October in Nauvoo

Just thought I'd post some random pictures of this wonderful place before we leave it all behind :( We leave 3 weeks from tomorrow!!

One of the many, many squirrels in this area...on our fence having his breakfast!

Huge toadstools/mushrooms I saw in the woods. Wish I knew if they were edible- they would make a fine meal. These were about 8-10 inches across!

My flower garden!! It has grown HUGE this year...looks a little wild, but we have enjoyed it. NRI told us we have to tear EVERYTHING up and have it out on the street to be picked up BEFORE we leave in 3 weeks! I guess they don't want to have to clean up all the flower and vegetable gardens after we are gone. It is going to be hard to tear up living plants, especially when they are still blooming or producing, like my tomatoes. It makes me sad!!



The tomato plants with the hair balls attached! The deer were eating the plants and the tomatoes, until we were told about this remedy. We got the hair from a stylist in town who cuts hair, put it in hair nets and hung them on each plant. IT WORKED! ...just looks a little weird...kind of like a shrunken head!

 Harvesting the corn.  This was fascinating!  We didn't realize these machines could go over a corn field and separate the cobs from the stalk and take off all the kernels in one simple step...plus chop up the stalk!  It was very interesting to watch.  I took a video and will try to post that later.

 The path I have walked many, many times and am going to miss so much!  I loved the way the sun was coming through the trees this day.  It was late in the afternoon.

These mushroom-like growths are on many of the trees here in the woods.  They are even depicted on the murals in the Temple

 This is the silos where they store all the corn they harvest around here.  You can tell how big they are compared to the truck .  This is down by the river, and I had ridden my bike there to take a closer look at them.

 The Temple Quarry where they got the limestone for the original Temple.  This is right by the silos.

 Another view of the river taken on my bike ride last Friday.

 The leaves have started to change, and the river was so blue that day.

 Just look at that red against the blue water...beautiful!!

 Berries by the river.  There were thousands of these plants.

 Just look at the spikes that grow out of this tree.  Wouldn't be much fun to climb:)

 This tree had fallen down in the woods where I walk, and it was a good example of how most of the trees here rot in the inside so become hollow.  This is the reason the early saints couldn't use these trees to build with and had to go up to Wisconsin to harvest trees there and float them down the Mississippi tied together in big rafts.

Looking inside a log...you can see how it is rotted in the center.

 The beautiful bridge over the Mississippi at Burlington.

 But the thing I'm going to miss most is this....THE TEMPLE!  I took this shot in the morning from the east side of the Temple as the sun was just coming up.

And I took this one from the car through the sun roof while I was waiting in front for Rick.  Just look at the color of the sky that day!  What a blessing it has been to serve here!!