This is the Memorial Wall

This is the "pillar" at the entrance to Memorial Park with the plaque commemorating the founders of the park and the quotation at the bottom of the plaque.

Dear Family (and maybe some friends?),
Nearly two months have gone by since I promised to get into posting more often! My intentions were (and still are) good, but you know what they say about 'good intentions'? They are the main ingredient in the "asphalt" used to pave the highway to the "nether region". But, the same old excuse, we have been busy! See Stacey's blog for some of our activities. And, we were called on another "mission" by our Bishop back in mid-January. It is a three month mission to 'read good literature', the classics. And we get to choose what those classics are. Most of our 'spare' time has been spent in pursuing that "mission call". In the meantime, and probably as a result of our pursuit of the 'classics', Grandma and I are heavily engaged in a project that will likely take the rest of our lives to complete. It's a mystery to be announced later but here is a clue: In a little park in the center of a city not far from here is a plaque with a quotation engraved on it which reads: "A people who takes no pride in their ancestors will never do anything worthy to be remembered by their descendants." Soooo.......??????? We love you all.

I promised that we would get caught up with blog-hopping and posting but time has a way of slipping by when your busy. Thank you all for being patient. I have been able to get through all of your Blogs and am fascinated with what all of you have posted showing your family life. I am very impressed by your values and how you express your love for your spouses and children. I even got Grandma to sit with me and read through all the new postings. We both feel so blessed to be allowed a glimpse into your family life. It brings us closer together and gives us a warm fuzzy feeling toward you. Hopefully, we can post a few pictures soon to give you a look into our life (Which seems quite common-place when compared to some of yours!). Keep those cards and letters (and comments) coming! It helps to know that someone is interested enough to visit. I guess that works both ways doesn't it? We love you!

Dear Family and Friends (especially those in far away places!!),

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything for such a long time. I've been a little busy (working on a secret project with Grandma!!??) Sherry posted the pictures of our grow boxes while we were in Mesa for Thanksgiving. Thanks to Sherry and Trudy for the ride to Mesa and back! We had a wonderful time and I got to play with the grand-kids and hold some of the cutest great-grand-kids in the world!! I am so happy to be a part of the greatest family in the world!!

We love you. (I'll get caught up on blog-hopping and posting in the next few days.)

Grandma and Grandpa Nicoll

Grandpa and Grandma and all their grow boxes (almost all).
We have 12 boxes, some of them permanently planted, such as asparagus, strawberries, grapes, blackberries,
boysenberries and herbs. That leaves 6 that we will rotate our seasonal vegetables in. They vary in size from
4 @ 12x4 to 1 @ 8x4 and 1 @ 24x1.5. They vary according to the space we had to plant in. This year was experimental: we planted way more than we could use for ourselves , but we gave a lot away. Next year we will have a better idea of how much to plant. The developer of this system says that a family of four could live all year on the produce from 4 boxes 30x4 (or equivalent). (You have to learn to can or otherwise preserve your harvest.) We found this method more productive and less labor-intense than traditional soil gardening. It is cleaner and a lot easier to weed.

Grandpa and Gus.

Gus is getting old: 14! He is blind in the left eye and nearly so in the right eye. He doesn't hear well and has no teeth. (Grandpa is not quite that bad off.) Gus still loves to run and play (slowly) and wants to be in the middle of things.

Grandma and Grandpa's zucchini. We gave a lot of zucchini away! But Grandma learned that she could grate the zucchini and freeze it fresh and it thaws and can be used in salads, soups and zucchini bread just like fresh! Now, how do we keep our electricity from failing??

Grandma's sunflower. Actually a bird planted this sunflower next to our fish pond but we let it grow. It added a little color and spice to the landscape

Grandma's flower garden. Grandma takes a lot of(justifiable) pride in her beautiful flowers.

HELP!!

I NEED HELP!! I have been looking at a lot of your blogs lately and have been impressed that the younger generation is a lot more "savvy" than I am on all this "high tech" Blog-Spot formatting business. I don't (as yet) do any video posting, however, Grandma takes a lot of photos that you might enjoy seeing. I don't want to fill up my blog page with a whole string of pictures. I think I know how to do that!! But what I would like to do is put them (photos) in a SLIDE SHOW format. Will those of you who are adept at that sort of thing please tell me how to do it? PLEASE? Is it some sort of widget or gadget that I have to import from somewhere at great expense? Or is it out there in cyberspace for free (I'm chintzy!)? Blogger.com doesn't seem to offer a PHOTO SLIDE SHOW, at least I haven't found the way, if they do. HELP! HELP!! HOW DO I DO A SLIDE SHOW???