Photos from top down1.Here is "Sister" Karn in the Stoddard Tin Shop showing visitors how to make a skimmer pan. It is one of the places that both the Elders and Sisters work.
2. In this photo I am in the Stoddard Tin Shop showing folks the "Super size" tin snips. There are small ones, regular size and this super size. One handle fits in a hole in the table and then they can be operated one handed.
3. This is how a happy tinsmith bends tin pieces.
4. Here is Sister Karn with her hand on the stove in the Sylvester Stoddard home. It is a neat home and has some fun things in it like the mouse trap!
5. This photo shows the first few steps that folks take when they go on the handcart trek. They cross this little stream known as "Joseph's Creek" about five times if they do the full trek. And crossing the stream is one of the easiest parts of the trek.
6. Here is a picture of the handcarts that are parked and waiting for the next folks to take them out. We have a total of 22 carts but two of them have broken wheels right now and three are out on loan for the pageant. Some days we send out all or nearly all of our carts and other days just a couple. There are days we have up to two hundred people use the carts and other days it is just a few.
7. Here is the headquarters of the handcart people. I am the assistant handcart site leader now and I go there three days a week to send out the handcarts and then recover them. The buckets in the left side of the building contain brushes and scrappers to clean the carts in the stream before they are put away. The cleaning part of the trek is the most fun for many of the folks that do the trek.
The other thing to report is that we bought a bicycle so I can go to the handcart job and then to wherever else I need to go. It is a good bike and I can carry quite a bit of the things that I need at the handcart site.
This past week the temperature reached 99 on one day and in the 90s on a couple of more days. The super hot day I worked at the blacksmith shop which is not air conditioned and worked at the forge part of the time, making minature horse shoes for a demonstration of what a black smith did. It is fun but on a day like that it is just too hot to enjoy it. So working at the Stoddard Tin Shop was really nice on the following day. You might not have known that tinsmiths worked in air conditioned shops! Well, at least they do in 2011 in Old Nauvoo.
We are well and enjoying the service and the spirit of Old Nauvoo. We hope that you are all well and that a cool breeze is blowing in your direction!
Elder & Sister (the magnificent) Karn
