Oct 14

We are home and mostly unpacked. The trip home was very eventful. We packed the motorhome on the tenth and secured the bicycles on the rack in front of the motorhome. The Honda was happy to be on the dolly behind us. On schedule we left at 5:30 AM on the eleventh and made good time until,,, just before reaching Casper a large deer raced across the highway into our path. We ran over the deer and the front bicycle which was knocked off. My German racing bike was not recognizable and I tossed it to the side of the road. The deer had its hind legs fractured including the hip and I pulled it off the road as well so it wouldn't be mutilated any further. I even talked to the deer and wanted to know what it was doing on the highway this early in the morning. There is some damage to the motorhome grill and the step is unusable. The dolly lost its hitchpin and a running light on the right front of the fender, and the Honda has some scratches with the front and rear bumpers catching most of the damage as well. We continued on after buying a new hitchpin and securing what was left of the second bike to the broken bike rack. After that we just kept traveling towards Bigfork. This whole episode delayed us for about 2.5 hours. The weather was just great and all the clouds vanished after we crossed from Livingston over to Bozeman. Since the hour was getting late, we stopped and mingled among parked truckers at the Conoco Truck stop for the night. We had a "fancy" dinner at the McDonald which is part of the Rocker facilities and then slept comfy until it was time for us to start again in the morning. About 8:10 AM we arrived in Missoula and fueled the MH at the Costco store. Bernice was so good in making something to eat for us while were on the road. It is great to travel by MH and have a semi kitchen, a bathroom and one can even walk back and forth for excerise. We got home about noon after we picked up our mail at the post office and had them resume delivery. The house looked just as we left it, but the apple trees and plum tree were a total mess. There was one apple left laying on the ground which the bears must have missed or were interupted. It will take a while to prune those trees after removing all the broken off branches.
This is the end of our Martin's Cove Mission blog.  Thank you for visiting this site and if you have any questions about our mission, please talk or write us.
Good by.

Oct 10Well, the time has come to pack up our belongings in whatever spot we can find in the motorhome or car. The car will follow us real close while on the dolly.
We have completed all of our work here on the homestead or at the missionary camp area. There was a little leak in of the fittings, but that has been overcome and all is working well.
The weather has moderated a little and there is even some sunshine. Bernice has gone to the pavilion fridge to see what was left behind by those who have gone home. She hit the jackpot with a lot of things which are now in our "ICE Box".
We will see all of you when we make the trip around family. Take care, stay healthy, The Gospel is True.
We are signing off from the Highlands of Wyoming, Mormon Handcart Historic Site, Martin's Cove.

Oct 7This week has been a whirlwind affair. So much to do and not much time. Well, the wells are done and I just have to make out my report to place in the records of Martin's Cove Historic Site.
However, during this week and the cold snap several hydrants in the missionary village have frozen and need attention tomorrow and the next day.
Several couples have been given an early departure because their service was no longer needed. The rest of us have to wait, to finish our work, and then let go on the eleventh, this coming Thursday morning. We are trying to make the whole trip in one fell swoop.
This summer the well at handcart parking gave us some problem with sand. I got a good crew together and we pulled the pitcher/hand pump, 32 feet, and then let down our submersible pump to 85 feet. We pumped for two hours and for the first half the water was deep brown. At the end of our pumping the water was crystal clear and tasted great. Then we reinstalled the pitcher pump and all is ready to go for next trek season. To sterilize the water for consumption I added eight half inch HTH pills to each well. That will keep stuff from growing in there.
Saturday we watched/listened to three sessions of conference which were wonderful and informative. It is great to have a new temple announced for Tucson, AZ and another place in Peru which I can't spell. The other announcement by our prophet was the changing of ages for our young missionaries. Young men are now eligible at eighteen and the young women at nineteen. That is a welcome change because we tend to lose a few during that first year out of school, high school that is.
Almost time to go to the homestead and be there when the "Music and the Spoken Word" starts. After the first session we will have our last potluck and this time it will be a real "potluck", everyone is cleaning out their fridges for the last meal together.
Later:
The potluck was a grand affair. Every type of food was represented. We took some home canned London Broil in a nice tasty sauce. It went real fast as did everything else.
Then we watched the afternoon session of the 182nd General Conference and went back to our "box". We also are using the fridge in the empty trailer next door which makes it easier for us. We have not yet received the new cooling pipes for our Norcold RV refrigerator. Don't know when they will show up, but we will not be here and the parts will have to chase us down.

Sep 30Well, September is almost over and with that our last 11 days at Martin's Cove have arrived. A lot of clean-up work is being accomplished with the cold season fast approaching. Pipes and water systems need to be purged, wells sterilized, new septic systems/ leach fields finished or prepared for the long Wyoming winter months.
The sisters in the humanitarian center are organizing their materials, finishing blankets, crocheting a baby afgan, making hats for cancer patients. A large shipment of blankets was delivered to a military base for processing to a hospital in Germany. These blankets are made to fit a hospital guerney and should keep our injured soldiers warm. During this upcoming winter, the missionaries who stay here will have ample work in the humanitarian center. This center has five sewing machines, one serger and one embroidery machine. There are at least twelve shelves of materials with no less than 3 yards per material bolt. Cabinets upon cabinets of yarns. All the materials have been donated by members or friends of the Church who then bring this material with them when they come to serve here. Some of the material also comes from neighboring stakes; Riverton, Rawlins and Casper mostly.
Our last combined (Willie Site and Martin's Cove) potluck was today and we all said a teary good-by to each other. Many friendships have been forged with some of them being long term. Some of us will probably never see many of the missionaries again while in mortality. The Grim Reaper will see to that.
It is time to start getting the motorhome ready for the trip to Bigfork. The nights are cool and the furnace comes on now and then. The days are still warm and school groups are coming to visit the Cove as part of their Wyoming history classes. A group of about ninety school children are expected during this week.
The Antelopes are in an agitated state during mating season right now. Every day we see fights for dominance and we don't seem to matter with our presence. They run into motorhomes, buildings and cars chasing each other and their "girlfriends." Sometimes it is comical and sometimes downright dangerous.
The local wolfpack, coyotes and cougars take their share of Antelopes for their food chain. We see evidence of that almost daily. Their cries, howls and barks we hear just about every night. The Antelope feels safe here at the Motorhome park so there is quite a number of them living here. Two bucks chasing each other came close to toppling Sister Gloschat as she was coming back to the motorhome from the pavilian.