addendum

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

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

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!

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

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

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!

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