lloyd and I went looking at the Fred Meyer jewelry store at Tanasbourne where a member of our stake, Mark Taylor, is the manager. I selected a few pendants and tried them on. Mark would not let me see the prices-just Lloyd. I am sure that we would probably eventually received discounts on the price but on the way home Lloyd divulged the retail prices. They were all in the hundreds of dollars. So, in our'thinking it over' time I was cleaning out a jewelry box and found the pendant (originally with a chain) that Lloyd sent to me from his mission. I had thrown the chain away because it was always getting kinks in it. My cheap mind hatched the plan to just buy a chain and pull the pendant out of obscurity.

Lloyd didn't like the idea at first because I had wanted a new necklace and this did not fill the bill.

After a little while, he was OK with it and I put the pendant in a tiny ziploc , put it in the pocket of my purse where I keep my glasses and off we went to the jewelry store at Tanasbourne with a planned stop at REI in between to return Lloyd's hiking boots that had fallen apart in 6 months.

We made it to REI and went to the front desk to plead our case and they were very helpful~gave us a credit~and we set off downstairs to get new boots when I realized that I did not see the pendant in my pocket of the purse. I searched thru my purse, went to the car and searched and found nothing. I was then hoping that it had fallen out at home and we went downstairs, selected new boots and I was tempted to just pay for them at the lower desk but something told me to go upstairs and pay where they had help us so we would be recognized. I pulled out my debit card to pay and, at the base of the computer register saw my little ziploc!!. I reached over without asking and snatched it up and thanked the clerk profusely. She said that a gentleman had just turned it in. He had found it under one of the clothing racks. Off we went to the jewelry store to purchase a chain and have the pendant cleaned and it is beautiful!

This may seem like stretching it a bit but it reminded me of our lives. We can fall in obscurity due to neglect, apathy ,bad choices or whatever. It takes someone like our Heavenly Father to remember our great worth-pull us out of our hiding places and, with the help of a Savior and the gift of repentance restore us to a beautiful lustre.

I was released today from a calling that I thought would never come to me-especially after all our children had left our home. I have served for the past 5 1/2 years as the first counselor in the Stake Young Women's Presidency. There is not room in this venue to tell of all the wonderful blessings that have come to me because of my service there. The opportunity was most appreciated and has changed my life in many ways. I wore my necklace today because it represents to me the wonderful worth of each soul to our Savior. I wish more of the world could know this.

Bees

2009-02-25T09:25:00.000-08:00

We are learning that when you have an orchard you-all of a sudden-become concerned about bees. Bees are needed to pollinate the blossoms so you can have the optimum amount of fruit per tree.
We have lots of bees during the summer on our lavender and in our garden but peaches bloom in early April and not too many bees want to venture out in the early Oregon Spring.
In the last few years we have learned about Mason bees. They are blue, do not sting, do not make honey but are good pollinaters for early blossoms. They come out in early spring and pollinate and are then in hibernation for all of the Fall and then into Spring. They lay their eggs in tubes (like straws) all in a little line in the tube with the one male being laid at the opening of the tube. When they hatch, he fetilizes the other female eggs and then he dies. That is his only function.
This is our 3 rd year of trying to get Mason bees to like our place. We have attended seminars, purchased bees in tubes (not cheap) and learned online.
This is Dad's latest 'contraption' to make our newly purchased tubes more comfy here on the farm.
If you look closely you can see the block of wood with the holes drilled and a variety of straws inserted into the tubes and the bees inserted into those. The chicken wire is to keep the birds out. You will notice that the housing is one of our ever-present plastic buckets in a lovely ash-gray color this time. This is not quite finished. Mason bees need a constant supply of mud so Dad will attach some twine that will allow the collected water to drip down to the pile of dirt at the base of the bee lodgings.
You can find directions for this beehouse at '999uses for plastic buckets.com' (Not a real site).
If everything goes well we will keep you posted on the progress of the bees. Maybe we need a beecam?
As the spring and summer progress, we will try to find more exciting orchard things to post about!

2009-01-29T09:46:00.000-08:00

Here is the potato poem mentioned below.

Ode to the Potato

According the the Bible, the staff of life is wheat

But the way is comes from nature, it isn't much to eat.

It makes a great ingredient when ground and bleached and sifted

But you couldn't call it heavenly, not even really gifted

But Nature didn't leave us with just blandness as a plight

No, she has provided something that is really a delight.

This heavenly treat is found on the farms of Idaho

where is grown in ashy soil that world famous potato!

The potato can be prepared in so very many ways

But no matter how you cook it, there is one thing it conveys.

You let your palate know by partaking of this wonder

That this discriminating choice was no culinary blunder!

My favorite preparation is to bake this little dream

Then add on ample quantities of butter and sour cream.

Some add other toppings in a 'Baked Potato Bar'~

Things like bacon bits and cheese and even chili from a jar.

There's lots of other recipes that change 'spuds' into dinner

We've offered you our favorites in hope that you will find a winner!

They're Idaho's finest 'taters' and we know there's just a few~

From our house to yours they're our Christmas gift to you.

Lloyd Bell

Spuddy Buddy

2009-01-29T09:09:00.000-08:00

Wow, time flies when you are having fun!

January has flown by and we are looking February in the face. We usually have mild weather here in Oregon this time of year but it has snowed several times in January and every day has had some temps below freezing.

When we visited Idaho in December, we loaded up on Idaho potatoes from the potato house. We thought it would be fun to give some to our neighbors for Christmas. To spice up the gift a little, Lloyd wrote a poem for the occasion. I thought that it was so good that I sent it to the Idaho potato commission and they thought it was clever enough to send us a box of goodies with recipes, notepads and Spuddy Buddy. He is not as cute or famous as the California raisins~but he in reality, after all, a POTATO!

The Christmas (almost) snowstorm of 2008

2008-12-21T13:17:00.000-08:00

For those in Snow country this post will seem like, "What's the big deal?" However, for those who are Oregonians you will realize the singularity of these pictures. We have had a significant weather event over the last week or so culminating in a snow and ice storm like we have never seen in our 30 years in Oregon. We will let the pictures do most of the talking. Enjoy!

snowdrift on a tree in our forest trail

Jocy and Mikeyla taking a spin on the sled~

These 2 pictures were taken about 12 hours apart. Note the difference in depth of snow on the kiddie picnic table!

Aaron and Mikeyla on the toboggan with Grandpa driving

Now, Aaron driving (Scary!!)and G'pa and Mikeyla taking a turn

We think that Aaron would much rather be driving the ATV than sledding!

Cruising the orchard
(Aaron, Mikeyla and G'pa)

The Toboggan
for instructions on how to make this go to
"999UsesForPlasticBuckets.com"
(just kidding)

Nate on the Tramp~neither rain nor sleet nor hail will keep me from jumping!!

The apple orchard from the south side

Snow removal~Dad is inside punching the roof with a broom

Avalanche!!

we loved these little ice pyramids on the grape arbor posts

smiley face swings

ATV tracks~Dad's choice

woman (grandma) at the well

the parable of the frozen olive tree
Bell 12:21

hoar frost on the curly willow

this layer of 1/4 inch ice covers everything

A rarely seen picturesque winter view of Bell's Orchard
(looking south~Vial's house is on the hill behind the red bran)

Once in a lifetime!

2008-11-05T22:52:00.000-08:00

I had a once in a lifetime experience last Saturday. Our stake presidency and 11 others plus the bishops from each stake were invited to a 'field training' meeting with Elder Dallin Oaks. Elder Oaks brought as traveling companions Elder Rasband and Elder Gonzales of the Presidency of the 70. There were about 100 men in the Lake Oswego stake center chapel. We spent 4 of the shortest hours of my life literally 'at the feet of a prophet' as he instructed us on several matters. Each stake was assigned to sit in a specific place and I was amazed that we were on the second row of the chapel. Elder Oaks spoke from the area in front of the podium for most of the meeting so I could literally reach out and touch him (not that I did!). At the beginning of his remarks he was quite specific to say that he didn't want to have the internet suddenly ablaze with "Elder Oaks said....." so I'm not going to quote him here. I do feel comfortable to share in my own words my feelings about a few of the things he said.

Perhaps I was most impressed with the discussion about teaching the rising generation. There were some specific areas discussed which included:

Teaching our families the gospel so they develop testimonies of their own. We need to be sure they know of our testimonies of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, the Atonement, Joseph Smith's as a prophet, the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, the restoration of the priesthood and living prophets. He observed that the church is always just one generation away from extinction.
Teaching our children the importance of marriage. There are certainly highly visible and vocal opponents of traditional marriage. We need to be sure our children know this is wrong and why. However, these may not be the most significant detractors from the sanctity and dignity of marriage. How will our children ever get the message that marriage is important and sacred when they look around them and see broken marriage after broken marriage, people living together outside of marriage and families with only one parent. And then there are many who simply choose to be single. These attacks on the sanctity of marriage are much more subtle and may do more harm in the end than the extremists. Our children need to understand that Heavenly Father's plan to provide bodies and a temporal experience for His children is through marriage. That it is sacred and holy and the right thing to do. They need to know that they can only experience the greatest joy in this life through marriage. If we do not teach them, they will not learn it from what they see around them in the world.
Teach our children the importance of having children. Too many in and out of the church choose to have no children or significantly limit the number of children they have. Having children in our homes is also part of Heavenly Father's plan to teach and exalt His children. There are so many wonderful experiences to have as parents and children and as brothers and sisters. Children need siblings to help them grow and develop the skills they need for living. The home is a wonderful laboratory for life but it needs to have some others for experiments!! Parents need to both practice and teach these principles to their children. They won't learn it elsewhere.

I suppose blogs are intended for lighter topics. I don't even know if my kids will read it. However, I do know that I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had the chance to spend the afternoon with one of the men I have raised my arm to sustain many times as a prophet, seer and revelator. My witness of that was refreshed and strengthened by the honor of being in his presence.

PaBell

Fall in the Orchard

2008-10-19T20:24:00.001-07:00

The fall colors have arrived in the peach section of the orchard. The trees are still a long way from full sized but they are growing. Jocey and Mikeyla posed for us at sunset to add the family touch.

Premier Page

2008-10-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

We have decided to start a blog for the Bell Family. Megan is helping me to do it. Here is our first post. I was playing some Primary songs after Sunday dinner. Jocy and Mikeyla were singing with me but I looked aorund, they were gone and Laynie was helping me play and was 'dancing' on the bench.

We are hoping that everyone will contribute. I believe that this will take the place of the newsletter.