Winter in the middle of May

Monday May 15, was our preparation day and we were able to go to Salt Lake and pick up 1000 board feet of wormy maple wood to make handcarts with. This is such beautiful wood and once you put the linseed oil on the finished carts it looks amazing. We made it back to the trek center and parked under the awning just before the rain started.

The wood being loaded for making handcarts.

Jolene Allphin was our guest speaker for family home evening tonight. She is the author of "Tell my Story Too" we use this book for our pioneer stories at our preparation meetings. This is a collection of biographical sketches of pioneers and rescuers of the Willie, Martin, Hodgett, Hunt Companies of 1856. She has some amazing stories of these wonderful people and how these people sacrificed to come to Zion. She asked if we had ancestors who were with these groups. When we told about Anson Call, Elder Call's great-great-grandfather, she said that there theme in Stake Conference in  Fruit Heights Stake is, " hold on." She shared with them the story of Anson Call and Margeretta Clark. This is where he rescued her from freezing with the Martin Company. He pulled her out of the wagon and with help of another man run her up and down so she would not freeze to death. She said he was hurting her hand, he said "I calculate to hold on." Even today his legacy lives on all because it was recorded in a journal. We are seeing the importance of journal keeping.

Jolene Allphin, author of the book, "Tell My Story Too"

Tuesday May 16, was project day around the ranch. The burn pile was burned and some of us sisters worked behind the pavilion cleaning up pipes and wire and filling in badger holes and painting the electrical box and weeding and making the area so much nicer. Elder Call moved all the wood in for the handcarts. We finished one handcart, and were teaching some of the new missionaries how to build the carts. We made 31 new port a john plugs and, also welding steps and modifying trailers for the port a johns, were happening. Wiring for new lights upstairs in the trek center, so many projects happening.

Burn pile

Cleaning up behind the pavilion

Painting the electrical box

Elder Moritte welding

Finished port-a-john plugs drying.

We were eating dinner tonight and two big sheepdogs came to our village. The word must of gotten out from the younger dogs that we have prime rib to give out here. Then some of the cowboys got struck in there truck in the mud, and Elder Call was asked to go help pull them out, with three trucks hooked up they were able to get them out. This is the story of this Spring so much water and mud everywhere. This is about the 5th or 6th time people have gotten struck on the ranch. So while he was gone two cowboys on horse back came up through our camp and waited under the awning of the trek center to wait out the rain.

Cowboys finding shelter out of the rain under the awning at the Trek Center

Wednesday May 17, a super cold morning today, lots of rain last night and when you are living in a trailer it gets really noisy on the roof with all the rain. We woke up to snow, not too much this time but it was really cold. We are having Winter in May. We are so grateful that we are not pioneers and freezing on the plains of Wyoming, it makes me appreciate so much what we have and we take so much for granted.

Snow again in May

More projects today. Elder Call made steps for the three missionary couples that didn't have some or needed some modified. Sister Call helped finish the port a john plugs and took down our handcart display so we could start learning how to call a hoe down and how to dance a hoe down. We had our first "Rook" tornament of the summer with the Ekins. This started last year and is continuing on. We had a fun time and also played Mexican Train Dominoes. A fun night on a cold day at the ranch.

Elder Call making steps for the trailers

Practicing the hoe down

Elder Call calling a hoe down

Thursday May 18, today was another cold day woke up to 22 degrees and the phone said felt like 17 degrees. The truck windows were so covered with ice, Today was one of those days when we took Elder Durhams advice to be positive, Today Elder Call has been here a month, time flies at the ranch, and two weeks and the trekkers start coming.

A really cold morning on the ranch

Ice frozen on our truck windows.

Sister Call  sorted through the burn pile for all the metal that was left, and filled up a 5 gallon bucket. We took the trash down to the dumpsters and pull bars down to the handcarts that still needed them. We had missionaries that got stuck in the mud again trying to take the bypass road around the gates. This is almost a daily occurrence this spring. After lunch it started snowing again. We worked on projects. Painting new pull bars, putting wheels on the handcarts, Elder McDowell finished installing two new lights in the Trek Center. We have a much brighter preparation room now. They had to cut a lot of the floor open upstairs to get them wired.

Elder Barton, with the cut out floor for the electrical to run.

Sister Call painting pull bars for the handcarts

Elder Call and Elder Thealer putting on the axle for the wheel of the handcart

Elder McDowell fixing the lights in the Trek Center

We had a nice dinner together and  a guest speaker tonight, author Andrew Olsen,  He is the author of "The Price We Paid," and "Follow Me to Zion." These books started with a Stake Calling in 2003 for trekking at Martins Cove, and he started researching the Martin and Willie Handcart Companies. These guest speakers are so knowledgeable and really bring the stories of the handcart pioneers to life. He shared the story of  his wives relative. Jane Howard Barnes. She has no written record but left a legacy of 10,000 decedents. She was never bitter of what she had to go through.

Andrew Olsen author of "The Price We Paid"

Friday May 19, Sister Call's son Scott was to go to Martin's Cove for training for his Stake's Trek this summer. He texted the roads are closed, so we looked on the Wyoming roads website and I-80 was closed just outside of Evanston all the way through Cheyenne. We kept checking it all day long and it was still closed. This is May and I-80 is closed? We were just thankful that it is not snowing here.

We found out on Sunday at church that Cheyenne got over 36 inches of snow in two days. That is why the freeway was closed for almost twenty-four hours. We went into Evanston and there were 8 semi's parked on our exit. The port of entry were full of trucks and at Walmart there was a man directing semi parking in the parking lot.

Some of the trucks waiting for I-80 to open up from all the snow.

The five returning Elders singing the song to the new Elders, we will be singing in most of the wards again this summer.
 The song is "To Those Who Came Before Me."

Saturday May 20, more projects to work on and riding trails today. We had a good ride in the four wheelers with the Anderson's and McDowell's on trail 7. There were plenty of wet spots and water crossings and wet fields to go through. The sheep were up on this trail and it's always fun to see how big they are getting in this last month. One sheep dog was lying in the road and as we came by he raised his head and lied back down, he was so tired. Riding these trails takes 3 to 4 hours. They are a long ways, between 25 and 30 miles and gates to open and signs to mark. When we return we are so dusty. We have an air compressor by our trailer that we blow off a lot of the dirt. We have a saying; "Pure Dirt Don't Hurt." We are also on these trails deciding how we are going to get around the water or ways to make it manageable for the trekkers. At 4:30 Sister Call's brother and sister-in-law and there 4 year old grandson came for the weekend, Keith and Sue Sabin. They brought their trailer and we had a great few days with them. We showed them the ranch and they were glad to get away for a few days.

Keith, Sue, Aden Sabin came to visit for the weekend.

Sunday May 21, another wonderful Sabbath day with the great people of Evanston. All the missionaries split up and go to 3 different wards, they sure know how to make you feel welcome. We had a nice dinner of make your own enchiladas and Keith and Sue brought corn on the cob. We eat really well. The five returning missionary couples had a meeting to see how we are going to make these trails work with all the water. We are changing our first week's trail and so a lot of phone calls had to be made and they are so wonderful to make these last minute adjustments to their schedule. A few hours of visiting with Keith and Sue finished up our day.